“Person of Interest”: The Fifth and Final Season may have benefited from a few more episodes, if not a full season order, but considering we got 13 episodes is nice as it gave the writers a chance to wrap things up.
“Person of Interest”:
The Complete Fifth and Final Season
(2016)
Genre(s): Science Fiction, Suspense/Thriller, Drama
Warner Home Video| NR – 566 min. – $44.98 | July 19, 2016
Date Published: 07/27/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 4.5/5 |
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Season Synopsis: When we last left our intrepid heroes in season four, the near-destruction of The Machine left ex-CIA agent John Reese (JIM CAVIEZEL) and billionaire tech genius Harold Finch (MICHAEL EMERSON) on the run with only a briefcase of source code. But The Machine’s reboot brings up software glitches that put Reese and Finch, along with Detective Lionel Fusco (KEVIN CHAPMAN), ex-operative Sam Shaw (SARAH SHAHI), in captivity by John Greer (JOHN NOLAN, uncle to Chris and Jonah Nolan) and Samaritan, and cyber-hacker Root (AMY ACKER), on the front lines of the nation’s surveillance battlefield. With Samaritan online and the full power of the U.S. government behind it, the team is in constant danger of being discovered and undermined, while innocent citizens are being targeted and assassinated.
Quick Hit Review: I have to say, this fifth season of “Person of Interest” just might be one of the more unsatisfying yet satisfying final seasons I’ve encountered. Considered the limitations the creators were restricted to being relegated only to 13 episodes to wrap up a complicated and intricate storyline, not to mention give each character of this ensemble their fair dues, creator Jonah Nolan and the producing and writing team did one heck of a job. The plotlines are, for the most part, well written and although there is an unevenness in their distribution, with a couple episodic episodes thrown in at the behest of the network (from what I read), being a bit odd but overlooked thanks to the season-long arcs where we get reacquainted with characters from the past, one thought dead in fact, and nobody is safe from Samaritan and its seemingly endless line of assassins, some more inept than others. But what really makes this season work, as it was for the previous four, is with this cast, a few deliver exceptional performance, most notably Sarah Shahi whose return is a welcomed site, and Amy Acker, with their characters sharing an intimate relationship and one of the core emotional anchors this season. Although there are only 13 episode, I did have a few favorites from ‘6,741’ which marks Shaw’s return and is an intense episode with a clever twist to ‘The Day the World Went Away’ finding Finch making a mistake that puts him and those around him in danger, ‘.exe” which offered alternate realties of where these characters would be had the Machine never existed and, of course, ‘Return 0’, the series finale which, admittedly, had me holding back a few tears.
As I said, “Person of Interest” season five isn’t perfect but does contain more than a few episodes of utter perfection and delivers with some amazing performances and manages to give each of these characters a fitting ending, it’s just a shame as I do wonder what the writers could have done if not with a full 22-23 season order but even 16 episodes, still for what it is, it does serve a great series finale. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.75/5 |
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The 3-disc set is contained in a standard Blu-ray case which side slides into a matted slip cover. Inside is an episode pamphlet and a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Sadly, the features are a tad sparse with highlights with the cast (Caviezel, Emerson, Chapman, Acker) and creators (inc. Jonah Nolan) at the 2015 Comic-Con Panel (32:59; HD); Revelations of “Person of Interest” (17:50; HD) where Executive Producers Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman and Denise Thé, Actor Michael Emerson and TV critic Eric Goldman discuss the series’ storylines and villains; and Finale for the Fans (16:30; HD) where, in a continuation of the previous featurette, Goldman meets with executive producers Nolan, Plageman and Thé, along with Emerson, to celebrate the 100th episode and recall favorite moments. |
VIDEO – 4.25/5 |
| “Person of Interest”: The Complete Fifth Season comes to Blu-ray through Warner presented in its originally televised 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and given a solid 1080p high-definition transfer. The detail in this series is well defined and generally sharp while colors are toned down, leaning more toward the dark spectrum perhaps in keeping with the season story. Still, when colors to show, they do have a nice pop. |
AUDIO – 4.25/5 |
| Each episode comes with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track which provides for great dialogue levels and gives off a bit of depth for the numerous action sequences, primarily the shootouts which have a nice punch to them, though the LFE channel did appear to be limited. Still, it’s a nice lossless track that may not test your home theater system, yet still is more than satisfactory. |
OVERALL – 4.0/5 |
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Overall, “Person of Interest”: The Fifth and Final Season may have benefited from a few more episodes, if not a full season order, but considering we got 13 episodes is nice as it gave the writers a chance to wrap things up both in terms of the Samaritan vs. Machine aspect but with each of these characters we’ve come to love over the course of these five years. The Blu-ray release has three OK featurettes while the video/audio transfers are well done. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.