The Sci-Fi Series Streaming For Free That Broke The Network Procedural Formula
Jonathan Nolan has been a co-writer on some of the best movies his brother Christopher Nolan has directed, so it’s no surprise that his show Person of Interest broke the mold when it came to procedural crime dramas. If you don’t typically buy into those kinds of shows, you should really give the series a chance anyway. While it starts off in a similar fashion, it quickly sets itself apart as one of the best sci-fi television shows out there, and it’s streaming for free now on Amazon Prime Video.
It’s best to go into the series knowing as little as possible so you won’t find spoilers here, but the broad strokes of the premise involve a reclusive billionaire programmer named Harold Finch (Lost’s Michael Emerson) who creates a program known as “the Machine” that can predict terrorist attacks and identify the people planning them before they can enact them. Finch recruits John Reese (Sound of Freedom’s Jim Caviezel) to help him track down and subdue any “Person of Interest” that the Machine identifies.
Person of Interest can be streamed for free on Amazon Prime Video.
The premise of Person of Interest reads a little bit like Minority Report, but the series certainly sets itself apart from the (fantastic) Tom Cruise sci-fi and does its own thing with the concept. It helps that the series also has a great cast that consists of Michael Emerson, Jim Caviezel, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Chapman, Amy Acker, and Sarah Shahi. With five seasons and over 100 episodes, you can also expect to see plenty of familiar actors in the recurring and guest roles.
According to CBS, Person of Interest was a show that came in hot out of the gate from a ratings perspective, receiving the highest test ratings of any drama pilot in 15 years. The pilot episode alone brought in 13.2 million viewers, and it maintained that level of viewership throughout its five seasons, with a bit of a drop in the fifth and final season. The pilot was well-reviewed by critics and audiences across the board, as it handily sets up the premise of the show and gives you a taste of what it’s going to be like.
Person of Interest starts out with a “case of the week” plot involving The Machine identifying targets, but it evolves as the seasons go on, characters switch sides, and the sci-fi aspect starts to take center stage.
If you don’t much care for the early episodes of Person of Interest, it’s worth sticking around because the show quickly picks up steam and leaves its case-of-the-week vibe behind by the end of the first season. That’s also not to say that the case-of-the-week episodes are even bad by any means — it’s quite the opposite. The premise and the top-notch cast mean that even the weaker parts of the series are still highly entertaining TV.
Once you’ve seen the first season of Person of Interest, you’ll undoubtedly be hooked and want to check out the rest. It’ll be a rewarding experience, too, as you’ll get to see a top sci-fi TV series that easily stands up to the other fantastic projects that Jonathan Nolan has released. Like any good sci-fi, the series also has heady themes and reflections of our real world that will stay with you after the credits roll.
Don’t be scared to start Person of Interest, the series is able to tell a complete story, with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Person of Interest is also a show that never really runs out of steam. There are plenty of great shows out there that end too early or don’t stick the landing in their final seasons, but this series isn’t one of them. It tells a satisfying story arc for the characters, keeps you engaged throughout all 100+ episodes, and it’s with a finale that you’ll likely find as satisfying as reviewers and audiences did when it first aired.
Previously, you would expect prestigious, well-regarded TV dramas to air on channels like HBO, Showtime, and AMC (at least before streaming became the main form of at-home viewing), so seeing something like this on a network like CBS was definitely a little out of the norm. Not unheard of, of course, as there were still appointment-viewing shows like Lost on networks like ABC. but still, it’s rare that you get something that has such mass appeal like Person of Interest that also manages to be a good show for even deep sci-fi fans.
So, if you have any interest in Person of Interest, make sure to check it out. You can stream it free with ads now. Head over to Amazon Prime Video to jump into this amazing sci-fi journey.
