Surveillance and American television : reflections of the critical dystopian tendency in Jonathan Nolan’s Person of Interest

Abstract EN

Recent trends in post-9/11 American television have led to a dramatic increase and a proliferation of dystopian science fiction.

This article considers the surge of interest and the dystopian proclivity, precisely addressing the critical dystopian view in Person of Interest (CBS, 2011– 2016) created by Jonathan Nolan.

The shoot-now-ask-later post-9/11 politics normalizes and justifies the ubiquitous surveillance state through the discourse of fear.

Therefore, Person of Interest, through a paradoxical and dichotomous two giant high-techs, perfectly places itself as a masterful TV show that best exemplifies what Raffaella Baccolini and Tom Moylan term 'critical dystopia'.

This latter refers to a dystopia that holds within itself a locus of hope and a possible change amid a nightmarish account.

Hence, as its fundamental concern, this article focuses on the analysis of selected scripts gathered from different episodes under the critical dystopian lens.

Much of the greater part of the literature on Person of Interest is extensive, and stresses particularly on surveillance state and culture of fear; however, it lacks clarity when it comes to the general premise in the show's final seasons.

The potentiality of an alternative end to the traditional dystopia takes place in the last three seasons, thus breaking into a critical dystopia.

The nature of the research calls for a multivalent approach that encompasses television studies as the product under investigation and script analysis.

Moreover, it demands considerable insights and analysis of surveillance narratives within the series.