Person of Interest creator Jonathan Nolan has insisted that the show is not science fiction.The CBS drama follows two men (Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson) who use a special machine to predict future crimes.
"The government has been trying to build basically exactly what we portray in the pilot for about 12 years," Nolan told the Los Angeles Times. "So the only fictional part is that [our characters] actually manage to build a version of it that works."
He continued: "There is a little bit of a science fiction aspect to it, but I think the part that we're all most interested in is the part of it that's relevant, that sort of connects to the world that's... changing around us."
The showrunner added that the central themes in Person of Interest are "becoming more and more relevant".
"When I pitched it last year, I felt like it was [set] five minutes in the future, and by the time we were done shooting it in New York, it felt like it was kind of [set] right now," he said.
Nolan previously promised that viewers will get more answers about the machine as the show's first season continues.
"We're pushing ahead and exploring a bit more of that," he said in August. "It gets to some of the questions of the show that I'm fascinated by."
Person of Interest continues on Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.