Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 371
April 1, 2012
Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side
"Hei-i-inze is on my side," is the client Heinz's idea for an ad campaign, replete with The Rolling Stones, who sang "Time's On My Side," doing the jingle. The Heinz guy's daughter loves The Stones, Megan's knows their music, and that's enough for Don to give it a shot - try to get The Stones, who will be performing in NYC, to do the spot.
Harry and Don go to the concert, get back stage, and it seems for a brief while that Harry has actually gotten The Rolling Stones on board. Alas, it's The Trade Winds, a group I vaguely but likely you never heard of, and Harry consoles himself with a whole bag of White Castles. One of the better threads on this episode, but I was hoping we'd somehow get a look at someone playing the young Mick Jagger.
Otherwise, Mohawk Airlines is back with our firm, and Peggy is tasked with hiring a new copy writer. Enter young Mike Ginsberg, who has the worst New York Jewish accent I ever heard. (Actually, I'm sure I never heard an accent like that from a real person, and I've lived in New York all of my life.) But Mike has a crazy spark - he irritates Peggy, doesn't antagonize Don, and gets the job.
The most serious story tonight is Betty's. First, actress January Jones is pregnant, and has put on some weight. Rather than have Betty pregnant, Mad Men decided to give her a tumor on the thyroid, which is causing her weight gain. It could be malignant, and before she and Henry and Don learn that it's not, we see some rare glimpses of humanity. Betty's worried about what will happen to her kids, Henry is loving and supportive, and even Don can't quite do business as usual. But when the good news arrives, and Don calls, Henry tells Don that Betty's ok but deliberately neglects to let Betty know that Don called. Henry's not such a decent guy after all - at least when it comes to keeping Don out of Betty's life.
As I often find myself thinking, there's not a thoroughly or even mostly nice person on Mad Men, and that's part of the show's charm.
See also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party
And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ... 4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking! ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -
And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World
And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men
And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes
20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Harry and Don go to the concert, get back stage, and it seems for a brief while that Harry has actually gotten The Rolling Stones on board. Alas, it's The Trade Winds, a group I vaguely but likely you never heard of, and Harry consoles himself with a whole bag of White Castles. One of the better threads on this episode, but I was hoping we'd somehow get a look at someone playing the young Mick Jagger.
Otherwise, Mohawk Airlines is back with our firm, and Peggy is tasked with hiring a new copy writer. Enter young Mike Ginsberg, who has the worst New York Jewish accent I ever heard. (Actually, I'm sure I never heard an accent like that from a real person, and I've lived in New York all of my life.) But Mike has a crazy spark - he irritates Peggy, doesn't antagonize Don, and gets the job.
The most serious story tonight is Betty's. First, actress January Jones is pregnant, and has put on some weight. Rather than have Betty pregnant, Mad Men decided to give her a tumor on the thyroid, which is causing her weight gain. It could be malignant, and before she and Henry and Don learn that it's not, we see some rare glimpses of humanity. Betty's worried about what will happen to her kids, Henry is loving and supportive, and even Don can't quite do business as usual. But when the good news arrives, and Don calls, Henry tells Don that Betty's ok but deliberately neglects to let Betty know that Don called. Henry's not such a decent guy after all - at least when it comes to keeping Don out of Betty's life.As I often find myself thinking, there's not a thoroughly or even mostly nice person on Mad Men, and that's part of the show's charm.
See also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party
And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ... 4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking! ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -
And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World
And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men
And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes
20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Piers Morgan vs Touré about Trayvon Martin
Lots of drama with serious issues at stake in the heated exchanges between Piers Morgan and Touré about Trayvon Martin Friday night, on Morgan's CNN show. Here's a Mediate article about the conversation, with video of the complete interview.
The source of the exchange was Touré's unhappiness with Piers Morgan's interview of Robert Zimmerman - George's brother - the night before, and Touré's subsequent assessment that Morgan, as a Brit, could not understand the depth of pain that Trayvon's killing has brought to America.
I saw the Robert Zimmerman interview, and thought, contra Touré's point and as per Morgan's defense of his interview, that Morgan indeed asked lots of tough questions. My takeaway from the interview was that Robert's defense of his brother was about as credible as Joe Oliver's (George's friend) - which is to say, not very credible at all, with little or no bearing on what actually happened the night that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon. I furthermore disagree with Touré's argument that putting George Zimmerman's lame defenders on the air somehow weakens the case against George - to the contrary, the more information we have, the better our capacity to assess what actually happened, and in the case of Robert Zimmerman's account, its discrepancy with what we can see with our own eyes on the video of George at the police station only weakens the arguments of George's defenders.
As for Touré's disparagement of Morgan's ability to understand America, that's just an ad hominem attack with no bearing on the matter at hand. What counts about Morgan - all that counts - is how he conducted the interview, not his nationality. Once we start going down the road of analyzing arguments based on the nationality of who is making them, we move into dangerous, irrational territory.
Which is not to say that Touré, as a black man in America, does not have every right to a special fury about what happened to Trayvon, and be more furious than Morgan or any white person, of any nationality. But there's a difference between justified fury, and channeling it into an attack on a news anchor, like Piers Morgan, who is just trying to his job, and in fact did it well in this case.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
The source of the exchange was Touré's unhappiness with Piers Morgan's interview of Robert Zimmerman - George's brother - the night before, and Touré's subsequent assessment that Morgan, as a Brit, could not understand the depth of pain that Trayvon's killing has brought to America.
I saw the Robert Zimmerman interview, and thought, contra Touré's point and as per Morgan's defense of his interview, that Morgan indeed asked lots of tough questions. My takeaway from the interview was that Robert's defense of his brother was about as credible as Joe Oliver's (George's friend) - which is to say, not very credible at all, with little or no bearing on what actually happened the night that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon. I furthermore disagree with Touré's argument that putting George Zimmerman's lame defenders on the air somehow weakens the case against George - to the contrary, the more information we have, the better our capacity to assess what actually happened, and in the case of Robert Zimmerman's account, its discrepancy with what we can see with our own eyes on the video of George at the police station only weakens the arguments of George's defenders.
As for Touré's disparagement of Morgan's ability to understand America, that's just an ad hominem attack with no bearing on the matter at hand. What counts about Morgan - all that counts - is how he conducted the interview, not his nationality. Once we start going down the road of analyzing arguments based on the nationality of who is making them, we move into dangerous, irrational territory.
Which is not to say that Touré, as a black man in America, does not have every right to a special fury about what happened to Trayvon, and be more furious than Morgan or any white person, of any nationality. But there's a difference between justified fury, and channeling it into an attack on a news anchor, like Piers Morgan, who is just trying to his job, and in fact did it well in this case.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Audio, Video, and Justice for Trayvon Martin
With all the conflicting accounts of what happened on the night that George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, two things remain clear:
1. George Zimmerman had no business being anywhere near Trayvon Martin when the shooting occurred. He was told to stop following Travyon by the police.
2. George Zimmerman was in pretty good shape, certainly not recently having been beaten to an inch of his life, when he got out of the car at the police station within an hour after the killing.
We know the first because of the police recording of Zimmerman's call. We know the second because of the video taping of Zimmerman's arrival at the police station.
Neither the audio nor the video are crystal clear. There are parts of the audio that are in dispute (the racial epithet that many hear Zimmerman utter). But the police injunction to Zimmerman to not follow Trayvon, and Zimmerman's not being seriously injured when he arrived at the police station, are beyond dispute.
This is not the first time that video has changed the game, tipped the scales in favor of justice, for victims of violence. LAPD officers would never have been brought to justice had their beating of Rodney King in 1991 not been videotaped by an alert citizen. Police officers would not have been reprimanded had their pepper spraying of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights not been captured on video.
Nothing can bring Trayvon back. But the eyes and ears of the cosmos, in the form of recordings which bear witness to the circumstances of his killing, will be the foundation of the justice that he deserves.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
1. George Zimmerman had no business being anywhere near Trayvon Martin when the shooting occurred. He was told to stop following Travyon by the police.
2. George Zimmerman was in pretty good shape, certainly not recently having been beaten to an inch of his life, when he got out of the car at the police station within an hour after the killing.
We know the first because of the police recording of Zimmerman's call. We know the second because of the video taping of Zimmerman's arrival at the police station.
Neither the audio nor the video are crystal clear. There are parts of the audio that are in dispute (the racial epithet that many hear Zimmerman utter). But the police injunction to Zimmerman to not follow Trayvon, and Zimmerman's not being seriously injured when he arrived at the police station, are beyond dispute.
This is not the first time that video has changed the game, tipped the scales in favor of justice, for victims of violence. LAPD officers would never have been brought to justice had their beating of Rodney King in 1991 not been videotaped by an alert citizen. Police officers would not have been reprimanded had their pepper spraying of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights not been captured on video.
Nothing can bring Trayvon back. But the eyes and ears of the cosmos, in the form of recordings which bear witness to the circumstances of his killing, will be the foundation of the justice that he deserves.
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
March 30, 2012
Fringe 4.16: Walter Likes Yiddish
We learn in Fringe 4.16 that Walter's no fan of Sumerian - "not my favorite ancient language," he explains, "I prefer Yiddish." Of course, Yiddish is a medieval language - a combination of ancient Hebrew and high German that arose in the shtetls in Europe, but zayr gut, anyway. That's part of the charm of Walter.
By the way, maybe it was just my imagination, but did Walter look a little younger to you at the end of tonight's episode? Just sayin'. And Astrid looked different, too.
The story was a cool return visit to an episode from Season One, with a souped up DNA turning its carriers into porcupine creatures. Tonight the bad guy behind this is David Robert Jones, which my wife realized is played by the same actor who plays Lane on Mad Men (Jared Harris). Fine acting - two wildly different, excellently played characters.
Otherwise, Olivia is in danger of losing her job at the FBI - she's lost 40-percent of this season's (world with Peter erased after Reiden Lake) memories, and which the 10th Floor (FBI brass) finds an insufficient amount of the Olivia they hired. By the end of the episode, Broyles nobly stands up for her, figuring that Olivia's better than 90% of the agents, so 40% of her is still a good number. Admirable algebra.
But there's something about this, our world, minus Peter after the lake, to which Peter has now returned, which may still need a little explaining. How come Peter's absence has changed so many things in the world, including all kinds of events with which he had nothing to do in the original world, such as, for example, Lincoln Lee being such a major character in this world that developed without Peter?
Wait a minute - maybe Peter did have something to do with Lee's prominence - Lee moved into the void that existed in Fringe in Peter's absence. And the porcupine people - why did they take a different path in the without-Peter-world? Because without Peter, without Peter and Walter as antagonists, Jones became more powerful. The indirect effects of Peter's absence being so great show how important Peter was in that world, in ways we didn't realize.
And so the shook-up kaleidoscope is gradually reassembling ....
Hey, check out my essay The Return of 1950s Science Fiction in Fringe in this new anthology
See also Fringe Returns for Season 4: Almost with Peter ... Fringe 4.2: Better and Worse Selves ... Fringe 4.3: Sanity and Son ... Fringe 4.4: Peter's Back, Ectoplasm, and McLuhan ... Fringe 4.5: Double Return ... Fringe 4.6: Time Slips ... Fringe 4.7: The Invisible Man ... Fringe 4.8: The Ramifications of Transformed Alternate Realities ... Fringe 4.9: Elizabeth ... Fringe 4.10: Deceit and Future Vision ... Fringe 4.11: Alternate Astrid ... Fringe 4.12: Double Westfield / Single Olivia ... Fringe 4.13: Tea and Telepathy ... Fringe 4.14: Palimpsest ... Fringe 4.15: I Knew It!
See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron ... Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale 1 of 3 ... Fringe 3.21: Ben Frankin, Rimbaldi, and the Future ... Fringe Season 3 Finale: Here's What Happened ... Death Not Death in Fringe
See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ... New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22: Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch
See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
By the way, maybe it was just my imagination, but did Walter look a little younger to you at the end of tonight's episode? Just sayin'. And Astrid looked different, too.
The story was a cool return visit to an episode from Season One, with a souped up DNA turning its carriers into porcupine creatures. Tonight the bad guy behind this is David Robert Jones, which my wife realized is played by the same actor who plays Lane on Mad Men (Jared Harris). Fine acting - two wildly different, excellently played characters.
Otherwise, Olivia is in danger of losing her job at the FBI - she's lost 40-percent of this season's (world with Peter erased after Reiden Lake) memories, and which the 10th Floor (FBI brass) finds an insufficient amount of the Olivia they hired. By the end of the episode, Broyles nobly stands up for her, figuring that Olivia's better than 90% of the agents, so 40% of her is still a good number. Admirable algebra.But there's something about this, our world, minus Peter after the lake, to which Peter has now returned, which may still need a little explaining. How come Peter's absence has changed so many things in the world, including all kinds of events with which he had nothing to do in the original world, such as, for example, Lincoln Lee being such a major character in this world that developed without Peter?
Wait a minute - maybe Peter did have something to do with Lee's prominence - Lee moved into the void that existed in Fringe in Peter's absence. And the porcupine people - why did they take a different path in the without-Peter-world? Because without Peter, without Peter and Walter as antagonists, Jones became more powerful. The indirect effects of Peter's absence being so great show how important Peter was in that world, in ways we didn't realize.
And so the shook-up kaleidoscope is gradually reassembling ....
Hey, check out my essay The Return of 1950s Science Fiction in Fringe in this new anthology
See also Fringe Returns for Season 4: Almost with Peter ... Fringe 4.2: Better and Worse Selves ... Fringe 4.3: Sanity and Son ... Fringe 4.4: Peter's Back, Ectoplasm, and McLuhan ... Fringe 4.5: Double Return ... Fringe 4.6: Time Slips ... Fringe 4.7: The Invisible Man ... Fringe 4.8: The Ramifications of Transformed Alternate Realities ... Fringe 4.9: Elizabeth ... Fringe 4.10: Deceit and Future Vision ... Fringe 4.11: Alternate Astrid ... Fringe 4.12: Double Westfield / Single Olivia ... Fringe 4.13: Tea and Telepathy ... Fringe 4.14: Palimpsest ... Fringe 4.15: I Knew It!
See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron ... Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale 1 of 3 ... Fringe 3.21: Ben Frankin, Rimbaldi, and the Future ... Fringe Season 3 Finale: Here's What Happened ... Death Not Death in Fringe
See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ... New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22: Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch
See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Awake 1.5: Stretching A Dream
Another good, thought-provoking Awake last night - 1.5 - which raises the possibility of what might happen if Britten and Hannah in yellow world move from Los Angeles to Oregon.
Here's why that's important: At this point, yellow and blue worlds are both in the same place. Although Britten goes to different places in LA in the two worlds, he lives in the same house, and works in the same place. In fact, his alternation between yellow and blue worlds happens every morning, when he awakes either with Hannah beside him or Rex in the next room.
What would happen to these alternate realities in the same point of origin if Britten changed one of those points by moving someplace else? Significantly, both yellow and blue shrinks are happy to hear about this possible move - they rarely agree, but on this matter think it could be the beginning of Britten giving up what they say is the dream part of his double existence, and focusing more completely and healthily on the reality part. Of course, we the viewers know, and Britten knows, that yellow shrink thinks blue world is the dream and blue shrink thinks that's the case for yellow world.
But we the viewers and Britten differ in our perception on one crucial point. Britten seems sure that both worlds are realities, and we cannot yet be sure. Although, as I've been saying all along, it would be disappointing if either world turns out to be a dream, or both worlds turn out to be a dream. I'm with Britten in wanting both to be somehow be real.
In the single most telling series of scenes, at the end, Britten indicates that he might indeed move with Hannah to Oregon, but he insists to blue shrink that he's the one who's making this work now, and he'll find a way to make it (that is, the two worlds) work even if each world is in a different place.
Jason Isaacs is certainly making this complex story work with his strong, sensitive acting. I have a feeling that the Brittens won't be moving to Oregon after all, but you never. And Britten also now, in blue world, has a serial killing nemesis on his hands.
See also Awake ... Awake 1.2: "Whole" Family ... Awake 1.3: Frequency of Yellow and Blue ... Awake 1.4: The Baker and the Hooker
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Here's why that's important: At this point, yellow and blue worlds are both in the same place. Although Britten goes to different places in LA in the two worlds, he lives in the same house, and works in the same place. In fact, his alternation between yellow and blue worlds happens every morning, when he awakes either with Hannah beside him or Rex in the next room.
What would happen to these alternate realities in the same point of origin if Britten changed one of those points by moving someplace else? Significantly, both yellow and blue shrinks are happy to hear about this possible move - they rarely agree, but on this matter think it could be the beginning of Britten giving up what they say is the dream part of his double existence, and focusing more completely and healthily on the reality part. Of course, we the viewers know, and Britten knows, that yellow shrink thinks blue world is the dream and blue shrink thinks that's the case for yellow world.
But we the viewers and Britten differ in our perception on one crucial point. Britten seems sure that both worlds are realities, and we cannot yet be sure. Although, as I've been saying all along, it would be disappointing if either world turns out to be a dream, or both worlds turn out to be a dream. I'm with Britten in wanting both to be somehow be real.
In the single most telling series of scenes, at the end, Britten indicates that he might indeed move with Hannah to Oregon, but he insists to blue shrink that he's the one who's making this work now, and he'll find a way to make it (that is, the two worlds) work even if each world is in a different place.
Jason Isaacs is certainly making this complex story work with his strong, sensitive acting. I have a feeling that the Brittens won't be moving to Oregon after all, but you never. And Britten also now, in blue world, has a serial killing nemesis on his hands.
See also Awake ... Awake 1.2: "Whole" Family ... Awake 1.3: Frequency of Yellow and Blue ... Awake 1.4: The Baker and the Hooker
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The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Person of Interest 1.18: Double Ecstasy
A pretty good Person of Interest 1.18 last night, which offered a new twist on the perennial POI question of whether the number belongs to a victim (usually the case) or villain. This time the number belongs to both - because it relates to an identity (victim) stolen by another (villain). One number/identify being used by two people.
The double identity requires Reese and Finch to both go out into the field, each looking into one of the identities, with Finch getting the villain, actually the villainess. Good to see Sarah Wynter in this role - I thought she was best love interest that Jack Bauer ever had after Teri (2nd season of 24 - Kate Warner). On Person of Interest, Sarah seeks to foil Finch by dosing him with ecstasy.
This leads, in the end, to one of the finer moments between Reese and Finch. Still under the influence, Finch offers to tell Reese anything he wants to know, about anything. Reese, in a memorable moment of decency, declines the offer, despite his ever-present curiosity. As Reese leaves the room, Finch mumbles "Nathan," a drug induced recognition that Reese is now as valued a partner as Nathan once was.
The other nice take-away from this episode is Finch's earlier observation that he invented social media for the government, as a way of getting people to happily make public all the kinds of information which the government has long sought with mixed success to collect. This has a sharp relevance to the news in our real world today that the GOP in Congress defeated a bill that would have prohibited employers from requiring employees to divulge passwords to their Twitter and Facebook accounts.
What a world - but good we have shows like Person of Interest to remind about what can happen when government intrusion on our privacy goes beyond its already unacceptable levels.
See also Person of Interest of Interest ... Person of Interest 1.2: Reese and Finch ... Person of Interest 1.5: Potentials ... Person of Interest 1.7: Meets Flashpoint and The Usual Suspects ... Person of Interest 1.8: Widmore and Ben, At It Again ... Person of Interest 1.9: Evolution of a Series ... Person of Interest: 1.10: Carter Returns the Favor ... Person of Interest 1.11-1.12: Realignment and Revelation ... Person of Interest 1.14: Reese as Ronin ... Person of Interest 1.16: Meets Wall Street ... Person of Interest 1.17: Hearts and Places
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
The double identity requires Reese and Finch to both go out into the field, each looking into one of the identities, with Finch getting the villain, actually the villainess. Good to see Sarah Wynter in this role - I thought she was best love interest that Jack Bauer ever had after Teri (2nd season of 24 - Kate Warner). On Person of Interest, Sarah seeks to foil Finch by dosing him with ecstasy.
This leads, in the end, to one of the finer moments between Reese and Finch. Still under the influence, Finch offers to tell Reese anything he wants to know, about anything. Reese, in a memorable moment of decency, declines the offer, despite his ever-present curiosity. As Reese leaves the room, Finch mumbles "Nathan," a drug induced recognition that Reese is now as valued a partner as Nathan once was.
The other nice take-away from this episode is Finch's earlier observation that he invented social media for the government, as a way of getting people to happily make public all the kinds of information which the government has long sought with mixed success to collect. This has a sharp relevance to the news in our real world today that the GOP in Congress defeated a bill that would have prohibited employers from requiring employees to divulge passwords to their Twitter and Facebook accounts.
What a world - but good we have shows like Person of Interest to remind about what can happen when government intrusion on our privacy goes beyond its already unacceptable levels.
See also Person of Interest of Interest ... Person of Interest 1.2: Reese and Finch ... Person of Interest 1.5: Potentials ... Person of Interest 1.7: Meets Flashpoint and The Usual Suspects ... Person of Interest 1.8: Widmore and Ben, At It Again ... Person of Interest 1.9: Evolution of a Series ... Person of Interest: 1.10: Carter Returns the Favor ... Person of Interest 1.11-1.12: Realignment and Revelation ... Person of Interest 1.14: Reese as Ronin ... Person of Interest 1.16: Meets Wall Street ... Person of Interest 1.17: Hearts and Places
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
March 27, 2012
Alcratraz Season One Finale: Pros and Cons
So, with the two-hour Season One finale of Alcatraz on Fox last night, I'm still not sure if this new series is worth watching. The fact that the single best part of every episode is Sam Neill's (Hauser's) dead-pan, chilling voice-over intro is probably not the best sign. Still -
It was a good to see that the warden, as I thought, was the bad guy - he's a suitably creepy villain. The addition of the guy who plays SecNav on NCIS as the warden's superior was a good touch. So is the silver colloidal blood as elixir, which brings back Lucy, and I suspect will do the same for Rebecca if the series jumps through time and lands in the Fall 2012 line-up.
But it needs to do more than just spin out a series of mostly unrelated stories of 1963 inmates finding themselves in 2012. The stories on their are own are just not that compelling. And although Hauser, Doc, and Rebecca as a team are ok, and better now that Lucy is back, the best part of the series still resides in the way that the time shift took place, and for what purpose.
If Alcatraz returns, I'll certainly start watching it in hope of that deeper, more fascinating tale making the front page.
See also Trying to Like Alcatraz ... Alcatraz 1.11: Lucy, Lucy, Lucy
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The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
It was a good to see that the warden, as I thought, was the bad guy - he's a suitably creepy villain. The addition of the guy who plays SecNav on NCIS as the warden's superior was a good touch. So is the silver colloidal blood as elixir, which brings back Lucy, and I suspect will do the same for Rebecca if the series jumps through time and lands in the Fall 2012 line-up.
But it needs to do more than just spin out a series of mostly unrelated stories of 1963 inmates finding themselves in 2012. The stories on their are own are just not that compelling. And although Hauser, Doc, and Rebecca as a team are ok, and better now that Lucy is back, the best part of the series still resides in the way that the time shift took place, and for what purpose.
If Alcatraz returns, I'll certainly start watching it in hope of that deeper, more fascinating tale making the front page.
See also Trying to Like Alcatraz ... Alcatraz 1.11: Lucy, Lucy, Lucy
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ... Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
March 25, 2012
Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party
A fine Mad Men Season 5 debut tonight on AMC. Here are some of the highlights -
Don and Megan are married and, actually, all things considered, more or less happy together. The more - Don is crazy about Megan, or at least her body. He wants her so much he wants her in the office. Megan loves Don and wants to please him. That includes making a surprise birthday party for Don, which doesn't please him. Here's where the less happy comes in. Main reasons given by Don: it's not really his birthday (Whitman, whom Megan knows about, had a birth date six months earlier); and, Don doesn't like the office people in his home. That includes Harry (whom Don can't stand - or so Peggy tells Megan). But Harry sure loves looking at Megan and her French dance (which she does for Don and guests at the party). Don's real displeasure at Megan and the party, alas, stems from his not being able to really love anyone.
Speaking of Harry - he's looking a little less like Isaac Asimov (that is, Rich Sommer playing Harry), but he's getting pushed around more, now losing his office, because Pete, always sure he's being slighted, wants a bigger place to do his business. Harry's on the defensive, because he's waxing on about how Megan excites him, as Megan walks into the office kitchen where Harry's talking. As someone with a brief in the still up-and-coming world of TV ads (it's just after Memorial Day, 1966), Harry should have more sway in the firm. Will be interesting to see how this develops.
Joan's sway in the firm needs to be reasserted. She drops by with her baby boy, a few months old. Roger knows the baby is his. He still loves Joan. The baby will likely pull them together, notwithstanding that Joan told Greg last season that the baby was his. I wouldn't be surprised if Greg doesn't make it back from Vietnam.
Peggy still has the keenest mind in Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce - even though her animated beans commercial doesn't fly with client Heinz (maybe the slogan should have been "beans, beans, the magical fruit"). But she's right on in her interpersonal advice, telling Megan that Don won't like his party (they could have played "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To" in Don's honor at that party). Actually, Joan is pretty astute, too - though in a different way than Peggy.
In many ways, Lane had the most quintessentially Mad Men episode in tonight's two-hour show. He finds a wallet in a cab, finds a photo of a hot brunette in the wallet, and falls for her. Her voice on the phone sounds great - he calls her, on the partial pretext of wanting to return the wallet to its owner (partial because in addition to that reason, he wants to find out more about the woman in the picture). He doesn't quite manage to convince her to let him come by her place to return the wallet, and instead is obliged to return the wallet to its owner when he comes by the office. But if major developments arising out of chance encounters in Mad Men of the past is any guide, that photo in the wallet in the cab will be a game changer for Lane. He's off and running.
And so are we, with a bevvy of attractively dysfunctional characters, good derriere shots, the Civil Rights movement, and a great Dusty Springfield song at the end. Good to have Mad Men back.
See also Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ... 4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking! ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -
And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World
And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men
And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes
20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through
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The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Don and Megan are married and, actually, all things considered, more or less happy together. The more - Don is crazy about Megan, or at least her body. He wants her so much he wants her in the office. Megan loves Don and wants to please him. That includes making a surprise birthday party for Don, which doesn't please him. Here's where the less happy comes in. Main reasons given by Don: it's not really his birthday (Whitman, whom Megan knows about, had a birth date six months earlier); and, Don doesn't like the office people in his home. That includes Harry (whom Don can't stand - or so Peggy tells Megan). But Harry sure loves looking at Megan and her French dance (which she does for Don and guests at the party). Don's real displeasure at Megan and the party, alas, stems from his not being able to really love anyone. Speaking of Harry - he's looking a little less like Isaac Asimov (that is, Rich Sommer playing Harry), but he's getting pushed around more, now losing his office, because Pete, always sure he's being slighted, wants a bigger place to do his business. Harry's on the defensive, because he's waxing on about how Megan excites him, as Megan walks into the office kitchen where Harry's talking. As someone with a brief in the still up-and-coming world of TV ads (it's just after Memorial Day, 1966), Harry should have more sway in the firm. Will be interesting to see how this develops.
Joan's sway in the firm needs to be reasserted. She drops by with her baby boy, a few months old. Roger knows the baby is his. He still loves Joan. The baby will likely pull them together, notwithstanding that Joan told Greg last season that the baby was his. I wouldn't be surprised if Greg doesn't make it back from Vietnam.
Peggy still has the keenest mind in Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce - even though her animated beans commercial doesn't fly with client Heinz (maybe the slogan should have been "beans, beans, the magical fruit"). But she's right on in her interpersonal advice, telling Megan that Don won't like his party (they could have played "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To" in Don's honor at that party). Actually, Joan is pretty astute, too - though in a different way than Peggy.
In many ways, Lane had the most quintessentially Mad Men episode in tonight's two-hour show. He finds a wallet in a cab, finds a photo of a hot brunette in the wallet, and falls for her. Her voice on the phone sounds great - he calls her, on the partial pretext of wanting to return the wallet to its owner (partial because in addition to that reason, he wants to find out more about the woman in the picture). He doesn't quite manage to convince her to let him come by her place to return the wallet, and instead is obliged to return the wallet to its owner when he comes by the office. But if major developments arising out of chance encounters in Mad Men of the past is any guide, that photo in the wallet in the cab will be a game changer for Lane. He's off and running.
And so are we, with a bevvy of attractively dysfunctional characters, good derriere shots, the Civil Rights movement, and a great Dusty Springfield song at the end. Good to have Mad Men back.
See also Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ... 4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking! ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -
And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World
And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men
And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes
20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
March 23, 2012
Fringe 4.15: I Knew It!
Well, I've been saying all along - see my reviews of Fringe this season, beginning with 4.14 and back, listed below - that Peter was really back in the original Fringe reality, transformed by his erasure to have no memory of his existence (that is, no memory after he "drowned" in the lake, which was the locus of his erasure), and what Walter and Olivia were experiencing now were the real memories of Peter, that is, Peter as we saw him in our reality in the first three seasons of Fringe. And, sure enough, in tonight's episode 4.15, that is exactly what turns out to be the case. A little sad that Peter needed September to tell him what he in his heart already knew, but at least Olivia came to this conclusion on her own, and I think Walter did too.Lots of questions still be to be answered. September did not die after all, and does this mean that the Eterrnal Bald Observers (as I've been calling them) are truly eternal - timeless to the point of being invulnerable to any kind of death? Thus would put them in a category even more eternal than the Elves of Lord of the Rings, which would be eternal indeed.
And what of September's statement to Olivia that he could not prevent her death? And what of the alternate reality with Fauxlivia and real Petter's real baby? And there's still David Robert Jones, who seems at war with everyone (but I'm thinking may be in league with other the Bald Observers, who are now out to get September).
But I'll take this 3/4 season happy ending anyway - they're few and far between on television, and they make whatever threat Olivia still faces all the more trenchant.
Hey, check out my essay The Return of 1950s Science Fiction in Fringe in this new anthology
See also Fringe Returns for Season 4: Almost with Peter ... Fringe 4.2: Better and Worse Selves ... Fringe 4.3: Sanity and Son ... Fringe 4.4: Peter's Back, Ectoplasm, and McLuhan ... Fringe 4.5: Double Return ... Fringe 4.6: Time Slips ... Fringe 4.7: The Invisible Man ... Fringe 4.8: The Ramifications of Transformed Alternate Realities ... Fringe 4.9: Elizabeth ... Fringe 4.10: Deceit and Future Vision ... Fringe 4.11: Alternate Astrid ... Fringe 4.12: Double Westfield / Single Olivia ... Fringe 4.13: Tea and Telepathy ... Fringe 4.14: Palimpsest
See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron ... Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale 1 of 3 ... Fringe 3.21: Ben Frankin, Rimbaldi, and the Future ... Fringe Season 3 Finale: Here's What Happened ... Death Not Death in Fringe
See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ... New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22: Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch
See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Awake 1.4: The Banker and the Hooker
Given the rapacious performance of some bankers in our reality, one might say they're the same as hookers. In Awake 1.4, that becomes literally true, as Kate, former babysitter for Rex, turns up as an investment banker in yellow world, and druggie/kept woman in grittier blue world.
This was a good episode and fine story in any case. But what got me thinking about this set up of the same character leading two different lives in the two realities was this:
Up until now, it seemed to me that the two realities began with the crash, and, before then, there was only one stream of characters. As example, Bird was Britten's partner before the crash, and after the crash he continue as Britten's partner in blue world but not in yellow world.
But let's look at Kate. She was long ago Rex's babysitter - one world, one character. Now, she leads a different life in yellow and blue worlds, just like Bird. But unlike Bird, when did Kate's split of lives begin? Not with the crash, but long before that, as she reacted to the death of her sister. In yellow world, she got her life together after that loss; in blue world, she did not.
But how, if the crash is the source of the bifurcations of worlds, did Kate's bifurcation start before that?
Yeah, I know this could all be explained if any part of this is Britten's dream, but I'm still holding out that it isn't - and, if not, Kate's double life which began before the crash could somehow be an important clue.
See also Awake ... Awake 1.2: "Whole" Family ... Awake 1.3: Frequency of Yellow and Blue
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
This was a good episode and fine story in any case. But what got me thinking about this set up of the same character leading two different lives in the two realities was this:
Up until now, it seemed to me that the two realities began with the crash, and, before then, there was only one stream of characters. As example, Bird was Britten's partner before the crash, and after the crash he continue as Britten's partner in blue world but not in yellow world.
But let's look at Kate. She was long ago Rex's babysitter - one world, one character. Now, she leads a different life in yellow and blue worlds, just like Bird. But unlike Bird, when did Kate's split of lives begin? Not with the crash, but long before that, as she reacted to the death of her sister. In yellow world, she got her life together after that loss; in blue world, she did not.
But how, if the crash is the source of the bifurcations of worlds, did Kate's bifurcation start before that?
Yeah, I know this could all be explained if any part of this is Britten's dream, but I'm still holding out that it isn't - and, if not, Kate's double life which began before the crash could somehow be an important clue.
See also Awake ... Awake 1.2: "Whole" Family ... Awake 1.3: Frequency of Yellow and Blue
Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
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Levinson at Large
At present, I'll be automatically porting over blog posts from my main blog, Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress. These consist of literate (I hope) reviews of mostly television, with some reviews of mov
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