Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 46
December 3, 2022
Slow Horses 2.1-2.2: Do Horses Eat Ramen?
Slow Horses is back (I keep wanting to say "are back") on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes of its second (short) season.
The repartee is better than ever, with Cartwright chiding Lamb for eating his ramon like a "dying horse," whatever exactly that means. He looked ok to me, and I was glad we at least didn't get another demonstration of his flatulence (sorry, was that a spoiler?),
[Anyway, there may be spoilers ahead ... ]
Sid was still gone, but we did get Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), who may be Sid's replacement? Plotwise, all four of the investigative horses -- Lamb, Cartwright, Guy, and Harper -- are in top form, better than in the first season, in fact. They seem closer to succeeding than earlier this year, making a lot of progress on the case at hand.
That case is pretty good, too. Phil Davis puts in a good few minutes at the beginning of the first episode as the ill-fated former spy Dickie Bets who dies of an induced heart attack on a bus. (The London ambience is gritty and effective.) Good to see him (Phil) back on the screen. The Russkies as either bad guys, pawns in a bigger game, or both, do a convincing job, though their role as likely villains is so well worn it's almost funny-- Wait, maybe that's the point?
Mick Jagger singing a little at the beginning and more at the end if very welcome again, and never gets out of date. Speaking of which, however: I caught a mention of "Her Majesty" in the first episode, which dates this second season. I would have gone in and overdubbed a "His Majesty," but, hey, what do I know, I'm an American.
See also Slow Horses 1.1-2: Fast-Moving Spy Thriller ... Slow Horses 1.3: The Fine Art of Bumbling ... Slow Horses 1.4: Fine New Song by Mick Jagger ... Slow Horses 1.5: Did You Hear the One About the ... Slow Horses 1.6: The Scorecard
December 2, 2022
The Peripheral Season 1 Finale: The Putin Diaspora
Well, if you've been reading these reviews, you know how I am regarding what strikes me most in an episode: it could be a word, a phrase, that a character utters, something that has a special relevance either to our own world outside of the series, or something in the series, or both.
In the case of the season one finale of The Peripheral on Amazon Prime, the phrase is uttered by one of those three gents -- probably too nice a word for them -- in that gentleman's club in that brief coda after the closing credits. One of them talks about "the Putin diaspora," which was a big factor in their world. Nice current touch, a reference to the fascist dictator who has been terrorizing Ukraine for nearly a year now with an attack which clearly cannot succeed.
The mention of a "Putin diaspora" in the future -- or maybe "a" future would be a better word -- suggests that something Putin did led to a mass exodus of Russians from Russia. That would certainly be a logical result if Putin continues his monstrous aggression in our all too-real world. Good for The Peripheral for calling our attention to that.
[Spoilers follow ... ]
Now as to the rest of the season one finale and its science fiction: It's good to see Flynne and Lowbeer united, my two favorite characters in the series. I didn't like Flynne's ingenious solution to the problem at hand -- setting up a new stub -- because, well, I didn't like Flynne being killed, in any manner, shape, or form. Even if being killed in the stub in which this narrative began was necessary for Flynne to confound Cherise, and flourish in a new stub in which Cherise, at least for now, can't find her.
Flynne's death in our reality also makes sense, though, given Flynne's not wanting to live here with her mother dying in less than a month, and neither Flynne nor Lowbeeer or anyone apparently being to stop it. The reason for that, though, is still not clear, at least not to me.
All in all, an excellent finale to an excellent first season, more than enough to make me sure and eager to watch what comes next.
See also The Peripheral 1.1-1.2: Cyberpunk, Time Travel, and Alternate Reality ... 1.3: John Snow ... 1.4 Who Took Lev's Tea? ... 1.5: The AI Therapist ... 1.6: Now or Soonest ... 1.7: The Unreliable Genie
Echo 3 1.4 Welcome to the Jungle
A quietly seething, generally taking stock episode 1.4 of Echo 3 up on Apple TV+ today.
[Spoilers ahead ...]
After last week's fireworks, which ended with Amber nearly rescued and Prince badly wounded, we see our major players carving out and moving into new roles. Prince and Bambi were the most compelling, diverging into two very separate stories.
Bambi isn't leaving the Colombia/Venezuela border until he rescues his sister or dies trying, which he has no intention doing if he has anything to say about. He sets up a life among the locales, including making what will no doubt be a crucial alliance with a local fisherman. The vivid green South American scenery reminded me of The Mosquito Coast, another fine Apple TV+ series I'm watching and reviewing.
Meanwhile, Prince has recovered (of course), and is back in the U.S. trying to get our government to do more to rescue his wife. That would be easy, given that so far our government is doing practically nothing. This is a familiar theme -- our government not wanting to lift a finger to rescue or help an agent that went out on a limb that was sawed off -- but Echo 3 does it well and makes it worthwhile to see again.
Prince also fails to resist getting intimate with Reese (well played by Katherine Hughes), who has a great body and an inviting smile. Well, at least he tried to be loyal to Amber. The question now is whether he'll be to get her to help save Amber without continuing a full-blown affair with her.
These are good questions to pursue, and I'll be back next week with another review.
See also Echo 3 1.1-1.3: Bondian Flavor and Pure Adrenalin
November 28, 2022
Echo 3 1.1-1.3: Bondian Flavor and Pure Adrenalin
Hey, if you're in the mood for some high-octane adrenalin, surprises at every turn, colorful locales, and thoughtful characters -- and I'm always in the mood for that -- check out Echo 3 on Apple TV+.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
The series has a Bondian flavor, with a little Narcos mixed in, served in a rich tapestry of places and characters. Amber Chesborough, recently married to Delta Force operative "Prince," gets taken hostage doing research into tropical cures for drugs, in Colombia. Except she's also on some kind of CIA mission which her husband didn't know about it when he slipped a high-tech tracker into her luggage so, well, he could track her if she got into trouble. Which she does -- becaused being kidnapped is of course big trouble -- and when the kidnappers find the tracker, things get much worse, because they think (correctly) that she's a spy.
Also, she has a brother. "Bambi," in the same unit as Prince, and they start from being good buddies at Amber and Prince's marriage, to being at pretty serious odds over a mission that went pretty bad in Afghanistan. But you know they have to bury that hatchet and join forces to rescue Amber, which of course they do (join forces, that is -- she's not yet rescued), and though that's obvious, it's good to see it happen, anyway,
Other characters (so far) include Colombian military guys at all levels who are excellent, and a pack of kidnappers who seem to produce a succession of new leaders as some are picked off by the good guys. This might seem a little too much to believe, but the action is so good, I have no problem at all with it.
There's also a woman journalist who tries to negotiate for Amber's release, but gets taken prisoner by the kidnappers, raising terrible memories of what actually happened to Diana Turbay, a renowned journalist who was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar's cartel, and was killed in a govenrment rescue attempt gone wrong in 1991.
My only disappointment with Echo 3 is that after seeing these first three episodes, I of course wanted to see more. But the good news is I'll be able to remedy that when the fourth episode comes up this coming Friday.
November 27, 2022
The Mosquito Coast 2.4: Motion Pictures on the Cave Wall
I've been watching and enjoying this second season of The Mosquito Coast on Apple TV+, but haven't had a chance to review more than the first episode. Episode 2.4, however, was just too good not to review, or at least offer a few words about ...
First, let me just say, I really liked that scene with Dina and Adopho in the cave, with that vintage motion picture showing on one of the walls. It reminded me of a paper my old friend and erstwhile colleague Ed Wachtel at Fordham University wrote back in the early 1990s -- "The First Picture Show: Cinematic Aspects of Cave Art" -- in which he theorized that the prehistoric art that depicted various animals in the caves in Lascaux, France were actually motion pictures brought to animation by the flicker of prehistoric lamps that burned fat. That possibility always struck me as plausible, and I'm wondering if Adolpho was watching motion pictures in a way that was common in Mexico, and maybe other countries as well? If it is, and Wachtel was right, that would be an example of a prehistoric custom evolving and surviving into our current world.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Otherwise, the story in episode 2.4 was riveting but not very plausible. I get why Margot wants to leave Allie and take the kids back to the U.S., but surely she knows that Allie is right -- she would end up in prison here in the U.S. more quickly than anyone else in her family. Also, I don't think she's given Allie quite enough credit for saving everyone in the family's lives, more than once, including hers.
Also, as long as I'm being critical, I'd like to see the story move a little more quickly. We've already been introduced to William, the unflappable assassin, and we know how dangerous he is. I look forward to his getting into range of the Foxes a little faster. I mean, I know that they'll triumph -- at least I hope so -- and it will be fun to see how they do that.
See also The Mosquito Coast 2.1: Thirteen Years Ago
And see also The Mosquito Coast 1.1-2: Edgy, Attractive, Enlightened, and Important ... The Mosquito Coast 1.3: Broadening Horizons ... The Mosquito Coast 1.4: Charlie and the Gun ... The Mosquito Coast 1.5: Charlie and the Gun, Part II ... The Mosquito Coast 1.6: What Kind of Brother? ... The Mosquito Coast season 1 finale: I'm Well Bitten
November 26, 2022
The Peripheral 1.7: The Unreliable Genie
Let's just start with what I thought was the most significant moment in The Peripheral 1.7 on Amazon Prime since yesterday, an episode which I thought was laden with significance. Which, I think is a good thing. As I've been saying throughout these reviews.
[And, of course, spoilers follow ... ]
That moment comes when Lowbeer -- who again plays a highly informative narrative role in this episode, in just about everything she says -- but the most significant moment comes, in my opinion, in what she doesn't say, when she declines to answer the third question Flynne puts to her, after telling Flynne that Lowbeer would answer three questions, just like "a genie". And that third question to Lowbeer is: do you have the power to sever our connection, i.e,, Lowbeer's connection to Flynne?
Lowbeer's demurral -- stated as an apology for "overpromising" -- is notable for more than one reason. First, Lowbeer refuses to answer that question after she in effect robs Flynne of her second question, cateogrizing Flynne's clarification of her first questions as the second question. (Flynne's first question was "What's your biggest fear?" Lowbeer answers: "the past". Flynne replies: "What, like where I'm from?") And Lowbeer says that's a second question? Come on. Not fair. At most, it's a quarter question, or maybe an eighth of a question. But ruling that fragment a "second" question shows that Lowbeer is unfair, not honest, and not really wanting to answer Flynne's questions.
Even more important, it shows Lowbeer doesn't want to answer that question. Which is reinforced by Flynne's immediately preceding not being able to answer Lowbeer's follow-up question of why Flynne would not want to cut the connection between their two worlds. All of which reinforces the flashing neon sign that this is one crucial question indeed.
I doubt we'll find anything close to why it's such a pivotal question in next week's concluding eighth episode of this first season. But we'll likely get some more intriguing glimpses of what travel by avatars to the past can do, who lives and who dies in the alternate realities that are engendered, and that's more than fine with me, in this powerhouse of a story, in which, as I've said before, the intellect provides even more punch than the doodad which provides a title for this seventh episode.
See also The Peripheral 1.1-1.2: Cyberpunk, Time Travel, and Alternate Reality ... 1.3: John Snow ... 1.4 Who Took Lev's Tea? ... 1.5: The AI Therapist
November 25, 2022
Why the "Flowers Never Bend" Performance in The Orville 3.9 Will Last Forever
This sweet soulful rendition by Gordon (Scott Grimes) and Charly (Anne Winters) of Simon & Garfunkel's "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall" this past July on the 9th episode of the 3rd Season of The Orville certainly wasn't the first vocal performance in a TV drama or comedy that wasn't a musical. It's not even the first sustained singing in a Star Trek or Star Trek inspired TV show. Uhura sang "Beyond Antares" in a memorable scene with Spock (in "The Conscience of the King,” episode 1.13 of the original Star Trek series in December 1966) and a couple of other times on the USS Enterprise on television back then.
But "Beyond Antares" was an original song, from the 23rd century, when it was heard for the first time in Star Trek, and therefore couldn't evoke any of the memories and feelings that Simon & Garfunkel's "Flowers" brought forth a few months ago, rooted in the dozens of times in millions of homes and cars in which Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (the LP which contained "Flowers") was first released, heard, and loved in October 1966, enriched by the increasing number of people who would continue to hear that song in the years ahead, as Simon & Garfunkel, both together and individually, became and continued to be musical icons.
That was the main reason Grimes and Winters' beautiful performance really struck me the first time I heard and saw their performance in July. The other reason was the assembled group from The Orville, who were fortunate to hear this rendition in person. Not only who they were -- the species and role of their characters in the series -- but their expressions as Gordon and Charly sang for them were just perfect.
But this one minute and thirty seconds has really stayed with me since the summer. I now consider it easily the best musical performance in any science fiction on the screen. And I think I know why.
[Spoilers follow ... ]
It's because we learned, as season 3 progressed and concluded with its 10th episode, that Charly singing "my life will never end" had a meaning and resonance that Paul Simon couldn't have foreseen when he wrote those lyrics way back in the 1960s. In that 10th episode, Charly's life does bravely end. Her heroic sacrifice would have been hard to forget in any case. But making that sacrifice after singing that line was a masterstroke. Surely, Seth MacFarlane (and co-writers Brannon Braga and André Bormanis) must have known what would happen to Charly in the 10th episode when they decided to have her sing that song with that line in the 9th episode.
And I'd expect the actors in The Orville would have known about Charly's fate as well. Look at Kelly's face around 30 seconds into the video. She's standing next to Ed, both really enjoying the performance, smiling, but at 30 or so seconds she momentarily almost loses that smile. And that's right around the time Charly sings, "pretend, my life will never end". Coincidence? I don't think so. Was she directed to briefly lose that smile? I have no idea -- perhaps Adrianne Palicki, who plays Kelly so well, was consciously or unconsciously in touch with what she knew was going to happen to Charly, and was hit by that awful irony.
A beautiful, haunting song, brought to life by two beautiful voices and acoustic strings, strummed and plucked, in a scene that I predict will be seen and heard in the corridors of unique science fiction forever.
Renew The Orville!
See also The Orville 3.1: Life and Death ... 3.2: "Come and Get Me ..." ... 3.3: What Do Bill Barr and Ed Mercer Have in Common? ... 3.4: The Captain's Daughter ... 3.5: Topa ... 3.6: Masterpiece of Time Travel with a Missed Opportunity ... 3.7: Seconding that Emotion ... 3.8: Dolly Parton and Topa ... 3.9: Why It's Becoming Better than any Current Star Trek ... 3.10: Matrimony and the Prime Directive
And see also The Orville 2.1: Relief and Romance ... The Orville 2.2: Porn Addiction and Planetary Disintegration ... The Orville 2.3: Alara ... The Orville 2.4: Billy Joel ... The Orville 2.5: Escape at Regor 2 ... The Orville 2.6: "Singin' in the Rain" ... The Orville 2.7: Love and Death ... The Orville 2.8: Recalling Čapek, Part 1 ... The Orville 2.9: Recalling Čapek, Part 2 ... The Orville: 2.10: Exploding Blood ... The Orville 2.11: Time Capsule, Space Station, and Harmony ... The Orville 2.12: Hello Dolly! ... The Orville 2.13: Time Travel! ... The Orville Season 2 Finale: Alternate History!
And see also The Orville 1.1-1.5: Star Trek's Back ... The Orville 1.6-9: Masterful ... The Orville 1.10: Bring in the Clowns ... The Orville 1.11: Eating Yaphit ... The Orville 1.12: Faith in Reason and the Prime Directive
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
November 20, 2022
Podcast Review of The Peripheral 1.6
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 344, in which I review The Peripheral episode 1.6 on Amazon Prime Video.
Written blog post of this review: 1.6: Now or Soonest Podcast reviews of The Peripheral 1.1-1.2 ... 1.3-1.5 Further reading: alternate realities about The Beatles (It's Real Life) ... time travel (Slipping Time) Mentioned in this episode: upcoming special issue of Amazing Stories
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Greg Bear, RIP: Three Ways In Which He Bettered My Life
Greg Bear -- File 770
Greg Bear, author of more than 50 science fiction books, left us yesterday at the too-young age of 71. I'll leave it to others to detail the superb, riveting stories he told us in those books, and tell you instead about three significant ways he had a personal impact on my life. I was always happy to run into him at a science fiction convention, but these three encounters were more than that.
1. I wrote a review somewhere of the Foundation prequel trilogy Gregory Benford (Foundation's Fear), Greg Bear (Foundation and Chaos), and David Brin (Foundation's Triumph) -- or maybe it was just a comment on some board -- at the end of the 1990s, a few years after Isaac Asimov's death. I said that I enjoyed all three novels, but, surprisingly, Greg Bear's was the best. (I guess I was surprised because I expected that all three would be so good it wouldn't be so easy to rank them.) Greg and I had already been in occasional touch -- he had been President of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1988-1990, and I was President of SFWA from 1998-2001 -- and I got a genial email response from Greg almost immediately after my review/comment was published. "Why are you surprised?"
There was something refreshing and reassuring about those four words that immediately struck me. I was already egotistical -- most writers are -- but Greg's response, in addition to making me laugh, showed me how right and important it was to stand up for yourself when circumstances called for that. Modesty isn't all it's cracked up to be.
2. In February 2002, I received a package in the mail. It contained a videotape made by Jay Kensinger, of a short movie he had made of my 1995 novelette, "The Chronology Protection Case," first published in Analog Magazine, already reprinted then in several places, and a finalist for the Nebula and Sturgeon Awards. Jay apologized in the letter for not letting me know he was making this movie, not seeing if he needed some contract with me, etc. He included his phone number, and when I called him, eager to talk to this guy who had made a movie from my story, he again profusely apologized and told me he had walked up to Greg Bear at a book signing, said how worried he was that I was going to be upset that he had made the movie without my permission, but he wanted to contact me and what did Greg think he should do? He told me Greg gave him a big smiled and assured him, "I know Paul Levinson and he'll be nothing but thrilled." Greg knew me well. (And he knew himself -- he had the heart and soul of a writer.) You can watch the movie here, on Amazon Prime Video.
3. As I mentioned, Greg and I first got to know each other when I was President of SFWA, 1998-2001, and I sought his advice on a variety of issues, as a former President. Greg and I agreed on just about everything, including that it was no fun at all being president of a writer's organization -- certainly a small fraction of the fun of being a writer. I learned then a lesson that I learned once again when I was Chair of my Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University shortly after, from 2002-2008. Don't do it. Administration doesn't combine well with the creative process.
There are few people in my life from whom I learned so much, and was so fortunate to have known, than Greg Bear. Rest in peace, my friend.
November 18, 2022
The Peripheral 1.6: Now or Soonest
A really high-octane high-intellect episode 1.6 of The Peripheral on Amazon Prime Video tonight -- by which I mean the action, as good as it was, was easily surpassed by the ideas and razor sharp conversation.
And the height of the conversation was offered by Inspector Lowbeer, given a tour-de-force performance by Alexandra Billings, who at her best barely let my near-namesake Lev get a word in edgewise as she spelled out what she thought was going on and what she wanted. Lots of the gems in that one-way conversation, but my favorite was her response to Lev asking her when she wanted to see the three peripherals and their operators -- i.e., our heroes from the near future -- that Lowbeer has instructed Lev to summon. "Now -- or soonest," she responded. That order is both a paragon of presumptive and reasonable, at the very same time.
Lev, though, contributes something more substantive in the subsequent conversation, in which he explains how every contact in the past provokes a branching of a new reality, which Lev and his people call a "stub". That's as good an explanation as you'll find of what travel to the past can do, and how indeed it is even possible -- whether the travel is physical or informational -- because it explains how you could want to travel to the past in the first place, or want to change something there, if you succeed on interfering back then and changing that something. Without branches, that very change in the past that you wanted would remove the very reason you wanted to change that something in the first place. It would erase the very motive for the erasure. In other words, what some people (like me) usually call alternate realities, which any interference in the past generates -- or, as I like to say, is tripped off by any time traveler's tip of the hat -- is called a "branch" by Lev, who adds: "we call" that "a stub".
And in a further linguistically sweet part of the conversation, Lowbeer then wonders why "stub" -- not because it reminds her of something you see on Wikipedia (I don't know if they have Wikipedia in that reality) -- but because stub "sounds nasty, short, brutish". Lowbeer continues, "wouldn't you expect the fork's new branch to continue to grow?" Lev responds, "we do" (I agree with Lowbeer and Lev, of course -- fine acting by J J Feild in that role, too, by the way). It's left to Ash (well played by Harry Potter's Katie Leung) to explain that calling the branches stubs makes it easier for this future to practice imperialism on the past.
Wow! I don't think I've ever thought of the future manipulating the past as a kind of imperialism -- or "colonialism," as Lowbeer then quickly puts it -- but it's a powerhouse concept, and just one of the reasons I said I thought this episode was sheer intellectual dynamite.
See you back here next week with more.
See also The Peripheral 1.1-1.2: Cyberpunk, Time Travel, and Alternate Reality ... 1.3: John Snow ... 1.4 Who Took Lev's Tea? ... 1.5: The AI Therapist
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