CBS debuts Person of Interest, its new crime thriller from J.J. Abrams, on Sept. 22 at 9 p.m ET. The following are reviews from TV critics around the web, compiled by B&C.
“What in theory is a compelling sci-fi story of a surveillance society almost out of The Prisoner is, in practice, a colorless crime show in which no character is very well drawn.” — James Poniewozik, TIME
“Jonathan Nolan, who created the show and wrote the pilot, and Mr. Abrams will need to do a better job going forward of finessing the balance between cool back story and mandatory weekly mystery. You get the sense from the pilot that they don’t care a whole lot about the second part of the deal, but that’s not an attitude you can get away with at CBS.” — Mike Hale, New YorkTimes
“This sounds, as no doubt it did to CBS executives, a lot more interesting than it turns out to be. Emerson, with a signature verbal syncopation that may soon rival Alan Rickman’s, brings to Finch the same creepy brilliance he gave Ben Linus on Lost.” — Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
“Person of Interest separates itself from the gimmick pack, not only because of superbly nuanced characterization and writing but also because of how it engages a post-9/11 sense of paranoia in its viewers.” — David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle
“With Emerson playing a more benevolent version of his Ben Linus character from Lost, and good use of the New York location and its omnipresent cameras and phones, there’s a potentially good show here.” — Alan Sepinwall, Hitfix
