He executive-produced Amazon’s one-season wonder The Peripheral, a brilliant cyberpunk show that should’ve been given more of a chance. After that, of course, he scored the biggest hit of his television career as the co-creator of Prime Video’s smash-hit adaptation of the Fallout games. But before all that, Person of Interest put him on the map.
Before Nolan created Person of Interest, he was mostly known for co-writing his brother Christopher Nolan’s movies. He wrote the short story upon which Memento was based, and he co-wrote the scripts for The Prestige, Interstellar, and all three entries in The Dark Knight trilogy. With Person of Interest, he broke out as a solo screenwriter.
Person Of Interest Was Way Ahead Of The Curve On Government Oversurveillance
Person of Interest premiered on CBS in 2011, and by 2016, the series had aired over 100 episodes across five seasons. Lost’s Michael Emerson stars as Harold Finch, a reclusive tech billionaire who creates a powerful computer program for the federal government known as “The Machine.” The Machine uses all sources of information on the planet to predict terrorist attacks and identify the would-be perpetrators.
Finch hires an ex-CIA operative named John Reese, played by Passion of the Christ’s Jim Caviezel, to be his field agent. Reese uses the Machine’s findings to prevent everyday crimes like murders, which are deemed unimportant in the context of national security. This was a unique setup for a case-of-the-week procedural, but it also allowed the series to explore a handful of pressing moral issues.
The series questions whether people have a right to privacy if they’re suspected of plotting a crime. It wonders whether it’s okay to violate people’s personal liberties in the name of the greater good. It explores the dicey concept of justifiable homicide, and the issues that arise when the technology you’re working with has limited information.
Person of Interest was way ahead of the curve in its examination of government oversight and oversurveillance. At the time, the Patriot Act was in full effect, our rapidly advancing smartphones were being weaponized against us, and tech billionaires were starting to reveal just how dangerous they could be for democracy and our personal freedoms.
But it’s only gotten more and more prevalent since the series aired over a decade ago. Person of Interest is even more relevant in this day and age, when everyone and everything (including your tastes and habits) can be tracked through our phones and social media profiles. The Machine is no longer a hypothetical plot device.
Person Of Interest Morphed From A Procedural Into A Sci-Fi Masterpiece
When Person of Interest first premiered, it was a pretty straightforward crime procedural. The Machine was a fascinating plot device, but it ultimately just facilitated the same formulaic case-of-the-week storylines seen in other procedurals. The Machine identified a would-be criminal, and Reese set out to bring them to justice before they could even commit the crime.
But as the series went on, it leaned less on its procedural trappings and focused more on its science fiction aspects. Some critics even deemed it to be the best sci-fi show on TV while it was still on the air. Person of Interest introduced Nolan as one of the most exciting voices working in the sci-fi genre, and teed up the ethical dilemmas and thought-provoking thematic explorations of Westworld, The Peripheral, and Fallout.