Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 244

Tyrant 3.9: Al-Qadi and Tea

In many ways, Al-Qadi was the centerpiece of Tyrant 3.9.   Everyone wants him dead or neutralized.

The Caliphate wants him dead, seeing correctly that he's the last chance for any kind of unification in Abuddin, given his alliance with Leila.  In a scene in which a pot of tea never had so much pivotal power, his wife Nafisa can't bring herself to poison her husband with a cup of tea.  And he - because he's a fundamentally good person - can't bring himself to let her poison herself, after challenging her to drink the tainted tea.   Given Annet Mahendru's prior record of playing characters who die - actually, just one, but it was a major character on The Americans - I was pretty sure she was a gonna, but glad to see that she's still alive.

But Al-Qadi also faces a threat from the other side, with Bassam, getting worse and worse as a tyrant, setting loose his military to confront Leila.   Fortunately the American general disobeys orders and prevents the Abuddinian military from proceeding.   I like Chris Noth's General Cogswell, and hope this doesn't mean he's recalled or whatever and therefore off the show.

Back to Bassam, he's really dug himself into a huge hole, egged on by his now maniacal wife, and their thirst revenge for the murder of their daughter.   He has Daliya locked up.   She was wrong and Leila was right when she warned Daliya about Bassam - he may love Daliya, but that didn't stop him from arresting her.   And her going on a hunger is a strong next move in this chess game.

Will he let her die?   My prediction: he won't, and he'll break free of the downward spiral of Molly and revenge at all costs.   But then again, I'm an optimist, and we'll just have to see in the season finale next week.

See also: Tyrant 3.1: Barry -> Bassam ... Tyrant 3.2: Whither Molly? ...Tyrant 3.3: Double Death ... Tyrant 3.5: Bassam and Daliya ... Tyrant 3.8: Poor Bassam
And see also: Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character ... Tyrant 2.5: The Caliphate ... Tyrant Season 2 Finale: Deserves to be Renewed 
And see also: Tyrant: Compelling Debut ... Tyrant 1.2: The Brother's Speech and His Wife ... Tyrant 1.3: A New Leaf? ... Tyrant 1.4: Close to the Bone ...Tyrant 1.6: Don't Mess with Jamal ... Tyrant 1.7-8: Coup ... Tyrant 1.9: Tariq ... Tyrant Season 1 Finale: The Truest Tyrant

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Elvis & Nixon on Amazon: History As It Could Have Been Written

I don't usually review comedies, but Elvis & Nixon isn't really a comedy, though it's billed as such, and even though it does have lots of laughing-out-loud scenes and lines.

But the Amazon original movie mostly is a seemingly cracked but deeply revealing double bio-pic, and a bio-pic not of two lives, but of what led up to a single moment in history when Elvis Presley met Richard Nixon in the White House.  The photograph above, the most requested from the National Archives, captured that moment.

The movie provides the background, true in general, but like all docu-dramas, replete with dialogue written for the movie.

What we learn about Nixon is nothing new, but ever fascinating to see.   He's a deeply insecure man, even in the most powerful office on the planet.  He complains to an aide, before the meeting, that he's not very good-looking, and doesn't have it as easy as guys like the Kennedys and Elvis who are.   Although Elvis doesn't hear this, he later compliments Nixon on his good lucks, as part of his successful effort to butter him up.

Elvis is riven with insecurity, too.  It's not only December 1970, but December or at very least the late Fall of Elvis's career.  Though millions of course know of him and still adore him, it's an older crowd, and he's no longer making the record-breaking records that launched him to superstardom, succeeding Frank Sinatra in the 1950s, gyrating on the Ed Sullivan show, and Elvis knows this.  He hates the Beatles, and is almost bored with his public.   Indeed his passion at this point is what brings him to the White House - collecting police badges, in pursuit of a badge as a Federal agent at large, a position he's conjured into being.

Kevin Spacey at Nixon is of course perfect and superb.  Michael Shannon, last seen to good effect on Boardwalk Empire, is outstanding as Elvis.  If you'd like to know what this off-beat movie most reminds me of it would be the second season of Fargo, which takes place in 1979.   Elvis & Nixon and Fargo have almost nothing specifically in common - the one point of similarity would be Reagan appearing in an episode of Fargo - but the two share a uniquely true, bizarre but incisive ambience you'll find in few other places on the screen.

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Murder in the First 3.9: Siletti

Well, as I've been saying all season, the best story in Murder in the First this summer is not a case of murder in the first, but of drunk driving manslaughter, committed - if he's found guilty - by the main prosecutor on the series, until this season, Mario Siletti.

And Siletti wrapped it up just beautifully last night, in the next-to-last episode of the season.  No one likes him - including, significantly, his own lawyer, who rips up the check Siletti gives him and says never call me again - and that's precisely what makes Siletti so appealing as a character.  He does whatever is needed, including taking down and embarrassing anyone required, to secure his own position.  And it looks like his strategy paid off, big time.

In all fairness to Siletti, he was almost done in by his lover, who turned around and prosecuted him for manslaughter after the two made love in the bathroom.  So she got what he deserved.  And his lawyer - just brilliantly played by Michael Gaston (and hey, all the acting on the show is outstanding) - is no angel, either.  He was willing to do whatever was needed to get his client acquitted.  What burned him in the end was not being let in on Siletti's plan - even though he realized that his surprise had to be real, not feigned in the slightest, for it to work for Siletti.

If there is a fourth season - yet to be announced, but I sure hope there is - then Siletti will make a great defense attorney in whatever murder cases come up then.  The series has really excelled in defense attorneys - including, as I said, Gaston's character - and Siletti will make a fine addition to this cunning crew.

Meanwhile, Terry and Hildy are, predictably, heading towards a better, fuller relationship - but that's good to see, too.  Looking forward to the season finale, and more next summer.


See also Murder in the First 3.1-2: Wild Ride and  Murder in the First: 3.3: Fast and Steady ... Murder in the First 3.8: True Love

And see also Murder in the First: A Review


 

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Fear the Walking Dead 2.9: The Pharmacist and the Hotel California

One of the most interesting and potentially crucially important characters on both Walking Dead series was the focus of Fear the Walking Dead 2.9 last night:  the pharmacist.

He's said to have been bitten by an infected and amply survived.  We see the bite mark, mostly healed, on his shoulder.  So what's going on?

Possibly he has some kind of natural immunity to the plague bug.  This would be consistent with what we know of deadly plagues in our own off-screen reality. Even the deadliest plague has some survivors, however few.   If there were a scientific community of researchers who could study the pharmacist, his immune system could provide a key to fashioning some kind of mass immunity injection.  This, of course, could and would change everything.

Another possibility, given that he is a pharmacist, is that he concocted some kind of drug treatment for the plague, and it worked on him.  If that was the case, then all the possibilities described above for natural immunity would apply - scientific researchers could mass-produce the drug, which in turn would change everything.

Of course, in both cases, the pharmacist needs to get in touch with researchers - and they are in increasingly short supply in this infected world.

A third possibility, probably the most likely but the least interesting and the least fun, is that the pharmacist was bitten, but not by someone infected by the plague.   Given his talk about coming back from the dead, he certainly thinks he was bitten by a genuinely infected.   I hope he's right about surviving an infected bite, but you never know.

Meanwhile, we got a great hotel from hell in last night's episode - the only thing missing was the Eagles' "Hotel California," which could have been playing the background.

Looking forward to more.


See also Fear the Walking Dead 2.2: Almost the Last Night of the World ... Fear the Walking Dead 2.8: Nick and the Talking Dead, Literally
And see also Fear the Walking Dead 1.1: Great Beginnings ... Fear TWD 1.2: Tobias Leads the Way ... Fear TWD Season 1 Finale: Water Water

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The Night Of #8: Fine Finale

Well, I've been saying all summer long that The Night Of couldn't just pull a killer out of a hat - couldn't make the killer someone we didn't see or know of until the very last episode - but the short series did just that tonight, and, you know what, it worked, and worked really well, just like the entire series.

In a story in which everyone was flawed, just about everyone, including some surprising characters, played a role in Naz's release.  Box was surprisingly dogged in pursuing who else might have killed Andrea with so much evidence against Naz. But Box's obsession with finding the real killer made perfect sense, given that he was retiring.  And it looked for a while as if his discovery would go for naught, that the mistrial for which the good guys had carefully laid the groundwork wouldn't happen after all.  But then came the biggest surprise of all.

The DA (and memorable acting by Jeannie Berlin), apparently unconvinced by Box's evidence and argument that the state was putting the wrong person on trial, was apparently shaken up and convinced enough anyway, to elect not to retry the case, after the jury was hung 6 to 6 on conviction vs. acquittal.

And that hung jury, in turn, was the result of Jack's brilliant closing for the defense - presented by someone whose main work, as we see again at the very end, was talking his clients into plea bargaining for the fee of $250.   And why was Jack not Chandra giving the summation?  Because she was sidelined by the judge, whose response to the video of her kissing Naz in prison was not to declare a mistrial but reprimand Chandra.   So in that indirect way, Chandra came through for Naz after all.

And she came through for him directly, too, in presenting strong arguments for reasonable doubt regarding the three suspects other than Naz.   She and Jack made a great team in the end, and I wouldn't mind at all if there was another season with a completely new story with those two once again acting for the defense against almost impossible odds.

The Night Of was a rare piece of surprising legal drama - rare because it was original and surprising in a genre that's been mined on television just about every year since Perry Mason back in the 1950s.
Plaudits to everyone concerned, including John Turturro whose acting is more peerless than ever, Amara Karan and lots of fine acting from people we haven't seen before, and a letter-perfect script by Richard Price.

See also The Day After The Night Of on HBO ... The Night Of #3: The Schlep vs. the Star ... The Night Of #4: Chandra To The Rescue ... The Night Of #6: Three Suspects ... The Night Of #7: The Kiss



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Tyrant 3.8: Poor Bassam

Well, Bassam finds himself in about the worst place he's been all season in last night's Tyrant 3.8:

Molly's back, but she doesn't love him anymore, doesn't even want to sleep in the same bed with Barry.  Her main role now is to goad him to do the worst possible things, politically - suspend the election so he has more time to destroy their daughter's killer, but in so doing suspending the very democracy that he worked so hard to install in his original now re-adopted country.

Daliyah still loved him at the beginning of the episode, when Molly returned, but Bassam's totalitarian impulses have shattered her feeling, leaving her with pain and at best mixed emotions about Bassam.  This will likely push her into Fauzi's arms, and we saw the beginning of that last night.

Leila is now totally against what Bassam is doing, even changing her Al-Fayeed name back to her maiden name to underline that opposition.   Her American general, well played by Chris Noth, is still trying to be helpful to Bassam, but one word from the U. S. could change that, obliging Bassam to rely on his own military, and we know how that has worked out in the past.

About the only bright spot is Aziz the aide-de-camp is still alive - I thought he had been killed in the attack that almost got Daliyah - and it was good to see Sammy and Ahmed talking, however testily.

Well, I guess that's two bright spots, but they're weak ones, in comparison to what is going wrong with Bassam's presidency, and it's hard to say where all of this will land in the two concluding episodes of this season - which is a good thing, because we want to be kept off-balance.

Footnote: I coincidentally started watching Hunted this week, with a slightly younger Adam Raynor, with his native British accent, and he's good in that, too.  And I find his American accent in Tyrant right up there with the best of them (i.e., American done by Brits, like the American characters played by Dominic West).

See also: Tyrant 3.1: Barry -> Bassam ... Tyrant 3.2: Whither Molly? ...Tyrant 3.3: Double Death ... Tyrant 3.5: Basham and Daliya
And see also: Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character ... Tyrant 2.5: The Caliphate ... Tyrant Season 2 Finale: Deserves to be Renewed 
And see also: Tyrant: Compelling Debut ... Tyrant 1.2: The Brother's Speech and His Wife ... Tyrant 1.3: A New Leaf? ... Tyrant 1.4: Close to the Bone ...Tyrant 1.6: Don't Mess with Jamal ... Tyrant 1.7-8: Coup ... Tyrant 1.9: Tariq ... Tyrant Season 1 Finale: The Truest Tyrant

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Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, and Ratifying Advice about Private Email

The story concerning Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State took a new turn in the past week.   According to The New York Times, Clinton told the FBI she used private email as per former Secretary of State Powell's advice.   Powell's response to this report, in an interview with People magazine,  was that Hillary's "people have been trying to pin it on me ... The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did."

The media have widely been reporting this as evidence that Hillary was not telling the truth to the FBI about what Powell told her. Unsurprisingly, the media have once again missed the essential point: there are two kinds of advice one colleague may give another about their professional activities. One kind of advice could be given before the activity, in which case the person given the advice could say that she or he was doing this or that because of a colleague's advice.  The other could be given after the activity was underway, with the colleague's advice supporting or ratifying the activity.

Here's a non-controversial example.  Let's say I'm teaching a class on a particular subject, for the first time, and I decide that rather  giving a final exam, I'll assign a final paper instead.   A month after the course is underway, I'm having a cup of tea with a colleague, and she tells me she taught the course a few years earlier, and she always assigned a final paper rather than giving a final exam.  In this case, I didn't assign the final paper because of what my colleague said.  But her advice ratifies what I was already doing, and is therefore relevant.

Powell's complaint that Hillary or her people are to "pin" the use of private emails on him implies that Hillary is trying to blame him for her use of private email, or that she used a private email server because of what he told Hillary.  Hence, his point that "The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did." That may be the case, but it doesn't in the slightest contradict the ratifying advice that Powell gave to the then new Secretary of State, after she was already using the email.  And the fact that a former Secretary of State supported what Hillary was doing as Secretary is indeed very worthy of mention, and shows that any notion that what she was doing was wrong is ex post facto, as was the designation of 100 of her emails as "classified," long after they had been sent. Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Murder in the First 3.8: True Love

A tender moment in the usually tough as nails Murder in the First 3.8 last night, an episode in which love or some facsimile figured prominently in a variety of places.

The tender moment came when Hildy tells Terry "I love you," after Terry apologizes to her, on the advice of his shrink (played by NYPD Blue's Kim Delaney - yes!) who wisely asks him, "do you want to be right or happy?"   That was one of the best lines in this series, which has had plenty of good lines this season.

Personally, I agree with Terry, but the psychologist's advice makes a lot of sense. I'm also thinking that now that Lt. Koto knows what it's like to begin falling in love with someone whom maybe he shouldn't, and who is murdered no less, maybe he'll be more understanding about Terry and Hildy and let them work together as partners whatever they may want to do in life and bed. I certainly hope so.

Love also played a role in Siletti's trial, which had the best courtroom drama so far this season. Siletti's wife outing Melissa Danson and Siltetti - as per Siletti's plan - was a good idea, even if it did anger Siletti's otherwise unflappable lawyer.  But the mistrial certainly shakes things up, and it's not a certainty he will be retried, despite what the judge growled.   So did Siletti's wife do this out of love for her husband.  Well, sort of ...

Meanwhile, perverted love, as in the father and daughter incest kind, likely figured in the main murder case of the season - the Normandy murder - as we found out last night.  I've actually been enjoying the Siletti case  more than the Normandy, but that's ok, because there's still room for something shocking to happen or be revealed in those twisted doings.

In the sense that the secondary case has been more riveting than the primary, this third season of Murder in the First is unique.  After all, there's no charge of murder in the first against Siletti.  But that makes this season all the more interesting.

See also Murder in the First 3.1-2: Wild Ride and  Murder in the First: 3.3: Fast and Steady

And see also Murder in the First: A Review


 

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Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix

Not much in the way of great music, karaoke-d or otherwise, in Ray Donovan 4.9 last night, but a great episode anyway, with one of the all-time best endings for an hour on this series.

Ray is the ultimate fixer.  And the last scene presents him with one of most literally out-of-the-blue circumstances in need of fixing: The Russians have Avi.   What they want to save his life is Sonia, whom Ray has just put on a plane that we see take off and now well into the air, thanks to a perfectly executed ploy by Lena, who baits the Russian hitman into thinking she's Sonia, and then kills him as he's about to shoot her.   Nice piece of work, indeed - but what will Ray do now?

I suppose Avi is expendable, but Ray doesn't think so, and neither do I and I bet most of the many fans of the show.   But how will Ray get Sonia back and into Russian hands that want to kill her?

Sonia doesn't have much longer to live, anyway, and Ray and we know this.   But when you're dying, every moment is precious.   Can Ray talk Sonia into turning herself over to the Russians to save Avi? I just don't quite see this happening.

Meanwhile, Mickey continues having his best season ever, which is saying a lot, because he's been great in every season.  Apropos the lack of great music, he's lost another love of his life with the killing of the singer.   Unlike other Mickey situations, there's nothing the least bit ambiguous about this - we can only feel bad for him.

On the bright side, the trauma of Nevada has brought Teresa back into her own.   She saved Mickey, and told him how sorry she felt about his loss.   It looks like Terry may be in for some romance, too, and that's also good to see.

But Ray will need to move Heaven and Earth to save Avi, and he won't have Avi's help to do it.

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats

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

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

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


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The Night Of #7: The Kiss

Not much that we didn't already know in last night's penultimate The Night Of episode 7 on HBO, but it was a very satisfying episode, anyway, mainly because of the kiss between Naz and Chandra.

I don't know realistic that was - a lawyer kissing her client like that in a jail-cell visit - but it felt right and told us something important:  Chandra believes in Naz's innocence.  In fact, her statement of that is what leads to the kiss.  Not many other people share that belief.  Naz's mother apparently does not. Even Jack has made it clear, many times, that this is not about Naz's guilt or innocence, but about giving him a fair hearing.

Though it's not clear if Jack's thoughts have changed on this, especially given what he's been uncovering about the retiring Dt. Sgt. Box.  And Jack doesn't know the half of it, at this point.  What was it that we saw at the very beginning of last night's episode, and we saw nothing more of in the hour? Wasn't that Box on the scene of another murder, with a knife-riven body cut up a lot like Andrea's?  And when exactly did that take place - before or after Andrea's murder?

Meanwhile, as The Night Of has been doing in almost every episode, we get another little shot against Naz - he committed not one but two violent acts while in school.  But you know what?  I have confidence in Chandra, and her kissing Naz has now 100% convinced me of his innocence.  I think she's a good judge of human nature.   And there's that intelligent testimony that that Michael Baden-like coroner Dr. Katz gave on Naz's behalf on the stand.

But that, then, leaves us with who else?  I went over the three prime, non-Naz suspects last week.  I guess I'm hoping that it's Duane Reade, not because he seems more guilty than the others, but because it would be great to see Richard Price's little joke made even more memorable by Reade being the killer.  Price must have thinking, when he came up with this little gambit, that, hey, how many times, like in The Usual Suspects, do we see someone under questioning come up with a name that was on a nearby coffee cup or sign, so why not make it the suspect's or whoever's real name after all?   I have nothing at all against the drug store chain, but it would be cool if Duane Reade were the killer, after all.

Looking forward to finding our more about that next week.

See also The Day After The Night Of on HBO ... The Night Of #3: The Schlep vs. the Star ... The Night Of #4: Chandra To The Rescue ... The Night Of #6: Three Suspects



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