Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 400

NCIS 8.20: CIRay

A powerhouse relationship NCIS 8.20, with a dangling ending just for good measure, and both Ziva and DiNozzo's lovers revealed, who turn out to be connected and more.

First Ziva: we meet Ray, who comes to the headquarters.  He's CIA, which leads DiNozzo to dub Ray CIRay.   As the team investigates the case - which I'll get to in a minute - Ray reveals to Ziva that he (and the CIA) have been working the very same case, which gets Ziva to doubt his expressed love for her, and think he was using her to get inside info about our NCIS team.  Which he may well be.

At the same, we find out that DiNozzo's been in bed with E.J. Barrett, the NCIS special agent brought in by Leon (more about him, also a minute) maybe to replace Gibbs, or who knows for what reason.  Gibbs, understandably, doesn't trust her (by the way, she and CIRay know each other), and before the end of the episode, tells Barrett to stop sleeping with DiNozzo.   As loyal as DiNozzo is, it's not clear how he would take this if he knew about it.  Is Gibbs overstepping his authority, just a bit?

Leon is certainly provoking Gibbs, every chance Leon gets.  He eventually tells Gibbs and Barrett, when they've failed to solve the case, that he wanted to put them in competition as a way of goading each to work harder to get the killer.  Doesn't quite ring true.

Which brings us to the case - apparently some kind of psycho serial killer  is killing navy men in ports, and thereby getting the name of "port killer".   The episode ends not only with this killer not being caught, but ordering a drink for DiNozzo - seated at the bar with Ziva - with an eyeball in the drink.

A good, chillingly symbolic ending, telling us we better be keeping an eye out for this killer, for we'll be seeing a lot more of him (though, who knows, possibly a physically dexterous her) before this season is over.


5-min podcast review of NCIS


See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman ... NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father 
... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story ... NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo In and Out ... NCIS 8.11: "The Sister Went Viral" ... Bob Newhart on NCIS 8.12 ... NCIS 8.13: The Wife or the Girlfriend ... NCIS 8.14: Kate ... NCIS 8.15: McGee and DiNozzo's Badges ... NCIS 8.16: Computer Games ... NCIS 8.17: Budget Cuts ... NCIS 8.18: Gibbs vs. the Kid ... NCIS 8.19: The Deadly Book

And see also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution


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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

The Event 1.16: High-Placed Sleeper

The Event keeps tightening the vice, with another thread in tonight's episode 1.16 that is a little too close to today's real politics, at least for my tastes.

Simon, who has been outed as an alien sleeper, makes good his escape from the White House compound.  Someone on the inside, with a voice distorted to protect his or her identity (mostly from us), gives Simon precise navigational cues.  He uses these to elude Blake's best efforts and cameras.   The President orders that everyone having anything to do with the White House undergo a DNA-test to confirm their humanity.  One person refuses - the President's wife.

Uh oh - is the First Lady a sleeper?   The possibility is uncomfortably close to the suggestion that Obama may be Muslim.  It's become more than what we heard from that weak-witted woman at the McCain townhald in the 2008 campaign - remember that, and McCain's attempt to give a principled answer?  ("He's an Arab," the woman said to McCain about then-candidate Obama.  "No ma'am.  He's a good person.  He's family man."  Poor McCain - he defended Obama by insulting Arabs and Muslims by implication.)  And nowadays, even the likes of Donald Trump are joining McCain's questioner in expressing doubts about Obama's religion.

Anyway, back to the television show that is deliberately written as fiction, The Event has also come close to disposing of two more characters - Vicky and Simon, who are both on the verge of being murdered.   But I'm guessing/hoping that both survive - because I like them.

And remember in my review of last week's episode 1.15 when I said that I thought Dempsey may hold the key to the aliens' survival?  Well, I was almost right.  Tonight he tells Vicki that he holds the key to our survival!  

More in two weeks.


5-min podcast review of The Event

See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action! ... The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals! ... The Event 1.7: The Portal and its Implications  ... The Event 1.8: The "Republican" VP and the Anti-24 ... The Event 1.9: "Native Populations, Indigenous People" ... The Event 1.10: Satellite ... The Event 1.11-12: Hardball in Fiction ... The Event 1.13: A Little to Close to the Reality ... The Event 1.14: Upping the Ante ... The Event 1.15: Bluffs and Stakes




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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

Source Code: Fringe Travel

No Fringe on tonight, so my wife and I went out to see Source Code, which turned out to be a good stand-in for Fringe.   Source Code is in fact a pretty good science fiction movie, with a plot that was a little bit bare bones, with the result that we the viewers had to figure a little too much out, almost on our own.  But a pretty good story, nonetheless.

Here's what I think happened:

Colter (a pilot from Afghanistan) wakes up in Sean's body - alive, well, and awake - on a train approaching Chicago.  He's sitting across from Christina.   He doesn't get how and why she knows him, thinks he, she, and/or everyone around him is crazy.  Before too long - 8 minutes, to be exact -  the train blows up and kills everyone.

We soon learn that Colter is really now on a mission - to find out who set the bomb that blew up the train.  His mentality is able to go back into Colter's body on that train, via a new process known as "source code".   He can be sent back for 8-minutes, to the same time, as many times as necessary - though it takes an emotional toll on him, as noticed by Colleen Goodwin (his direct supervisor, who is concerned about this) and Dr. Rutledge (head of the project, who cares only about this mission).  It is this going back as many times as necessary that has led to some characterizations of Source Code as Quantum Leap meets Groundhog Day.  Source Code also has some echoes of 12 Monkeys - same gritty feel in parts (just like Fringe) -  but it really has little in common with time travel.

We're eventually told by Rutledge that the source code creates an alternate reality - Colter in Sean's body on the train - and the plan is that if Colter can get the name of the bomber to Goodwin and Rutledge, they can use this to stop a much worse potential explosion, which we learn is a dirty bomb that would take out a big piece of Chicago.

It takes Colter most of the movie to get the bomber's name.  By this time, he's fallen for Christina, and wants to save her, and, while he's at it, all the people on the train.  Rutledge insists that can't happen - the source code is about influencing the future (stopping the big explosion in Chicago) not about changing the past (stopping the bomb on the train).    After Rutledge gets the name of the bomber, which leads to his being stopped before he gets to Chicago, Rutledge wants to erase Colter's memories of this and send him another mission.   Goodwin, who has more empathy for Colter, defies Rutledge and sends Colter back one more time - presumably so he can at least die feeling somewhat fulfilled, by calling his father (who thinks his son Colter was killed in Afghanistan), being with Christina one last 8-minute time, and saving her and everyone on the train by defusing the bomb.

Now we get into somewhat speculative territory.  Here's what I think happened on that score:

On this last mission to the train, Colter has indeed stopped the bomb from going off on the train - in that alternate reality.  This apparently allows that reality to continue, not only with all the original passengers on the train, but with Colter (in Sean's body), so that Christina and Colter live happily ever after, beginning with their kiss on the train that was not followed by the train exploding.

In our reality, Rutledge is furious that Goodwin defied him.  But in the alternate reality - which is now continuing beyond 8 minutes, because Colter stopped the train from exploding - Colter is able to send Goodwin a text that shows that he is not only alive in some sense in this alternate reality lab, but that another reality (our reality) had successfully sent him back to this reality - that is, the reality in which Colter was sent back numerous times from our reality - if you're still with me.

So, all in all, a pretty good story, as I said, but maybe having more in common with Fringe than any time travel story, and a bit short on clear, scientific or pseudo-scientific explanation.

And also a little short on at least one ethical issue: what happened to Sean in the alternate reality?  True, he would have died anyway, without Colter's intervention.  But now Christina thinks she's with Sean, when in "fact" she's with Colter, because in this "happy" ending Sean no longer exists.

***

Hey, if you like science fiction movies that are really about time travel, see Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys, or Deja Vu.    Or check out this low-budget 2002 short movie by Jay Kensinger, adapted from my 1995 novelette published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine ...  "The Chronology Protection Case" ....


Read the story ... The Chronology Protection Case


And pick up a copy of The Plot to Save Socrates ...





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

Source Code: Fringe Timelike Travel

No Fringe on tonight, so my wife and I went out to see Source Code, which turned out to be a good stand-in for Fringe.   Source Code is in fact a pretty good science fiction movie, with a plot that was a little bit bare bones, with the result that we the viewers had to figure a little too much out, almost on our own.  But a pretty good story, nonetheless.

Here's what I think happened:

Colter (a pilot from Afghanistan) wakes up in Sean's body - alive, well, and awake - on a train approaching Chicago.  He's sitting across from Christina.   He doesn't get how and why she knows him, thinks he, she, and/or everyone around him is crazy.  Before too long - 8 minutes, to be exact -  the train blows up and kills everyone.

We soon learn that Colter is really now on a mission - to find out who set the bomb that blew up the train.  His mentality is able to go back into Colter's body on that train, via a new process known as "source code".   He can be sent back for 8-minutes, to the same time, as many times as necessary - though it takes an emotional toll on him, as noticed by Colleen Goodwin (his direct supervisor, who is concerned about this) and Dr. Rutledge (head of the project, who cares only about this mission).  It is this going back as many times as necessary that has led to some characterizations of Source Code as Quantum Leap meets Groundhog Day.  Source Code also has some echoes of 12 Monkeys - same gritty feel in parts -  but it really has little in common with time travel.

We're eventually told by Rutledge that the source code creates an alternate reality - Colter in Sean's body on the train - and the plan is that if Colter can get the name of the bomber to Goodwin and Rutledge, they can use this to stop a much worse potential explosion, which we learn is a dirty bomb that would take out a big piece of Chicago.

It takes Colter most of the movie to get the bomber's name.  By this time, he's fallen for Christina, and wants to save her, and, while he's at it, all the people on the train.  Rutledge insists that can't happen - the source code is about influencing the future (stopping the big explosion in Chicago) not about changing the past (stopping the bomb on the train).    After Rutledge gets the name of the bomber, which leads to his being stopped before he gets to Chicago, Rutledge wants to erase Colter's memories of this and send him another mission.   Goodwin, who has more empathy for Colter, defies Rutledge and sends Colter back one more time - presumably so he can at least die feeling somewhat fulfilled, by calling his father (who thinks his son Colter was killed in Afghanistan), being with Christina one last 8-minute time, and saving her and everyone on the train by defusing the bomb.

Now we get into somewhat speculative territory.  Here's what I think happened on that score:

On this last mission to the train, Colter has indeed stopped the bomb from going off on the train - in that alternate reality.  This apparently allows that reality to continue, not only with all the original passengers on the train, but with Colter (in Sean's body), so that Christina and Colter live happily ever after, beginning with their kiss on the train that was not followed by the train exploding.

In our reality, Rutledge is furious that Goodwin defied him.  But in the alternate reality - which is now continuing beyond 8 minutes, because Colter stopped the train from exploding - Colter is able to send Goodwin a text that shows that he is not only alive in some sense in this alternate reality lab, but that another reality (our reality) had successfully sent him back to this reality - that is, the reality in which Colter was sent back numerous times from our reality - if you're still with me.

So, all in all, a pretty good story, as I said, but maybe having more in common with Fringe than any time travel story, and a bit short on clear, scientific or pseudo-scientific explanation.

And also a little short on at least one ethical issue: what happened to Sean in the alternate reality?  True, he would have died anyway, without Colter's intervention.  But now Christina thinks she's with Sean, when in "fact" she's with Colter, because in this "happy" ending Sean no longer exists.

***

Hey, if you like science fiction movies that are really about time travel, see Back to the Future, 12 Monkees, or Deja Vu.    Or check out this low-budget 2002 short movie by Jay Kensinger, adapted from my 1995 novelette published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine ...  "The Chronology Protection Case" ....


Read the story ... The Chronology Protection Case


And pick up a copy of The Plot to Save Socrates ...




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

Criminal Minds 6.19: Fight Club Redux Plus

It's Criminal Minds 6.19, a week or who knows how many days after Emily, and we're treated to another Fight Club scenaro, in residence on a lot of shows these days.  A group of psychos seems to be on a killing rampage, but it's really just one guy, and the rest of the gang his hallucinations.   But there's more ...

First, the psycho killer - soon identified as just one killer, not a gang, by the BAU - makes Spencer think about his own headaches and family background.  His mother is schizophrenic, an illness that manifests right around Spencer's age.  He's been to doctors, who can't find any physical basis for the headaches.  He'd confided a little in Emily, but now that she's gone, whom can he talk to?  He shares some of his concerns with Derek.

Before this story is over, Spencer will be caught up and nearly killed by Ben - the pyscho's - illusions.  Spencer tells Ben all will be ok, if he gives up the knife.  Ben says, ok, are you sure?  But Ben is thinking that Spencer is telling him all will be ok if Ben kills Spencer with the knife.  Not knowing this, Spencer approaches Ben, and Hotch's shot stops him just in time.  A good Criminal Minds resolution.

Meanwhile, Hotch has a had a good night.  He not only saves Spencer, but realizes that Ashley, though good for the team, can't replace Emily.   And Hotch realizes that Ben is inside a house on the basis of seeing a young boy quickly closes the curtains.

Lots left unresolved at the end of this episode, too.   Ben is not killed by Hotch's shot.  He's put through shock therapy, but the cure doesn't stick.   Are we seeing the birth of a potential nemesis for Spencer?

And Spencer's status is also left up in the air.   Derek notes that he's sleeping on the plane back to Washington.  But is it a peaceful sleep?  It seems so, but, for all we know, Spencer might even have been dreaming the disquieting scene with Ben and his inextricable demons.

Good loose ends for the rest of the season ....

See also Criminal Minds in Sixth Season Premiere ... Criminal Minds 6.2: The Meaning of J. J. Leaving ... Criminal Minds 6.3: Proust, Twain, Travanti ... Tyra on Criminal Minds 6.13 ... Criminal Minds 6. 17: Prentiss Farewell Part I ... Criminal Minds 6.18: Farewell Emily

And Criminal Minds 5.22 and the Dark Side of New New Media



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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

NCIS 8.19: The Deadly Book

Well, some of my critics think some of my books are deadly, but that's not the way the book at the centerpiece of NCIS 8.19 was deadly tonight.   It was responsible for the murder of two.   And just how it was responsible provides the story of one of the better standalone whodunits on NCIS this season.

First victim discovered is a Navy Commander.   He was doing some kind of intelligence work - which the Admiral in charge (Carl Lumbly from Alias) is not quite willing to tell all about to Gibbs.   Then the second victim turns up dead - a good looking woman working for the DIA.   There are remnants of a burned book in her fireplace.   Is this book somehow relevant to her death?   And if yes, the Commander's, too?

The book is an expose of illegal miltary operations, which both the Commander and the DIA agent were investigating.   So there's no doubt that the book in some way triggered the two murders.   But by whom?   Someone who's career would be ruined if the book gets published?

There follows a good investigation of the publisher, and the author, but the murderer is still not only at large but unknown.   And the key, it turns out, is the oldest motive in the world.  The book is dedicated to the DIA agent, who had a romantic involvement with the author.    The husband of the DIA agent sees the dedication, follows her to a meeting with the Commander - strictly business and relating to their case - and wrongly assumes that she's having an affair with him.   The husband then goes on to kill both.

Sometimes the solution has nothing to do with military secrets or rogue governmental agents, but is rather hiding in the plain sight of perennial, everyday marital discord.   A good twist for a show like NCIS, and, as Gibbs advises the murderer - try divorce instead.  He of course should know.

Gibbs also had the best line in the show, about a danish in a dispenser looking like it was there since he first started working at NCIS.  What is it about those danishes - they always look that way.   But tonight's show was like a nice fresh danish, tasty, not too heavy, and a good snack as we wait for the powerhouse shows up ahead.

See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman ... NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father 
... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story ... NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo In and Out ... NCIS 8.11: "The Sister Went Viral" ... Bob Newhart on NCIS 8.12 ... NCIS 8.13: The Wife or the Girlfriend ... NCIS 8.14: Kate ... NCIS 8.15: McGee and DiNozzo's Badges ... NCIS 8.16: Computer Games ... NCIS 8.17: Budget Cuts ... NCIS 8.18: Gibbs vs. the Kid

And see also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution



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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

The Event 1.15: Bluffs and Stakes

More stakes raised in The Event 1.15, in a complex game of bluff and sacrifice and death of one major character.

The death was alien.   Here's how that happened -

The aliens were holed up in the church last week, surrounded by our troops.  The President wants to take them all in.  Sophia of course does want not her people imprisoned again.  A standoff, which the President has no patience for, and is about to break with an all-out assault.

Sophia would love to see her and her people teleport out of there.  But the alien operator on the other side of the world only has enough nuclear power for a much more modest disruption of the space-time continuum.   Sophia elects to use it.   The Washington Monument is destroyed.  The President, thinking Sophia's people have the power to do much more damage, agrees to their demands for three buses and a plane to escape.

Sophia's bluff has worked.  But meanwhile, back at the White House, Blake's suspicions that Simon is an alien are revived, which leads to cracking the code used by Sophia and Simon for their conversations.   The President now hears a conversation in which Sophia tells Simon she was bluffing about the power in the alien transporter.  Furious, the President orders all three buses with aliens destroyed.  The transporter now has built up some power, but only enough to pull one bus out of the firing line.  One of the three buses is blown apart by a rocket from our helicopter.  Thomas now sacrifices himself and his own bus, as Sophia's is teleported to safety.

A nice ending to this game, which has done the aliens some real damage, but still leaves some of them standing, and Sophia out for blood.  Meanwhile,  Vicki and Sean may be starting to fall for each other over in France.  They're over there looking for Dempsey, who, if his musings in a cave with prehistoric paintings is any indication, not to mention an insignia on his arm, may be thousands of years old.   Does he hold the secret to the aliens' survival?

See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action! ... The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals! ... The Event 1.7: The Portal and its Implications  ... The Event 1.8: The "Republican" VP and the Anti-24 ... The Event 1.9: "Native Populations, Indigenous People" ... The Event 1.10: Satellite ... The Event 1.11-12: Hardball in Fiction ... The Event 1.13: A Little to Close to the Reality ... The Event 1.14: Upping the Ante



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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

The Borgias Sneak Preview Review

I saw the first episodes of The Borgias last week, courtesy of a Showtime screener.   The series is a worthy successor of HBO's Rome and Showtime's The Tudors, by which I mean vibrant with great acting, lusty scenes, and a keen eye for historical detail, if not quite literal historical chronology.

The Borgias in question and on the screen are the family headed by Rodrigo (Jeremy Irons, always rewarding to see), who became Pope Alexander VI in 1492, the same year, of course, that Columbus reached the New World.  This plays a role in the story, since Rodrigo is Spanish, and Columbus sailed across the Atlantic funded by Queen Isabella of Spain.  Her desire, after Columbus's return, was to Christianize the New World, and this fits right into Rodrigo's schemes.

Also on hand are the beautiful and already beguiling Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger), barely a teenager at this point in the story (and a few years older here as a character than she was at the time in real life), and her brothers Cesare (strong role for François Arnaud) and Juan (David Oakes), each more or less willing to kill for their father.  There's treachery, passion, loyalty, jealously, hatred and love flashing around every corner, in every scene, with a series of unexpected (or expected, if you know your history) murders and near-murders in every episode.  Poison and knives are the weapons of choice, and the team that prevails usually does so because they have the best assassin.

There's also no shortage of torrential prejudice in the story, which makes for a compelling narrative, accurate history, and a reminder about how far or maybe not we've come in our own time.  Marrano Jews (Jewish people who escaped the Spanish Inquisition by pretending to be Christian but secretly practiced their Jewish faith) play a significant part in this story, as Rodrigo's opponents whisper that he is Marrano, a serious charge to be make about a Pope.  Muslims (or Moors, in the parlance back then) are on hand - distrusted and exploited.  And women are clearly second-class citizens, with the partial exception of Lucrezia at this point, though even she is used for her father's political purposes and forced to bend to his will.

A nest of highly attractive people and vipers, and highly recommended.

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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

The Adjustment Bureau: What Do Mad Men and Fringe Have in Common?

Philip K. Dick has had an amazing run of superb and near-superb movies made out of his science stories - far more than any other science fiction author, including such greats in the pantheon as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke.   Blade Runner and Total Recall from Dick's roster of work were superb.  Minority Report and Paycheck were near-superb.   The others were not quite as good, but that record is still some pretty fine movie shooting.  And The Adjustment Bureau was in between those first  two categories - superb and near-superb - which is pretty good indeed.

The Adjustment Bureau also connects to another creative nexus which has nothing to do with Philip K. Dick.  The movie represents the second foray into major science fiction by an actor from the Emmy-winning Mad Men.   Jon Hamm had a supporting role in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and John Slattery (Roger Sterling) has a supporting role in The Adjustment Bureau.  It's been a good 2011 for Roger, now showing up in Lincoln Towncar commercials as well an excellent movie.  And, as icing on the cake, The Adjustment Bureau is far far better than the new Day the Earth Stood Still.

It has whimsy, romance (in fact, it's billed as romance in some places) as well as Dick's patented what is really reality theme.   Matt Damon (who is always outstanding) plays Congressman David Norris on his way to being Senator and (if the Adjustment Bureau has it way) President of the United of States.  But if he's allowed to be with the woman he loves - a ballerina (Elise)  fetchingly played by Emily Blunt - he'll lose his edge and never make it to the White House.   The Adjustment Bureau's job is therefore to keep them apart.

A particularly nice plot touch is why David and Elise are so drawn together.  I sorta suspected this, but was glad to hear that a whole bunch of earlier plans had the two of them together, and remnants of those plans were driving the principals, much to the Adjustment Bureau's consternation.

Also enjoyable was the Adjustment Bureau's history with our species - they guided us from the hunter-gather stage to the Roman Empire, then adopted a hands-off policy which led to the Dark Ages.  So they came back again and gave us the Renaissance and the Age of Reason, bowed out in 1910, and left to our devices we got involved in two world wars and nearly destroyed the planet.  So they're back again, to help us, but to cause David and Elise lots of pain.

The Bureau's best weapons are reminiscent of Fringe, which is in turn a treasure-trove of 1950s golden age tropes.   The Adjustment team wear hats like my father wore - fedoras - and use these to open doors that are in all kinds of places in New York City, and lead to shortcuts that can get you across and up and downtown instantly.   These guys are powerful, but they also have an endearing bumbling quality (a little like the Eternal Bald Observers in Fringe, who also have bad hats) - one of the funniest parts of the movie is when Roger's character and another member of the AB don't duck away quickly enough from a window, with the result that David sees them.

They also have compassion, and the ending hinges on which will win, compassion verses sticking with the plan, which is all I'll say.  But Philip K. Dick has scored again with an excellent and unerasable movie made from one of his stories (and, hey, a scene was filmed at Fordham University!).



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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

Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate

A taut, more or less standalone Fringe 3.18 tonight, all on the other side, driven by Faulivia's pregnancy and Walternate's goal to insure its successful outcome.

First, some tasty alt-differences, including sophisticated digital imagery on the wall of a doctor's office, and Francis Coppola not Martin Scorcese as the director of "Taxi Driver".   And our Eternal Bald Observer is clearly on the job on the other side.

Walternate's concern about Fauxlivia's pregnancy not resulting in her or her baby's death - the baby being Peter's and thus Walternate's grandchild - stems from Faulivia having a condition will result in either her or the baby's death if she goes to term.   Fauxlivia is soon kidnapped, and, we soon learn, given a treatment which greatly accelerates her pregnancy.

Walternate assigns Lincoln to the case with due urgency.  But it occurred to me then that Walternate might well be behind the kidnapping and the accelerated pregnancy.  If not, who would the kidnappers be?   People from our side?  Not likely, given that we were in previous episodes given no sign of that.  Maybe people from a third reality?  Always possible, but again, that would be pulling a third rabbit out a hat, at this point.  How about a group working with the Bald Observers?   Possible, but, so far, the only Bald Observers we've seen are, well, bald.

And it turns out that Waltnerate is indeed behind this.   The accelerated pregnancy will beat out the development of the virus that otherwise would have killed either Fauxlivia or the baby, or even both.   This way, Walternate can have his grandchild - which turns out to be a boy - and Fauxlivia.

But all's never quite well that ends well, when we're dealing with Fringe.  The price Waltnernate has paid for the success of his plan is making Lincoln suspicious - and, in the bargain, he's now told Fauxlivia he loves her (under the influence of thinking she might die, which we the viewers were encouraged to think, also, by the playing of that Lost-type music which usually meant death on that show).

More good ingredients for this continuing, fine story - and, hey, Fox announced today that Fringe will be back next year - after, of course, the four remaining episodes of the current season, which pick up in three weeks.

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

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

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"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

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