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Podcast: Paul Levinson interviews Mike Grynbaum about Empire of the Elite

Welcome to Light On Light Through episode 413, in which I interview Mike Grynbaum about his book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, which was just published today. Condé Nast is the publisher of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and other iconic magazines, so we had a lot to talk about.

order Empire of the Elite Maureen Dowd interviews Mike Grynbaum at the 92nd Street Y tonight! Mike Grynbaum's "Mangia Mafia! Food, Punishment, and Cultural Identity in The Sopranos" in The Essential Sopranos Reader, eds. David Lavery, Douglas Howard, and Paul Levinson; University Press of Kentucky, 2011 Excerpt from Empire of the Elite in The Hollywood Reporter

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Published on July 14, 2025 21:06

Paul Levinson interviews Mike Grynbaum about Empire of the Elite

Welcome to Light On Light Through episode 413, in which I interview Mike Grynbaum about his book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, which was just published today. Condé Nast is the publisher of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and other iconic magazines, so we had a lot to talk about.

order Empire of the Elite Maureen Dowd interviews Mike Grynbaum at the 92nd Street Y tonight! Mike Grynbaum's "Mangia Mafia! Food, Punishment, and Cultural Identity in The Sopranos" in The Essential Sopranos Reader, eds. David Lavery, Douglas Howard, and Paul Levinson; University Press of Kentucky, 2011 Excerpt from Empire of the Elite in The Hollywood Reporter

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Published on July 14, 2025 21:06

Dexter: Resurrection 1.1-1.2: The Imposter

Dexter: Resurrection debuted on Paramount Plus Premium/Showtime yesterday with two outstanding episodes which scored on many levels:

[Spoilers ahead ...]

My favorite was the introduction a Dexter imposter: a serial killer in New York City who calls hims the "dark passenger" because he preys on taxi-drivers. Dexter (Michael C. Hall is still perfect in the role he defined), in town to help/save his son Harrison, is a "multi-tasker" -- as he tells his father Harry, whom Dexter once again carries around inside his brain -- and he can't help wanting to get his namesake on the table, a guy who's really not at all like Dexter, who only goes after killers, preferably serial, not hard-working cabbies.As a point that deserves its own bullet, the imposter wears a hoodie that prevents people taking his photograph. First I hadn't heard of that, but it's real, and it shows a TV series about serial killers can have all kinds of educational benefits.It was great to see Batista, now a captain, back in action, and now one of Dexter's worst enemies. And David Zayas looks better than ever!Harrison kills his first badguy, a rapist. Dexter takes pride in how good his son is in their father-and-son trade.Uma Thurman has some kind of nefarious role in this story, and it's always good to see her on the screen.The music was excellent. Ok, my favorite song in these two episodes was "Stayin' Alive", and the Bee Gees never sounded better.The song was played by Claudette Wallace, a police detective investigating the killing of the rapist killed by Harrison, and my favorite new character. She's played by Kadia Safia, who looks familiar because she was also in The Better Sister and Law & Order: SVU.And in addition to Harry, it was also great to see The Trinity Killer, Miguel Prado, and Doakes -- or at least their ghosts -- come to see Dexter in his hospital room. Just like Batista, they all were looking good.See you in two weeks with my review of the next episode.

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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Published on July 11, 2025 22:19

Foundation 3.1: Now We're Talkin'!

At last, in Foundation 3.1, up on Apple TV+ today, an episode worthy of the greatest science fiction trilogy ever written -- the one by Isaac Asimov. To be sure, the story on the screen continues to be very different than the one of the page, but this beginning of third season of Foundation on streaming TV has recognizable characters and pieces doing what they're supposed to do, none more so than The Mule.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

First, it was also very satisfying to hear Demerzel tell us she is a positronic robot, and recite the Three Laws of Robotics, plus the Zeroth Law, so clearly. Given all the current concern about AI being so dangerous for humanity, it's good to hear that first law cited at the outset of this promising season.

It was also good to see another crucial trilogy character up on the screen. Ebling Mis not only has a great name, but has always been one of my favorite characters in the series. He does look a lot younger than Mis in the original trilogy, but that's ok. It was also good to see Pritcher in evidence, given his importance in the ascension of The Mule.

Whose takeover of Kalgan on the screen was done just perfectly, bringing into play all the sadistic sway of The Mule. Indeed, though this Mule looks much better than the mutant described by Asimov, he has all the frightening flash and power of Asimov's pivotal character, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in the TV series.

And speaking of what characters look like, it was refreshing to see how the latest versions of the Empire's ruling triumvirate look. Unlike the trilogy, which did not have the clonal trio, there now are four players on the screen, vying for control of the galaxy: the First and the Second Foundations, the Mule, and Empire. I'll see you back here next week with my take on how this develops in the next episode.

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Published on July 11, 2025 10:11

After Recording Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, at Old Bear Records, October 2018

Tina Vozick & Paul Levinson at Old Bear Records, October 2018 Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

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Published on July 06, 2025 14:20

My Mom Jayne: Mariska Hargitay's Heroic Struggle to Find Herself and Her Mother Jayne Mansfield

Mariska Hargitay was already an excellent rarity in television -- indeed, unique, in that her character Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been on TV some 26 years and counting, longer than any other character in a TV drama. That's no surprise, given that Hargitay plays Benson with sensitivity and power in episode after episode. It's therefore also no surprise that My Mom Jayne, Hargitay's documentary about her mother Jayne Mansfield, is also unique, sensitive and powerful and unlike any documentary I've ever seen. My wife and I saw it last night on HBO Max, and were glued to the screen, often with tears in our eyes.

I grew up in the 1950s and early 60s, and my friends and I in the Bronx would often debate whom we'd like to spend the night with -- Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, or Mamie Van Doren. Of course, they all were highly attractive. But, believe it or not, we also discussed whom we'd like to talk to. We knew that Marilyn was married, then had been married, to playwright Arthur Miller, so we figured she had to be pretty smart. We knew almost nothing more about Jayne and Mamie than what they looked like.

My Mom Jayne makes the convincing case that Jayne Mansfield was no dummy either. She not only was contemplative and intelligent, she played the violin and piano. And after she'd established herself as a hot dumb blonde bombshell, she worked very hard and not very successfully to demonstrate that she had a brain, endeavoring to explain that the dumb blonde was an act. The popular culture is very resistant to that kind of change. It's hard to negate what made you famous, and get your devoted admirers to accept that all of that was just a stepping stone to something else. (One of the things that made The Beatles so transcendent is that they were able to move so smoothly from "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to "A Day in the Life" and the Abbey Road medley.)

Jayne Mansfield's struggle to get the world to know who she really was, cut short only by her untimely tragic death in an auto accident in 1967, is one of the two central themes of My Mom Jayne, and epitomized in an interview we see of Jayne by Jack Paar. That host of The Tonight Show for just five years (1957-1962) -- who, by the way. introduced The Beatles to America -- was the intellectual's intellectual, more so than Carson, Letterman, and even Dick Cavett. So Jayne must have figured she had a chance of convincing Jack about her fine mind and talent. But the interview ends with a smirking Jack saying he'd like Jayne to kiss him. (Speaking of Jack, he also sounds in that interview a lot like Johnny, which shows that Johnny adopted more than created his inimitable way of talking to his guests.)

The other central theme of My Mom Jayne is Mariska Hargitay's lifelong struggle to find out who she really is. Mariska was just three when her mother died, so she has no memories of her mother. Mariska's quest to find out who her mother was and therefore who Mariska is and how she got here turns out to be such a riveting, complex story, with so many twists and turns, it could almost have been a two-part episode of Law & Order: SVU. Indeed, there are so many surprises packed into the end, I won't say anything more, except that if you've been a fan of Mariska or Jayne, or a devotee of our popular culture, or just like a compelling true story, you'll want to see My Mom Jayne.

science fiction/fantasy novelette

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Published on July 06, 2025 10:31

Shocker at the End of Smoke's 2nd Episode

Talk about warnings for spoilers: here's one for what follows in my review of the first two episodes of Smoke, which have been up for a few days on Apple TV+. Indeed, the reveal at the end of the second episode of this new series is one of the biggest I ever remember seeing on any kind of TV series -- broadcast, cable, or streaming -- especially notable because it comes so early in the story.

***

Here it is: Gudsen, one of the two investigators looking into the two arsonists who are plaguing their city, is himself one of those two arsonists. We certainly see him setting a fire in a supermarket -- one of the two arsonists' modus operandi -- and smiling afterwards (Taron Egerton, who plays Gudsen, has a uniquely recognizable smile).

But does that 100% mean Gudsen is one of those two arsonists that he and his partner Calderone (very well played by Jurnee Smollett) are investigating? The TV series is an adaptation of the podcast, Firebug, which tells the story of a real-life firefighter who becomes an arsonist. But that doesn't mean that Smoke has to follow every part of the true-life story. Before that final reveal, we see Gudsen very frustrated. The literary agent he is seeking for the novel he is writing has turned him down. He doesn't get along well with his adopted son. Could he have set the fire to vent his emotions, setting it in the way one of the arsonists he and Calderone are investigating sets fires?

If yes, that would mean that Trolley Town is now being set on fire by three arsonists. But my guess it's more likely that Gudsen is indeed one of the original two arsonists, which is still a wild -- and true -- story indeed.

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Published on July 01, 2025 13:50

Countdown: A Touch of 24 and More

My wife and I saw the first three episodes of Countdown on Amazon Prime last night -- the debut of the 13-episode series, which will proceed one-by-one until it concludes in September -- and we liked it a lot.

It reminded me in some ways of 24 -- a very good thing, because we were devoted fans, and I put the best of 24 in the Top 10 of all-time best television series. I mean, there's no Jack Bauer, and no ticking clock, and each hour-long episode is not an hour of the same day unfolding in the story, but it is called Countdown, it does say "every second counts" in the above poster, and the good guys are struggling to prevent a terrorist attack in Los Angeles that would take as many lives as September 11th did in New York City.

[And there are some slight spoilers ahead...]

And what Countdown also has in common with 24 is some of the good guys, a task-force taken from several Federal agencies, get killed in the ongoing narrative.

And Countdown has something which I don't recall seeing in 24: Mark Meacham (well-played by Jensen Ackles) has a glioblastoma tumor in his brain which will drastically shorten his life. His doctor advises him to head off to some tropical isle to enjoy what's left of his life, but Meachum would rather spend his remaining time bringing down these bad guys. This makes him a unique agent, who can be fearless to the max in fighting human monsters because he has literally almost nothing to lose. (Incurable optimist that I am, I'm nonetheless hoping that he gets some new immunotherapy, and lives on beyond the end of this season -- or, if renewed, which I hope does happen, beyond the end of the series.)

I also have to say that it does my heart and soul good to see Federal agents doing what we need and want them to do -- fighting terrorists and true enemies in this country and keeping us safe -- rather than pulling good and decent people off the street because they weren't born in this country, or attacking a US Senator because he dared to pose a question to the Secretary of Homeland Security while she was talking in Los Angeles. In other words, I'm glad to see a narrative like Countdown because I'm sad, to say the least, about what's really happening in our country.

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Published on June 26, 2025 13:26

Senator Alex Padilla vs. the American Gestapo

The above is the complete extant video of what happened to US Senator Alex Padilla the other day in California, the state he represents. We don't see what happened before this, but the video begins with Sen. Padilla being pushed by some kind of Federal agent. Padilla tells his assaulter who he is -- "Senator Padilla" -- and his assaulter's response, joined by other assasulters, is to wrestle the Senator to the ground.
I use the word "assaulter" because assault is defined as any offensive or unwanted touching of the body. Assault is a crime, and it doesn't matter whether the assault is done by whatever kind of Federal agent. The job of any kind of police is to apprehend criminals, and stop crimes from happening if the crime has not already occurred. Their job is manifestly not to assault a US Senator, or any other person exercising their Constitutional rights -- in Senator Padilla's case, the right to free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment.

And assault, unfortunately, is not the worst crime that can be committed. In 1970, four unarmed protestors at Kent State University were shot dead by National Guardsmen sent there by the governor of Ohio. None of those murderers were ever brought to justice.
I call them, and their current incarnations, Gestapo, because that's what this flagrant disregard of rights, and appliance of violence to crush those rights, ultimately leads to. Whether it's a US Senator pushed to the floor and handcuffed, or Marines facing down peaceful protestors in Los Angeles today, these assaults on our democracy need to stop. And their perpetrators, and the people who put them in that place, need to be brought before a court of law.
Law enforcement needs to stay focused on the prevention and solving of real crimes, like the assassination of Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in Minnesota early today.

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Published on June 14, 2025 15:29

The Better Sister: A Better Who Dunnit

My wife and I binged The Better Sister on Amazon Prime the past few nights, and we really enjoyed it. Here's why:

Top-notch cast: I mean, you can't go wrong with Jessica Biel (a sister) and Kim Dickens (a police detective). And Elizabeth Banks (Love and Mercy!) as the other sister was superb. (She was also in an hilarious episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm -- actually all its episodes are.) It was great to see Gloria Reuben (playing a lawyer) back on the screen, and Michael Harney (NYPD Blue!) playing Doorman Arty. Also Corey Stoll and Matthew Modine with less time on the screen, were memorable too.The story was pretty strong, too. I did guess who did the killing pretty early on. But that's just me, and it was fun to see the story unfold.The title itself was good, because it invites you to think about who the better sister is, as the plot unfolds.It takes place mostly in New York -- in both the Hamptons and NYC -- always a plus with me.It's a summer story, with lots of swimming, that plays all kinds of roles.And The Better Sister moves quickly, in a stylish way that avoids swagger. All of this based on a 2019 single novel by Alafair Burke, herself the daughter of crime novelist James Lee Burke, and she's also a professor of law at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY (where I used to teach before coming to Fordham) a little over an hour west of the Hamptons.

Will there be a second season? No current plans for one, but I certainly hope there is one.

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Published on June 12, 2025 18:46