Two seasons of TV, two movies

Normally I prefer to view TV on Netflix a bit at a time rather than in a rush but I watched the last season of both PERSON OF INTEREST and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES so that I could start this season current.
Person of Interest, as you may know, concerns an AI built by Finch (Michael Emerson) to detect terrorist crimes for the government. It also predicts non-terrorist threats but the government isn’t interested, so it’s cozened Finch into working on them. For help he has Reese (Jim Caviezel), a spec-ops and CIA veteran, plus a couple of cops, Carter and Fusco (Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Chapman).
The creators did an impressive job broadening the threat matrix in the second season. First season gave us the crooked cops of “HR”; Elias (Enrico Colantoni), the bastard son of a mob kingpin moving to take over the mobs; and a mysterious hacker named Root (Amy Acker). Second season we learn Root’s agenda (free the machine from government control) and get a whole boatload of new enemies. There’s the shady Decima corporation, Reese’s sociopathic former partner, more mobsters and the wing of the CIA that gets the Machine’s predictions (never the source data). Plus the introduction of Leo, a brilliant financial accountant with an unfortunate talent for annoying people. Added onto the usual boatload of murders to prevent, it’s made things very lively. Plus we get into the background of Finch and how he actually set out on his vigilante path. I was very pleased.
Vampire Diaries shook things up by having Elena (Nina Dobrev) rise from death at the end of the previous season as the newest vampire in Mystic Falls (though as some of my friends point out, she has very little agency due to being swayed by one vampiric influence or another). In addition to Elena struggling to adapt, we have the usual scheming among ancient vampires and werewolves, new monsters (the Hunters, magically fueled vampire killers) high-school antics and the season’s big arc, a man planning to resurrect Silas, an entombed, millenia-old immortal whose tomb contains a power that can cure vampirism. PoI had the better season, but this show was certainly fun.

Happily, TIME OF THEIR LIVES (1946) lives up to my fond memories as a trick of fate condemns colonial patriots Lou Costello and Marjorie Reynolds to be shot as traitors and condemned to walk the Earth for eternity unless proven innocent. In the present (and marking time by a series of lovers’ names and dates carved on a tree was a nice touch), it’s up to psychiatrist Bud Abbott (who as in Little Giant plays a double role) and the supporting cast (including Gale Sondegaard as the psychic housekeeper) to find the secret that will bring them rest. Another one where the team splits up (they only talk together for one brief scene at the start), but this one has the charm and humor Little Giant lacked.“Start at 12, turn to three—at ten past one, ‘twill open be.”
THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971) was a big hit for Vincent Price as a scarfaced genius out to murder the surgical team he blames for the death of his wife (Caroline Munro) by inflicting dooms based on the ten plagues of Egypt on them (though for plot purposes, he reshuffles the order. Lively fun and great-looking, with a terrific turn by Price (unusually for a disfigured horror character, his face isn’t the cause of his drive for revenge) as a man wearing a Vincent Price mask and speaking with an artificial voice-box, so his voice and expressions are noticeably off from the usual “I don’t know if this will be of any help but I believe the mark is Jewish.”