#sci-fact

WESTWORLD | Maeve & Dolores

Maeve: Time to write my own story.

“MORGAN” (Trailer)

Directed by Luke Scott. Yes, the ledgendary Ridley Scott’s son. Produced by Ridley Scott.

THIS.

- by Ross Topham, Purple Camera Media

Person of Interest has been one of television’s cleverest and exciting, if underrated, shows and after a long year off the air has finally released the trailer for its fifth and final season, which returns May 3rd. You can watch the trailer here, but if you haven’t yet caught up with this amazing series from Jonathan Nolan (brother of that Nolan), now is the perfect time.

(Obviously be aware that the trailer will be mildly spoilerific if you haven’t seen any of the show, but honestly it gives away very little of what’s happened so far, a small taste to whet your appetite. Mild spoilers ahead)

It’s been a long year for Person if Interest fans. For reasons still relatively unknown, after the fourth season’s spring finale the show failed to return during its usual autumn air-date. There was no word for months about the show’s return, casting doubt on whether it would at all. Even if it did, it would be almost definitely the show’s final outing. But in the face of a potential cancellation, Person of Interest definitely earned its fifth and final season through some truly ambitious and valuable story-telling.

The progression of Person of Interest is remarkable to watch, as it basically tricked the network into airing a science fiction show. If you’ve never had the pleasure, the premise of the show is so simple that the opening sequence does it in less than 40 seconds.

The story lends itself so easily to a procedural drama. The Machine spits out a number, the heroes investigate, save the day, rinse repeat as needed. And that’s how most of the first season progressed, whilst taking the odd episode to delve into the background of the characters and the Machine itself. But beyond this simple procedural, the show laid the groundwork for a much deeper and intelligent story with ever-increasing levels of complexity, more alike to a dystopian conspiracy thriller whilst also asking powerful questions about ethics, privacy and artificial intelligence. By the time we realize what’s happened, we’re so invested in the politics and machinations of this world that we can’t imagine how the show could ever have been a simple procedural.

The very nature of the Machine begs these questions and the show never shies away from showing both sides of the argument in all their ugliness. The Machine saves lives, unarguably, but that reality isn’t so black and white. Knowledge is power and the Machine provides a level of knowledge unprecedented in our society, so how much does that power corrupt? If you’ve seen Minority Report or Captain America: The Winter Soldier then you’ve seen elements of this story before but Person of Interest‘s serialized format allows it to be de-constructed even further. An excellent cast of characters allows both sides of the argument to be scrutinized and picked apart.

One of the most vital aspects of the Machine is that its information, by the design of creator, billionaire vigilante and central character Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), is extremely limited. It can only point the government or Finch’s gang (dubbed the Machine Gang by fans) in the right direction. While frustrating for the government and seemingly inefficient, this provides one of the central themes of the series, the struggle of other factions to try and gain full, unfettered access to the Machine. Finch’s story takes the time and patience to show us how he came to this conclusion and it never talks down to the audience.

It’s aired at an ideal time, as we face very real concerns about privacy and threats to our ways of life that allow many of the show’s points to hit hard. In-universe, the Machine was one of many initiatives developed as a response to September 11th, 2001, which immediately provides a completely believable justification that allows it to fit into the context of our world. As Person of Interest delved more and more into the privacy concerns of such technology, it somehow managed to coincide with real life scenarios playing out at the same time, including the Edward Snowden leaks. Suddenly all the fictional privacy concerns and arguments that existed in the show were unfolding in the real world, although probably not involving supercomputers and artificial intelligence.

Much of the show’s framing shots are from the point-of-view of the Machine, as it views the world through whatever cameras it can access and, as the show has evolved, the Machine has become more than just a literal plot device and a character itself. The moment we realized this was the moment that we realized the show had really becoming a science fiction story and a damned powerful one at that. Artificial intelligence is a fascinating concept that is often portrayed to extremes in media. Terminator (1984) or I, Robot (2004) come to mind as presenting an A.I that becomes a threat to humanity.

But in Person of Interest, Finch’s relationship with the Machine borders on father-like. Through both the present-day narrative and flashbacks to the Machine’s creation, we see how Finch’s programming transcended into actual education as he realizes just what level of intelligence he is dealing with. The Machine learns just like any child would and Finch strives to teach it the right lessons, whilst at the same time fearing what could happen if it learns wrong. There are moments where we somehow sympathize with the Machine, a face-less entity that is both human and completely alien. But as often as these moments come, we are confronted by those that remind us that the Machine is inherently different.

If you only had to watch one episode of the show, then it would have to be Season 4’s “If-Then-Else”, which takes place more or less entirely from the Machine’s perspective. As well as being a huge episode in terms of the show’s mythology, it gets away with some fantastically ambitious storytelling, an incredibly powerful episode in many ways. To say anything else would spoil the surprises that this instalment offers in spades, but at the end of the day this episode, like the story as a whole, is entirely earned. Person of Interest rarely rushes and never treats the audience like an idiot. It trusts them to keep up while it built up this incredible and engaging mythology that allowed them to tell one of the best science fiction stories on television whilst remaining grounded in reality.

- original article here [x]

THIS.

POI is and will always be one of TV’s most intelligent, cleverly written, perfectly acted, exquisitely produced shows in our generation. Nolan & Co. have outdone themselves. I will always cherish this show and am grateful that they graced us with such a brilliant show over 103 episodes in 5 seasons.

USA Raises Half a Million Dollars Dollars to Wage Giant Robot War on Japan

Sort of. Okay, not really. Megabots Inc. is running a Kickstarter to fund upgrades to their giant combat robot MK-II because they challenged Japanese robotics firm, Suidobashi Heavy Industry to a death battle, which they accepted. Because, seriously — when someone says, ‘My robot can kick your robot’s @$$!’ you don’t let that stand.…