Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 268

The Good Wife 7.6: Hillary, Trump, and Alicia

An excellent episode 7.6 of The Good Wife last night.  It's been great all season - I don't miss Will at all - and it's been especially cool in picking up the prevailing winds and managing to stay current in the 2016 campaigns for President.

I don't know when last night's episode was written or recorded, but it talked about Hillary Clinton (not surprising) and Donald Trump (a little more surprising).   What would The Good Wife do if Carson surges even more in the pools, and Trump, unhappy with being in second place, throws in the towel?

That's unlikely, I think - that Carson will surge more, and that Trump will leave if he does - but the uncertainty and excitement of real politics has given The Good Wife a real edge this season.   Peter's announcing his run for President actually makes sense in our reality.   Martin O'Mallley is at three percent in the polls, which means there's a lot of room between him and Bernie.

Alicia likes that possibility, too.  The best scene in the episode is the look in Eli's eyes when he sees Alicia standing next to Peter on that announcement stage.  Eli realizes how much Alicia is enjoying and inhabiting the moment.  Peter and Alicia on stage have been iconic heralds of where the narrative is going from the very beginning and throughout the series.    Just about every time there's a major moment in their lives, Alicia on that stage has set the agenda with her expression and nonverbal tone.

And now she's setting the agenda again.  She's contemplating what it would be like to be First Lady, and she likes it.   Apropos Hillary, Alicia knows just where that could lead - she could be announcing a run for the White House someday, too.

In a way, The Good Wife has always been another retelling of the Bill and Hillary story.   But there's still a long way to go.   Peter can't win the Presidency in an election on television, in which Hillary, who's running in real life, is also a character who's running for President.   But, until Hillary in real life actually chooses a VP running mate, that fictional path is open to Peter.

Hey, I'm hoping we'll see Hillary herself have a conversation with Peter and Alicia.   Impossible? Not at all - equivalent things have been happening on The Good Wife and throughout the history of television at least as far back as Walter Cronkite putting in an appearance on the Mary Tyler Moore show.

See also The Good Wife 7.1: Shake-Up

And see also The Good Wife 6.4: Run-up to Running ... The Good Wife 6.10: Cary's Fate ... The Good Wife 6.11: Kalinda for Cary

See also I Dreamt I Called Will Gardner Last Night

And The Good Wife 5.1: Capital Punishment and Politicians' Daughters ... The Good Wife 5.5: The Villain in this Story ... The Good Wife 5.9: Reddit, Crowd Sourcing, and the First Amendment on Trial ... The Good Wife 5.11: Bowling Bowls and Bogdanovich ... The Good Wife 5.13: NSA on Television ... The Good Wife: 5.15: Stunner! ... The Good Wife 5.19: Tying Up Loose Ends ... The Good Wife Season 5 Finale: Musical Chairs

And see also The Good Wife 4.1 Meets Occupy Wall Street ...  The Good Wife 4.2: Reunited ... The Good Wife 4.3: "Template-Based Link Analysis Algorithm" ... The Good Wife 4.5 Meets The Sopranos ... The Good Wife 4.20: Anonymous ... The Good Wife Season 4 Finale: Good Twist!
And see also The Good Wife 3.1: Recusal and Rosh Hashanah ... The Good Wife: 3.2: Periwigs and Skype ... The Good Wife 3.7: Peter v. Will ...  Dexter's Sister on The Good Wife 3.10  ... The Good Wife 3.12: Two Suits  ... The Good Wife 3.13 Meets Murder on the Orient Express ... The Good Wife 3.15: Will and Baseball

And see also  The Good Wife Starts Second Season on CBS ... The Good Wife 2.2: Lou Dobbs, Joe Trippi, and Obama Girl ... The Good Wife 2.4: Surprise Candidate, Intimate Interpsonal Distance ... The Good Wife 2.9 Takes on Capital Punishment ... The Good Wife 2.16: Information Wars 
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The Affair 2.6: The End (of Noah's Novel)

A really powerful episode 2.6 of The Affair last night, with a major revelation.

Noah has been having visions all season of driving down the lonely road on a dark, foggy night and hitting someone, who suddenly appears.   The candidate who first came to mind for who that is was Scotty - but, the scene presumably was taking place in the present, in Noah's mind, and Scotty, as we've seen, is still very much alive.  So was that vision not a recollection but a premonition?  Could be, but that's a weak move in this tightly woven story.

Recently, we've come to see that the person on the road in Noah's vision is Alison.  But that made even less sense than Scotty.  Certainly Alison is still very much alive, and why would Noah have a premonition about killing her - not to mention that she's still very much alive in the future, when Scotty is dead.

Last night we got a satisfying and provocative answer: what we've been seeing is Noah's subconscious - or maybe he's totally aware of this - coming up with the ending Harry and he have been seeking for his novel.   Harry hated the happy ending.  He pushed Noah to come up with an ending that truly flowed from the story.   And now we have it.

It makes strong sense.  Noah couldn't bring himself to kill Alison in his novel because he loves her too much in real life.  So he papered over where the story was heading with a nice happy ending. Now that Alison has read pieces of the novel and professed not to like it, and also insists she won't read more, Noah's muse is free to do the right thing in the novel, and kill the temptress who "is sex" personified.

But what does this say about how Noah really feels about Alison?  He would no doubt say, if called on this new ending, that it's the characters acting on the lives Noah has given them, and not what Noah wants at all in his own life.  It looks in the vision that's now the end of the book that Alison appears on the road out of nowhere, which means Noah in the car didn't want to kill her.   But Noah the author, while resisting that ending for a long time, did come up with it in the first place, and has now put on paper.

It's not surprising that Noah has some ambivalence about Alison - we've seen this all along - but it is a little shocking to see him articulate this so clearly in his new ending.  Significantly, he types out the ending after Alison tells him she's pregnant.   He loves her, but the baby provokes the part of him that still has mixed feelings, including anger, about his relationship with Alison.

And - Noah doesn't know that Alison has slept with Cole, which means the baby could be Cole's.  I don't even want to think about what Noah would have put in his ending had he known about Cole.

Meanwhile, the ending provides an important piece of the puzzle of who killed Scotty.  It's the reason the detective is suspicious of Noah, since Scotty, like Alison in Noah's novel, was killed in a hit-and-run.   But likely all of our major characters come to know about the ending of Noah's novel.  It could have given any of them ideas, including Cole.

Probably it's a safe bet that Helen didn't kill Cole, though.  She also had an excellent half hour - her best so far - and I would have led this review with that, had it not been for the dynamite at the end of Noah's narrative.   Martin's medical crisis, and Noah's response, gets Helen to realize that Noah is an "excellent" father.  She'll share custody, and she also sends her worst mother in the world packing.

Back to Noah's ending:  here's a wild idea: could all the future scenes we've been seeing, this and last season, of Noah and Alison being questioned, and Noah brought to trial, etc., all be parts of a sequel novel Noah also has percolating in his head?   That would mean that this part of each of the now four characters' narratives we've been seeing is actually Noah's.   Too crazy, right?

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
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 1st season episode a different kind of love story 

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The Knick 2.4: Spirochete

My favorite thing about The Knick is the way it shows medical science in heroic, close to hopeless action at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century.   Sitting here in 2015, we know how many of these valiant attempts to vanquish malady worked out - or didn't - but it's especially fascinating to see our characters throw everything they can into these one-on-one battles for life and death, or at least health and knowledge.

Actually, it's usually one character who's leading the charge, often alone, or with a doubting assistant. Last season, Thackery did what he could for Abby, an old flame who caught syphilis from someone else, and is now suffering one of the symptoms, a collapsed nose. Thackery performs a pioneering skin graft from Abby's arm to reconstruct her nose.  She's happy with that bit of light in her darkness, even though they both know that the spirochete inside her will work inexorably to her imminent death, however improved her face may be.

But Thackery's guiding principle is that while there's life there's hope, and in last night's episode 2.4 he undertakes to rid Abby of the deadly disease, which is already taking its toll in other parts of her body and psyche.   This is 1901, or nearly 40 years ahead of penicillin, which would finally bring the scourge down to manageable treatment.   It's also a few years before Salvarsan, an arsenic-based drug, but that worked best with cases in early stages anyway, and Abby's is pretty far gone.

Fortunately, Thackery becomes aware of another treatment - fever - the heat of which can kill the spirochete, if it's high enough.  The catch for the Knick's doctor is that the fever has to be high indeed - 109 degrees - which could well fry poor Abby's brain.  So here's the perfect tension for our story: will Thackery be able to raise the heat in Abby's body high enough to kill the spirochete before the heat kills Abby?

You never know how these things will work out on The Knick.  Abby had been a significant but not crucial character to the story.  I was therefore pleased to see the spirochete get its due, and Abby smile, and the end of this fine little story of medical success.

See also The Knick 2.1: Playing Off Our Present

And see also The Knick: Paean to Scientific Method ... The Knick Sneak Preview Review 1.8: Good Loving, the Fix, and Typhoid Mary ... The Knick Sneak Preview Review 1.9: Sacrifice ... The Knick 1.10 Sneak Preview Review: Fallibility

 
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Heroes Reborn 1.8: Answers and Questions

Heroes Reborn is continuing in high gear, coming through with some important explanations in episode 1.8.

Claire's death was a mystery - why did she succumb to heart failure during childbirth, being possessed, as she was, of profound regenerative powers?   Turns out one of her twin babies, Nathan/Tommy, has the power to take the power from a proximate hero/evo, and so inadvertently robbed Claire of the ability she needed to reverse the heart attack's damage.   That's a pretty good if tragic twist.

And why did Nathan/Tommy, raised in the protected past by Hiro - whom he now considers his father - not know any of this in the Heroes Reborn story so far?  That answer was also good, and hiding in plain sight in front of us all along: the "penny for your thoughts" man, who has been protecting Tommy all along, took away all of Tommy's knowledge of Hiro etc to protect Tommy from himself, and his determination to go back in time to save Hiro and who knows what and who else.

But what did happen to Hiro, after that great scene in which he says goodbye to his son, and turns to face the clone attackers with just his swords and no super powers?   He's surely not dead, though we may not see him again this season.   (Molly, on the other hand, is gone, and the conversation between her and Noah, with his knowing exactly what would happen to her, was tender indeed.)

We don't have answers for lots of things yet, by any means, especially because Noah's trip to the past did indeed step on butterflies, which kicked new caterpillars into action, which will no doubt metamorph into who knows what in the weeks ahead.

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

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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Homeland 5.5: All Quinn

Homeland checked in with a strong episode 5.5 last night, in which the noblest spy of all was Quinn.

He'll die if he doesn't get to a hospital - due to the wound he received on the last mission with Carrie. But he knows that if he's any hospital, that will spell death for Carrie, even if the docs can help Quinn, because the bad guys will be able to trace Carrie from Quinn.  Carrie's willing to take the chance, as the only alternative, however bad, to Quinn dying.  Quinn isn't.

He tries to kill himself by tying himself to a brick and jumping in the water.  Some guy with a beard stops him.  Quinn then tries to hide himself in a dumpster.  He doesn't have the strength to lift himself up, and the guy with the beard arrives to save him, though Quinn doesn't want to be saved. Who is this guy with the beard?  Presumably someone not good, but you never know.

What we did know, almost from the beginning, and was confirmed last night, is that the head of the US CIA unit in Germany is the villainess - she's the one who gave Quinn the order to take out Carrie. What's still not clear is how much Saul knew about this.  We can assume that he knew Quinn would never kill Carrie, so he may have been setting the CIA woman up.  On the other hand, there's been no indication of this as yet.

Carrie may care about her new boyfriend, but not as much as she does for Quinn.  She's willing to put her own life in jeopardy to save him.  When push comes to shove, it's all Quinn.  And he clearly loves her.   I can only hope that they both survive this season.  Carrie is clearly not expendable.

But, what about Quinn?

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
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

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The Affair 2.5: Golden Cole

Cole continues in his segment in The Affair 2.5 to be by far the most considerate, decent, humane character in the story.

He's nothing but loving and supportive of Alison when he finds her asleep in his bed at the end of the segment.   He's more than willing to talk to her, hug her, sleep with her - figuratively and literally - despite her walking out on him.  This makes sense - after all, the segment is from his perspective - even though Helen in her perspective last week was in some ways worse than she has appeared in Noah's narrative.

Alison, as a matter of fact, didn't come across in her segment as good and appealing as Cole did in his.   Why is she so upset about how Noah wrote about her in his novel?  Surely it's no surprise to her that Noah finds her the embodiment of irresistible sex?   Sure, I know that most women want to be more than that - but Noah didn't write in his novel that Alison was only that.  I guess chalk up my not completely getting why Alison was so upset to my not completely understanding women.

I do get completely why Yvonne is so angry at Alison, and fires her, and that no doubt contributed to Alison's extreme reaction to what she skim-read in the novel.  The last thing Yvonne wants is a sex-bomb in her home and office, and especially one that Robert quite pointedly has the hots for.  One missing component of this story: will Yvonne ask Noah and Alison to leave altogether?   This is certainly a logical other shoe to drop.

Meanwhile, the Cole story continues making a good case for him as his brother Scott's killer.  So, who did it, Cole or Noah?   Likely someone else, and we certainly can't take Alison - and, for that matter, Scott's bed partner and almost Cole's - out of the mix.

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
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

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True Confessions: How I Came to Read Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom

Thomas Farrell, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, asked me earlier today about what I had studied of Erich Fromm and existentialism when I was a student at the City College of New York in the mid-1960s (Tom and I had previously exchanged email about Fromm):

Here is my reply -

When I was an undergraduate at City College (1963-1967), I was a Psychology Major. I was taking a psych course - I don't recall the name - and I had a paper due on the last day of class (the day the final exam was given). I came into class, took the exam, but didn't have the final paper. I told the professor I had left it home, and could he give me a three hour extension (the time it would take me to go from City College in Manhattan and back to my home in the Bronx to retrieve my nonexistent paper). The professor agreed. Instead of going home, I went to the school library. Escape from Freedom was one of a dozen books which was eligible as a subject of our paper (15 handwritten pages). I spent two hours reading as much of the book as I could, the next hour furiously writing the paper, and rushed over to the professor's office. I got an "A" in the course. I finished reading the book, and have always considered it one of the wisest books I ever have read.

Turns out I had already told Tom this true story, in our previous email - he was one of the privileged few.  But I thought it was time to share that deep dark secret with the world.

Actually, I don't really consider it so dark - as I tell my writing classes at Fordham University, all that really counts is the written text, not how you produce it.   Do a hundred drafts over weeks or months, or hand in your first draft written in less than an hour - I don't care, it's what the words say that counts.

And, by the way, Escape from Freedom is a masterpiece.  Its disconcerting thesis that people accept dictatorships of all sorts because in their hearts they want to remain children, and don't want the responsibility of making decisions for themselves, explains the rise not only of totalitarian states, but the workings of democracies, and why a free people might vote for candidates and ideologies that limit their freedom.   Something to think about, especially here in the United States, as we move into full swing for our upcoming Presidential election.

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Heroes Reborn 1.7: Time Travel and Twins

An outstanding Heroes Reborn 1.7  last night - the 13-episode series has now really come into its own - in which Noah meets himself via time travel, and we meet Claire's twin babies.

Unfortunately, Claire dies in childbirth (of a heart attack, we're told) - an event with Hiro, now fully back in the story, is unwilling to stop via a little more travel to the past, because it could/would result in far worse consequences.  For the same reason, Hiro won't stop that horrendous June day in Odessa, Texas, either.

By the way, as side-note, it's interesting that Hayden Panettiere, who played Claire on Heroes and now Juliette in Nashville, has encountered serious life-and-death problems in having babies.  With any luck, she'll eventually surmount these challenges on Nashville.  In Heroes Reborn, she doesn't, and all we see of her in 1.7 is her trademarked hair.   We're also left with some intriguing questions including who is the father of her babies, where is he now, and why didn't she regenerate after her heart attack (a question Noah asks, which wasn't really answered).

The big payoff of the episode - the first of a two-part mini-narrative in the series - is that the twin babies - fraternal, not identical, and a boy and a girl - are none other than Tommy (Nathan) and Malina, who we've come to know in the year after Odessa, as they begin to manifest their powers, sorely needed to save the world.   Lots of nice connections revealed, including that the nurse who helped in the hospital with the twins has been Tommy's mother.   We also learn what got Luke and Joanne on their evo-killing rampage - they no doubt blame the evos for whatever happened to their son - and it's good to see Mohinder and Angela back in the story, too.

Time travel is very a trick business, as I often say.   It's difficult indeed to tie together all the twisted loops that travel to the past and future engender.   But, so far, Noah's running into himself, and Hiro's resistance to any change which can result in even worse consequences than those he's seeking to change, have worked in a pretty tight story.  Yes, what happened in Texas was terrible.  But if saving the world is at stake, and Hiro has seen how any changes in Texas might hinder that ultimate effort, Heroes Reborn is on pretty strong, logical ground.

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

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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Third GOP Presidential Debate: Participants and Bystanders

Back with a review of the third GOP Presidential debate tonight, as always with the proviso that I've only voted for a Republican once in my life - for John Lindsay for Mayor of New York City decades ago - and no doubt won't be voting for any of the Republicans up on the stage in Colorado this evening.

But, that said, who did the best and the worst?

I think Chris Christie had the single best moment, when he said he did not deny climate change - as do many Republicans - and would do what he could to improve our climate by supporting private alternate energy enterprise.  That's an enlightened anti-government position on this issue.

The best exchange was between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, who both came across well in Bush's attack on and Rubio's defense of his poor attendance record in the Senate.   In general, both Bush and Rubio had a good night, with Rubio somewhat better.

Cruz had a strong moment with the perennial Republican chestnut of attacking the media in general and the questions being asked of him and his colleagues in the debate.  But that was about Cruz's only moment.

Kasich started strong then all but disappeared.  Rand Paul gave some good answers but looked tired and bored.   Huckabee was unmemorable - except for his proud admission about wearing a Trump tie - and Fiorina was the dullest I recall seeing her in any of the debates so far.

Carson and Trump, the two front runners, were both ok, sometimes pretty good, but they often seemed more like bystanders than full-fledged participants in this economic debate.   Someone tweeted - I think it was Farhad Manjoo - that if "if you knew nothing about the polls and watched this you wouldn’t believe Trump and Carson were leading."  I've got to agree.

And so it goes.   Trump will have a chance to rekindle some of his fire on Saturday Night Live this weekend.   He'll need that, because he certainly didn't have all that much tonight.

PS: I thought Lindsey Graham was far and away the best in the junior GOP debate tonight, and was better than at least half the contenders in the main debate tonight.


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The Affair 2.4: Helen at Distraction

A most interesting episode 2.4 of The Affair last night, in which Helen comes across as the most unpleasant we've seen her, on any of the four major players for that matter, in this series so far.  And the kicker is: the worst of this was shown in Helen's own half hour.

The set-up on The Affair, up until now, is that our characters usually appear more considerate, are more sympathetically portrayed, in their own 30-minute segments.   Certainly Noah usually seems like more of a mentsch in his story than he does in Alison's, and Alison a little deeper and more loving in hers than in Noah's. Cole's first half hour in the series earlier this season was a real eye-opener - the contrast between him as a hurt and complicated human being in his story was in marked contrast to how he had appeared in Alison's a week before, where he was all but physically threatening.  And Helen was more sympathetic in her story in that same episode (2.2) than she'd been any time in the first season.

To be sure, Helen's reasons for behaving so badly last night are crystal clear, and explicated powerfully by Helen when she asks Noah why he's "doing this" to her and the kids.  Noah is no doubt to blame for leaving Helen and his family in such disarray.  But no one including Noah forced Helen to drink and drug herself and drive - and, even worse, drive the kids.   That she made that bad decision is of course just another example of how off-kilter the affair has made her - but she still should have known and done better.

The kids are also foremost in Noah's story.  He, too, was a little reckless in driving the kids to hither and yon after he comes to their rescue from Helen - but he was far more in control than was Helen, and didn't do anything to endanger them.   The kids are the reason he was even willing to spend more time away from Alison, but the hour resolves with Noah now having a great set of cards in his hand for his negotiations with Helen, and Alison, who even tries to help when Noah's son gets sick, appearing better than ever.

I hope we get a half hour for her next week.

See also The Affair 2.1: Advances ... The Affair 2.2: Loving a Writer ... The Affair 2.3: The Half-Wolf
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 1st season episode a different kind of love story 

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