Blog

Notes for season 4 episode 2, “Nautilus“ 00:08 “We are being watched…” The season 4 titles take on the red/black on white aesthetics of Samaritan, rather than the white/blue on black design used by the Machine. 01:48 Apparently Finch isn’t the only one capable of hacking into credit card numbers to pull transaction details –…

Notes for season 4, episode 1, “Panopticon“ 01:51 “An Artificial Intelligence bought your paper.” The people in the bar in Budapest discuss the idea that a non-human entity can influence governments, affect livelihoods, manage what the press can say about them, and operate without any real accountability. Mmm, they’re called “corporations”. 02:00 I guess the…

Notes for season 3 episode 23, “Deus Ex Machina“ How did they get through two seasons without using Deus Ex Machina for a title? 01:39 “We’ve opened up these proceedings to observers around the world.” So presumably people around the world are watching, but few people in New York since… there’s a power cut, and…

Notes for season 3 episode 22, “A House Divided“ 06:12 Root’s irregulars, three of the hackers recruited in previous episodes, are huddled in the back of a delivery truck like a cheap version of Sneakers. 06:58 Shaw gets handed the same model sat-phone she had in her first episode 08:46 We see an establishing shot…

Notes for season 3 episode 21, “Beta“ 04:43 The Samaritan beta test is just a projector and bunch of laptops in black Pelican cases (Peli 1470) in an empty warehouse. Pure operator theatrics. 06:17 Ah, the secret paths though the city that avoid the Gorgon gaze of security cameras. 12:00 Briefly feels like another “Assault…

Notes for season 3 episode 20, “Death Benefit“ 3:19 Finch and Shaw leave $1 million (which we presume can’t be linked back to Finch) on the street, next to the drug dealers who were going to kill each other? Effective altruism. 6:10 The congressman is played by John Heard, the dad in Home Alone. 6:39…

Notes for season 3 episode 19, “Most Likely To…“ 01:56 Shaw gives the NYC taxi medallion number to Finch, who looks it up and retrieves the driver details. This isn’t quite right. The medallions are associated with the vehicles, not the drivers. There’s not a one-to-one relationship between drivers and cars, and there are many…

Notes for season 3 episode 18, “Allegiance“ 01:43 Shaw download’s the target’s phone contact list, which display’s in the unusual order of alphabetical by first name. 04:02 The advanced prototype chip that got stolen in the previous episode has already been reverse engineered and thousands of copies have been made. That’s an unlikely turnaround, but……

Notes for season 3 episode 17, “Root“ 0:42 The Machine notes the Samaritan backup as being on LTO-4 / 256-bit AES-GCM (even though, as established, the props aren’t LTO). 03:00 While we imagine Reese’s off-screen activities might involve walking the dog, cleaning his guns, and developing a “tier list” of New York bakeries, it’s clear…

Notes for season 3 episode 26, “RAM“ 01:50 As established in the commentary for the pilot, New York doesn’t have dark moody alleyways. But this episode doesn’t care. 02:19 You can tell it’s a flashback as Finch only has two monitors in his Battlestation. 03:19 Anthora, drink. 04:15 “Tiger Team” is a NASA term for…