Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 131

Homeland series finale: Continuity

Well, it was a thoroughly satisfying series finale for Homeland, just finished on Showtime.

First, I knew Carrie could never kill Saul, even to stave off a nuclear war, as I said in my review of last week's show.  But tonight's finale had me faked out, cursing at Carrie, until it became clear that she had tried to make Saul believe that she would kill him, which entailed making the viewers believe the same, all to apply maximum pressure to get Saul to give up his beloved Russian agent.  And when that failed, Carrie got what she wanted, anyway, with a Plan B that worked like a charm.  That's what I call a nice piece of writing in this series.

But the very ending was even better, and I sort of guessed it the moment I saw Carrie two years later in Moscow with Yevgeny.  Wouldn't it be cool, I said to my wife, if Carrie redeemed herself by replacing the Russian agent she had handed to Yevgeny on a deadly silver platter?  That would be just like Carrie.  And sure enough, that's exactly what she did.  With all the trimmings Saul could expect, down to the message inside the spine of a conveyed book, the same way information had flowed from the previous Russian agent to Saul.

And this opens up all kinds of possibilities for movie and television sequels.  Saul, though he's for the most out of the CIA now, now has golden agent in Moscow, someone he can trust, well, at least with his life.  And it will take a long time before Yevgeny and the Russians catch on,

Saul says, earlier in this finale, that the Russians have already tried to chew up our democracy.  The world seems very different now, in the pandemic age.  The Coronavirus now is much more of an enemy than Russia.  But the world will prevail over the virus, and that will leave Russia and its hacking still in play as a despoiler of our democracy.  And I'm glad to know that Carrie will be there, on our side with her brilliance and passion.

See also Homeland 8.1: Lost Time ... Homeland 8.3: Ohio ... Homeland 8.4: Helicopter Down ... Homeland 8.5: Is Carrie Another Brody? ... Homeland 8.6: Carrie vs. the World ... Homeland 8.7: The Vice Tightens ... Homeland 8.8: The Black Box ... Homeland 8.9: The Red Box and the Black Russian ... Homeland 8.10: Carrie vs. Saul, As Never Before ... Homeland 8.9: Kill Saul

And see also Homeland 7.1: The Worse Threat ... Homeland 7.2: Carrie vs. 4chan ... Homeland 7.3: Separating Truth from Hyperthinking ... Homeland 7.4: Fake News! ... Homeland 7.5: "The Russian Angle" ... Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally ... Homeland 7.7: Meets The Americans ... Homeland 7.8: Evenly Matched ... Homeland 7.9: Franny vs. the Job or the U.S. Hacks Twitter ... Homeland 7.10: President Trump and President Keane ... Homeland 7.11: Carrie in Action ... Homeland Season 7 Finale: The President
And see also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain ... Homeland 6.8: Peter's Problem ... Homeland 6.9: The Tide Begins to Turn ... Homeland 6.10: Fake News! ... Homeland 6.11: Quinn and Dar ... Homeland Season 6 Finale: Chilling - and True to Life
And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs
And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie's State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie's Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together
And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional


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Outlander 5.10: Finally!

Well, I've been looking forward to this all season.  I haven't read the books.   I've been told, by the people who had, that it wouldn't happen until a later season.  But I said, hey, a television show based on a series of books can change what was in the books any time it pleased.  And that's what Outlander did in tonight's 5.10.  And I was very pleased.

I have a standard, a gauge, that I use in reviewing television shows, about whether a character is dead.  Being choked into unconsciousness is not a sure indication that a character has been killed.  As we saw tonight with Jocasta, and several weeks ago with Roger, people can survive chokings and even hangings.  Same for falling off a boat or out of a plane.  Same for being shot, just about anywhere in the body.  Except in the head.  And, especially, except when the rest of your body, including your head, is tied to a stake planted in a rising tide.

So the death of Bonnet passed my test.  He's dead.  Shot in the head, on the verge of drowning, tied to a stake in the rising water.  But Roger asks Brianna a very good question.  Did she shoot Bonnet in the head to give him a death more merciful than drowning, or to insure that he somehow didn't escape his watery fate?

The answer is likely a combination of both.  As we saw in the long interlude in which Brianna was Bonnet's captive tonight, she had some real feelings for him, mixed in there with the horror.  She was maybe not as glad to put him out of his misery as she was to insure his death, but mercy was a part of her motive.  Ironically, though, for that very reason, that she had feelings for Bonnet, her killing him was also a mercy to herself.  By definitely killing Bonnet, she was setting herself free from that inchoate attraction she had for him.

All in all, one top-notch episode in a top-notch drama.

See also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet ... Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark ... Outlander 5.8: Breaking Out of the Silence ... Outlander 5.9: Buffalo, Snake, Tooth

And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale:  Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History

 

 
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Fauda 3: Blood, Tears, Humanity

Fauda 3 was somewhat different from the first two seasons, which were superb.  The new season shows us far less success from Doron's team.  Missions go wrong, lives are lost.  Blood and tears are shed, which make for some very memorable scenes.  The setbacks make for a more surprising, more realistic narrative.  I think I like this third season even more than the first two.

The scale, in terms of the terror the team combats, the foes they face and the victims they endeavor to save, is more personal and focused.  Lior Raz, the co-creator and writer has created a narrative that starts off on the razor's edge and never leaves it.  When you run a course like that, you're bound to get hurt, badly.  Raz plays the team leader and lead character Doron, with his customary of blend of power, passion, and, when needed, subtlety.  When Hila, a fine-looking high-powered intelligence officer, walks in the room, all the guys around the table hoot and applaud.  Doron eventually manages a small smile.  Of course, he's the one who gets to sleep with her.  (Ok, I promise no more spoilers.)

Doron's Achilles's heel is that, in addition to being a great fighter and strategist, he fancies himself a good psychologist or understander of human nature.  He truly believes he can develop rapport with people who, if they knew who he was, would see him as their mortal enemy.  Late in the season, Doron and Steve have a conversation, in which they both acknowledge that their weakness is rushing into dangerous situations.   They certainly both do this.  But Doron's deeper weakness is that he thinks he can manage people and situations which are far more beyond his control than he realizes.  Most of things that go wrong for the team in this breathtaking season are due to one version or another of that problem.

As indicated in the Hila introduction scene, there's humor of all kinds in this third season, just as there was in the first two.  In at least one scene with Gabi, it likely was unintentional.  I'm pretty sure I saw the same exact scene, with a guy on double crutches in back of Gabi in a hospital corridor, twice.  But, hey, you gotta save an expense whenever you can in a production these days.

The acting, as always, was outstanding. In addition to Raz as Doron, Doron Ben-David as Steve, Itzik Cohen as Gabi, Ala Dakka as Bashar, Khalifa Natour as Jihad, Boaz Konforty as Avichay, Yaakov Zada Daniel as Eli, Marina Maximilian Blumin as Hila, and Reef Neeman as Yaara were all excellent.   Fauda continues to be one of my favorite series, combining the flash danger of 24 with the kind of depth and humanity you don't see in many places on the screen.

See also Fauda: Beyond Homeland ... Fauda 2: Another Unforgettable Visit


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Killing Eve 3.2: Bringing It Into Focus

A good second episode of the new (third) season of Killing Eve - 3.2 - bringing many of the characters into sharper focus.

It's never 100% clear exactly where Konstantin stands.  And that's exactly what's brought into focus - this unfathomably - in this second episode.  But here's one thing to keep in mind: If Konstantin had anything to do with Kenny being killed, either Caroline or Konstantin won't be alive at the end of this season, because she won't abide him being alive.

I enjoyed the two guys in the Bitter Pill, and the faux hard time they were giving Eve.  It was faux because they all, including Eve, want the same thing: finding Kenny's killer, as they even said to Eve.  Their offices are a good new locus for Eve.  Although they may not have quite the cutting edge tech savvy of the British MIs, the Bitter Pill has a hacker's cunning that will carry them far.

Meanwhile, the big reveal to Villanelle that she didn't kill Eve is, well, life-changing.  Villanelle loves Eve, as the quiet smile on her face after she receives the news amply attests.  It's now clear that her next trip will be to England to see Eve.  But, as always, to kill her or love her?  Villanelle has for a long while really yearned to do both, at the very same time, if possible.

Villanelle was also excellent in the murderous clown scene, and I say this as someone who is bored of the scary clown meme, as Villanelle herself might say.  But she was sharp throughout this interlude, with satisfying repartee, as when she asks her young-man partner-in-clown partner if he's "ten years old".  An all the memorable line, made downright disconcerting, when she kills him a few minutes later.

See you next week.

See also Killing Eve 3.1: Whew!

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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The Plot Against America Finale: Reality

As brilliant and memorable as The Man in the High Castle (in print and on the screen) was, it was a comic book adventure.  Complex, as alternate histories are bound to be, but still something in the world of fantasy not reality.  Though The Plot Against America may not be quite as memorable, it is just as brilliant in its own way.  And it is about reality.  Way too close to reality be just enjoyable.  It ends up being frightening, as even the most grim fantasy cannot really be.

Let's just look at the very ending.   There's a special election for President being held in 1942.  Mrs. Lindbergh has called upon Congress to authorize it, after her husband, the President, has disappeared.  There's hope, expectations, that FDR might reclaim the White House (earlier, Walter Winchell is assassinated).  But we see in the South, where African Americans are no doubt voting for Roosevelt, that ballots are being burned rather than counted.  There's word that FDR is also doing well in some northern states.  Will that be enough to restore decency and democracy to the USA?  That's where the mini-series ends.  Before a ballot is actually counted.  Just like where we are today, regarding our Presidential election scheduled for this coming November.

Philip Roth's book, upon which the mini-series was based, was written before Trump became President in our reality.  The mini-series wasn't.  Clearly David Simon, who has Homicide, The Wire, and Treme to his earlier illustrious credit, knew all about Trump in the White House, certainly when the ending of the mini-series was finalized.  Good for Simon for making this powerful statement.

Earlier in this finale, it gets about as ugly as an alternate history in which bigotry comes to power can be.  The Klan is running high.  The FBI is competing with the Gestapo.  All of that is all too reminiscent of our reality, too.

So, see The Plot Against America.  You'll be entertained by the Yiddish.  But you'll be horrified with how much of that alternate reality is not far from where America is today.

See also The Plot Against America 1.1: Yet Another Alternate Nazi History, with Forshpeis ... The Plot Against 1.2: The 33rd President ... The Plot Against America 1.3: Corrosive Anti-Semitism ... The Plot Against America 1.4: Close to Home ... The Plot Against America 1.5: Involuntary Transfer

 
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Bosch 6: The Best Police on Television

Have I said before that Bosch is the best police drama on television?  I can't recall.  But I can tell you that whatever I thought after watching the previous five seasons of Bosch, which I very much enjoyed, I think Bosch is at the apex after just binging the sixth season on Amazon Prime Video.

[I'll try for no spoilers ahead.]

I found this sixth season a little tighter than the previous ones, which had an occasionally distracting profusion of up-front plots.   This new season has a least three plots, and several subplots, but there's only one plot that first and foremost.   The characterization is superb, as always, but I especially liked the growth of Jerry Edgar, in both his relationship with his partner Bosch, and what he does on his own.  Father and daughters can easily be old hat in cop dramas.  But Maddie's relationship with her father Harry is richer, more developed, than its been before, with a nice, well-motivated twist at the very end.   Bosch's colleagues are also in fine form, and Detective Johnson was especially outstanding, with more than one crucial move.

The dialogue in Bosch has always been hipt.  Harry talked about getting an Uber before half the world had heard of it.  In Bosch 6, we get such nuggets as "you can’t play social media as you would a news story," spoken to Irving by his opponent in the LA mayoral race.   Now there's a savvy take on media which many in traditional media, as well as politicians, have yet to grasp.

The acting is letter perfect, too.  Titus Welliver acts like he was born to play this hardboiled detective with an unshakeable devotion to his code and an invincible devotion to his daughter.  Jamie Hector, whom I have admired since The Wire, just gets better and better as J. Edgar.  Madison Lintz is coming into her own as an actress playing Bosch's daughter with the same first name.  And as long as I mentioned Det. Johnson, I should mention Troy Evan's portrayal of Johnson puts Evans on the map as an unforgettable character actor.

The essence of Bosch is really straightforward - it's passion, to do the right thing, as he sees it, to protect those he loves, to seek retribution for those unable to get it themselves.  I haven't read the Michael Connelly novels, and I likely won't.  The books won't have Caught a Ghost's "Can't Let Go" playing at the beginning of every chapter, and the faces, accents, and walks in every scene.  For that you need the television series, and it needs to be streaming at that, so you can see as many episodes as possible at one time.

ee also  Bosch: First Half: Highly Recommended ... Bosch: Second Half as Fine as the First ...  Bosch Season 2: Dragnet with Uber ... Bosch 3: Best Season So Far ... Bosch 4: Delivering and Transcending the Genre ... Bosch 5: Room with a Killer View


                   another kind of police story 
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Westworld 3.6: Family Group Therapy

A solid Westworld episode 3.6 last night - i.e., challenging, harrowing, cutting-edge literally - in which at least three separate but ultimately interlocking stories unfold:

1. The Man in Black, aka William, now in white, is still under mental supervision, to put it mildly.  I'd still like to see him escape and do some damage in the real world. In a way, being in this kind of high-tech a quasi mental institution is like being in another kind of Westworld park.  I did like the scene with all the versions of William sitting around a table and talking to the real William in a kind of family group therapy.  These included William as a boy, William as we knew him when he first came to Westworld, the Man in Black himself, and just for good measure, William's father-in-law Delos.   I always get a feeling with Westworld that it's animated by situations the writers have long envisioned, even prior to Westworld.  This scene typifies that for me.

2. Although I'm getting a little tired of seeing Nazis in television dramas, it's always good to see Maeve flexing her martial kills, and the scene with her and the Nazis was top-drawer.  I also like how she's drawing ever closer to a confrontation with at least one of the Doloreses.

3. Speaking of which, Dolores as Charlotte does pretty well for herself, even though she can't keep her husband and son from being incinerated when her car is rocketed.  One of the advantages of being a host is that your body is apparently less destructible than the old-fashioned human kind that we the viewers all sport.  My guess is the death of her family, along with her own close call with it, will make Charlotte even more ferocious.

Almost no sign of Bernard in this episode, and none of Caleb, which is interesting in and of itself. The coming attractions show a big role for Caleb next week - good, since he's now the most unpredictable character on Westworld.






See also: Westworld 3.1: The Great Outside ... Westworld 3.2: Dolores' Enemies ... Westworld 3.3: Cyberpunk World ... Westworld 3.4: The Man in White and Multiple Doloreses ... Westworld 3.5: Ground Control
And see also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control ... Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation ... Westworld 2.7: Maeve vs. Dolores ... Westworld 2.8: The Wrong World ... Westworld 2.9: Fathers ... Westworld 2.10: The Realist World

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions 

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Homeland 8.11: Kill Saul

My title for the review of Homeland 8.11 - the penultimate episode in the series - almost sounds like something out of combination of Homeland and Killing Eve, which I'll also be watching later tonight, and reviewing here even later tonight or tomorrow.  But it's not.  It's pretty much the last thing Yevgeny says to Carrie - even if it isn't, it burns out anything he says after - as she receives her marching orders about what she needs to do get back the black (red) box, for the purpose of stopping a nuclear war.

Pretty high stakes.  But I don't think Carrie will do it.  In fact, I think there's no way she'll do it.  So here are some possible ways out of this, for Carrie (because I don't think the series will end with a nuclear war):

Saul kills himself, as a way doing what Yevgeny wants, but getting Carrie off the hook.  Nah, I don't think this will happen, either.  Saul won't do this, if only to protect his asset, not to mention that I don't think he's the suicidal type, for any reason, however noble.Yevgeny backs down.  Don't think this will happen, either.  He's shown himself to be ruthless, almost beyond belief.Saul figures out what's going on.  He and the asset, with Carrie's help, figure out how to get the fight recorder back, despite Yevgeny's opposition.  This seems to me to be the most likely.  But I'm an incurable optimist.We'll just have to wait and see what happens next week.  In the meantime, I really like Saul cursing his head off at the UN - hats off to Mandy Patinkin for a standout performance tonight - and young Saul put in a pretty fine performance (the character and the actor, whose name I'd mention here but there's no one identified as "Young Saul" in the credits - thanks Showtime - I have seen it suggested that maybe Patinkin was de-aged ala The Irishman - but a little research done by my wife reveals that Ben Savage played this part).  Anyway, what I was saying?  Yeah, that Saul was outstanding tonight, in his older and younger selves.  (My wife did some more research and discovered that Savage played a young Jason Gideon in Criminal Minds back around 2014 - the older character was played by Patinkin.)

Ok, enough about Savage.  See you here after next week's series finale.

See also Homeland 8.1: Lost Time ... Homeland 8.3: Ohio ... Homeland 8.4: Helicopter Down ... Homeland 8.5: Is Carrie Another Brody? ... Homeland 8.6: Carrie vs. the World ... Homeland 8.7: The Vice Tightens ... Homeland 8.8: The Black Box ... Homeland 8.9: The Red Box and the Black Russian ... Homeland 8.10: Carrie vs. Saul, As Never Before

And see also Homeland 7.1: The Worse Threat ... Homeland 7.2: Carrie vs. 4chan ... Homeland 7.3: Separating Truth from Hyperthinking ... Homeland 7.4: Fake News! ... Homeland 7.5: "The Russian Angle" ... Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally ... Homeland 7.7: Meets The Americans ... Homeland 7.8: Evenly Matched ... Homeland 7.9: Franny vs. the Job or the U.S. Hacks Twitter ... Homeland 7.10: President Trump and President Keane ... Homeland 7.11: Carrie in Action ... Homeland Season 7 Finale: The President
And see also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain ... Homeland 6.8: Peter's Problem ... Homeland 6.9: The Tide Begins to Turn ... Homeland 6.10: Fake News! ... Homeland 6.11: Quinn and Dar ... Homeland Season 6 Finale: Chilling - and True to Life
And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs
And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie's State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie's Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together
And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional


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Outlander 5.9: Buffalo, Snake,Tooth

So, I've been wondering all this season why there was that scene with buffalo in the opening credits, under the best rendition of the opening song in any season.  We found out in episode 5.9 tonight.

I didn't even know that buffalo got this far back East.  But Wikipedia assures that buffalo were seen as far east as North Carolina circa 1850, and that's good enough for me, and this story that takes place around twenty years later.   Hunting buffalo is what gets Jamie and Roger out in the woods and open meadows, where ...

Jamie gets bitten by a poisonous snake.  This leads to many things, beginning with a great conversation between Jamie and Roger, in which Jamie tasks his son-in-law with dispatching Bonnet if Jamie doesn't survive and ending with the snake tooth which saves Jamie's life, via the penicillin which Claire has wrought, and the tooth as injector that Brianna the engineer has figured out.  In between, when Jamie, on the verge of death, tells Claire he wants her to "touch"him, we get one of the most tender sex scenes ever on television.

I should point that although Sam Heughan is always excellent as Jamie, in episode 5.9 he puts in a really Emmy-worthy, memorable performance.   It's tough to play someone with a strong soul in shouting distance to death, and Heughan did an outstanding job of it tonight.

And that leaves ... Bonnet.  Having not read any of the books, I have no idea if he'll die by the end of this season, which could happen, anyway, whatever is in the books, if the television series decided to change the disposition of Bonnet in the books.   I'm disappointed he wasn't killed already, but life and real history, alas, show that being evil is no indication that your life will be cut short.

See you here next week!

See also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet ... Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark ... Outlander 5.8: Breaking Out of the Silence

And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale:  Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History

 

 
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The Rolling Stones at One World Together at Home

I just want to say that I thought The Rolling Stones' performance of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" tonight at the Global Citizen's One World Together at Home Concert in support of the WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund is one of the best things I've ever heard on television.  Come to think of it, at in-person concerts and on the Internet, too.

Mick Jagger somehow sounded at least as good as he did on the original recording in 1968, bringing the brilliant lyric and melody home with perfect power and style, while strumming a strong acoustic guitar.  Keith Richards put in some tasty acoustic guitar work as well, and a good lower harmony line in most of the choruses.  Ronnie Wood, who wasn't on the 1968 recording - Brian Jones played electric guitar for the Stones then - was outstanding on his electric guitar, both in terms of what he looked like and the music he produced.  And he threw in some good high harmony near the end.  Jagger and Richards each looked great in their own ways. too.

And speaking of looking great, Charlie Watts looked perfect, playing an armchair and three whatever they were in front of him, certainly not drums.  Yes, Watts was playing air drums like nobody's business, smiling into the camera, looking vaguely out of it as he always does, and that was one of the best parts of the Stones' performance.  I would have loved to have been the fly on the wall when that decision was made - Charlie Watts pretending to play drums.   Once upon a time, a vocalist lip-synching on a television performance was anathema to snooty critics.  Watts tonight in that one fell performance legitimized air-performing and air-singing - which is what lip-synching is - forever.

In a way, that's part of what all great public music performance is - it's never precisely how you play and sing, but the impression that the public gets of whatever kind of music you're making.  In Watts' case, he wasn't actually making any music, but it didn't matter at all, the Stones - including totally off-camera bass and keyboard - pulled it off.   Certainly filled my prescription.

And it was for a fabulously worthy cause, the most important cause of our lives right now.


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