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I mostly came at it from a Reese perspective, i.e. as soon as Harold said that, I had this montage of Reese crashing cars and driving huge trucks into things in my head and I just thought, my dear Harold, that's an interesting take on your husband you have there. :-D

OMG, seriously! Mr. Reese is a model of decorum, Finch thinks fondly; meanwhile, is Reese cooling his heels in jail after slugging Fusco in a bar parking lot.

But they had this whole Finch/Shaw mini-arc there for a while, where they didn't quite click at first and while I appreciated the idea in theory, especially given where they were coming from, I think that Shaw's characterization seemed a bit broad and oversimplified for a while, compared to her introductory episode.

Yes, so much yes on both counts! It made complete sense for Finch to be cautious and suspicious of someone new, given his personality and history, and I'm sure Shaw had less incentive to humor him than Reese did even before he fell in love, but the show's execution was frustrating.

Reese's capacity for gentleness with people is something that is unique to him and that I've always cherished (and that, ironically enough, the show kind of forgot about in later seasons as well), but that says nothing about his methods in other situations. Although I think his hammer moments sometimes have a part in them that's just total recklessness, which I don't think is true for Shaw.

Ahhh, I love your point about Reese's recklessness, that's so true! Shaw is clearly willing to take risks, but Reese almost made a bleak game out of it sometimes. And yes, absolutely his empathy was something special about him, and I would have loved so much if they'd gotten more mileage out of that -- Shaw taking the coldly rational view while Reese was busy getting attached. I always felt like there was more room there for Finch and Shaw to find common ground than the show made time for, too.