Person of Interest is simply fascinating these days.

Person of Interest is getting more and more interesting as it continues to weave ideas about national security, data handling, and solving mysteries into bigger questions of personal responsibility, love, the value of life over the "greater good", and father/creator issues.

This week's show especially left me pondering ideas after listening to Greer's conversations with Harold. They argued about whether it was better to hobble "the machine's" capabilities or to let it wander free to see what it could become. Harold has great apprehension about an "open system" because the machine isn't human and wouldn't be controllable.

I was waiting for Harold to say, "I saw the Terminator movies. Skynet is not going to be on me." Sadly, they never went there. They might have had to lighten up the dark, blue-tinted seriousness of the episode. I said it for him. I'm sure Tom appreciated it.

It also capitalizes on the feelings many have these days about the surveillance, the way Homeland Security feels dodgy on following constitutional rules, and suchlike. I know I came away last night saying, "And that's why no one likes you NSA. Get rid of those traffic cameras!"

We were cleaning the kitchen afterward when I realized that the ideas debated by Greer and Harold are the same questions that come up when thinking about God's decision to give us free will. Talk about an open system. Tom pointed out that, yes, He even had a fix for if things went off the rails. Again using the open system.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. I love it when ideas come together.

I can only assume this high concept conversation means that Jonathan Nolan is keeping a close eye on the show he created. Some of these questions resonate from things like Batman, which I know he has loved since childhood and which movies he worked on with his brother Christopher. Some simply resonate from being a thinking, intelligent person who examines what matters in life.

Plus guns. And villains. And car chases. That just makes it more fun along the way.

This is a show I came to for Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson (the best thing about Lost). I'm simply so pleased to see it has turned into a place where the thought provoking issues raised are so often considered in a way that agrees with my underlying values.