{"id":6624,"date":"2017-11-03T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6624"},"modified":"2017-10-19T21:15:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T04:15:32","slug":"mark-watches-person-of-interest-s03e15-last-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2017\/11\/mark-watches-person-of-interest-s03e15-last-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S03E15 – Last Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth episode of the third season of Person of Interest<\/i>, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M STRESSED. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest<\/i>.<\/p>\n

WOW, WHO THOUGHT THIS EPISODE WAS OKAY.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any important characterization here or that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a layered story at work in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last Call.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Those are important aspects of this script! I love Lionel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, for example, as well as the brilliant parallels between Harold and Sandra. BUT OH MY GOD<\/i>, this is one incredible<\/i> exercise in tension and fear, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s executed so well. I COULDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BREATHE THROUGH HALF OF THIS, WHAT DID YOU ALL DO TO ME.<\/i><\/p>\n

Lionel<\/b><\/p>\n

Look, I will<\/i> be upfront about this: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that my bitterness over the loss of Carter is gonna go away any time soon. Like, could you imagine how great it would have been if Carter and Lionel had teamed up to help that rookie? If Carter had been the one to teach him about the importance of details, and Lionel had focused on how to avoid misusing or exploiting the power given to you as a police officer? Ah, I still miss her a lot, and I know that the show has frequently acknowledged that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big hole left in her place, but IT HURTS.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect to see that rookie cop again, but this was a really neat chance to see Lionel do something good<\/i> with a new cop. I was so used to suspecting every new NYPD officer as an HR plant that I forgot that there are other characters??? And that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily have an ulterior motive??? What is this weird world?<\/p>\n

The Caller<\/b><\/p>\n

I AM SO TERRIFIED BY THIS PERSON!!!! THEY TRULY ARE LIKE THE POLAR OPPOSITE ON THE MORAL SCALE AS HAROLD!!!! SOMEONE CANCEL THEM!<\/i> Also, they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t good for my health because this episode had my heart fucked up<\/i>. Look, that first 911 call, the one that Aaron initially made, was stressful enough. I have a huge fear of home invasion scenarios, so yeah, already messed up. Once the Caller (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what else to call him!!!) took over this nightmare, though, the writers exploited EVERY POSSIBLE FEAR EVER in order to terrify the audience. This is actually a great example of escalation. At the start, all we know is that this man is responsible for ordering Aaron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kidnapping. And then, the rules start to come into effect. Really, a good thriller has<\/i> to have rules. What can the main character do? Are they restricted in their movements? What they can say? Do? Who they can talk to? A lot of good thrillers use isolation<\/i> to build suspense, and despite that Harold is just feet away from Sandra, the Caller isolates her. He uses the camera in her headset to monitor her, and then threatens Aaron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life any time Sandra isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t perfect.<\/p>\n

And it only gets worse. Because of course it does! But the point is that this is designed so expertly to make me FREAK THE FUCK OUT, and then, to make me hurt even more: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also so in line with the kind of stories that Person of Interest<\/i> tells. This show swims in tales that straddle the line between right and wrong. While there is<\/i> a strong moral undercurrent to the characters and their actions, these people are still incredibly complex. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all done terrible, terrible things, just like any human being has. Sandra is no excuse, and a mistake she made as a teenager ended with the death of a kid she was babysitting. This episode doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t erase what she did, and Sandra certainly still feels guilt over what happened and how she was responsible. But this is a show about the complexity of human life, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long followed people trying<\/i> to be good in a world where that is sometimes a difficult thing to do. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Harold feels so close to Sandra, and not just because they share a similarity in their current jobs. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both characters actively<\/i> trying to undo the damage they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pretty cool narrative theme, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n

ALSO: WHO IS THE CALLER, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO STRESSED<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last Call\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":"