Thanks to João for the heads up.
Before the season returns, though, Nolan and executive producer Greg Plageman reveal to us what lies ahead for the second half of Season 2 of “Person of Interest.”
Is John’s being captured more serious than it appears?
Nolan: So many shows, especially when the show is working and it’s found its audience, you want to keep it the same. Part of the deal that Greg and I had when we started is we always want to keep it dangerous and we always want to keep surprising people. We think there is some real jeopardy here.
Given how the mid-season finale ended, are you going to be playing with a “Thomas Crown Affair” type of thing that the Feds don’t know which guy in the room is Reese?
Plageman: We didn’t think of that movie when we were talking about it. Definitely, there is a special dilemma here for Special Agent Donnelly (Brennan Brown) and the FBI in terms of four suspects have been rounded up — all four are men in suits. There is a little bit of intrigue to be played with that and, like Jonah said, not easily resolved. We have to play fair with our audience in terms of Reese’s apprehension and incarceration and how long that plays out.
You have obviously reversed roles from the beginning of the season when Reese worked without Finch. Is Finch going to try to find some way to supplant Reese in his effort to assist the POIs?
Nolan: I think it is very unlikely that Finch will try as least as hard as Reese to rescue his friend and erstwhile partner. But you have a full team here. You have Carter (Taraji P. Henson) and Fusco (Kevin Chapman) and other people who might be interested in the fact that Reese — or someone who might be Reese — might be locked up.
We did see Reese going to great lengths to rescue Finch at the beginning of the season and, in the mid-season finale, expressing out loud how important this partnership has become to him. What can you say about Reese’s character growth this season and how he is changing?
Nolan: I feel like the promise of the show from the beginning and what Greg and I, the writers and the actors are interested in are four very wounded, very broken characters that are rebuilding themselves. Reese probably the most — but for reasons you will discover; Finch in his own way — there is a lot of damage there. So watching Reese over the course a season and a half and collaborating with Michael and Jim on these performances in which every tiny glimmer of connection you get means so much, and the ways in which we see Reese as this wounded animal who slowly is rebuilding his trust and his connections to the world, we love to do that right to the point where we smash it all to pieces. That is our favorite thing to do. Our writers are sadists, I think.
Obviously, Carter now has accepted a position with the FBI. How much will she wrestle with that decision? Is this the next level of how much she is compromised trying to help both sides?
Plageman: Obviously, Carter being enlisted by Special Agent Donnelly in the pursuit of the man in the suit has been a common running theme on our show. Donnelly is very much aware of Carter’s history as an interrogator in Iraq and now that he has Reese in custody, it is going to be enlisted in playing both sides of the fence.
When the show returns, will it pick up right where we left off? Or will time have passed?
Nolan: We are back on the air on January 3, so we not gone too long. We are right back into it, so we will pick up with the same velocity. A fun wrinkle to that is Reese is locked up. As you saw in the pilot, the numbers never stop coming, so watching Finch try to spin plates in terms of, “Okay, I’ve got to rescue my friend, but I’ve also got a backlog of people who may be in serious jeopardy,” becomes the focus as it was for Reese at the beginning of the season. Greg, I don’t know if you will agree with this, but I would characterize the next three episodes as completely bananas. I think that is the technical term.
Source: Full Interview @ xfinity
Is John’s being captured more serious than it appears?
Nolan: So many shows, especially when the show is working and it’s found its audience, you want to keep it the same. Part of the deal that Greg and I had when we started is we always want to keep it dangerous and we always want to keep surprising people. We think there is some real jeopardy here.
Given how the mid-season finale ended, are you going to be playing with a “Thomas Crown Affair” type of thing that the Feds don’t know which guy in the room is Reese?
Plageman: We didn’t think of that movie when we were talking about it. Definitely, there is a special dilemma here for Special Agent Donnelly (Brennan Brown) and the FBI in terms of four suspects have been rounded up — all four are men in suits. There is a little bit of intrigue to be played with that and, like Jonah said, not easily resolved. We have to play fair with our audience in terms of Reese’s apprehension and incarceration and how long that plays out.
You have obviously reversed roles from the beginning of the season when Reese worked without Finch. Is Finch going to try to find some way to supplant Reese in his effort to assist the POIs?
Nolan: I think it is very unlikely that Finch will try as least as hard as Reese to rescue his friend and erstwhile partner. But you have a full team here. You have Carter (Taraji P. Henson) and Fusco (Kevin Chapman) and other people who might be interested in the fact that Reese — or someone who might be Reese — might be locked up.
We did see Reese going to great lengths to rescue Finch at the beginning of the season and, in the mid-season finale, expressing out loud how important this partnership has become to him. What can you say about Reese’s character growth this season and how he is changing?
Nolan: I feel like the promise of the show from the beginning and what Greg and I, the writers and the actors are interested in are four very wounded, very broken characters that are rebuilding themselves. Reese probably the most — but for reasons you will discover; Finch in his own way — there is a lot of damage there. So watching Reese over the course a season and a half and collaborating with Michael and Jim on these performances in which every tiny glimmer of connection you get means so much, and the ways in which we see Reese as this wounded animal who slowly is rebuilding his trust and his connections to the world, we love to do that right to the point where we smash it all to pieces. That is our favorite thing to do. Our writers are sadists, I think.
Obviously, Carter now has accepted a position with the FBI. How much will she wrestle with that decision? Is this the next level of how much she is compromised trying to help both sides?
Plageman: Obviously, Carter being enlisted by Special Agent Donnelly in the pursuit of the man in the suit has been a common running theme on our show. Donnelly is very much aware of Carter’s history as an interrogator in Iraq and now that he has Reese in custody, it is going to be enlisted in playing both sides of the fence.
When the show returns, will it pick up right where we left off? Or will time have passed?
Nolan: We are back on the air on January 3, so we not gone too long. We are right back into it, so we will pick up with the same velocity. A fun wrinkle to that is Reese is locked up. As you saw in the pilot, the numbers never stop coming, so watching Finch try to spin plates in terms of, “Okay, I’ve got to rescue my friend, but I’ve also got a backlog of people who may be in serious jeopardy,” becomes the focus as it was for Reese at the beginning of the season. Greg, I don’t know if you will agree with this, but I would characterize the next three episodes as completely bananas. I think that is the technical term.
Source: Full Interview @ xfinity
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