Is 'Person of Interest' a Dickensian show?

I know what some of you are thinking: My Dickensian obsession has finally run away with me and made me start seeing echoes of Dickens everywhere. No, that's not it.

Or maybe you're thinking that I'm so excited about PoI becoming a success and getting renewed that I'm celebrating it everywhere, even on a blog about a totally different subject. That's not it either. (Well, maybe just a little.)

I actually first had the thought a few weeks ago. More and more on PoI, it's becoming clear that all institutions -- government, the military, the police, the business world -- are riddled with corruption, and that it's up to a few good individuals to counter the massive institutional evil. Sounds a lot like mid- to late Dickens, don't you think?  Think of "They went quietly down into the roaring streets, inseparable and blessed; and as they passed along in sunshine and in shade, the noisy and the eager, and the arrogant and the froward and the vain, fretted, and chafed, and made their usual uproar."

And we do know that J. J. Abrams is interested in Dickens, and that he and the other minds behind LOST worked references to Dickens into that show. It really does make me wonder if there are some Dickensian ideas at work here.

It's all conjecture right now, of course. But should we one day spot Michael Emerson's bookish Harold Finch with a copy of Little Dorrit under his arm -- let's just say, I won't be surprised.

Comments

[Christy]

If we should ever see Finch with a copy of anything Dickens under his arm, I for one would promptly expire of delighted fandom overstimulation.

[impulsereader]

Sigh. You really have no mercy. I don't have time for Dickens, I insist. Of course I love A Tale of Two Cities - who wouldn't? But his books are so Thick and he is so Classic, and if I start going around insisting I Read Dickens people are going to look at me funny.

People already look at me funny.

All right, adding him to my list - actual list in my brand new travel journal - setting out on Monday in search of lovely second hand books in Scotland.

I do; however, refuse to read A Christmas Carol. The only Christmas Carol I can stomach is the Muppets version - and possibly the one-man Patrick Stewart - and then only if he actually does play the turkey. I won't even watch the Doctor Who.

[Gina]

Hurray!