Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 196

Knightfall 1.9: "More than You Think"

In Knightfall 1.9 we finally learn a little more about the Grail - it means "more than you think," Tancrede tells Landry.  And then - Joan returns in her Princess Leia hairdo to the King of France, who knows that's she's carrying not his but Landry's baby.  In other words, no more than a hint of what the Grail really means and does, but the continuation of a compelling all-too-Earthy story.

I'd love to learn that the Grail was given to us by visitors from outer space, but Knightfall, after all, is on the History not the SyFy Channel.  And the story proceeds to some prime all-too-human confrontations, my favorite being Landry on trial.

Gawain's testimony seals Landry's fate, though he would have been found guilty anyway, and it turns out his fate isn't sealed, after all.  Landry's mother explains to the Pope the "more" that the Grail is really about, or can do, and it so impresses the Pope that he frees Landry - leaving us, again, with absolutely no idea of what that "more" is.

Though the Pope's freeing Landry does tell us more than what Tancrede told Landry.  First, Landry's mother actually, presumably, told the Pope this secret of the Grail, whereas Tancrede only alluded to it to Landry.  And the Pope's freeing Landry tells us that Landry is in some way intrinsically connected to this super secret of the Grail.  Again, if this story were science fiction, it could be time travel - Landry was alive at the origin of the Grail - but this is a narrative of dramatized history and religion, not time travel.

Though, as I've been saying about Knightfall since the beginning, there is something undeniably science fictional about this story.   The Templars resemble the Jedi in many respects, and the Grail has power which is more than holy - more, even, than just the kind of magic that magicians do.  Maybe something like the Force.

And that's a good thing, too, for our characters, all in dire straits as this next-to-last episode of the first season concludes.  Landry and the Queen are now each in about the worst shape we've seen them all season.  Who will save them?

I'll be back here next week with thoughts about what the season finale tells us.

See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder ... Knightfall 1.3: Baby ... Knightfall 1.4: Parentage ... Knightfall 1.5: Shrewd De Nogaret ... Knightfall 1.6: Turn of Fortunes ... Knightfall 1.7: Landry's Mother ... Knightfall 1.8: Crucial Moves


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Patti LuPone at 2018 Grammys: The Dark Message of this Incandescent Performance

That's Patti LuPone singing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" a few hours ago at 2018 Grammy Awards.  Tina and I missed her when we sent to see Evita on Broadway in 1979 - she was off that night, though we did see Mandy Patinkin as Che - but we've always loved her performance as the very peak of peak in this musical, and, for that matter, in any other.

And here she was tonight, somehow, magically, better than ever.   Not only in the finest voice, pleading, tender, powerful - but acting to the hilt.   Look at what she does at the very end of the performance - at 4:27 into the song.   Evita beseeches the audience, sees she has them, raises her arms and flings back her head in vulnerable thanks and triumph, then puts her head down, possibly spent, modest, but raises it one more time in cool, powerful conquest, defiant and satisfied.  LuPone manages to convey all of this after singing her heart and bringing herself - and anyone listening with a soul - to tears.

But there's a darker side to this - not in LuPone's incandescent performance and in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's incomparable song.  But in the message it conveys about propaganda, or deceitful appeals to the emotions that masquerade as logic.

I teach my classes at Fordham about this, and use this song as a searing example, every time I talk about propaganda.  The Institute for Propaganda Analysis, striving many years ago to understand how Hitler and the Nazis gained power in Germany, still then a democracy, called it "just plain folks".  Though the dictators have all the money and power, they tell their powerless subjects that they, the dictators, are just like the people - one of them.  Hitler was "the leader" not the King.   Don't be jealous of me, Evita sings in "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" - I'm just like you.  I came from you, I am you, standing up here in my gleaming gown and jewels.  I'm you who has succeeded, so love me.

This "just plain folks" is one of the ingredients of fascism.   It shouldn't matter, in a democracy, where the elected official came from in life.  FDR and JFK were both great Presidents, and swimming in wealth.  And maybe one of the reasons they were so good for our country is they didn't pretend to be something they weren't, someone just like us.

That's an important lesson to keep in mind today, as we're moved to tears along with Patti LuPone in her extraordinary performance.


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Counterpart 1.2: Two Different Worlds

Counterpart was back tonight with episode 1.2 - via Amazon Prime, for me, because Starz is no longer on Cablevision in my area, which I suspect is Cablevision's fault, at least in this reality.  As for the episode, it was quite good, and moved the story forward in at least one big way.

In trying to get the difference between the alternate realities, we learned in the first episode that one reality contains a meek Howard Silk and the other contains a Howard Silk (aka "Howard Prime") as spy at least as deadly as James Bond.  Tonight we see that this distinction holds for the violin-player in meek Howard's reality, whose counterpart is none other than the ninja-like assassin Baldwin in spy-Howard's reality.  So this seems to suggest that the two realities are split along meek/violent lines - which is not to say that meek Howard is really meek - he's not - but he's certainly not as aggressive coming out the gate as his counterpart.

Pope in the violent reality makes one remark which seems to support this hypothesis, when he talks about what "they" i.e., the (slightly) more peaceful reality did to "us" (the more violent reality).  And the signal event with Baldwin and her counterpart's father, before the realities split, supports this.  Baldwin went on after letting her drunken father be killed by a train to become a master assassin.  The counterpart channeled her aggression into feverishly playing the violin, a fabulous Freudian sublimation if ever there was one.

Still a lot of questions, of course, as there should be at this point.   We still have no clue as to which reality is "ours," whatever exactly that might mean.   But we're off to a good start, with not one but two characters having significant if not continuing interactions with their alternate-reality doubles, and I'm looking forward to more.

Hey, I'm wondering if Cablevision is so blocked-headed in the other reality.

See also  Counterpart 1.2: Fringe on Espionage



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Review of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles 21 of X: Resistance

It's been nearly a month since I posted a review of a chapter or two of Rob Sheffield's superb Dreaming the Beatles because, as I've said before, I don't want this book to end.  I want it to last forever, as I do its subject, The Beatles.  And I'm sure they - the book and The Beatles - will.

We're now into the sad and sadder part of the book.  And amidst the gathering ruins of The Beatles, no longer recording together, soon to experience far worse events, Sheffield manages to ingenuously pull together strands that no one else would or could connect, and weave into a riveting now close to heartbreaking chapter.

This time it's a comparison of John Lennon's "Revolution: (of course recorded with the Beatles) and Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" (of recorded after the Beatles disbanded).  No one but Sheffield could possibly see and convincingly argue that these two songs are really about the same thing, and show that despite the many differences between Lennon and McCartney, they nonetheless were in many ways almost the same person, or brothers.

Both songs, Sheffield explains, are about the The Beatles' resistance to to authority.  Lennon's "Revolution" is about not being dictated to by trendy political truth-tellers, of which we now in 2018 obviously have a myriad, on any screen you see.  McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" is not about not being told what to do - what to sing about - by self-appointed pop-cultural gurus (of which Robert Christgau was a prime example back then, and which we all suffer a myriad of advice from, nowadays as well).  And like I once read somewhere about Immanuel Kant, a philosopher much harder to understand than is Sheffield, once you consider his hypothesis about these songs, you realize instantly that he is right.

Sheffield couples and discusses other Lennon and McCartney solo recordings, such as Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" and McCartney's "What the Man Said".  Here I'll say that I've always liked pop more than (I think) Sheffield does - "Afternoon Delight," for example, by the Starland Vocal Band in 1976, was and always will be one of my favorite recordings.  And I don't know if Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" is pop.  How could it be, with a line like "Don't need a watch to waste your time" (my favorite line in the song)  which sounds like it could have come out Dylan's "My Back Pages"?

Sheffield also says that "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" isn't played on radio anymore, because of it's "Don't need a gun to blow you mind" line, but I just heard it on The Beatles Channel on Sirius XM Radio.  The times they are a-changing, including an evolution in our understanding and appreciation of The Beatles, of which The Beatles Channel and Dreaming the Beatles are essential parts.

See also Review of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles 1 of X: The Love Affair ... 2 of X: The Heroine with a Thousand Faces ... 3 of X: Dear Beatles ... 4 of X: Paradox George ... 5 of X: The Power of Yeah ... 6 of X: The Case for Ringo ... 7 of X: Anatomy of a Ride ... 8 of X: Rubber Soul on July 4 ... 9 of X: Covers ... 10 of X: I. A. Richards ... 11 of X: Underrated Revolver ... 12 of X: Sgt. Pepper ... 13 of X: Beatles vs. Stones ... 14 of X: Unending 60s ... 15 of x: Voting for McCartney, Again ... 16 of x: "I'm in Love, with Marsha Cup" ... 17 of X: The Split ... 18 of X: "Absolute Elsewhere" ... 19 of X: (Unnecessary but Brilliant) Defense of McCartney ... 20 of X: "All Things Must Pass"


 
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Knightfall 1.8: Crucial Moves

One of the best Knightfalls of the season - 1.7 - on air tonight, with twists and turns and highly significant developments at every turn.

Joan turning the tables - or blade - on her cousin was one of the highlights.  Her plan about where to be Queen and raise her children and with whom is a good one, though no doubt it won't quite come to be.

De Nogaret telling the King about the father of Joan's baby closes a crucial loop.  Now that the King knows, there will be no place for Landry in France.  That would actually fit right in with Joan's plan, but there's a lot in the way of Landry living happily ever after with Joan.  He now has the Pope, and soon with have the King of France, as mortal enemies.  And Gawain is no longer a brother in arms, either.

Tancrede alive and coming back was great to see.  Landry's in desperate need of allies.  At this point, there's Tancrede and Landry's mother and I didn't catch the name of the Templar with long blond hair, but he seems pretty strong, too.

History of course tells us that the Papacy and France will survive, but not the Templars.  But we're still a long way from that, and with the surprises of the story so far this season, it's not too much to hope that our Templars and their supporters will have a long, tempestuous life on the screen - or, just the way they and we like it.


See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder ... Knightfall 1.3: Baby ... Knightfall 1.4: Parentage ... Knightfall 1.5: Shrewd De Nogaret ... Knightfall 1.6: Turn of Fortunes ... Knightfall 1.7: Landry's Mother

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Vikings 5.10: New and Old Worlds

Well, I said in my review of last week's episode of Vikings - 5.9 - that I was hoping to see Rollo again, and .... I'll say no more about that now.

Otherwise, though 5.10 was good, it didn't really settle or establish anything.  The counterpoint between Floki on Iceland, trying to create a new way for his people, was effective, as the scenes cut from Iceland back to the brother-against-brother slaughter in Norway.   I also don't believe for a minute that Floki's offer to sacrifice himself will be carried out.  The smarter people, especially that woman (I didn't catch her name), will likely tell Floki that a part of the new kind of community he wants to build will leave behind the need to sacrifice one's life.

Back home, here's what I think happened.  Harald's brother is dead, killed by Harald.  Harald's wife is dead, killed by Lagertha, though it was more of a suicide than a killing.  I'm not completely sure about Hvitserk.  But that leaves all the other major characters alive, and, if not completely intact, in strong enough shape to continue the battle, at least on another day.

Which means, among other things, that Lagertha's belief that she would die this day was proven wrong.  That's good for us, the audience.  There's lots of story to be told for her and Heahmund, not to mention her and Rollo, and, for very different reasons, her and Ivar.

My only regret, as always, is that there won't be a new episode for a while.  But Vikings is always worth the wait.  And with the Iceland story opening up, and Rollo looking more charismatic than ever in his regal clothes, the next part of this season will be eminently welcome.

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

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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An Angel for May: YA Outlander

An Angel for May just showed up on Amazon Prime.  I just saw it, and think of it as a YA (young adult) Outlander.

Significantly - or not - the Melvin Burgess novel on which the 2002 movie was based was published in 1992, or just a year after Diana Gabaldon published her first Outlander novel.  I have no idea if Burgess read and was inspired by Outlander, but the two stories have a lot common.  Time travel in An Angel for May happens when the hero, young Tom, walks through a broken stone facade of an old building.  Both stories have a foot in the Second World War - the point of departure for Claire in Outlander, the terminus for Tom.  Both are UK-based.  And both are, in significant part, about the time traveler trying to change history.

But there are differences.  A dog plays a role in An Angel for May, which is a lot less tempestuous than Outlander.  There's a gentleness running through the story.  Kids are the protagonists.

Time travel, in general, can try to re-set history in two ways.  The big way attempts something like killing Hitler or saving Socrates.  The little ways are more personal, as in saving a particular person who never walked on the historical stage.  Outlander has some of both.   An Angel for May has just the latter.

Indeed, though Tom wants to save lives, what he's most focused on is improving the life of the girl he meets in the World War II past.  What he's striving to do for May - who is a friend, not a girlfriend - is really a very little thing, with big consequences for her.  It's refreshing and altogether excellent to encounter a time travel story on this scale, and I recommend it.


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Knightfall 1.7: Landry's Mother

Lots of good twists and surprises in Knightfall 1.7 - my favorite was meeting Landry's mother, played by Gina McKee, who made such a good appearance in The Borgias.   I hope she survives at least for a while in Knightfall - her character not only gives Landry crucial knowledge, but provides a balance and grounding in his life that he sorely needs.

Among the important pieces of advice she gives her son is not to trust the cripple - i.e., Gawain - so important in this hour (and beyond) that "And Certainly Not the Cripple" (among the people Landry shouldn't put his faith in) is the title of this episode.  Gawain, like all the Templars Landry both loves and has sharp differences with, is a complex and appealing character.  I hope he survives, too.  So far, these powerful brothers, with opinions both coinciding with and diverging from Landry's, haven't done too well.  First Godrey, then Tancrede, has fallen.  There's not much left in the higher part of the Templar hierarchy.

And the lower part is dealt a death blow tonight, too.  I didn't what happened to Parsifal coming.  He was an excellent character, and I'm surprised he didn't have a much longer arc.  But his death does make the point, in case we didn't already know it, that traitors are manifest.

Speaking of which, De Nogarey, having escaped hanging last week, now has some information that can destroy Landry - he's figured out that the Queen is carrying Landry's baby.   History tells us, and Knightfall is inexorably building up to, the King of France becoming a mortal enemy of the Templars.

With what happened tonight, that's now not much more than a word from De Nogarey away.


See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder ... Knightfall 1.3: Baby ... Knightfall 1.4: Parentage ... Knightfall 1.5: Shrewd De Nogaret ... Knightfall 1.6: Turn of Fortunes

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Vikings 5.9: Rollo!

Among the many important developments in Vikings 5.9, the one that stands out the most for me is Rollo's commitment of warriors to Ivar's cause against Lagertha.   I was actually hoping we would see Rollo this season - and was wondering why we hadn't - and I would have rather seen a scene in which we actually did see him meet with Hvitserk.  But his playing a crucial in this year's story is a lot better than nothing.

But why did he side with Ivar and not Lagertha - or, at least, stay out of the battle between Ragnar's sons?  I know he loved Lagertha at some point, and she didn't quite reciprocate, so was this decision motivated by that?   If so, that seems, I don't know, a little not in keeping with Rollo's good relationship with Bjorn, who is on Lagertha's side, not to mention disloyalty to Ragnar.

Meanwhile, it was great to see Heahmund and Lagertha together.  He'll be a great asset to her cause.  But with Rollo's men joining Ivar, it will be a very close call again.  I sort of think Ivar will win, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Back in England, Aethelwulf is felled by a wasp or a bee or whatever that was?  With our current knowledge, it seems he had a fatal allergy to the sting.  I have no idea if that's the way he really died.  History does tell us that Alfred will go on to be a great ruler, and unite England.

I also have no idea what the Floki story in Iceland is leading to.   Historically, the Vikings did start and stop and resume all kinds of settlements in all kinds of places, some of them completely or mostly barren at first.  I'd like to see Floki's settlement be the one that holds on in Iceland.  And I'm looking forward to the season in which we see Erik the Red go to Greenland, and his son Leif on to North America a half century before Columbus.

But that's way in the future of this series.  And first we have to get to next week's midseason finale, and see who survives and who triumphs.

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?

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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Knightfall 1.6: Turn of Fortunes

I'm back with a review of Knightfall 1.6, delayed by my watching and reviewing all ten episodes of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams anthology on Amazon.  Actually, when you think about it, there's a a lot of science fiction and even something of Philip K. Dick in the stories of the Knights Templar, especially in the hinted-at, awesome powers of the Grail they're seeking to find and protect.

Episode 1.6 was driven by that, as indeed has every episode of Knightfall so far.  We learn that the power of the Grail is so cosmic that it unites (presumably) good men (and women) of many faiths - Jewish, Christian, Muslim - seeking to gain, or reclaim, and certainly safeguard its powers, by making sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.  You would think it was something akin to nuclear power, with all this medieval ecumenical interest, but we'll just have to see.

In addition, this episode showed an-across-the-board reversal of fortunes, and reversals of those reversals, for more than one major character.  Tancrede is freed without repenting, only to return and repent so you can be taken away by the Arabs who beat him and the Templars at Acre.   We learn that Godfrey let that happen - gave the enemies of the Templars access to the tunnels - again, on behalf of the Grail.   And Landry, nearly killed, comes back weakened and turns out strong.

But in some ways the most remarkable twists of fate belong to De Nogaret.  First the Princess loves him (emotionally).  Then she realizes what he did - murdered her husband, after spying on her through that peephole for years - and lashes out at him.  Her father the King is about to have him hanged, when his uncle, masquerading as a dead person dangling in the gallows, saves him and he makes his escape.

Knightfall continues to get more complex and compelling by the episode, and that's always a good thing in historical drama.


See also: Knightfall 1.1: Possibilities ... Knightfall 1.2: Grail and Tinder ... Knightfall 1.3: Baby ... Knightfall 1.4: Parentage ... Knightfall 1.5: Shrewd De Nogaret

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