Person of Interest (TV Series) The Crossing (2013) User Reviews

Probably One of the Peaks of the Television Medium

[coop-16 · 10/10 · 22 November 2013]

I have seen The Crossing twice. Each time, I have been more and more impressed. Unbearable suspense, superbly paced direction, fine camera work, crisp, witty writing, stunning performances from all of the leads and from the villains. It has some of the most exhilarating moments in television history, and one of two or thee most heartbreaking as well. If Kevin Chapman does not get an Emmy for this episode, I will gravely disappointed. If the writers do not, I will be startled. If Taraji Henson does not, I will know the Emmy's are fixed.

I will go further. This was comparable To James Agee's Lincoln (OMNIBUS) Orson Welles' The Fountain of Youth, The greatest episodes of The Twilight Zone and the Honeymooners, Marty, Patterns, The Comedian, Twelve Angry Men, Sam Peckinpah's Noon Wine (And "Line Camp" from The Westerner, , The Fabulous Fifties, the Chief Dan George episode of Kung Fu, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" and "Postmodern Prometheus" (Kung Fu)My World and Welcome To it, "Fall-out" (The Prisoner) and the best routines of Ernie Kovacs. This episode didn't just PUSH the envelope: It BROKE IT.

The best POI episode so far

[dreamchaser7-897-631158 · 10/10 · 3 April 2014]

Person of interest has shown its capacity to break out and make a bold move. And it isn't the death itself that haunts you, but the mind-blowing build up. The events leading to Carter's death were shocking, moving and thrilling at the same time which brings me to the problem with the show's genre.Its a little bit of everything. And so was this episode. I was thrilled (The Hospital Scene), shocked (the fall of Carter), overwhelmed (the kiss), emotional (Shaw saving fusco's son) and what not. I am getting exactly what I signed up for. A dark, chilling look at the future that we may be living in. Best show on TV currently.

Writing on God mode

[matrixdukenukem · 10/10 · 22 July 2021]

Fast paced, action packed, amazingly acted and superb thrills. Kevin Chapman at his best. Taraji P Henson at her peak. Every scene unfolds carefully. My favourite episode along with God mode.

Stellar acting

[ErReads · 6 July 2020]

My god, I am a bit of an emotional wreck after this episode. The actors playing Fusco, Carter and John were just so fantastic. The story was gripping. I can not wait until Simmons pays a price for his evil!!

a CLINIC in risk taking for TV writers

[A_Different_Drummer · 8/10 · 31 January 2015]

"Come on Harry .. let's not pretend that John is your first helper monkey. How many guys did you go through before him?" (dialog)

Watching this two parter I could not help but respect the risks the writing team were taking. In the first part, which was tight as a drum, they allowed the supporting task to take most of the screen time. And it worked.

In this closer, they switched it up. And that is saying a lot.

The dialog quoted above is taken from an interchange off the top of this episode. It turns out to be a teaser for the audience and not relevant to actual story, other than to hone interest.

Made me think of a new answer to one of the oldest jokes around: 1. "RING RING. Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" 2. "No, I have Amy Acker in a cage."

Clearly inspired by features like Eastwood's THE GAUNTLET and the timeless WARRIORS, this "two act play" was loads of fun for the viewer.

One of the challenges facing writers who attempt this is when to start to tip the teeter totter back up. In other words, the bad guys cannot dominate for the whole story or there is no story, but if you change the momentum too soon you lose tension.

In this case the pivot is at the 35 min mark of this episode (part 2) where Kevin Chapman as Fusco gives the greatest performance in the series to date. That scene alone was worth the wait.

As was his final "feel good" scene where he thanks Shahi. Good fun.

Which brings us to the loss of the Det. Carter character. Victim or perpetrator, viewer or reviewer, you need to stop what you are doing and give props to the producers for their willingness to throw a well-liked regular under the bus, something (another spoiler) they will do more than once before this series is itself put to bed.

Final Review: if you slogged through the above, you may be wondering why the rating was not higher. Well, this is one man's view, but, no matter how clever you get, episodic TV at the end of the day is supposed to deliver your weekly "fix" of endorphins, as opposed to a feature film which arguably has more room to bob and weave because there are no expectations.

This viewer/reviewer actually liked the "predictability" of the weekly arc up to this point. Moreover, I think the whole GAUNTLET/WARRIORS thing would be a lot more fun if it was new to the viewer, and, to me, it was not.

So, bottom line, while the writing team is having fun delivering clinic on how to take risks in a TV series that has already found a loyal audience, I was missing the regular formula, and not as taken in with the sturm and drang of this deliberately overheated drama.

But it is still great TV

The Getaway

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 1 March 2024]

Simmons kills the corrupt judge since he believes he is a liability for HR. Then he uses Reese's photo to put a contract on him with all criminals in New York. Carter believes the only way to arrest Quinn is delivering him to the FBI, and they use the subway to go to the federal building in Manhattan. However, HR stops the service and Quinn destroys Reese's cellphone. HR install roadblocks in the two accesses to Manhattan. Reese hijacks an ambulance to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, but Simmons sees blood on the back door and shoots the vehicle. Fusco helps his friends to flee but is captured by Simmons. Finch asks Shaw to help Fusco, but she decides to protect his son. Simmons tortures Fusco with Det. Petersen to know the bank where the evidence is stored but he resists. He sends a cop to kill Fusco's son, but Shaw saves him and tells Fusco that she cannot help him. Meanwhile, Reese and Carter breaks into the city morgue to hide Quinn and wait until the morning to go to the FBI. But HR find them and invade the morgue to kill them with several armed men.

"The Crossing" is one of the best and certainly the saddest episode of "Person of Interest. Carter dying on Reese's arm is very dramatic, and Reese will certainly regret for not killing Simmons when he had the chance in previous episodes. Now the viewer will see how the death of Carter will affect the show, mostly Reese who admired her. The rest of the episode is full of action and twists, and very enjoyable. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "The Crossing"

Just how many corrupt cops are there?

[michl_away · 6/10 · 13 January 2014]

before watching the show I was getting REALLY tired of HR. Every episode they "take down" another 2-3 cops until this time again the WHOLE CITY was flooded with corrupt cops. Now there was ONE (!) checkpoint of HR we saw where they controlled cars. Why there? Is this supposed to be the ONLY way cars can take? And if not - how many checkpoints are there? And conclusively: How many corrupt cops? It just seems like a never ending stream of enemies. Very unbelievable.

The morgue scene: In every episode, Mr. Reese disarms an army of bad guys. Here, 2 corrupt no name-cops make him run away. Why? Just shoot them and... take their guns to have more ammo? Reese not doing what he ALWAYS does just seems totally odd and out of place.

The next thing that shocked me was the romantic scene between Carter and Reese. Why??? Mr. Reese, never even to flinch an eye when something bad happens, all of the sudden explodes with romantic feelings? Again, I didn't believe it.

Perhaps that's what unnerves me most about this series as a whole: No one ever seems to care emotionally. Everyone is always cool, no matter if a gun is hold to your head or to your friends head. It just seems like the characters already KNOW the plot and that they are succeeding anyway. It's like a session of pen and paper role-play gone horribly wrong.

Fast paced, excellent acting, and a departure from canon

[aswmbo · 5/10 · 23 November 2013]

Fast paced, excellent acting on the part of all those involved. Kevin Chapman, Taraji Henson, Jim Caviezel, all delivered Emmy worthy performances.

My score would have been a 10 except for one big issue: the morgue scene between Caviezel and Henson seemingly threw out 2 years of canon, as in that one scene the dynamic between three major characters (Reese, Carter, and by inference, Finch) suddenly changed from what had been slowly developing in two previous seasons.

Multiple interviews in which the show-runners had to explain exactly what this pivotal scene *really* meant only verifies that it could have been done better! Or that perhaps had they used the scene as originally scripted by the writers, rather than one improvised by the actors involved, it would have presented a clearer message.

Also telling is that according to these interviews, the show-runners were not that interested in seeing the unscripted take as the moment on the page was to be about an enduring "friendship" between the characters, not romance. But they were evidently convinced by others on the staff not to deny viewers rooting for these two characters to find each other.

IMHO, Nolan & Plageman should have gone with their first instincts.

A bit too much

[nemesis-88 · 7/10 · 11 February 2024]

It's a good suspenseful episode but they reallly overdid it in the corrupt cops department. Yes, NYPD is flush with corruption. New York's finest kill, steal and destroy and get away with it. But the scale of the organization they showed is WAY beyond any reason.

A gang that easily kills cops, attorneys and judges (!!!), raises up road blocks to and from Manhattan, can mobilize hundreds of corrupt cops is a bit of a fantasy. Such an organization would take decades to muster, and Alonso Quinn is only an advisor to a term-limited mayor. A very short cycle is over and he's out together with whatever influence he might have.

Another detail is the sheer cruelty of the corrupt cops. Yes, cops are sometimes sadists and degenerates, but first and foremost they are cowards! They are afraid their corruption will be revaled. They don't kill children just to annoy their rebel colleague whom they are also going to kill. Their ruthlessness in this episode is hugely exagerrated and hard to believe.

Otherwise a good episode.

Good show paints cops in a bad light

[jeff-cossey · 6/10 · 5 June 2020]

It's like the writers and Creator of this show do not care for law enforcement. It seems like there's an overabundance of cops that are on the take and I think that it puts them in a bad light I don't care for this part of the show.