Taking a pitch from one style to another

Person Of Interest started with questions about the surveillance state and the possibility of A.I. affecting society and ran with it overtaking the original procedural premise, making great modern cellphone cyberpunk as it did.

But after following up Ian A. A. Watson’s snarky comment about Knight Rider with this one:

Most episodes never felt much like ”a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of man who does not exist” either.

Person Of Interest is a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of man who does not exist. It has them ”champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless in a world of criminals who operate above the law” as well. And it has a very small group (with a lot of financial clout, like FLAG) making a difference too.

At the time it was likened to The Equalizer, which it’s close to with a former secret agents taking on jobs of the week and a similarly gloomy tone, but that show never had an A.I. as a main character.