Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 126

The Problem of Police Authority

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 127, in which I talk about the problem of police authority, which has afflicted African-Americans for decades to the point of innocent people being shot to death and choked to death, and everyone else who challenges police authority in the slightest being assaulted and brutalized in usually less grievous ways.  I relate this to being victimized myself, a 12-year old white boy, in the Bronx in 1959.

Read more about this:  The Problem of Police Authority (Paul Levinson, June 2020)

Videos:  Paul Levinson talks about Black Lives Matter and Videos (2 July 2020) ... Paul Levinson talks about Black Lives Matter and Video Cams at Annenberg (4 December 2015)

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Politics and Media in History

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 126, in which I share an online lecture I gave a few days ago about Politics and Media in History.  I touch on such topics as literacy and democracy in Ancient Athens, how the printing press revolutionized the world, the four "radio heads" of the 1930s-1940s (FDR, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin), television Presidents of the United States from JFK through Obama, and the role of Twitter in our current age.

Further reading:

The Soft Edge: A Natural Future and History of the Information Revolution (Paul Levinson, Routledge: 1997)

Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Revolution (Paul Levinson,  Routledge, 1999)

McLuhan In An Age of Social Media (Paul Levinson, Connected Editions, 2015-2020)

More Summer 2020 lectures (on YouTube)

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Balthazar: Quincy and The Fugitive with Much More

My wife and I just finishing bingeing two seasons, sixteen episodes, of Balthazar, the French series on Prime Video Acorn, made in 2018 and 2019, streaming here since April.  Despite it being about a Parisian coroner (Balthazar) who cuts open dead bodies and hasn't gotten over the terrible murder of his fiance (or maybe wife) 15 years ago, the series is actually a great pick-me-up in these, our very troubled, times.

It has lots of humor, gallows and other varieties, to be sure, but that's not why it's so refreshing.  Somehow, this combination of Quincy (the Los Angeles medical examiner, same thing as coroner, or whatever exactly they call it France) and The Fugitive manages to be heartbreaking, harrowing, and even cuddly all at the same time.

Part of the reason is the sheer brilliance of the wounded Balthazar, which he manages to flaunt almost all of the time.  This annoys Captain  Hélène Bach, who nonetheless relies on him and falls more than halfway in love with him, and not only or really because her marriage is on the rocks because of her cheating husband.   That chemistry between Balthazar and Bach keeps the series bubbling and on edge, along with the constant search for his fiance/wife's killer.

Indeed, those are the constants in what is otherwise a more or less standalone episodic series, which goes against the grain of the now more usually continuing story kind of series, which I almost always prefer.  In fact, the stories in these episodes are usually nothing special, and the chemistry and the search and the sheer pleasure of watching Balthazar's mind at work keep you riveted to the screen.  And when the episode itself very much matters, as when Bach's or Balthazar's very lives are at stake, well, those hours are masterpieces that you don't come by too often on television of any kind.

The leading roles are perfectly played by Tomer Sisley as Balthazar and Hélène de Fougerolles as Bach.  And the supporting cast, including Pauline Cheviller as Lise (Balthazar's slain fiance or wife), Côme Levin as Eddy and Philypa Phoenix as Fatim (Balthazar's at once funny and heroic assistants), and even Yannig Samot as Delgado (Bach's police partner) are top-drawer, too.  There's a third season well underway.  There had to be, given the ending of the second.   See it, after of course the first.  You'll be in for a real treat.


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Hightown 1.7: Two Things

Well, there were more than two noteworthy things in tonight's next-to-last episode of the season - 1.7 - of Hightown.
But the phrase was in the best line of the episode, which had lots of good lines, as it always does.  The dialogue is one of the most enjoyable things in this fine series.   And my favorite line tonight was what the dancer says to Renee: "Men are only good for two things - money and dick".
Now that we got that out of the way, here's one of the important things in the story: Ray and Renee souring, and poor Ray is barely aware.  I'm sorry to see this, but it's almost inevitable given Ray's devotion to finding Sherry's killer(s), and how that conflicts with just loving Renee, which he also wants to do.  How can he get out of this?   Maybe if both Frankie and Osito are killed or in custody.  But I don't think that's likely to happen.
But speaking of Osito, what indeed did happen with him and Junior, after that great scene when he tells Junior to law low in Miami, and he Osito might even go to the DR for a while?  Osito looked just a tiny bit bothered when Junior said he was going to get something to eat before getting on the bus.  Did Osito think, as I did, that Junior might not get on the bus and instead call and even go see the mother of his child?
Tough to say.  But I also don't get why Junior was dead from drugs in that room (assuming he really is dead, and can't be revived).  Did he intentionally take a little of the bad dose intended for Krista?  If so, why?  Why was that preferable to going down to Miami?  Or, did Junior accidentally overdose?  Or did Osito do that to him?
Still tough to say.  I will say that I more than half expected Osito's killing of Kizzle rather than Junior.  Does that make it less likely that Osito would then kill Junior?  Yes and no.  He has motives for both - less likely to kill someone he just saved, more likely if he concluded that the man he saved was unreliable, and could lead to Osito's own death,   As I've saying for a while, Osito, played just right by Atkins Estimond, is really the pivotal character in this series.
See what I mean?  A lot more than two things.  And I'll see you here in two weeks with my review of the season finale.
See also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry ... Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood ... Hightown 1.5-6: Turning Point and the Real True


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Colony 3: Ascending, in More Ways than One

I'm a little late reviewing the third season of Colony - well, more than two years late - because I missed its initial airing on the USA Network and then I couldn't find it anywhere for free until I happened upon it the other day on Netflix.  And I thought it was so excellent, so fine a season of science fiction television, so much better than its first two seasons, that I regret I didn't shell out the few bucks to see this third season much sooner.
[Spoilers follow]
In addition to the whole season being top-notch, there were two especially effective and memorable turning points.
One was the death of Charlie, killed in a hail of grey-hat bullets.   The grey-hat commandos had been called in by "Uncle" Alan, and Will understandably holds him responsible, even though Will, Katie, and Bram were about to be killed by a firing squad, when the grey-hats arrived and violently disrupted those proceedings.  Charlie's death was a daring, terribly transforming event for both Bowmans and the audience, upsetting the previous givens of the series, and letting us know that anything was possible.
The other turning point flows from Charlie's death.  Will is determined to kill Alan, who, conniving as he always is, feels genuine grief about what happened to Charlie.  In a sequence that lasts at least ten minutes, Will later in the season has a gun pointed at Alan, and later his head in a bucket of filthy water, and struggles with himself over whether he can do this.  Peter Jacobson gives a tour-de-force performance as Alan, alternately trying to reason with Will and screamingly pleading for his life, and the combination plus whatever Will has inside him gets him to let Alan go.   Some of what Alan said, especially that without the grey-hat attack Will, Katie, and Bram would have died, apparently got through the Will.  I was on the edge of my seat, the whole time, as this scene played out.
In addition to Jacobson, the acting by the rest of the cast was good, especially, again, Josh Holloway as Will, Sarah Wayne Callies as Katie, and Tory Kittles as Broussard, and it was fun to see Peyton List from Frequency on the science fiction screen again.  The plot was fairly complex, with two outer-space entities at war with each other and we humans caught in the middle, but it all made sense through the end, with some kind of alien attack ensuing in the sky above Seattle.  It would have been great to find out more about this in a season 4 of Colony, but--
The geniuses at the USA Network failed to renew the series, for who knows what reason, so we're left high and dry, or maybe under the clouds of battle in the sky would be a better metaphor.  Hey, if it helps, I'll pay money to any streaming service to see another season of this series which, because of this third season, now ranks as one of the better science fiction series ever to have been on television, above Falling Skies and Revolution, its two closest competitors in theme.
See also Colony 2.1: Prelude ... Colony 2.2: 1969 ... Colony 2.3: The Wall ... Colony 2.7: Countdowns and Intentions ... Colony 2.8: What Passes for a Happy Ending ... Colony 2.9: Together Again ... Colony 2.10: The Fight Continues ... Colony 2.11: Twist ... Colony 2.12: The List ... Colony Season 2 Finale: Out and About

And see also Colony 1.1: Aliens with Potential ... 1.2: Compelling ... 1.5: Questions ... 1.6: The Provost ... Colony 1.7: Broussard ... Colony 1.8: Moon Base and Transit Zones ... Colony 1.9: Robot Arm ... Colony Season 1 Finale: Not Quite Enough




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Hidden 2: Find It

          Mia                                     lawyer                                         Cad

Hidden is back for its second season on Acorn.  The close knit police procedural set in Wales is well worth your viewing time.

The villain this season is a psycho young woman, Mia, highly intelligent and attractive and able to get two men her age - all are in high school - to do her evil bidding: meting out murder to someone she deems worthy of this fate.  Lee is the brawn and not too bright.  Connor's bright and sensitive, and doesn't like being any part of any killing, or even associating with the killers.  But Mia's sway, in significant part sexual, is too strong for Connor to much resist.

Hidden takes the risky mystery tack of letting us know who the killers are in the very first episode.  This put us the audience in a position of knowing a lot more than DCI Cadi John and her junior partner DS Owen Vaughn, and the hook in the mystery is seeing how they learn the identity of the killers and deal with them.  Given Mia's persuasive powers, and the personal complexities of both Cadi and Owen's off-the-job lives, this is no easy task.  Indeed, all too often their off-the-job lives are so intertwined with their police work, they have a tough time having personal lives outside of their jobs.

The countryside is splendid.  My wife and I have been to England and Scotland a wonderful number of times, but not Wales.  Seeing Hidden will make you want to do that.  Sian Reese-Williams is totally convincing as Cadi. Annes Elwy is deadpan effective as Mia. And I especially liked Steffan Cennydd as the troubled Connor.  Hidden is perfect early hot summer, tired of COVID, television.  Find it and watch it.

See also Hidden 1: You Must See It


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Perry Mason 1.1: The Young Man as Detective

Perry Mason debuted on HBO tonight.  As I'm sure - or I hope I'm sure - you know, this is the umpteenth time Perry Mason has appeared on TV in a series.  Well, a little less than umpteenth.   One brilliantly iconic time on CBS-TV in the late 50s through mid 60s starring Raymond Burr in the title role with that signature theme song, "Da da da dah, da da..."  And a couple of more times on TV, most of the time still starring Burr.   All of this following Erle Stanley Gardner's numerous novels, from which some half a dozen movies and a radio series were also made.

All of them had one thing in common, which the new HBO series does not.  Perry was a lawyer. On HBO, he's a detective.  He's also much younger on HBO, where he's played by The Americans' Matthew Rhys.  Whether it's correct to say he's "still" a detective, implying that the Raymond Burr Perry started his professional life as a detective, I couldn't tell you.  I haven't read the earliest novels, the first of which was published in 1933, about a year after the narrative in the HBO series begins.  There is the fact, cited on Wikipedia, that Mason's antagonist in the courtroom, DA Hamilton Burger (Gardner had the magic touch with names) tells Perry in the 1935 novel, The Case of the Caretaker's Cat (Gardner had a real talent for titles, too) "You're a better detective than you are a lawyer."  So I guess that gives the creators of the new Perry on HBO writ to make him a detective, though they hardly need my or anyone's permission.

But since this television series begins a little bit before the publication of the first novel, there's still time for Perry, if not to go to law school, to try to take a bar exam anyway?  I don't know.  But I'll give this new series a shot.  It does have a better kind of Delia Street than in the network series - I think the HBO street is more dynamic - though some purists think the Delia who worked as Burr's Perry's secretary was the gem of that Perry's multiple series.   Paul Drake, Perry the lawyer's detective, is also in this HBO series, but I don't think we've seen him yet.

I'll conclude with one thing I liked and one thing I didn't in the HBO series.  The sex was good, gritty when it needed to be, also sometimes funny.  But there was too much violence, and I really don't like stories in which kids are victims.

But as I said, I'll give this a chance.  I owe it to Gardner, whose writing I not only admired, but his advice, too. as when he famously said he said to an editor, "If you have any recommendations about the story, write it on the back of the damned check".  Or something like that.




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Hightown 1.5-6: Turning Point and The Real True

I got caught up in too many events to review last week's powerful episode 1.5 of Hightown, but it's just as well, since it serves as a perfect prelude to tonight's even more powerful episode 1.6.   So I'm reviewing the both of them right here, together.

The gist of last week's episode is that Krista is killed while Jackie's on, what's new, a bender.  Her killing is brutal - via Osito with an iron to her head - after Junior sorta bungles a plan to get Krista to overdose.  I say "sorta," because it was a bit of a lame plan to begin with, requiring Junior to the stay there and watch as Krista doses herself, and of course she gets suspicious.  Ultimately, also of course, it doesn't really matter, because dead is dead, and that's what Krista is.

But it does matter, deeply and greatly, to Jackie.  She had a lot invested in investigating and helping Krista, and her death is more than enough to turn her around.  With just two more episodes left this season (after tonight's 1.6), I think it's safe to say that we won't see her drunk or stoned again this year.   My guess is she won't even take a drink.

And she's already beginning to flex her sober muscle.  Her conversation with Frankie was one of the best conversation between any two people we've seen this season.  I mean, as is the case with a lot of what Jackie does, it touched on the insane - Frankie can still have her snuffed out in an instant, and she must know that.  And so does Frankie.  But she does manage to intimate him, at least a little, and that was very good and satisfying to see.

Ray doesn't do quite so well with Osito, who keeps his cool, cracks wise, has at least one great line - I'm gonna tell you the "real true" - and walks out of the Ray's interrogation with his lawyer and barely a sweat.  But it was a good-to-see interrogation, anyway.   And it sets the story up for the next two concluding episodes of the season, in which the vice is likely to tighten around both Frankie and Osito.

My prediction: only one will survive.  Although Frankie is the logical one, I'm betting it will be Osito who sees another season.  As for Junior?  You tell me.

See also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry ... Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood


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Marcella 3: Nordic Noir on a Whole New Split Level

The third season of Marcella just started streaming a few days ago on Netflix.  It's more tightly plotted than the first two seasons, at times as intricate as the Godfather trilogy, and I'd say the best Marcella so far.

Most of the time, Marcella isn't Marcella.  She's Keira, and she's embedded herself with a potent mob family in Belfast.  But embedded isn't quite the right word, because Marcella has actually become Keira.  She believes herself more than pretends to be Keira.  This fits in well with the tenuous grip Marcella has on sanity in her prior two seasons on television.

The mob family she's now part of, to the point of eventually almost running, is a nice piece of narrative work.  The matriarch is still the boss, but she's getting competition from both of her sons.  Finn's the more usually violent and prone to think he's really running the family.  Keira's pretty comfortably and literally in bed with him.  Rory has the brains, is a bit of a nutcase, and wouldn't mind Keira in his bed, either.  Keira may well be open to that, too.

Meanwhile, Marcella's handler thinks he can keep Marcella/Keira on the razor's edge of being thoroughly a part of the mobster family but ultimately still undercover police, too.   There have been a fair number of cop shows over the years in which a deep undercover agent struggles to hold on to her or his real identity.  But none were quite as powerful as Marcella/Keira in this third season of the show.

The plot turns are jolting, i.e. great to see, and the ending is one of the best I've seen of any police series, period.  Anna Friel is better than ever in the title role, which is to say punch-in-the-gut compelling in every emotional twist and turn her complex double-identity requires.  I haven't seen most of the other actors before, but they were excellent, too.  Marcella 3 is an all together superb, eminently bingeable season, and lifts Hans Rosenfeldt's British Nordic Noir to a whole new split level.



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Borrowed Tides and "Alpha Centauri"

As some of you may know, my second science fiction novel, Borrowed Tides (Tor Books, 2001), is about the first starship to Alpha Centauri.

As others of you may know, or as the same some of you may also know, one of the songs on my Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time album (released this past February by Old Bear Records, with vinyl distribution by Light in the Attic Records) is "Alpha Centauri," about an astronaut who travels the 4.3 light years to that triple star system.   That song was written (words by me, music by Peter Rosenthal) around the same time as Borrowed Tides.

I performed it this past weekend, online, at Amazingcon.  Here's a video (that sounds like it was broadcast from Alpha Centauri) of the Zoom performance.



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