The Tuesday night decision is rapidly becoming which to record (Forever or Person of Interest) and which to watch ‘by appointment’ as folks in the television industry like to refer to watching television shows when they are scheduled to air.
ABC’s Forever, poster from the ABC.com Site
Forever has great chemistry between the actors, and characters that continue to develop before our very eyes week after week. The commercial for tonight’s episode of Forever shows a scene in which Police Detective Jo (Alana De La Garza) is sitting down over drinks or a meal with Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd) and his roommate Abe (Judd Hirsch). Now for those who have not been watching the show that may not sound like a scene with extraordinary comedic potential — but those who have been tuning in every week know that while Henry looks to be significantly younger than Abe, Henry adopted Abe when he was a newborn and is the only father Abe has ever known. So when questions like “how do you two know each other?” come up, one can only imagine the awkward and entertaining conversation that will take place.
There have been several scenes where Henry, despite physically appearing to be clearly younger, has clearly been fatherly towards Abe, and these two talented actors have pulled the scenes off with such heart and authentic performances that the viewers find themselves willing to believe there just might be a universe in which this is possible. By contrast there have been scenes where the indulgent son Abe has been picking up the slack for his somewhat absent minded professor dad, always in very minor ways, but in a subtle manner that says he knows when dad gets curious and intrigued, dad is going to get caught up in his lab experimenting, or go off investigating, and Abe just smiles, helps him on with his coat and like a proud son encouraging his father to keep on making him the most popular kid in school because his dad is the coolest on the block.
As for Person of Interest, last season took a serious turn away from the original premise. It was that premise that fascinated and drew in so many viewers. When given 1 single piece of information about a person, and told they need help, our lead characters set out to do what they can. (That piece of information is a social security number that enables them to find their name, and from there hopefully more information.) Reese, Finch, and now Shaw, Fusco and sometimes Root, do not know whether the person they are out to help is a victim who needs protecting, or a criminal who needs to be stopped — and usually set on a better path. What they know is they are a Person of Interest (and irrelevant to those looking for terrorists and major national threats).
Person of Interest appears to be taking a turn back towards its foundation, with Fusco (a once corrupt cop who has had a spectacular arc over the course of the show as Reese stepped in and pushed him into helping people instead of working with other corrupt cops) now partnered with a new cop in the homicide division — Reese, instead of trying to hide from the system Reese finds himself trying to work within it, to a degree. Most of our main characters are hiding from the evil machine Samaritan that came online at the end of last season, and as a result Finch is now a college professor by day, and reluctant team member by night, as he wrestles with his conscience trying to determine if all their efforts actually amounted to accomplishing anything good. Did they truly save anyone? Help anyone? Or did just as many people get hurt despite their good intentions?
As an added bonus with Person of Interest, we get the occasional appearance of Elias — aka Enrico Colantoni. His appearances are almost always a highlight.
Forever and Person of Interest are two very different shows, and yet they are both high quality programs that leave viewers like me with the tough decision every Tuesday at 10 PM (9 Central) do I tune into Person of Interest on CBS, or record it because I need to flip over to ABC for my weekly dose of Forever.