Interesting

As I try to shake the plague, I've been catching up on CBS's "Person of Interest".

The premise is that a brilliant computer mogul designed a super-computer ("The Machine") that can magically interface with any and every computer, cell phone, camera, and what-not anywhere to determine threats. Think super-ESCHELON times a million and you're in the neighborhood of what the Machine is supposed to be.

The mogul, one Harold Finch, is dead as far as the world is concerned. He taps into the Machine to get lists of names of "unimportant" people whose lives are in danger, according to the Machine's super-spying.

Finch recruits one "John Reese", an ex-CIA agent who specializes in monotone speaking and inflicting harm on others. The two manage to get a couple of NYPD cops - Detective Joss Carter and Detective Lionel Fusco - to assist them in their episodic schemes to save lives and thwart bad guys.

As stories go, it's kind of silly, but I have to say I like the episodic twists and I'm completely enthralled by the characters.

Finch is a true paranoid. He's partially-crippled from some unknown injury and had a business partner who helped fund the Machine and sell it to the U.S. Government for a dollar. Finch's partner is dead and Finch is underground.

Reese is your stereotypical haunted-ex-spook who regrets a life of killing people horribly. He's a badass and has some shady spook backstory that comes up occasionally. The character gets surprisingly-interesting especially when he interacts with the two cops:

Detective Joss Carter may well be my favorite. A tough-as-nails single mom and former Army interrogator, Carter is scrupulously-honest and sharp as hell. She appears to be the only person Reese really respects. Unlike:

Detective Lionel Fusco is (was?) a dirty cop. He gets blackmailed into helping out Reese and Finch, then Finch arranges for Fusco to become Carter's partner. Fusco seems to start to warm to his blackmailers a bit and never seems to realize that he and Carter are on the same team with respect to Reese and Finch.

It's trash, but it's entertaining trash. I'll probably finish the first season today or tomorrow, if the plague cooperates.

I guess there are pluses to getting sick.