Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 75

Dexter: New Blood: Finale: Superb and I Didn't Like It At All

Well, I thought the finale of Dexter: New Blood was superb and powerful, and I didn't like it at all. I'll tell you why after the spoiler warning. If you've already seen the finale, you'll know why.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Dexter was right in his thinking, made clear in the past few episodes, that Harrison needed Dexter's guidance and fathering to channel Harrison's dark passenger (which was very real and dangerous) in way that kept Harrison from prison and worse, getting killed. Nothing that had happened in tonight's finale warranted Dexter changing his mind.

Now, it's true that if Dexter had left Iron Lake, and taken on a new identity again, that would also have left Harrison without a father. But not permanently. Dexter could have figured out a way to get back to Harrison, wherever Harrison was, sooner or later.

And with Harrison killing his father, there is no way. And what impact will killing his father have on Harrison? How will Harrison get over that? Now he not only has that dark passenger, but the guilt of killing his own father to bear, for the rest of his life.

So here's what I think Dexter should have done: run away to a new life. Not instructing Harrison to unlock the trigger of the rifle. This, in addition to being a better ending, would have made for a much better second season, if ever there is one. As it is, we'll have to be content with Dexter being the same scolding or comforting vision of Harrison's, as Deb was to Dexter this season.

But, hey, this isn't my series. I'm just a viewer and a reviewer. And this was a great series, deserving of all kinds of credit. Up to but not including the very end.

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 January 09, 2022 14:38

Podcast Review of Station Eleven 1.8-9

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 234, in which I review episodes eight and nine of Station Eleven on HBO Max.

Podcast reviews of Station Eleven episodes one to three ...episodes four and five... episodes six and seven

Written blog post review of Station Eleven 1.8-9

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Published on January 06, 2022 14:54

Station Eleven 1.8-9: Before and After

Station Eleven is such a deep and deeply nuanced story, it's going to be talked about and studied for years, even decades, to come. Just as episodes 1.8 and 1.9 coax us through these times and time spans. If this characterization seems a little more poetic than usual, it's because Station Eleven is itself pure poetry.
[Spoilers ahead, of course ... ]

It's 2040, according to the walls of the airport/museum. Elizabeth has white hair. Earlier, we see Kirsten, probably 20 years after 2040, or maybe longer, also with white hair. Time flies when you're having a good time, and apparently just as much or even more when you're not. That's a lot about the future. And though the Prophet aka Tyler tells Kirsten the past, the Before, does not exist or matter, his knowledge of the airport prompts Kirsten to comment to him, "I guess there is a Before". One of the charms of Kirsten is the time she takes with her rejoinders. That comes with being such an eagle-eyed observer of reality, such as it is. As for the Prophet, he later tells Kirsten that the Before is coming, and vows that he's not going to let that happen. That Before, by the way, is our off-screen world, the world we're living in right now.

When Kirsten gets to see Sarah, she tells Kirsten that "the play's the thing". It's more than that in this meta-Shakespearean post-apocalypse narrative. In Station Eleven, the play is life. Sarah, who may be dying from a heart attack, also tells Kirsten that she has to get better at saying goodbye.

Which brings us to the next episode, 1.9, in which Kirsten says a final goodbye to Jeevan (but we later learn that "goodbyes are better than death"), in a story literally pregnant with profundities, including the very experience of pregnancy. "There's a person inside me. I don't like strangers," one of the pregnant women tells Jeevan. And this episode -- an inspiring paean to life -- concludes with Jeevan having and raising a family with her, in the 20 years later that we've seen in the previous episode 1.8.

Earlier, Terry, a real but de-licensed doctor who runs the department store now a birthing center, says the essence of being a doctor is having "the courage to bear witness to death" -- keen truth, especially relevant in our own age of COVID. She's a font not only of wisdom but winning detail, telling Jeevan, with whom she left an oreo cookie that he ate (it did look good), that it's an example of "five centimeters" -- useful information for a de facto obstetrician, who is better identified by one of the women whose baby he helps deliver, as a healer.

And these episodes, especially, 1.9, are indeed healing. A wondrous and welcome thing to find in a story about the near end of the world.

They're also very satisfyingly connective. Tyler, older than a boy, younger than a man, makes an appearance at the birthing center, and offers another disparagement of the Before. Jeevan gives him a strange look.

So let's get to next week, and the final episode, number Ten, of Station Eleven.

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Published on January 06, 2022 13:12

Les Bicyclettes de Belsize: Through to the Skies

As I mentioned on Twitter, Facebook, and all the usual places, I just added Engelbert Humperdinck's "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize," his 1968 hit record which I always loved -- and thought I loved more than I should have -- to my Science Fiction and Fantasy Songs playlist on Spotify, as you can see below. It's the 16th song on the list, but they're not in any kind of ranking. "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize" just seemed to go well with "Over the Rainbow," at #15. Both after all are fantasy songs, both come from motion pictures with fantasy narratives, and both motion pictures are musicals.

Of course I've seen "Over the Rainbow," many times, but never the Les Bicyclettes de Belsize movie. So I figured the least I could do is see it. And lo and behold, it's available, free, on YouTube. I've put it below, in case you want to see it, too.

It's a short film -- a shade under 30 minutes -- and actually quite charming. Steve, a young man, rides a bicycle, eventually in a park (in London, but not Belsize Park, which is a real place in London). He crashes through a poster of beautiful model, Julie. He instantly falls in love with her. She's looking for love. They soon meet in the park while she's on a photo shoot. He gets off his bike to be with her, and they walk off hand in hand. Meanwhile, a little girl has developed a crush on Steve. She's a little distraught to see Steve walk off with Julie, but then a little boy comes by, and we get a double happy ending. There are other songs throughout the short film, but none hold a candle to "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize".

The movie has a pleasant psychedelic feel. The lead almost could've been played by Donovan. The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour was just out the previous year, and love was still very much in the air. There's a song in the Les Bicyclettes de Belsize movie about needing love, and I wonder if it was inspired by John Lennon's "All You Need Is Love," also out a year before "Les Bicyclettes."

Anyway, invest the half hour, and enjoy ...

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Published on January 04, 2022 22:09

Podcast Review of Return to Hogwarts

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 233, in which I review Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts on HBO Max.

Other podcast episodes about Harry Potter: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The View from New York ... Harry Potter and the iPhone ... Harry Potter and the Refutation of Illiteracy ...

Written blog post review of Return to Hogwarts

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Published on January 03, 2022 11:57

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts: "I Love You"

Checking in with a review of Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, just up on HBO Max. I loved it. Here's why:

I've always vastly preferred science fiction to fantasy, but you'd have to be insenseate to not immensely enjoy Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I'm also a father who happily drove a few blocks at the stroke of midnight to the Barnes & Noble to get a copy of whatever Harry Potter novel for my daughter Molly. The only other time I did anything like that in my life was rushing out to a Barnes and Noble to get s copy of Foundation's Edge, fourth novel in the best science fiction series ever written, as soon as I saw it had been published. (Jared Harris plays Foundation protagonist Hari Seldon in the TV series on Apple TV+, making it especially good to see his father Richard Harris again as Dumbledore in Return to Hogwarts.)

Molly also encouraged me -- everyone in the family -- to read all the Potter novels, which I did. She was a good influence. I not only devoured the novels at record binge-worthy speed, but I immediately began citing the Harry Potter phenomenon as powerful proof that literacy wasn't dying due to the Internet. I'm always happy to refute the glum prophets of doom that populate academe and the cultural world at large.

Now as to the reunion movie, it was just bursting with joy, energy, and tears, happy and sad. As Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint were crystal clear about, they literally grew up making those movies (which I also saw with my family as soon as they were released). That experience not only changed Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint's lives. It made their lives. And these three actors and everyone in the documentary had a beacon of insight into how that happened. Return to Hogwarts could be the basis of a doctoral dissertation about children who become adults in the carnival of fame and work that spanned eight blockbuster movies and ten crucial years.

One of the ways that the making of these movies changed the lives of the actors and crew-- actually, the main way -- is that they increasingly became a family, and far more than in a metaphoric sense. I think my favorite part of Return to Hogwarts is near the end, when Grint blurts out to Watson, "I love you!". She's overwhelmed with emotion. Both are. And although Grint quickly clarifies that it's "as friends," we all can clearly see that it's more than that. It may not be romantic love -- who really knows -- but it's something deeper, more profound, more magical than the love we might feel for even a close friend.

Which pretty well sums up the way I feel about the Harry Potter novels and movies and their wonderful impact on our culture, and this now classic documentary.

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Published on January 03, 2022 10:08

Catch and Release 1.2-1.8: Not about Fish and Much More than You Think

Back with a review of the rest of Catch and Release (I reviewed the first episode at the end of this past November), the new freezing-sleaze Nordic Noir series by Kristine Berg and Arne Berggren. It's on Norwegian and Australian television, not yet here in the United States. But I'm sure it will be, and when it is, I'd say catch it whenever you're in the mood for an eight-episode ride through snow, complex police interactions, revenge, and murder.

[Some mild spoilers ahead ...]

Let's begin where I left off, after watching and reviewing the first episode. I said the protagonist was Irja (well played by Anitta Suikkari), an elderly cop or detective who left the police because she only has weeks to live (terminal cancer), but comes back to work to investigate the murder of an old guy who was shot when he was fishing. I was wrong about a bunch of things in that characterization: Irja is not the only protagonist, and her reason for coming back to work is not what I thought and said. She does have major role, though, and be sure to watch all eight episodes to see what that is, and how it turns out.

The other protagonist is also a policewoman, as young and fresh as Irja is old and worn. But Filippa (excellent performance by Mathilde Sofie Henriksen) has a sharp, analytic mind and able to do her work through a continuing barrage of insults, snubs, and old-fashioned male chauvinism. She's so good at her work that I'd say her character could well have some more cases to investigate, which I'd definitely look forward to seeing. (I also liked Jesper Malm as Detective Anders Ødegård.)

The case at hand involves several murders in addition to the first, as well as a group of men who take advantage of high-school-aged young women. The countryside of northern Norway is beautiful and beckoning, but it disguises the kind of sexual predation that we associate with big cities. "Catch and Release" refers to the practice of fishermen, who catch fish and release them, so other fishermen can catch and release, etc. But in this at-times harrowing series, it's vulnerable young women who are caught and released, to be caught and released again and again.

I'll be interviewing Kristine Berg and Arne Berggren -- writers, directors, and creators of this memorable series -- next Wednesday. Check back here for the YouTube video and Light On Light Through (my audio podcast) links.

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Published on January 02, 2022 18:34

Dexter: New Blood 1.9: One Down, One to Go

Well, another heart in your throat episode of Dexter: New Blood -- 1.9 -- which ties up one big package and leaves open another.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Kurt was savage, cunning, pouncing without fear, but no match for Dexter. Especially because Dexter is now enhanced with the relief of telling Harrison everything. Including what Deb (her voice inside Dexter) pleaded with Dexter not to do: tell Harrison that the way Dexter made sure that the psychos he killed didn't do anymore harm was, well, to kill them.

So Dexter and Harrison are good. Not so much Angela, who now has even more evidence that Dexter was the Bay City Butcher. As I said last week, this puts Dexter into an impossible position. He's certainly not going to kill Angela. Will he let her put him in prison? That would leave Harrison unprotected. But that would still be preferable to killing Angela.

A lot of what we'll see next week in the finale depends, I guess, on whether this is a series or a season finale. And at this point, Showtime is saying they just don't know. I'm hoping, obviously, that the series continues. (Obvious, if you've read my prior reviews, and see how much I admire this reboot.) My guess is Michael C. Hall and Jack Alcott feel that way, too. And I think I saw somewhere that creator Clyde Phillips might be open to that, as well.

I'll be back here next week after I see the finale, and see how that may put in a foundation for at least another season of this unique and brilliant series.

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 January 02, 2022 11:24

Stay Close: Watch Soon

I thought a good way to start off the New Year would be a review of Stay Close, Harbin Coben's latest mini-series, on Netflix. I've enjoyed all the series based on his novels, and Stay Close is one of the best.

[Believe or not, no big spoilers ahead.]

Lots of things to like in this classic Coben scenario of a woman about to be married, but, oops, she has a past with a different identity, in this case, just about knocking on her front door.

Among my favorite ingredients:

James Nesbitt as Detective Broome -- I think of Broome as a British (actually, Northern Irish) Bosch, because, well, Nesbitt looks and acts a lot like Titus Welliver as Bosch, indefatigable, taking it on the chain, heart of gold. Nesbitt was excellent in Bloodlands, and, powerful, again, in Stay Close.'Ken' and 'Barbie' are great villains, with a psycho banter and style right out of Clockwork Orange.And speaking of 'Barbie,' the women in Stay Close are every bit as dexterous with weapons as the men. Refreshing to see, including in the protagonist Megan (very well played by Cush Jumbo).Another memorable character, Harry Sutton by Eddie Izzard. And good to see Richard Armitage (MI5) again.Now, as to the plot, I don't want to give too much away, so here's what I'll say. This is a very complex story, with multiple victims and multiple suspects, and the ending surprised me, and since I'm usually pretty good at spotting who did what, I'd say it's likely to surprise you.

Which is a good thing. Stay Close is easily bingeable and eminently rewarding,

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Published on January 01, 2022 10:23