“Person of Interest” Features James Cavaziel as Ex-CIA Crusader

October 22, 2011, CBS, 9 PM (ET) Just as the entertainment world needs a new Steve McQueen—something Ryan Gosling tries to rectify in the film “Drive”—the entertainment world needs a new man-of-few-words Clint Eastwood capable of taking down the bad guys without sentiment interfering with his murderous vigilante rage. James Cavaziel (“The Passion of the Christ”) seems to be working on filling Clint’s shoes with a younger model cut from the same bolt of cloth in his new Thursday night television series “Person of Interest.”

Cavaziel co-stars with Michael Emerson (“Lost”) in the new series that started strong with a subway scene where thugs make the mistake of bothering the bearded bum that Cavaziel has become on the subway. Reese (Cavaziel) turned into this silent, depressed alcoholic following the death of the love of his life, Jessica.

As the plot unfolds, we learn that, following 9/11, Mr. Finch (Emerson) built a machine for the government that would be able to predict, in advance, incidents that would cause the deaths of multitudes. Emerson then programmed the machine to delete irrelevant individual deaths and concentrate only on those that would affect the masses.

However, Mr. Finch built a “back door” into the machine that would allow him to retrieve the social security numbers of these “irrelevant” individuals. Now he’s trying to save them, one-by-one.

That’s where Cavaziel comes in: the right-hand brawn to Emerson’s brains.

Cavaziel plays the part with the kind of quiet presence that Gary Cooper or Eastwood brought to their roles in their primes. Cavaziel seems to have no conscience, however, shooting and killing numerous victims during the premiere of the show. In fact, the show seemed overly violent in the number of smack-downs and shootings.

One fact of modern life that executive producer Jonathan Nolan (“Memento”) expertly taps into, with the help of J.J. Abrams (“Lost”) is the feeling of paranoia engendered in modern society by the feeling that “Big Brother is Watching,” whether that eaves-dropping is via camera, cell phone or other bugging methods.The world can use another strong, silent action hero. Add to that the 8 years of Cheney, Rove and “W” following 9/11 and we all have developed a healthy respect for invasion of our privacy, whether at the airport, in the office, or in our homes, so the timing is right for a series like this and the leads, including series regular and Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson are quite good in their roles. CBS moved the procedural drama “CSI” out of this time slot to make room for this new series. A welcome move.

The series premiere was interesting and entertaining. I hope it makes the cut.


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