Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 383

Boardwalk Empire 2.8: Pups with Fangs

I'm a suspicious sort.  I didn't believe that Federal agent Lathrop just happened to be there at the perfect time and place to stop Nucky's would-be killer - last week (episode 2.7) in television time, much more recent in story time.  In last night's episode 2.8 - another great episode in this great second Boardwalk Empire season - we hear Jimmy taking Al Capone to task for not providing a hitman who could do the job.   Not especially convincing that Jimmy wasn't behind Lathrop's intervention - after all, Al would be last person Jimmy would tell if Jimmy was.   But later, Jimmy tells his wife that he really did try to have Nucky killed.  This a lot more convincing.  But-

If Jimmy didn't want anyone to know that he got Lathrop to kill Al Capone's man, Jimmy wouldn't tell his wife about this either.   So I'll still thinking this matter isn't totally settled, as yet.

But it may not actually matter, in any case.  The best scene in 2.8 takes place in a meeting with Nucky, Johnny Torrio and Arnold Rothstein.  Nucky, who seems to have come to terms with his near-assassination, remarks that the pups - Jimmy, Al, Lucky, and Lansky - have grown fangs.   And he then listens carefully to Arnold's advice that the best strategy to is pull back and wait until circumstances have changed sufficiently for Nucky to strike back, and then bet it all, go all in.

And this is what Nucky is apparently doing.  He resigns as Treasurer, but  urges Chalky to get his people to cripple Atlantic City during tourist season with a strike.  And he asks Owen to arrange a meeting with John McGarrigle over in Ireland.   Trouble ahead on lots of accounts for Atlantic City under Jimmy's control.

But as on top as he is on all this, Nucky seems woefully ignorant of one thing - Owen and Margaret's time in bed when Nucky was being shot in the last episode.   Unless-   Nucky needs Owen too much now to confront him about Margaret right now.

Nah, that would be too much even for a suspicious sort like me.

See also Boardwalk Empire 2.1: Politics in an Age Before YouTube  ... Boardwalk Empire 2.2: The Woman Behind the Throne ... Boardwalk Empire 2.3: Frankenstein and Victrola ... Boardwalk Empire 2.4: Nearly Flagrante Delicto ... Boardwalk Empire 2.5: Richard's Story ... Boardwalk Empire 2.6: Owen and Other Bad News for Nucky ... Boardwalk Empire 2.7: Shot in the Hand

And see also Boardwalk Emipre on HBO ... Boardwalk Empire 1.2: Lines and Centers Power ... Boardwalk Empire 1.10: Arnold Rothstein, Media Theorist  ... Season One Finale of Boardwalk Empire                 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

Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska

A superb, nearly standalone Dexter 6.7, in which the figment of Brian goads Dexter into taking a trip to Nebraska.

Why?

Because the Trinity killer has apparently re-emerged and killed his wife and daughter - in Nebraska.   Of course, Dex (and figment Brian) know this can't be true, because Dexter killed Trinity.  Which means that Jonah, Trinity's son, likely killed his sister and mother.

There ensues Dexter as we've never quite seen him before, counseled and urged on by his most brutal, murderous side, i.e., Brian.   Dexter tries to hold on to Harry's code, though - as he tells Brian, it's enabled him to survive.  And part of it bids him to make sure that Jonah, who lied about his father, really killed his mother and sister.

After Dexter dispatches a pot-grower who steals Dexter's knives and tries to hold Dexter up for money - in a great scene in which Brian->Dexter grabs a pitch fork and kills the blackmailer - Dexter confronts Jonah and realizes that Jonah is not a monster.  Against Brian's strenuous objections, Dexter drives away from Jonah and leaves Brian in the dust.

I was hoping for a confrontation between Brian and Harry, but in an ending that's just as good Dexter picks up Harry on the side of the road as he returns to Miami.   The code is back in the car and in the driver's seat for Dexter (even though Harry is actually in the passenger's seat).

A brief sojourn in hell for Dexter, who had to let off some kind steam after Sam's death and Dexter killing Nick.   But Miami isn't exactly a bed of roses, either. The  DDK is still at large, and it's still not clear to me whether he's one person or two.

See also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ... Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ... Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ... 4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter


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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


Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Person of Interest 1.7 Meets Flashpoint and The Usual Suspects

A fine Person of Interest 1.7 on CBS last week, guest starring Enrico Colantoni who puts in great performances every week on Flashpoint (formerly on CBS now on Ion TV).

Colantoni plays school teacher Charlie Burton whose number is up, which gets Reese on the case.   Charlie witnesses a mob shooting.   The killers are intent on getting rid of Charlie, and Reese is determined to protect him.  Early in the action, Charlie is shot in the shoulder and Reese's phone is knocked out of commission, which makes it much more difficult for Finch to oversee the operation (suggestion to Reese and Finch - work a few spare phones into standard procedures).

The soft-spoken Colantoni is perfect for the twist that awaits us concerning Charlie - who turns out to be not an innocent witness but Elias,  head of the rival gang that's seeking to knock out the Russian mob in New York.   Elias has been undercover as a teacher to get a better sense of the community, and build up grass roots support.

Reese realizes what's going on a little too late to stop Charlie/Elias, who walks away in Verbal Kint/Keyser Soze fashion.  We'll no doubt be seeing more of Elias somewhere down the line in Person of Interest.

This is what I like most about the show - Finch and Reese are not infallible.  There is always the possibility that the number that comes up is not a victim's but a villain's, and in episode 1.7 the bad guy was bad indeed.


The weakest part of the show continues to be the Detectives Carter and Fusco thread.  It was worked into the story in 1.7 well enough, and will likely have some major impact before the end of the season, but at this point it's mostly a distraction from the major action.


See also Person of Interest of Interest  ... Person of Interest 1.2:  Reese and Finch ... Person of Interest 1.5: Potentials


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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

Lame CBS Broadcasts Only First Hour of Republican Foreign Policy Debate

So if you were watching the Republican Presidential debate on foreign policy on CBS last night, you were treated to its ending after the first hour, with an announcement that the remaining half hour would be available online.

Now, I'm all in favor of television being available online, but -

What about viewers who may not have been near their computers, or would rather watch the debate on a screen larger than their smartphones?

I'm not a Republican, and I enjoy the jokes about Republicans not having a foreign policy as much as any non-Republican, but CBS's decision not to broadcast the entire 90-minute debate strikes me as a profound disservice to our electoral process.

The truth is, Democrats, Independents, not only Republicans, were disadvantaged by CBS's decision.  It's good for anyone or any political persuasion to see what the person who will likely face Barack Obama in the 2012 thinks about major foreign policy issues.   As Walter Lippmann pointed out way back in the 1920s, democracy is a sham if voters are uninformed.

That's certainly what William Paley thought when he took command of the CBS radio network in the 1920s.   Coverage of all aspects of elections remained first and foremost in his network when it added television to its roster in the 1940s.

I guess it's not surprising that CBS shows so little understanding of current elections and what they require.  Like all the mass media, CBS has shown little understanding of Occupy Wall Street, and the resurgence of direct democracy it embodies.   CBS is an equal opportunity abuser of representative as well as direct democracy.

And what was so important that CBS had to cut short its debate coverage?  A rerun of NCIS - one of my favorite shows on television - but I bet even Gibbs would have given the president of CBS a head-slap on Saturday night if he could.


Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

House 8.5: The Congenital Liar

Jamie Bamber - of Battestar Galactica and Law and Order: UK fame - put in a fine guest performance on House 8.5 last Monday, as a liar with some serious conditions.

Actually, it turns out that his physical condition - Kawasaki syndrome - is the source of most of his lies, though not his first and last.   Bob Harris (Bamber) gets struck with his first bout during a roll in the hay in a motel room with a blonde who is not his wife.   He proceeds in Princeton Plainsboro to confess to that, and then to defrauding everyone in the town.   When he confesses to Chase - great to see him and Taub back - about being a serial killer, Chase realizes that something else must be going on here.  Correctly diagnosed, Bob is cured, but then lies to his wife when she asks him if he was falsely confessing about the motel room.  He replies that he was indeed lying - which, in that one case, is of course a lie.

I confess to loving this kind of stuff  - I enjoy anything that tips into the paradox of the liar.  "This statement is a lie" - if true, that means it's a lie, but if it's a lie, that means the statement is true about being lie, which means it's a lie - well, you can see how this works.  It's a form of infinite regress, which is the title of this blog, but I assure you everything I write here is true, at least to the best of my knowledge.

As for House, it's good to see lying playing such an upfront role in an episode.  The whole series, certainly House's character, is based on lying whenever necessary.  For House, and often his brilliant assistants, the only thing that counts is correctly diagnosing the patient, and if lying is necessary to do that, well then, that's ok.  And who would really disagree with that?

Is telling the truth more important than saving a life?  I'd say certainly not, if only for the reason that you can correct your lie in you're alive, but can't do anything more, good or bad, if you're not alive.

But the first thing Bob Harris did when recovering from his near-death was lie to wife.   But that's life.  And that's House.  And a part of what still makes this medical show ring so true.

See also House 8.2: Patient Lungs ... House 8.3: Dr. Adams and Thirteen

And see also House and Cuddy on the Other Side in Season 7 Premiere ... House 7.2: House and Cuddy, Chapter 2 ... House 7.3: The Author and the White Lie ... House 7.9: The Vilda Chaya ... House 7.11: The Patient's Most Important Right ... House 7.14:  House, Death, and Cuddy ... House 7.16: Broken Hearts and their Repair ... House 7.17: Deadly Healthy Diet ... House 7.18: Thirteen Mysterious ... House 7.19: Rules ... House 7.20: Cuddy's Mother as Catalyst ... House Season 7 Finale: In Paradise

And see also House Reborn in Season Six? ... 6.2: The Gang is Back and Fractured ... 6.3: The Saving Hitler Quandary ... 6.4: Diagnosis vs. Karma ... 6.5 Getting Better ... 6.6 House Around the Bases ... Four's a Crowd on House 6.7 ... House 6.8 and the Reverse of Flowers for Algernon ... House 6.9: Wilson ... House 6.10: Back in Business ... House 6.11: Making Amends, Mending Fences, and a Psychopath  ... House 6.12: The Progression to Mensch ... House 6.13: Cuddy's Perspective ... House Meets Blogger in 6.14 ... House 6.15: About Taub ... House 6.16: Revealing Couples ... House 6.17: Socrates on Steroids ... House 6.18: Open Marriage


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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

The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy

Another excellent episode - 2.4 - of The Walking Dead last Sunday.  They've all been outstanding so far this season.   And this episode featured sex, and its consequences.

Glenn and Maggie go to the pharmacy in town to get supplies.   "Take what you need, God Bless," it says on the window.  But Maggie and Glenn need more than supplies.  They sleep together, at Maggie's initiation.  It was a tender moment, and showed that people still have time-honored needs and attractions in this world gone insane.   Obvious, I guess, but good to see.  And good for Glenn and Maggie (who later says it was a one-time thing, but that's highly doubtful).

Meanwhile, Lori asks Glenn to get her something at the pharmacy.  We don't find out until the end of the episode what that is.   We do know it was in the Feminine Hygiene  section, so the choices are somewhat limited.

It's a pregnancy test, and Lori is pregnant, which could and no doubt will change everything.   Although Lori hasn't slept with Shane since Season 1, in narrative time (as opposed to television viewing time) that's not that long ago at all, which means the baby could be Shane's.  And the same, of course, is true for Rick, whom Lori has been with since Rick joined the group.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  If Lori has the baby - which I'm guessing she will, after much personal and conflicted deliberation - this might not happen until next season.   But everyone will see that she's pregnant, including Rick and Shane.   Rick will think the baby is his (possibly the scientist in the CDC already told him Lori was pregnant, at the end of last season). Shane won't know whether the baby is his or Rick's.    The two don't look all that different, so short of a DNA test - which may not be available in this place and time - we may never know. And maybe that doesn't really matter.

In a world in which human beings are on the edge of extinction, as far as we can tell, from the plague and the zombies, a baby is especially miraculous and precious.  But Lori already indicated, when Carl was in danger of dying, that she didn't know if it was right to bring a life into this sick world.

The pharmacy and its aftermath promise intense times ahead for our people.

And one other thing -  when Doc Hershel says he'll consider Rick's request that our group be allowed to stay, Hershel says something about there being some secrets in the homestead which Hershel can never divulge.   I wonder what those could be - something having to do with the zombies?


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   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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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

Fringe 4.6: Time Slips

An excellent, classic science fiction standalone Fringe 4.6 tonight, coupled with more of Peter's story.  And the denouement is superb, touching, and about as good as it gets.

The classic story concerns a brilliant physicist who figures out - mathematically - how to slip back in time.  But she succumbs to Alzheimer's before she can convert her equations into actual results. Fortunately (or unfortunately) her husband is a brilliant engineer who is able to apply his wife's equations.  His passion for this is not so much for the his work, but to get his wife back to a time, four years earlier, when she still had all of her faculties.

As is always the case in these stories, the time slips have adverse effects beyond the time slipping couple.   The time displacement in each shift backwards endangers people miles away, when the rug of time is pulled out from under them.   The worst case is yet to come - hundreds of people will be trapped and killed in a tunnel, which didn't exist four years ago.

Peter gets called in when Olivia thinks his presence may have caused the time slips.  By the end of the episode, our team knows it's the engineer - but Peter thinks he was the cause, after all, because the equipment built by the engineer didn't start working until Peter arrived in this universe three days ago (that's three weeks ago in television episode time).

And the ending proceeds to be double sad.  The physicist, in her final sojourn in brilliant mentality, crosses out all of her equations, rather than providing the last piece of mathematics which could make the time shift permanent, as the husband so desperately wanted.

And Peter apparently comes to believe that he really doesn't belong here.

Sad, sad-

But I'll bet you as far as Peter is concerned that Olivia and Walter will come to take and bring him back.

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

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

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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

Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke

Another nice, amiable Bones tonight  - 7.2 - with heart-warming banter between Booth and Bones at the end that still blows me away.  Emily Deschanel radiates a love - Bones takes pleasure in Booth's happiness - that is a quiet tour-de-force of acting.

Meanwhile, there is a new kid on the block back at the lab.  Finn Abernathy has a troubled past, but he's brilliant and has real backwater Southern charm.  Opie - as Hodgins calls Finn (who calls Hodgins "Thurston") - helps solve the case and also gets in one of the best lines of the night.  When Hodgins ribs Finn about his hillbilly accent (it just dawned on me that Finn may have been named after Huckleberry), Finn replies so what, they "both speak science".  Cam awards the exchange to Finn with a "snap" accolade, and Hodgins later admits that he was an "ass hat".   You don't get that too often on television.


As for the mystery at hand - who murdered the attractive, pregnant competitive eater - it's solved by a fluke.   Not an oddity but a parasite, which the killer picked up in Japan and inadvertently left with the corpse.


Life and death, libido and thanatos, are the mainsprings of drama, as the ancient Greeks knew so well.  In Bones, they take a new prominence, as Bones and Booth solve a case in which the victim's pregnancy serves as a motive for her murder - she was going to leave her profession as a competitive eater - and the two investigate murders while bringing their own baby girl into the world.


As I said last week, this is a new kind of refreshing chemistry and drama, for Bones in particular and television in general. 

See also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home


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 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

Boardwalk Empire 2.7: Shot in the Hand

Another excellent Boardwalk Empire this past Sunday - episode 2.7 - in which Jimmy is caught in a bind about whether to have Nucky taken out.

Jimmy certainly wants Nucky out of the way, but prison would be fine for that purpose.  Jimmy's partners don't agree - most because they know that dead is only way to reliably get Nucky out of their business, or the business they want to away from Nucky, permanently.  Al Capone gets that, and he offers to bring in a hit man from Chicago.  Lucky gets it, too - "pop him," he advises Jimmy about what to do about Nucky.

Eli is another story.  His hatred for his brother is burning at an all time high, fueled by the humilation he  received when he tried to apologize to Nucky episode before last.  I said then that I thought Nucky's response was 100% appropriate.   But, obviously, it wasn't politically or life-and-death smart.

In addition to all of this, Jimmy has his mother urging him to be strong in front of his partners.  He tells Al to go ahead and call in the hit man, and then, though he's agonizing about it, does nothing to call the hit man off.

Still, there's a deep feeling - akin to a son and father - that Jimmy still has for Nucky.  The real question is will he be strong enough, man enough, to pull back from Nucky's killing, in the face of all the pressure to the contrary.

And that he does.  In one of the most decisive moments of the series, the hit man opens fire on Nucky, but is almost instantly brought down by another gunman, no doubt brought in to intervene by Jimmy.

Nucky's is shot in the hand or wrist.  But he will survive.  And his response to Jimmy - who saved his life after selling it out? 

That remains to be seen.  But it could be a turning point in Nucky's relationship with Jimmy, which starts bringing them back together.

A wild night indeed for Nucky, not just because his life was almost forfeit then saved, but, because while all of this was going on, Margaret was in bed with Owen.    Nucky is betrayed by both his wife and muscle, who was nowhere to be seen when the bullets started flying.


And the historical media scene of the episode:  Has to be Jack Dempsey promoting his upcoming boxing match on the "wireless" aka nascent radio.

 

See also Boardwalk Empire 2.1: Politics in an Age Before YouTube  ... Boardwalk Empire 2.2: The Woman Behind the Throne ... Boardwalk Empire 2.3: Frankenstein and Victrola ... Boardwalk Empire 2.4: Nearly Flagrante Delicto ... Boardwalk Empire 2.5: Richard's Story ... Boardwalk Empire 2.6: Owen and Other Bad News for Nucky

And see also Boardwalk Emipre on HBO ... Boardwalk Empire 1.2: Lines and Centers Power ... Boardwalk Empire 1.10: Arnold Rothstein, Media Theorist  ... Season One Finale of Boardwalk Empire                 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

Open Letter to Governor Jerry Brown

Dear Jerry -

We met several years ago, when the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University - of which I was then Chair - invited you to give one of our annual lectures about Marshall McLuhan.   You and I had the opportunity to have an excellent, wide-ranging talk about media and society, prior to your lecture.   I was already an admirer of your perceptive vision and understanding of our society.  I consider of our conversation one of the best I've had with anyone.   I was, therefore, delighted with your re-entry into politics, and cheered when you were again elected Governor of California, even though I'm a New Yorker, through and through.

But with this in mind, I've been stunned to see what your police have doing in your state.  And I find your lack of public response incomprehensible.

What on Earth is going on with you and the state of California?

A former Marine - an Iraq War veteran - was shot point blank in the head by a rubber bullet, landing him in the hospital in critical condition.   A person who dared to point a video camera at police in another protest was shot at point blank range in the body with a rubber bullet.  Just last night, I saw a video on YouTube of your police beating students who dared to stand up for their First Amendment rights at Berkeley.

What on Earth is going on in California, and why are you doing nothing about it?

As you must know, none of the Occupy protesters in these incidents were the least bit violent.  In some cases, a few raised their voices a little.  All of this is their right under the First Amendment, to "peaceably assemble".

I am surprised and deeply disturbed and saddened that you seem unwilling or unable to use the power of your office to curb your police.  Do you think rubber bullets which send citizens to the hospital in critical condition are a proper response to people who are assembling and raising their voices in protest of the economic and other inequalities in this country?  Whether the police are local, or even security forces at a private institution, this brutality is happening in your state, and, as Governor, it is your responsibility to stop it.

I know you were once in a seminary, and thought of joining the priesthood.   I was always glad that you brought that sensitivity, that awareness of the human condition, to your important work in government.

The nation, and your state, stand at a crossroads now.  You can make s decisive difference in the outcome, and help our nation continue on it path to a better democracy.   You can become a national leader on the side of the angels and the Consititution in this.

Please stop your out of control police, before lives are lost, and you miss your chance.

-Paul Levinson, PhD
Professor of Communication and Media Studies
[Chair of Department, 2002-2008]
Fordham University

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