I've been a huge fan of the writings of Jonathan Nolan ( Inception, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Momento) and his 2011 Person Of Interest series is one of my favorite sci-fi television shows.
CBS cut ties with the series because they didn't own all the exclusive streaming rights so they ended it.
Thankfully, a thirteen-episode fifth season was ordered so that the series could have a decent ending for its fans and it delivered.
Flash forward a few years when HBO announced a new production of Westworld that was being run by Jonathan Nolan along with partner Lisa Joy.
Like many people I was very excited to see what the mind of Nolan and Joy would come up with.
The third season just finished in an underwhelming fashion for me. As I watched this season progress it seemed that some of the themes and plot points were a continuation of what Nolan may have wanted to continue on with Person of Interest.
If you haven't watched POI, you must binge it. The first two, two and a half seasons are more procedural than I like, but it gave the series a chance to fully develop the main characters that inhabited this story and great characters they were.
The final 2 1/2 seasons were highly serialized and terrific.
Here's a handy episode guide if you just want to follow the awesome serialized portions of the series from IGN: The Essential Episodes That Will Catch You Up
Looking to get into CBS' stellar Person of Interest but don't have the time to watch all the episodes? Follow this path.
On the flip side, the first season of Westworld was very good but was always a bit confusing and the second season just added to the confusion. The third season opened up really well until the second half of its shortened eight-episode season and then it descended into mundane storytelling.
That's my view anyway. Even with a bigger budget from HBO, I vote that POI is a much stronger series than Westworld.
What say you?
