'Person of Interest' preview: Michael Emerson gives Jim Caviezel a purpose

One of the new shows hitting CBS next fall will be Person of Interest. It will be airing Thursdays at 9PM and stars Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezel. Will it be able to hold its own in a time slot that already has some veteran shows?

Just another crime drama?

Will this turn out to be just another crime drama among the many already on air (especially already on CBS)? The series follows "a presumed dead ex-CIA agent (Caviezel) who teams up with a mysterious billionaire (Emerson) to prevent violent crimes in New York City." It sounds interesting, and it does have a strong cast, but it is going to be up against Grey's Anatomy and Bones, two shows which already have a strong following. Will people choose it over a show that has already established itself as one of their favorites?

Person of Interest preview

An extended preview (below) has been released, and it looks like it may have just what it needs to air against those other shows. Caviezel's character, Reese, wakes up handcuffed to a bed and receives a call from Emerson's Finch saying he needs to understand what it's like to realize he can't do anything to save someone from dying. It turns out that 24 hours later, Reese wasn't in the best of shape, but he could fight. Finch recruits him for his skills and tells him about a system he built for the government to read emails and listen to cell phones to figure out who's a terrorist. However, he doesn't get the person's names, just their social security number. Finch passes the information along to Reese to figure out just what's going to happen to these people, but he doesn't know if they're the victim or the guilty party or when that something bad will happen. This preview does make it look like a show worth checking out, but only time will tell if it will last.