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):

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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.

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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.

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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)