Person of Interest - season 5 (final)

I got impatient of waiting for season 5 of Person of Interest to appear on Netflix. After all, it has only been a year and a half since it aired in the US !!!

Anyway, I used up 3/4 of a month's rentals on Cinema Paradiso to watch it on Blu-ray instead. Keeping my fingers crossed that disk 3 would appear straight after disks 1 and 2, rather than something else from my list. It did. So I got to binge watch it, more or less.

I think PoI was the first modern US TV series that I got into. And it still remains the best in my opinion. Multiple threads of backstory interwoven between the episodes was always a joy to follow. You never knew when an otherwise run of the mill episode was going to be lit up by a revelation from the past.

In comparison this final season feels a bit rushed. There are only 13 episodes rather than the usual 22 or 23. So there are leaps and bounds that we just have to accept.

For example, in previous series, getting access to the NSA data feeds was always a big deal. Both for the Machine at the start and Samaritan later. But here, as soon as the Machine gets resurrected it can magically gain access all by itself.

Also, Samaritan managed to find the Machine last time... but now, even though it is stuck in one place, Samaritan can't find it... right under its nose.

Despite all that, we get some great episodes to finish off the story. Not all the characters make it to the end. The moment when the Machine chooses her voice is absolutely brilliant. I watched that episode again straight after...

The last episode is good, although again there are niggles. What was it that Root did to the Machine to give it a chance to beat Samaritan? Did I just miss that or was it glossed over?

I wonder if the cast were asked how they would like their character to end. There didn't seem to be much consistency to the outcomes. Although they were all quite satisfying in their own way. I guess by that point it didn't really matter... I was sad to see it finish.

All good things come to an end. Better a short season, than none at all. And I will remember episode 100 "The Day The World Went Away" for a very long time.

"Hello. Can you hear me?"