Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 167

Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists: The Art Is Still Alive and Kicking

Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists - the documentary on HBO - is lots of things.  A paean to an age of journalism (Breslin would say "reporting," as this movie tells us) which is either gone or transmuted into another form, depending upon whom you listen to.   A story of New York City, which, also, is either dead or transformed.   But definitely a story of two uniquely gifted writers who indeed worked on a deadline, the deadline of timely reporting, i.e., at most, last hour's or yesterday's news, not last week's.

The two - Jimmy Breslin (1929-2017) and Pete Hamill (1935- ) - were actually very different in style.  Breslin was straightforward, kick in the gut, say what needs to be said reporting.  Hamill was much more poetic, stringing together descriptive phrases like Monet did with watercolors.

The New York City and beyond that the America they described, each in his own way, is one I grew up in.   Their defense of the written word, as essential both to their own very lives, but also the lives of the city and our country, is one which I always felt a part of.   Indeed, in our age of Trump and his savage attack on the press, I feel that way more than ever.  (See, for example, this panel I took part in on Fox Nation the other day, the lone progressive holding forth vis-a-vis three conservatives.)

Breslin, in particular, had a suitable contempt for the NYPD.  Years before Black Lives Matter, Breslin was unafraid to lash out at the bad cops in the NYPD who brutalized African Americans.  Hamill and Breslin had the fortune-misfortune to be right there when Robert F. Kennedy was shot.  (I was on the phone with my girlfriend, Tina, later my wife, when we heard the horrible news on television.)   Breslin ran on a ticket with Norman Mailer for Mayor of NYC.  Hamill dated Jackie Kennedy and Linda Ronstadt.   At one time, both wrote columns for the New York Daily News, which advertised that you could read one or another of the two at least six days a week.   That's the way it was when you wanted to read something of the story of our lives.

All of that and more is vividly portrayed in image and interviews in this superb documentary (hats off to Jonathan Alter and the other people who wrote and directed).   That, in itself, is one of the reasons I'm with the people who think that hard-hitting poetic reporting is still very much alive and kicking.  It may not be in print on paper as much as it used to be, but it's with us on cable, streaming services, and yes, this Internet, which is still mostly comprised of words, and reaches far more people than the combined tabloids of New York City ever did.


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Talking about Trump and the Media

I was on Fox Nation the other day, talking about Donald Trump and the media ...

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The Orville 2.6: "Singin' in the Rain"

That's the way episode 2.6 of The Orville ends - with Gene Kelly's dulcet rendition of "Singin' in the Rain," and rain actually falling over everyone in the command cabin, as Isaac and Claire walk off, a newly reunited couple, with Isaac in human simulation, to a restaurant to have dinner, and likely her bedroom after...

A love story, Orville style, this time with more humor than profundity, but enough serious stuff to make this not only a light but significant episode.

No way a robot and a human can have a satisfying, continuing relationship - that's the initial, obvious premise of this story.   And though Claire and Isaac each try their best, they soon discover that this just can't work.

The key turning point occurs when Isaac realizes that his programming, which is always being modified based on his experience, can't operate completely correctly with Claire out of his life - or maybe out of his existence would be a better way of putting it.  This means he has come to love her, in his own way.   The greater realization for us in the audience is that sentience conquers all - meaning, two sentient beings can fall in love, or begin to fall in love, regardless of whether one is comprised of DNA and the other of some kind of advanced digital or whatever inorganic circuitry.

That's a nice state of affairs, and reminiscent of the android series, Humans, in which love between homo sapiens sapiens and the androids happens all the time.   Of course, just as with love between humans, the chemistry has to be there.   In this episode of The Orville, even Yaphit gives it a shot, and makes a play for his long longed-for Claire, as his slime (just a physical description, no knock on his character) assumes human form.   Alas, for him, that didn't work.  But it was good to see Norm Macdonald in the flesh on the ship, in addition to hearing his voice.

See also The Orville 2.1: Relief and Romance ... The Orville 2.2: Porn Addiction and Planetary Disintegration ... The Orville 2.3: Alara ... The Orville 2.4: Billy Joel ... The Orville 2.5: Escape at Regor 2

And see also The Orville 1.1-1.5: Star Trek's Back ... The Orville 1.6-9: Masterful ... The Orville 1.10: Bring in the Clowns ... The Orville 1.11: Eating Yaphit ... The Orville 1.12: Faith in Reason and the Prime Directive


1st starship to Alpha Centauri ... had only enough fuel to get there
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Brexit (2019 HBO Movie): Lessons for America

The new movie Brexit, released twelve days ago on HBO, provides some important lessons for America, in the parallels of what led to the Brexit win in the UK referendum and the election of Donald Trump President of the United States in the Electoral College.   That difference - success in a straightforward plebiscite verses a complex and indirect electoral college, in addition to Trump's opponent winning the popular vote in the US - points to a crucial way in which the two exercises in democracy are not comparable.  But let's look at the similarities, first.

The two factors that protagonist Dominic Cummings (well played by Benedict Cumberbatch) brilliantly taps into and applies in Brexit are the feeling of many people that life has passed them by ("take back control") and the value of social media, and their records of Likes, Shares, Re-Tweets, in reaching segments of the voting public under or off the radar of more traditional advertising media.  Trump's campaign mined both - "make America great again" and targeting of frustrated Americans on Facebook (as well as Trump's affinity for Twitter).  American computer scientist and billionaire Robert Mercer provided assistance to both Brexit and Trump, and we even see the back of Steve Bannon's head in one scene of Brexit.

Nonetheless, Trump lost the popular vote in the US.   He says, and it's a fair enough point, that he would have conducted his campaign differently if the Presidency were decided by popular vote in America.  But what could Trump have done to reduce the huge margins for Hillary Clinton in California?  Short of going to an alternate reality where the Electoral College didn't exist, we'll never know,

Brexit the movie deserves credit for getting us to look at these questions.   My favorite scene was Cummings and his counterpart Craig Oliver having a beer shortly before the ballots were cast.  Would that such profound political disagreements could be discussed so civilly more often.

Hey, I tried to do that the other day on Fox Nation ...


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Vikings 5.19-20: Few Endings and Many Beginnings

I decided to review the final two episodes of this great season of Vikings together, since they're more of a piece than any other two episodes this season.   I liked these two episodes a lot, since, even though they were the season finales, there were few if any really important endings.  That's good.  It will be fun to see so many of our favorite and hated characters again.

Over in Iceland, it looks like Floki may be gone, though even that crushing scene was far from definitive.  Knowing Floki, we might yet see him crawl back to the surface and life.  We know, at any rate, that Iceland will continue.

In England, Judith is gone.   So is Ivar's wife, killed by Ivar after she gives Bjorn the secret passageway to Kattegat.  And in the battle to take that walled town, so is Ragnar's English son.

And that's it.   Ivar survived, even though his rule did not.  The two kings - Olaf and Harald - both amply survived, and creds to Harald for saving Bjorn's life, even though they came to blows last week.  This bodes well for their future cooperation.   Hvitserk and Ubbe not so much, since Ubbe still holds Hvitserk's joining Ivar against him.   Ubbe is a hero even though he didn't fight in the battle for Kattegat.  His one-on-one duel with the Dane last week made the permanent Norse settlement in England possible.

And then there's Lagertha.  She came back, strengthened Ubbe in England, and now she can support Bjorn in Kattegat.   Even Ragnar himself was on hand - as a ghost or in Bjorn's imagination - to provide sage counsel to his son.

But Ivar's escape means all's by no means well for the surviving sons of Ragnar. Where will Ivar go? I'm thinking ... maybe England?   To try to raise a Viking army to retake Kattegat?  We'll find out  next season, said to be returning soon, and I'll be back with more reviews.

See also Vikings 5.1-2: Floki in Iceland ... Vikings 5.3: Laughing Ivar ...Vikings 5.4: Four of More Good Stories ... Vikings 5.5: Meet Lawrence of Arabia ... Vikings 5.6: Meanwhile, Back Home ... Vikings 5.7: A Looming Trojan-War Battle, Vikings Style, and Two Beautiful Stories ...Vikings 5.8: Only Heahmund? ... Vikings 5.9: Rollo ... Vikings 5.10: New and Old Worlds ... Vikings 5.11: Rollo's Son ... Vikings 5.12: "The Beast with Two Backs" ... Vikings 5.13: The Sacrifice ... Vikings 5.14: Fake News in Kattegat ... Vikings 5.15: Battle ... Vikings 5.16: Peace and War ... Vikings 5.17: No Harmony in Iceland ... Vikings 5.18: Demented Ivar

And see also Vikings 4.1: I'll Still Take Paris ... Vikings 4.2: Sacred Texts ...Vikings 4.4: Speaking the Language ... Vikings 4.5: Knives ... Vikings 4.8: Ships Up Cliff ... Vikings 4.10: "God Bless Paris" ... Vikings 4.11: Ragnar's Sons ... Vikings 4.12: Two Expeditions ... Vikings 4.13: Family ... Vikings 4.14: Penultimate Ragnar? ... Vikings 4.15: Close of an Era ... Vikings 1.16: Musselman ... Vikings 1.17: Ivar's Wheels ...Vikings 1.18: The Beginning of Revenge ... Vikings 4.19: On the Verge of History ... Vikings 4.20: Ends and Starts

And see also Vikings 3.1. Fighting and Farming ... Vikings 3.2: Leonard Nimoy ...Vikings 3.3: We'll Always Have Paris ... Vikings 3.4: They Call Me the Wanderer ... Vikings 3.5: Massacre ... Vikings 3.6: Athelstan and Floki ...Vikings 3.7: At the Gates ... Vikings 3.8: Battle for Paris ... Vikings 3.9: The Conquered ... Vikings Season 3 Finale: Normandy

And see also Vikings 2.1-2: Upping the Ante of Conquest ... Vikings 2.4: Wise King ... Vikings 2.5: Caught in the Middle ... Vikings 2.6: The Guardians ...Vikings 2.7: Volatile Mix ... Vikings 2.8: Great Post-Apocalyptic Narrative ... Vikings Season 2 Finale: Satisfying, Surprising, Superb

And see also Vikings ... Vikings 1.2: Lindisfarne ... Vikings 1.3: The Priest ... Vikings 1.4:  Twist and Testudo ... Vikings 1.5: Freud and Family ... Vikings 1.7: Religion and Battle ... Vikings 1.8: Sacrifice
... Vikings Season 1 Finale: Below the Ash

 
historical science fiction - a little further back in time
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Project Blue Book 1.4: von Braun

An excellent episode (1.4) of the science fiction that is Project Blue Book tonight - the best in the new series so far - in which the main character was Wernher von Braun.

The real von Braun - which seems like something out of science fiction even aside from this episode - helped developed the Nazi's V-2 rocket, which almost knocked Britain out of the war (World War II), and indeed might have won the war for the Nazis.   The U.S. smartly (most people think, including me) gave von Braun and more than a thousand German scientists a home in the U.S., and soon a mandate to get the U. S. out into space and catch up with the Soviet Union's Sputnik.  Von Braun's work in Huntsville, Alabama got the U. S. off this planet with the Explorer satellite, and his development of the Saturn booster got us to the Moon,

The fictional von Braun is working on getting us off this planet, but via flying saucer, which, by the end of this episode, teleports or travels in time or who knows what to someplace else.  Not only that, von Braun has some kind of extra-terrestrial in a big vat.  Hynek and Quinn know about the vat but not the flying saucer.   General Harding knows about the saucer and (presumably) everything else.  Quinn hates von Braun for his Nazi work, and thinks he's assembling a fleet of rockets in Huntsville to reign down terror on American cities and I guess win the war, after all.   On this level, Project Blue Book feels a little like The Man in the High Castle.

Meanwhile, back home with Mrs. Hynek, she's threatened by one of the people Hynek earlier investigated, and saved by her blond friend, who we know now to be a Soviet spy.  This part of Project Blue Book is more espionage fiction than science fiction, based on the reality that von Braun was indeed instrumental, and in significant part responsible, for the U. S. catching up with the Soviets and beating them to the Moon,

As I've been saying, good fiction, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also:  Project Blue Book 1.1: Science Fiction, Or? ... Project Blue 1.2: Calling Roy Thinnes ... Project Blue Book 1.3: Peggy Sue Gets Space Ship



here I am talking Ancient Aliens a few years ago on the History Channel

 
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Counterpart 2.7: Good Metaphors

 

Not much forward momentum tonight in Counterpart 2.7 after last week's revelatory double-young Yanek episode, but there were lots of heated conversations and one good shoot-out.

The most striking conversation was  Fancher telling off Peter and his "daughter" Clare.   He doesn't like the way she's changed, and he blames Peter and his ineptitude.  Little does he know that the change he's seeing in her comes from her being not his daughter but her counterpart.   The scene epitomizes what Counterpart, especially in this its second season, does best: showing the absurdities in human relationships wrought by counterparts taking over each others' lives.  A good metaphor for our off-screen reality.

Over on the other side, our Howard pretending to be Howard Prime actually brings out the best in him.   His devotion to Emily Prime, who is giving him what his/our Emily did not, moves him to action and gunplay.  The two survive but not before both are shot.   They'll both survive, and now more bonded than ever.  This, too - pretense leading to uncovering truths about ourselves - is a good metaphor for our real lives.

As for the central plot, it moved a micrometer along with the call for a general meeting of both sides as the first step in implementing Yanek's daughter's desire on the other side to shut the door between the worlds for good (in both senses of the word).  I'm pretty sure some of the people  wesaw shortly after this opening were the current older versions of young Yaneks' teams in evidence last week, and that was a good touch.

See youse next week.



a song about love and alternate realities

See also:  Counterpart 2.1: "Strange" and "Lucky" ... Counterpart 2.2: The Emilys ... Counterpart 2.3: Echo ... Counterpart 2.4: Three Emilys and Yanek ... Counterpart 2.5: The World-Splitter ... Counterpart 2.6: Young Yaneks

And see also  Counterpart 1.1: Fringe on Espionage ... Counterpart 1.2: Two Different Worlds ... Counterpart 1.3: Identification and Pandemic ... Counterpart 1.4: The Switch ... Counterpart 1.5: Ménage à Alternates ... Counterpart 1.6: Alternate Prince, Funeral, and Clear Clare ... Counterpart 1.7: Spying Across Dimensions ... Counterpart 1.8: Conversations ... Counterpart 2.9: The Spy Who Came Into the Fold ...Counterpart Season 1 Finale: Stuck in the Middle



alternate Orson Welles in here
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True Detective 3.4: All Hat, No Answers

Not much progress in the case in any of three eras in True Detective 3.4 tonight, but there was scenic material everywhere, which made the episode good to see anyway.

As far as suspects, the best lead was the black man with the occluded eye.   Not quite clear why Hays and West didn't pursue him more doggedly.  He did deny that he killed or kidnapped anyone, but don't most killers do that?

The kid who took the boy's bike is still in custody, and he was threatened plenty by the detectives.  But Hays is sure he's innocent of this crime, and that's good enough for me.

Some suspicion and more shade was thrown on the mother of the kids.  What is she so guilty and haunted about?   She tells Amelia she has the "soul of a whore," which means, what?  She sold her kids out to some psycho?  That certainly warrants some powerful guilt.  But, then again, so could a dozen other things.

There was talk of conspiracy in the coming attractions - a conspiracy to kill and kidnap or cover it up?  Very probably the later, but you just can't tell.   At this point, I'm with West in not liking the clergy man.   At very least, he likely knows more than he's saying.

With the fourth episode in, I'd like to start seeing a few answers to these questions.  Then again, I'm the impatient type.  See you here next week.

See also True Detective 3.1-2: Humanistic Disturbances of the Soul ... True Detective 3.3: Unquestioned Witnesses

And see also Season Two: True Detective: All New ... True Detective 2.2: Pulling a Game of Thrones ... True Detective 2.3: Buckshot and Twitty ...True Detective 2.4: Shoot-out ... True Detective 2.7: Death and the Anti-Hero ... True Detective Season 2 Finale: Good Smoke but No Cigar

And see also Season One: True Detective: Socrates in Louisiana ... True Detective Season One Finale: Light above Darkness

 
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Outlander Season 4 Finale: Fair Trade

A really satisfying and superb finale to Season 4 of Outlander tonight, concluding the best season of the series so far.   Among the highlights (spoilers aplenty follow):

The Mohawk "fair trade" that resulted in Ian for Roger: the whole Mohawk segment, especially the stone originally around the time-traveler's neck, was excellent.  It looked like we saw him sitting on the bench in the present, (actually looked like some-when in the 1960s) before he time traveled to the 1700s, with that stone around his neck.  This ties up the loose end from earlier in the season when Claire discovered a skull with that stone, and dental work which showed the teeth had been worked on in the 20th century.  Time travel stuff like that is always my favorite part of this series.Ian staying with the Mohawk - a full member of the tribe, after he successfully runs the gauntlet - was also a just-right ending, at least to this part of Ian's story.  He was never completely comfortable, even with Jamie, because he was still a boy in that context.  With the Mohawk, Ian can be, as they say, his own man (I have no idea in what century that phrase arose).Murtagh and Jocasta together in bed was also a great ending, or a beginning, or maybe continuation, would be a better word.And best of all, in terms of the human relationships, is Roger coming back to Brianna.   That took long enough to happen, but the wait made his return all the more satisfying.Of course, there will be another season, which means some big things had to be left unresolved this year.  We still don't know who fathered Brianna's baby, which makes Roger stepping up for the woman he loves all the more admirable.  For that matter, we still don't know what happened to Bonnet.  I have a feeling we'll be seeing both Ian and Bonnet next season.

And, back to the time travel, we still don't know much about the American monoliths.  Was it a coincidence that a Native American from our age is the only person we know who actually traveled back in time, or do Native Americans have a special connection to the big stones?

Something to think about until Season 5.

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"

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 Orville 2.5: Escape at Regor 2

An outstanding episode 2.5 of The Orville last night - I'd say best of the season so far - which had everything you'd want from a starship making first contact, including a neat solution to the Star Trekian non-interference Prime Directive.

Regor 2 sends out a message to the universe: is anybody there?  Of course The Orville is the lucky ship that receives it.  Our party lands - it's ok to say hello to intelligences that advanced, and welcome them to the cosmic (comic) community - and all's well, until ... Captain Mercer and the landing party learn the hard way that Regorians practice a mix of astrology and surgery to make sure babies aren't born during this very month.  Why?  Because they are believed to have violent tendencies - born under a bad sign, literally.  Babies are delivered by c-section earlier than medically necessary to make their births occur before this bad month begins.   And the kicker: Kelly and Bortus were born in this very month.  When they tell the Regorians (could have been named Rigorians) about their upcoming birthdays, they are promptly locked up.  (They should have gotten Michael Flynn to do a cameo and shout "lock them up".)

So the problem is: how to get them out of there, without disrupting Regorian custom and law, which no human-centric starfaring civilization in the Star Trekian mode ever wants to do.  The solution is brilliant - I won't tell you, in case you haven't seen it.  And the hour also includes an excellent replacement for Alara as Security Officer, and  Kelly and Bortus making like the two who escaped from Dannemora (on Earth), which is the reason I gave this review almost that title.

If you have a jones for the best that Star Trek offered, laced with humor and style, see The Orville, especially this episode.

See also The Orville 2.1: Relief and Romance ... The Orville 2.2: Porn Addiction and Planetary Disintegration ... The Orville 2.3: Alara ... The Orville 2.4: Billy Joel

And see also The Orville 1.1-1.5: Star Trek's Back ... The Orville 1.6-9: Masterful ... The Orville 1.10: Bring in the Clowns ... The Orville 1.11: Eating Yaphit ... The Orville 1.12: Faith in Reason and the Prime Directive


1st starship to Alpha Centauri ... had only enough fuel to get there


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