I started watching this TV show recently. I didn’t know about it. I found it very interesting as well as thought provoking. It is a kind of crime thriller initially. However, the best part of the show is “THE MACHINE”. It was built by Mr. Finch as he says in the starting of every new episode. This machine is watching everyone at every moment of the time. Mr. Finch and Mr. Reese are the two most important characters of this show. Mr. Finch is software engineer and Mr. Reese is an ex-CIA agent. Both are trying to save people as the”irrelevant list” given by the “machine”. There is so much secrecy and suspense in this show that you will never know who is going to become the next perpetrator/victim. Sometimes, victim and perpetrator are both same.
In fact, this show was designed in the wake of 9/11 attack on twin towers in New York(USA). The Wikileaks saga provides a chilling reminder of government’s massive surveillance on the people of the country.
I can relate the whole surveillance debate to our own country also. We are going through the debate of “AADHAR CARD” as voluntary or mandatory. Is it against our “right to privacy”? Do we really have right to privacy? As government of India recently said that right of a person to his or her body is not absolute. State has the power to take the life of a person. After watching this show, you will get goosebumps just realizing that someone is watching you at every moment. By the way, we are getting controlled by the government what to eat, what to wear and what to say.
However, I also found some bright sides of watching this show:
- We get ideas to think in a deep and discreet manner.
- How to react when you are in a difficult situation?
- How to read people in an effective manner?
- Why some soldiers do behave in a weird manner?
- How government policies should not breach the limit of ethics?
- Right to privacy of citizens vs Right of the government for surveillance. What is more important privacy or security?
- Limits of the power.
- I remember one line by Mr.Finch, “when we become predictable, we become vulnerable”. So, try not to become predictable.
How can I forget Detective Fusco and Detective Carter. Detective Carter is an upright police officer. She also helps the Mr. Finch team. Detective Fusco was initially bad cop but now he is a good cop working with the team of Mr.Finch and Mr. Reese. Detective Fusco is really funny. In one scene, someone addresses him as “fiasco”.
This show is worth watching for those who want to use your brain and logic to think about the upcoming events.
Policy Wise 