Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 277

Lucy: Calling Keyes and Asimov

I finally got around to seeing Luc Besson's Lucy last night, starring Scarlet Johansson in the title role.   Parts of it were just high-tech, drug-dealing shoot 'em up, on a par with John Wick, which is to say, nothing really special in retrospect.  But parts of it were pretty good high-concept science fiction, in the tradition of Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" and  Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question".

In both cases, I'm talking about the short written fiction versions first published in the 1950s.  In "Flowers," a contender for the best science fiction story ever written, in my opinion, we're told the heartbreaking tale of a man with below-average intelligence who receives a medical treatment that makes him a genius.  Why is this heartbreaking?  Because the fix is only temporary, and the genius must witness the beginning of his own intellectual decline, to where he was at at the start.  In "The Last Question," work on a computer over centuries finally gives an answer to the question of if there's a God - it's that very super-perfected computer.

Lucy gets her trigger to genius from a bag of powerful drugs that breaks in her stomach after she's beaten, which in turn happens after she's forced against her will to carry to the drugs (this is the uninspired part of the story).  How the drugs make her so smart is only slightly spelled out - it's based on a hormone that ignites growth in fetuses - but the interesting part of this is that Lucy becomes much more than a genius.  Her astonishing intellect is able to read minds and move matter, for example.

There's no reason at all in our current science that this would or should happen with an enormous increase in our intellect - except, I suppose, if we wanted to postulate a macro-quantum-mechanical mind-over-matter (this is not clearly suggested in the movie) - but it's still fun to see enacted on the screen, and Johansson puts in a good performance as Lucy, as does Morgan Freeman as the sage scientist.   My favorite scene is when our Lucy, already close to God-hood, travels back in time, and touches the original Lucy in prehistoric Africa, to get our whole human race going in the first place. In the immortal words of Desi Arnaz, "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!"  Or maybe the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" should have been playing in the background.

Hey, I'm sucker for time travel in just about any form, so I'd recommend Lucy for that reason alone, as well as its contribution to the Keyes and Asimov themes.

 
Sierra Waters series, #1, time travel

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I'm Glad Brian Williams Will Be Back on Television

That's right, I'm glad Brian Williams will be back on MSNBC, where he started, rather than being exiled from news reporting and anchoring forever.

I get that he did something wrong in his braggadocio misremembering of several news events of which he was not a part.  But that wasn't as bad, as, say, the racist comments made by Imus on the radio a decade ago, or even Dan Rather's misreporting of the George W. Bush evasion-of-the-draft story, if indeed that was misreporting.  But Brian Williams' exaggerations were not a misreporting of a news story, just of his own direct involvement in it.  And although people who tell us the news should be held to a higher standard of truth-telling than the average person, it's worth noting that exaggerations of personal experiences are as common as saying you loved a popular movie when you slept through it, as in fact at least one famous movie critic was reported as frequently having done.

As for MSNBC, they can use all the help they can get.  Despite their highly intelligent and articulate anchors - especially in the evening - they've been consistently in last place in the Fox, CNN, MSNBC lineup for a while now.  They were outrightly dumb to get rid of Keith Olbermann, the most energetic, iconoclastic person ever on their air.  And the tick-like constant reference to their "Pulse" statistics - to show what their viewers are thinking - is a drag on more than one of their shows.   But whatever its problem, MSNBC will be well-served with Brian Williams and his sage, incisive, sometimes satirical analysis -- especially with the 2016 Presidential campaign already in gear, and William's astute political sense.

Rachel Maddow, the best person on MSNBC and for that matter on any news network, last night took a point of personal privilege and said how happy she was that Brian Williams was returning and being given a second chance.  I couldn't agree more. Now, if MSNBC got back Olbermann, I'd bet at least even money that they'd overtake at least CNN once again,


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Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character

Pleased to see Tyrant 2.1 back on the air on FX last night.   The episode has a well-executed execution twist, predicable in that no series is very likely to kill off its major star, but, on the other hand, that never stopped Game of Thrones.

But putting Barry out in the desert rather than at the end of the noose was a wise move for many reasons.  First, it continues to deepen the character of Jamal.  He manages to resist the advice and pressure of just about everyone around him, other than his mother, and stay true to his inner, deeper soul: he's not going to have his brother's death on his hands, at least not directly.  But how does he know that Barry will survive in the desert sands? Maybe we'll find out that Jamal alerted some nomads or whoever to save Barry.  But even if not, leaving Barry's fate in the hands of the sands is consistent with Jamal's personality.

So is his refusal to resort to chemical weapons, as urged by his ruthless uncle.  Jamal is not just looking to stay in power at any cost.  He wants to say in a power in a way that history at very least won't condemn.  Presumably most of the people around him other than his uncle would want that. And certainly that's what Barry's best advice would have been.

Jamal's at his worst when dealing with his son and daughter-in-law, as he was last season.  But the stakes are much higher now, with his daughter-in-law carrying Jamal's grandchild. It occurs to me that we don't know for a fact that Nusrat's child was fathered by Ahmed, so we may have some provocative story ahead there, too.

One of the things I like best about Tyrant is the way the people in the fictional nation speak about and play off of real events.   Syria was named in a conversation last night, and it will be interesting to see if ISIS rears its head in the story this season, and how the people in power and in the streets of Abbudin deal with that.

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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Games of Thrones Season 5 Finale: Punishment

Well, we've come to expert the worst on Game of Thrones, in terms of killing off the best characters, and the season 5 finale last night certainly didn't disappoint.   Not only that, but there were two characters slain which were good to see go, and two other characters may well be dead but maybe alive.

And mixed into to all of that was a new kind of terrifying, horrifying scene we haven't seen before on Game of Thrones, Cersei's walk of shame, naked, through an angry, pelting crowd, and a priestess intoning "Shame, Shame" in perfect, blood-chilling sotto-voce syncopation.

On the two deserving deaths, despicable Stannis got just what he deserved - after what he did to his daughter last week - and a re-invigorated Theon did the right thing when he pushed that woman threatening Sansa to her death.  But then what happened to Sansa and Theon when they jumped? There clearly was no river below to save them, so I guess we have to hope that there was some other unseen thing, natural or constructed or supernatural, to cushion their fall.

Jon Snow was everyone's favorite character, including mine.   His execution was certainly well enough motivated, but also unnecessary -- the Night's Watch could've understood Jon's logic in wanting the Wildlings on the good aka human side of the wall.  But, then again, Ned Stark's death was motivated but unnecessary, too, as was Robb's.   How many Starks are left, by the way? Bran we haven't seen at all this season.  Arya may be blind.  And Sansa's literally in mid-air.  And what about the remaining dire-wolves?  We are they when you need  them?  The North may remember but I don't.

Meanwhile, the Lannisters are on their way to decimation, too.  Against all odds, Tyrion is the only one now once again in a good position, and that was probably the most joyful aspect of this season finale.  Joy is hard to come by in Game of Thrones, but I'll be watching it again next season, because I guess I'm something of a glutton for this kind of punishment.

See also Game of Thrones 5.1: Unsetting the Table ... Game of Thrones 5.8: The Power of Frigid Death ... Game of Thrones 5.9: Dragon in Action; Sickening Scene with Stannis

And see also Games of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: Salient Points ... Game of Thrones 4.2: Whodunnit? ... Game of Thrones 4.3: Who Will Save Tyrion ...Game of Thrones 4.4: Glimpse of the Ultimate Battle ... Game of Thrones 4.6: Tyrion on Trial ... Game of Thrones 4.8: Beetles and Battle ...Game of Thrones 4.9: The Fight for Castle Black ... Games of Thrones Season 4 Finale: Woven Threads

And see also  Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography ...Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime ...  Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique 
And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ... Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ... Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quoted about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

And see "'Game of Thrones': Why the Buzz is So Big" article in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 2014, with my quotes.

Also: CNN article, "How 'Game of Thrones' Is Like America," with quote from me

 

"I was here, in Carthage, three months from now." 

#SFWApro

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Bones Season 10 Finale: Rehearsals for Retirement?

Rehearsals for Retirement is the name of a great Phil Ochs' album - check it out some day, you'll see what I mean.  It could also have been title of tonight's season 10 finale of Bones.

In a nice twist, it turns out that Hodgins and Angela aren't leaving, but Booth and Bones are.  Or, at least, for the summer and likely some unknown period of narrative time on the series, perhaps most or all transpired before it resumes, since Bones is indeed slated to return in the Fall.

The story line of the two leaving does make sense, just as it did for Angela and Hodgins.  I mean, who wouldn't want to get away from dead bodies and  killers of various stripe, especially when you're parents of young children.   But there was always a suspension of this logic on Bones, even before Bones was married, because it's quite a stretch for a dyed-in-wool forensic anthropologist to actually get so hands-on involved in often literally bone-crushing murder cases.  She, after all, was not a coroner.  And yet she did, and it worked, beautifully.

And it still does. Which raises the question of why we may be seeing the rev up for its ultimate wind-down next season.   This is one of the intrinsic problems of all narratives.  Authors get tired and want to go do other things; same for producers; and networks don't like seeing the most minute decline in the ratings.  Never mind if the story still has juice and life.  In the end, the sad story is that all the stories we read and see on screens are not our stories - they are the creators', who have the ultimate power over the story's life and death.

I'm happy that Bones will be back next year.  It still, after all of these years, provides a unique story with unusual and memorable characters.   If I had a vote, it would never end.  But, hey, I'm just a fan, and if I want that kind of control the only chance I have of finding it is in my own writing.   So, I'll just be glad, for now, that we'll see our crew at work again in the Fall.

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer ...Bones 10.14: meets La Parure ... Bones 10.15: Cards in Hand ...Bones 10.16: Hodgins' Money ... Bones 10.17-18: Bullies and Capital Punishment ... Bones 10.19: Do You Buy Booth's Gambling Addiction? ...Bones 10.20: Intimations of a New Jeffersonian ... Bones 10.21: Ten Years Isn't Enough
And see also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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Love & Mercy: A Review

Someday a movie about the Beatles may be made that's better than Love & Mercy about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, but until then Love & Mercy, which I just saw tonight with my wife, is easily the best rock star bio pick ever made.  Hey, it's the best movie about a musician ever made, period, and that's saying a lot, because Amadeus was none too shabby, not to mention the great movies over the years about greats like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash.

Brian Wilson's life is so big it took two stars to portray him - Paul Dano the younger Brian and John Cusack the older Brian - and both were just superb.  Though Dano looks more like the younger Brian than Cusack does the older, the performances of both were peerless, down to the mannerisms, tones of voice, and little ticks of Brian Wilson.  The music similarly was a seamless web with what was going on inside Brian's head and what we the devoted fans were hearing of the Beach Boys on radio and television.  The recording studio scenes were so realistic I felt like calling out to the engineer and asking him to bring up the bass a little more.

The movie is peppered with memorable phrases, delivered like history come to life, that I've both heard before and heard for the first time in this movie.  Jake Abel as Mike Love - another spot on performance - is there to complain to Brian that he can't make sense out of "sunny down snuff" and Van Dyke Park's masterful lyrics to "Heroes and Villains".  That's one I heard before.   But when a studio musician tells Brian that Phil Spector "has nothing" on Brian, that one was new to me, and I was as pleased as Brian in the movie to hear it (and not because I don't love Spector's music - he's a stone genius too - but I because I just love Brian's more).

Elizabeth Banks put in such a compelling and attractive performance as Brian's life-saving Melinda, that Banks instantly rocketed up to my favorite contemporary actress, that's right.  The sensitivity and strength of her performance made it totally believable that Brian fell in love with her, and she figured out a way to cut Brian lose from his baneful, control-freak, suffocating psychiatrist, well played by Paul Giamatti.

To get back the Beatles, the Beach Boys since the 1960s have been my second favorite rock group, way ahead of the Stones, in third place, and I guess, I don't know, the Eagles or the Who after that. Anyway, I don't want to argue about that.  I just want to say how good it was indeed in Love & Mercy, brilliantly directed by Bill Pohlad, to see Brian finally get more of the credit he deserves, not only for his music, but for making it and bringing it back against almost all the odds of his mental demons and most of the people around him.

See also my review of  The Beach Boys in White Plains Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Game of Thrones 5.9: Dragon in Action; Sickening Scene with Stannis

Well, we finally got to see a dragon in action in Game of Thrones 5.9, in a great scene with Daenerys, Mormont, Tyrion, and their people which complemented with fire what we saw with Jon Snow in the north last week.

In many ways the most interesting part of the dragon to the rescue was how vulnerable the dragon itself was to spears.   This suggests a significant lack of omnipotence, and one which may give the upper hand to the frigid death-and-dead-wielders of the north.

Another question is why only one dragon came to Daenerys's rescue, when she presumably has three at her command.  Did she only summon one, assuming that would be enough?  If so, she was right, but it was a close call.  Perhaps she wanted to risk only a single dragon, but that doesn't make much sense, either, since hers was among the lives at risk if the one dragon failed.  Perhaps only the closest dragon arrived, and the other two are on their way.  (Again, I've only read the first novel in the series, so I'm going completely by what was on television tonight.)

In any case, it was great to see Daenerys and Mormont reunited, and Mormont fighting on her behalf. Also Tyrion with a sword.  And, up north, Jon Snow and his ragged group, including the giant, being let into the protection, such as it is, of the wall.

One thing which was decidedly not nice to see, and in fact I found sickening, was Stannis's sacrifice of his daughter Shireen.   This is beyond making Stannis a thoroughly despicable and unsympathetic character, which it certainly did.  It was also depraved enough almost to make me not want to watch any more of this series, and the only reason I did, barely, was because of its redeeming features. These are no doubt many, but for what it's worth, I think the the series seriously debased itself by having Stannis put his daughter to the flame.

See also Game of Thrones 5.1: Unsetting the Table ... Game of Thrones 5.8: The Power of Frigid Death

And see also Games of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: Salient Points ... Game of Thrones 4.2: Whodunnit? ... Game of Thrones 4.3: Who Will Save Tyrion ...Game of Thrones 4.4: Glimpse of the Ultimate Battle ... Game of Thrones 4.6: Tyrion on Trial ... Game of Thrones 4.8: Beetles and Battle ...Game of Thrones 4.9: The Fight for Castle Black ... Games of Thrones Season 4 Finale: Woven Threads

And see also  Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography ...Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime ...  Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique 
And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ... Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ... Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quoted about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

And see "'Game of Thrones': Why the Buzz is So Big" article in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 2014, with my quotes.

Also: CNN article, "How 'Game of Thrones' Is Like America," with quote from me

 

"I was here, in Carthage, three months from now." 

#SFWApro




Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Bones 10.21: Ten Years Isn't Enough

Angela's mantra in Bones 10.21 was ten years is enough - she wants to do new things in life.  No one agrees with her - not even Hodgins, who buys the apartment in Paris not because he is tired of the Jeffersonian, but because he loves Angela and will do anything for her.  Certainly Bones doesn't agree with this.

I don't either - with the logic, that is.  Intrinsic in a job such as Angela's is the newness of each forensic mystery, and, in Angela's case, applying a new digital technology to its solving, which she's so good at.  A more plausible reason, which Angela did mention at the beginning of this cycle, was that dealing with death day in and day out was beginning to get to her.  Ok, that I can understand.

My Twitter friend and Bones fan Linda Geraghty mentioned to me that Michaela Conlin and T. J. Thyne  have re-signed along with the rest of the cast for an 11th season, so there's really nothing to worry about.  She's right - here's the announcement - so that leaves us with the enjoyable puzzle of how the apartment in Paris will reconcile with Angela and Hodgins continuing on the show.

Here are some possible solutions -

1. Events next week, in the season finale, get the two to change their minds.  The serial killer striking from beyond the grave, which we've seen in the coming attractions, could somehow provide such a reason.  Certainly the two would be safer in Washington than in Paris - could be better protected by the FBI - and they could lend a better hand in bringing to bay whatever evil has been leveled against them.

2. Angela and Hodgins do move to Paris, but help out in every case via Skype.  This would also enable us to see them, off of Skype, in Paris, and could be the foundation of a Bones spinoff in Paris. (Hey, that could be a good show!  I'm still thinking Hodgins and Angela could swing their own series.)

3. Angela and Hodgins disappear from Bones, but come back to Washington in an unexpected twist in the middle of next season, after we're no longer thinking about them.  That could work, but I'd miss them in the beginning.  (It was done with Joe Carroll in The Following this season, but that ended badly for everyone in the series, which was cancelled.)

In any case, I'm very much looking forward to both the 11th season and the 10th season finale next week, especially with Booth back in the fold, and the tantalizing hint that he may be giving up working on cases - which would be an intriguing path for the series to explore.   Booth could well be thinking that it's his job that drives him to gambling ...

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer ...Bones 10.14: meets La Parure ... Bones 10.15: Cards in Hand ...Bones 10.16: Hodgins' Money ... Bones 10.17-18: Bullies and Capital Punishment ... Bones 10.19: Do You Buy Booth's Gambling Addiction? ... Bones 10.20: Intimations of a New Jeffersonian
And see also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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Fortitude: Genre Bending

Checking in with a review of Fortitude, a 12-episode genre bending series first show on Pivot TV in April, but I just saw it on Netflix DVDs this week.

The location is perfect for summer viewing: a fictional town in the Arctic, which cools you down by 20 degrees just by looking at it on your screen.  That was a figure of speech, not actually a part of the story, but what is going on in Fortitude is almost science fictional - as well as mystery, police procedural, medical thriller, horror, and even some good political wrangling.

Stanley Tucci puts in a great performance as an American detective working (for some reason) as an English DCI, who's called in to Fortitude to investigate at least two murders.  One may or may not have been a mercy killing - the shooting of a scientist who was literally being eaten alive by bear - and the other a frenzied brutal stabbing, with the main suspect being a little boy.

There's a lab in the town, people looking to make a quick buck or whatever the currency is there by digging mammoth tusks out of the permafrost, and an unforgettable sense of being on the edge of the world, almost on another planet.  In that sense, Fortitude shares some of the ambiance of the first season of Helix, but Fortitude was a thousand times better.

The mysteries, scientific and personal, will keep you guessing to the end.  Just about every character is memorable, including the sheriff, played by Richard Dormer; the Governor, played by Sofie Gråbøl; and the oldest man in town, played by Michael Gambone.

Suffice to say that not everyone survives - not everyone with a vengeance - but the series amply does, and I'll be looking forward to the next season next year.

#SFWApro

"As a genre-bending blend of police procedural and science fiction, The Silk Code delivers on its promises." -- Gerald Jonas,  The New York Times Book Review Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Game of Thrones 5.8: The Power of Frigid Death

An exceptionally good Game of Thrones 5.8 tonight, with a battle scene just as powerful and in some ways more fierce than last season's Jon and the Night's Watch vs. Mance Rayder's Wildings from the North.

We've always known, as Jon knows, that the Wildings including the Giants are ultimately allies in the fight against much more fearsome enemies, and we see that played out brilliantly and savagely tonight.  What could be worse than an enemy already dead?  Well, a dead enemy who turned your own people into his troops by killing them, so that if you retreat without taking your killed with you, they will be raised with the wave of the hand of the Night's King, which will instantly increase his army.

And that's just what we see at the very end of this episode, when the appealing Wilding Chieftainess, after fighting heroically and ferociously, but dying under the overwhelming onslaught of the cold dead, is raised up by the Night's King.  I would have liked to have seen her a little more as Jon's ally among the living, and who knows what terror she'll wreak as part of the army of the dead.

It's hard to see how Jon Snow with whatever army under his command will be able to best this.  (I haven't read more than the first novel in this series.)  It's always been the dragons and their fire that might melt and undo the frozen dead, but Daenerys is still a ways off from King's Landing, let alone the Wall and what's north of that.   But that ultimate battle, whenever it comes, will surely be one worth waiting for.

In the meantime, it's great to see Tyrion at her side - good for Daenerys, Tyrion, and the story, since he, as the best and brightest of the Lannisters, can give her advice more sage than probably anyone else in this story.  And as for battles, I'm glad I saw tonight's on a summer's eve, since it makes the deathly grip of the cold a little less of a real threat - just a little.

See also Game of Thrones 5.1: Unsetting the Table

And see also Games of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: Salient Points ... Game of Thrones 4.2: Whodunnit? ... Game of Thrones 4.3: Who Will Save Tyrion ...Game of Thrones 4.4: Glimpse of the Ultimate Battle ... Game of Thrones 4.6: Tyrion on Trial ... Game of Thrones 4.8: Beetles and Battle ...Game of Thrones 4.9: The Fight for Castle Black ... Games of Thrones Season 4 Finale: Woven Threads

And see also  Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography ...Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime ...  Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique 
And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ... Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ... Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quoted about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

And see "'Game of Thrones': Why the Buzz is So Big" article in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 2014, with my quotes.

Also: CNN article, "How 'Game of Thrones' Is Like America," with quote from me

 

"I was here, in Carthage, three months from now." 

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