A short while back it was announced the upcoming season, number five, of Person of Interest, a favorite show of mine, would be its last one and, further, it would have only 13 episodes versus the usual 22-23 allotment. Fans of the show were distressed but I noted that sometimes its a good thing when a show lasts a fairly long time (As noted, this would be the fifth season of the show) and is then allowed to gracefully exit (you can read my full comments about that here).
Since that time, it was announced that two other shows I enjoy, both on the Sci-Fy network, would also be finishing up after this season. One, Haven, has just begun airing while the other, Continuum, wrapped up its shortened 6 episode conclusion season just a short while ago.
Continuum’s story involved a dystopic future where corporations are essentially king and capitalism’s dark side is in full evidence. The police force of the future, called “Protectors”, are a tool of the corporations to keep common citizens trampled under foot.
A rebel group, known as Liber8, fights the power but their members, including the brother of one of the corporate class’ most powerful men, are imprisoned and, on the eve of their execution, all, including a Protector named Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) are mysteriously sent back to our present time.
The members of Liber8 realize this offers them an opportunity to re-set the timeline and negate the dystopia that’s to come while Kiera fights them, certain they remain a menace to society regardless of the time they are now in while longing to return to her previous life and the child she left behind.
What made the show so fascinating is that, as presented, the violent, at times homicidal members of Liber8 nonetheless pursue a noble goal: They fight against a future society we as viewers are increasingly clued into as being a very terrible one while Kiera, the show’s protagonist, fights -sometimes obliviously to that fact- for that grim future that’s to come.
I won’t get into too many details regarding the storylines presented, but in four seasons the show managed to walk fascinating line with viewer’s sympathies. As viewers we feared what the members (and, increasingly, ex-members) of Liber8 were up to yet couldn’t help but think at times that their struggle, in any other series, might have made them the heroes of the show!
And Kiera Cameron, the show’s Hamlet-like protagonist, was presented as a sympathetic figure yet displayed tendencies that in other characters might have been viewed as major weakness or worse. She constantly lamented her fate and her losses, especially toward the end of the show, and could have appeared self-interested, indeed selfish, to the point of risking others’ lives for her own determined pursuit to get back to her future. And, as mentioned, her fight against Liber8, by its very nature, was a fight for the status quo which might eventually bring about a very unpleasant and dark future.
Again, this was our hero!
While the too-short six episode final season (previous seasons ran 10, 13, and 13 episodes long) pushed several plotlines out of the way or into a too-quick resolution, I’m thankful we got what we did.
Like many shows, Continuum certainly had its ups and downs but when all was said and done, the highs were far greater than any lows and those final few minutes of the series wrapped its storyline in an incredibly satisfactory way.
Much like the show in general, it managed to manipulate our emotions, offering us a hopeful, optimistic ending that was nonetheless wrapped in considerable sadness.
When the end comes for Person of Interest and Haven, it is my hope they can exit as gracefully.