Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2023-01-08 04:59 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2023-01-08 04:59 pm
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Also, The Cloth Creatures Are Very Cute.
I tried out the first episode of Person of Interest years ago, but, for whatever reason, I never watched any more of it. I remembered finding it interesting, though, so I'm giving it another shot. I'm five episodes in!
To be honest, my main recollection of the first episode was 'macho and ridiculous, but entertaining', and that impression stands on a second watch. I like macho action protagonists if I can easily picture them crying nude on the bathroom floor, a test that John McClane of Die Hard absolutely smashes out of the park, and I'm pretty sure John Reese also passes.
Reese seems fucked up and I am, predictably, into that. I loved him waking up cuffed to a bedframe, hearing screams in the next room and fighting wildly to free himself, nothing but animal instinct. I liked him going 'someone probably murdered these people and covered it up like this' and Finch going 'how do you know that?' and Reese going 'that's how I would have done it'. I hope he has multiple horrible breakdowns; it seems like he has good potential for it.
The other recurring characters have yet to really catch my attention, but there's time! In the meantime, this series does a surprisingly good case of the week, so I'm engaged enough to keep watching. I tend to think of the cases themselves as the least interesting aspect of case-of-the-week shows, but I keep getting genuinely invested in the Person of Interest ones, perhaps because it's a show about preventing murders rather than solving them.
At first glance, 'it's basically a detective show but the murders haven't happened yet' sounds less tense than a show with actual murders, but of course the stakes are actually much higher. If Patrick Jane messes up a case, a murderer just doesn't go to prison; if John Reese messes up a case, someone gets killed. It also feels like there's more scope to mess up cases in Person of Interest; in a standard detective show, of course the murders are always going to be solved, because otherwise there's no narrative payoff. I'll be interested to see whether any cases do get fumbled.
On another note, I finally played Journey! I've been putting it off for years because I was so intimidated by the concept of being able to meet other players; I don't like online multiplayer because I worry about humiliating myself in front of strangers.
In the end, I went through a whole character development arc while playing this two-hour game. I started out avoiding other players so I could focus on my journey alone, then got attached to someone I met while slowly freezing on the mountain, and the game ended with me and my friend singing to each other as we walked into the light together. I've heard people talk about Journey's multiplayer being a moving experience, and I wasn't sure whether it would be the same for me, but there really is something striking about the way it lets you form a brief, wordless connection with a stranger.
To be honest, my main recollection of the first episode was 'macho and ridiculous, but entertaining', and that impression stands on a second watch. I like macho action protagonists if I can easily picture them crying nude on the bathroom floor, a test that John McClane of Die Hard absolutely smashes out of the park, and I'm pretty sure John Reese also passes.
Reese seems fucked up and I am, predictably, into that. I loved him waking up cuffed to a bedframe, hearing screams in the next room and fighting wildly to free himself, nothing but animal instinct. I liked him going 'someone probably murdered these people and covered it up like this' and Finch going 'how do you know that?' and Reese going 'that's how I would have done it'. I hope he has multiple horrible breakdowns; it seems like he has good potential for it.
The other recurring characters have yet to really catch my attention, but there's time! In the meantime, this series does a surprisingly good case of the week, so I'm engaged enough to keep watching. I tend to think of the cases themselves as the least interesting aspect of case-of-the-week shows, but I keep getting genuinely invested in the Person of Interest ones, perhaps because it's a show about preventing murders rather than solving them.
At first glance, 'it's basically a detective show but the murders haven't happened yet' sounds less tense than a show with actual murders, but of course the stakes are actually much higher. If Patrick Jane messes up a case, a murderer just doesn't go to prison; if John Reese messes up a case, someone gets killed. It also feels like there's more scope to mess up cases in Person of Interest; in a standard detective show, of course the murders are always going to be solved, because otherwise there's no narrative payoff. I'll be interested to see whether any cases do get fumbled.
On another note, I finally played Journey! I've been putting it off for years because I was so intimidated by the concept of being able to meet other players; I don't like online multiplayer because I worry about humiliating myself in front of strangers.
In the end, I went through a whole character development arc while playing this two-hour game. I started out avoiding other players so I could focus on my journey alone, then got attached to someone I met while slowly freezing on the mountain, and the game ended with me and my friend singing to each other as we walked into the light together. I've heard people talk about Journey's multiplayer being a moving experience, and I wasn't sure whether it would be the same for me, but there really is something striking about the way it lets you form a brief, wordless connection with a stranger.
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Good standards!
Ooh, that sounds fun!
Yep. Also, I'm wondering in what sense they're investigating murders that haven't happened yet. I'd love it if a pre-crime scenario was about the least damaging intervention that would prevent a murder. (One of the interesting flaws in Minority Report was about the fixation on jailing people for crimes that hadn't happened yet, and I'd like to see more "try to interrupt them before they get into a murder headspace" stories.)
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A machine gives them the social security number of someone who's going to be involved in a violent crime, but they don't know whether they're going to be a victim or a perpetrator.
It's just occurred to me that this means each case of the week has a clear 'main character', which may be part of what makes them engaging. In most case-of-the-week crime dramas, the main characters of each case are the victim, who's dead, and the perpetrator, who's unknown, neither of which lend themselves to interesting interactions. 'The protagonists struggle to win the trust of an angry, scared, traumatised teenage girl being pursued by a contract killer' is an interesting plot thread, but you can't have it if she's already been contract killed before the story begins!
I'd love it if a pre-crime scenario was about the least damaging intervention that would prevent a murder. (One of the interesting flaws in Minority Report was about the fixation on jailing people for crimes that hadn't happened yet, and I'd like to see more "try to interrupt them before they get into a murder headspace" stories.)
Come to think of it, most of the would-be perpetrators so far have been involved in organised crime, perhaps because that provides 'get them arrested' as a convenient option for removing the threat. There's been one case where the would-be perpetrator abducted and planned to murder the serial rapist who assaulted her sister, though; Reese talks her out of killing him and lets her evade consequences for the abduction. (In an interestingly dark touch, it's left ambiguous whether Reese ends up killing the man in her place.)
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Yeah, that would make for a lot more engagement with the victim and the perpetrator, as they'd be intensely invested in interacting with at least one of them.
Oh, I like that! Like stopping contract killers and whatnot who can be arrested for attempted murder, sure. But stopping an angry distraught person from making an unwise decision really fascinates me.
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The other thing I loved about the show, apart from the well-done cases of the week and the characters, was the worldbuilding, which kept running along in the background and occasionally reared its head in a big way. "The Machine" as the literal lens through which the story is told, the flashbacks (except for the one in the pilot, which almost put me off tbh), recurring characters - all of it connects and tells the story in several layers and with quite a lot of patience.
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This is very true! I also had the revelation, while replying to
I'm looking forward to discovering more of the worldbuilding!
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I love you so much. Please never change.
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My playthrough had someone, or several someones, gently guide me through the whole thing. Every time we got through a level, I'd celebrate by running around them in circles.
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My first encounter felt a bit awkward, and the second time I saw the 'psst, there's someone around' glow at the edge of the screen I just ignored it and focused on progressing. But the third time was in the icy wasteland, and it felt surprisingly reassuring to find someone else there! And I don't know whether it was the same person or someone else I met on the platform at the very end, but we walked next to each other, matching each other's pace, and chirped back and forth, and I was surprised by how clearly we could communicate friendly intent without any way to actually speak.
Every time we got through a level, I'd celebrate by running around them in circles.
Aww, this is lovely!
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Finch was my personal fave but there are so many to love <3
And Journey! Ah! A masterclass in unspoken storytelling.
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yesssss
I'm looking forward to seeing how the show develops! It's clearly got a lot of interesting potential, even just a few episodes in.
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Ooh, I am excited to see your reactions to PoI! It starts off pretty good, then takes some twists and turns to get much much more interesting.
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If nothing else, at least that suggests the show maintains its quality pretty well! 'The fandom's divided on whether the earlier or later seasons are better' feels a lot more promising than 'the fandom universally agrees the show is better in its early seasons'.
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