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Comment by scrollaway | Hacker News Reader

If you like Mr. Robot, you should watch Person of Interest.

POI is a pre-snowden series about a world "in which the NSA has a system which spies on every american citizen in order to fight terrorism" (sounds familiar?).

The show begins with the weak premise of "help us fight crimes we predict will happen", but don't be fooled by its appearance of a run-of-the-mill CBS show. Without spoiling it too much, I do want to say that by the end of Season 1, it transitions from "monster of the week" to an extremely high quality science fiction show, nearly invisibly.

I don't want to oversell it, but if you're reading HN it's very likely to be a show that you will appreciate. And like Mr. Robot, it's one of the very rare shows that has a lot of respect for tech and doesn't vomit gibberish on their audience.

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My wife and I watched POI and as the show progressed the plot ideas got better but the acting and dialogue took a nose dive.

At times the show with its dialogue became very CSI, NCSI, aka other CBS cop crime crap. Reese and Ebbg's (Rot 13 name per spoiler avoidance request) one liners became fairly irritating.

It also didn't help: <rot13> gurl ryvzvangrq bar bs gur orggre npgbef naq punenpgref va gur fubj (Pnegre... V'z nyy nobhg xvyyvat znwbe punenpgref ohg gurl unq orggre bcgvbaf) </rot13> (spoiler avoidance).

Could you edit out the name of that character, seeing as this is a watch recommendation?

Edit: Thank you :)

Thanks for the heads up. I Rot13 the spoiler material. which I felt was apropo given the thread.

I was unhappy about that too, but I wonder if some of it had to do with the actor wanting to headline a bigger series.

POI is an amazing show. You can really tell how they started off with a bonkers scifi idea, then between S1 and S2 Snowden happened and the writers were like "Oh fuck this shit's real??". The show much improved from there and pushed the scifi to the max. Like ok we know this is real, but what if it was waaay more powerful?

The only downside is that they let some techno babble seep in by S3 and the hacking has become a bit odd in its explanations.

Overall a solid 5/7. You should watch it.

And unlike Mr. Robot, it's watchable to nontechies so if your SO couldn't do Mr Robot, they'd probably watch POI with you.

I've watched both in their entirety (so far). I definitely agree that POI is more watchable with a non-tech person. POI had a few stinker eps, especially ones involving "baddy of the week" type standalones or the "very special episode" where we explore the hidden pain of main character X.

The upside is the ensemble is very strong and likable, the writers worked hard to preserve continuity and development of the characters, even a few side characters that only show up one or two times per season, and it rewards careful watching.

My issues with Mr. Robot are they have been overusing some of the tricks you saw in Fight Club for example, and the characters are much more Breaking Bad in that you can like them but not admire them. The portrayal of tech is amazing though, and the direction and editing stays mostly in the "clever homage" of Hollywood genre films rather than straight ripoff of them. The cast is also very good.

And let's not forget the other big genre series, Orphan Black, which I highly recommend.

If you like Mr. Robot, you should watch Person of Interest.

I strongly disagree. You could maybe say that about season 1. It devolved into a pretty crappy show after that and I bailed completely by season 3.

The last two seasons went all in on the tech/super-AI plots and dropped the "crime-fight-of-the-week" tedium. I'm actually pretty happy to see it talked about so well here. The last season was kind of emotional and definitely struck at my techie core.

I watched the first few episodes and really didn't like it. I wasn't aware that the plot of the show moved past the episodic crap of the first season. Maybe I should pick it up at season 2?

I've been confused by the positive comments it has gotten from people in tech - I found it unwatchably bad and that it actually got worse (not better) as time went on.

Everything from the 'machine' itself, to the cringe acting and writing, dumb tech concepts (woman who 'speaks' for the machine) and all their vigilante killings that only happen in New York. I couldn't take it.

Watch Halt and Catch Fire - it's a thousand times better.

Yeah, I found POI very cringey for the most part. Although I thought the character speaking for the machine was a fun development. They just took the concept too far by introducing the child later on.

Well, de gustibus non est disputandum right? :)

I watch a ton of TV and I honestly think Person of Interest is the best show I've ever watched.

It may not have the production value of Game of Thrones, the suspense of Breaking Bad or the comedy of .. um.. Seinfeld? but [rest of this comment rot13'd for spoilers]

vg vf gur bayl fubj V'ir rire jngpurq gung chyyf bss fhpu n fzbbgu "traer fjvgpu" sebz cebprqheny gb fpvrapr svpgvba, gb rira penmvre fpvrapr svpgvba.

Vg vf nyfb gur bayl fpvrapr svpgvba fubj V'ir rire jngpurq juvpu vf cynhfvoyr. Gurl gnxr yvoregvrf bs pbhefr: Gur gebcr bs gur "travhf cebtenzzre" gung "qvq rirelguvat ol uvzfrys" vf gverq, ohg jung ur cebqhprq vf fgvyy cynhfvoyr. Vg'q gnxr qrpnqrf, uhaqerqf bs lrnef znlor, ohg gung'f jul vg'f fpv-sv naq abg n qbphzragnel.

Gur punenpgre qrirybczrag bs gur NV vf snfpvangvat naq vg tbg zr gb pner nobhg ure n ybg. Fnznevgna jnf nyfb na rkgerzryl vagrerfgvat punenpgre.

The POI team produced the most unique experience in TV I've ever watched. I won't pretend everybody will like it, but it is the show I recommend to people the most.

You have watched a lot of TV? What about things like Sons of Anarchy, the Soppranos or Oz? Or even the unfinished Profit?

What about them? :)

I don't expect a lot of people to agree with the statement. But I did just put it in front of breaking bad, game of thrones and yes even the sopranos. Those series are all amazing in their own right, but I'll reiterate that Person of Interest is the most unique TV experience I've ever had.

All of the characters in H&CF are great but god damn I love Lee Pace's Joe MacMillan. The overall production is great as well with mostly correct terms and hardware for the time.

I really enjoyed season 1 of Mr. Robot but season 2 really hasn't been the same, it is way too mind trippy for me now.

Halt and Catch Fire - where ibm mainframes boot into dos, quality stuff

...and Amigas run DOS too (Joe learning programming recently) with no Sidecar attached.

There are some silly slips, and I doubt they'd mostly be running on C64s, but overall it gets the feel of the period pretty well.

I binge watched the entire series, because so many people liked it. Though I wouldn't recommend it.

The transition into sci-fi was very subtle, and where they took the show was interesting for it's time. But the technical aspects are like almost other TV show. NCIS levels of inaccuracies.

Mr. Robot should not be utter in the same context as POI, because unlike POI, they did their research. They made a show that has both a good story, but also mostly technically accurate and plausible.

I myself like the Silicon Valley series way more than any of those two.

Have you tried "Halt and Catch Fire"?

Except that the main storyline is likely to be rushed to completion due to the final season being massively cut in length.

It honestly wasn't.

The last season has been out for a while. I ended up being very impressed by just how well it's executed. When the cut was announced after season 4 I thought it could only end in disappointment, but after watching season 5, I truly felt like the series ended how it should have ended.

Then I guess I'm going to have to track it down, thanks for allying my fears.

I liked season one of Person of Interest but for me it started to get old after that so I stopped watching somewhere in season two (but that didn't yet happen with Mr. Robot).

My sexagenarian, extremely-religious parents watch POI, as do their friends.

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