{"id":6675,"date":"2017-12-07T13:00:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T21:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6675"},"modified":"2017-11-27T13:05:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T21:05:13","slug":"mark-watches-person-of-interest-s04e15-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2017\/12\/mark-watches-person-of-interest-s04e15-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S04E15 – Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of Person of Interest<\/i>, the team deals with manipulation. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For suicide and depression<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Person of Interest<\/i> exists within a fascinating realm of our cultural and political reality, given that it is a speculative fiction show that developed within a world that began to evolve alongside it. Advertising is already targeted to a frightening degree. (You almost wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe how many emails I get from people decrying certain ads showing up when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re browsing this site, and how many of those people never write back when I tell them that advertising is often targeted based on the other things that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re searching or visiting. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s… it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot.) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely unreal how quickly ads for something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just bought appear on other sites. (Well, when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got AdBlock off, that is.) Is it really that much of a stretch that people would use technology to further push people to be amenable to clicking other ads? Is it really that much of a stretch to propose a story about someone willing to exploit people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vulnerabilities in order to make money off of them? Look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve sat in enough marketing meetings over the years to know that there are some people in that industry who care not for the ramifications of their actions. (Whew, some day I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll talk about the shit I heard at Buzznet. It was horrifying.) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about money. Impressions. Clicks. Return on investment.<\/p>\n

Thus, Person of Interest<\/i> is like this unnerving parallel mirror of our own world. Some of my favorite works of speculative fiction are like this. They toy with the audience because there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as much suspension of disbelief as we might expect. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case with one of the two major plots in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Q&A,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which tracks John as he tries to help a woman who discovered evidence that the search app she worked on had pushed someone to commit suicide. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just<\/i> believable enough that I was transfixed by watching Anna Mueller navigate this disaster. I mean, initially, we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know whether she was a victim or a perpetrator, and then we got dealt that incredible plot twist with her being an MMA fighter. But the eventual reveal of her involvement in the plot to cover up the deadly advertising technique was fun for another reason: the writers found a way to have Anna contribute to her own mission! The team is shorthanded, so SHE GETS TO KICK ASS, TOO. That confrontation scene during the climax is so good<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n

And it was nice to get another plot that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do with Samaritan, who I suspected of tampering with VAL to take out someone it had deemed as an obstacle. However, then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Claire. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I wanted so badly<\/i> for Claire to have been telling the truth. SO BADLY. As I said on video, the team had been dealt so many crushing blows lately that I just wanted something good<\/i> to happen. And for a moment there, it seemed like Claire was telling the truth: She finally believed Harold. She finally realized that Decima\/Samaritan were a million times worse than she could have ever imagined.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I never considered where this story would go, that Claire would believe<\/i> in Samaritan. It was a disturbing and upsetting twist of events, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, because… well, I expected more of Claire. For someone who had been so suspicious of the world, she seems to have latched on to the philosophy of Samaritan wholeheartedly. To her, the ends justifies the means, and like many others who have done the bidding of Samaritan, she was willing to let other people suffer so that humanity could be <\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153happy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Was that final scene meant to hint at the possibility that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s starting to realize she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an disposable pawn? Or does she believe so fully in Samaritan that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Q&A\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"