Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 322

Almost Human 1.9: Literally Bad Robot

Almost Human 1.9 came back tonight was an episode about a literally bad robot - as in Terminator style - and a great show which really got to basics of robot creation in fine Asimovian style.

We meet Dr. Vaughn, creator of the DRN models including Dorian, and a later DRN that went bad - that is, is ready to coldly and ballistically kill people, other robots, anything that gets in her way on whatever mission.  What we don't learn until the end is what was implied all along - that the bad robot was designed that way by Vaughn, either deliberately or unintentionally because he was embittered, but with the same murderous result.  In any case, he's now more than willing to use her for his ends - which is to reestablish himself and reclaim his lost power as the leading robot creator - and with his escape "over the wall" at the end, we now have an arch villain on our hands in Almost Human.

The bad robot, though, is destroyed, as Dorian and Kennex get the better of her, and Kennex lands the fatal blow by wielding his synthetic leg for the kick.  This serves as a good occasion for Kennex to tell Dorian that the prosthetic leg is growing on him.

Meanwhile, we get some good heart to heart between Dorian and Kennex, as Kennix assures Dorian that he's not at all like the bad robot, because he's unique and indeed was created earlier, when Vaughn was in a different state of mind.   Kennex's acceptance of Dorian, and their growing friendship, is the one of the best continuing threads of this series.

And what's over that wall?  Well, something horrible, but likely not as monstrous was what lurks on the other side in Game of Thrones.  Still, in the future science fictional world of Almost Human, we can only assume that what resides beyond the wall must be worse than what we've seen inside Detroit so far.  And since that's been pretty bad, what lies beyond it must be bad indeed.   Which is why I'm looking forward to seeing it in due course.

See also: Almost Human debuts: A Review ... Almost Human 1.2: Sexbots ... Almost Human 1.3: Change of Face ... Almost Human 1.4: Almost Breaking Bad ... Almost Human 1.5: Clones and Holograms ...Almost Human 1.6: The Blackmarket Heart and Double Dorian ... Almost Human 1.7: Meets Criminal Minds ... Almost Human 1.8: Guided Bullets

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Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy

Hey, I caught the first two episodes of Black Sails on Starz last night, and was mightily impressed.  The series is much more than swashbuckling, and dresses up the high action and fast-moving plot in at least four commendable ways:

1. The show has a real literacy.  Captain Flint quotes the Odyssey in a poetic, soulful reflection about wanting to find some peace and get away from the danger of the seas - the human danger, given his business - and you can't get much better than that.

2. There's a consistent and refreshing political dimension.  The pirates are champions of democracy, with all of its messiness, even their leaders who also yearn to be kings.  And the women are not only fetching but feisty.   I suppose this is a romanticization of what most real pirates were about, but there is a democratic logic and imperative in the pirate's life and community vis-a-vis the Crown, and, besides, it makes for a good story.

3.  The characters and plot display a media savvy - in particular, an awareness of the interplay between the written and spoken word at the time.   Apropos Homer, John Silver's commission to his memory of the page he stole is not only a smart move for him - as he realizes, the only way he could survive - but it puts Silver in league with all the poets of an earlier age who didn't read or write at all, and instead kept all of their creations in their minds for easy retrieval.  If anyone doubts that Silver would be able to memorize a page, consider that The Iliad was committed completely to memory, before the written word had come to Greece, and that's how it ultimately managed to make it into Black Sails' and our own age.

4.  There's nudity and all kinds of hot sex going on, which is always a plus.

So I'll be a regular reviewer of Black Sails.




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Helix 1.5: In the White Room

An uneven episode of Helix - 1.5 - last night, in which no real progress is made on the scientific puzzle, but lots of good action comes down in the murder and human relationship departments.



Among the high points in that action -

Sarah impulsively kisses Alan, and he doesn't mind it at all, emotionally, those he berates Sarah afterward for professional reasons.  He's particularly unhappy about the morphine being the impetus for Sarah, though he doesn't yet know the real reason she's taking it.  In any case - I think they make a good couple, despite their age differences.Daniel kills Sergio, after Sergio tries to kill not only Daniel but Alan.  It wasn't clear to me how Alan survived, but he did.   And it was good to see Sergio get his just desert, after his cold-blooded murder of Doreen via air-bubble last week.Also on the positive side was use of "white room" - from which the episode gets its title - revealed to be not a room in the facility, but the whole facility location itself, or everything around and outside of the facility, which being located in the frigid Arctic is indeed one big white room.

But, otherwise ... Alan now knows that Doreen was murdered, and he's guessed why she was murdered, but he still doesn't know the specific knowledge which Daniel was try to squelch, or keep Alan and the team from knowing.

And although Hiroshi is doing a good job of disguising his involvement, we still don't what exactly what  he's involved in, other than it producing the zombie-creating virus, which we pretty already knew.  Lots of good leads and possibilities for Helix.  I'm looking forward to seeing more of them rolled out.  In the meantime, I had Arctic char for dinner last night - delicious!

See also Helix 1.1-1.3: Zombies with Biology ... Helix 1.4: Cold DNA


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Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe

A familial Bones 9.15 tonight, with two stories having to do with families, one of which produced the bones in the case, which turns out to not even have been a murder.   All in the family - or two families - with mostly the better sides of human nature on center stage, and not even a killer in the house.

The case concerns a recently killed corpse, whose toe has been inexpertly "ripped off," as Bones blurts out to the bereaved family.  But it turns out that this a key clue in the case, in which the girl ripped off her own toe which got infected, in the process of faking her own kidnapping .  The killer who's not really a killer turns to be the young woman's dog walker, who, having access to a veterinarian, dosed the woman to treat the infection with a powerful form of penicillin which he didn't know she was allergic to.  Yep, it was that kind of night on Bones - the kind that Bones excels in - in which people get hoisted on their own petards or penicillin.

But the Hodgins story was a little more memorable and significant.  In fact, it added a new character to the greater Bones family:  a brother that Hodgins didn't know he had.  The downside is that the brother suffers from delusions and has for most of his life been a resident in a very hospitable and expensive institution, which is why Hodgins never knew him (he was sent to the institution before Hodgins was born).   Hodgins takes an instant liking to his brother - they both love science fiction, in particular Jules Verne (me too!) - and is inclined to take the brother home with him, when the brother flips out, i.e., has one of episodes, which understandably upsets Hodgins.

But Hodgins can't just leave his newly discovered brother in the institution either, because the upkeep costs big bucks - which, as we know, Hodgins no longer has.  Bones might have come to the rescue, having just received a $75,000 advance for one of her novels.  (Slight apparent error in the script here - Bones says it's an advance against monies earned, but advances are almost always money that traditional publishers give to their authors for royalties expected to be earned - hence the word "advance").

In the end, Hodgins turns down the money, and says he'll finance his brother the way normal people do, that is, by taking out a loan.   As I said, a nice and meaningful story all around, with the added attraction of hearing a quote from Jules Verne, always welcome on television.

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"

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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Banshee 2.5: Sneak Preview Review

Continuing with my sneak preview reviews ofBanshee - this time, episode 2.5, set to air February 7, 2014 - courtesy of a screener disk provided by Starpulse.  As always, these reviews will deal in generalities and avoid specific spoilers.

Among the highlights of Banshee 2.5:

Well, episode 2.5 is such a different, ethereal, half-dreamlike, but ultimately scalding reality kind of Banshee that I'm going to dispense with the bullets, and go discursive, after just this one bullet -
a major character introduced just this season diesAnd the rest of the story ... well, it consists of three parts.  There's a beautiful quasi-dream-come-true part, with spare dialogue and masterful imagery and music.   Whose dream?   Well, look at the picture above.  It contains a major revelation about what one of these characters really wants to do.   Will it happen?  What do you think - is Banshee ready for even a fantasizing, a planning, of a happy ending?   Or will the dream go up in smoke?

And there's a gun play part - though episode 2.5 has about the least amount of violence and gun play I recall in any episode.

And there's an aftermath part, in which Hood takes account of what might have happened and really happened.   And his response to all of that is ... well, satisfying.

And I'll be back here between February 7 and February 14, 2014 with my sneak preview review of episode 2.6

See also Banshee Season 2 Premiere: Sneak Preview Review ... Banshee 2.2: Sneak Preview Review


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Revolution 2.13: Steve Tyler, Mummy

It's the little details of alternate history/future in Revolution that I most enjoy - Mexico using its border guards to keep what's left of Americans from entering Mexico, new configurations of nation states arising in post-blackout North America., that kind of thing.  And tonight, in Revolution 2.13, we get another tidbit: in the new Las Vegas, they're hawking a look at Steve Tyler's "mummified remains".  Something about this struck me as funny, maybe because Steve Tyler in our reality already looks a lot like a mummy?

Otherwise, there's good plot and character development on all sorts of levels.   Romantically, Rachel and Miles finally sleep together - "20 years of foreplay is enough," Rachel says - as do Charlie and Monroe's son Connor Bennett.  Well, Charlie and Connor haven't known each other very long, and their relationship can hardly be called romantic.  But they did both enjoy it, which means there's promise of things to come.

And, speaking of Connor, it was a good night for fathers and sons.   Not only Monroe and Connor - who end up in a bit of peril, but they'll surely be ok - but Tom and Jason are back together, and, even more important, they're both together with Miles and Rachel in Willoughby, Texas.   Tom and Jason both lie pretty convincingly to Miles that what they want is revenge for the death of Julia, but Miles is sharp, and he'll pick up the first slip, which Jason is likely to make before too long.

So the characters and story lines continue to converge, which is good, with the action in Lubbock being the odd nanite out.   Although I like the firefly godlike powers gambit in general, I thought the Lubbock religious story was a little too obvious, and almost trivial - despite the nanite profundity - in comparison to what was happening with the rest of our characters.

The Olympics in our reality are sidelining Revolution until the end of February, and I'll be back then with another review.

See also Revolution 2.1: "The Last Surviving Friend" ... Revolution 2.2: Reanimation ... Revolution 2.4: Nanites and ... Maybe Aliens? ... Revolution 2.7: Firestarter Aaron vs. the Creepster ... Revolution 2.9: The Boy and the Attitude ... Revolution 2.10: Mexico and More ... Revolution 2.11: Captives and Nanites ... Revolution 2.12: Eugenics and Lubbock

And see also Revolution: Preview Review  ... Revolution 1.2: Fast Changes ... Revolution 1.14: Nanites and Jack Bauer ... Revolution 1.15: Major Tom and More 24 ... Revolution 1.16: Feeling a Little Like the Hatch in Lost ... Revolution 1.17: Even Better Nanites ... Revolution 1.18: Whodunnit? ... Revolution 1.19: Cheney's Bunker ... Revolution Season 1 Finale: Good Pivot


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Intelligence 1.4: Social Media Weaponry

An excellent Intelligence 1.4 last night - good plot, good banter, good action. But what made it excellent were the cyber details, which, as they should be, are the heart of the series.

The one I like best was Gabriel's invocation of social media to get the Syrian prison guards to think there was an imminent attack.  Online chatter is indeed taken seriously by all intelligence agencies, and the use of it to fake out an enemy - in this case, to get a prisoner out in the open, where Gabriel could rescue her - was a savvy move.  And, for icing on the cake, it seems that Gabriel is talking to our people back in the U.S., and getting them to put out the disinformation, when in fact and as we know, Gabriel is putting out the misleading info directly himself.   I'll probably cite this episode in the next edition of my book, New New Media, in the chapter that deals with the future of social media and terrorism.

The other notable aspect of this episode happens at the very end.  The President, we're told, is concerned about Gabriel going off script, which human beings, cyber-embedded or not, are of course prone to do. But the result is apparently that Lillian will have less off a free hand in putting Gabriel and Riley in the field.  As I mentioned in my review of Intelligence 1.2, this series seems to be moving along with transformative episodes much more quickly than other series on television, which I take to be a good thing.

So far, the series has also had a very good mix of different stories in the episodes.  Last night's Syrian action was, along with last week's Snowden show, the most literally all-but-ripped from the current headlines, and shows like that are always a pleasure to see.  Former President Finnigan, a Bill Clinton-like character, was also good to see on hand.

-> Hey, I had the pleasure of meeting John Dixon at the American Library Association conference this past weekend, and got a copy of his novel, Phoenix Island, which was the inspiration for Intelligence.
Look for a review of that novel here soon.

See also Intelligence Debuts ... Intelligence 1.2: Lightning Changes ... Intelligence 1.3: Edward Snowden and 24




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The Following 2.2: Rediscovering Oneself

The thing about The Following is that when it works best, Hardy gets a least a few victories.   Joe and his Following still get most of them, but for the story to work, Hardy has to at least save a life, rescue a victim, once in a while.  Tonight's episode 2.2 gives us that.  Although the Following in New York City - that is, the evil identical twins - kill a couple and then have dinner with their dead bodies at a well set table (killing and then pseudo-living with the victims is the twins' motif), they don't manage to dispatch Lily Grey (good to see Connie Nielsen back on the screen last week and this after Boss).   Lily is clearly Ryan's new love interest, and the question with The Following always is whether, when the intended victim survives, if that was the intention of the killers all along?  My wife even thinks it's possible that Lily may be part of the Following, and while I wouldn't rule that out, my sense at this is point is that she's who she seems to be. Still ...

Meanwhile, it's worth noting how fractured the Following itself seems to be. Most of them including Emma are out of touch with Joe - Emma apparently thought he was dead - and they're in constant low-key war with one another, or in groups versus groups.  In a way, this mirrors what we're seeing in law enforcement on The Following, where Hardy's at odds with the FBI, especially Mike, and with the NYPD, too.  Presumably this won't last as long - certainly not between Hardy and Mike - as the battles among Joe's adherents.

Meanwhile, Joe's story is, unsurprisingly, the most chilling tonight.  He rediscovers his killer instinct - obsession is the better word - when he kills the Reverend who is sleeping with his woman, herself a part of the Following who had been corresponding with Joe when he was in prison.  But Joe's reasons for the killing are rational, as they usually are - the Rev has realized that the Southern cracker with a beard and a half-baked accent is actually Joe Carroll.  So what did choice did Joe have?

Before the killing, we're treated to a dueling Socrates debate between Joe and Rev, which Joe - again, unsurprisingly - gets better, when he quotes Socrates about the benefits of death.   The Following is off to a very good - that is to say, disconcerting emotionally and philosophically - start.

See also The Following Is Back for Its Second Season

And see also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.5:  The Lawyer and the Swap ... The Following 1.7: At Large ... 
 

Like Socrates woven into modern conflict?  Try The Plot to Save Socrates

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The Blacklist 1.13: Red Writ Large

Whew, a crackerjack Blacklist 1.13 tonight, in which Red continues to do what he does best - getting to the root of his problems, identifying his enemies, and dealing with them, no matter how powerful, in the only way he reliably can: killing them.

Tonight that enemy would be US Assistant Attorney General Diane Fowler - played by Jane Alexander - identified by Red as the true rat who almost killed him and Lizzie. Fowler's rage when she learned there was a double agent in the FBI's ranks was a clever ploy to throw suspicion on someone else.  We learn early in tonight's episodes that it's not Malik, and in fact Red is able to use her to get the goods on Fowler. All of that build-up is good.  But when Red shoots Fowler dead, with no warning before that first shot, we get a taste of a character we haven't quite seen before on television.  Not even in previous episodes of The Blacklist.  Red - or, at very least our knowledge of him - is a dangerous work in progress.

Meanwhile, Lizzie also has an important transforming moment.  She realizes she can't adopt a baby with that creepy husband.  The ostensible reason was the case tonight, in which a mad scientist impregnates women he has kidnapped, and then sells the babies on the adoption market.  This is another good, even excellent, bio-crime story.   But the real or deepest reason Lizzie doesn't want to adopt a baby has likely more to do with the unease she feels with Tom.   And, indeed, that's in effect the reason she gives him when she tells him that she doesn't want to go ahead with their adoption plans.  Good for Lizzie.

Meanwhile, Lizzie and Red are racking up points with the FBI.   Shutting down this baby ring saved a lot of mothers' lives.   Red will need all the support he can get when word of Fowler's killing gets out. Although his cleaner may be masterful, she can't clean the minds of everyone who may have an inkling of what Red is really up to.

See also The Blacklist Debuts: Alias Meets Jay Z ... The Blacklist 1.2: Mysteries ... The Blacklist 1.3: Construction Site Heights ... The Blacklist 1.6: Truth and Enigma ... The Blacklist 1.7: Natural Immunity ... The Blacklist 1.8: The Father and the Husband ... The Blacklist 1.9: Field Transfusion ... The Blacklist 1.10: Those Words ... The Blacklist 1.11: Red's Retribution ... The Blacklist 1.12: The DNA Meister



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Helix 1.4: Cold DNA

With snow still on the ground, at least a little more coming, and the bone chilling cold continuing, what better time to watch a new episode - 1.4 - of Helix?   Except tonight, the chilling lessons in all areas are inside the lab facility, where find that --

Sarah is suffering from a tumor, not the mysterious illness, which was likely - that she was not a victim of what was getting Peter and the others - because her symptoms were different.  I'm thinking her tumor might at some point provide some DNA which could counter the single strand of DNA that is causing all the havoc.That single strand is like nothing else Doreen has seen, and she's seen it all.  So, does that mean the strand is alien?   Whatever it is, she gets murdered to protect that knowledge.Murder is what those in the know in the facility are willing to do - not only Sergio of Doreen, but Hiroshi of those three guys on that lower level who were willing to reduce those dangerous levels of carbon dioxide.  Hiroshi was not wrong that they couldn't be trusted not to kill everyone tomorrow, but, even so, his spraying them with bullets was pretty cold.So, to return to the cold, we have a story that both's slowly and quickly heating up on Helix.  The test that Sarah developed has already been identified to Alan as not reliable - she told him - and that means the search for a cure is back to square one, or maybe a little better than that because she knows now what doesn't work.   But we also know that Hiroshi and the Pentagon team know a lot more about what's going on than do Alan's diminishing team.   The question, at his point, is exactly how much that is happening was unintended - should be fun to follow the tracks in the snow.
See also Helix 1.1-1.3: Zombies with Biology


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