Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 67
March 19, 2022
Podcast Review of Severance 1.6
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 265, in which I review Severance episode 1.6 on Apple TV+.
Written blog post review of Severance 1.6
podcast reviews of Severance: 1.1-1.2... 1.3... 1.4... 1.5
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Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Mark gets sent to the hateful "Break Room" by Harmony, but gets even more rebellious. He leads his three severed compatriots to Burt's Optics and Design division, which seems like a supermarket in comparison to Mark's four-person operation. All of four of them are wondering aloud about the ultimate purpose of Lumon, and what everyone is really doing in their work on the severed floor.
Irving is ready to be friends with Burt, but not yet with any benefits. Dylan gets a visit at his home from Lumon, which tells us how deeply Lumon has the outies under its thumb. We've already seen and are seeing more of Harmony mucking around in Mark's life on the outside. Would be interesting to learn more about how Harmony came to be next door to Mark on the outside, and what role that played in Mark going for the severance.
Back to Dylan -- I said last week that Dylan's rebelliousness as an innie might be a cover for his being a Lumon plant in the innies, but the visit he got at home pretty much disproves that. Yet there's much more story to Lumon and its agents in the outside world. We're beginning to get an inkling of that with the politician -- husband of the woman Mark's sister meets in the birthing cabins -- and the news story that he supported the implementation of severance at Lumon. This means there was public debate about that move. We need to know more about the people who opposed it. Where are they and what are they doing now?
Petey's story could provide more information and insight into Lumon on the outside. The company is obviously not happy about reintegration working. Did they kill Petey, or did he die because of ill-effects from the reintegration? The budding relationship between Mark and Petey's daughter could provide some answers.
And I'll be back here next week with a review of the answers and questions we get in the next episode of this unique and fascinating series.
See also Severance 1.1-1.2: Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's musicMarch 18, 2022
Podcast Review of Suspicion (Season 1) Finale
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 264, in which I review the season one finale of Suspicion on Apple TV+.
Written blog post review of this episode of Suspicion
Podcast reviews of Suspicion 1.1-1.3... Suspicion 1.4 ... Suspicion 1.5... Suspicion 1.6... Suspicion 1.7
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Suspicion (Season 1) FInale: Truth
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Here are some of the answers:
1. What Katharine did wrong in suppressing Eric Cresswell's report in the 1990s was not only delay the world's awareness of the dangers of climate change, but subvert the very notion of truth itself. That's about the biggest mea culpa I've ever seen in a TV series or a movie. She's responsible for Trumpism, including the lies about COVID, and Putin's spewing of lies about his monstrous invasion of Ukraine. None of that is specifically said in the finale, but the undermining of truth has had those, and other, baneful results. It's not as if that didn't happen before what Katherine did -- propaganda is as old as humanity, and other monsters like Hitler used it very effectively and disastrously against the world. But truth has certainly taken a beaten in this current world of ours, and Katherine is responsible for that? Wow! I'm not sure if that's just a little too ambitious for this finale, or way over the top.
2. Of all the original group of suspects, it looks as if Aadesh was the only one totally innocent at the end of the finale, right? That's a nice piece of work. So, let's see: Natalie killed Martin, Sean is a hired killer (more on him in a moment), Tara (Cresswell's daughter) was responsible for the whole kidnapping plan in the first place, and Eddie was never part of the kidnapping -- he's a cop*. All in all, a nice piece of whodunnit work. *Which means, as ns2110theonly pointed out to me on YouTube, that Eddie's innocent too!
3. Also a very good twist is Leo being responsible -- part of the conspiracy -- for is own kidnapping.
Let's get to some questions:
Actually, they all revolve around Sean. Who sent him that huge amount of money that he was justifiably smiling at as it came through on his phone at end? Katherine? Probably ... though I wouldn't rule out some other nefarious group we don't quite know about. And ... he seemed to be a pretty good shot. Was he deliberately trying to stop Eddie but not kill Eddie when Sean shot him? If I had to bet on this, I'd say, yes.
Questions like that are grist for a second season, which I'd definitely see. The first was a really flavorful, strong cup of tea.
See also Suspicion 1.1-2: Excellent Start, But Is It Four or Five? ... Suspicion 1.3: The Fifth ... Suspicion 1.4: Surprises and Invincibility ... Suspicion 1.5: Tara and Sean ... Suspicion 1.6: Martin, Sean, and Tara ... Suspicion 1.7: The Mystery Continues
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
March 17, 2022
Podcast Review of Raised by Wolves season 2 finale
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 263, in which I review the Raised by Wolves season 2 finale on HBO Max.
written blog post review of this episode
Further listening:
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.7
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.6
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.5
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.4
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.3
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.1-2.2
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 1-3
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 4-5
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 6-10
Further reading:
Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Interaction of Space and Religion
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
Raised by Wolves Season 2 Finale: Behind the Open Door
An excellent Raised by Wolves Season 2 finale, which like all good finales to seasons in which the series isn't or shouldn't be concluded, raises far more questions than it answers.
[Yes, there will be spoilers ahead ... ]
First, Mother's disposal of the monstruos flying serpent happened so early in the episode, you had to know there was going to be more, much more.
Most of those questions and complications, on their way to being crises, revolve around Grandmother. The removal of her veil -- given to Mother to shield her emotions so that she can kill #7, her serpent offspring -- unleashes Grandmother's emotions, most of which are not good.
Indeed, the one ok emotion she displays is her flirtatious affection for Father. This gives him a chance to proclaim his devotion to Mother, and was fun to see.
Otherwise, she's sending the children on the way to devolve into ... those Creature from the Black Lagoon sea creatures, one of which took Tempest's baby and Hunter killed. So these creatures are apparently devolved humans, which again raises the question of how long ago did humans reach this planet, clearly well before the arrival of our current protagonists (or, for all we know, humankind evolved on this planet first, and came to Earth).
The answers to those questions will clearly require another season or more. Also needing answers are what will happen to Mother, and what will happen to Marcus? He was turned into something else at the end of this episode, and Mother is Grandmother's prisoner.
Obviously, I'm very much up for a third season, and I hope HBO Max makes it happen. I really enjoyed this second second -- on balance, more than the first -- and I'll conclude by saying I really like the opening song under the credits by Mariam Wallentin and Ben Frost ... "The door that finally opens ... " HBO Max, keep that door open!
See also Raised by Wolves 2.1-2: A Viking Out in Space, with Androids ... Raised by Wolves 2.3: Marcus and the Android Skeleton ... Raised by Wolves 2.4: Kinds of Sentience and Conflicts ... Raised by Wolves 2.5: Science Fiction and Horror ... Raised by Wolves 2.6: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction ... Raised by Wolves 2.7: Mothers and Babies
And see also Raised by Wolves 1.1: Fast Action and Deep Philosophy ... Raised by Wolves 1.2-3: More than Meets the Eye ... Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune ...Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face ... Raised by Wolves 1.8-1.9: Frankenstein and Motherhood ... Raised by Wolves Season One Finale: The Serpent
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
March 16, 2022
Hitler, Trump, and Putin: Sharpening the Comparisons
In the past few years, leaders ranging from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin have been compared to Adolf Hitler. I think the comparisons are valid. But Hitler had more than a decade-long career as the leader of Germany, and it might be useful to sharpen the comparisons by specifying to what point in Hitler's career the comparisons apply.
Hitler at his worst was responsible for the murder of six million Jewish people and tens of thousands of Roma. Putin has certainly not come close to that number as yet, and it is not clear at this point that Trump has been responsible for murder. Where, then, do they currently correlate to Hitler's horrendous career?
Shortly before and leading to the onset of World War II, Hitler annexed pieces of the other countries around him. In 1938, Hitler convinced Neville Chamberlain (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. A year later, Hitler and Stalin's conquest of Poland ignited the Second World War. Clearly, Putin's attempt to annex Ukraine is somewhere between Hitler's annexation of Sudetenland and Poland. In that undeniable, tragic way, Putin is indeed like Hitler.
Trump's similarity to Hitler comes at a much earlier time. Hitler rose to power condemning the press that truthfully reported on his activities as the Lugenpresse -- the lying press -- just as Trump labeled and still continues to call news organizations that truthfully report on his activities as fake news. By 1932, Hitler's Nazi party received enough votes in the general election that the German President, von Hindenburg, appointed Hitler as Chancellor. Successive elections resulted in Hitler going out of and back into power. By 1933, Hitler was back as Chancellor, and before that year ended all political parties other than the Nazis were banned in Germany. I would say Trump most accurately compares to Hitler circa 1932 to 1933.
The point of these comparisons, and the hope that resides in them, is that there is still time to prevent the further rise of Trump and Putin. With the current and immensely destructive attack on Ukraine, Putin is the one who needs to be stopped most immediately. The Ukrainian people are doing an heroic job of this, but they need even more help from U.S., NATO, and the free world, as Ukraine has repeatedly requested and experts ranging from U. S. Army lieutenant colonel (ret.) Alexander Vindman and former U. S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul have repeatedly made clear. Trump is not an immediate danger right now, but the Republicans need to nominate someone else for the 2024 election -- or, if they nominate Trump again, he needs to be soundly defeated again.
We the people in this world who believe in freedom have our work cut out for us.
March 15, 2022
The Adam Project: Impact of Time Travel on the Family
Just saw the The Adam Project, a pretty good time-travel movie on Netflix. Here's a pretty much non-spoiler review:
Adam from the future travels back to 2022, meets his younger, 12-year old self, and enlists him (his younger self) in getting their father, Louis, from inventing time travel. If you think that set-up invokes all kinds of time-travel paradoxes -- starting with wouldn't his younger self remember all of this, and wouldn't that distort his life -- you'd be right.
I've found you can pretty much divide time travel stories into those that respect and attempt to deal with these kinds of paradoxes, and those that don't. 12 Monkeys, the 1995 movie, would be an example of among the best attempts to deal with the paradoxes, as would Déjà vu in 2006. I usually don't waste time critiquing turkeys of movies and TV shows, so I won't mention that far greater number that ignore or don't bother to pay much attention to the paradoxes.
I said The Adam Project was pretty good, because it at least acknowledged some of the paradoxes. But its solutions were just hand-waving -- saying if a character disturbed time in such and such a way, it would be ok because -- and didn't really supply an explanation. The net result: it was enjoyable as time travel movie, but not great, and its real strengths reside elsewhere.
Those would be in the family story, buttressed by two very talented stars -- Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner -- playing Adam's father and mother. Walker Scobell as young Adam was also quite good, and Ryan Reynolds as adult Adam was ok (Tom Cruise was originally supposed to play the part, back in 2012). All of this added up to the sacrifices made by Louis being meaningful and even memorable.
So ... if you're devotee of time travel, as I am, see the movie. You'll enjoy it, even if you're not rewarded with brilliant renditions of the paradoxes.
a little time travel story -- free
Christine Feldman-Barrett interviewed by Paul Levinson about A Women's History of the Beatles
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 262, in which I interview Dr. Christine Feldman-Barrett about her book, A Women's History of the Beatles.
Buy the book here Watch video of this interview My reviews of Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back "It's Real Life" -- free, alternate history short story about The Beatles my very first published article (in 1971): "A Vote for McCartney"Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
March 13, 2022
Podcast Review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 261, in which I review Star Trek: Picard 2.2 on Paramount+
written blog post review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard season 1
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