Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 225

Humans 2.2: The Consciousness Code

Humans 2.2 begins with talk of a "consciousness code" - a good description of what Niska has digitally sent out to the world, a code like a virus, that operates in an inexact, unpredictable way, triggering consciousness in just a relatively small number of androids - as far as we know - and maybe not at the same time.  This also is a good description of the unpredictable power of the overall series.

Episode 2.2 can be seen as various riffs on this consciousness code.  Athena is trying to transplant her AI desktop creation into an android body.  She doesn't say this, but she's probably read Merleau-Ponty and his notion of a "metaphysics of flesh" - that you can't have true human sentience in just a nonliving machine, what's needed is a brain in an physical, living, moving body.  Merleau-Ponty was talking about how human intelligence evolved and exists, but the same presumably would apply to artificial brains or AI - they require bodies.   So Athena's on the right track, but her attempt tonight fails.

Mattie's working on this, too, in a different way.  She has a copy of Niska's code, and she wants to create a human sentient android out of a stock model, by uploading the code in its/his brain.  She looks like she's well on the way.

As in season 1, we also are getting a good display of other androids, almost sentient, or sentient in different ways from our main characters.  The shrink introduced last week is back again, and is as well versed in accents as in therapy.  This android psychologist - a psychologist who is an android, not a human psychologist attempting to understand an android -  is actually a good joking commentary on Rogerian therapy, which, as Joseph Weizenbaum demonstrated decades ago, can be easily mimicked by even a primitive AI program.  It's also a riff, come to think of it, on that old joke - "I went to see a child psychologist, and that kid was useless!"

And the android who was a detective - DI Voss - is back again this year.   She seems as sentient as Niska, Mia, Sam, and the rest - but there's something a little different about her consciousness code too, and it will be fun and provocative to see how it plays out.

And I'll be back here with more musings on all of this next week.

See also Humans 2.1: Westworld meets Nashville

And see also Humans: In Ascending Order ... Humans 1.7: "I Think You're Dead, George"



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24 Legacy 1.4: Who's Gabriel?

24 Legacy was back with another adrenalin powered episode - 1.4 - tonight, with news of an important new character in the metaphorical balcony: Gabriel, an international arms dealer.

Carter at Ben's urgent urging thinks Gabriel is so crucial in stopping the terrorist attack - the only play CTU has - that he breaks out of CTU along with Ben to find him.  This in itself is a good part of the story, with Rebecca and Andy's help.  Andy, by the way, is quickly shaping up as an excellent character - he has just what you want in terms of tech savvy and sass in a CTU computer geek, a worthy successor to Chloe.

And there are other strong things going on in the story tonight, including Donovan breaking down his father - at least, to some extent - Nicole breaking away from Aisha and her thug, and Amira killing that poor high school kid, after all.  (I think having him wake up, but with amnesia, would have been a more interesting move, but ok.)

But looming behind and over all of this is Gabriel.   Carter and Rebecca are risking everything to get to him, so my guess is he's someone really important, played by someone really important.

All we know of him is he's former military.   But he's likely much more.   So here's my prediction: Gabriel is Tony Almeida, who we know is coming back to 24 in Legacy, "mid-season".   Gabriel is Tony Almeida, operating under an assumed name.

We'll see ... and I'm looking forward to seeing next week's episode, and every episode after.

See also 24 Legacy 1.1: Dammit! I Liked It ... 24 Legacy 1.2: Heroes and Villains ... 24 Legacy 1.3: First Big Card Revealed Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Timeless 1.16: A Real Grandfather Paradox Story

Timeless saved the best for last - last of just the first of many seasons, as I keep saying and hoping - with an episode that literally mines the grandfather paradox, and much more.

Timeless has always, more than any other time travel television series, explored the disruptive impact of trying to protect the past, not just on the present in general but on families in the present, the families of our time travelers in particular.   In Lucy's case, the very first trip to the past erases her sister in the present, but helps her mother (who, not being a party to Lucy's time travel, has no memory of the lost sister).  Flynn and Wyatt struggle in vain to keep their loved ones from perishing.

The main villain, Rittenhouse, is the subject of Flynn's attempt to save his family.  But he's a villain, too - or, at least, someone with fewer moral qualms than Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus.  In past episodes, Flynn fights with our heroes in an unsuccessful attempt to nip Rittenhouse in the bud, by killing the founder in Revolutionary War times.  That story was, in effect, a grandfather paradox tale, though there was no grandfather of Lucy or any of our characters literally involved.

Tonight, we get just that, and done up with all the trimmings.   Flynn wants to kill Lucy's grandfather at a Rittenhouse meeting in 1954.   He's not happy about the likelihood of this deleting Lucy, but he won't let anything stand in the way of saving his family.  Lucy has a better idea, and she succeeds. (Or so we think.)

Along the way, we get a good little Joe McCarthy story (the episode is titled "The Red Scare," and as a nice touch Jiya gets a dangerous red eye condition), as well as a story about the difficulty of being gay in the 1950s (Lucy's grandfather, though happily married and already the father of a child - Lucy's father - is gay.)   Rufus and Jiya finally get together, Mason turns out to have heart as well as a brain, and--

Well, I won't tell you the surprises at the end, in case you've read this far and somehow haven't seen the episode.   But I will say there's more than enough here for a strong second seasons - a lot more to explore in the provocative intersection of family life and changes in time with erudite historical details that Timeless does so well.  I'll be waiting...

See also Timeless 1.1: Threading the Needle ... Timeless 1.2: Small Change, Big Payoffs ... Timeless 1.3: Judith Campbell ... Timeless 1.4: Skyfall and Weapon of Choice ... Timeless 1.5: and Quantum Leap ... Timeless 1.6: Watergate and Rittenhouse ... Timeless 1.7: Stranded! ... Timeless 1.8: Time and Space ... Timeless 1.9: The Kiss and The Key ... Timeless 1.10: The End in the Middle ... Timeless 1.11: Edison, Ford, Morgan, Houdini, and Holmes (No, Not Sherlock)! ... Timeless 1.12: Incandescent West ... Timeless 1.13: Meeting, Mating, and Predictability ... Timeless 1.14: Paris in the 20s ... Timeless 1.15: Touched!


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The Good Fight 1.1-2: Great Show!

CBS teased with the pilot of The Good Fight tonight - and just for good measure, put up the second episode on CBS All Access, its new streaming service, that you pay for like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.  My wife and I saw both hours and loved them.

In case you've been on Pluto (it's indeed a planet) and didn't know, The Good Fight is a sequel series to The Good Wife, one of the best all-time lawyer series ever on television.  (How good?  Right up there with Perry Mason and Petrocelli.)  It was always current, brilliant, funny, and stylish.

The Good Fight, minus Alicia and Peter, has all of that.  It even manages to start with Diane watching, aghast, as Trump is inaugurated.   And it takes off from there, with Diane caught up in a Madoff scheme, Lucca on hand, and some great new characters such as Maia (played by Rose Leslie from Game of Thrones) and Robert (played by Delroy Lindo, who always puts in a commanding performance).

The mix, like The Good Wife, is high octane, but The Good Fight looks like it will have a charm all its own.   Diane-centered episodes were always especially welcome on The Good Wife, and we'll get more of that on The Good Fight.  (Christine Baranski is better than ever.)   Maia makes an appealing new-minted attorney, and the three - Diane, Lucca, and Maia - are a powerful triad of the bar, in both the courtroom and the office.

Will The Good Fight be enough get CBS All-Access flying, along with a new Star Trek series coming soon?  Tough call.  Cheapskates that we are, we don't like paying for anything, especially sequels of series we've come to know and admire for free.   But we're happily paying for Netflix and Amazon Prime now, so you never know.


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Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone

And it was literally that - an attack on Carrie brownstone, by New York's finest some kind of swat team - and it was a sight to see in Homeland 6.5.

What brings it on is Quinn, although it's not completely his fault.  And in a way not his fault at all.  It's whoever's been spying on Carrie from across the street - that got Quinn into his professionally defensive frame of mind.  And it's the media, surrounding Carrie's apartment, and bombarding Quinn at the door with questions. And the police only made things worse.

Given Trump's know-nothing and dangerous attacks on the press from his literally bully pulpit, I don't like to see the media portrayed this way, though I suppose there's a least a little truth in local cameras congregating around some subject's house at a time like this.

On the other hand, had New York really been subject to a bomb attack on the bridge - which fortunately only killed two people - the media would likely have had more important things to do than form a mob in front of Carrie's house.

Quinn was right to shove the lady reporter out of Carrie's house, but wrong to shove her down the stairs. He was completely right, however, to shoot and wound that jerk who threw a rock in Carrie's window, which could have killed or badly hurt somebody, including Carrie's daughter (who again had some of the best lines of the evening).

And the police gave a poor accounting for themselves.   Whoever was in charge should have listened to Carrie, sooner, and a lot of what happened could have been avoided.

All of which is to say - Homeland made good on its commitment to bring the story back to New York, and gave us a strong, unsettling episode tonight - or, just what you want in Homeland.

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"
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

#SFWApro 


  more espionage in New York City
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Black Sails 4.4: The Chess Game

An outstanding Black Sails 4.4 tonight, as the chess game for the control of Nassau and the future of North America continues apace.  Among the highlights -
Annie taking control of the British controlled pirate ship literally in her bloody hands.  Well, that was hardly chess, even metaphorically, but it was a great if harrowing scene anyway.The conversation between Billy and Long John.   Their conversations are always important, and usually, of late, about Flint, with Billy taking the con and Long John the pro side, and this was no different.  But it was good to see the future of the this part of the world hanging in this balance.The talk about the new slave army, independent of both the pirates and the British.  If we think about what these islands are today, we can see that neither the pirates nor the British lasted.  So that new army, whatever its role and fate in Black Sails, is a harbinger of the future.But the best part, and in a class by itself, is Flynt agreeing to Eleanor's proposal, and putting himself in her custody, over Long John's strenuous objections.  We know her motives.  She's pregnant, and wants a life for her, the Governor, and their baby, away from all of this fighting.

But what is Flint's motive?  What's up his billowing sleeve?   He never really answers Long John's question about whether he'd give up Nassau for the love of his life.  All he says to Long John is, "trust me".

Should he?  Should we?  We'll no doubt find out in the remaining weeks ahead.

See also: Black Sails 4.1: "True Friends and Mortal Enemies" ... Black Sails 4.2: Bones vs. Flint ... Black Sails 4.3: Decisive Victories and Losses - On Both Sides

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored ... Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea ... Black Sails 3.3: Gone Fishin' ... Black Sails 3.4: Mr. Scott's People ... Black Sails 3.5: Alliance ... Black Sails 3.6: The Duel ... Black Sails 3.7: The Blackening of John Silver ... Black Sails 3.8: Whether Vane? ... Black Sails 3.10: Wither Vane ... Black Sails Season 3 Finale: Throckmorton

And see also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero ... Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfying Literate and Vulgar

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

#SFWApro

 


pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 
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The Missing Season 2: Unforgettable

My wife and I just binge-watched The Missing Season 2 on Starz, and we both thought it was as perfect, heart-rending, and brilliantly plotted as a missing children story can be.   I cleverly titled my review of the first season "The Missing: Worth Finding," but the second is so superb on all levels that it beggars clever description.   (Of course I tried anyway with "unforgettable".)

I'll try to hint at some of the essentials here without revealing anything crucial in this carefully constructed, beautifully rendered, complex story with at least a dozen moving parts.  Alice shows up unexpectedly near her home after having gone missing 11 years earlier, but something's not quite right.  This in itself is not uncommon in these kinds of narratives, but there's nothing supernatural involved, and nothing common, either,  in the intricate tale that unfolds.   The main environment is a British military base in contemporary Germany, and people at all stages of command and former command propel the story, along with Alice's family.

But the character who propels this the most is Julien Baptiste, back from the first season with an uncanny sense of who's lying, and indefatigable in pursuing missing children and if at all possible reuniting them with their parents.  He failed to do this some years earlier for Sophie in France, and when Alice mentions Sophie, this is more than enough to get Baptiste tenaciously on the case.

Julien's task is complicated not only by the villain - who in his own sick way is almost as intelligent and calculating as Julien - but by just about everyone in the story, unwilling to believe what's right in front of their eyes, and/or too willing to believe other things that should be believed, at the same time. And Julien has problems of his own, not of the villain's or anyone else's making.

The cards in this story are held very close to the chest, with just enough revealed - a quick shot in a scene, a word barely heard - that you can generate your own hypotheses, which are not likely to be right, at least not too early on in the story.   But if you keep your eyes and ears and mind open, you can figure out at least some big parts of this jigsaw, and, trust me, you'll be moved to tears at the end, for more than one reason. Testament not only to the nonstop, powerhouse story, but the superb acting by Tchéky Karyo as Julien, David Morrissey as Alice's father, Keeley Hawes as Alice's mother, and in fact every single person on screen.

See also The Missing Season 1: Worth Finding Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Cut to the Chase: Louisiana Murder and Poetry

The weakest part of Cut to the Chase, a 90-minute Louisiana noir movie about an ex-con searching for his missing beloved younger sister, who is also his lawyer, is at the beginning, where there's a little too much humor for my taste in this kind of movie.  But even that part's pretty good.

And the movie moves into high gear after that, and manages to build to a smashing crescendo with even some ambiguity in the ending, no mean feat and even memorable, the more that I think about it.

Along the way, Cut to the Chase  develops into a first-class whodunit - the "it" being who did what to the sister. As is often the case in these movies, there's no shortage of miscreants, villains, and killers, which means there are all kinds of plausible suspects.   Max Chase - played by Blayne Weaver, who also wrote and directed - makes a fine, behind-the-eight-ball brother and de facto detective, and the plot is tightly enough spun that we and he have no idea who the ultimate villain is, which makes the ending surprising in addition to slashing.

Speaking of which, there's a kind of poetry in a lot of this, as befits the genre, and it goes beyond the play on words between the title and name of the main character.  In fact, there's a play on the first word and what happens in the movie, too, as well as a visual mistiness, a darkish bayou watercolor, that spills into and over scenes when you expect it and don't.

All of which is to say - check out Cut to the Chase.   It's not Hitchcock or Body Heat, but it has something of those classics, won in some regional film festivals, and is much welcome on the screen - where it's coming in theaters on March 7,


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Humans 2.1: Westworld Meets Nashville

Humans was back with its second season this week, with an episode that was every bit as good as the first season, which is to say, good indeed!

Comparisons inevitably arise with Westworld, since both series are about androids or human-like robots who want to be human, but otherwise the two are very different.  In Humans the androids are out in the world, all over the world, and although there's some significant philosophic musing about the nature of human cognitive intelligence, there's much more focus in Humans on relationships, and what psychologists call emotional intelligence.

The set-up in the second season is a bold departure from the first.  Niska has released a code world-wide which jump-starts some of the androids into human sentience.   The "some" is, at this point, apparently very few, and the other sentient androids - our main characters - don't know why the code worked, and, for that matter, how the code worked.   (Possibly/presumably Niska does.)  This is a big leap from last year, in which the emergence of sentience was much more organic (in the figurative sense).

But as was the case last year, the best part of Humans are the specific androids and their personalities. Max, always ready to smile and see the best in people - and androids - is still among my favorites.   His optimism is a tonic.   Mia, wanting more than any other sentient android to be not only humanly sentient but fully human, and the aforementioned Niska, the most dangerous of the androids in all kinds of ways, and now exploring her sexuality, are back in good form as well.

Some newcomers are in the mix, too, such as Sam Palladio as the human Ed (Gunnar from Nashville!) - would be great to hear him sing "Borrow My Heart" to Mia - and Carrie-Anne Moss has the makings of an intriguing AI scientist.   Not much yet with the Hawkins family, who were the centerpiece of the first season, but they seem suitably simmering for significant interaction with the androids, and Niska's showing up unannounced at their door in the last scene should set that in motion.

And I'll be back here next week with another field report.

See also Humans: In Ascending Order ... Humans 1.7: "I Think You're Dead, George"


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Timeless 1.15: Touched!

A wild shoot-em-up Timeless 1.15 last night, with lots of profundity between the bullets and tears in time.  As I keep saying, the show keeps getting better and better - and you listening, NBC?

In this next-to-last episode of the season (I hope - of the season, that is), we see both Eliot Ness and Al Capone (good to see Cameron Gharaee from the late, lamented Tyrant in that role) laid to waste well before their time.  God knows what this will do to future history, and that's likely why there was a scene with Flynn in a church at the beginning.

Significantly, Timeless has refrained from shakeups in history due to the doings and undoings back in time, focusing instead on changes in the personal lives of our main characters, and even that doesn't happen all too often.  That may be one of the problems with the series - maybe we should see more shocking changes in our history when major historical figures die before their time.

Still and all, last night's was a good episode in a good series, with lots of nice touches.  The idea of wiping out Flynn by killing his innocent mother is still not tabled by everyone, which only makes sense.  And Wyatt's first thought being to save Lucy's sister was satisfying, too, even though it didn't happen.

But in some ways the most interesting moment in the episode was near the end, when Mason describes a data-mining system which, if implemented, would add a Person of Interest element to Timeless.   That would be a strong addition to the show.

I'm not worried that Rufus will die, even though he was wounded badly, because he's too essential to the show.  On the other hand, if next week's episode is the end not just of the season but the series, then anything's possible, and--   Nah, I don't want to go down that road at all.

See you next week with Joe McCarthy and, who knows, maybe even Edward R. Murrow!

See also Timeless 1.1: Threading the Needle ... Timeless 1.2: Small Change, Big Payoffs ... Timeless 1.3: Judith Campbell ... Timeless 1.4: Skyfall and Weapon of Choice ... Timeless 1.5: and Quantum Leap ... Timeless 1.6: Watergate and Rittenhouse ... Timeless 1.7: Stranded! ... Timeless 1.8: Time and Space ... Timeless 1.9: The Kiss and The Key ... Timeless 1.10: The End in the Middle ... Timeless 1.11: Edison, Ford, Morgan, Houdini, and Holmes (No, Not Sherlock)! ... Timeless 1.12: Incandescent West ... Timeless 1.13: Meeting, Mating, and Predictability ... Timeless 1.14: Paris in the 20s


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