Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 227

24 Legacy 1.1: High Octane

24 Legacy debuted tonight, and I've got to say, though I missed Jack, this new 24 has all the power and pacing and riveting story-by-the-minute of its predecessor.   Which is to say: Dammit! I liked it a whole lot.

Among the salient elements of the plot, my favorite was CTU being taken over by Rebecca (played by Miranda Otto), former CTU head.   She has to work - of course, frantically - underneath the nose of the current director. This is a classic 24 gambit, and great to see again.  Also of interest at CTU headquarters is Edgar Stiles' cousin Mariana (the late Edgar died nobly at CTU for his country, from poison gas, if memory serves).  There are other interesting characters at CTU, and, as always, the most important thing about them is one or more of them is is a double agent.   I hope it's not Mariana.

The new Jack - Eric Carter (played by Corey Hawkins) - is certainly not a double agent.  What he is sharp and driven and highly capable, like Jack.  But, unlike Jack, Corey has a strong wife, much better than the late Audrey.   And Eric has a more significant back story as brother to a gang leader. Good material here for future developments.

The heart of the story is some sort of major attack on America, with a Chechnyan high school student who, in a nice minor twist, has her chemistry teacher wrapped around her little finger and more, and an Isis (or whatever) terrorist group on the hunt in Washington for a list of everyone set to carry out the attack.

And if that's enough, and also in classic 24 tradition, Rebecca is married to a Senator (played by Jimmy Smits) who's running for President.  One of the best things about classic 24 was how it wove great Presidential life-and-death drama into the CTU action.  At times, 24 at its height was House of Cards before its time.

Now, if 24 Legacy were on ABC not Fox, we could actually get Jack Bauer right into the series - or Kiefer Sutherland, at at any rate, who's playing a President in ABC's Designated Survivor, another fine series which has a lot of 24 derring-do, too.

I'll keep watching both, for sure, and will be back here with a review 1.2, or the next hour of the ticking clock with the multiple screens, tomorrow.

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Z: The Beginning of Everything: Yes Indeed!

I'm always up for a series about writers - one of the reasons I'm a fan of The Affair - and you can't ask for anything more on that score that the early part of the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, done up in ten 30-minute episodes on Amazon.

The writer part of the story is the centerpiece - F. Scott's mostly boundless confidence in his talent and success, Zelda's contribution - not only in terms of believing in Scott but literally providing him with some of his best lines - Scott's dealings with his publisher, critics, and other writers, is just superb.   I had no idea that the line "blowsy clean" in his second novel - and the riff on the difference between that kind of wind-swept clean that you find on the beach, in contrast to what happens when you scrub a frying pan - came from Zelda's part of a conversation.

The two shared everything - from words to gin to the Roaring Twenties Jazz Age zest for life, which they had a large hand in creating, or at least mining and miming every day.  Zelda's happy to strip naked on their wedding night and stand in the door of their bedroom in the Biltmore in New York because Scott is tarrying too long with his friends in the parlor. Scott is a man ahead of his time, pleased to let Zelda drive their car, but when she hits a deer that proverbially came out of nowhere, he reverts to berating her in classic 20th-century-man fashion.

And what a car!  And whether it's a Model whatever Ford, or a plush train, or a Firestone car that they take from New York City to Princeton, the two delight in the new world that is coming into being, with their frivolous, outrageous, profound assistance.  And all the while we know this:  as Scott struggles with his genius, and doubts his ability just once in a while to get the world to recognize it, as Zelda inspires him even she's not trying to do that, we know from our vantage point here in the 21st century that both succeeded, if not beyond their wildest dreams, at least beyond the down-time qualms that all great dreamers and creators are prone to have on occasion.

Christina Ricci as Zelda and David  Hoflin as Scott are outstanding - looking and behaving, as someone famous in the 1920s said of the real Fitzgeralds, as if they'd just come out of the sun.  The music's fine, too, with an early or retro-recording of "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" at the end of one of the episodes that I hadn't heard before.

Indeed, my only regret about Z: The Beginning of Everything is that Scott and Zelda can't via some science fictional magic (hey, he wrote "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") watch and enjoy it. They would have quickly understood and come to appreciate and utilize Amazon and the Internet and blogging of course television (which is just radio with pictures), and even though Scott was a little uncomfortable with the attention Zelda received for her writing talent, the two would have laughed their drunken assess off at this series and loved it.

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Vikings 4.20: Ends and Starts

A good end to a good not great second part of the fourth season of Vikings, with pieces well in place for the next.

The most surprising development was Ivar killing Sigurd - more than surprising, shocking, actually, and not because we didn't know that Ivar had the temper to do that.  But killing a brother is something we haven't previously seen on Vikings, including, especially, Ragnar and Rollo, and it;s bound to shake up everything.   Will Bjorn still sail south?  How will the other brothers come to terms with this?  Anything is possible next season, which is good for the series.  That was the best part of the season finale.

Ecbert's conning the Vikings was ok, but it was both too little and too much.   I wouldn't have minded seeing Ecbert somehow survive, or, if not, see his attempt to fool the Vikings dramatically fail.  I guess this is supposed to symbolize why the Vikings actually didn't permanently take over any part of England in our real history, so in Ecbert's end we have the narrative constrained by real history once again.

Helga's death was sad but predictable - there was no other reason that she would have accompanied Floki on this expedition with her captive child.   Floki's response was also to be expected.  But it was good seeing him walk off in the mist.   Perhaps we'll see him again.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers' character was good to see and promises to be compelling.  And it's only appropriate that someone who did so well in Michael Hirst's earlier great series, The Tudors, comes back on Hirst's currently excellent Vikings.  But I would have liked to see a little more development and build-up of Meyers' lusty warrior-priest, rather than just dropping him in unconnected at the end.

He will be a good, radically different successor to Ecbert, not as king, but as adversary of Ragnar's sons, and I'm looking forward to more.


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

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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Proud to be on Amazon, A Company That's Fighting Trump

I was proud to read yesterday that Amazon is joining a lawsuit to stop Trump's immigration ban - proud because all of my books, published by traditional presses, small presses, and self-published, are for sale on Amazon.  I'm proud to have my books up there with this progressive organization that puts its money where its mouth is.

Amazon paved a path to future with its Kindle, which allowed authors to publish their own books and break free of traditional agents, editors, and publishers, who had to pass judgement on the writing, deem it fit, before the public could see it.  That started a revolution that's still proceeding.

When you walk into an Amazon physical store, you don't have to wait in line and see a teller when you want to pay - Amazon saves you the time of having to present your money or credit information each time you make a purchase.  In smart cities, and smart parts of cities, now being planned, apartments will have refrigerators that will receive a signal when you're low on milk or orange juice, and will relay that info to Amazon, which will send out a drone with your groceries.   Or not, if you'd rather not do this. Just as people who want a printed book don't have to read an ebook.  The future is about options, not compulsions and restrictions.  The future is about openness not bans.

Amazon is helping us make our future.  The people at Amazon understand that this is a future for all humanity - that the future is inherently international.   That's why they're joining the lawsuits against Trump and his immigration ban.

Trump hawks the past - plies the ugly prejudices of xenophobia and discrimination.  He will lose, just as he already lost the popular vote, and Amazon will be one of the forces that will help bring him down.

I'm proud to stand with Amazon and the forces of the future, the forces of people and democracy, in this fight.


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Timeless 1.13: Meeting, Mating, and Prediictability

An altogether excellent, tip-top Timeless 1.13 tonight, in which Wyatt in classic grandfather paradox mode goes back to 1983 to stop the parents of a serial killer from mating, to save the love of his life who was one of three women murdered by said serial killer.

Several appealing points about this set-up.  From the outset, Wyatt realized that he doesn't have to kill either of the serial killer's parents.  As I've often said, to get the grandfather paradox going, all you have to do is prevent your grandparents - or parents, who will also do - from meeting.  You don't have to kill them, and, actually, you don't even have to stop them from meeting - just stopping them from mating will do the trick.

Wyatt, decent person that he fundamentally is, however, plans just to stop the serial killer's parents from meeting.  But because things can often go wrong in time travel, and so often do in Timeless, he's soon down to no choice but to stop them from mating.

He manages to do that, just barely, but then as he's chasing the guy (played by Drew Roy - good to see him back from Falling Skies), the father of the serial killer hits his head on the curb and ... dies. So Wyatt has now, through no fault of his own, gone to the brutal essence of the grandfather paradox and killed one of the progenitors.

I had a feeling Wyatt's love wouldn't be saved anyway.  My theory was that killer's mother ended up sleeping that night with the other guy in the bar who wanted her, and those two were the serial killer's real parents (which fact got jumbled in the birth certificate or whatever that Wyatt saw).  Who knows, maybe that was in an early draft of the script.  But what happens is actually better.  Two of the three women killed originally by the serial killer are alive when Wyatt returns to the present.  Just not his true love.

What this tells in a sad but eloquent way is that changing events in time is more complicated than even a grandfather paradox story can accommodate.  Who knows why Wyatt's wife was killed - and by whom.  The universe is fundamentally unpredictable - even for the time traveler.

But I predict Timeless will be on next week, and I'm looking forward to it.

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

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Homeland 6.3: Potentials

An ok Homeland 6.3 last night, with Quinn resurgent and Saul in Israel.

The Israeli part reminded me what a superb job Fauda does of showing the simmering tensions in that country.  Saul's conversation with his sister was interesting enough, but didn't really further our knowledge of Saul very much, and not much at all for the plot at hand.

Quinn in Brooklyn was better - better to see, and better that Quinn is coming back into action.  What he did to the guy who took advantage of his weakened condition was just and satisfying.  I hope it's just the beginning of Quinn in fuller service - to the cause and to Carrie.  Both certainly need it.

And Homeland needs it too.  So far, this season is almost nothing like the first season, which was such a powerhouse.  And even last season, with no Brody, managed to grab us by the collar.   This season has some potential, but so far it's yet to be realized.

The most significant potential is in the President-elect, who is different from our current President in just about every way.  Obviously, the script was written and put to screen long before we knew the results of our election.   So here, too, we can only hope that the President-elect, whenever she takes office in the story - assuming she does - will provide a bracing counterpoint to our own real political situation.

Potentials are very valuable - as long as they are, at least to some extent, fulfilled.

See also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program
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 4.1: "True Friends and Mortal Enemies"

Black Sails launched its fourth and final season tonight with an episode that made me wish this season wasn't the last.  A tip-top battle scene at the beginning, and lots of soul-searching conversation, my favorite being the one about "true friends and mortal enemies" and no one in between.

The mix of real history and staying true to well-known fiction has always been a bit of a hindrance to the Black Sails storyline.  So we know for a fact, because he lived on in Robert Louis Stevenson's fiction, that Long John Silver couldn't die tonight.

But it was good to see the way he survived the sinking ship around him anyway, from severing his fake leg to being welcomed home by a certain pirate at the end.   It was also good to see him getting some loving in the flashback.

The verbal duel between Billy and Flint was also good, and long overdue, as was the very different but also sensible conversation between Rackham and Bonny.  I could have lived without the Eleanor and Governor scene, but then again, I never liked them as a couple and still don't.

So what will become of our real historical pirates?  History tells us Anne Bonny lives a long life. Blackbeard (Teach) and Rackham die much sooner - and not of natural causes.  It wouldn't be stretching history too much for either or both to be killed directly or indirectly by Governor Rogers, but, pirate romanticist that I am, I hopeful that at least Jack will survive the finale, and live happily ever after in some fictional off-screen world with Anne.


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 Affair 3.10: Taking Paris

[image error]After a ragged, often frustrating season 3, the finale of The Affair tonight served up an altogether sensitive, satisfying episode - not only the best of the season, but one of the best of the series.  By the far the closest we've seen in this series to anything approaching a happy ending.

The Paris parts - Juliette and Noah - were excellent, just because of the great Paris scenery, including a bookstore (of course) and the Foucault Pendulum.   It was great to see Juliet and Noah in bed, and after, and the story of Juliette's husband was interesting, too.

But that was just an appetizer for the main event, much shorter in time, which came near the end of Noah's half hour, and ended with the rapprochement of Noah and Whitney.  This has been brewing and needed for almost three seasons, and the conversations they have in Paris allow Noah to finally come into his own as father.  He was positively profound when he tells her that children can learn from their parents and be better parents, not perfect, but better, and someday in the future maybe someone will have a perfect childhood.

And Noah goes home with Whitney - or she with him - and the last scene outside of Helen's apartment is also the happiest we've seen of that family since maybe the first episode of the series.  At this point, not only is Helen and family and Vic happy, but so are Noah and his children, and, as per last week, so are Alison and Cole.

And there's even a chance we'll see more of Juliette and Noah, though that's the least certain at this point.  Noah in the cab, not knowing where he wants to go, was sad, but at least he's no longer psycho, and he could even take a plane right back to Paris.

In any case, given this insane world off-screen we currently inhabit, I'm more than content to close the curtain on The Affair until the next season, and know that all of our major characters are ok - and, hey, I don't even mind too much that we still don't know why the detectives investigating Noah's stabbing never found his self-inflicting knife.

See also The Affair 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 3.2: Sneak Preview Review: Right Minds ... The Affair 3.3: Who Attached Noah? ... The Affair 3.4: The Same Endings in Montauk ... The Affair 3.5: Blocked Love ... The Affair 3.6: The Wound ... The Affair 3.7: The White Shirt ... The Affair 3.8: The "Miserable Hero" ... The Affair 3.9: A Sliver of Clarity

And see also The Affair 2.1: Advances ... The Affair 2.2: Loving a Writer ... The Affair 2.3: The Half-Wolf ... The Affair 2.4: Helen at Distraction ... The Affair 2.5: Golden Cole ... The Affair 2.6: The End (of Noah's Novel) ... The Affair 2.7: Stunner ... The Affair 2.8: The Reading, the Review, the Prize ...And see also The Affair Premiere: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 1.2: Time Travel! ... The Affair 1.3: The Agent and the Sleepers ... The Affair 1.4: Come Together ... The Affair 1.5: Alison's Episode ... The Affair 1.6: Drugs and Vision ... The Affair 1.7: True Confessions ... The Affair 1.8: "I Love You / I Love You, Too" ... The Affair 1.9: Who Else on the Train? ... The Affair Season 1 Finale: The Arrest and the Rest

podcast review of every 2nd season episode


podcast review of every 1st season episode


the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy
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Vikings 4.19: On the Verge of History

Vikings 4.19 pitches us onto the verge of the ultimate battle - at least, ultimate for this season - between the invading, revenge-seeking sons of Ragnar, and King Eckbert's chosen defending leader, his own son  Aethelwulf.  The final scene is fine classic: Aethelwulf and what's left of his army, ravaged by Ivar's clever appear-and-run strategy, finally charging headlong into the Vikings.

Based on what we've seen, there's no way, short of a bolt from the blue that destroys the Vikings, for Aethelwulf to win this.   History, for those who want to consult it, is unclear in how it relates to this battle.  In general, we're told the Vikings were not that much of a threat to Wessex in Aethelwulf time - clearly not exactly the case in this television portrayal, certainly not in a psychological sense. And we're told that Aethelwulf did fight two battles with the Vikings, the first in Carhampton to the east, the second on the Thames, and that he was defeated in the first, won the second, and obviously therefore did not lose his life in either.

Clearly, if his penultimate episode is any indication, there's no way that Aethewulf can win it.  And frankly, it's hard to see at this point how he'll even survive.  The circumstances of his survival in this coming week's episode therefore should be interesting indeed.  Who among the Vikings will save him?  How and why?   My guess is Ivar may surprisingly choose not to kill Aethewulf, who after all was not the one really responsible for Ragnar's death.  But we'll see.

Meanwhile, Lagertha's holding forth back home is fun to see, but adds little to the historical tapestry in England which is the centerpiece of this story.  For that reason, I regret Lagertha not being part of this expedition.  But we'll see how at least some of this turns out this coming week.

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

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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Sneaky Pete: True Win

Graham Yost, one of the main creative forces shaping Amazon's Sneaky Pete, was and is also executive producer of two other superb series, The Americans and Justify. But Sneaky Pete has the most in common, and is almost a kind of mirror image, of another pathbreaking series created by another GY - Greg Yaitanes - Banshee.

Both tell the story of an ex-con who adopts someone else's identity, needs to fool a lot of people, and must match wits with a vicious, highly intelligent, racketeering villain who holds forth from New York City.  Both must deal with expected and unexpected near revelations of their true identity, and cleverly fend them off.   Sneaky Pete is a little lighter than the unremittingly brutal Banshee, but Sneaky Pete has plenty of dark and violent moments, too.

Unlike "Lucas Hood" in Banshee, however,  Marius Josipovic is not only conning the world about being "Pete," but running cons in everything he does.   These cons start and end the season, and give Sneaky Pete something crucially in common with other great con narratives on the big screen, ranging from the The Sting (mentioned in Sneaky Pete) to Ocean's 11.

And speaking of Ocean's 11 (and Ocean's Eleven), Sneaky Pete has an impressive array of star power, with Giovanni Ribisi in the lead role, Bryan Cranston as the arch villain, and Peter Gerety, Margo Martindale, and even Ben Vereen and Malcolm-Jamal Warner in supporting parts.  All do memorable jobs.  Not as well-known Marin Ireland, Shane McRae, and Libe Barer also put in good performances.

As was the case with Banshee, credibility is strained by the extent to which the imposter can get away with it for so long.  And Sneaky Pete has the problem of needing to fool the real Pete's grandparents and cousins - wouldn't they realize something was different in his eyes, which would be pretty much the same for someone in his thirties, not seen since he was a boy at least 11+ years old?  "Lucas Hood" in Banshee didn't have to confront anyone in the real Hood family, except his son, who realized the deception immediately.

But it's easy enough to suspend your disbelief in Sneaky Pete.  The action is quick, the surprises jolting, and the series clocks in as another true win for streaming television.


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