TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Bad Code 2.2 - The ROOT of The Problem

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Well correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is the first ever episode of Person of Interest where we have not had a weekly SSN delivered by the machine, not that it mattered in the case of "Bad Code" because there was so much other stuff going on that small detail like that really didn't matter at all. As promised "Bad Code" took Reese and Carter on a road trip to Texas whilst Fusco was left at home dog sitting and digging up leads on the Alicia Corwin investigation, so, not much fun for him but plenty to be had by us as Fusco looking after a dog and attempting to speak Dutch was hilarious, whilst story lines were being developed into dodgy government officials and the story of Root has now been fully explained. I loved the way we had our story recap again this week with the CCTV footage being used before whizzing us back to 1991 to hear of a girl named Hanna Frey, could this be the weekly POI? No.

What was brilliant to see this week is Carter and Reese working together, side by side as apposed to Reese just delivering messages over the phone, the pair made a great team and its something I would definitely like to see more of as the season rolls on. The mission of "finding Finch" took them to Texas where 20 years earlier a girl by the name of Hanna had disappeared without a trace, believing her to be the now infamous Root, Reese had Carter on the case with local police whilst he decided that there was a quicker way to get answers, walk into a bar dressed in a suit and kick a little ass, effective and always seems to work.

I enjoyed the backing story to Root's character as we got to see the reason she seeks revenge, turns out Root is actually Sam, a friend of the murdered Hanna who left home following Hanna's disappearance, she then went on to rob some gangsters of $100k only to put the transfer name on the account as Trent the name of the man who kidnapped her friend Hanna. Turns out Root has actually been a bit of a computer whizz all her life, she completed that Oregon Trail game pretty quick, not that I have even heard of that game but it kind of reminded me of my old Acorn Electron, pretty retro huh! With everything Root has been through its no wonder she turned out the way she did, doing the right thing as a youngster and telling people what she saw the night Hanna went missing done her no favours at all, giving her the belief that all humans are instilled with "Bad Code", problem is back in the present day, kidnapped Finch does not believe that, his belief in humanity is completely different.

After all was said and done in this episode I'm still a little at a loss of what exactly Root wants with the machine, I don't think she is a bad person per-se but what does she want with a machine which detects acts of crime early? Finch of course uses it (although he probably shouldn't be, I'll explain later) for good and sees Mr Reese as the "Good Code" which the machine instills, preventing minor crimes before they happen, helping good people stay safe, what reason other than that would Root want the machine? Does she just want to destroy it and all of its creators? Or is she planning on becoming a one woman band John Reese, no offence Root but I don't think your all that kick ass, clever yes, but kick ass, No.

Away from the story of Root and Finch is the seemingly bigger plot bubbling away in the background as it did during the first season, the White House lawyer Denton Weeks who Root also kidnapped this week, plus all of the officials who have made base for themselves in New York City to find a lead on the Alicia Corwin case, the head of this group would seem to be one of the few people in the world who knows about the existence of the machine and he needs to sever all ties on the Alicia Corwin case so no one else can find out what it leads to. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they develop the story here, although Root is probably going to be the underlying antagonist of the season it would seem that these guys are going to be the more immediate threat to Finch and Reese, this season Elias and HR.

What I found quite interesting about Denton Weeks was his question to Finch, right before he attempted to shoot him he asked can the machine be got to? Finch answered the question like a politician, he didn't really answer it, he simply said that the machine could not be controlled remotely, so I guess that yeah it can be got to as long as you know where it is. I'm going to presume that the machine and its servers are not in the old library which Finch uses as his office and that maybe they are in that town mentioned in the first season which has no Internet or telephone access. That begs a question though, if the machine can not be controlled remotely how does Finch use it? He always said there were no back doors built into the system, and not to mention Root has already hacked it once that we know of.

"Bad Code" was a real step away from the usual procedural of Person of Interest but that didn't detract from my enjoyment at all, I thought this was a solid episode where a a lot of answers were given whilst new ones were also posed. It's nice to see Reese and Finch back together again, although I think Finch's rescue could have been a bit more dramatic. I think next week will be back to Person of Interest as we know it with Reese following a lead dealt by the machine whilst the backing story of the machine and government officials simmers away nicely in the background.

Side Notes;

Don't know why I haven't noticed this before, but although a little on the crazy side, how HOT is Root (Amy Acker), also from Texas in real life incidentally.

Finch has a new roommate thanks to his lavish gift of an apartment to Reese at the end of the first season the dog will have to live with him, time to get the Dutch dictionary out Finch!

Yeah it's worth mentioning again, Amy Acker!!!!

Returning TV Shows Fall 2012, DEXTER, HOMELAND, PERSON OF INTEREST and THE WALKING DEAD, What Will I Be Reviewing?

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As you probably know there really has not been to much on TV lately, in the last three weeks that would be largely due to the Olympics, fair play but some TV would have been nice. If you read this blog often then you’ll know that I have been occupying myself with some box sets, first up was Dexter season 2, which was brilliant and then I have been watching Breaking Bad's second season, which was also brilliant. Thing is were are coming towards September now and you know what that means, good TV will be back with all of our regular favourites, here I want to give you an indication of what you can expect to see from Movies Music & Television during the Fall TV schedule of returning shows, what I will be watching and what I will be reviewing. I will review all of the returning season premieres, but from there I discuss below what I may continue with.

Dexter – Season 7 (Showtime, Sunday’s @9pm) – Premiere September 30^th

It goes without saying really that I will be covering Dexter, if you read this blog often then you know its one of my favourite shows on TV, I didn’t watch the first four seasons but I’m looking to make up for that and have already watched seasons one and two, I am thinking now that we are getting pretty close to the season 7 premiere so maybe I’ll just leave seasons three and four so I can assure my weekly Dexter fix once season seven wraps. Season 6 was not one of the best for Dexter but I still really enjoyed it, especially the ending where Debra caught her adoptive brother plunging his knife into the chest of The Doomsday Killer Travis Marshall (Colin Hanks). I will be reviewing every episode of Dexter season 7, so subscribe to make sure you don’t miss out.

Dexter season 6 reviews

6.1 – Those Kinds of Things

6.2 – Once Upon a Time

6.3 – Smokey and the Bandit

6.4 – A Horse of a Different Colour

6.5 – The Angel of Death

6.6 – Just Let Go

6.7 - Nebraska

6.8 – Sin of Omission

6.9 – Get Gellar

6.10 – Ricochet Rabbit

6.11 – Talk To the Hand

6.12  - This is the way The World Ends

Homeland – Season 2 (Showtime, Sunday’s @10pm) – Premiere September 30^th

Homeland is a show which I really enjoyed and during it’s first season I watched and reviewed most episodes, it’s hard to pick a favourite but the finale was brilliant watching protagonist Brody (Damien Lewis) come full circle ready to blow up the US President, he didn’t go through with it of course and it now looks like he is going to run for office which will see Homeland’s second season take more of a political angle, I don’t mind that but I wouldn’t say its really what I look for in a TV show, as far as Homeland goes you can be sure I will be watching every episode but I’m thinking that maybe this is going to be a season premiere review, a possible mid-season and the season finale, unless of course it is really great and I feel the need to write about it every week.

Homeland season 1 reviews

1.1 - Pilot

1.3 – Clean Skin

1.4 – Semper I

1.5 - Blindspot

1.7 – The Weekend

1.8 –Achilles Heel

1.9 - Crossfire

1.10 – Representative Brody

1.11 – The Vest

Person of Interest – Season 2 (CBS, Thursday’s @10pm) – Premiere September 27^th

Again, Person of Interest is a given, I will be watching and reviewing every single episode of this great show. Some people I heard of gave up on Mr’s Reese and Finch about three or four episodes in, all I can say to that is you should have stuck it out because is quickly became apparent that Person of Interest is not your normal weekly procedural, we now roll into the second season with questions looming large as to who Root is? And what she wants with Mr Finch, and more importantly who was on the other end of that telephone in the season finale closing scene? I’m sure POI will provide us with yet another fun thrilled ride.

1.1  – Pilot

1.2  – Ghosts

1.3  – Mission Creep

1.4   - Cura Te Ipsum

1.5  – Judgement

1.6  – The Fix

1.7  – Witness

1.9  – Get Carter

1.10          – Number Crunch

1.11          – Super

1.12          – Legacy

1.13          – Root Cause

1.14          – Wolf and Cub

1.15          – Blue Code

1.16          – Risk

1.17          – Baby Blue

1.18          – Identity Crisis

1.19          – Flesh and Blood

1.20          – Matsya Nyaya

1.21          – Many Happy Returns

1.22          – No Good Deed

1.23          – Firewall

As for episode 8 which I missed out first time around, I will watch that again when it airs in the UK, following that I will put out the review.

The Walking Dead – Season 3 (ABC, Sunday’s @9pm) – Premiere October 14th

I still have not seen season one of The Walking Dead, but I did really enjoy season two, more so towards the end and during its second stint on TV, this is one of those shows which breaks for the festive period and usually returns around February time, I reviewed a few episodes of the second season including the mightily impressive “Pretty Much Dead Already”, with season 3 I will be reviewing the premiere and then seeing where it goes from there, I will watch them all and hopefully with the introduction of all the new characters there will be something to talk about other than zombies.

The Walking Dead season 2 reviews

2.1 – What Lies Ahead

2.5 – Chupacabra

2.7 – Pretty Much Dead Already

So there is the low down on what I will be watching and reviewing in all of our favourite returning drams this year, I’ll be back tomorrow with a list of new shows coming to TV this fall and I’ll talk there on which ones I will be watching and adding to the weekly reviews, ideally there will be about two.

Weekly TV Previews: Will REVOLUTION Get Any Better? PERSON OF INTEREST Finding Mr Finch, VEGAS and There Back DEXTER Season 7, HOMELAND Season 2

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Hello and welcome back to the regular Fall TV season feature here at Movies Music & Television of the weeks TV previews, like always I will preview the next episode of all the shows currently under review here at MM&T as well as the shows which I’m watching but maybe not writing about every week. This is the first one back since last Fall so some shows (Dexter/Homeland) are yet to premiere on their respective networks, there for not to much to give away right now, but we’ll get through what we can, here goes;

Revolution – No Quarter 1.3

Following two episodes of Revolution I’m yet to be enthralled by what’s been on offer, best way to put it, is that in my opinion it’s been mediocre when compared to other works from J.J. Abrams, that’s not say that it can’t get better and in all honesty I hope it does, I touched on the subject in my review of “….” That there are plenty of avenues for the show to go down and hopefully it will do that. In respect of this review, well it does not really give much away other than Miles (Billy Burke) telling Charlie (Tracey Spiridakos) that the futuristic USB stick has the ability to turn the power back on and give the US it’s power back, take a look and let me know what you think.

 

Person of Interest – Bad Code 2.2

It goes without saying that Person of Interest is the best show that J.J. Abrams has on TV right now and the season 2 premiere did not disappoint in any way whatsoever. Reese was back to doing what he does best in kicking ass whilst Finch was off being all mysterious and wisdom like fencing off against computer hacker Root (Amy Acker). It seems that season 2 will deliver action, drama and mystery at the same level and above from what we got during season one and I can’t wait. “Bad Code” sees the hunt for Mr Finch head to Texas and possibly the first opportunity for the Machine to act outside of its usual jurisdiction of New York, amidst the kick ass who thinks Reese will be successful in finding Finch this week?

 

Vegas – Money Plays 1.2

From all of the pilot episodes I have seen so far in this Fall season this one has by far impressed me the most, it delivered a classy first episode which saw a weekly crime procedural mix together what should be a longer running feud between law enforcement and a local Mob boss, I’m hoping the weekly procedural side of things drops like I said in the review and hopefully we concentrate more on the bad guys v good guys side of things. The latest offering from Vegas “Money Pays” looks to continue in the light of the “Pilot”, plenty of kick ass from Dennis Quaid and a weekly procedural, I don’t mind that to much if like Person of Interest they can keep the focus on the main story behind the characters, take a look at the preview. 

 

Dexter – Are You…? 7.1

Without doubt the biggest returning show of the Fall season is Dexter, hype has been building since last December when Dexter Morgan plunged his knife into the chest of Travis Marshall’s chest, only to be caught by his sister and Miami Metro Lieutenant Debra Morgan, finally part of Dexter’s secret is out but now Dexter must fight even harder to stay one step ahead of Miami Metro and more importantly his sister, who can never find out the full truth behind Miami’s best blood spatter expert. Being the first episode I can’t find a direct trailer for the episode but this is the latest preview available from three days ago, enjoy.

Homeland – The Smile 2.1

Homeland was without doubt the biggest new drama to hit screens last Fall, from start to finish it was brilliant, it had you constantly guessing, is Nick Brody (Damien Lewis) a terrorist? Or is CIA Agent Carrie (Clare Danes) as crazy as everyone thinks she is? The question was answered during the season 1 finale when Sgt Brody was preparing to blow up the US President and a roomful of his representatives, of course he didn’t go through with it but now he has an even bigger position of power, spurred on terrorist Abu Nazir, Sgt Brody is now a US Congressman with an influential voice in US politics. Again like Dexter I don’t have a trailer for the first episode but this latest teaser really promises that Homeland will once again be hard hitting and possibly even better than season one.

 

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Contingency 2.1 - Finding Finch

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Out of every TV show, new and returning this Fall for me Person of Interest is without doubt one of the most highly anticipated, during it’s first season J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan guided us through 23 episodes of gripping drama and kick ass action whilst all the while never loosing site of POI’s main story, what is the machine? It climaxed in the season one finale with Finch kidnapped by computer super hacker Root (Amy Acker) and Reese was left picking up a public telephone but to who? That was the biggest question on everyone’s lips last season and finally it’s answered, the machine can communicate with you, it can’t talk but it can cobble voices together from various sources and deliver a coded message which in this season two opener Reese was left to figure out on his own for the first time, proving that he is brains as well as brawn.

Even the beginning of this episode was brilliant with the season one recap being dealt with by way of CCTV, taking us right back to day 1 when Finch first fired up the machine, can you see me? Do you know who I am? “Admin”. Then it continued to roll through showing us how it found Reese, some of the scrapes they have been in together and then the discovery of Root and how Finch had designed the system so that it would never attempt to find it’s master should anything ever happen to him, just brilliant. What Finch probably didn’t account for was the machine becoming self sufficient, a form of intelligence with some sort of brain which enables it to learn and adapt. For me some of the best scenes in this opener where of Reese looking into the camera and making a deal with the machine, if it won’t help him find Finch then he will no longer be it’s contingency plan.

I loved the way in which Person of Interest stuck to it’s guns, it would have been far to easy to just go and deliver Finch’s SSN right from the off and have Resse track him down kill Root and save the day, instead the machine delivered another number, that of an Asian man (Lost’s Ken Leung) who has stolen some money ($8m) from the Aryan Brotherhood. However like last season the side line weekly story never lost sight of the actual goal, find Harold Finch, Reese was always certain that the number delivered by the machine was in some way designed to fit a part of the puzzle which would help him piece together where Finch was. Reese was quick to discover however that the guy was a bit of an idiot and really had no idea as to where Finch is, leading to “Contingency” ending with Reese making a deal with the Machine.

It was brilliant to see that Reese now has the full support of both Carter (Taraji P. Henson) and Fusco (Kevin Chapman), now that they all know what each other are up to they can ultimately work towards the same goal. Reese is as charismatic as ever delivering kick ass action whilst also keeping his witty humour, the scene about him only having one friend was very good, and also when he was explaining to Fusco about the gagging order. Reese was right back into it with the Aryan Brotherhood after dispatching a few of their guys in the local bar he found himself escorted to their warehouse, on purpose of course to save Fusco’s ass yet again, that glint in his eye just as he’s finished speaking Dutch to his new four legged friend, before the camera pans away to leave it all to our imagination was just brilliant. Also worth a mention was the head of the Aryan Brotherhood (Tim Holmes), he must have been at least 7ft tall, but hey he couldn’t beat Reese, he was only having a rest after all.

What is going to be brilliant is seeing how they develop the storyline, it looks as if Reese will at least get close to rescuing Finch in the next handful of episodes, maybe even next weeks “Bad Code” but what will become of Root? I can’t see them killing her off just yet as she wants the machine for more sinister reasons, does she even work alone? For all we know Finch might have his own plan up his sleeve about how he is going to escape, or even how he can manipulate what Root does to the Machine to work in his favour. Who are all of these new government officials trying to cover up the murder of Alicia Corwin? They clearly know about the existence of the Machine as they have dispatched their resident hit man to take care of “the man in the suit”, otherwise known as John Reese.

Season 2 looks as if its going to deliver on the same level if not higher than the first season did and I can’t wait to see how deep the story will continue to take us. Person of Interest is so much more than your weekly cop procedural and this is must watch TV on a weekly basis, keep up the great work, ala Jonathan Nolan, J.J. Abrams and Denise The.