Elias. Nathan. Donnelly.

copy from movietvslash painted by 无水乙醇

This is my last lost for finishing this blog assignment. I’m not sure that I will continue writing it in the future, but if I really want to say something about POI, I might come back and write more.

Since the middle of the semester, I stop watching POI. I stopped probably at S04E10. Mostly because I am busy doing homework, but also because I have weekly TV shows that I need to watch every week. That’s the reason I could not write things that actually related to the story after my sixth blog. Today, I will go back to my understanding of this show. And I truly hope that people can go watch it and feel its brilliance.

POI does follow the pattern of some traditional criminal show, at least the beginning of the show does. Incoherent story was played for every episode. This loosen story has both advantages and disadvantages. People who have never watch the show before can easily follow the story and show interests to this show if one story per episode. If the story is continuous, it will keep its original audience. It is like a half-half situation. However, when artificial intelligence starts to make impact on the main story, this show has a major plot. So, POI utilizes both loosen story and compressed plot.

copy from ebay

POI actually shares a lot of similarities with Batman. Both stories have billionaires hiding behind the scene and help people. Characters all have extraordinary physiques and miserable past. They all suffer from the pain of ordinary emotion. The main director of POI is also the director of the movie “Dark Knight Rises”. However, POI is not a hero story, there is not super power or absolute bad buys in this show. And characters are also not powerful enough to survive from every dilemmas.

One thing I personal think is funny is watching rich characters spending money buying stuffs that nobody can actually afford. (Oh, probably the real billionaire can afford, but no one that I know can afford though.) Also watching Shaw making fun of Reese is also very fun.

"bear" copy from movietvslash painted by cirxxxcle

Anyway, POI is one of my favorite shows. I will continue support it and “sell” it every one. No matter how this show eventually end up going, I will follow it to the end. 

copy from movietvslash painted by lili匆

Human-Computer Chess Matches

Finch plays chess with the Machine (copy from YouTube)

In Person of Interest, there is a scene Finch teaching the Machine play chess. Cheese always seems to be an important way to test the calculation ability of computer. And chess test always be treated to a crucial stage of Artificial Intelligence. So this week, I am going to write something on computer playing chess.

copy from scifiempire

The reason scientists choose chess to test computer is probably because Turing test is way too hard for computer to finish. Although chess test does not make computer has independent awareness, playing chess needs extreme fast calculation. Experts who are good at playing chess, people usually will consider them smart, however, computer cannot be defined as smart. Computer is a storage of data, knowledge and information. It has the ability to pull data out very fast, but it does not generate ideas by itself. When computer plays chess, it evaluates every possible move, and eventually choose the step which has bigger possibility to win. An approximately calculation estimates that for a computer to win, it needs to calculate for almost 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible solutions. People on the other hand, separate the target which is victory into different steps. We do not have a whole plan planed out when we just start the game. We beat competitor by achieving small goals. For example in chess, we would think take out opponent’s horse first, than we go after the knight. We usually will not think how to kill the king right after we start, right? So, the ways humans play chess and computers play chess are completely different. However, chess test certainly reflects the calculation ability of computer.

computer Deep Blue (copy from wiki

The most famous games in the history happened between a computer called Deep Blue and a Russian world champion. Deep Blue was an IBM chess playing computer. This computer won its first game against the world champion --Garry Kasparov in 1996. This was an important moment in computer history, because beating Garry Kasparov meant that IBM computer already achieved the impossible amount of calculation. After Deep Blue, people have more interests to compete the ability of human brains with computer.  

copy from: Forbes

computer Watson (copy from Wikipedia)

Several years ago an American TV show called Jeopardy! hold a contest between computer and human. This show invites smart persons to compete with IBM computer. Watson is the new computer, designing to answer any question, although I think it is kind of cheating for a computer to compete with human on something needed to be memorized. But, the point of holding this show and racing the “intelligence” of human with computer is to better tests the capability of computer, and utilize computer in people’s daily lives.

Computer playing chess is go long a hard thing, though for artificial intelligence to become a real thing in the world still requires tons of studies. Computer can already do better than human beings on a lot of things, and we shall estimate the creation of artificial intelligence will be in the near future. 

Nautilus

If you ever have watched through Person of Interest from the first season to the latest season, I beg you have impression on the episode which the Samaritan recruits people on Internet and set up a puzzle solving game for the competitors to solve. That is the second episode of the fourth season, and it is a pretty intense story. A symbol that is used throughout the whole episode is nautilus. 

copy from : Baidu

In that story, the main characters describe the nautilus as a mysterious create: one of natures' many examples of a logarithmic spiral. Isn't this awesome? People can always learn some knowledge from watching TV shows, sometimes the show will introduce some trivial, other times they can teach people some technical terms. Learning knowledge from TV is a big reason I enjoy watching them. So, after I watched the episode repeatedly mentions nautilus, I did some research and explored the secrets of nautilus.

A nautilus shell viewed from above

A nautilus shell viewed from underneath

Nautilus are mollusk animals living since Ordovician Period. Yes, these creature still exist in some oceans in the world. Because nautilus lived for such a long time, they are called as living fossil. Nautilus has unique appearance and shell structure. It’s commonly known that gold ratio and Fibonacci sequence are associated with the spiral shell of nautilus. The spiral shell structure helps nautilus drift and sink in the water. The way nautilus grow its shell is fascinating: “the shell divides into camerae , the chambered section being called the phragmocone. The divisions are defined by septa, each of which is pierced in the middle by a duct, the siphuncle. As the nautilus matures it creates new, larger camerae and moves its growing body into the larger space, sealing the vacated chamber with a new septum. The camerae increase in number from around four at the moment of hatching to thirty or more in adults.” (Wikipedia) The design of submarine actually comes from the function of camerae in nautiluses.

golden number in nautilus (copy from http://www.goldennumber.net/nautilus-spiral-golden-ratio/ ) 

structure of nautilus

Nautilus is a very amazing creature, and there are still many mysteries about these ancient creatures that needed to be answered by the scientists. Because nautilus is such a mysterious creature and can always be related to math, POI choose it as the symbol in that episode.

New York City

During the spring break, I went to California. It was a really nice journey except we fought with a cab driver, almost missed our train and totally missed our flight.  But it was still pretty fun. We basically took any public transportation in Los Angeles and San Francisco, including Bart, Caltrain, Metro, yellow cab and Amtrak train. Our tour was tough and complex, but we made it. Please clap for us.

Enough for the chit-chat and back to my theme. Person of Interest never shot any scene in California, because the story mainly happened in New York City. I cannot really relate POI with my experience in California. So, this week, let’s talk about New York City!

The whole cast of POI basically only works in NYC. Although in the show it seems that characters have been to other cities, or even other countries, the crew actually had never leave NYC. In one of the scenes, the story told the audience that Harold Finch went to Hong Kong; however, the crew just shot that scene in the China Town in NYC, which is pretty disappointing.

Everybody knows that New York is a big city. And in my opinion, it is also the most famous city in America. However, this show chose New York City and set the background at here not only because New York is famous. POI chose New York because this city perfectly coordinates with the theme of this show – darkness and intensity. For a long time, NYC is well-known for its high crime rate. In the show, NYC is presented as a corrupted and crime-infested place. Gangs, mobs and corrupt polices take over the whole city. The main characters are trying to improve the society under this situation and bring justice to this place. Also, artificial intelligence, the Machine and the Samaritan are monitoring the citizens. This surreal setting does not seem strange when it happens in NY; but if the article intelligence is in Wyoming, it will be hard for the audience to accept. New York City is very advanced with all those skyscrapers, subways, billboards and vehicles. Therefore, the situation of NYC makes the story more convincing and realistic.

Thereby there is no reason to blame POI for no shooting in other places, because New York City perfectly matches with the story. And the directors also well utilized the beauty of NYC and make the show even better. 

Pictures of some filming scenes for POI:

copy from: Kuzeybati

copy from: New York Times

copy from: Gevril

copy from: wikia

copy from:apops

Pictures of Brooklyn. These places just like purposely designed for crime shows.

copy from:flickr

copy from: flickr

copy from: flickr

Medicine

Music is an essential element of any video. The function of great background music in movies or TV shows including helping audiences understand the information in the videos and coloring the atmosphere. Person of Interest has pretty good music background producers. They applied various genres of music in the show and help to develop the story. This time I will talk about my best song in the POI – Medicine sang by Daughter.

Daughter is an England band formed in 2010, not really very early. I don’t think they were or are popular in America, because they like to play electronic folk music not mainstream pop music or country music. The singer of this band has unique mellow voice. She is not like highly skilled singer, but her voice can bring peace and comfort to the audience. This band also likes to write powerful and dolorous lyrics.

I don’t really sure whether the song Medicine is saying a sad story or a hopeful story, but the melody is more heartbroken than buoyant. In the end of S03 E20, this mirthless music corresponds perfectly to the plot in the show: sad, helpless and lose. At the end of the third season, Harold and his POI team lost one of the most important friend – Carter, and were facing deadly threats from the new civil surveillance system – the Samaritan. So, this time period is the hardest for them. They also faced an extremely tough problem: Should they kill one person in order to save more people including save themselves? Although it will not be a surprise that Harold chose not to kill anyone even himself may end up be sacrificed, the whole scenes of Harold arguing with John were still sad and intense. When the POI team eventually were chased by gun shots, and they got no place to hide, the atmosphere got even more heartbroken.

The song –Medicine using the bass of piano creates serious and heavy feelings. Electronic devices construct a sense of barren through electronic noise. Piano was invoked as the major instrument throughout the whole song, so the song was not quiet and pure. All these elements fused with the mellow voice of the singer, creating a perfect soundtrack for the show.

In this episode, the producers played the entire song. This is not common that TV show plays the full vision of a song since they usually do not have much time and it is not necessary. However, in this episode they chose to play the entire song for lengthening the mournful moment. And I love it.

You guys should totally check out this song – Medicine. Daughter also has some other beautiful songs like Suits and Youth. But my point is, POI truly have very good background music producers. They excellently corresponded the music with the scenes and present the audience a wonderful watching experience.

Missing

Last whole week, I put all my efforts on writing a history paper. Our assignment was to interview a person who was dead and America. I chose Malcolm X to be my topic. He was probably my most respectful person in the world history. By reading books about him, watching his speeches, I found out that my admiration to him was continuously increasing. When you read to here, you might want to say “Your history paper topic has nothing to do with your blog!” Well, well, it actually does, because it remains me a question about the black men.

POI casts copy from: Pinterest

I know this sounds a little bit racist, but I have a preference on Africa-American male for quite a long time. So it is pretty obvious for me to notice that there are not much Africa-American important male characters in Person of Interest. Actually, a lot of America TV series have this problem, I mean, at least those I like and watch. The only one show that has an Africa-America male main character I can think of immediately is the show -- “Almost Human”, which was cancelled after 13 episodes, very short, right? “Almost Human” is a pretty awesome show, and it is really popular in China. I guess American audience and Chinese audience have some disagreement on appreciation level. Otherwise “Almost Human” were continue playing.

Almost Human copy from: IMDb

Anyway, in POI Detective Carter is probably the most important Africa-American character. However after she was killed in the third season, the central plot basically happened between whites. The POI team consisted of Harold, John, Shaw (probably going to leave since the actress just gave birth to 3 children, btw Congratulation!), Root and Fusco is almost all white, and so is the Samaritan group. Oh, my mistake: Shaw is not white, but she is also certainly not black. I know it is not a big deal since the audience watch shows for great story or great actors and actresses, but I also know that audience care the diversity. America is such a diverse country, too many people live on this land. Race or even color is always the popular topic among the society. Especially because the Africa-American people have be the minority of the American society for a long time and right now their number is overcoming the whites, some media like to exaggerate race problem. So what the media would do is they rate the TV series according to the race diverse of the casts. 

How many African-American people can you see in these picture? 

copy from:Google play

copy from: wiki

"Helix" copy from: Huffington post

copy from: Coherent fangirl reviews

The reason I feel surprise on no having too many Africa-American casts in TV shows is that although the producers and directors know that their show will be evaluated by the diversity of the casts, they don’t bring more color to the show. This is not an issue only POI has, but many other TV series have. One thing needed to be pointed out, I love POI very much and I don’t really care whether there are hot black dudes in this show or not. However, mainstream shows don’t use black actors is a question I have had for a long time. I remembered one day when I was designing calendar and put photos of my favorite shows on it, I suddenly realize that I cannot really find several popular TV series that have Africa-Americans male main characters in it.

So, whether American care this diversity, or not?

Great Women II

Last week, I only focused on my favorite female character Sameen Shaw, so this week I will go into details on other amazing women in the show Person of Interest.

copy from:tieba

DETECTIVE CARTER (JOSS CARTER):

copy from: tieba

Joss Carter was definitely the most outstanding woman in the first two seasons. She was always the core of the story before she died in the middle of the third season. She was so upright, warm-hearted and tough. She was never lost in pursuing the justice even she sacrificed herself in the end. She did not expect that she could save everyone in the world, but she tried her best to protect everybody around her. Not acting like a saint, she could be selfish for her only son. And she was irritable sometimes. Her relationship with the main character John Reese was delicate throughout the whole time. She had never approved Reese’s way of stopping crimes, however she understood that Reese was protecting people by using extreme methods. Based on their similar experience and value standard, she and Reese were best friend, although they never shared the same belief, which in Carter’s mind was the system, the government, but Reese strongly opposed to. Starting with capturing Reese, she eventually trusted Reese from her bottom of her heart. Carter was the best police. She dedicated her whole life on improving her corrupt society. When Carter was killed in the show, millions of fans were heart-broken, they love this character too much. Though it was sad that Deceive Carter left the POI team forever, her death was actually quite predictable, since Carter had sacrificed for her justice so much that she could no longer be protected by the system which she trusted. Kind of ironic, is it? In general, Joss Carter was definitely the most memorable character in POI. Her toughness and talent well demonstrated how strong the modern woman can be.

copy from:tieba

ROOT (SAMANTHA GROVES):

Personally speaking, Samantha Groves is the most mysterious character in the show. Behaving as an anti-functioning sociopath, (Yep, she totally acts like Sherlock at some point.) she is highly unpredictable and scary sometimes. When she first shows up, her identity is a hacker and a killer, although when her first meeting with John Reese and Harold Finch was achieved by pretending to be a psychotherapist and then she kidnapped Finch. Root does not trust human being and she also hates people very much. Her only purpose in the first, second and third seasons is to let the Machine free. She has extremely strong obsession with the Machine, that’s also the reason why the Machine choose to talk to her. Ever since she have real conversations with the Machine, she can evolve into the “god mod” which is interpreted as capable of knowing everything. Root is really intimidating especially when she is in “god mode”, and she do not like the common sense that killing people is a bad thing. Hence, in my point of view, she is a super smart crazy bitch. I called her a bitch does not mean I dislike her. Actually I like her very much because I agree her opinions on people, we truly are bad codes, and I like her unique personality. Root kind of represents the women’s role in the modern technological world. Women are extremely outstanding and we are not inferior to men. We can easily create chaos if we want to, just like Root, DON’T EVER UNDERESTIMATE US. Root’s sismantic (/romantic) relationship with Shaw is also fascinating. Although I haven’t watch the recent episodes which Shaw gave Root a goodbye kiss yet, I am pretty certain that Shaw and Root are not just friends. If eventually the writers decide to say that Shaw and Root are real couple, I am totally going to cry with cry.

copy from: tieba

ZOE (ZOE MORGAN)

copy from: Wikia

Zoe Morgan does not show up in the show that much comparing to other three female characters I talked before. She is more like a traditional woman compare to Shaw, Deceive Carter and Root, at least I think that way. Unlike any of them, she is tenderer since they all are very good at shooting people but she rarely does that. Unlike Shaw and Root especially, she is more mature and calm. Zoe does not have tough physical ability to fight with man, but she is skilled in manipulating people. Charming, attractive and tactful are prefect words for describing her. Working as a “fixer”, Zoe helps the rich and the powerful fix problems in the story. Since she is the person assisting behind politicians, she is closer to the grey area. However she knows what she is doing and what is right. In the show, Zoe is John Reese’s lover ever since they meet, but they never admit their relationship. She is also one of the most indispensable members in the POI team.

copy from:tweets

Carter, Shaw, Root and Zoe are the main female characters in the POI, nonetheless, there are numerous great women characters polishing the show as well. As I said in my last post, Person of Interest is definitely one of the most feminist TV show that I have watched before. Women are just as powerful as men in this show. Overall, the writers did a wonderful job on creating charming female for the audience. I hope that the writers can maintain their attitude and value on women, show women’s greatness towards the end. 

Monica Jacobs (copy from: wikia)

Claire Mahoney (copy from: wikia)

Kara Stanton (copy from:tv.com)

Andrea Gutierrez (copy from:wikia)

Great Women I

Carter  (copy from:Baidu)

Zoe (copy from: Weibo)

This week I would like to talk about the female characters in the Peron of Interest. POI is the most feminist TV show that I have ever watched before the Agent Carter came out few weeks ago. There are plenty of powerful and independent women characters in this show: Detective Carter, Shaw, Root and Zoe; they all are intelligent and outstanding women who represent the new roles of modern female.  

Never underestimate women’s capability is one thing I learn from this show. Female character can be ambitious, smart and crafty, but they are not tender girls who need to hide behind men. Clichés, bias or judgment about female’s traditional role is not depicted by the writers. Since feminism acts as a necessary element of this show, POI attracts a large number of feminist fans.

Shaw

Sameen Shaw is my favorite ever since she directly transfused a Russian mob’s blood into her body. Shaw is so bad-ass that I am thrilled every time when she shoot someone. She is just too AWESOME!!!

Shaw is a former government assassin who is supposed to be taken off by the government because she and her partner get involved in national secret; however, Hoard Finch and John Reese rescued her, after that she stayed with them and help them save other people.  She is a very unique person. Dark humor, smart, strong, anti-social and rude all can be used to describe her, but at the same time, these adjectives all fail to depict her. She does not feel emotion but she sacrifice herself for numerous people. She is irritable, however she is also very reliable that I feel like I would marry her and rely on her for the rest of my life. Anyway, Shaw’ contradictory personality is really appealing to me.

copy from: Zap2it

Also, the actress of Sameen Shaw – Sarah Shahi is not an eye candy who know few about acting, she has her own inner sight about acting. I am not going to give a whole speech on how she great is, because I love her so so much. She is like sunshine to me.

Besides Shaw, various great women characters can be seen in this show. They all have their unique personalities which the audiences can only love, but never dislike. The writers of this show contribute a lot for creating them. I truly appreciate them for valuing women.

Sarah Shahi (copy from: Mtime )

Sarah Shahi once said these on the Santiago Comic-Con:

            “In a world, unfortunately, where women are still treated as second class citizens in a lot of parts of the world, I think it’s so important and so commendable they [the writers] recognize that they [the writers] have responsibility to put women in the forefront; to say that these girls are nor secretaries, they’re not the finger-pointing girlfriends, but they are very capable, very individualistic strong women. They are not relying on the size of their chests to get what they want. And I just think that [it] is very important for women. Just as a woman, I’m proud and thank you [to the writers] for recognizing it.”

Root (copy from: Wikia)

Next week, I will continue to interpret these excellent female in POI, so stay tuned!                       

TO BE CONTINUED….