POI 1x08-1x12
Mar. 14th, 2014 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitI'd been enjoying it already, but with these episodes the show suddenly got much better. The plots and dialogue are sharper, the characterization deeper, the stakes higher.
Also, Reese and Finch have banter now! ("Hurry up, Finch, you don't have much time." "Thank you for that news flash, Mr. Reese, I was intending to go at a sloth-like pace and get captured." And also "You look upset, Finch. Did your tailor move out of town?") I especially love all their exchanges in "Super," with its Rear Window-esque premise and Finch bringing Reese improving books to read. And a cushion! And of course there's the previous episode, "Number Crunch," where Finch is driving hell for leather trying to get to wounded!Reese in time, and Reese just collapses in his arms.
Carter continues to be awesome. I like everything they've done with her, including having her initially sell out Reese to the CIA--Carter wants badly to have faith in the system, and she would have wanted to trust the men telling her that they wanted to help Reese. I like that she now knows more or less what's going on, too, and is starting to work with them. Though I'm not sure it bodes well for her future. *worries* They've given her good character backstory too, from her work as a military interrogator and how her trust was betrayed there, to her (dead?) husband or boyfriend whose photo she carries, and her wonderful relationship with her son.
Reese is growing on me a little bit, in the sense that when he interacts with Finch and/or Carter they make him more interesting, and he's interacting more now.
Finch is still my darling, and I will try to forgive him for drinking sencha with sugar (so wrong, so very wrong). So far I'm loving what they're doing with his backstory. I don't want to believe that he was directly involved with his late business partner Nathan Ingram's death, but clearly there's some unpleasantness there involving the Machine having identified Nathan as a threat. But I, er, massively ship them (Finch gets misty-eyed every time he talks about Nathan, for heaven's sake) and I don't want anything too dreadful to have happened. Poor Finch, now he's got Nathan's son Will digging into the story of his father's life, and Reese surveilling him (Finch) after having found out some stuff about Ingram's death. I fear things are going to get ugly.
Of course I've started to ship Finch and Reese too; I just wish Reese was more interesting. Finch/Nathan Ingram appeals to me more, though it may turn out that Nathan was up to no good, and he is in any case dead. (Maybe? Finch is "dead" too, after all. And so is Reese.)
One thing I'm finding weirdly interesting is the way Finch and Reese slip between addressing each other by last names, occasionally by first names, and on Finch's part occasionally as "Mr. Reese." I'm not sure if Finch has ever called Reese "John"; when Reese says "Harold" (is that even Finch's name or just the alias he used that one time?) it's often because he's trying to wind Finch up. Anyway I kind of love the formality of "Mr. Reese," I have to admit.
Finally, I've been pretty impressed with the way the show has handled Finch's disability so far. They haven't made a big fuss about it, in the dreadful Brave Hero Overcomes Disability way, but we do consistently see it as something that affects Finch's life. He can't escape through a window, for example, and he's never able to move super fast however much he may need to. His limp and his inability to turn his neck and upper body very much aren't things that go away whenever they might be plot-inconvenient and then return whenever they're convenient for emotional impact, unlike physical disabilities in some other canons. And the scene when Finch tries to give Reese a cushion for his wheelchair sticks in my mind; Reese thinks it's bizarre, and it is somewhat comical, but I think it's also quite well implied that Finch does it because he was using a wheelchair himself for some considerable period and found that a seat cushion made it more comfortable.
In conclusion, MOAR FINCH PLEASE. I wish I dared to read fanfic yet. Anyone have any recs for stories that aren't spoilery beyond S1, that I could read as soon as I've finished S1?
Also, Reese and Finch have banter now! ("Hurry up, Finch, you don't have much time." "Thank you for that news flash, Mr. Reese, I was intending to go at a sloth-like pace and get captured." And also "You look upset, Finch. Did your tailor move out of town?") I especially love all their exchanges in "Super," with its Rear Window-esque premise and Finch bringing Reese improving books to read. And a cushion! And of course there's the previous episode, "Number Crunch," where Finch is driving hell for leather trying to get to wounded!Reese in time, and Reese just collapses in his arms.
Carter continues to be awesome. I like everything they've done with her, including having her initially sell out Reese to the CIA--Carter wants badly to have faith in the system, and she would have wanted to trust the men telling her that they wanted to help Reese. I like that she now knows more or less what's going on, too, and is starting to work with them. Though I'm not sure it bodes well for her future. *worries* They've given her good character backstory too, from her work as a military interrogator and how her trust was betrayed there, to her (dead?) husband or boyfriend whose photo she carries, and her wonderful relationship with her son.
Reese is growing on me a little bit, in the sense that when he interacts with Finch and/or Carter they make him more interesting, and he's interacting more now.
Finch is still my darling, and I will try to forgive him for drinking sencha with sugar (so wrong, so very wrong). So far I'm loving what they're doing with his backstory. I don't want to believe that he was directly involved with his late business partner Nathan Ingram's death, but clearly there's some unpleasantness there involving the Machine having identified Nathan as a threat. But I, er, massively ship them (Finch gets misty-eyed every time he talks about Nathan, for heaven's sake) and I don't want anything too dreadful to have happened. Poor Finch, now he's got Nathan's son Will digging into the story of his father's life, and Reese surveilling him (Finch) after having found out some stuff about Ingram's death. I fear things are going to get ugly.
Of course I've started to ship Finch and Reese too; I just wish Reese was more interesting. Finch/Nathan Ingram appeals to me more, though it may turn out that Nathan was up to no good, and he is in any case dead. (Maybe? Finch is "dead" too, after all. And so is Reese.)
One thing I'm finding weirdly interesting is the way Finch and Reese slip between addressing each other by last names, occasionally by first names, and on Finch's part occasionally as "Mr. Reese." I'm not sure if Finch has ever called Reese "John"; when Reese says "Harold" (is that even Finch's name or just the alias he used that one time?) it's often because he's trying to wind Finch up. Anyway I kind of love the formality of "Mr. Reese," I have to admit.
Finally, I've been pretty impressed with the way the show has handled Finch's disability so far. They haven't made a big fuss about it, in the dreadful Brave Hero Overcomes Disability way, but we do consistently see it as something that affects Finch's life. He can't escape through a window, for example, and he's never able to move super fast however much he may need to. His limp and his inability to turn his neck and upper body very much aren't things that go away whenever they might be plot-inconvenient and then return whenever they're convenient for emotional impact, unlike physical disabilities in some other canons. And the scene when Finch tries to give Reese a cushion for his wheelchair sticks in my mind; Reese thinks it's bizarre, and it is somewhat comical, but I think it's also quite well implied that Finch does it because he was using a wheelchair himself for some considerable period and found that a seat cushion made it more comfortable.
In conclusion, MOAR FINCH PLEASE. I wish I dared to read fanfic yet. Anyone have any recs for stories that aren't spoilery beyond S1, that I could read as soon as I've finished S1?
no subject
Date: 2014-03-15 04:08 am (UTC)Wish I could give you season - specific recs, but I forget what happens when anymore. You could try looking at PolyRecs (http://bifictionalbedlam.slashcity.net/recs/category/person-of-interest/) but the titles and summaries don't include spoiler warnings, so you might want to wait till you're further along in your viewing. Or try an AU, maybe.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-15 07:23 pm (UTC)I really liked Reese right off the bat, too. I love his subtle, sardonic humor and the fact that he's actually really smart, not just a brainless thug. And I have an enormous competence kink, which he, Finch, and everyone on PoI hit really hard. Like, when Reese got shot and returned fire, he was only half aiming at Snow -- he was trying to shoot out the headlights to give himself a better chance of getting away, because he knew the shot had come from somewhere else. When I realized that, it was like... whoa, Reese is amazing.
And then, of course, that whole conversation in the parking structure as Reese is trying to get away. I especially loved when he told Finch, "No, you stay away. Don't even risk it," and Finch floored the gas. Oh, my heart. ♥
no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 08:36 pm (UTC)That's a great moment.
I don't dislike Reese, and I do recognize that he's smart and extremely competent. He just doesn't grab my interest the way Finch does, and that's very much a matter of personal taste. I like 'em intellectual, repressed, and with a sort of non-normative masculinity. Plus I have a long history of finding the protagonist/POV character less interesting than the sidekicks and secondaries.