Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 262

Downton Abbey 6.6: Sneak Preview Review

Herewith a preview review of the next episode of Downton Abbey - 6.6 - to air on PBS next Sunday. It was enjoyable, as always, but not the strongest episode in this final season so far.  In what follows, I'll talk in generalities, and mention no specific people.  But if you prefer not to get even an inkling of what will be on the screen this Sunday, read on no further.


The health crisis Episode 6.5 of Downton Abbey is apparently resolved, with no loss of life, in Episode 6.6.  That's good to see, though the person in question is not completely out of the woods just yet.

The other health crisis - not about a character but the administration of the hospital itself - is also resolved, to the major satisfaction of one of our major characters, and the just-as-intense dissatisfaction of another.  In fact, this second character is so upset with this outcome that she refuses to speak to the first.

And there's yet another health issue, apparently resolved again, for another one of the characters.   But, given her situation, we still have another set of months to go before everyone can rest easy.

There's also some frivolity in the situation of the newly married couple - or rather, one is being a little imperious, and this provides some good comic relief for the audience.

But there is one serious development for one of the characters.  It's been brewing all season, and hasn't yet come to the boil, but the episode ends with this character not at all happy.

And I'll see you all here next week, when I'll happily share another sneak preview review.

See also other sneak preview reviews for the final season of Downton Abbey: 6.2 ... 6.3 ... 6.4 ... 6.5




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Good News in the Iowa Caucus Results

Looks like Hillary Clinton won by a razor-thin margin in Iowa - which I'm glad to see, since I like her position on the NRA - receiving an "F" from the gun lobby - better than Bernie's D- from the same organization, and I also think Hillary's extensive foreign policy experience is a necessity in the next President, in this especially dangerous day and age.

But Bernie can hold his head up high.  He started in Iowa with next to nothing in voter support, and ignited a revolution that brought him all the way to the edge of winning.   I don't support his socialism - I think there's an enormous value in capitalism and its spur to human invention - but there's more than enough room in the Democratic party for his kind of progressivism, and our country benefits from his voice.

And I'm also glad that Trump came in second in the Republican caucuses, and almost came in third.  I agree with nothing Cruz says, but at least he offers real political content, rather than the insults and empty hyperbole of Donald Trump.   As I pointed out in McLuhan in an Age of Social Media, Trump is the ultimate "cool" candidate (in McLuhan's terminology, meaning that his communication has ultra-low content), trafficking in tweets and in speeches which are almost literally compilations and repetitions of his 140-character digital missives and misses.   It's good to see voters reject that in favor of something more substantial - however much I may find that substance dangerous and unacceptable.

So the 2016 Presidential election moves to New Hampshire next week.   Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are currently way ahead in that state.  But if anything is clear from tonight in Iowa, and previous years in New Hampshire, nothing is certain in politics.


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Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea

The third season of Black Sails continues in its second episode to be the most rip-roaring of the series so far - at least insofar as pirate versus the elements, in the form of the "ship killing" storm that Flint chooses to sail into, rather than enter into a losing battle with Hornigold or accept his pardon, which would amount to the same thing.

Flint and his crew's battle against the sea is outstanding - full cinematic in power - and a sight to behold and enjoy on this safe side of the screen.   Not only Flint, but Billy and Silver have strong and defining moments - Silver in particular, who continues his role as unwilling but ubiquitous witness to the death and heartbreak and irony that this life can dish out.  Actually, Billy's moment is just as crucial, being obliged once again to see that Flint knows what he's doing, or at least is the best person around to see what needs to be done to survive, when all the options are so close to destruction.

Meanwhile, we get a good shot of Eleanor in this episode, who looks a little older and certainly a little wiser, though she was pretty shrewd before.  But in place of the touch of deceptive sweetness we saw in previous seasons, we get a whiff of almost weary wisdom, and that actually works better in the story.

From Eleanor we learn how Teach aka Blackbeard fits into this narrative, and his relationship with Vane portends an even more unpredictable future than usual for Vane and Eleanor.   She understands the major players better than does anyone, but will this be enough to get her what she wants - back to being Queen of Thieves on the island?

Not likely, because no one gets what they want in this world, but nor do they quite lose everything either, and sometimes they win enough, which is what makes Black Sails such good viewing.

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored

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

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pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 
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Book Salon at McLuhan Centre Coach House in Toronto about McLuhan in an Age of Social Media

I had a wonderful time this past Wednesday evening at the McLuhan Centre Coach House at the University of Toronto.   It was great talking to former students and old friends Ira Nayman and Hugh Spencer center stage, and Marc Belanger,  Paolo Granata (thanks for inviting me), Paul Kelly, Alex Kuskis, Bob Logan, and Dominque Scheffel-Dunand before, during, and after the salon.   And it was a pleasure meeting Joel Alleyne and Donald Gillies, not to mention Giselle and David, and many others whose name I didn't catch at all.  (And Rob Sawyer and Caroline Clink at the airport.)

Photos of the event follow below.  And you might enjoy this little smorgasbord of Tweets about the discussion, compiled by Leora Kornfeld (Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University).


Hugh Spencer, Paul Levinson, Ira Nayman



Hugh Spencer, Paul Levinson, Paolo Granata, Ira Nayman



Paolo Granata, 3 people, Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, Bob Logan,
Marshall McLuhan, Alexander Kuskis



Hugh Spencer, Paul Levinson, Ira Nayman, 2 people, doorway,
more people, Paolo Granata, 2 people, Dominique Scheffel-Dunand,
Bob Logan, Alexander Kuskis, and over some heads, Marshall McLuhan




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Downton Abbey 6.5: Sneak Preview Review

I couldn't resist a preview review of the next episode of Downton Abbey - 6.5 - to air on PBS next Sunday.  It's the best hour so far in this altogether superb final season, and has some crucial developments.  As always with these preview reviews, I'll talk in generalities, and mention no specific people.  But if you prefer not to get even an inkling of what will be on the screen this Sunday, read on no further.


Episode 6.5 of Downton Abbey treats us to a world-famous real-life person at Downton Abbey for dinner, and the worst medical crisis we've seen so far.

As to who that person is - well, all I'll say is he's quite famous in world history indeed, but not for the reason he came to dine, which has to do with ... health care, that is, what some our central characters have been so much at arms about against each other all season ...

As to the health crisis - well, we've seen it coming.   It leads to an ambulance being urgently called and ... well, I don't want say anything more.

Meanwhile, there's a nice kiss between a couple, which is good to see.   And there may be some decency displayed by a character in whom we did not expect to find it, and someone comes to someone's else aid, surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly because a kind of blackmail is involved.

And, if all that isn't enough, a family secret is revealed.   As I said, this is a toweringly strong episode - don't miss it.   And I'll be back with a another sneak preview review of the next episode, likely a little sooner than you think.

See also other sneak preview reviews for the final season of Downton Abbey: 6.2 ... 6.3 ... 6.4 Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Black Sails 3.1: Restored

Black Sails was back tonight for its third season, picking up and putting in motion all the pieces from the end of the second season - broken, whole, and all parts in between - in fine, cunning, swashbuckling form.

Flint, for my money, was better than he's been since the first season, far better for sure than the second season, dishing out death to anyone remotely connected to the murder of Miranda.   There will no doubt be others on the list, but truly the best move of Flint tonight was what he exhorted his crew to do when faced with the choice of surrender and pardon, or fight against impossible overwhelming odds, by Hornigold: take the third option, and sail away into a storm that "kills ships," as someone in his crew put it.   Coming up with a third option, regardless of how bad it might be, is the only possibly winning alternative when the two other options are worse - this has a logic Sherlock Holmes would've have understood and approved.

Eleanor could use some of this logic, too, placed in the unwanted position of helping the British Navy against her beloved Nassau.   There's no way she'll do the Admiralty's bidding for too long - not to mention that Vane despite the complexity of their relationship will likely apply his considerable savvy sooner or later to free her.

Hey, Ray Stevenson - who was so strong in Rome - is on hand as Blackbeard, aka Edward Teach (I always liked that name, maybe because I'm a professor), and this promises some high excitement ahead, to say the last.  In real history, Blackbeard was part of Hornigold's crew for a while, but who knows what role he'll play for or against Flint's plans, given that Flint is fictional.  Probably both, and more.

It was great night to see a show about piracy on the high seas, given the blizzard of swirling snow in the New York area, and I'm looking forward to more (drama on the high seas, that is).

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

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pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 
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American Crime 2.1-3: So Real It Hurts

Checking in with a review of American Crime, now three episodes in to its second season on ABC.   Like the first season, which drilled down on a brutal murder and its ugly repercussions not only in the criminal police system but on family relations, racial relations, and diverse elements of life in today's America, the second season holds back nothing as it delves into a rape in high school - the rape of a boy who wants to be on the basketball team by at least one of the guys on the team or who wants to be on the team, at a hazing party.

So in addition to the racial and family tensions which propelled the first season, we have the big business and sacrifice and sleaze of high school sports in this second season.  As in the first season, just about everyone is culpable of something, including the victim's mother, driven to get some sort of reckoning for her son, not just because she's seeking justice, but because she's driven by guilt over some earlier development in the family, as yet unknown.

Connor Jessup - last seen in Falling Skies - is doing a fine job as Taylor Blaine, the victim, who would just as soon forget what happened rather than see himself headlined in the social media, one of the biggest destructive forces in this story.  Taylor's mother is powerfully played by Lili Taylor, from the first season, but with a much bigger role.  Regina King, Timothy Hutton, Felicity Huffman, Elvis Nolasco, and Richard Cabral are also back from the first season, in completely different roles.

At this point, Regina King's Terri LaCroix has been the most stand-out, as the mother of one of team's co-captains - at the hazing party, but not necessarily part of the rape - at least, not as far as we know at this point. Terri and her husband and son are in the upper middle class - professional and executive - and her attempt to keep her son on the right path, her struggle as both the mother of a teenage boy and the mother of a teenage African-American boy with talent and intelligence and everything to lose, is a masterpiece of subtle, complex, heart-rending drama in itself.

As was the case in the first season, there's nothing else quite like American Crime on any kind of television.   As such it makes a much needed and unique contribution, and more than holds its own with anything on cable or even streaming TV.


See also: American Crime, American Fine ... American Crime 1.7: The Truest Love ... American Crime 1.10: The Exquisite Hazards of Timing ... American Crime Season 1 Finale: The Banality of So-Called Justice


a different kind of crime
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Colony 1.2: Compelling

Colony 1.2 was as good as 1.1, which is saying a lot, because the debut episode was good indeed.   A common progression in weekly television series is for the second installment to be not as strong as the first, which signals a disappointing series, which I'm glad to see is not the case for Colony.

Of greatest interest in the narrative so far is the powerful role of Katie Bowman (Sarah Wayne Callies), wife of Will (Josh Holloway).   Indeed, her role is even a little more pivotal than Will's, seeing as how - as now is clear - she's not only actively working for the resistance but Will apparently doesn't know.  Thus, when she tells her kids that she supports Will's working for collaborators because that can help locate their oldest son, that's only half true.  The other half of the truth is Katie needs Will's information about what the collaborators are doing so she can report to the resistance.

Not that Katie is happy about being in such a difficult position - far from it - but the character navigates the difficult currents well, at least so far.  At some point, Will will find out truth, with any luck before the collaborators do.

Will, by the way, is no pushover, and shares the same abhorrence of the collaborators as his wife.  It's just a matter of time, at some crucial moment, when he breaks lose of the place he's in.

Significantly, we've seen no signs of the aliens themselves at this juncture in the story.   All we know of them is their space-faring ships, and what they've done to Earth.   There's a huge story to be told here, and if the no-holds-barred, lack of happy endings of the first two episodes provide any indication, we should be in for a rough and compelling ride.

See also Colony 1.1: Aliens with Potential


not exactly aliens, but strange enough ...  The Silk Code

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Heroes Reborn Finale: I'm Ready Already for Another Immersion

Heroes Reborn ended is first season this week on NBC.  It's likely to be its final season - at least on NBC, which has not renewed for a second second.  But I'd bet it's not the last we'll see of Tim Kring's unique and still appealing creation.

As I've said throughout this season, it's been uneven, but that includes times and ways in which I liked this season even better than a lot of the original, hallowed Heroes.   The pace was often fast to the point of being frenetic - which is a plus in my book - and the integration of virtual and real with the Katana Girl story was excellent.

So was the integration of surviving characters from the original series.  That includes, most prominently, HRG Mr. Bennett, Claire's father and grandfather of her twin children.  He left in a noble way, in a sequence that plumbed the possibilities of time travel in a satisfying way.

Time travel, as many of you may know, is one of my passions - as a viewer, reader, and author of science fiction.   I find it irritating and unacceptable when it's not done right - meaning, usually, that lip service is paid to the paradoxes that time travel engenders, rather than seriously working the sometimes almost unimaginable complexities into the story.

The original Heroes did a pretty good job at this.  Heroes Reborn did it even better.   At the end, Nathan is about as adept as you can be in pulling the strings of timelines in motion, and navigating them to achieve the desired result.   This includes the daring move of working with a slightly earlier or later version of yourself - depending upon whose point of view you take - rather than worrying or claiming that running into yourself will blow-up all reality.

The special effects were great, which gets us back again to the virtual reality part of this story.  When Katana tells Ren, intra-virtual-world, that she has a feeling they'll meet again, I was glad to hear this. The ending in our world, with pointer to Nathan and Malina's father, calls out for a continuing story.

Heroes Unbound may not be everyone's cup of tea.  But's it's certainly mine, and I'll be ready in any time for another another sip and another immersion.

See also Heroes Reborn: Good to Be Back ... Heroes Reborn 1.3: Carly Fiorina meets Steve Jobs ... Heroes Reborn 1.4: GPS RIP ... Heroes Reborn 1.6: Space, Time, Videogame ... Heroes Reborn 1.7: Time Travel and Twins ... Heroes Reborn 1.8: Answers and Questions ... Heroes Reborn 1.9: The Memory Man ... Heroes Reborn 1.12: Penultimate

And see also Heroes Season 4 Premiere: Metaphysics, University, Carnival ...Heroes Meets The L Word in 4.5 ... Heroes 4 Mid-Season Finale  ... Heroes Season 4 Resumes ... Heroes 4.15: The Chess Game Continues ... 4.16: The Trial of Hiro ... 4.18: Penultimate  ... Heroes Forever

And see also reviews of Season 3 Heroes Gets Lost ... Heroes 3 Begins: Best Yet, Riddled with Time Travel and Paradox ... Sylar's Redemption and other Heroes and Villains Mergers ... Costa Nuclear ... Hearts of Gold and the Debased ... Seeing the Future Trumps Time Travel ... Superpowered Chess with Shifting Pieces ... Villains and Backstories ... The Redemption of Sylar ... Thoughts on the Eclipse, Part I ... The Lore of the Comic Book Store ... Hiro's Time Traveling Closure ... Augmented ... Shades of Recalibration ... Baby, Rebel, and Last Fantasy ... All that Shape Changes Remains the Same? ... Season 3 Finale: Hopeful Deceptions

Reviews of Season 2 Heroes: Episode 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 7. Heroes Meets 12 Monkeys ... 9. How Immutable Are Fate and Isaac's Futures? ... 10. Penultimate for the Fall ... Heroes 2 Finale: Heroes Who Didn't Survive

And from Season 1: Heroes in Focus ... Heroes Five Years Gone: Triumph of Time Travel and Comics ... Heroes the Hard Part: Only the Pictures Not the Words ... Heroes Landslide: Winnowing and Convergence ... Heroes Volume One Finale

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                     time travel on a train


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Downton Abbey 6.4: Sneak Preview Review

Back with a review of the next episode of Downton Abbey - 6.4 - to air on PBS this Sunday.  As always with these preview reviews, I'll talk in generalities, and mention no specific people.  But if you prefer not to get even an inkling of what will be on the screen this Sunday, read on no further.


Episode 6.4 of Downton Abbey contains two medical crises - well, one medical crisis, and a brewing medical problem, which is actually at this point the worst of the two, since the medical crisis is now apparently resolved.

As I mentioned in earlier reviews, we need to take these medical issues very seriously because, given both the nature of Downton Abbey and the fact this is the farewell season, someone very important is bound to die and leave us heartbroken.   Indeed, more distressed than in previous years, because we will have no future season in which the survivors can recover and put their lives back together.

My guess is that this death may well come to an unexpected character - they are all undeserving of death - but, in the meantime, we have to just go along, episode by episode, and hope for the best.

There was plenty of happiness in this episode, too, most especially because yet another person may be on the road to true love, and because an upstairs-downstairs problem is resolved, right on the verge of exploding.  But the ebbing of this way of life is in full flow, and provides an evocative backdrop to the personal stories, which are all uniquely appealing and commanding in their own ways.

See also other sneak preview reviews for the final season of Downton Abbey: 6.2 ... 6.3 ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music