Line #86 Trivia/PersonOfInterest


1	* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: Detective Joss Carter was killed off when Taraji P. Henson decided to quit the show.
2	* ActorSharedBackground:
3	** Like Jim Caviezel, Reese is from Washington state.
4	** Like Michael Emerson, Finch is from Iowa.
5	** In season 3 episode 18, ''Allegiance'', Shaw states that her mother was Iranian, making her half Iranian like Sarah Shahi, the actress portraying her. She also speaks fluent Farsi.
6	** Like Creator/AmyAcker, Root is originally from Texas.
7	** In "QSO", Root goes undercover as a ballet dancer. We don't see what she does, but one audience member finds her quite impressive. Acker studied dance for over ten years before she was acting.
8	* ActingForTwo: In addition to Root, [[spoiler: [[Creator/AmyAcker Amy Acker]] also plays the physical embodiment of The Machine, which Finch hallucinates, in the [[Main/GrandFinale series finale]]. She also voices the AI, in every episode after Root's death (in addition to the one where she did die). In the penultimate piece, in addition to the voice of The Machine, Acker also plays Root in a [[Main/ItsAWonderfulPlot world where Finch never built his creation]]]].
9	* CareerResurrection: For Jim Caviezel.
10	* TheCastShowoff: Kevin Chapman is an amateur boxer, so Fusco displays these skills on occasion.
11	* TheDanza:
12	** ''John'' Greer is played by ''John'' Nolan, though it's a moot point in that everyone uses LastNameBasis with him and the fact it's been confirmed to be an alias.
13	** James Hanlon as James Stills.
14	* ExecutiveMeddling: A positive case -- in the pilot's original script, Diane Hanson's exposure is only seen remotely. A scene was added in which Reese substitutes [[CaughtOnTape his recording]] of her talking to her dirty cops for evidence [[EngineeredPublicConfession she's presenting]] ''in court''.
15	** In a very significant example, the showrunners [[http://io9.com/person-of-interests-creators-had-to-fight-for-the-show-1577050140 had to fight the network to include the Machine and AI in the show at all]]. Fortunately, the executives lost that battle.
16	** It was due to an executive's suggestion that Carter was brought into the loop halfway through Season 1; the original plan was for it to only happen in the season finale. This is another one the crew admitted worked out for the better.
17	* FanCommunityNicknames: "Irrelevants."
18	* FandomNod: In "The Cold War", Shaw calls Samaritan and its operatives "Team Samaritan". [[Characters/PersonOfInterestTeamMachine "Team Machine"]] is the FanNickname for the collective of Finch, Reese, Fusco, Carter, Bear, Shaw and Root. Occasionally, Zoe Morgan and Leon Tao are included in this as well.
19	* HostilityOnTheSet: The set was apparently a tense place stemming from Creator/JimCaviezel's personal beliefs and behavior (see also TroubledProduction below).
20	** He would espouse ultra-right-wing views constantly, to the point where being cornered by an intense Jim as he spoke very passionately for minutes on end was referred to by the crew as "(getting sucked into) the Cavortex", since they couldn't get a word in edgewise or leave to go do their work. He would also keep bringing up Adolf Hitler unprompted (and not entirely unfavorably), even doing impressions by combing his hair down like Hitler's and holding a finger to his lip like a mustache; people became so uncomfortable at this habit that his agent had to be brought in to tell him to cut it out.
21	** He tried speaking to an Asian studio executive in mock Chinese. When confronted about this, he insisted he was actually speaking Chinese -- and refused to budge when actual Chinese speakers called him out -- and excused his behavior by pointing out he'd adopted three children from China. In another incident, he suddenly started speaking to a White writer in mock German for no other reason than that they were both White men on set, causing further unease.
22	** He had a tendency to injure guest stars and stunt performers by going off-script and manhandling people or landing hard blows without warning. Boker, the first dog who played Bear, had to be replaced with a different dog (with its chest painted to match), because Jim handled it so roughly that it went against its training and bit him.
23	** He refused to shoot an episode where his character had to protect a gay couple, only relenting when told that the firefighters on [=9/11=] didn't care about such things when they ran into the Twin Towers. He apparently spent the entire shoot repeatedly comparing himself to those firefighters to anyone who'd listen. To avoid further disruption, scenes depicting homosexual romance were only shot when Caviezel was off set, and LGBTQ+ members of the production kept their personal lives quiet so they wouldn't be hassled.
24	* InvisibleAdvertising: The amount of advertising the show gets is woefully out of proportion with how high its ratings are; it's one of the highest rated shows in the country, let alone on CBS, and yet it's rarely advertised except on the night that it airs and it's often absent from the group CBS network promotions.
25	** The opposite was true when the show was first introduced. CBS promotions went into overdrive during the summer of 2011 to hype the show up, with POI ads outnumbering those for fellow rookie ''Series/{{Unforgettable}}'' by about two to one. Ironically, it had the opposite effect in the ratings - the premiere dropped nearly forty percent in 18-49 from the second half of a special hourlong episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' (5.1 to 3.1), and was outrated by all but two of CBS' other Monday-Thursday dramas. Given the pedigree and heavy marketing, this was considered a disappointing start. The only upside is that the show stayed in the general vicinity of this number for its entire run on Thursdays, while several other CBS shows fell off.
26	** Sadly, the show was moved to Tuesdays at 10pm starting in season 3, a budding curse slot for the network which has killed almost every show placed there since ''Series/JudgingAmy'' went off the air, and is down year-to-year. Facing ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'', one of cable's most popular series, which has grown year-to-year for three straight seasons, isn't helping. Neither is the continuation of this trope in the new slot.
27	* LyingCreator: Press releases initially suggested that [[spoiler:the creators killed off Elias and dropped what they'd planned for his storyline]] due to the shortened run of season five. [[spoiler:He turns up in the fifth episode of the season, alive and about as well as could be expected after being attacked by a Samaritan sniper.]]
28	* MissingTrailerScene: You know Shaw's famous line, "[[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail]]"? It's from the trailer of "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E01 Liberty]]", and was cut from the episode proper.
29	* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/MichaelEmerson as Finch, who's almost the exact opposite of the manipulative [[Series/{{Lost}} Ben]].
30	** John Nolan's (who plays [[TheManBehindTheMan Greer]]) most notable movie role was [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy George Fredericks]], a HonestCorporateExecutive and BenevolentBoss to the max. If you recognize him, it can be a little jarring to see him as a DiabolicalMastermind.
31	** Amy Acker who is usually cast as the moral center of most shows she's in, here very much isn't. [[spoiler: Until she sorta becomes it, when she starts playing The Machine.]]
32	* PromotedFanboy: The show's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrCkfAXrJTo [=SDCC=] 2015 sizzle reel]] is a fan-made trailer with a teaser epilogue tacked on.
33	* RealLifeRelative: Carrie Preston, who plays Finch's former fiance, Grace, is Creator/MichaelEmerson's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwFKN6CKwvo&feature=g actual wife.]] Their dog, Chumley, even appears as the pet of their characters in the fifth season premiere. Carrie's brother, John Preston (Michael's brother-in-law) plays a doctor in Season 4's "Asylum".
34	** Creator/JamesCarpinello, who plays [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E03 Joey]] [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS05E11 Durban]], is the real life husband of [[Creator/AmyAcker Root]].
35	** John Nolan, who plays Greer, is the uncle of Jonathan Nolan.
36	** Paul Sparks (Wilson in "Relevance") is married to Annie Parisse (Kara Stanton).
37	** Jenna Stern (Dr. Mason in "Reassortment"), is married to Brennan Brown (Agent Donnelly).
38	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Due to falling ratings, CBS renewed the show for a shortened fifth season but gave no indication as to whether or not it would be the ''final'' season. Aside from press releases saying that production had begun and some noncommittal interviews with the cast and showrunners, there was no promotion nor any indication of when new episodes would air. It took months before the announcement that the fifth season would be broadcast at the very end of the 2015-2016 TV season, long after production wrapped, and new footage only started being released in ''April'', 2016.
39	** And mere hours after that announcement, CBS revealed that the fifth season would be aired on both Mondays and Tuesdays (sometimes burning off two episodes a night without advance notice) as "The Final Chapter," confirming that the season would indeed be the last one. Showrunner Jonathan Nolan tried to look at the bright side by saying that the faster release schedule would mean that the audience wouldn't have to wait as long between cliffhangers.
40	* ShootTheMoney: "The Day the World Went Away" (Season 5, Episode 10) would have originally cost ''four times'' the normal episode budget before significant script changes were made. Despite slashing the script, the producers felt that the bonkers car chase was absolutely necessary and went ahead with shooting it despite the significant budget overruns.
41	* ThrowItIn: Reese kissing Carter at the end of "The Crossing" was improvised by Jim Caviezel.
42	* TrollingCreator: It is a truth universally acknowledged that the POI writing team gets a sadistic pleasure out of TROLLING THE FANDOM.
43	* TroubledProduction: Of a sort. Various crew members revealed to the podcast ''Podcast/QAnonAnonymous'' that Jim Caviezel was incredibly difficult to work with. Oftentimes, this led to changes being made specifically to accommodate him. Incidents included:
44	** Caviezel being banned from ever driving on set after he blew through a red light and nearly killed four pedestrians not associated with the production. This wasn't for a stunt sequence, but a simple driving out of a building scene. It got out of hand because Caviezel believed it's what Reese would have done.
45	** The production switching to non-firing prop guns because Caviezel was too eager to shoot blank-firing guns and there were fears he'd cause a serious on-set injury. He actually kept misusing the prop weapons to the point that action sequences featuring guns usually had Reese donning a balaclava so that a stunt double could take over and maintain safety.
46	** Graubauer's Boker (Bear) being replaced because Caviezel kept pulling on the dog's lead despite being told repeatedly not to. This frustrated Boker so much that he bit Caviezel. Keep in mind that Boker is a Belgian Malinois, a highly intelligent breed trained specifically to stay calm and focused in high-stress situations. In later seasons, Bear would be paired more with Finch and Shaw rather than Reese.
47	** Multiple instances when Caviezel caused serious injury to guest stars and stunt performers because he kept going off script and either manhandled others without prior warning or landed hard blows. He also kept begging to have Reese torture or kill despite that being against his character.
48	** His personal beliefs leading to frustrations on set. His refusal to let Reese enter a relationship with Carter -- because he believed interracial relationships were wrong -- offended Carter's actress Taraji P. Henson enough to leave the show altogether, leading to her character getting killed off. He also refused to do a scene where Reese protected a same-sex couple, only relenting when a someone convinced him "it's what the firefighters on 9/11 would do" (and he spent the whole day comparing himself to those firefighters). He'd also speak positively of Adolf Hitler, unprompted. This made people so uncomfortable, that some of the producers eventually told his agent to tell him to cut it out.
49	** Causing shoots to drag because something as simple as saying his lines was a hassle. Jim could be very forgetful (while telling various differing stories about how he sustained a brain injury), and would demand constant note cards around the set to prompt him, even if it was only the single word "no". (In one instance, he seemed to have memorized and nailed a scene, only for crew members to learn that, since the other actor had their back to the camera, Jim had taped a note card to their face.) A lot of the time, production simply had to move on from a scene because of time constraints, requiring editors to carefully piece together bits of various takes to create a coherent performance, and writers learned how to write Reese to accommodate Caviezel (short sentences, simple words, absolutely no TechnoBabble).
50	* UncreditedRole: Creator/RachelMiner as Root in "Root Cause."
51	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
52	** The original script for the Pilot episode revealed all of John and Jessica's backstory in that episode, and would have also included a scene where Finch provides Reese with an apartment to live in. The John/Jessica backstory was cut down and then spread out over the course of the first season, and the apartment became a birthday gift in "Many Happy Returns".
53	** Carter's pursuit of Reese was originally intended to continue over the course of the whole first season, but she ended up joining the team mid-way through due to [[ExecutiveMeddling pressure from CBS]].[[note]]Mileage Varies on whether or not it was a good move for her to join so soon.[[/note]]
54	** The showrunners have hinted – perhaps jokingly, see TrollingCreator – that they had planned to kill Reese before [[spoiler:Sarah Shahi's pregnancy]] changed things. Subtleties in the final storyline of the [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E11 relevant episode]] (namely, Reese TakingTheBullet for Finch at the end and sustaining serious damage) seem to support that. It's also been speculated that this is why his romance with Iris feels so half-baked, having been hastily thrown together to give him something to do in the season's second half.
55	** The plans for Root after her introduction were very vague, and it was only late in production on the season finale that the crew got the idea of revealing Creator/AmyAcker's character was actually her.[[note]]The shot of her hand at the end of her introductory episode was filmed with Rachel Miner, best known as the longest running actress to play Meg on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.[[/note]] While the character and Acker's performance went on to become very popular, there was one unfortunate side effect in Alicia Corwin's abrupt death with her suspicions that the Machine killed Nathan left unexplained.
56	** Creator/KyleChandler turned down the role of John Reese.
57	* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: The reaction to the ending of "The Crossing" has forced the show runners and [[spoiler:Taraji P. Henson]] to go into something akin to damage control mode.
58	-->'''Taraji P. Henson:''' That's why people are so distraught today. And that's what art is supposed to do: [[EmotionalTorque It's supposed to make you feel]]. You're supposed to be mad and want to throw a glass and yell, "Goddammit, I'm not going to watch this show again." We did our job.
59	* WorkingTitle: "Razgovor"'s was "[=PA37ABOP=]", which is ''almost'' the Russian word "Разговор" ("Razgovor").[[note]]it's not Cyrillic letters, but the letters from the Latin alphabet which look the most like the actual Cyrillic letters[[/note]]. The title means "talk" or "discussion".
60	* WrittenInInfirmity: Shaw's exit from the show was due to Sarah Shahi having twins and planning to take two years off the show - the reduction of Season 5 to 13 episodes led to her reducing that leave and she appeared in nine of them.
61	-----
62	!!Miscellaneous Trivia:
63	* Jim Caviezel is ambidextrous in real life.
64	* Reese uses the Center-Axis Relock shooting style, first popularized in the video game Splinter Cell Conviction.
65	* While on location in New York City, Jim Caviezel saw some punk beating his girlfriend and "intervened", an incident which has caused some fans to come to the conclusion that he ''is'' John Reese.
66	** In at least one interview, Caviezel has stated that while he is not Jesus, he is in fact both John Reese and the Count of Monte Cristo.
67	* The (stolen) black Porsche that Reese drives in "Bury the Lede" actually belongs to Jim Caviezel.
68	** Which in a stroke of [[FridgeLogic Fridge]] [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Humor]], incidentally implies that John Reese stole Jim Caviezel's car.
69	* In the episode "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E07 Critical]]", ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' became one of the first mainstream US dramas to portray a ''married'' same-sex couple.
70	* Kara Stanton was killed off earlier than expected because Annie Parisse is already on ''Series/TheFollowing''. Ironically, her ''Following'' character, Debra Parker, was dead by the end of that show's first season.

Context Trivia / PersonOfInterest