Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 31

Harlan Coben's Shelter: Stranger Things Meets Hunters

Stranger Things meets Hunters: that's what came to mind after seeing the first three episodes of Harlan Coben's Shelter (that's its name) on Amazon Prime Video back on August 18th, and I felt the same after seeing the finale eighth episode of what I hope will be just first season last night. By which I mean: the center of the story are a bunch of idiosyncratic highly intelligent high school kids (Stranger Things) but the larger picture is not some Duffer Bros horror story, but a group of all-too human slave traders descended in some way from the Nazis (Hunters).

Stranger Things starred mostly unknown or little known performers with the exception of Winona Ryder, Hunters was pretty much the same except it had the mega-star Al Pacino, and Harlan Corbin's Shelter was more like Stranger Things, with Tovah Feldshuh the biggest star. My wife and I first saw her on Broadway in Yentl years ago, and it's always good to see her again. The rest of the acting in Shelter was pretty good, too, with standout acting by Jaden Michael as Mickey, the hero of this otherwise ensemble story.

I'm not going to say anything specific about the plot, because there are narrative-upending developments in just about every episode. But I will say that you won't be sure or likely right about any of the villains until close to the end, and not every character you've come to know survives, and the ending will make you unsure about even that. I'll also say that just as Stranger Things exults in the 1980s, Shelter is very much in the present, with even a political awareness displayed by some of the characters, and that's very much Harlan Coben and very much welcome.

I'll also say that I wish all eight episodes had been put up all at once, as Amazon and Netflix used to do it. That's what created binging, which turned the TV series into a novel, where you could enjoy as many chapters as you wanted in one continuing experience, but that's become an increasingly endangered species, as the streamers want to maximize their continuing subscribers.

But now that all eight episodes of Harlan Coben's Shelter are up there, you can binge them in this our degraded media environment, which I highly recommend.

And I hope to see you back here when I review the second season, which I intend to do it there is one.

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Published on September 23, 2023 18:18

AI-Generated Video Translation

Here's an AI-generated translation of my English into Hindi by Emon Hassan -- it's of me talking about my 2006 time-travel novel, The Plot to Save Socrates, in 2010 (AI by Hey Gen; from an interview Emon conducted w/me in 2010) (English follows Hindi in video). I actually think I sound a little better in Hindi than English :)

I'm also very glad Hey Gen ID's itself in lower right corner -- a good way of demonstrating that AI is not attempting to deceive. I understand that this watermark appears only on sample or test copies of the Hey Gen AI product. And, also, that it's easy to remove them. But I'd nonetheless like to see these logos on all AI products -- they should be mandatory and indelible.

You can also watch the video here on Instagram.

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Published on September 20, 2023 11:28

Foundation Season 2 Finale: Pros and Cons

Well, you probably won't be surprised that I have mixed feelings about the Foundation Season 2 finale, just up on Apple TV+ tonight. And, if you've been reading my reviews of this second season, you probably won't be surprised that, although there were things I really didn't like in this episode, the things I did like were in the majority, if not in number than in intensity,

[And you definitely shouldn't be surprised that there will be spoilers ahead in this review ... ]

Here's what I liked:

1. Everything on Trantor, and concerning the Cleonic clonal triumvirate, Daw, Day, and Dusk on and off that planet.

1a -- I especially liked the life-and-death battle between Day and Riose, and the way it was resolved. I liked this even though it had cloudy connection to the story of Bel Riose that Asimov told in Foundation and Empire, the second novel in the original trilogy.

1b -- I also liked everything Demerzel said and did on Trantor, which was every scene she was in. What we saw not only clarified and strengthened her character, but it set up a provocative foundation, if I can use that world without it being capitalized, for what we will likely see in Season 3. Demerzel is both very much in control but keenly vulnerable. That's a provocative combination for such an intelligent, sophisticated android.

Here's what I didn't much like:

2. Almost everything other than what I said in #s1, 1a, and 1b.

2a -- Although The Mule isn't much like what he was like in Asimov's trilogy (where he appeared in Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation), that's not what really bothered me about our knowledge of him that's been doled out in this second season. What bothers me is the way we become aware of him, in a series of nightmare flashes that Gaal endures. What this does is rob the television series of one of the prime thrills in the trilogy, the way the Mule continually surprises us. Instead, we a get a vision that Gaal is urging the living Hari to prepare for.

2b -- I don't see the purpose in killing Salvor. And, frankly, that whole extended scene felt like it was included because the producers thought it was necessary to at least have a very major good-guy hero character die, especially since Hari himself, as I predicted when it seemed he had drowned, actually survived.

***

So, these are big negatives, but the superb story of the Empire clones and Demerzel is more than enough to make me eager to see the next season of Foundation.

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Published on September 14, 2023 21:09

My Essay, "The Beatles and Podcasts," Just Published in the Journal of Beatles Studies

Read "The Beatles and Podcasts," FREE, over here. And the whole rest of the issue, free, over here.

And here's "It's Real Life" -- free alternate history short story about The Beatles, made into a radio play and audiobook and winner of The Mary Shelley Award 2023 and current nominee for the Sidewise Award

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Published on September 14, 2023 09:35

Reinventing Elvis: The ‘68 Comeback: An Appreciation

I just saw Reinventing Elvis: The ‘68 Comeback. The new documentary, narrated by Steve Binder -- about Elvis Presley's Comeback Special that aired on NBC back on December 3, 1968, directed by Steve Binder -- has been streaming on Paramount Plus since August 15, 2023. The documentary did for me and my appreciation of Elvis what Peter Jackson's masterpiece The Beatles: Get Back did for me about The Beatles. Except The Beatles since the first time I heard (and saw) them on The Jack Paar Program in January 1964 have always been much higher in my estimation, more prominent in my life and love of music, at the pinnacle of that, in fact, than was and now is Elvis. But Peter Jackson's documentary both reaffirmed and lifted my connection to The Beatles, and Steve Binder's documentary did the same for me for Elvis, albeit at very different levels.

I saw The Beatles: Get Back the night the first third of the documentary went up on Disney Plus. Why did I wait weeks to see Reinventing Elvis? Well, I guess that's just another indication of the difference between The Beatles and Elvis Presley in my life. I did see the Comeback Special when it aired on NBC on December 8, 1968. I was in the recording studio the next day, recording a demo of a song I had written with Ed Fox -- "Sunday Princess" -- with a singer whose name was Joey Ward. We talked about how superb Elvis was on that special. Joey said he was so taken with it, he was going to start combing his hair like Elvis. I remember laughing to myself, and later telling Ed I would never do that. I was happy with my long straggly hair and moustache. Another example of the difference between my appreciation of The Beatles and Elvis.

But Elvis was the best he ever was in that special -- better than what I'd seen of him on The Ed Sullivan Show a decade earlier and better than most of his movies (though I think Jailhouse Rock is a great movie and a really great song, and the same for Viva Las Vegas (well, certainly the song, though Ann-Margret was nonpareil in the movie). You don't see or hear any mention of that song or the movie in Reinventing Elvis, but the documentary is a nearly continuous explosion of powerful and beautiful performances.

My favorite part of the documentary, other than those performances, is a sequence which Binder tells us the geniuses at NBC cut from the 1968 special, the bordello scene, which was too erotic for NBC's censors, and is hot even by today's standards. The sexual energy between Elvis and one of the women dancers is palpable and realistic, which is exactly what a documentary should be.

Another scene that caught my eye is seen earlier in the film. Elvis is walking through a crowd, smiling, but as he turns his expression briefly changes to sheer dislike. Who was Elvis looking at? It's tempting to think it was Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's notorious manager, who we learn in the documentary was not a Colonel and not named Tom Parker, either. He's literally identified as the villain in the movie, and I do recall how Elvis said it broke his heart when the Colonel refused to let him play the male lead in the 1976 movie A Star Is Born. Kris Kristofferson got the role, and Elvis died a year later. Reinventing Elvis barely tells us why Elvis didn't once and for all break free of the ersatz Colonel -- he was a "father figure" to Elvis -- and confined himself to defying the Colonel only when he had a strong person like Binder at his side.

If you ever liked any of Elvis' work, definitely see Reinventing Elvis. You'll like it and appreciate it and understand it and Elvis even more.

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Published on September 09, 2023 09:30

Invasion 2.3: Casper and Luke

[Spoilers ahead ....]

The high profile thread in Invasion 2.3 is Mitsuki hacking the invaders' code, with the result that a whole bunch of their ships (seven -- of course not all) fall mostly into the sea. A very important development, to be sure, but that wasn't the most interesting part of episode 2.3 for me.

And that would be the special connection that Casper and Luke, on two different continents, have to the invaders. We don't see Casper in 2.3, but Trevante -- now in the same American small town as Sheriff Tyson in Season 1 -- has one of Casper's drawings, and Trevante is beginning to put two and two together, though the math and the situation is much more complex than that.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Luke has quite a night, sensing that the invaders are increasing their attack, going out to fight them, and making what could be a romantic connection with one of the young women in the group. Unfortunately, though, this part of the story has no happy ending, as Luke's mother finds his sister missing at the end of the episode.

The connection that Casper and Luke have to the invaders raises all kinds of questions. First and foremost would be: why do they have those connections? Were the invaders here on Earth prior to the invasion featured in the TV series? Are Casper and Luke in some biological sense related to the invaders? Can they telepathically connect to each other? Are they unique, or are there other people like them? (In a way, Mitsuki has that connection.) Or, is it possible that all humans have that kind of brain, but the connection has to be triggered to be realized?

I like those kinds of questions, and that's just one of the reasons that I continue to like this unusual series.

first starship to Alpha Centauri, with just enough fuel to get there
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Published on September 08, 2023 14:35

Foundation 2.9: Exceptional Alterations

The next-to-last episode of season 2 of Foundation on Apple TV+ -- episode 2.9 -- was riveting and brilliant. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Even though the story it told diverged from the equivalent time in Asimov's second Foundation novel -- Foundation and Empire -- in crucial ways that indeed were among the best parts of the original trilogy in the 1950s and the subsequent sequels and prequels in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Here are my thoughts on some of the major developments in episode 2.9:

[Spoilers of course are ahead ... ]

1. We get more of Demerzel's story in the powerful opening scene. We don't hear the name R. Daneel Olivaw, but what Demerzel tells us is not inconsistent with R. Daneel's origins on Earth, and Demerzel does speak the name of our planet. As far as what is new in the TV series, and what I still do think is the best part, we learn something very important: it was the first Cleon, not Demerzel, who came up with the Cleon clonal triumvirate. This suggests that the relationship between the clones and the android are closer to equal than we may have thought before.

2. The action around Terminus was thrilling, and surprising in the way it diverged from Asimov's accounting. Hari's hologram is impressive, but it fails to convince Day of anything. And indeed, Bel Riose, ordered by Day, all but destroys the Foundation outpost on Terminus at the end. At that moment, can we say that psychohistory has failed or succeeded? I don't see how can it be the latter.

3. Meanwhile, we get the satisfaction -- maybe not the best word -- of Hari beating Tellem to death, in a scene that was so strong it was almost physically revolting even as it was ethically welcome. And unless I radically missed something in my understanding of holograms, the Hari who killed Tellem was corporal, physical, not a hologram. Which means, either the physical Hari was indeed not dead (as I said in my review of episode 2.7), because Tellem didn't kill him in the first place, or Hari's physical being was reconstituted off-screen (as I suggested in my review of episode 2.8). Either way, I count the continuation of the physical Hari, along with the holograms, as a good thing for the television series.

4. We get another glimpse of the Mule. I'm thinking now that in the third season, we'll see a three-way fight between Hari, Empire, and the Mule. And Demerzel's allegiance won't be as clear as it's been up until episode 2.9.

We'll just have to see. And I'll see you here next week with my review of the Season 2 finale.

See also Foundation 2.1: Once Again, A Tale of Two Stories ... 2.2: Major Players ... 2.3: Bel Riose and Hari ... 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot ... 2.6: Hari and Evita ... 2.7: Is Demerzel Telling the Truth? ... 2.8: Major Revelations

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Published on September 07, 2023 20:34

Special Ops: Lioness: Women in Focus

I just finished watching the 8th and final episode of the first season of Special Ops: Lioness on Paramount Plus, and here's my shot at a mostly non-spoiler review.

To begin with, this is a story about a recruit to a CIA hit team. The recruit is a woman, the target is an Arab oil magnate who funds terrorists, and the way the recruit is supposed to get to the target is she becomes friends with the target's daughter, so much so that she'll be invited to the daughter's wedding.

So, the first two parts -- the recruit being a woman, the target being a terrorist-funding oil dealer -- is obviously nothing new. But the way the recruit is supposed to get to the oil man is somewhat new, and the nitty gritties of the eight episodes are bristling not only with excitement but lots of originality.

Perhaps the most original is the impact this hit job has on three women: Cruz (the recruit), Joe (her superior and primary trainer), and Kaitlyn (head of the operation). I don't recall any CIA series in which women had so much power, and that in itself makes this series well worth watching. Men play important roles, for sure, but in many ways their most important roles are those that they play in the three women's lives.

And there is a fourth woman who also plays a central, crucial role -- Aaliyah, the target's daughter. Suffice to say that Cruz's mission to get to know Aaliyah has all kinds of unexpected consequences. Aaliyah is well played by Stephanie Nur, as is Cruz by Laysla De Oliveira. I don't recall seeing Nur on the screen before. De Oliveira was in Needle in a Time Stack, but I don't particularly remember her from that. It's a safe bet that I won't forget either of them after seeing Lioness. And Zoe Saldana as Cruz and Nicole Kidman as Kaitlin are of course very well known to me and everyone, but I've never seen them play characters quite like Cruz and Kaitlin. All of this adds up to characters who are fresh and powerful and convincing.

There were some cliched elements in the overall story, but I can't tell you what they are without giving too much away. But even if ten or twenty percent of the story is something we've seen in one way or another before, those kinds of tropes are unavoidable, and they really don't detract too much if at all from this blockbuster, painfully and redeemingly human, of a narrative.

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Published on September 03, 2023 22:15

Foundation 2.8: Major Revelations!

Well, finally an episode of Foundation -- 2.8 -- that's really firing on all cylinders. By which I mean, the Trantor parts and the other parts were nearly equal in power, and that power was impressive, answered all kinds of questions, and stood on the verge of answering more. So, good thing that two more episodes await us this season.

Here are some of the major revelations, as I see them:

[Spoilers of course are ahead ... ]

1. The opening conversation between Dusk and Rue gives us some essential info about Demerzel and her origin, but not yet the complete story. By the end of the episode, Dusk tells Rue that Empire is doing Demerzel's bidding rather than vice versa. Yes indeed.

2. Hober's attack on Trantor, and his rescue of Constant, was literally a much welcome merger of the Foundation and Empire stories -- and indeed, we heard that phrase later in the episode -- and it was good to see Hober and Constant carnally together after they were off the planet. Lots of good sex in general in this episode, including Dawn and Sareth. Will be interesting to see the impact of the child they engendered.

3. We learned more about the Second Foundation, most importantly from the conversation between Salvor and one of the digital Haris. And the most important takeaway from that conversation is that Hari's idea is that both Foundations were intended to be mutually ignorant of each other. This is a divergence from Asimov's trilogy, in which the First Foundation was ignorant of the Second, but the Second knew just about everything about the First. Which is ok by me, at this point,

4. I remain in strong dislike of Tellem, which of course we're supposed to be. She seems on the verge of inhabiting Gaal, which is repulsive. And apparently she did kill the corporeal Hari -- though if new flesh-and-blood Haris can be created, that may not matter.

So, good job, and I'm looking forward even more than usual to the resumption of this riveting story next week.

See also Foundation 2.1: Once Again, A Tale of Two Stories ... 2.2: Major Players ... 2.3: Bel Riose and Hari ... 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot ... 2.6: Hari and Evita ... 2.7: Is Demerzel Telling the Truth?

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Published on August 31, 2023 20:08

Invasion 2.2: Jamila and Trevante

Episode 2.2 of Invasion had two good, non-intersecting stories about Jamila in the UK and Trevante in the USA.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

I thought Jamila's story was tighter at this point than Trevante's. She's determined to find Casper. She knows he has some sort mental connection and control over the invaders. She feels she's been in some sort of touch with him. She joins up with the two of the young gents from last season, picks up another other guy and his young sister, and they're off to Paris, where she has reason to believe Casper may be, and the newbies say their parents have a flat. The makings of a good story.

Trevante's starts off a little lamely. He saves his young nephew, who jumps into the deep end of a pool, and screams at him after he's out of the water and awake. Trevante's sister is so furious at him for screaming at the kid that she throws Trevante out of the house. Does that make sense? She wouldn't be happy about Trevante screaming at her son, true, but where's her gratitude for Trevante saving the boy's life?

Fortunately, Trevante finds a better reason to leave Florida -- he finds there's some kind of invader activity in Oklahoma. At this point, his story gets back on track, as he maneuvers his way to getting where he wants to go, and gets put behind bars for his effort.

In both cases -- Jamila's and Trevante's -- the authorities and their military and police are worse than useless. getting in the way of our heroes, obstructing their worthy actions, at every turn. This is an old story in science fiction, but one which alas seems ever reasonable. See what I said about governments and invaders from space on Ancient Alien (at 1 min 23 seconds in the video) 13 years ago:

And I'll be back here next week with something to say about the next episode of Invasion.