Tag Archives: Michael Emerson

Weird Coincidence Number 37

So lately as I have been waiting impatiently for CBS to bring Person of Interest Season 5 back, or at the very least tell us when it is coming back—March? May? Honestly, CBS, you produce a kickass show and then you make the fans crazy by not giving it to us. They have all but cancelled it, making a short season and keeping it in somebody’s vault somewhere. So, to encourage them to bring it back, I have been heroically binge-watching Seasons 2-4 on Netflix, and just a few days ago, watched the episode where Finch (Michael Emerson) very precisely orders a complicated sandwich from a deli in Chinatown, which seems odd, because why would you order a pastrami sandwich (with two kinds of mustard and “enough pepperoncini to create digestion issues in even the strongest constitution” but with no mayonnaise because “if there’s even a trace, it will render the sandwich useless and we’ll have to start the whole process over again and I’m sure neither one of us want that”) from a Chinese deli?

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And how do you render a sandwich useless? That is actually easier to answer, as it is meant to be a peace offering for a friendly former government assassin, Sameen Shaw (Sarah Shahi) whom the gang was forced to drug and handcuff to the bench to keep her from going off to help the gang after her cover has been blown and the Evil Artificial Intelligence could kill her if they find her. And nothing renders a peace offering useless like mayonnaise. Duh. Even I know that.

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The thing about all this is that, as Wikia explains, “Finch refers to the sandwich he brings to Shaw as a ‘Beatrice Lillie.’ Beatrice Lillie was a comic actress. Her final role was in the 1967 film Thoroughly Modern Millie, where she played the house mother at a women’s rooming house who is actually the leader of a white slavery ring based in New York’s Chinatown, thus the name of the sandwich.” This isn’t a very good explanation, but that isn’t my point.

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My point is that, not knowing this connection, I just watched Thoroughly Modern Millie last night and have the damn theme song stuck in my head, because of course anything Julie Andrews sings is going to be stuck in my head for life, especially if she sings it while dressed like a 1920s flapper.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

There are those
I suppose think we’re mad
Heaven knows the world is gone
To wrack and to ruin

What we think is chic, unique, and quite adorable
They think is odd and “Sodom and Gomorrable”
But the fact is everything today is thoroughly modern

Check your personality,
Everything today makes yesterday slow
Better face reality- it’s not insanity, says Vanity Fair
In fact, it’s stylish to raise your skirt and bob your hair

In the rumble seat, the world is so cozy- if the boy is kissable!
And that tango dance they wouldn’t allow?
Now is quite permissable!

Good-bye, good-goody girl, I’m changing and how?
So beat the drums cuz here comes thoroughly modern Millie now!

Everything today is thoroughly modern
Bands are gettin’ jazzier, everything today is starting to go
Cars are gettin’ snazzier
Men say it’s criminal what women’ll do
What they’re forgetting is, this is 1922!

Have you seen the way they kiss in the movies?
Isn’t it delectable?
Painting lips and pencil lining your brow
Now is quite respectable!

Good-bye, good-goody girl, I’m changing and how!
So beat the drums ‘cuz here comes
Thoroughly modern Millie now!

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Someone on Facebook recently pointed out that the 20s are coming back and we should bring back the clothes and music. Well, maybe the music anyway. But watching this ridiculously (and casually) racist and sexist comedy, I think there are a whole bunch of things we will happily leave behind.

Psycho Sunday: Badass Women in Combat Gear #6

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Back to your everyday basic black combat gear (albeit with heeled boots—how do these actors run in these boots???), on the Minority Report-esque TV show Person of Interest, we eventually shift from the two male main characters, the quirky Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) and the silver fox John Reese (Jim Caviezel). Starting at the very end of season one, the showrunners introduced the character of “Root,” a genius computer hacker who renamed herself after the root code in a computer program. She is pretty much psychotic, and nobody does psycho like Amy Acker, because even when she is preparing to torture you she is just so darn sweet.

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Starting in Season two, they also introduced Sameen Shaw, a former ISA assassin who self-identifies as having Axis 2 Borderline Personality Disorder and occasionally calls herself a sociopath. As she describes it to a little girl she is trying to protect, “You know that thing that makes you flinch? I don’t have that. I don’t do most emotions. Although I’m pretty good at anger.” Although once again we see women being badasses primarily because they are in some way kind of broken, it is also sort of refreshing to see mental differences being portrayed on television at all, and not entirely in bad ways, especially as we get to know the characters and they get to know each other and come to first respect each other and then eventually like each other.

Shaw and Root also have an interesting chemistry that appears most strongly when they are shooting people together. As disturbing as that is to think about, it’s also lots of fun to watch.

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Also, from earlier seasons, Taraji P. Henson as Detective Carter and Paige Turco as Zoe the fixer also make it work whether in uniform or little black dresses. La la la. Our definition of combat gear, like our definition of poetry, continues to expand.