Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 140

Fifth 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate: Winners

The six-person Democratic presidential debate just concluded on CNN was easily the best debate so far - best in clarity, power of ideas, and even charm - so far.  Whether this was because of the fact that six candidates had more time than ten and more to express their views, or because these six candidates had better views to express ... well, it's probably a combination of both.

But I thought Klobuchar and Steyer especially stood out in their answers to just about all of the questions, and their concluding comments, and I expect that will help both of them in Iowa and beyond.   But Biden, still not the most articulate person on stage, was clear enough.  And Warren, Bernie, and Buttigieg were articulate and passionate, too.

My favorite exchange, in terms of both truth and humor, was between Biden and Bernie:
Biden: Kim Jong-un said: "Joe Biden is a rabid dog who should be beaten with a stick" Bernie: "Other than that, you like him." Biden" "0ther than that I like him.  And then he sent a love letter to Donald Trump"Next, I thought Warren got the better of Bernie in the "can a woman be elected President" controversy.  Although Bernie denied saying that, and offered his view that of course a woman could be elected President, given that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, Warren just seemed more believable in both her unspoken denial and her commitment to women in politics, with her example of woman being more electable than men.

On health care, I still remain unconvinced by Bernie and Warren about the way to get to universal health care in America.  It's a laudable, essential goal, but Klobuchar, Biden, Steyer, and Buttigieg made more sense in building towards on what we already have, via the Affordable Care Act.
Warren was also excellent on politics not being the most important thing - in this case, returning to Washington and sitting as a senator in the trial of Donald Trump takes precedence.   All the candidates agreed that, one way or another, Trump has to be removed from office.  Seeing him voted out of office by the Senate would be satisfying, but I'll take any of the candidates on stage tonight beating him in the election this coming November.

See also  First 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate, Part 1 of 2: Winners and Losers ... First Democratic Presidential Debate, Part 2 of 2: Winners and Losers ...  Second 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate, Part 1 of 2: Winners and Losers ... Second 2020 Democratic Presidential, Part 2 of 2: Winners and Losers  ... [missed third debate, I was in Canada] ... Fourth 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate: Winners and Losers
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The Outsider 1 & 2: Two Places at the Same Time

What do you get when Stephen King writes the novel and Richard Price the screenplay?  You get a television series as slap-in-the-face riveting as it comes.  The first two episodes of The Outsider on HBO tonight were that and more.

Here's what we have so far, in terms of narrative.  A boy is brutally murdered.  The suspect's blood is on the victim, and reliable witnesses put him near the scene.  But a video shows him at an academic conference many miles away, and his fingerprints on a book he handled at the hotel where the conference took place are confirmed as his.  Too.

The "too" is the key and paradoxical point here.  There's an old Yiddish saying, with one tuchas you can't dance at two weddings.  In the supernatural police story that is The Outsider, Detective Anderson (perfectly played by Ben Mendelsohn whom I last saw in Bloodline) realizes that, of course, one person cannot be in two places at the same time - the same person can't have committed a horrible murder at the same time he was video-recorded at at academic conference miles away.

As an academic, I can testify that I've been to some conferences that are so boring as to be maddening.   But not to the point of making someone commit murder, and certainly not at a place miles away from the conference at the very same time.

So, what's going on?  Since Stephen King wrote the novel (which I haven't read), there has to be some kind of supernatural element.  We do see a person with a hood, standing at the edges of some of the tragedies.  We don't yet know what his story - assuming it's a "his" - is.  Maybe some spirit or monster than assumes the shape of an innocent person and employs that shape to commit murders?

I'm looking to seeing how this plays out, against the grit and dialogue that is itself a fine example of a film noir police procedural.

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Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist: Science Fiction Musical

Hey, my wife and I just saw and really enjoyed the first episode of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.  So why am I reviewing it?  Well, I love music.  I thought Smash (also on NBC a few years ago) was great, though I never reviewed it.  I did review and liked, even loved, a lot of Nashville.   And Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is ... science fiction.  Zoey has a super-power - she can hear in the form of great songs what people around her are thinking - and there's even a scientific explanation for how she gets this power.  She's listening to a playlist of music while she's having an MRI and there's a little earthquake.  Not the most plausible science, but, in fact, more plausible than time travel, because it doesn't invoke any paradoxes.

And the music was outstanding in this hour, ranging from people in the street singing "Help" to a guy in her office singing "I Think I Love You."  You don't usually get everything from the Beatles to The Partridge Family on any other show on television that I've heard of or heard.

And the narrative has some excellent turns, too.  The best is Zoey's father, who is in some kind of catatonic state.  But he's able to sing his thoughts to Zoey, or, rather, Zoey is able to hear them in song.   I saw this coming, but it was still a tender, really beautiful interlude in the hour.

There's love, business, and other fun and more serious components to this story.  The acting is excellent - Peter Gallagher and Mary Steenburgen play Zoey's parents.  And Zoey herself is played by Jane Levy, who lights up the screen and every scene that she's in.  And the voices range from ok to really excellent,  my favorites being Simon's played and performed by John Clarence Stewart (who sang "Mad World")  and Max's played by Skyler Astin (who sang and danced "I Think I Love You").

The pilot was last week.  The show's due back in February.  I'm hooked.



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Ray Donovan 7.9: Pulling for Life

The penultimate episode 7.9 of Ray Donovan this evening was just as tight and consequential as you can get with these characters - and that's consequential indeed.

The main story features Bunch, in Lena's absence and under Ray's supervision, tailing and setting up Judge Scholl to make him think that the corrupt Mayor is out to get him.  In a brilliant twist at the end, it turns out that's exactly what the Mayor is doing, because he's gotten wind of what Ray is doing.  But who tipped off the Mayor?  We saw Detective Perry's boss call someone right after she and her partner left the office ...

Meanwhile, Daryll has about this best episode of the series, complete with Ray saving the day, and maybe patching up their relationship.  One of the hallmarks of this series, throughout, has been Ray's ability to "fix" multiple life-and-death crises swirling around him at once.  This season, especially in this episode, has never shown that better.

Mickey still's at large, now allied with Smittie.  Like Daryll, Smittie was on the verge of taking his life, for somewhat similar reasons: they either lost or are on the verge of losing the woman they loved.   Bridget indicates that Smitte wearing a wire on Ray was unforgivable.  I'm thinking that the new Ray we've been seeing this year may be a little more understanding.

Nice scene between Ray's shrink and Terry - who, come to think of it, was also on the edge of suicide this season.  But, so far, life is winning out (except unfortunately for Daryll's new love).  I'm hoping that holds for the season finale next week.

 See also Ray Donovan 7.1: Getting Ahead of the Game ... Ray Donovan 7.2: Good Luck ... Ray Donovan 7.3: "The Air that I Breathe" ... Ray Donovan 7.4: Claudette and Bridget ... Ray Donovan 7.5: Bing! ... Ray Donovan 7.6: Phone Booths and Cellphones ,,, Ray Donovan 7.7: Back Story ... Ray Donovan 7.8: The Wife

See also Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend ... Ray Donovan 6.2: Father and Sons ... Ray Donovan 6.4: Politics in the Ray Style ... Ray Donovan 6.6: The Mayor Strikes Back ... Ray Donovan 6.7: Switching Sides ... Ray Donovan 6.8: Down ... Ray Donovan 6.9: Violence and Storyline ... Ray Donovan 6.10: Working Together ... Ray Donovan 6.11: Settled Scores and Open Questions ... Ray Donovan Season 6 Finale: Snowfall and Mick

See also Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending

And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption


It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Evil 1.11: Hospital Horror

Evil was back tonight with episode 1.11 - an almost standalone episode, exploring the aftermath of David's mugging, in a hospital where he encounters, well, a hospital horror story.

Let's face it.  With the exception of bringing babies into the world, a hospital is not the place any patient wants to be.  By its very nature and purpose, a hospital is always on the verge of being a horror show.  However well-run and compassionate and effective a hospital is, it understandably can bring out our worst fears.

Except, in David's case, these fears may be more than fears.  They may be real.  And, significantly, in this episode, they - the dangers - don't seem to be the workings of a devil or evil spirit.  They seem to be to be the workings of a demented nurse.

This makes this episode of Evil a very different kind of story.   The usual tug between science and spirit has been replaced a tug between sound medical treatment and a psycho nurse.  The killer nurse or killer doctor or killer hospital has of course been well explored in our fiction.  See, for example, the 1978 movie Coma based on the 1977 movie of the same name.  In stories like that, there's not even a hint of the supernatural.  Why did Evil choose to explore this theme with barely a mention of the supernatural that is Evil's stock-in-trade?

Who knows.  There is an excellent side story, a spinoff from David's sojourn in the hospital, in which Kristin and Ben meet Judy, who did what Kristin does for David before Kristin came into the story, that is, before the beginning of this series.  Judy has spunk and a sense of humor, just like Kristin.  Apparently she doesn't have a bunch of daughters, though, who all like to talk at the same time.

Anyway, good to see Evil back on.  Stay out of hospitals, if you can, and see you here next week, when maybe we'll find out more about David's attacker.

See also: Evil: Incubus Mystery ... Evil 1.2: Miracles and Racism ... Evil 1.3: Possessed Alexa ... Evil 1.4: Raising the Ante ... Evil 1.5-6: Seeing Red ... Evil 1.7-8: Sigils and Weight ... Evil 1.9: The Deposition ... Evil 1.10: The Influencer




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1st review of Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time

Delighted to share with you the first review of my new album, Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, officially due out from Old Bear Records early next month.

The review is by none other than Taro Miyasugi, who started the ball rolling with the TUAR revival with his surprise review of Twice Upon A Rhyme, my 1972 album, in Record Collectors Magazine in Japan, in 2002.  He said Twice Upon A Rhyme was “human mystical pop music… wonderful songs”.

Here's what he said about Welcome Up, just a few hours ago, on Instagram -


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Emergence 1.10: The Search for Piper

Emergence was back tonight with its best episode of the season - well placed, since the series only has a few more episodes left, and is in danger of not being renewed.  Which would be unfortunate.

Because tonight's episode 1.10 had all the trimmings, as Jo set out to find Piper, including

Jo's repartee, as when she wonders why "you design an AI and you make it a gas attendant in the middle of nowhere". That would be Pennsylvania.Also Jo's mastery of that little thingamajig which, when placed against - I think the left arm, is that right - of someone, you can tell if that person is a person or an AI.  Jo and the FBI pass the test.A good ending scene in which Jo actually finds Benny and Piper, but of course they get away.So, here's where we - or the show - stand.  There's a more widespread group of AIs afoot or at large than we thought.   We still don't know their purpose.  We do know that Piper is something special, but in what way?  As far as we know, she's the first child AI.   And she may well have some powers that the other AIs don't have.  And we still don't know who was really making the AIs, or wanted them made.

They could be aliens from another solar system or galaxy, or humans who time traveled with their superior knowledge from the future, or just very advance humans who were born in our own time like all the rest of us.  But why did they invent the AIs - or harness, encourage, whatever the people we saw in earlier episodes as the AI progenitors?

Lots of questions and not many episodes left.  I'd be very happy if this series got another season.

See also: Emergence: May Just Make It ... Emergence 1.2: Cleaning Up ... Emergence 1.3: Robots and Androids ... Emergence 1.4: Android Child ... Emergence 1.5: Supergirl ... Emergence 1.6: The People Who Are Kindred ... Emergence 1.7: Piper's Real Mom ... Emergence 1.8: Spinning ... Emergence 1.9: Benny!





The androids are coming out into the open, for the first time in centuries .... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Spinning Out: Draws You In

Hey, a series about ice skaters is probably close to the last thing you'd expect to find me reviewing here.  But ice skating is the favorite and often the only part of the Winter Olympics my wife and I watch, and we wanted to see how January Jones, last seen (I think) by us in Mad Men, was doing on the screen, so we gave it a shot.   And I liked it, sometimes a lot.

More than my wife did, but that's ok.  A lot more than the dyspeptic, myopic critics did, but who cares what they think.  I thought the series, which focuses on a mother (Carol, played by January Jones) and her two daughters (Kat, in her early twenties, played by Kaya Scodelario, and Serena, 16, played by Willow Shields) who in one way or another all have a life on the ice, and two of whom (Carol and Kat) suffer from bi-polar disorders, was often pretty good and occasionally really excellent. The plot had some surprises and the acting off the ice always sufficed.   The skating was great (some of it was done by doubles), and though there were a couple of annoyances (which I'll get to below) - SPOILERS AHEAD - they were no big deal.

Here's what I most liked: the sheer difficulty of succeeding in skating competition, even if you have ample talent.  (That is, I liked the way that difficulty was portrayed.)  The ephemerality of success, and the vulnerability that even the winners can't avoid.   And when you add to this the burden of the bi-polar disorder, and the medication that keeps you in balance in everyday life but can dull your senses just enough to make you sometimes lose your edge in the rink, you get an especially interesting, even riveting, story.

Kaya Scodelario gave a sensitive and compelling performance.  January Jones seemed like another version of Betty on Mad Men, and that was fine.  Willow Shields was good as Serena.  In some ways the best performance was Evan Roderick as Kat's partner Justin in more than one way - we've this character many times before, but Roderick gave him a surprisingly fresh and authentic presentation.

My main annoyance was too many rabbits out of the hat, like the abusive doctor who suddenly became a villain in the final episode or two.  For that matter, there were too many subplots.  I could have done without what Justin's father and stepmother went through, or without the coach's true love story, or without some of Marcus the bartender's story, or at least one fewer of those.  And some of the life-and-death crises, like the coach's eye surgery, were way too quickly resolved.

But, as I said, those problems were relatively minor compared to the soaring high points of the series, on and off the rink.  I'm up for a second, more streamlined season next year, and my wife will probably watch it, too, so I hope it's renewed.


It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Ray Donovan 7.8: The Wife

An unusually good episode 7.8 of Ray Donovan tonight, in an unusually good season.  And the single best line, coming from the late, electrocuted O'Malley's son, was about what Jim Sullivan did, not only to Ray's sister, but his "wife".

Now as I've no doubt already mentioned elsewhere in these Ray Donovan reviews, we still don't really know why Ray's sister Bridget took her own life.  I'd always assumed she was going through some kind of profound trauma based on what the priest did to Ray and his brothers.  And she was on drugs.  But, for all we know, Bridget could have jumped off a roof for a completely different reason - because of something Jim Sullivan did to her, or made her do.

There are only two more episodes, and I hope that's time enough for us to get an answer.  But in many ways even more important is what Jim Sullivan did to Abby.

First, let's assume that Ray's wife back then was Abby.  It's not impossible he was briefly married to someone else back then, before Abby.  But not very likely.  We saw an episode or more in an earlier season with Abby and Ray, much younger, in Boston.  Not as young as the Ray in Boston we saw tonight.  Old enough that Ray and Abby were played by Liev Schreiber and Paula Malcomson, but much younger than Ray is now.  I can't quite recall if Bridget was in any of those older episodes, but I'm pretty sure she was, back around the 2013 season?   So that means that Jim Sullivan could well have done something bad to both Ray's wife and his sister, as O'Malley's son indicated.

Which would be a major, story-changing revelation.  It would mean that Ray and his family were victimized not only by the priest, and, in a very different way, but their biological father Mick, but by Jim Sullivan.

I haven't gone into some of the other important developments in tonight's episode, like Daryll's girlfriend apparently killed, and Smitty wearing a wire to entrap Ray.   Those two elements in the story would in themselves make the next two episodes especially worth watching.  But the Jim Sullivan revelation skyrockets that right off the charts.

See also Ray Donovan 7.1: Getting Ahead of the Game ... Ray Donovan 7.2: Good Luck ... Ray Donovan 7.3: "The Air that I Breathe" ... Ray Donovan 7.4: Claudette and Bridget ... Ray Donovan 7.5: Bing! ... Ray Donovan 7.6: Phone Booths and Cellphones ,,, Ray Donovan 7.7: Back Story

See also Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend ... Ray Donovan 6.2: Father and Sons ... Ray Donovan 6.4: Politics in the Ray Style ... Ray Donovan 6.6: The Mayor Strikes Back ... Ray Donovan 6.7: Switching Sides ... Ray Donovan 6.8: Down ... Ray Donovan 6.9: Violence and Storyline ... Ray Donovan 6.10: Working Together ... Ray Donovan 6.11: Settled Scores and Open Questions ... Ray Donovan Season 6 Finale: Snowfall and Mick

See also Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending


And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption


It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Rocketman: Half the Story, But Excellent

What better way to start my 2020 reviews with Rocketman - after all, Elton John and I were literally born on the same day (my Wikipedia page, Elton John's Wikipedia page).  And we both make music - though Elton John's exponentially more successful than mine.  And I remember going around to record companies in New York City in 1970 with some rough mixes of Twice Upon a Rhyme, and hearing Elton John's "Your Song" playing in one of them, with everyone in the office standing around and listening to it and loving it.  I did, too.

The movie, of course, doesn't have that scene.  But it has a lot from the first half of Elton John's life, from his rise to extraordinary and well-deserved fame, to going off the rails, to coming back to the world and his life.   I would have rather the movie continued into something closer to the present, with Elton singing at Diana's funeral, writing the music for Lion King, but, hey, that was not the movie director Dexter Fletcher and writer Lee Hall wanted to make, and they did a fine job with this one.  As did Taron Egerton as Elton John - in acting as well as singing - and everyone else in the movie.

If the story seems a little trite - and yet another star deeply unhappy, sometimes getting it back in control, sometimes not - that's because it apparently happens lots of the time.  And the cinematography was especially excellent - as is the stagecraft of Elton's in-person concerts (see my review of a concert my wife and I went to and loved in October 2018 - where he sang all of his songs).  But, speaking of concerts, I wish Rocketman had included a bit of the concert Elton did with John Lennon in 1974 at Madison Square Garden, where they sang Lennon's superb "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" - here's a not-the-greatest quality video of that performance.

But the songs that Taron as Elton sang in the movie were done with panache, and, as long as you don't expect to see and hear everything, you'll really enjoy it.



Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time soon to be released, CDs now available

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