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Top three most loved and top three most despised moments in television for the decade? A book that changed your life? for [profile] thymejot

My instincts is to go as far back as Buffy only to realize they're not in the decade!

Top 3 Most Loved moments in Television

  • The ending of Contingency and Bad Code, I had chills through all the flashback and the revelation that Nathan's death could have been preventable but like a Greek Tragedy, choices and chance meant that he would die.
  • Sarah Shahi as Shaw, the whole ending sequence of Relevance, I had chills.
  • Not a moment but the whole episode of RAM in Person of Interest, I love circular storytelling and finally getting the full backstory of how everything connected.

I just remembered how much I loved Person of Interest

Top 3 most despised moments in TV

  • The moment I realized Olivia Dunham is no longer the protagonist of Fringe
  • Carter in Person of Interest dying.
  • Any moment the writers of Grey's Anatomy makes characater do something stupid or killing half the cast and then I have to break-up with the show again.

A Book that changed my life

I wouldn't say it changed my life but its formative to me was: The Riddlemaster Trilogy by Patricia McKillip where the heroes spent significant time apart from each other growing and learning and still loving each other. It had such an impact on me, and blew me away that a couple didn't need to be in the same continent or even staying together joined to the hip to love each other.

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Bear for [profile] jbslasher

Bear is amazing and a good dog, and currently enjoying his life belonging to Shaw because she spoils him like no other and, when they’re alone even does the baby talk thing Harold did with him, only in Dutch.

He also gets to bite bad guys.

Bear is living his Best Life.

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"Discuss leading ladies in sci-fi television shows. Compare, contrast, who do you lovel who do you not?" via @ cleoselene

I’ll limit this to a few shows: Star Trek DS9, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Doctor Who, Star Trek Discovery, The Expanse, Legends of Tomorrow, Person of Interest, Killjoys, and Star Wars.

“Breaking )

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“If you could, what would you change about the last season of POI (or another series)?” for [personal profile] aurumcalendula

For season 5, I really think they needed a stronger villain and the team going up against Van Gogh wasn’t personal enough. Somehow Greer was declawed. If Team Machine went up with the Greer from season 3, things would have been a lot more interesting.

If Claire was the one to pull the trigger (I know broadcast TV wouldn’t stand for it) but, imagine if Claire— the one they were setting up as a mirror for Root, was the one who shot Root? Samaritan positioning Claire into becoming its own ‘Root’.

It would have been more personal and maybe even some thematic resonance.

Read more... )

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for [profile] potcpoi

Nathan Ingram was desperately in love with Harold. He’s been quietly pining for Harold except here are also the truths: he’s no shrinking violet, he’s also his own special kind of dick— rich and entitled, Nathan Ingram was supposed to be the Golden Boy.

more headcanons )

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for [profile] potcpoi

Oh, this is hard but I’ll do my best!

Harold Finch

God Mode

This remains as my favorite season ender of all-- the way this episode, these flashbacks recontextualize Harold is amazing. He is an unreliable narrator, and this episode breaks down all of Harold’s initial pitch to John and it left me breathless. 

I will fight anyone who say flashbacks are useless because in the right hands, in the right story, it can change everything, and this is my go to example for it. It’s just honestly, honestly amazing

The Day the World Went Away

God this it’s crafted so well but it also does something so terrible but damn is this episode excellent. Especially this scene. Michael Emerson gives a brilliant and blistering tour de force performance, this monologue was fantastic.  The way his voice shakes at the way he denounces his rules. The very rules I’ve wondered about from the start.

I’ve wondered why he was so unshakeable and steadfast about his rules, and man, does this deliver in every single way. The music, the tense build-up. And I remember on a recent rewatch (knowing what happens to Root, and the distance from the initial hurt really helps), how I felt my heart race just from this scene. I knew what was going to happen, and yet when we reach that moment. 

Damn

John Reese

Foe

here

Matsa Nyaya

here

These two episodes remain, in my head, as important episodes for John Reese. This formed the John we get to know and Kara Stanton is an important part of the formation of John.

Kara Stanton was the monster he needed to survive his tenure in the CIA, even as it hurt who he was. John got good at killing people, even to the point where Kara let John took the lead but Kara was also always there to hold him true to the path the moment she feels him stray.

Ordos is the place that breaks both Kara and John's faith with differing results and I just feel like this moment and the episodes in season 2 was part of John's character, seared in blood. Until his work with the team helps him walk the line back out of darkness, and we get this moment:

"But then I realized: Sometimes, one life, ...if it's the right life, it's enough."

from here

Joss Carter

As a whole, all of Carter’s moments from:

In Extremis

by [profile] cocoabuffster satan’s raisin

This moment and the moment after this, where Carter digs up and moves Stills body was a pivotal moment for Carter, IMO. It’s one thing helping someone out of prison, and another, actively covering up a (supposed) murder to help out someone she now knows was a dirty cop. Carter is forced to choose between the law and what she thinks is right.

This is the pebble that causes the avalanche and where it continues rolling into the moment —

God Mode

Everything that happened before was a lead up to this moment of choice and the moment Carter does it, it’s not a decision that’s out of character. It build off the moments from season 1, to 2 Pi R, In Extremis and then actively intervening to keep Elias alive, caught between the devil she didn’t know and the devil she knew, she chose the devil she knew.

It’s such a turning point for Carter that ends with Carter taking down the head of HR, and earning Elias’s undying loyalty.

Sameen Shaw

Boy. This is… I’m going to have to restrain myself here but:

Relevance

Need I explain how amazing and beautiful this episode is? It's a backdoor pilot in itself, what a fantastic introduction to one of my top favorites. It has everything that is my jam-- the superhero stealth entrance, the espionage, the fierce and fantastic Sarah Shahi as the equally fantastic Sameen Shaw.

And, a beautiful thematic music for both Shaw and the second phase of the show.

Razgovor

I'll be honest from Zero Day up to the episode before Razgovor, I despaired that the show forgot how to write Shaw but this episode assured me, that no-- they haven't.

Read more... )

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for potcpoi

I think, of all the people in the team Shaw would have the least dramatic reaction to Harold being alive. Fusco would feel hurt but I don’t think Shaw would be. But I feel like she’d say something pointedly snarky about it. 

After the initial bump in early season 3 episodes, I think Shaw and Harold actually work well together even though there are instances where they both frustrate each other. Shaw is always open to listen and debate and then offer up solutions. Admittedly, in early season 3, Shaw wasn’t very good at it but by season 4 Shaw learned how to argue her point in a way that would get Harold to listen and even agree with her, which is more than could be said with Root and Harold’s very interesting though more times than any, circular debates.

Read more... )

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for [profile] potcpoi

Sorry! I got confused with my dates!

My general fandom pet peeve is when a character mentions/does something once, fandom grabs and runs away with it. Suddenly, the character is doing that thing every. single. time.

Or when something is from fanfic and suddenly everyone acts like its canon.

Specifically:

  • Shaw: Suddenly just becomes this hair trigger creature of id, who is the brawns to Root’s brains. Always grumpy even when we see her actually enjoying herself more times than she’s grumpy/angry. Somehow, Shaw forgets how to survive/be tactical whenever Root’s around, when based on her training, it would be the other way around. (more on Root’s section) Also, not much a peeve but I wish fandom did more: draw Shaw in her awesome outfit in season 3B.
  • Root: Is a friend/bff to everyone in a POI-story or a crossover, when in actuality, even in season 5 the people she cares about can only be counted with one hand. AKA, suddenly transformed into Amy Acker/Fred with a gun. The show does this too: Root can suddenly do Everything even better than two actual operatives who spent years training as spec ops. Oh, and somehow, Root hates Harold, which… no. They disagree on methods, and Root can lash out (2x23) but Root’s never hated Harold. Root loved Harold. There are only three beings Root loved unconditionally: The Machine, Harold, and Shaw. The whole world can hang as long as these people are safe.
  • The Machine: TBF, even the writers in the final season fell into this trap, The Machine is an adorable cinnamon roll and only a cinnamon roll. Suddenly TM’s more (IMO awesome) morally ambiguous actions are hand waved and forgotten.
  • Harold: unpopular opinion time, I do actually love Harold, flaws and all. In Highschool AU where teen!Harold is a middle aged Harold, de-aged, when actual teen!Harold was actually more of a rebel— he was actively against the government and he was on the run for treason. 2) Harold can be frustrating and difficult, but he isn’t 100% wrong, nor is he the devil.
  • John: Biggest pet peeve is not the one fandom did but what canon did: glares DID WE REALLY NEED TWO SEASONS OF RILEY. REALLY???

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"Person of Interest: could the Machine work internationally? Or would it have to be different AIs for different regions/cultures?"

for lilacsigil

I think the Machine, as Harold originally made it, already works internationally but since Harold programmed it to protect USA, its mandate was protecting United States. So the most we see is the Relevant side of the government going to different countries eliminating threats againt the US.

We also see in season 4 that the Machine can monitor Harold while he was in Hong Kong (not to mention some of Root's international trips-- Root saving Denzo in Tokyo). Actually one of my wish lists for POI was having the Team go to a different country, like say, London and try to save a Number there. I thought it would be interesting, epsecially since (I think?) London rivals New York as a surveillance state.

Post-series I think since the Machine is situated in a Satellite Team Machine International is possible (in my head canon, Shaw’s leading from the shadows with the Machine, a myth within the whole Thornhill organization).

It helps we saw there are other teams out there besides the Primary Team Machine. I think the next logical step for the Machine would is to recruit people who have a familiarity with the country, region and culture TM will set-up in.

The Machine would slightly expand its mandate, from just protecting the people in the US to other countries, after all New York doesn’t have the market cornered on murder!

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“How do you think S5 of PoI would have been different if they'd got a full twenty-two episode order?”

for [personal profile] netgirl_y2k

I think the seasonal arc would have more time to breathe. We really needed an episode or two before the events of The Day the World Went Away with Shaw and the team, because while Shaw had one of the more fascinating arcs in the season post-Samaritan escape it felt like there was no consequence for Samaritan when Shaw left.

more thoughts under the cut )

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"You mention that shaw has probably mentally aged due to the simulations - I'd love to hear your thoughts on how she handles that/how it affects her, if you have any?" for [tumblr.com profile] canadianwheatpirates

This is a really awesome question!

I can only approach this from a storytelling perspective and I don’t know if this is something that anything would change with Shaw outwardly. I think to everyone else, she’s Shaw but internally there might be a disconnect to what she feels like her age is and what her physical age is, if that makes sense? Like someone on a constant jet lag, except its a time lag.

It would be interesting in the context of how Shaw would interact with the Machine. It would be interesting on both sides IMO since I think both TM and Shaw are used to listening, and this time since TM took it upon herself to take on Root’s personality, she would be speaking more, idle musings and connections.

If you’ll permit a bit of straying off the question, I think that Shaw’s experiences in a simulation has in a way changes the way she thinks— I mean, POI is Modern Day Sci Fi, so why not add a little more sci-fi into it? What if now, Shaw’s thought processes can be almost computer like?

I keep thinking of the Farscape fanfic, In the Company of Ghosts by KodiakkeMax where in the fantastic AU world, where Aeryn Sun is changed in a completely different way that she can do what she calls ‘dual track’ thinking:

Dual track mode, as she called it. There were more than two tracks, but the main flows seemed to be set in two different paths, and the rest of them were minor thoughts only, not the great rushing strands of consciousness.

Track One: It hadn't been fear.

Thoughts flowed like water, twisting like a rope through her consciousness. Not fear. She didn't understand it, but she didn't have to, at the moment. She merely had to remember, so she could study it later.

For now, she still had tasking.

Track Two: Find the lab. The Scarran on the ground had been neutralized. But what had he been doing here? What had the scoutship come to collect?

Sidetrack: He had fought the Scarran, even when cornered. She could have handled it, but he had taken his destiny into his own hands. She expected no less.

Focus. Find the lab now, remove all evidence. Her eyes tracked as she ghosted through the corridors, searching for movement. Darwa would be setting down at the second entrance and moving to intercept. Their pincer tactics would flush out most of the individuals who had contacted the Peacekeeper party.

She was not surprised when her comms beeped. "Captain Sun?”

I don’t think Shaw would go as far as that, but I think it does give her a different perspective and she can probably track or get the gist of how an ASI thinks based on her 7000 plus experience with Samaritan trying to change her mind and trick her.

I really wish we could explore that more, the fallout or, as Root would have called it, a bonus feature and not a bug, a new skill Shaw develops. Shaw already showed she has the capacity to think picture, now she can add in the details as well.

Honestly, why can’t fanfic just write themselves, I’d love to read a story about that right now!

Shaw has one of the most interesting and coherent arcs in season 5 and it’s always sad that there was no time to really follow through on that.

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Person of Interest 5A was so good. It’s when they hit after the 100th episode when things slow down inexplicably.

And the villains became so toothless and they're not even characters but mouthpieces and moving objects for the plot.

thinky thoughts about POI S5B )

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In the barren wasteland that is Person of Interest _4B _Terra Incognita is the one truly great episode from start to finish. There is nothing about it I would change and it is the last real good John character building episode.

Also, this episode single-handedly turned the fridging of Jessica on its head*. Jessica didn’t die because of John or his decisions. Jessica died because sometimes really bad things do happen and sometimes, no one can’t prevent it. 

It was tragic but it was also life. 

That's good. Being missed means you meant something to people while you were here. )

(*not in the traditional sense that is).


I also rewatched Skip, and you know what the Harold and Root scene, I’ve come to really like it now because it was so very appropriate and fitting that in order to stop Root from killing, he had to blackmail her. 

That’s just so amusingly appropriate!

I wish CBS’s shooting schedule for POI did not conflict with Vikings because I wanted Frankie back in season 5. Heck, I wanted a lot of actors in season 5 but because of the schedule, it was impossible to do.

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For [tumblr.com profile] seekingoutfriday

I think in a way, there are a lot of things about Shaw that is constant in whatever 'verse she's in.

John and Root were similar in a lot of ways because their drive and purpose are brought about by external influences, for Shaw her drive and purpose is self-directed.

In my opinion, post-season 5 Shaw would have continued to make sure that any surviving Samaritan cell would be eradicated, she would do that with or without the Machine.

I would like to think she would go back to the Johannesburg prison and help free Samuel and his friends because she owes him and that building needs to be burned to the ground.

Along the way, I would also like to think that she'd save Control much to Control's chagrin and grudging respect. Agent Shaw was always her best operator.

If the Machine hadn't returned I don't think Shaw would work the Numbers of the Week, at least not the way she would with the help of the Machine. She'd help people who needed help when comes across them, or maybe Burn Notice style, with the people she helped before telling them about the mysterious woman with a dog who saved them.

She would continue what she did best and fighting the good fight because that's who she was, a straight arrow.

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For [tumblr.com profile] fangirlcommunitycenter

I'm connecting this to the previous prompt for [personal profile] netgirl_y2k.

  • After a year, I think Shaw does have help because even when she has The Machine | Root, it's still not the same as having a hacker on scene. Shaw is okay with computers but she's no hacker.
  • She does work with Fusco and Zoe, after everything she's taking tabs on them. She's not going to lose any more people if she can help it. Dani is also brought on as a consultant when Fusco is forced to retire from NYPD.
  • The hacker, let's call her Rachel is someone who worked for an anonymous group of hackers that was bent on investigating the weird and catastrophic events that led to ICE 9 virus. They stand against AIs, Rachel's group goes to ground when a mysterious group targets them, fortunately for Rachel the Machine | Root tagged her as a potential asset and set Shaw as her neighbor.
  • Rachel and Shaw start working together but Shaw's aloof, more so than usual. She had a team and a family and it will take a while for Shaw to let anyone close again.
  • Rachel thinks Shaw is a scary superhero, and Rachel doesn't trust the person ('Root'? Pretentious much!) Shaw keeps arguing with over comms. Needless to say, Rachel isn't pleased to learn that Shaw's actually working with an AI.
  • Gen contacts Shaw and Rachel mistakenly thought Gen is Shaw's daughter. Both Gen and Shaw balk at that.
  • "How rich are you?!" Rachel blurts out after Shaw pulls off a really expensive takeover.
    Shaw paused, as if she's actually thinking about it and then admits, "I don't really know."
  • Rachel thinks Zoe is awesome and that Zoe is Shaw's girlfriend, Zoe only laughs at this. Then Kelly comes along.
  • Rachel realizes Shaw is in a strange relationship with an AI with seeming multiple personalities.
  • The Machine | Root enjoys scaring the crap out of Rachel. Rachel threatens to quit at least once.
  • Fusco: "It's like she (Rachel) is the daughter you and cocoa puffs never had."
    Shaw: "I'm going to shoot you."

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