Person of Interest!
Congratulations! Sort of! For outstanding achievement in the art of making a straight-up procedural with an incredibly bland, boring lead look like a serial drama and thriller, we doff our hats to you. Whatever they're paying you, it isn't enough.
Maybe my disappointment stems from the fact that I went in with too high of expectations, maybe the impressive creative team blinded me to potential foibles, maybe CBS simply has to rigid a brand for anything but The Good Wife to break through... Nope, it's Jim Caviezel. He's the problem.Person of Interest stars Caviezel as an ex-military something or other who went off grid (presumed dead) and abandoned his old life after his wife/girlfriend/fiance/who knows died. After several years living as a vagrant basically, he resurfaces and is offered a job by a Mr. Finch (Benjamin Linus) to help prevent crimes. Using an anti-terror "machine" he created which intercepts cell phone calls, accesses surveillance cameras, hacks email etc., Finch is sent a list of social security numbers which correspond to people who are going to be involved in crimes. With only the social security numbers, neither he nor Caviezel know how this person will be involved (whether victim, perpetrator, or otherwise), but they know that the machine generated their number for a reason. Finch hires Caviezel to stop these crimes before they happen in a pseudo Minority Report kind of way. They monitor the "person of interest" through a variety of methods and then come in guns-a-blazin' to stop the evil-doings from going down. Based on that premise, the creative team (which includes JJ Abrams and Jonathan Nolan (who was one of the screenwriters for The Dark Knight), and on the promotional materials, I had very high hopes for this pilot. You couldn't ask for a stronger team behind the scenes, but as it turns out, you can most certainly ask for a stronger team onscreen.
Michael Emerson is a power-player who does a lovely job as Mr. Finch. Sure I'll never be able to see him as anything other than Benjamin Linus ever again, but that doesn't mean he doesn't pull it off. He comes across with a fairly disturbing intelligence and breadth of knowledge about nearly everything and seduces Caviezel
into a job that could easily get them both killed. Emerson was not the problem. I could happily watch Emerson do just about anything week to week and be happy... Caviezel on the other hand...I knew I didn't like Jim Caviezel going into this pilot, but I honestly couldn't remember why. As such, I was hoping that my bias was imaginary and that he'd do a lovely job. Yeah, it only took about 5 minutes for me to remember why I didn't like him. He is truly and unceasingly horrible as an actor. Simply awful. I swear to god, it was like watching a block of wood run around town surveiling and shooting people. Only a block of wood would have been more interesting to watch because it has no opposable thumbs and no brain, so shooting people would be most impressive. Caviezel's performance was completely flat from beginning to end. I realize he's playing a military veteran who's been through tragedy and all and who is probably fairly reserved these days, but Caviezel brings absolutely nothing to the role. It's not that his character had a cool resolved with something smoldering underneath the surface. There was nothing there at all. He could have played it with subtlety and restraint, that would have been fine, but there has to be something, anything deeper to rely on. I got nothing from Caviezel at any point. What's worse, even when it was obvious that he was trying to imbue a line with anger or apprehension or disgust, he failed so miserably that it was almost comedic. It felt like when you're doing an impression of a bad actor, only this was real. He couldn't convey even the most basic of emotions, letting each line land with a ker-plunk, losing all sense of intensity or intrigue. Beyond that, he's a mumbler of the highest order, so even if the words themselves could have had potential, in subtitled form, it was kind of a fail all the way around. It was truly painful to watch and managed to lessen the enjoyment I was getting from Emerson's turn as the mysterious benefactor. Based on Caviezel's total lack of performance, it's hard to even judge the rest of the pilot. He was such a complete turnoff that it
was impossible for me to connect with the show in any substantive way or get invested in the storyline.The basic concept, in and of itself, had some promise. Though slightly hokey, I had hope that the show would pull it off and deliver a true thriller, delving into the physical and psychological aspects of crime and crime prevention. Hell, the basis for Minority Report is pretty absurd on the surface, but it made for a rather entertaining and exciting movie. Here, I think CBS got its sticky fingers on things and turned what could have been an edge-of-your-seat thriller into your typical procedural. I figured the show would have some procedural elements, but after seeing the pilot, it's pretty clear that it's going to have very little, if anything, that isn't a procedural element. If you're into procedurals, more power to you, but I need more from a drama. If I'm never going to see that person again, I don't think I care to spend an hour finding out how he or she is involved in some random would-be crime of the week. I just don't care. That said, I do watch the occasional procedural, but that's when the cast is spectacular or the concept tweaks it such that the cases of the week have a direct effect on the regular cast. Here, we have Jim Caviezel at the center of the show who brings absolutely nothing to the role. Honestly I wouldn't even really care what he
brought to the role, so long as it was something. He could have taken the Michael Westen bent, the Patrick Jane angle, hell, even the Steven Segal action approach and that would have been better. Caviezel gave me nothing to hold onto at all. It's impossible to care about a character who has no character, let alone the random events he engages in week to week. In a weird way, the case of the week was actually more interesting than the regular cast. Granted I'll never see them ever again, but Natalie Zea brought a lot more depth and acting ability to her role du jour than Caviezel did. My only thought is that the producers wanted a movie name for the role and settled on Caviezel after he blackmailed them or something. No, strike that. There's no way he'd ever do anything that interesting.All in all, I'm extremely disappointed. The critics and I expected this to be one of the best pilots of the fall and instead we got a lackluster procedural with a terrible lead. What little supporting cast the show has is fine and all, but besides Michael Emerson, had very little to do with the pilot so it's tough to decide if they'll help temper Caviezel's crappiness. I doubt anything could do that, but the pilot didn't even give them a
chance to try. Apparently Taraji P. Henson is on board as a cop or something, but she had about 2 minutes onscreen, so who knows how that's going to turn out. As is, her talents were wasted on a pilot that could have seriously benefited from them. On paper, this should have been a home run. In reality, it was shockingly dull for a show about an hired gun going about killing bad guys and preventing murders. Had a different actor been at the helm, the weaker narrative elements could have easily been excused. I'm more than happy to overlook some structural shortcomings if I'm interested in the cast. It's how I endured so many seasons of House. The medical case of the week was an afterthought. Hugh Laurie was the draw. Person of Interest has no such draw.I guess in theory this should could turn into something more, but I honestly don't care to find out. I was so bored by the procedural nature of the show and Caviezel's vacant stares that I just kept wanting the pilot to hurry up and be over. I'm going to try to force myself to give it another week, but based on the preview for the next episode, it's going to be a whole lot of the same. Random potential crime of the week and a block of wood. Emerson deserves better. Caviezel deserves an eternity of acting classes.
When discussing this show at work, Annie offered up that at least Caviezel is attractive. Granted, a pretty face can make up for a lot of shortcomings, but I can hardly imagine the astronomical levels of divine pulchritude he would have to have to make up for his utter lack of talent. So yeah, good luck with that, Jim.
Pilot Grade: D
