Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 326

Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal

I'm not going to lie to you.  Although I'm a fan of Homeland, and although its season 3 finale was in some ways good television, there was little in the finale that I enjoyed.  Indeed, I found most of it infuriating.

I know that realism has its value, but there is also something that should go beyond realism in great story telling.  I don't mean fairytale happy endings.  I mean endings in which the triumph of the deserving at least has a fighting chance.

The one good thing about the ending of this season of Homeland was its redemption of Saul.  When he confirms that Akbari has indeed been assassination, he agrees to extract Carrie and Brody.  And he's willing to stand up to Javadi's logical arguments that it would be better for everyone - especially for Javadi's bid for power, which will help the U.S. and the world's interest in peace - if Brody were to be apprehended by Javadi, as soon as possible.  This and Brody's death would strengthen Javadi's hand.

And Saul's "I'll get back to you" to Javadi was the best moment of the finale.  After that, it was all downhill.  Saul being overruled by the President - in effect on Adal's information - makes good logical sense.  But, in my opinion, for disappointing television.

And Brody's hanging was just atrocious.  I was hoping that somehow Brody wasn't killed, and the hanging contraption had been outfitted to not kill but just make him lose consciousness, but that wasn't to be.  And so Brody, who with the exception of a few episodes was given annoyingly short shrift all season, is given even worse than that at the end.   I suppose, under the rule of television that if you don't see a person blown to bits he or she may still be alive, that Brody could come back next season or maybe even later, but that doesn't seem too likely.   And were that the plan, it would have been better unveiled with the revelation that Brody was still alive at the end of this finale.

The defiant act of Carrie, in putting up a symbol for Brody on the CIA at the end was thus too little, too late, and almost meaningless.  So was Saul's resisting a return to the CIA, which we just know he will change his mind about next season.  I get that the story of Carrie and Brody couldn't have gone on forever, but it deserved a far better ending than this.

Chalk this up as the worst of the three seasons of Homeland, but because the first two were so good, and parts of this season did soar - as when Brody comes around to wanting to have a life with Carrie when she tells him she's carrying his baby - I'll give this show at least another season of viewing.

See also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional





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How to Survive the End of the World - The Story Continues on NatGeo

If you didn't get a chance to see "Zombie Earth" last Tuesday night, the first installment in National Geographic's six-part series, it will be rebroadcast on December 21, 10pm Eastern.  Or, you can see it online, right here if you're a cable subscriber.

With all the chaos that ensued when the rabid zombies attacked the broadcast bunker, people have been emailing me, asking what happened after the episode ended.

Here's a report:  David Bartell (another expert commentator) and I were able to get out of the bunker - I don't know about the other experts.  But after exiting the bunker, we got separated.  I ran for my life, towards the Brooklyn Bridge.  I soon saw that I would never make it - there were zombies lurching around every corner, "oh the humanity!" - so I ducked into another cellar.

That's where I am now.  Let's just call it an undisclosed location.  What I can tell you is that there is a door on the far side of the room, marked "Hell on Earth".   I can hear the zombies scratching at the windows outside.  I'm tempted to open the door to Hell on Earth.  You'll be able to see what happened this Tuesday night (December 17), 10pm Eastern, when Nat Geo broadcasts "How to Survive the End of the World: Hell on Earth".

In the meantime, here are some clips from my Zombie Earth appearance...




See also How to Survive the End of the World on National Geographic




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Almost Human 1.5: Clones and Holograms

Almost Human continues to walk one of the two possible paths of all successful television shows:  in the case of Almost Human, telling a new standalone story every week, while ever so slightly moving the underlying story along.   The alternative - which we get in Hostages, for example, also on television tonight - is to just tell only the underlying story, with differences in episodes largely or entirely due to the story moving along.

In Almost Human 1.5, we get two staples of science fiction - clones and holography - not only well presented together, but actually opponents in new tech opposition to one another.  The story begins with a witness testifying by holographic projection, to keep her safe.  She's shortly killed by someone who finds her real location, and it turns out that the killer is part of a team of clones of the defendant in the trial.

The other side of this story has a holographic image fooling the clones, and thereby enable the police in this future to prevail.  It's a nice allegory to the tune of crime and high-tech doesn't pay, if you can field another high-tech in the battle.

Meanwhile, we get some good Dorian/Kennex joking, with Kennex both relieved and a little taken aback to learn - and see - that Dorian's makers had the sense to make him anatomically complete (this after Kennex sees and doesn't want to see that Dorian's robotic successors are anatomy free).  But when Kennex asks Dorian what he uses his anatomy for, Dorian gets off the best line of the show, remarking that he does the same with his as Kennex does with his - nothing.

And Dorian's observation may be well taken, given what we've seen so far between Kennex and Valerie.  What's he waiting for?  Is he still in love with the woman who betrayed him?  Apparently not, but, then, what's taking him so long with Valerie? He saved her life tonight, and what better time to take it to at least the next level?  Almost Human needs to take care that it doesn't fall into a traditional television pitfall, in which couples make eyes at each all season, and little more.

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





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Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist

Well, Homeland continues its improvement from earlier in the season, to the point where tonight's episode 3.11 was the best episode not only of this season, but in the three years of the series thus far.

The great strength of Brody as a character and therefore Homeland throughout has been that we can never tell exactly where Brody's ultimate loyalties reside - certainly not after the first season, when Brody decides not to set off the bomb out of love for his daughter not really his native country.  But we couldn't be sure of Brody all second season - until the end.   And in this season, it looked like Brody, from what little we saw of him, was at first not loyal to anyone, but lately completely devoted to Carrie and the CIA.

The tipoff, looking back, was how Brody was betrayed by the imam in South America.  In retrospect, that betrayal doused whatever continuing loyalty to the late Nazir and his cohorts Brody may have harbored.  Nonetheless, he gave a pretty convincing performance in Teheran tonight - convincing, certainly, to the leader he was sent to assassinate, and, more distressingly, convincing to Saul and company back at the CIA.

Of course, this wasn't convincing to Carrie, and, I've got to say, it wasn't convincing to me.  But I've also got to give this episode enormous credit for playing things so close to the vest that I wasn't completely sure until Brody killed his target.   And it's interesting to think about when did he make that decision?   My guess is he made it after the conversation with Carrie in which she warned him about the Mossad attempt on his life - ordered by Saul - and he told her to get out of harm's way.  In fact, I think the decisive factor in Brody's killing the Iranian leader was Brody's desire to not just get the CIA off of killing him, but off of potentially killing Carrie.   Because, in Brody's by no means totally inaccurate sometimes paranoid view, if Saul could turn on him, he could almost as easily turn on Carrie - especially if Carrie got in the CIA and Saul's way.  We the audience already saw Quinn literally shoot Carrie - not on Saul's orders, but even so - and though I can't recall if Carrie told Brody about this, it's a good bet that she told him off camera in the time they spent together, or he otherwise figured it out.

And so, this next-to-last episode of the season ends with Saul once again the bad guy, as he was at the beginning of the season.   His giving in to kill Brody was understandable but unforgivable.

Let's see if see if he redeems himself in the season finale next week.

See also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional





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Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations

A remarkably beautiful Bones 9.11 tonight, in which Bones finally finds a meaning of angels - they're in the mathematical equations that a "freakoid" (Booth's word) genius physicist (perfectly played by Richard Schiff) writes on the blackboard, to describe the soaring life of his recently murdered daughter.

If this sounds like both more powerful and sophisticated stuff than usually found on television, that would be right.  Bones always flirts with what it means for Bones to be a genius and therefore apart from most other people in the world, including Booth.   But tonight we get to see that genius in both mathematical and detective action.

The detective part comes in Bones' championship of the physicist, much to Booth's annoyance, especially when Bones contradicts him during an interrogation.  Bones' belief in the physicist of course takes him off the roster of suspects - Bones is rarely wrong about innocence and guilt, and would be highly unlikely to be wrong in this case - but the episode has a better than usual bench of other suspects, and in fact I was wrong about who the killer was.

Meanwhile, we also get a good secondary story about Cam and her identity thief.  Cam wants to put the thief away for as long as possible, which leads Arastoo to council the value of forgiveness, or at least not going for the blood of revenge.   Bones has a knack of being in tune with events that are literally happening in reality as Bones plays on the screen, and I couldn't help thinking of Nelson Mandela when Arastoo was giving his good advice.

So this was quite a show.  And it even had time for humor, with my favorite funniest line coming when Sweets questions a kid, who retorts to Sweets, "how old are you?"

No one is too old to enjoy Bones.

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

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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The Best Novel You Likely Never Heard Of

No, it's not one of my mine.   And I do this every few years - blog about a novel that's not only one of the best you likely never heard of, but, for it's worth, is one of the best I've ever read.  I guess I should also mention that the novel is science fiction - which means, it's not competing with Austen or Dickens or Tolstoy or Hemingway.   But I should also say that I think science fiction always has a leg up - a page up? a screen up? - on all other kinds of literature, because science fiction deals with makes us quintessentially human, which I take to not just accept what the universe deals out, not just cope with it, but strive to change the universe itself.

The novel is by David S. Michaels and Daniel Brenton.

You never heard of them, right?

They published a novel, in the year 2000, entitled Red Moon (not to be confused with Michael Cassutt's novel of same name published around the same time, and the half a dozen other novels by the same name published since then). Cassutt's novel is good. Dave Michael and Daniel Brenton's is among the best three or four novels I've ever read, period - as I already said.

The background of the novel: I've always been fascinated by the collapse of the Soviet space program in the 1960s. The Soviets jump-started the space age with Sputnik in 1957. They got the first animals and then the first people up into space. They sent spacecraft – with no people – to the moon. They were on the verge of getting people there.

They inspired John F. Kennedy – in the senses of both wonder and security – to put the U.S. on a course to send a human to the moon and safely back by the end of the decade. Which we did.

But the Soviets never made it. Their move into space hit a strange stone wall. And the lack of continuing competition between the Soviets and us was likely the most significant factor in the fizzling of our own efforts in space.  Forty-five years later, and we have yet to set foot on the moon again, or anywhere beyond the space station.

What happened to the Soviet space program? The death of its mastermind, Sergei Korolev in 1966, no doubt was a grievous blow.  But… I don't know… there were a lot of other talented people working in the Soviet space program. The death of one man, however important, should not have led to the crash of the entire program.

Red Moon provides some breathtaking science fictional answers.

How I found out about the novel: It was at a reading I was giving at a science fiction convention – Balticon (in Baltimore) in the Spring of 2001. David S. Michaels came up to me after the reading, with a copy of my novel, The Silk Code, for me to autograph. Then he pulled a 600-page book out of his backpack, and asked me to please accept it, as a gift.

I wasn't sure what to say. First, traveling back from Baltimore to New York by train (I love driving, but trains even more) is no fun with a heavy bag of books, which I already had. Second, as a writer, I find I don't read as much fiction as I would like – if I'm writing a novel, which I usually am, reading someone else's can throw me off course. But ...

There was something about Dave, and I was already keenly interested in the subject, so I thanked him for the present and added it to my bag (it was filled with non-fiction books, by the way, which I do read when I can).

It was well into June before I had a chance to open Red Moon. And when I did – well, I couldn't put it down. It might as well have been a new Foundation novel. The subject, the plot, the characters, the writing was brilliant. I contacted Dave right away, told him how much I enjoyed the novel. It had been published by a very small press. I told him I would try to get it to the attention of a bigger publisher.

Which I did… But all of this was right before September 11, 2001, when lots of things changed in the publishing world (most of which is headquartered in New York City). And in the aftermath, at least the publishers that I had been in contact with were doing other things, and cutting back their acquisition lists.

And so, nothing more happened with Dave Michaels and Daniel Brenton's Red Moon. I listed it as my #1 favorite first science fiction novel on a list I started on Amazon. (It's a pretty exclusive list. I'd highly recommend Bob Katz's Edward Maret, which is #2 on the list. Wen Spencer's Alien Taste and Larry Ketchersid's Dusk Before Dawn are there, too.  I've put up and expanded the list on Goodreads, where you and everyone can add books and vote on their ranking.)

Amazon's Kindle revolution now has given Red Moon a new life. (I also have a reader review of the novel there.)  Kindle has been doing this for lots of novels, including many of mine.   (The Red Moon paperback is still available.)

If you're at all interested in the space race, what could have been, why what happened — and didn't happen – happened, the extraordinary human struggle to reach the cosmos, give yourself a treat, and get a copy of this novel. Trust me – you'll be caught up in an adventure, in an intrigue of alternate and real history, that you'll never forget.

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The Blacklist 1.10: Those Words

The Blacklist 1.10 concluded the two-part episode that began last week, with a sharpening of everything already in place, a new major player, and some words at the end by Red to Lizzie which preserve what we knew and didn't know, and set the agenda for the resumption of the series in January.

Let's start with those words.   When Lizzie asks Red point blank if he's her father, he answers no.  The question is more than warranted from Lizzie, since she's just seen Red put his own life at risk to save her, after he brilliantly staved off the bad guys when he was locked in that transparent enclosure.   But he uses the same ingenuity to get out of the enclosure, and give the bad guys what they want - himself in their custody - all on behalf of saving Lizzie.  So her question is eminently reasonable.

But is Red's answer truthful?  I'm still thinking it's not.  And this pitches the question into why would Red lie about this?  I'm guessing this is the central question of at least the first season, and, whatever the answer is, we'll see that Red was unable to answer to truthfully because the lie was necessary to keep Lizzie safe.

And, as I've also said before, I'm thinking that Lizzie's husband has something to do with this.  Red reminds us to be suspicious of the husband by warning Lizzie about him.    He has yet to do anything overtly to put Lizzie in peril, but there's something about him that's wrong,  and I'm betting it will just be a matter of time until we see  his true colors when the series resumes.

Indeed, the scene with Ressler and his former wife in the hospital makes me think that in the end it will be Lizzie and Ressler that we'll see together.   Not only did Red save Ressler last week, but Ressler gave up the code tonight - against his superior's orders - to save Lizzie.   It's not completely clear what she is now feeling for him, but he definitely cares a lot for her.

And it was great to see Alan Alda as the soft-spoken head bad guy on the scene - Fitch - introduced tonight.   My guess is he knew that Red would get the better of Anslo in that room.  Maybe he even would have given Red those little scissors, if Red hadn't obtained them another way (come to think of, when did Red them in his hands?)  Anyway, a soft-spoken powerful antagonist is the perfect foil for Red.

Another fine piece of writing - by Lukas Reiter and J. R. Orci.

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




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Almost Human 1.4: Almost Breaking Bad

A top notch Almost Human 1.4 tonight - I've been saying that about every episode - in which the nerdy roboticist Rudy makes like Walter White, or pretends to be like Mr. White, except in Rudy's case a master chef of the bends, the futuristic equivalent of blue meth.

Of course, Rudy isn't at all like Walter White, in that Rudy is operating entirely within the law not outside it.  But it's beginning to become dangerously clear on Almost Human - which is to say, clearly captivating television - that we cannot completely know who is ultimately good and bad.   Certainly not with a new character, a captain who struts on the scene, played by Benito Martinez, who also played a captain in The Shield, one of the best series ever on television.  In The Shield, Martinez's captain is usually good but by no means always.   In tonight's Almost Human, he's just bad bad bad - a police captain who is king pin of the bends drug ring - which almost leads to Rudy's demise.

Kennex and Dorian and even Rudy prevent that, and Dorian in particular gives us an excellent scene reminiscent of The Terminator, in which he fights the bad captain's bad robot.  The robot has the braun, but Dorian has the brains, and gets the better of the braun in the end.

The mix of futuristic feel and gutteral humor continues to appeal, especially the literally live food that we see Kennex eating in a sushi bar at the beginning of the episode.  Years ago, I was in a sushi place in Riverdale, NY - a take out joint - and the sushi chef tried to talk me into taking a live, wriggling clam home for dinner, or as part of it.  I knew my wife would be less than thrilled, but, truthfully, I said no because I couldn't quite wrap my head around eating anything live.  But I always regretted that decision, and so it was good to see Kennex go for it, so I could at least relate to eating live vicariously.

That's the kind of series Almost Human is - strange, compelling, and unexpected in its rush of details.  It may be a new kind of television - at least, for the traditional networks.

See also: Almost Human debuts: A Review ... Almost Human 1.2: Sexbots ... Almost Human 1.3: Change of Face





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Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die

Another powerful, action-packed episode of Homeland last night - 3.10 - which has really hit its stride, as well it needed to finally do, with only two further episodes left this season.

The mission with Brody trying to infiltrate Iran was outstanding in all kinds of ways, including who dies at the end of the episode, and Brody's interaction with the team, which includes some first-class military repartee between Brody and various personnel.

The scene back home in the U.S. was good too, with Saul standing up to pressures to forsake the team when things start turning bad.  I'm still not getting or liking why he's set to leave when all of this is resolved - that is, his plan in Iran plays out, one hopes for the better - but there's still time for all of that to be worked out in the next two episodes.  I was heartened to hear Quinn's explanation for why he shot Carrie - better him, a more reliable shot as far as doing Carrie the least damage, which Carrie partly accepts, as indeed she should (that is, only partly - because Quinn should have put up more resistance).

But the big looming question is who will die in the last two episodes of this season.  I'm thinking someone has to, and the most likely is Brody.   There would be a poetry in his death on this mission, and it would set the show loose to pursue other issues and dangers next year.  It would leave Carrie grieving, but perhaps not inconsolably - especially if she's not carrying his baby.

She says she's not to Quinn, but can we believe her?  We saw her with another guy earlier this season, which could have been shown to us to let us know that she has not been celibate since Brody left the US.  But would she sleep with someone else so close after Brody's departure?  I'd say not likely, but you never know.

Carrie herself could die - given that we see her in Iran in the coming attractions - but her death would take the heart of  Homeland.   The show could survive Saul's death a little better, buy Mandy Patinkin has told the world how much he loves the part of Saul - a feint to throw us off?  It could also somehow be Quinn who dies, but he's not quite an important enough character for his death to have the requisite shock value.

If I had to bet, my money would be Brody not seeing the next season, but we'll just have to see in the next two weeks.

See also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional





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The Walking Dead 4.8: Vintage Fall Finale

A fabulously harrowing mid-season finale - 4.8 - of The Walking Dead tonight, with some scenes that will become celebrated vintage, including
the girl that Carole trained firing decisive bullets in the epic battle for the prison (including killing that stupid girl who took part in the Governor's attack)Michonne putting the knife through the Governor (though I wish she had killed him right there)Daryl killing the Governor's new sidekick (I liked the actor Kirk Acevedo in Fringe, but I was glad to see his character go in The Walking Dead)Carl, in every scene he was in (and Daryl should have agreed to Carl's request and let Carl take a shot at the Governor - could have saved Hershel)Hershel's death was also momentous - but I can't say it will be celebrated, because it was tragic.  Was it necessary?  I suppose so, in the sense that an horrendous death of a good person - the most moral person on the show (and perfectly acted by Scott Wilson) - was necessary to get the soul-shattering attack on the prison in motion.   Nonetheless, Hershel's death ranks among the worst events on The Walking Dead, right up there with Lori's.

Lilly gets the honor of finally killing the Governor.   But as I said above, I don't get why Michonne didn't do that.  Her motive was what?   Let the Governor go through the agony of becoming a "biter"? Ok, but the safe thing to do would have been to kill the Governor right there, if only to make sure that none of his people rescued him, and nursed him back to psycho health.

And then there's baby Judith.  I don't know, but I've always been a great believer in the principle of, if there's no body in evidence, then life is still a possibility.  It looks as if there was blood in the car seat she was in, but we don't know for a fact whose blood it is, so I'll continue hoping.

We'll find out in February.  For now, it was great to see this breath-taking conclusion to the superb Fall part of Season 4, and its spotlight on the next generation of fighters for humanity.

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

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 Finale
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season




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