Person of Interest question

[anelith]

 It's easy to wander into a new fandom these days, thanks to AO3... so the other day I found myself reading some wonderful Person of Interest fic, and since the show is available on Netflix I thought I would give it a go.  I managed to get halfway through the pilot episode and was so frustrated by what appears to be an enormous plot hole I stopped there.

So if there's anyone out there who can answer this I'd appreciate it.  The pilot shows that Harold and John are given Person X to watch -- they don't know whether Person X is a victim or a perpetrator, they don't know any reason why this person is a nexus.  But I know from the fic that a computer called the Machine is the supplier of Person X's identity.  The Machine must have an algorithm for deciding that Person X is a problem -- why can't Harold access the relevant data/evidence?  He's the programmer, right?

Is this another case where TV screenwriters demonstrate they don't actually understand what a computer is?  Or should I just be patient and tamp down on my frustration? 

Comments

[breathedout]

As I recall (it's been a minute since I watched it), Harold intentionally locked himself out of certain kinds of knowledge back when he was creating the Machine for the government. But ngl, if that level of plot hole is going to bother you then you are going to continue to be bothered by this show. On a level of compelling storytelling there's a period when it was GREAT—roughly a third of the way through the first season, up through about 3/4 through Season 2—but even at its best I don't think it's really intended to hold up to close plot-related scrutiny. And then in late S2 and onward they make some pretty disappointing decisions on a storytelling level, too, which is frustrating because Root and Shaw are both genuinely wonderful & compelling characters but by the time they enter the picture the overarching plot is already kind of. Meh. IMO.

[anelith]

Thanks, that's very helpful! Maybe I'll push on. I'm accustomed to mentally glossing over some plot holes, but this one seemed so glaringly obvious that I just couldn't get beyond it. I guess it's my fault for reading the fic -- I think the viewer isn't supposed to know about the Machine yet, so my foreknowledge is tripping me up.

[cesperanza]

This is literally the plot, though--that the Machine was created deliberately by Harold to be a black box, but various people are trying to know what she/it knows for different reasons, mostly bad reasons--including Harold, now, reluctantly, for late-developing moral reasons though he's queasy about knowing what he knows etc. Like, if there's a fun part of the plot, that's exactly it: its about privacy and knowledge and responsibility etc.

[anelith]

That makes it much more interesting, thank you!

[asakiyume]

The show gets more and more interesting as time goes on--and is also dangerous to plunge into in the middle. (I saw one episode at my dad's house, a late-season episode, and was horrified by what seemed like the amorality of the characters it seemed we were supposed to be cheering for, and decided it was a show I **didn't** want to watch--but then some of my friends started writing interesting things about it, so I went back to the beginning and tried again.) At first it fits the description of show-with-a-gimmick (computer spits out these person X things). And then--this offers you a contrasting opinion to breathedout--you get the gradual development of an overall plot, which if you like it (which I did) is really excellent. (One thing breathedout and I agree on is the awesomeness of Root and Shaw. One thing *I* didn't like was the gangster storyline, which never dies.)

Watching the Machine develop as a character is slow, but fascinating, and backstory on Finch, which comes in dribs and drabs, is great too.

And hi! I jumped over here, a complete stranger to you, because I saw your comment on osprey_archer's entry, and loved your icon from A Little Princess. I was going to leave you a comment there, but curiosity made me come here instead. So anyway: I love your icon!

[anelith]

Hi! Nice to meet you! My icon is from my old LJ account -- I used it for years there so thought I would keep it for continuity's sake. I have to admit that I saw the image and fell in love without knowing where it was from, although I did read the book many years ago.

Thanks to the previous comments I've been watching POI and I'm about halfway through season 1. I agree that it's become more interesting. I'm reluctantly going along with the idea that Howard deliberately obscured the details about the person assigned to him by the Machine, although it's still a pretty absurd setup. I like the slow reveal of the characters' backstories. Like you, I'm not much interested in gangster melodrama, and I have to admit that my attention wanders during some of those scenes. I generally tend to watch TV when I'm doing something else like exercising or even housework, so for me this show is just providing the necessary scaffolding for reading fic. :-)