Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 127

Quiz: And My Verdict Is ...

Last night was a good night for mini-series finales.  I just reviewed I Know This Much Is True.  Here now a review of Quiz, which ended its three-episode run on AMC yesterday, and tells the true story of Charles Ingram, who in 2001 won £1,000,000 on the British television show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and was promptly brought to criminal trial along his wife and an accomplice for his success on grounds that he and they were cheating.

First, a bouquet of provisos from me.  I didn't see the series in the U. K. or anywhere in 2001 or after, and have no idea what Ingram and his wife were really like (actually, are really like - oops, am I giving too much away, implying that neither received a death sentence?).  In fact, I haven't read a word of the two books upon which the series is based.   So my impressions and conclusions of the Ingrams' innocence or guilt are based entirely on the little series.   And this is also a good time to repeat my frequently voiced advisory about docu-dramas: don't mistake them for anything like the entire truth, maybe not even the essential truth.  Indeed, even a documentary can't be expected to convey the entirety of any matter, so we certainly can't expect that from a docu-drama.

So, Quiz is a little docu-drama series about a very big matter - well, £1,000,000 is not as much in American dollars as when I was boy coin-collector in the late 1950s, but it's nothing to sneeze at.  Certainly the Ingrams, real and portrayed, were happy to get it.   But did they lie and cheat to get it?

Well, based on what I saw i.e., the testimony of the three episodes, I would say ... no, they did not.  Their defense attorney, well by portrayed by Peaky Blinders' Helen McCrory, was utterly convincing that the plethora of coughs in the studio made it highly unlikely that Charles benefitted from coughs from his wife and accomplice signifying yes and no to possible answers to questions on the show.  And Charles certainly didn't cough his way into Mensa.

And speaking of fine portrayals, Matthew Macfadyen was just perfect as Charles, as he's been in everything from MI-5 (aka Spooks) to Succession.   And Michael Sheen, another actor who's great in everything he does, was just outstanding as host Chris Tarrant (and again, I have no idea what the real Tarrant was like).

But I do have an idea about the mini-series, and that's that it's eminently watchable and enjoyable television.  See it before you research the real Ingrams, if that's your inclination.

 
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I Know This Much Is True: Much, True, and Worth Watching

My wife and I binged I Know This Much Is True, which ended its six-episode run last night on HBO.  Let me say this about the mini-series for starters:  If you thought Jude the Obscure was a grim narrative, wait until you see I Know This Much Is True.  But do see it.

This is the story of twins, Dominick and Thomas Birdsey.  Neither one is well adjusted.  They don't know who their father is, and their step-father is harsh and abusive.  Thomas, the difficult of the two boys, grows into a schizophrenic as a young man.   He's not a danger to others, but he is a serious danger to himself.

Dominick has to deal with this, after understandably not helping things at all when he was a boy.  In addition, he suffers a life-crushing experience that has nothing to do with Thomas.  This is what I mean about being in Jude the Obscure territory.   One soul-piercing experience is more than enough for most tragic dramas.   Two, unrelated to each other, is, well, over the top or at least a little hard to take.

And Mark Ruffalo's acting as both brothers is so powerfully effective that you have no problem believing all of this is happening.  He deserves an Emmy for best actor.  And speaking of Emmys, so does Rosie O'Donnell, as supporting actress playing social worker Lisa Sheffer.  O'Donnell brings just the right mix toughness and empathy to this role, and along with Ruffalo she'll bring tears to your eyes, if you have anything close to a beating heart.

So see I Know This Much Is True, expertly written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Wally Lamb, which I haven't read and don't intend to because, well, no offence, but Thomas Hardy's 1895-1895 Jude the Obscure was more than enough.

 
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Gold Digger: For Love or Money?

My wife and I binged Gold Digger (2019) over two nights on Acorn TV via Prime Video.  It's an excellent, atypical whodunnit - atypical because, well...

The story is about a 60-year-old woman romantically pursued by a good looking, well-spoken, apparently sweet and sensitive guy in his mid-30s.  The woman is divorced, and her kids are sure the guy wants to marry their mother for her money (at least most of them are; she is undeniably wealthy).  To make matters even more intriguing, her ex-husband, now living with her her former best-friend, lives within driving distance.  All of this takes in Devon, England.

Pretty compelling set-up, right?  One problem, though, is that the 60-year old, Julia Day, is played by Julia Ormond, 55, and still a lot more than passably attractive.  This has the effect of making Julia and Benjamin (played by Ben Barnes) less jarring together than maybe the people who made this series intended the two to be.  In fact, in many scenes they looked so good together that you pretty much forgot their age difference.  Come to think of it, maybe that's what the intention was all along.

I won't say anymore about the plot, because I don't want to spoil the shock and the fun.  What I will say is that this mini-series forthrightly poses the question of is it impossible for a guy in his 30s to lustfully love a woman of 60, or does he have an ulterior motive, and the narrative provides all kinds of twists and bumps in your viewing journey.

All of which is buoyed by the acting, which is consistently superb.  Ormand is outstanding in every scene, as is Barnes.  And my favorites in the supporting cast are Alex Jennings (as Ted, the ex-husband) who was non pareil in both Victoria and The Crown, and  Nikki Amuka-Bird (as his girlfriend, Marsha) whom I haven't seen before but steals almost every scene she is in and is a non-stop fountain of clever lines artfully delivered.

So ... see Gold Digger and enjoy.

 
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Great New Review of "Welcome Up" / Live, Free, Online Concert this Saturday

Paul Levinson[image error]Hey, a great new review of Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time went up by Joseph Neff on The Vinyl District yesterday.  What I especially love about it is the way Neff puts Welcome Up in the context of Twice Upon A Rhyme, concluding that Welcome Up "hits the ear as the best kind of long-delayed follow-up to a phenomenon of cultish proportions; unstrained, totally comfortable in the present time, but sounding like nothing else on the current scene."  Read the whole review, with thoughts about each song -- such as, "the album’s standout is really “Picture Postcard World,” which infuses the soft-pop cheer with persistent psych swirl (getting downright underwater toward the end) as Levinson hits just the right level of crooner" -- over here.
And speaking of Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme, I'll be singing songs from both, as well as a couple of new songs, at a virtual (online) totally FREE one-hour concert at Amazingcon on Saturday, 6-7pm.  Although the concert is totally free, you do need to register beforehand, which you can do here.  You register just once for the entire three-day online convention, which will feature all kinds of science fiction stars, whom you can see here.  In addition to my concert, I'll be on several panels, and also reading from my novelette, Robinson Calculator -- my complete schedule is here.  What a treat it would be to see some of you on that Zoom screen on Saturday!

Songs from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time played onDig Vinyl's Melodic Distraction playlist, American Dream with YvonneHoward Margolin's 37th Anniversary Destinies, WUSB RadioCarl Thien's WZBC show (scroll down to Part 2)Patrick Rands' Abstract Terrain show on WZBC Radio in BostonKevin Anthony's Psychedelic JukeboxCaptain Phil's WUSB-FM show. Plus the following stations: Bellarmine Radio, Louisville, KY; KDWG Radio, Dillon, Montana; The End, Cleveland, OH; SYN Radio, Melbourne, Australia
You can get all the Welcome Up music, any time, here:Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp and SpotifyOrder multi-color vinyl from Light in the AtticCDs in stock - get them hereAnd here's Twice Upon a Rhyme:Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp and SpotifyOriginal, sealed 1972 HappySad Records vinylNew remastered Sound of Salvation vinyl from Those Old RecordsHere's a one-hour virtual concert I did in April with songs from both albums at HELIOsphere: Beyond the Corona.   Video clips from Welcome Up here and here.
More Welcome Up Reviews and Interviews:Taro Miyasugi says Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time is "a stunning folk pop album with gorgeous late 60s elements like vintage velveteen cloth..." Evan LeVine observes about Welcome Up that "any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it... As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity." in-depth interview about Welcome Up in Klemen Breznikar's Psychedelic Baby Magazine new audio Bear Tones podcast in which talk about Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme.
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[image error][image error]And ... early warning:  another new review of Welcome Up in the next issue  (#54) of Ugly Things Magazine.

Music Samantha (rough mix, from Welcome Up) If I Traveled To The Past (rough mix, from Welcome Up)MORE MUSICPress

"Welcome Up (Songs of Space and Time) is a contemporary dispatch, firmly sent. It hits the ear as the best kind of long-delayed follow-up to a phenomenon of cultish proportions; unstrained, totally comfortable in the present time, but sounding like nothing else on the current scene."— Joseph Neff, The Vinyl District, Jun 10, 2020

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The Vast of Night: Not Quite That

The Vast of Night, made in 2019, up on Amazon Prime just the end of last month, has received enthusiastic reviews in publications as intellectually (if not physically) far apart as The New York Times and The New York Post.  As usual, I don't quite agree with them.  And though my disagreement is usually I think a film or TV series is much better than the carping reviews, in this case it's somewhat the opposite: though The Vast of Night had its moments, I didn't think it was quite that much.

The story is about aliens from outer space over New Mexico in the 1950s, whom we never see.  That is, we see their ship but not them.  We're told about them through a black-and-white television show called Paradox Theater, which comes with a Rod Serling-like introduction, Twilight Zone intonation and all.  So this means that what we're seeing is not true.   Or, to be clear, all works of fiction are not true, or at least not thoroughly true, stories.  But the Paradox Theater framing of The Vast of Night makes it doubly untrue.  And not, I think, in a way that this statement, "this lie is a lie," may be true.  Or in the way that everything I say is a lie is almost paradoxical but is really just a lie.  In the case of The Vast of Night, The Paradox Theater set-up is just permission to take the story less seriously.

Which is too bad, because I actually liked the story well enough.   Fay the teenage telephone operator and Everett the teenage DJ, well played by Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz, are a good couple of friends or colleagues in investigation of the people in the sky.  And I liked the way both struggled to use the technologies of their day - Fay the cabled telephone switchboard, Everett the clunky reel-to-reel tape recorder, deftly listening to and replacing one tape with another as he feverishly searches for the tape recording he needs.  And the music, which is excellent, adds to the tension and fright.

But I would have preferred just the story not the story in the story.  Why dilute a scenically evocative tale with, I don't know, a tongue in cheek?  Or is the real story maybe that The Twilight Zone was a vehicle for telling us true stories disguised as fiction?  If so, that would have been daring, but should have been made much more clear.

But it's a debut film, so it's reasonable to hope for some truly pathbreaking movies from Andrew Patterson in the future.  The Vast of Night, though worth watching, isn't it.




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Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood

That's what Osito tells Ray - "bang on the hood" -  when Ray shows up at the body shop with some bogus question about what to do about what's wrong with his car.  It's a good line, because it captures Osito's savvy about what Ray is up to, right before Osito comes right out and lets Ray know.  But I also like that line because it also resonates with the spirit of this episode, in at least two ways.

First, there's a whole lot of banging going on, at least between Junior and Donna, whom he's trying to get back with.  And between Ray and Renee, an even more complicated situation, as I've said before, because Renee is with Ray now for two reasons.  One, her husband Frankie in jail is telling her to do that.  And two - though maybe that's really the primary reason - she's really attracted to Ray.  So, yeah, there's so much banging in this episode, that it has an even coarser name (look it up the name of the episode).

But banging on the hood is also what just about everybody seems up to, in the sense that they don't really know how to fix what's wrong with their lives, or get what they're after, so they just bang on the hood of their lives and hope for the best (as far as metaphors go, that's just me banging on the hood).

Jackie is usually the prime example of that.  She gets back on the fish police tonight, after driving a car when she shouldn't be behind the wheel (having been tagged with a DWI), and caps off a successful night on the water with the fish police by having a drink, which, again, she shouldn'tbe having.  But there's also something else looming on the horizon, which is far worse than banging on the hood.

Little by little, Jackie and Junior are on a collision course.  The closer Jackie gets to the murder of Sherry,  the closer she gets to getting on Frankie's hit list.   And who will Frankie, through Osito, choose for this task?  That would have to be Junior.

See you back here next week.


See also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry


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The Trial: A Different Kind of Murder Lawyer Story

Not Kafka's famous and famously important novel posthumously published nearly a hundred years ago, but a new (2019) Italian murder-mystery-lawyer television series, Il Processo, that started streaming on Netflix in April.  And no, it's of course not as good or powerful as Kafka's novel, but it's pretty good, will keep you guessing until the end, and is well worth watching if you don't mind dubbbing or subtitles.  [Spoilers follow, though I won't tell you the very ending.]

Unlike most lawyer dramas, The Trial is pretty much equidistant between prosecutor and defense, with both being flawed but attractive heroes of this story.  The prosecutor, Elena (well played by Vittoria Puccini) has the slight edge in originality of character, given that she soon discovers that the murder victim, a young pregnant woman, was her biological daughter, given up years ago for adoption.   But the defense attorney, Ruggero (also well played by Francesco Scianna) is no slouch, either.  He wants to win, yes, but he also has a stubborn devotion to the truth, and certainly doesn't want to be taken advantage of.

Also of interest to my American eyes is the nature of the Italian trial, which takes place in Mantua (which my wife reminds me figures in one of Cole Porter's great songs in Kiss Me Kate) before a panel of judges.  I have no idea if this is standard in Italy, but it certainly isn't in the United States, which makes it fun to follow.   The scenery is great, the food looks delicious, and the supporting cast is also excellent on all levels.

Bur the whodunnit narrative is the best reason to see this series.  The hallmark of a good murder mystery is that you're not sure who did the deed until the last chapter or episode, and when the culprit is revealed, it confirms what your less than fully conscious instincts were telling you all along.  The Trial has all kinds of twists and turns and red herrings along the way - are they a big fish in Italy? - and it was especially enjoyable to see, given that my wife and I haven't gone out to any of our favorite Italian restaurants in New York since the pandemic hit.  But even without the good food, The Trial is recommended.


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The Problem of Police Authority

The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police has got me thinking - as it should everyone - about what we can do about this problem of homicide not prevented by but perpetrated by police who are supposed to protect us.  It's a problem that has been erupting in America for decades, and caught on video ever since Rodney King was savagely beaten in 1992, which showed it's also a problem of assault and crimes committed by police that are less than murder.  And though African-Americans are all too too often murdered and brutalized by cops, Caucasians are also afflicted by life-threatening violence from police, as was the 75-year old man (Martin Gugino, a peace activist) thrown to the ground last night by Buffalo police and now in serious condition in the hospital.

And, actually, I've been thinking about this since the late 1950s, when I was a 12-year-old kid in the Bronx.  I was standing by a Carvel with my friends, a few days before July 4.  A cop car pulled up, and two cops got out of the car, and announced they were looking for kids with firecrackers.   When one of the cops approached me, I told him I didn't have any firecrackers (true).  He asked me to empty my pockets.  I asked him if he had a search warrant.  His response was to shove me up against a wall, and frisk me.  Later, when I got home, I told my father, who was a lawyer.  We went to the police station and filed a complaint.  Although I described the cop, I didn't get his badge number.  The "case" was settled by the police about a week later telling my father that the cops on the mission to reduce illegal firecrackers that night had no recollection of any such incident.

I came to realize something which was repeated years later when I was driving my teenage daughter home and I was pulled over.  "Can I help you?" I asked the officer.  "Can I help you?" he angrily repeated.  He proceeded to give me a ticket for going through a stop sign that wasn't even there. (I never did find out why he pulled me over in the first place - maybe it was the Hillary Clinton for Senate sticker on the bumper.)  I got the ticket dismissed because the cop didn't show up for the hearing, but I didn't appreciate spending my whole evening in town court.

I did appreciate, as in understand, that cops had no tolerance for any challenge to their authority.  And as I heard the news about the murder of black men and women by police across America over the years, I came to understand that I had gotten away lucky.  I was white.  I was pushed up against the wall, I was illegally ticketed.  Had I been black, I might well have been slaughtered.  The common denominator in all of these cases is some challenge to police authority.  The intolerance of police to such challenges pertains to all people.   But when you add racism into the mix, you get police murdering George Floyd and hundreds of unarmed blacks over the years.

What can be done about this?  I'm not a psychologist, but it's obvious that, ironically, people who are insecure about being taken seriously, being respected, seem to line up to become police.  Whether they can be trained to overcome this insecurity, I don't know.  Maybe a more effective approach would be to weed them out in the first place, if possible, though that would no doubt deplete the pool of police candidates.  In the long run, the very long run, and I mean this only semi-sarcastically, perhaps the best solution would be to replace human police with robot police - robots which would be programmed to take challenges to their authority in stride, and which wouldn't be racist.*

But we can't wait for a run that's long, or any length at all.  As the Rev. Al Sharpton said in his eulogy for George Floyd yesterday, in a speech whose power and eloquence was right up there with MLK's, we need change right now.  And that begins with police not only being suspended and fired, but brought up on the maximum charges that can be brought against them for their murder and assault of innocent people.

*Note added: Over on LinkedIn, where I put a link to this post, Dan Pesta, whom I hardly knew previously, wondered "Who programs the robot police?" I responded, "Yes, that would be crucial. My initial thoughts would be a broadly representative community of ethicists, lawyers, law enforcement, people from relevant communities, and of course, programmers. And they would appoint a different group to actually implement the code. Such a development would be at least as important as robotic cars. Since the robotic police couldn't be killed, only damaged, that would remove one big motive for police application of violence right there."


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Killing Eve Season 3 Finale: Cold Turkey

In a show like Killing Eve, cold turkey could mean a lot of things.  But especially in this third season, it's meant two things: leaving the killing/spying business; Eve and Villanelle leaving the fatal attraction they have for each other.

Obviously, for the show to go on, at least in the way it's been going, neither can happen.  So, what keeps the show attractive and provocative, is the way in which neither kind of cold turkey happens.

Villanelle has been saying all season she wants to stop doing the hands-on killing.  As good as she still is, this is like Mickey Mantle or Whitey Ford hanging it up in the middle of their incandescent careers (right, I'm a New York Yankees fan).  But no one, no one wants to accommodate her.  Not Dasha, never Konstantin. and, tonight, apparently not even Carolyn, either, who refuses to hire Villanelle as a spy for MI6, after she offered her that job, unless Villanelle were willing to kill for Carolyn.

As for Eve, it's not entirely clear what exactly she wants.  She already effectively left MI6, and came back only to find Kenny's killer.   Given the beyond complex feelings that Carolyn has about her son's death, finding his killer and working for Carolyn was bound to be an impossible combination.   And, indeed, Carolyn's feelings are so complex that even I can't completely understand them.  Yeah, the 12 were responsible for Kenny's death, but Carolyn's attitude about them is even more inscrutable than her feelings for Kenny.

But clearly, Eve and Villanelle do very much want each other.  The very existence of each has come to give the other's existence meaning.   So when, at Villannelle's suggestion, they turned their backs on each and started walking away, we all of course knew they wouldn't get very far at all on that bridge, which they didn't.

Hey, I have a suggestion for the ending of the series: Eve and Villanelle both die at the same time.  That would be a happy ending for their affair, since neither would have to go cold turkey and leave the other.

See you back here, I guess next year, when the next season is on.

See also Killing Eve 3.1: Whew! ... Killing Eve 3.2: Bringing It Into Focus ... Killing Eve 3.3: The Third Time's the Charm ... Killing Eve 3.4: Tip Toe Through the Tulips ... Killing Eve 3.5: The Darkness ... Killing Eve 3.6: Wounded ... Killing Eve 3.7: The Omelet

And see also Killing Eve 2.1: Libido and Thanatos ... Killing Eve 2.2: Villanelle as Victim ... Killing Eve 2.3 Lipstick ... Killing Eve 2.6: Billie ... Killing Eve 2.7: Death and Sex ... Killing Eve Season 2 Finale: Possibilities After the End

And see also Killing Eve: Highly Recommended (Season 1)


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Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundy

Another standout episode of Hightown - 1.3 - in which dirty laundry figures prominently.  Not the Don Henley song (which is also excellent), but Krista's suitcase, filled with it, which Jackie and a reluctant Junior retrieve.

This first leads to Jackie telling Junior not to call them "panties" - she prefers "underwear" (my wife agrees with Jackie, I'm with Junior) - and then to a silver lining discovered by Jackie in the suitcase, a list that leads her to some connection Krista has, or business she was doing, in Wareham, just off-Cape.

We pass by Wareham - that is, my wife and I - every time we drive up to the Cape, and never knew it could play a role in Jackie getting to the bottom of Sherry Henry's murder.   And, actually, so far, at this point, she's making better progress than Ray, who is progressing only with sleeping with Frankie's wife Renee, and only because Frankie asked her aka ordered her to do.  The only hope for Ray, if this keeps going this way, is that Renee falls in love with him and tells him what's really going on.  That's possible, but not very likely, because Renee has to be very afraid of Frankie, not to mention Renee needing above all else to protect her little boy.

It's a suitably tense, frightening situation that never lets up, and is always on the verge of getting much worse when Osito is on the scene.   There's something about him that's genuinely unsettling, which means that Atkins Estimond who plays the role, and I've never seen before, deserves a lot of credit for a fine performance.  If he keeps this up, he could enter the pantheon of memorable villains.

As I said after seeing the debut episode, Hightown is way at the top of new cop shows, and thus aptly named, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun


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