Returning Shows – Person of Interest and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Person-of-Interest-poi-banner
As the new season starts it is time to refresh your memory and recall where favorite characters were last seen.

As Person of Interest starts its 4th season on CBS Finch and Reese are back in the shadows, hiding now from Samaritan a competing machine using the very cameras that their machine had been relying on during the previous three seasons to help them.

Where Finch had set parameters within which his machine worked to protect people, then he closed the system, with hopes that would protect it from corruption, and abuse.  He never intended for his machine to evolve to the point it would choose one person over another, assign greater value to one person vs. another, but rather it was meant to place law and life above terrorism and crime.

At the end of Season 3 we were left with the belief that there was still hope, left in Padora’s Box (Finch’s Machine?) but Samaritan, the competing machine was now online, having targeted all those the machine thought might harm it, or run counter to it’s mission, the one who we hoped would control this great and powerful machine now turned to the machine and asked, “What are your commands for us?”

It served as a rather chilling end to a season that drifted further and further afield from the initial premise of people given nothing but a Social Security number, and based on that trying to figure out if this person they were interested in needed protection from someone, or needed help finding the right path and doing the right thing.

S.H.I.E.L.D.-logo-6Another show returning tonight is Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is a show that John Mayo, of ComicBookPage.com and I have on our list of shows we plan to do a podcast about, there is truly that much to say about it.  The first season was uneven from one month to the next, but over the course of the season, especially in the second half, an interesting arc unfolded, and gave me hope that the second season of this show will find its feet.

Some fans lost hope early in the first season, before the show started to really understand itself, and that is a shame, as the show does deserve a second chance in that case.  The tie-in with Captain America: Winter Soldier was interesting, and while that movie is not required viewing to understand the season, it does enhance the audience’s understanding of the plot in S.H.I.E.L.D.

Perhaps more to the point, in a great many ways the Captain America movie provided a focus for the television show, and a destination for the first season, and a launch point for the second season.  The show which had a basic concept when it first hit the air has a specific goal and mission as the second season begins, and I believe it can only benefit from this.

As so often happens these days on television, several of the characters ended the first season in peril, and there is a lot to be said for re-watching the season 1 finale (available on the ABC website) before season 2 begins, to refresh your memory about who is healthy as can be, who is suffering in the wake of recent events, who has been dealt with, and who we may still need to deal with — I know I plan to re-watch the Beginning of the End today before prime time starts up.

If you don’t have time to watch Season 1 episodes before Season 2 begins tonight, wikipedia has brief recaps of each of the episodes, and the ABC website has more in-depth recaps available (click the word recap to the right of any episode).

Shield

Outlander – The Wedding

Chapters 14 and 15 of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander cover the wedding of Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp (Caitriona Balfe) and James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser (Sam Heughan) known to one and all by the nickname Jamie.

The wedding in the book was similar in many ways to the wedding on the show, though there were a few differences, such as the show choosing to present the events out of order as the couple discusses the day they have just been through.

In the book the greater difference was in the marriage of Claire and Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies) and this is a case where I was glad the show chose to make not just minor changes, but major ones.  I understood why the author chose to write the book the way she did, and the emotions she was putting her character Claire through, but when I first read it, the passages struck me as a bit much.  I agreed that her wedding to Jamie would undoubtedly remind her at every turn about Frank, about her desire to return to 1945, and this is a tremendous fork or turning point in her life.

Is Claire giving up hope of returning to 1945?
Is Claire now accepting her life in the 1700s?
Is this a marriage of convenience or emotion?
Is this Claire simply doing what she must to make it through another day, or week, or does this marriage to Jamie mean something more?

The wedding is given an entire episode and I feel rightfully so because it means so much for Claire, and coming out of this day Claire is in a new position figuratively speaking.  Not because she is Mrs. Fraser so much as because she has made a permanent move in this time-frame instead of just treading water in an effort to find her way back to Frank.  That is a decision that should have emotional ramifications.

Sam Hueghan shows his acting abilities quite well in several of these scenes with Claire.  As she is reacting to her own thoughts and emotions in the wake of what she has done he is clearly noticing them, observing her and realizing there is something going on with this beautiful lass he has married.  The nuances to both his performance, and that of Caitriona Balfe were quite nice as they took the audience on an emotional roller coaster with them.

With only one more episode before a mid-season break that will take us into the new year, it will be interesting to see how much further into the novel the show carries us.  My hope when they first announced the divided season was that the show would take us to Part IV of the novel before the winter break… but we shall have to wait a week to find out, especially since the commercial for this coming week appeared to show some 1945 scenes that I do not recall from the book.

Links:

Outlander @ IMDB
Outlander @ Starz
Outlander @ Showcase

Gotham Chronicle

Gotham Chronicle Story - Waynes Shot Dead

Gotham Chronicle Story – Waynes Shot Dead

Part of the promotion for the Fox show Gotham, which premiers Sept 22 in the United States, has been the website gothamchronicle.com.  Thus far it has had a smattering of content, with some photos, and just a few stories, like the one that will undoubtedly be a striking moment in the pilot episode — the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne, the parents of Bruce Wayne who will grow up to be Batman.

Detective Gordon

Detective Gordon

Gotham, a series which will serve as the origin story of Batman, takes place during the childhood of Bruce Wayne and will feature a host of familiar characters (Penguin, the future Riddler, and the future Catwoman), and faces (David Mazouz, and Jada Pinkett Smith among others).

Based on the list of characters and cast, it seems that Detective Gordon, and the ever popular butler Alfred will also play key roles in the show, perhaps at long last explaining these key friendships in the life of Batman as so many of us know and love the character in his adult years.

You can follow the show on social media:

Facebook:        GOTHAMonFOX
Twitter:             @Gotham / #gotham
Instagram:        @GOTHAMonFOX

Scorpion on CBS

Scorpion is, in some ways, an incredibly simple premise, and yet it has wonderful potential, perhaps because of the uncomplicated nature of the premise.  Simply put, it is the story of socially awkward geniuses working with homeland security to solve the security problems facing modern America, and working with this group is one woman, the mother of a genius, who helps them interact with the world.


Scorpion is a show about the ultimate think tank that stands between America, and those who would threaten our country. Billed as a high octane show, the premise is full of potential for action packed scenes, tense moments that come down to the wire, but also drama that will pull at the heart strings and hit the emotional core of the audience as potentially very real characters deal with the kinds of threats the audience does not want to ever imagine could be real.

And in the first episode, watch for Alimi Ballard (Numb3rs) and Ernie Hudson (Ghost Busters and too many other appearances to count).

Tune in to the series premiere of SCORPION, Monday, Sept. 22 (9:00-9:59, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.

And keep up with the show on-line:

Official CBS Website: http://www.cbs.com/shows/scorpion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScorpionCBS
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ScorpionCBS
Instagram: Scorpion_CBS
CBS Tweet: https://twitter.com/CBSTweet

Cast on Twitter:

Elyes Gabel    @ElyesGabel
Jadyn Wong   @JadynJWong
Ari Stidham    @AriStidham
Robert Patrick    @RobertPatrickT2
Katharine McPhee    @KatharineMcPhee