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Published on September 19, 2020 10:59

Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face

Lots of important, even game-changing events in episodes 1.6-7 of Raised by Wolves, up on HBO Max yesterday:

Campion and Paul are becoming rivals, even though it looks as if they'll still ultimately have each other's backs in life and death situations. But other than that, Campion is representing spirit and Paul logic and science, which is interesting in itself since Campion comes from the atheists and Paul the true-believers. This may be a significant indicator of the future and the changing roles of central characters on this planet.The difference between true believers and atheists is also raging inside Marcus. He of course is an atheist in the skin of a true believer. But he's hearing voices that tell him not to kill Mother, and in the end of 1.7 he comes to believe he might be the true-believers' chosen one, the orphan who lights and leads the way to a better world.It was night of sharp turnarounds, to say the least, for Father and Mother. Father is re-wired to become a robotic servant of the true-believers. All that's left of the original Father - courageous and wise and devoted to both Mother and their adopted children - is a tremor he betrays in one of his hands. Mother herself is almost destroyed, saved only by the voice in Marcus's head. At least she gets to have some good virtual sex with her human creator/programmer.So where do we go from here? Marcus is convinced that he can get Mother to fight on his side. Ironically, that side is likely ultimate the atheists - since that's where Marcus originally came from - but he seems to be tipping into the true-believers. As for Mother, the expression on her face right after Marcus almost kisses her, his lips just a long fraction of an inch from hers, must hold some clue. It's not a look of hate or revulsion - certainly not only that. It's more a look of profound hurt -- some kind of, I don't know, recognition of deep connection between her and Marcus. Is there even somehow some love there? The image is below - what do you think?
One thing I'm sure of is I hope we see all three concluding episodes next week.

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Published on September 18, 2020 20:33

Trump Ban of TikTok Violates the First Amendment

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 147, in which I offer a lecture I gave just last night -- the night before Trump's ban on TikTok was announced -- about why that ban violates the First Amendment. I discuss such issues as why the public's right to know protects non-American media in the United States, why entertainment is and has long been protected under the First Amendment, and Trump's real reasons for the ban.

Wisting: Nordic Noir at its Best

When they came up with the name Nordic Noir -- whoever that they was -- they surely had something like Wisting in mind. Not only does it take place in Norway and feature a seasoned detective and his team hunting not just one but at least two serial killers of beautiful blonde women, but in its single-ten-episode season it manages to weave together two quite separate though connected murder stories, and tell us compelling backstories for at least half a dozen diverse characters.

Many of the characters are of course police. William Wisting, whose name the series takes, is head of a unit with Nils (a detective Wisting's age who has almost nothing but contempt for the FBI pair who come to assist Wisting in the first half of the season, because the serial killer is likely a transplanted American), a younger male detective earnest but unseasoned, a woman who has to juggle in-vitro fertilization with her work on a breaking murder case, and like that. Carrie Anne-Moss (The Matrix) plays one half of the FBI team, and I didn't know the rest of the actors, but they are were superb.

The biggest personal story that runs through the season is the relationship between Wisting (a recent widower) and his daughter Line, an investigative reporter with penchant for crime stories, blonde, and you just know she's in danger from at least one of the serial killers, which in fact she is. She's played by Thea Green Lundberg whom, come to think of it, I did see in another fine Norwegian series, Occupied (with a memorable Dylanesque opening song), and she was excellent in both. And as long as I'm giving kudos to the actors, let me mention Mads Ousdal as Nils, who almost could be a Norwegian Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Sven Nordin, who does a perfect job as Wistng.

In addition to all that, the scenery is a sight for pandemic-sore eyes. Characters have homes on, over, or near the water, and the roads and the forestry are lush. Hey, I'm not a detective, but the environment was so inviting I was tempted to jump through the screen and see if I could be of any help.

I'll have to settle having seen a captivating season, and looking forward to a season two.

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Published on September 15, 2020 14:46

We Hunt Together 1.6: The Sacrifice

I thought the finale to We Hunt Together's short six-episode first season, on Showtime last night, was just right: meaning, all four central characters ended up just where they best, or most appropriately, belonged.

Let's start with the killers. Freddy has been on the top of the game all along. Even that, though, didn't guarantee her a ticket out of the situation she and Baba found themselves in: in a house surrounded by police, most of whom wanted to go in blasting. Fortunately, Baba had a solution. And Freddy had the smarts to play it to the hilt.

As for Baba, it was becoming increasingly clear that there was nowhere in this world he now fit. He loved Freddie, and was willing to kill for her, but he hated doing that. What better way than to sacrifice himself, and in that one fell swoop atone for his sins and give Freddie a way out.

Jackson was at his best trying to talk Baba into surrendering. Even though that conversation failed, Jackson's sense of self, already strong, got even sharper. He'll be an even more effective detective in the second season, which I certainly hope there is.

Lola's trajectory in the finale was the most complex, but also the most rewarding. She was furious that Freddy was getting away with it. But she applied that fury and came up with evidence that shows, at least to her and Jackson, that Freddie was involved in the murders. A good lesson there: fury can be a powerful asset, if it's logically applied.

So ... I really enjoyed this short series, and would welcome another season, with more of Jackson and Lola, and maybe Freddy (though another case would be fun, too).

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Published on September 14, 2020 09:47

First Amendment and Public's Right to Know Could be Put to the Test: ByteDance rejects Microsoft Bid for TikTok

The news just broke that ByteDance just rejected Microsoft's offer to buy TikTok*.

This is big news, with profound First Amendment implications. Trump has threatened to ban TikTok in the United States. Were it owned by Microsoft, an American corporation, banning any of its media would be an obvious, ipso facto, violation of the First Amendment, and its provision that "Congress [i.e, the Federal government] shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press".

But what about TikTok, now owned by the Chinese company ByteDance? Some would argue that the First Amendment pertains only to American media. I (and others) would argue otherwise. The First Amendment is designed to protect the public's right to know -- Congress is prohibited from banning or restricting media because that seriously interferes with everyone's right to know what's going on. How else can a democracy function?

I'm glad that ByteDance said no to Microsoft. I have nothing at all against Microsoft -- in fact, I defended Microsoft against our government's foolish threats to break up their alleged monopoly back in the 1990s -- but I'm glad that ByteDance's action will put Trump's blustering to a legal test. If that happens, if he doesn't back down, it will ultimately be up the U. S. Supreme Court to determine whether the First Amendment protects the public's right to have access to international media, which is becoming increasingly important in our interconnected world.

You never know for sure about any Supreme Court decision before it's rendered, but I'm always glad to see an issue like this, which gets at the First Amendment and its foundation of our democracy, put to the judicial test.

*PS: And news just came through that ByteDance decided to make Oracle, a U. S. firm, as its partner for Tikok. Will that qualify for TikTok as being an American firm?

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Published on September 13, 2020 18:21

Podcast Review of Amazing Stories (2020) on Apple+ TV 1-5

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 146, in which I review all five episodes of Amazing Stories (2020) now on Apple+ TV.

Amazing Stories (2020)1.5: "The Rift": Time Travel and a Candy Bar

Well, Amazing Stories saved the best for last in its short five-episode season on Apple+ TV this past Spring, and it made a fine bookend with the first episode, because both were about time travel.

This time the time travel involves a World War II pilot, shot down and meant to die in Burma in December 1941 but thrown through "The Rift" instead, winding up in his home town in Ohio in early 2020 (right, before COVID). (A second parenthetical note: I can't get too much time travel.) As in many time travel stories, this going through a rift has a purpose: he never said goodbye to his wife when he left her in 1941 to go off to war. But in a nice additional touch in this kind of story, the pilot's travel through time has a second purpose.

The second story is also a kind of love story, with a happy ending, in its own right. Actually, even happier than the primary story, in which the pilot after giving closure to his wife has to go back to 1941 to die. The people who help the pilot -- a boy and his step-mother (nice job acting by Duncan Joiner as the boy and Kerry Bishé as his mother), on her way to delivering the boy to his aunt in Indiana, so she can leave the painful memory of her late husband behind, and start a new life in California -- also see their lives changed for the better, when the pilot convinces the step-mom to take the boy with her out West.

But here's what I really liked best about this fine episode. The pilot gives the kid a Whiz candy bar - which really existed in our reality, by the way. Later, we find out that in order for The Rift not to rip up the current world, anyone who went through it has to return to the past exactly as he or she left it on their trip to the future. The boy needs to give the candy bar back to the pilot -- but the boy has eaten the bar (he got hungry). No problem -- the pilot realizes that as long as the purposes of the time travel trip are served, The Rift's needs will be served, so it doesn't matter if he travels back in time with no candy bar.

You can always tell a good narrative by how well it handles the details. "The Rift" handled them perfectly, and gave us a happy ending in a time travel story. It did get me in the mood for a chocolate bar -- which I'm going to resist -- but that's ok, because I'm even more in the mood for more Amazing Stories, which, just like the Whiz candy bar, began its life in our reality a long time ago.

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Published on September 11, 2020 18:33

Podcast Review of Raised by Wolves 4-5

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 145, in which I review episodes four and five of Raised by Wolves. (Cameo by Tina)

Further listening:

podcast review of Raised by Wolves 1-3

Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune

I thought the 4th and 5th episodes of Raised by Wolves were really good, especially the 5th, because it gave us a nice big origin story about Mother - how she was created, and endowed/programmed with her mission. Her maker tells her she's humanity's last hope, a nod to Star Wars mythology.

But maybe because I saw the trailer for the new Dune movie the other day, maybe I would have thought this anyway, maybe both factors are at play, but Raised by Wolves really felt to me tonight to be deeply indebted to Dune. The sweeping sand dunes, the monsters hidden in and under the sand, the boy - with the two possible candidates - as the savior, all these speak Muad'dib on Arrakis.

Meanwhile, Travis Fimmel's Marcus, now leading the pack of Sol true-believers, seems increasingly like Ragnar in Vikings. Not only because Fimmel's mannerisms are the same in both narratives - which I don't mind and in fact find appropriate in both - but the characters both are subject to visions, seek advice from strange characters, and have the same reactions women. In other words, the Marcus character played by Fimmel was deliberately designed to recall Ragnar, and that's also fine with me.

One of those characters also resonates with the Count of Monte Cristo and his mask. Except this mask was put on the character because he raped women in hibernation over the long voyage. His reason: Sol commanded him to populate the species, though he doesn't deny the carnal pleasure he obtained from following Sol's commands. Since he's in a mask, that can't help but raise the question of who he is? I'll make a wild guess: maybe the android master who created Mother back on a dying Earth?

Anyway, these echos of Dune and Star Wars, not to mention of course Blade Runner, point to the depth of Raised by Wolves, not that it's too derivative. An important science fiction series should be standing on the shoulders of giants, and I'll be back here next week to tell you how Jack and the Beanstalk fares with these giants.