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POI S3 finale
Last night I was able to watch the S3 finale.
It's not every show that, on realizing it has covered most of the possibilities of its original premise, has the nerve to burn the premise to the ground and start over. With the team split up and living under new identities, and Samaritan fully operational as either an open system to be exploited for repression or a new god imposing its machine will on humanity--well, S4 will have to be a different kind of show from what's gone before. I doubt they'll keep the team split for long, because then there wouldn't be a show at all, but since Harold will have many fewer resources now and the world itself is utterly different, I can't imagine a quick return to the number-of-the-week format.
I'm so sad that John and Harold had to split up! In those last scenes as they were walking through New York together, I started to hope that they'd stick together even under their new identities. But no, instead we had the long goodbye of SAD BACKWARD LOOKS. *sniffle* Poor boys, they've both lost everything again.
Plotwise, one detail I really liked was Root saying "We lost the chance to stop Samaritan when we didn't kill the Congressman." So often on television, moral dilemmas aren't really moral dilemmas because the script gives the good guys some kind of easy out, a way to win without getting their hands dirty (Doctor Who, I'm looking at you). But the moral dilemma in "Death Benefit" turned out to be a real one, because the decision not to kill the bad guy when they had a chance, had consequences.
Speaking of moral issues, I'm unsure how to take this episode's depiction of Control. Are we really meant to accept that her patriotism makes everything she's done okay? I'm uncomfortable with patriotism being accepted as an overwhelming moral good, because, well, we've seen what Control does in the name of patriotism. And we know historically what many, many real people have done in its name. I can certainly accept that Control sees herself as a morally justified patriot, but I wanted to see her claim questioned at least a little within the episode, and it wasn't. All the moral obloquy in this one went to Decima.
Decima having created and manipulated Vigilance for black propaganda purposes made sense, and was something of a relief, because I'd been unhappy having advocates for privacy and civil rights cast in the role of villains. (This does not, of course, excuse Collier and other Vigilance members of responsibility for the things they did.) I find myself increasingly confused by Decima, though. Is it a corporation or a cult? John Greer clearly wants much more from Samaritan than just to make money by selling it to the government--he wants to turn the world over to a dispassionate, logical, incorruptible god. Even the rest of Decima come across more as cultists than as corporate goons--those generous insurance policies don't really explain how ready these people are not only to die in their cause, but to commit mass murder for it.
(It just occurred to me that what's happening on POI interestingly parallels what's been going on in Welcome to Night Vale. Decima = StrexCorp and Samaritan = The Smiling God. Crossover, anyone?)
Returning to characterization, I note that the show is moving in the direction I'd hoped it would, with Root and Shaw forming their own relationship and working semi-independently from Harold and John. I hope this development sticks around in S4. I also hope that Root and Shaw's blatant flirting is going somewhere and isn't just a queer tease. I understand that, considering this is an American network show with a mainstream audience, and that men are the most valued demographic for such shows, Finch/Reese will likely never be made more canonical than it already is. I don't like it and I feel compelled to rant about it often, but I understand that it's the gutless, homophobic, heteronormative reality. But it would be nice to have some more-than-subtextual queer characters in the main cast, and since that precious male demographic is (on the whole) titillated by f/f but objects ferociously to m/m, I have some hope that Root/Shaw could be an actual, textual thing. And Root and Shaw really do have good chemistry. If it does become canon, I have a reasonable amount of faith in the relationship being written well, in a non-exploitive, non-"sweeps week lesbian kiss" sort of way. *hopes*
Now I'm back to sad thoughts about how Finch and Reese are each all alone and missing each other and are sad. At least this summer should bring lots of fix-it fic.
It's not every show that, on realizing it has covered most of the possibilities of its original premise, has the nerve to burn the premise to the ground and start over. With the team split up and living under new identities, and Samaritan fully operational as either an open system to be exploited for repression or a new god imposing its machine will on humanity--well, S4 will have to be a different kind of show from what's gone before. I doubt they'll keep the team split for long, because then there wouldn't be a show at all, but since Harold will have many fewer resources now and the world itself is utterly different, I can't imagine a quick return to the number-of-the-week format.
I'm so sad that John and Harold had to split up! In those last scenes as they were walking through New York together, I started to hope that they'd stick together even under their new identities. But no, instead we had the long goodbye of SAD BACKWARD LOOKS. *sniffle* Poor boys, they've both lost everything again.
Plotwise, one detail I really liked was Root saying "We lost the chance to stop Samaritan when we didn't kill the Congressman." So often on television, moral dilemmas aren't really moral dilemmas because the script gives the good guys some kind of easy out, a way to win without getting their hands dirty (Doctor Who, I'm looking at you). But the moral dilemma in "Death Benefit" turned out to be a real one, because the decision not to kill the bad guy when they had a chance, had consequences.
Speaking of moral issues, I'm unsure how to take this episode's depiction of Control. Are we really meant to accept that her patriotism makes everything she's done okay? I'm uncomfortable with patriotism being accepted as an overwhelming moral good, because, well, we've seen what Control does in the name of patriotism. And we know historically what many, many real people have done in its name. I can certainly accept that Control sees herself as a morally justified patriot, but I wanted to see her claim questioned at least a little within the episode, and it wasn't. All the moral obloquy in this one went to Decima.
Decima having created and manipulated Vigilance for black propaganda purposes made sense, and was something of a relief, because I'd been unhappy having advocates for privacy and civil rights cast in the role of villains. (This does not, of course, excuse Collier and other Vigilance members of responsibility for the things they did.) I find myself increasingly confused by Decima, though. Is it a corporation or a cult? John Greer clearly wants much more from Samaritan than just to make money by selling it to the government--he wants to turn the world over to a dispassionate, logical, incorruptible god. Even the rest of Decima come across more as cultists than as corporate goons--those generous insurance policies don't really explain how ready these people are not only to die in their cause, but to commit mass murder for it.
(It just occurred to me that what's happening on POI interestingly parallels what's been going on in Welcome to Night Vale. Decima = StrexCorp and Samaritan = The Smiling God. Crossover, anyone?)
Returning to characterization, I note that the show is moving in the direction I'd hoped it would, with Root and Shaw forming their own relationship and working semi-independently from Harold and John. I hope this development sticks around in S4. I also hope that Root and Shaw's blatant flirting is going somewhere and isn't just a queer tease. I understand that, considering this is an American network show with a mainstream audience, and that men are the most valued demographic for such shows, Finch/Reese will likely never be made more canonical than it already is. I don't like it and I feel compelled to rant about it often, but I understand that it's the gutless, homophobic, heteronormative reality. But it would be nice to have some more-than-subtextual queer characters in the main cast, and since that precious male demographic is (on the whole) titillated by f/f but objects ferociously to m/m, I have some hope that Root/Shaw could be an actual, textual thing. And Root and Shaw really do have good chemistry. If it does become canon, I have a reasonable amount of faith in the relationship being written well, in a non-exploitive, non-"sweeps week lesbian kiss" sort of way. *hopes*
Now I'm back to sad thoughts about how Finch and Reese are each all alone and missing each other and are sad. At least this summer should bring lots of fix-it fic.