Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 101
April 8, 2021
Defending Jacob: Testing Family Ties
I don't think I've ever seen a mini-series like Defending Jacob, up on AppleTV+ where it's been for nearly a year, based on a novel of the same name by William Landay which I didn't read. It oscillates back and forth between two possible truths or endings, and manages to end without resolving that pendulum, in a way that makes you feel that you've confronted some profound mystery or reality of human life, because likely you have.
[Some spoilers follow ...]
The question is whether not Jacob, in his mid-teens, killed his schoolmate Ben. He says he didn't, but he's a strange kid who gives off strange vibes. He's highly intelligent and has an above-it-all ambience. A shrink says he lacks empathy. His father is not sure, but pretty much believes his son. His mother is not sure, either, but believes Jacob less than does his father.
On Jacob's side of the story, there's child predator named Patz who is in the area, has pictures of Ben on his phone, and erases them. But Jacob wrote a short story after Ben's murder, which gives a psychological take on the crime that seems autobiographical. Twist after twist makes Jacob seem a victim, and then a killer, then a victim, then a killer. It's the kind of thing that can drive his parents crazy, and almost does, especially Jacob's mother.
In the last series of twists, Patz leaves a suicide note of confession, but Jacob's father Andy learns that his father (Jacob's grandfather) had someone put a gun to Patz head and made him write the note, right before the gunman made it look that Patz had hung himself. Jacob's family goes to Mexico to celebrate, but Jacob and a girl go off walking on a beach, he returns with a different shirt, and the girl is missing. Did Jacob kill her? It seems so -- until the girl shows up the next day. She'd been drugged at a party.
So you get the picture. There's a lot more that happens, both before and after those scenes, but the series ends without us knowing whether Jacob is a killer or just one unlucky kid. And there's something that Adam was calling his wife Laurie (Jacob's mother) to tell her, and we don't know what that is, either (or maybe I missed it).
All of this is delivered by outstanding acting at every turn, but especially Jaeden Martell as Jacob, Michelle Dockery as Laurie, Chris Evans as Adam, J. K. Simmons as the grandfather, and Cherry Jones as Jacob's lawyer. If you want a roller-coaster ride in an amusement park dedicated to the proposition that we don't know anything for sure in life, especially about the people who are closest to us, see Defending Jacob. You won't forget it.
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April 6, 2021
Debris 1.6: Fountain of Youth and Its Complications
Debris 1.6 re-visits the ancient Fountain of Youth myth, in which you drink from some magical source of water and regain your youth. Later on in the New World, Ponce de Leon was allegedly searching for a fountain of youth when he discovered Florida. More recently, in 1985, Ron Howard directed Cocoon, in which alien cocoons found in a pool restore the youthful energy of elderly swimmers. And just last night, Debris gave us a story in which interstellar debris literally makes very old people young again.
Of course, in the legends and the science fiction, there's always a problem with the fountain, a price to pay, assuming the fountain is even found. In Debris, the price is that everyone who gets young again has to stay in proximity to the other rejuvenated oldsters. If they don't, they'll get old again, and die.
You know what? This doesn't seem like all that steep a price to me. And this undermines Bryan and Finola's motive in the narrative for getting the rejuvenated back to their original old age. What would be the problem in setting up a community of young-again people? Perhaps that was explained and I missed it, but as it is, it seems that the main motive of Bryan and Finola is to counteract any effects of the interstellar debris on Earth, even if they are beneficial.
And this in turn brings to the fore a larger question which gets at the very heart of this series. If all the effects of the debris were bad, or could be used for bad purposes, it would make perfect sense to track down all the debris and keep them out of reach. But if some of the debris are beneficial, what then? Are Bryan and Finola on the side of the angels, and just another pair of warriors in a very new kind of war?
I'll be watching to see how these questions play out.
See also Debris 1.1 Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces ... Debris 1.2: Clones ... Debris 1.3: Trapped Out of Time ... Debris 1.4: Suspentia Belief ... Debris 1.5: Fine Tuning
April 3, 2021
Losing Alice: Finding Gold
TV series about writers with complicated families and erotic urges who are writing something new and can't quite tell the difference between the fiction they're writing and the real relationships around them seem to be in the air these days. A few weeks ago, I told Anke Meijer for an article she was publishing in the NRC that such similarities in genres could be an expression of what Hegel termed "the spirit of an age". We find that spirit apparently at work in Deadly Illusions on Netflix, which I saw and reviewed here last week, and Losing Alice on Apple TV+, which I binge watched last night and enjoyed immensely.
Other than the tantalizing blurring between written fiction and real events in the creator's life which often takes center stage, and the protagonists in both cases being beautiful mothers in their 40s, the two TV series are somewhat different. Losing Alice is about a movie director not an author of books, takes place in Israel not America, and is in Hebrew not English (you can get translations and subtitles, of course -- it's been a good month for Israeli productions, with Shtisel 3 out just last week). Losing Alice also is a much more complex mystery than is Deadly Illusions, delves into the special challenges of directing, and succeeds on so many levels that it can properly be called a tour de force.
Further, the writer and director of Losing Alice, Sigal Avin, is the same age as Alice, and looks a lot like her (Alice is powerfully played by Ayelet Zurer, whom I last recall seeing as Eric Banner's -- or his character's -- wife in Spielberg's Munich), which gives Losing Alice an attractive autobiographical flavor. When you see Alice struggling to get just what she wants in a scene, you can't help but feel you're viewing what Sigal herself is literally going through at that moment. Meanwhile, the resemblances of other characters in Losing Alice to each other enhances the underlying questions of who wrote what in the movie script that is the spark plug of both this television series and the movie (Room 209) within this television series. (Yeah, a good meta-story is always well met.)
Losing Alice is also one of the most erotic narratives I've seen in a while, and Avin is able to do this with a minimum of nudity. The crucial scene between Sophia and David was evocative of Last Tango in Paris, again with a bit less revealed, and energized by the fine acting of Lihi Kornowski as Sophia and Gal Toren as David.
I won't say anything more about the mystery of who wrote Room 209 -- see Losing Alice to find out -- but I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that the songs in this television series were also superb. My favorite is the apt My Name Is Trouble by Keren Ann. I'll also reveal that the ending leaves room for a sequel. Which I only mention because I'd see it in a heartbeat.
the Sierra Waters trilogy
April 2, 2021
Law & Order SVU and Organized Crime: Stabler Is Back
I rarely review Law & Order SVU, but it's one of my favorite shows, and my wife feels the same. But I couldn't help but review the SVU crossover with the new Organized Crime Law & Order last night on NBC, given that it featured the return of Elliot Stabler, who left SVU some ten years ago, in the wake of the actor Christopher Meloni not being able to reach agreement on a new contract with NBC.
Stabler's partnership with Olivia Benson was the heart and soul of SVU, and his departure came with no explanation in the narrative. We learned last night that he was also incommunicado with Benson these part ten years. This creates an excellent narrative tension as the two reunite in New York after Stabler's wife is mortally wounded in a bomb blast intended for Stabler.
Benson is understandably torn between feeling protective towards her former partner and hurt, even angered, by his sudden departure and ensuing silence. But just to be clear, and not to get too "meta" about this, that departure was not Stabler the character's fault -- it presumably was NBC's fault, for not giving Meloni the actor what he requested. In any case, Olivia's struggle to get some bearing now on Stabler, especially since she has moved up from Detective to Captain on SVU, was played out over both SVU and Organized Crime last night, was appropriately inconclusive, and was the best part of these two episodes.
It was also gratifying to see some kind of romantic energy between the two -- at this point, of course, unacknowledged. Given that Stabler's wife died, and Olivia has been without romantic involvement this year, I'd say that possibility is real. In fact, one of the best parts of the crossover event is the letter Stabler gives to Benson, who can't read it then. At the end of the second episode, Benson shows up and wants to talk to Stabler about the letter, but he's too engrossed in the case at hand to talk to her at that moment. So what's in the letter? It has to be something good, from a narrative point of view, and I'd guess promising for their future relationship. In fact, I'd predict that if Organized Crime stays on the air for at least a few years, we'll see the two together as a couple. Maybe even if Organized Crime doesn't make it.
On that account, the show has been faulted by the usual Greek chorus of complaining critics. It wasn't the most original or scintillating opening episode, true, and it lacked the usual Law & Order pacing and flourishes. But, hey, give it a chance. The lives of every SVU character have been both enriched and challenged by Stabler back in their picture (speaking of which, great scene between Fin aka Ice T and Stabler in SVU last night). Meloni and Mariska Hargitay have a crackling chemistry together as actors, and I'm eager to see where this goes.
For All Mankind 2.7: Alternate History Surges
A flat-out great episode 2.7 of For All Mankind up on Apple TV+ today, with some of the best alternate history gambits of the series, that propel it into being one of the best episodes of the overall series, in my never humble opinion.
The minor alternate history touches were fun as always, like Jimmy Carter being a Senator from Georgia. But there were two major alternate history changes which were not only jolting, but put the narrative on a new course.
One was Thomas Paine in Korean Air Lines flight 007, shot down by the Soviets with no survivors in 1983. In our reality, Paine served as NASA Administrator from March 1969 to September 1971 -- the period in which we of course landed on the Moon. His ambitious subsequent plans for Americans in space, however, including a mission to Mars in 1981, fell on deaf ears with President Nixon, making Nixon in my view one of the worst impediments to space travel in our history. Paine died of natural causes in Los Angeles in 1992. In For All Mankind, Paine is reappointed to NASA by Reagan -- President Ted Kennedy went with someone else -- and he is a dynamic and important character. His death on KAL 007, in addition to putting a real historical character into a real passenger plane that was notoriously shot down -- itself a bold move -- sets in motion all kinds of highly significant developments. Ellen becomes acting NASA Administrator, Reagan becomes more aggressive towards the Soviets, and the Apollo-Soyez joint mission is stalled.
Which brings us to the second major alternate history development: we learn, almost off-hand, that the Challenger won't blow up! The O-ring problem is discovered before it can do any tragic damage. In a brilliant story development, the Soviets have stolen our plans for the space shuttle, including the defective O-ring design, before the defect was discovered. Margo has a dilemma - she's ordered not to tell the Soviets about the O-ring flaw. After all, they not only stole our shuttle plans, but shot down KAL 007 which killed Tom Paine. But as someone who is ultimately most devoted to humans in space, transcending national rivalries, she can't bring herself not to warn the Russians. In effect, she embodies the series title, For All Mankind. It's a difficult ethical dilemma, and I'd guess that Margo's decision won't receive universal acclaim from viewers.
The ending of the episode, though, in which Tracy on Reagan's order retakes the Soviet base on the Moon which they took from us, is indisputably a reason for cheering, and a good way to conclude this superb hour.
See also For All Mankind, Season 1 and Episode 2.1: Alternate Space Race Reality ... For All Mankind 2.2: The Peanut Butter Sandwich ... For All Mankind 2.3: "Guns to the Moon" ... For All Mankind 2.4: Close to Reality ... For All Mankind 2.5: Johnny and the Wrath of Kahn ... For All Mankind 2.6: Couplings
March 29, 2021
Debris 1.5: Fine Tuning
The destruction was averted, and it would have been a major piece of devastation indeed: sending a piece of Manhattan to who knows where. This evokes not only the song "I'll Take Manhattan," but John Stith's novel Manhattan Transfer. It requires not one but two pieces of interstellar debris, posted in just the right places, fine tuned in appropriately near-distanced skyscrapers.
And the beings doing this come not from the stars -- at least as far as we know -- but are apparently the human beings in Influx, that mysterious organization trying to marshall the powers of the debris for their own benefit. They take pills which enable them to teleport through short, maybe longer, spaces, and the guy with the beard who is in command can join in a song playing blocks away.
Again, all of this feels like an update of Fringe, and that's just fine. Debris has the addition of the CIA/MI6 complex relationship of incomplete allies, and this is being well developed as well, in the interactions of Finola and Bryan, both with one another and with their higher-ups in the agencies.
What I'd still like to see: how about a joint mission out into space to see exactly where the interstellar ship first appeared? If there were no such thing as discrete networks and streaming services down here on Earth in our reality, there could be a crossover event between Debris and For All Mankind. But I'll settle for whatever Debris can dish out.
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The Cry: Taut Thriller, with One Flaw
Checking in with a review of The Cry, a 4-episode Australian-British miniseries I saw last night on Netflix. In a word: outstanding!
First, Jenna Coleman, who was so good in Victoria in the title role, may be even better as Joanna Lyndsay in The Cry, the mother of a baby who is apparently kidnapped on a trip to Australia with her husband. Surprises abound, especially at the end of each episode, and you just won't know what really happened until the very end.
[Spoiler ahead]
Just one quibble: the ending of the narrative, the truth of what really happened, hinges on the husband mistakenly giving the baby his wife's medication. He doesn't taste the medication first, to make sure it's the right medication, as his wife does, and then he blames his wife for what happened to the baby by implying/saying she was the one who administered the wrong meds. But ...
Wouldn't a mother taking a medication very different from her baby's make sure the bottles were very clearly marked, or at least in dispensers of obviously different shapes and sizes? There is a scene in which Joanna correctly gives Noah (the baby) the right medication, and it does appear that the bottle looks different from the one with her medication. So, what happened with the husband? Are we supposed to believe that he was so lackadaisical about their baby that he didn't pay any attention at all to the two different dispensers of the two medications? Although he was not the most attentive father, that's a little hard to believe. I suppose there's also a possibility that he did this deliberately, but if so, that should have been made clear in the end.
Anyway, The Cry is otherwise a thrilling ride that holds together very well, and I'd definitely recommend it.
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Podcast Review of Shtisel 3: Cheesecake and Faith
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 169, in which I review Season 3 of Shtisel.
Blog post review of Shtisel.
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March 28, 2021
City on a Hill 2.1: Big Dig
City on a Hill is back with its second season on Showtime today, firing of all cylinders. In the first minutes, we see DeCourcy denounced by a black cop in Boston as "Huxtable-looking," after DeCourcy tries to reprimand the cop for being too tough on a black kid, whose erudition reminds DeCourcy of himself. And Jackie Rohr dumps a nearly-dead Holly Gunner at the front of a hospital after she ODs in his car.
And it gets even better from there -- or, rather, worse for the characters, which is better for the narrative. Jackie's new boss from the new Clinton administration tells him the best thing he can for himself is retire. DeCourcy's new case is an 11-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet in a drug gang-war. Boston in 1993, where the Big Dig is in play, is even more edgy, more perilous, than it was in the first season of the show.
The personal relationships are tense, too. This episode could have been titled "amends," given what Benedetta is trying to do with her parents. Neither Jenny nor Jackie want to hear them from their daughter. Is this something from Irish culture, or Boston culture? I could tell you. I'm not Irish and I'm a New Yorker. But it makes for a good story.
The language is especially apt given the racism of our own real world in 2021. You not only hear the N word, but anti-Asian slurs, courtesy of Jackie and his opinion of the FBI superior who tells him he would do well to resign. All that's missing in terms of the attitudes and close-to-the-brink existences between City on a Hill and our world today is the pandemic. I guess the lesson in that is life was rough even before the pandemic and Trump.
But it's good to see it in such gritty form on the screen, and I'll be back here with my review of the next episode next week.
See also City on a Hill: Possibilities ... City on a Hill 1.2: Politics in a Cracked Mirror ... City on a Hill 1.3: One Upping The Sopranos ... City on a Hill 1.4: Enjoyable Derivative ... City on a Hill 1.6: Tony's Mother, Mayhem, and Family ... City on a Hill 1.7: The Bodies ... City on a Hill 1.8: Personal Business and Its Accompaniment ... City on a Hill 1.9: Changes ... City on a Hill season finale: "You Ain't the Good, and I Ain't that Bad"
Shtisel 3: Cheesecake and Faith
The wife (froi) and I binge watched the third season of Shtisel on Netflix -- hey, it debuted on my birthday, March 25. And, I was delighted to find, these nine new, long-awaited episodes also had a shout-out for me, with a fairly major family named Levinson. Thank you, Shtisel!
And these episodes were immensely enjoyable!
[Spoilers hollow.]
Especially the ending, which had more happy endings than I've ever seen in a series before. Kiva defies his father and goes to live with his wife Racheli. Yosa'le defies his mother and says he will marry Shira Levi (not Shira Levinson, but I'm very happy for Yosa'le anyway). Shulem may be able to reconcile with his brother. And, most important, Ruchama and her baby are both fine -- their faith beat the thousand-to-one odds. With so many unhappy endings in our real world -- with Trump's defeat being a remarkable exception, a blessing! -- it was gratifying and timely indeed to see so much happiness at the end of Shtisel.
The language, the Yiddish, was also a joy to hear, as it always is. Where else can you hear the word fakakta, as Nuchem, Shulem's brother, says his finances are. And to stay with the same character, the same sentiment, and the same area of the body as metaphor, it was good to hear Nuchem tell his brother he's a shtick drek, as well as this being well deserved in this case.
And the food was gesmacht to the max. That cheesecake from Brizel made my mouth water. (Is Brizel a real place? Hey, send me some of that cheesecake -- look at this great publicity I'm giving you.) The lessons Shtisel so effectively conveyed, from the power of food to the power of art to the power of faith, are not only appealing but deeply memorable.
The acting was outstanding, too. Doval'e Glickman as Shulem, Michael Aloni as Kiva, Shira Haas as Ruchama, and Sasson Gabay as Nuchem were all just perfect, and I also especially liked Daniella Kertesz as Racheli and Reef Neeman as Shira Levi.
The ending did tie up a lot of stories, but hey, there's always room for another season. I'd drop everything else to see it, even if it doesn't debut on my birthday,
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