Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 293

95ers: Time Runners: Original and Entertaining

Just saw 95ers: Time Runners (aka 95ers: Echoes), a 2013 movie, on Amazon Prime.   Although the beginning was a little light and zany to the point of being distracting, the movie settled into a quite excellent time-travel movie.   For the me, the essential ingredient in any worthwhile time travel story is that it take the paradoxes of time travel seriously - logically, consistently, ambitiously in terms of the reach of the paradoxes and what the characters must do to circumvent or otherwise work with the paradoxes to achieve their own ends.   And this 95ers: Time Runners does quiet well and entertainingly.

Among the high-points and most originally developed facets of this contemporary/distant-future story on Earth - near Annapolis (by Route 95, hence the title), to be precise - we have
debris from events altered by time travelers showing up in the new timelines created - figuratively and literally grains of salt from a salt shaker that lost its cap in an original reality but did not in a new, corrected realitytime travel not to dates but events, which allows the time traveler to get not only whenever but wherever she or he needs to goevents being more or less difficult to change, because they have more or less "gravity" attached to them (nice play on the word gravity and its meaning in physics and in human relations)certain people - in this story, the heroine, in particular - who have the ability to rewind time and change events, because they were born as a part of a "seventh paradox," that is, at moment in which there was a notable rift in time and space caused by whatever/whomeverIn addition, 95ers: Time Runners, has many of the usual touches of sophisticated time travel stories, such as characters being much more intimately related to one another than at first we were given to suppose, and the same character appearing at different times of her life as what seem to be different characters but are not, and characters savvy in the ways of time travel doing their best to tip-toe around paradox, such as not letting themselves be seen by earlier versions of themselves as they time travel.    These elements have been seen before, but this movie does them smartly, and manages to mix in references to traditional time travel stories like Dickens' Christmas Carol and Wells' The Time Machine and its musing about mathematical lines.   I even thought I saw someone who looked like Stephen Hawking in a cartoon-drawing quickly displayed at one point in the movie.   Touches like this make up, for me, for the deliberately cartoonish quality of much of the acting.

All in all, a fine, provocative, satisfying little movie - written by Thomas and James Durham, directed by Thomas - well worth watching if time travel is your cuppa, as it is mine.   The movie ends with a strong nod to a sequel, which I hope there is.   The tone and style of 95ers reminds me of Trancers, which I loved, and which had umpteen sequels, the first bunch of which were quite good.


 
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Bill Keller and the New York Times: Heal Thyself

I saw Bill Keller, former editor of The New York Times (now one of its writers), on MSNBC a little while ago, roundly criticizing Rolling Stone for not checking out its sources more carefully before publication of its enormously important rape on college campus story, which has finally gotten America to pay some attention to this endemic and awful part of frat culture.

Rolling Stone no doubt should have checked its sources more throughly before going to press, and it could have handled its apology issued today a little better, and not blamed the source by saying Rolling Stone's "trust in her was misplaced".   When issuing an apology, it's best to just stay with what you didn't do right.

But Bill Keller of all people attacks Rolling Stone about this?  He was at The New York Times during the years of probably the worst journalistic travesty in history, when Jayson Blair regularly faked stories, plagiarized, made up sources, and in general made The New York Times a laughing stock, a sad position for the once "newspaper of record".

Further, where have The New York Times and Bill Keller been all these years in which rapes have taking place on campuses such as the University of Virginia?   Rather than getting on his high horse, Keller should encourage his own newspaper to do more reporting on this grievous problem.

And Rolling Stone, let us not forget, deserves eminent credit for breaking this story wide open, and bringing it to public scrutiny.   They erred, but on behalf of a noble and critically important goal, and deserve every decent person's thanks not attack for this.


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Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds

Good to see the famous Milgram Experiment in play in Bones 10.9.   First written up in a 1963 article, later expanded into the book Obedience to Authority in 1974, Prof. Stanley Milgram set up an ingenuous experiment which showed that, on the instruction of authority figures, many people would not hesitate to mete out violence to innocent people - they would increase the electric shocks to dangerous levels, when subjects, who were actually confederates of the experimenter, gave wrong answers on an exam.   Milgram, the experimenter, thus showed why ordinary and presumably good people could be influenced to do bad things.

Of course, the shocks weren't real, and people have been concerned over the years that, to some degree, Milgram was abusing his subjects by involving them, without their consent, in an experiment like this. Bones, of course, takes this to the next level - and begins by posing the question of maybe the victim in this episode, a scientist implementing the Milgram experiment, might have been killed by one of his aggrieved subjects - angered at being used in such an experiment.  Turns out that this theory was for the birds - or, better, birds had much more to do with the scientist's death.

Meanwhile, we also get some shady botanical business with blood showing up in the color of hydrangeas, but the best part of the story tonight concerned Wendell, and his connecting with an oncology nurse as he gets back into the land of the more passionately living, even given his concerns about how long his remission might last.   The intern stories have really been fine-tuned this year, and are each important narratives in their own rights.   Wendell's is one of the best.   He deserves happiness, and it's good to see him get it.

Aubrey and Bones also have some excellent scenes together, and Bones' and Booth's appreciation of Aubrey marks his emergence as a major character in the series.    A good addition indeed in this tenth season.

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
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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A different kind of police fiction
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Lessons from Eric Garner

In the aftermath of the awful failure to indict Eric Garner's killer today in New York City - Staten Island, to be more precise - I can think of at least three important lessons we can get from this, as we all seek to create a world with fewer such killings of unarmed people by police in the future:

1. Guns are not the ultimate problem.   Eric Garner, after all, was choked to death by a police officer. What this means, even though it might sound like an NRA mantra, if that law-abiding citizens have little to fear from good cops with guns, but are in dire danger from bad cops with just sticks and strong arms.  I think our world would indeed be far better off with fewer guns.  But the ultimate source of the depravity that took Eric Garner's life is a reckless disregard for human life in the hearts and minds of all too many police officers.

2.  Body cams will help, but will not completely remedy this deadly problem.  There was a video, after all, of Eric Garner and the last moments of his life.   It's heart-wrenching and infuriating to watch, but apparently had no effect on the Grand Jury.   Again, what we most need are not police with body cams but police with no reckless disregard for human life.

3. The DA is obviously a big part of this problem - and we learned this not only today, but with the Grand Jury's failure to indict Michael Brown's killer in Ferguson last week.  As many have suggested, a special prosecutor should have been appointed in both cases - that is, a prosecutor with no working ties with the very police under possible indictment.  The law should be changed to make this mandatory.

It strikes me that all of three lessons might be taken to heart by conservatives as well as progressives. This is not an anti-gun or a pro-body-cam campaign.   It's rather an insistence that people who become police not display a depraved indifference to human life - and, when they do, they be held to account for their actions.




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The Walking Dead 5.8: Killing the Non-Killer

Well, The Walking Dead has been difficult for every family we've come to know and care about. That's one of the reasons why our people have a become a family of their own.   But as episode 5.8 makes clear, some families have it worse than others in this post-apocalyptic world.

Hershel's family was in pain from the get-go, with Hershel at first holding on to the hope that walkers could and would be eventually cured.  But the killing of Hershel was probably the worst thing the Governor did.   And now we have Beth gone the way of her father, leaving just Maggie as the last survivor.

Dawn had some kind of feelings for Beth.   Her insistence on keeping Noah after the exchange had been successfully concluded only makes sense because Dawn was thinking Beth wouldn't want to leave without Noah, and would therefore stay with Dawn's group.   Beth figured that out, but tragically, she was never a killer.  Pushing someone who's attacking you down an elevator shaft does not really make you a killer.   And so Beth's stabbing Dawn didn't do the job, if the job Beth wanted to do was kill Dawn.  And so Beth was the one who was killed - by Dawn - leaving it to Daryl to kill Dawn.

That was also a highly significant move for Daryl, who had become more reasonable and less reactive of late, being a moderating influence on Rick of all people, who had become more aggressive, as we saw again tonight.   So the death of Beth closes the book not only on her innocence, but maybe the dawn of Daryl's as well.

In the end, as shocking as Beth's death was, it wasn't as palpably traumatic as Lori's, Shane's, or, again, Hershel's.  That's because Beth had an innocence that was always a little too much for this wicked, bloody world.  Her loss makes sense in that sense, but will rob The Walking Dead of a rare, gentle, and tough character.

See also: The Walking Dead 5.1: The Redemption of Carole ... The Walking Dead 5.3: Meets Alfred Hitchcock and The Twilight Zone ... The Walking Dead 5.4: Hospital of Horror ... The Walking Dead 5.5: Anatomy of a Shattered Dream ... The Walking Dead 5.6-7: Slow

And see also The Walking Dead 4.1: The New Plague ... The Walking Dead 4.2: The Baby and the Flu ... The Walking Dead 4.3: Death in Every Corner ...The Walking Dead 4.4: Hershel, Carl, and Maggie ... The Walking Dead 4.6: The Good Governor ... The Walking Dead 4.7: The Governor's Other Foot ... The Walking Dead 4.8: Vintage Fall Finale ... The Walking Dead 4.9: A Nightmare on Walking Dead Street ... The Walking Dead 4:14: Too Far ... The Walking Dead Season 4 Finale: From the Gunfire into the Frying Pan

And see also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable ... The Walking Dead 3.15: Merle ... The Walking Dead 3.16: Kill or Die, or Die and Kill
And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet  ... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 FinaleAnd see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season
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The Newsroom 3.4: McLuhanesque "Books Are Like the New Art"

The Newsroom 3.4 was especially McLuhanesque tonight, as the guy who wants to buy ACN comments that "books are like the new art," because we like to look at them on a shelf, and do our reading on Kindles.   If printed books are indeed becoming a new kind of art, this would be a great example of Marshall McLuhan's observation that outmoded technologies become art forms.   When I first heard this years ago, the first thing I thought of was the convertible car, which was first invented to keep the driver physically cool, but, with the advent of air conditioning in cars, became stylistically cool for the driver to drive in.  Then I thought about delicatessen - the spices first introduced to extend the shelf life of meat, now used, in an age of refrigeration, because we like the way the spiced meat tastes.  But the Kindle turning the printed book into an art form is an excellent contemporary example.

As for the central story of tonight's episode of The Newsroom, it was customarily good, if a bit overplayed.  Certainly Will being taken away in handcuffs the moment after he and MacKenzie are married was a strong dramatic moment.  But how Will got to be found in contempt of court seems strained to me.  Either he believes in the First Amendment being inviolable or he doesn't.   He says that he does and I believe him.  So why doesn't he mount a more spirited defense - indeed, any defense - when the judge asks him to?   It's a weakness in the plot when the best reason I can think of is the show wants the dramatic tension of his going to jail.

Further, if I'm understanding the AP getting the secret and incriminating files, then what happened in court with Will being held in contempt for not revealing the source is kind of moot anyway, right?   Because, presumably that source will be more discoverable in the documents, and the Feds will go after the AP in any case.

So here's my prediction for the ending - now, sadly, only two episodes away.   Will and MacKenzie will be together, and likely most of the other couples we've come to know and enjoy as well.  But ACN will be taken over, dissolved, or otherwise made unrecognizable, as the inexorable force of money closes the door on our heroic enterprise.   Because, alas, although the First Amendment can and should protect the delivery of the news from government control, it can't protect that delivery from the ravages of money.



analysis of the first two seasons

See also The Newsroom 3.1: Media on Media ... The Newsroom 3.2: Ethics in High Relief ... The Newsroom 3.3: Journalism at the Barricades

And see also The Newsroom Season 2 Debuts on Occupy Wall Street and More ... and (about Trayvon Martin) If Only There Was a Video Recording ... The Newsroom 2.2: The Power of Video ... The Newsroom 2.7: Autopsy of a Bad Decision ... The Newsroom 2.8: The Course of True Love ... The Newsroom Season 2 Finale: Love, Triumph, and Wikipedia

And see also The Newsroom and McLuhan ... The Newsroom and The Hour ...The Newsroom Season 1 Finale: The Lost Voice Mail

 
a little civil disobedience in this story too

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Peaky Blinders: Peak Television

Thought I'd check in with a review of Peaky Blinders, two seasons in with a BBC production, available in the United States on Netflix, and telling the story of a gang in Birmingham, England, same name as the show, a few years after World War I.

Like most historical dramas, Peaky Blinders on television takes a few liberties with real history, in this case, the main time of the real Peaky Blinders heyday, which was late 19th century and early 20th century.  Also, the sewing of razor blades into caps, so the caps when taken off the head could be used as weapons, may well be apocryphal - at very least, as the source of the Peaky Blinders' name.

But the series is so good, who cares  about perfect history?   From the moment the first scene opens, you're struck by a cinematography that's often breathtaking.  And the characters, story lines, and acting fit right into this high and clearly defined frame.

Cillian Murphy is superb as Tommy Shelby, the Peaky Blinders' leader, even though he's younger than his brother Arthur, deeply flawed and also powerfully played by Paul Anderson.   A young Winston Churchill is also a character, veteran Sam Neill of Jurassic Park plays the head cop bent on taming the gang.   Helen McCrory (Harry Potter) plays Tommy's aunt, who in her own way is at least partially in charge of the Peaky Blinders, and Annabelle Wallis (The Tudors) plays Grace, a major player and love interest of more than one character.

As is the case with many mobster television series, Tommy has his hands full fighting both the law and rival gangs, and enforcing loyalty in his own ranks.   But he does this with a patented mix of intelligence and violence, more or less carefully applied, and given this dancing on the edge, and the less than completely blind fidelity to history, you never know what's going to happen - well, you know that Winston Churchill won't be killed, but that's about it.

Peaky Blinders is reminiscent, in some ways, of Boardwalk Empire on the one hand, because they both take place in the 1920s, and The Black Donnellys on the other, which told the story of an Irish gang family in contemporary Hell's Kitchen in New York City.  But Peaky Blinders has a story and feel and compelling ethnic and proletariate depictions all its own, and I highly recommend it.

 
deeper history

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The Prosecutor Attacks the Media

Among the disturbing aspects of St. Louis Prosecutor Robert McCulloch's announcement last night of no indictment of Darren Wilson for his killing of Michael Brown - aside from that appalling no indictment itself - was McCulloch's lashing out at the media, social and cable, for stirring people up and spreading falsehoods about the shooting of Michael Brown.

If McCulloch had any familiarity with history, he'd know that blaming the media is a time-honored dishonorable tactic of demagogues, politicians, and public officials unhappy with the public's reaction to their policies.  It's the reason totalitarian societies are quick to keep the media on a short leash, and why even the world's leading democracies castigate the media which are not under government control.   Democratic and Republican Presidents both blamed the media and its reporting for the growing public opposition to the Vietnam War, when in fact the opposition was based on an increasing number of Americans not wanting a war with a country which never attacked us. Margaret Thatcher was so unhappy with the BBC's coverage of the Falkland War, that she not only criticized the channel but put it under closer government control.

Social media have indeed added a new kind of headache for the public official who wants the world to see things his or her way, that is, maintain the monopoly of knowledge which the public official is able to wield to make the official look good or get what the official wants.    Government officials can and do appeal to traditional media to delay reporting on certain stories, for the public's so-called good.   But there's no executive to appeal to when it comes to social media.

And that's what makes Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Tumblr so crucial to our continuing democracy.   McCulloch can impugn the witnesses to Michael Brown's killing all he wants.  And, indeed, since his speech didn't take place in a court of law, where opposing arguments and cross-examinations could have been offered, he could dominate the stage as he did for half an hour last night.

But he cannot dominate or dictate to the world at the large, and the way people now communicate in this world.  As John Milton once observed, people are rational, and when given presentations of truth and falsity, people are sooner or later able to discern the truth.   Social media now play a critical part in that presentation.   And with their help - which is none other than the help of the people - and traditional media as well, I think there's a good chance that the truth will come out in the killing of Michael Brown, before the books are closed on his terrible death.


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The Walking Dead 5.6-7: Slow

The past two episodes of The Walking Dead (5.6 and 5.7) have been, well, a little slow and lackluster - certainly in comparison to what happened with Eugene and then Beth before that.

Carol and Daryl in 5.6 were good to see together, as was Carol's back story, but neither broke any new ground.   And although the priest was an interesting character on 5.7, that's about it - he's interesting.

About the most significant development in the two episodes is the evolution of Daryl.   By 5.7, he's a voice a reason, restraining Rick at crucial moments.   This is an important trajectory indeed, seeing where Daryl started, just a hair's breadth from his racist and violent brother.

Whether Carol and Daryl will ever get together as more than in their current brother and sister relationship remains an open question.   I'd like to see that happen, because it would be good for both characters.

Carl, Maggie, and Glenn finally got a little good screen time, but not enough.  Michonne has been barely visible this first half of season five.   It was good to learn a little more about Rosita, but she's still a long ways from being a major character.

Is The Walking Dead running out of steam?  I haven't read the comics, so I don't know what's ahead on that score, but as a television series it's beginning to feel like it needs something more.  I'm hoping that next week and the episodes ahead this season can provide that.

See also: The Walking Dead 5.1: The Redemption of Carole ... The Walking Dead 5.3: Meets Alfred Hitchcock and The Twilight Zone ... The Walking Dead 5.4: Hospital of Horror ... The Walking Dead 5.5: Anatomy of a Shattered Dream

And see also The Walking Dead 4.1: The New Plague ... The Walking Dead 4.2: The Baby and the Flu ... The Walking Dead 4.3: Death in Every Corner ...The Walking Dead 4.4: Hershel, Carl, and Maggie ... The Walking Dead 4.6: The Good Governor ... The Walking Dead 4.7: The Governor's Other Foot ... The Walking Dead 4.8: Vintage Fall Finale ... The Walking Dead 4.9: A Nightmare on Walking Dead Street ... The Walking Dead 4:14: Too Far ... The Walking Dead Season 4 Finale: From the Gunfire into the Frying Pan

And see also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable ... The Walking Dead 3.15: Merle ... The Walking Dead 3.16: Kill or Die, or Die and Kill
And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet  ... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 FinaleAnd see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season
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The Good Wife 6.10: Cary's Fate

Coming in with an all-too-rare review of The Good Wife, which has been just superb this season.

The question at the end of episode 6.10, which was probably the most moving episode of the season so far, is what will happen to Cary?    We see him beginning to accept the plea bargain - changing his plea to guilty - but the episode significantly ends right at that crucial point.

Cary could still get out of this plea bargain.   Bishop could have a change of heart, and get his guy to change his testimony and say that Cary wasn't advising Bishop's operation how to circumvent the law, after all.   Bishop's not doing this, on the basis of his anger at Kalinda for threatening him and his son, is something that could give way to a more reasonable attitude, as anger sometimes does.   Bishop already offered Cary a way out - to a country overseas - and may be willing to do something more to help Cary now.   After all, having Cary in prison is no help to Bishop, and indeed makes him vulnerable to pressures Cary may receive in prison from the State's Attorney office to talk about Bishop.   We already know how Cary hates prison.

Or, on a different track, Castro could have a change of heart for whatever reason, and walk into court before the plea bargain is completed.   But that's not as likely as Bishop to the rescue, which isn't all that likely, either.   Still, if I had to bet, I would put my money on Cary not going to prison.

Because if Cary does go to prison, that would significantly change the show.   Cary has been an essential counterweight to Alicia from the very beginning of the series, and unless she's indeed elected State's Attorney, her new law firm would be limping without Cary.

This raises the question of whether Alicia will be elected, which is predicated on the question of whether she will continue to stay in the race.  On the one hand, Alicia is a fighter par excellence. On the other hand, she's fiercely protective of her family, and the battering her family has been taking in the campaign may be beginning to take its toll.    Not to mention Alicia's distaste for patronage appointments and other political moves.

So, as The Good Wife pauses for its winter solstice, we're left with powerful possibilities which could change the story almost as much as the departure of Will last year.   That's what's so continually appealing about The Good Wife, which reinvents itself while keeping true to its characters at least once a season.

See The Good Wife 6.4: Run-up to Running

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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