Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 80

CSI: Vegas 1.8: Down the Drain

Best line in CSI: Vegas 1.8 comes from Allie, who can't resist noting that a body in a bathtub with hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid was "poured down the drain".  The result -- what was left of the melted body -- is a sickening mess.  But it provides a suitable occasion for Gil to earlier say that their evidence went "down the drain".  And Allie says "down the drain" a third time. And later on, Sara talks about a likely decedent being "down Eric Starr's [or Shaw's] drain"  So that phrase gets four justifiably starring mentions in this episode.  

Meanwhile, on the David Hodges case, Sara has the good idea of hiring Janice Woo, an expert witness set to testify against David, to help Sara and CSI with the drain murder. Later, Sara has a satisfying confrontation over garbage with the evil Anson Wix.  Fortunately it was not liquified, so Sara was able to haul it off.  A good night for Sara.

Gil, in addition to getting off one of the good "drain" lines, also has a good night.  He clears a petite blonde from the charge of smashing Shaw's head against the wall and then putting him in the bathtub with the peroxide, the acid, and the drain.  And, looking through the nauseating remains in the bathtub, Gil finds Sara's missing ring.  Near the end of the episode, he puts it back on Sara's finger, right where it belongs.  A noble, loving gesture.

And I'll be back here soon -- actually, in a few minutes -- with my review of episode 1.9, which I also just had the pleasure of seeing.

See also: CSI: Vegas 1.1: CSI on Trial ... CSI: Vegas 1.2: My Half-Joking Suggestion for the Villain ... CSI: Vegas 1.3: Three Especially Enjoyable Facets ... CSI: Vegas 1.4: Difficult Progress ... CSI: Vegas 1.5: Double Header ... CSI: Vegas: 1.6: Bald Luminol ... CSI: Vegas 1.7: Monet, Grissom, and Truth

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La Brea Season One Finale: A Fine Set of Time Travelling Chess Pieces in Place

An excellent season one finale of La Brea just on NBC tonight, confirming my view that La Brea is the best new science fiction series on network television in years.

Several crucial questions were answered, at least partially.  The sinkholes are not a natural occurrence.  They were created by a group of scientists, including Rebecca and Isaiah/Gavin's grandfather.  This means La Brea is even much more of a classic time travel story than it may have appeared at first.  Scientists building time machines, in which the machines are sinkholes to the past which also can be climbed back through to the present -- all that is catnip in storytelling for me.

We still don't know who Isaiah's grandfather is, and why he was so determined not to let Isaiah go back to the present and become Gavin.  In a related development, we saw the outside of the facility that Rebecca built 12,000 years ago, but we don't what's in it.  All of that is grist for Season Two.

And also up for Season Two are Gavin, Izzy, and adult Lilly getting back to prehistoric Seattle, presumably to the same exact time 12,000 years in the past as Eve and company.  It'll be quite a trip to see the family reunited.  My vote is for a boat that travels down south not too far from the shore.

La Brea took its time in getting all of these pieces in place.  The first season probably focused too long on the initial impact of the sinkhole in Los Angeles, and the stories of people on both sides of the time divide.  But now that almost everyone is where they should be -- if not in terms of what they want, but as players in a superior time travel drama -- I'm happy and all set for what the next season delivers to us.  The mammoth on the beach with those tusks is a good start.

See also La Brea 1.1: Pros and Cons of Falling Into the Past ... La Brea 1.2: Deepening Horizons ... La Brea 1.3: Descending Into the Maelstrom ... La Brea 1.4: Expanding Horizons ... La Brea 1.5: The Letter and the Resemblance ... La Brea 1.6: Cross-Temporal Communication ... La Brea 1.7: Time Sinkholes Not Only in Different Places but from Different Times ... La Brea 1.8: Clearer Visions ... La Brea 1.9: Lilly and the Cow

 
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Hanna Season 3: The Roller Coaster Arrives at the Station

Finally had a chance to see the short final season -- six episodes in season 3, rather than the eight episodes in each of seasons 1 and 2 -- of Hanna on Amazon Prime Video since 24 November 2021.  Yeah, the competition, i.e., The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+, was just too appealing.

But Hanna was as strong as ever, non-stop rollercoaster action with unpredictable swerves with characters we've come to care about, starting with Hanna.   She's more accomplished than ever, but also more introspective, as befits someone with her pedigree and current situation.

As was the case since the second season, she's enormously helped by Marissa, whose backstory is finally spelled out in Season 3.  Indeed, this season is so much about Marissa that it could have been called Marissa, or maybe Hanna and Marissa.  Esme Creed-Miles does a fine job as Hanna, and Mireille Enos is better than ever as Marissa, which is to say, she deserves at least an Emmy nomination for her performance in this final season.

Ray Liotta is introduced as the new archvillain Gordon Evans, replacing Dermot Mulroney's John Carmichael in that role.   Here I'd say the combination of the characters and the acting and plot wasn't the best.  Evans was too one-dimensional, betraying not a shred of decency, and Carmichael's evolution needed a bit more explanation.

But the young women in UTRAX were all well acted and motivated as characters. and all in all I'd rate this finale season as well worth seeing, and providing a satisfying closure that leaves room for a sequel somewhere down the road, which I'd definitely find time to watch.

See also Hanna 2: High Intellect and Octane Espionage ... Hanna: Top Notch

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Podcast Review of Dexter: New Blood 1.4

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 220, in which I review Dexter: New Blood 1.4 on Showtime.

Written blog post review of Dexter: New Blood 1.4

Written review of episodes in all eight seasons of Dexter (the original series):

Reviews of Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future" ... Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son ... Dexter 8.10: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Dexter 8.11: "Not the Old Dexter" ... Dexter Series Finale: Solitude, Style, and a Modicum of Hope

Reviews of  Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle

Reviews of  Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Gellar Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

  Reviews of Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

Reviews of  Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

Reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

  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

Season 1: First Place to Dexter   

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Podcast Review of Invasion 1.8

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 219, in which I review the eighth episode of Invasion on Apple TV+. 

Earlier podcasts about Invasion:

November 20, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.8 ... November 13, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.6 ... November 6, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.5 ... November 2, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.4 ... October 26, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.1-3

Written blog post review of Invasion 1.7 is here.

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Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.6: The Man on the Roof

Lots of funny parts in Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.6 last night, but, some reason, my favorite was the guy on Larry's roof.  Maybe it was because I had a guy on my roof, too, in the not too distant past, before our never-ending age of COVID.   Though, come to think of it, he was up in one of our trees.

But the point is: he was a gardener not a tree specialist, and we needed a dangling big branch pretty high up to be cut down in a hurry, and all the tree specialists we knew were booked for weeks.  So our gardener climbed up there, with all kinds of ropes, and my wife and I worried about the worst.  Fortunately, he came down ok, but the branch he sawed off came this close to taking out one of our windows, because the rope layout wasn't that good.  Next time we'll wait for a tree guy.

Larry's house is often the funniest place on the show.  Leon's always there, talking about what he likes to tap, which has become de rigueur on Curb, and I'm fine with that.  But Larry's entitled to his grievances and idiosyncrasies if they're in his own home, right?

The other best part of the show was Jeff standing up to Larry about charging his phone in the restaurant.  It's rare that Jeff does this, which makes it good to see, though in this case, I'd say Larry is 100% right.  I mean, his phone was just about out of power, so Jeff could've at least given Larry the charge for ten minutes.

One story which I didn't agree with Larry about was the chiropractor's underpants (hey, that could've been a good title for this review).  What was Larry doing looking at that so long?  I would've turned my attention to my phone ... though, come to think of it, Larry's phone might have still been uncharged at that point, I don't recall.  But even putting the phone aside, Larry should have just looked out of a window.

See you here next week.

See also Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.1: Not Quite Tsuris ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.2: Twist on Twist ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.3: Highs and Lows ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.4-5: How Much of a Shirt?

See also:  Curb Your Enthusiasm 10.1: Reunited! ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 10.3: Garbage Cans and Apples ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 10.8: Meets Mad Men ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 10.9: Science Fiction ... Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10 Finale: Unjust Desserts

See also: Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.1: Hilarious! ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.2: Wife Swapping ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.3: Benefits ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.4: "Hold You in his Armchair" ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.5: Schmata At Large ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.8: The Unexpected Advocate ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.9: Salmon Discretion ... Curb Your Enthusiasm 9.10: Outfit Tracker

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Hightown 2.6: True Love and Deception

 

Hightown 2.6 came back tonight after a two-week gap with a top-notch episode.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

First and foremost: Good to see Ray and Renee together.  But why, when Ray asked her what it was that got her to come see him, didn't she tell him that she thinks she's carrying his baby? I mean, yeah, she wants to keep her options open, but certainly telling Ray that is better than her telling him she accidentally shot and killed Jorge, or telling Ray nothing, which will keep his suspicions in play?

Next, not so good to see Jackie in such a tailspin.  Leslie did make it clear that she was in it just for the fun, and she was straight.  But that's Jackie's character -- she falls fast and hard for people, and that can pull her in directions way beyond her common sense.  I felt bad to see Ed say he's going to retire because of what Jackie said to him -- but I did say that I didn't expect to last this season.

I'm enjoying seeing Frankie under increasing pressure.  He's usually about as calm as they come, but Jorge missing after Frankie killed Daisey right in from Jorge is getting to Frankie.  Here's my prediction: when Frankie goes, it will be because Osito kills him.

Speaking of which -- it's beginning to be time for Osito to get out of prison. I have no idea just how that is going to come to pass, but especially with Jorge gone, Frankie needs someone to back him.

The table's set for major confrontations and upheavals in Hightown.  The Cape in December is a good time for that to happen.

See also Hightown 2.1: Switching Ups and Downs ... Hightown 2.2: Some of My Favorite Things ... Hightown 2.3: Dinners and Almost Dinners ... Hightown 2.4: Approaching Midseason Predictions ... Hightown 2.5: Bullets and Love

And see also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry ... Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood ... Hightown 1.5-6: Turning Point and the Real True ... Hightown 1.7: Two Things ... Hightown 1.8: Up and Down and Up

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Dexter: New Blood 1.4: Harrison and Kurt

A superb Dexter 1.4 tonight, in which the truth comes out -- at least to us, and in one case, also to Dexter -- about two people we wondered about after last week's episode.

[Spoilers follow ... ]

First and foremost, we now know that Harrison is Dexter's son in the way that Dexter most feared.  Harrison stabbed and nearly killed Ethan.  Harrison revved himself up, looking at images of the Trinity killer and Harrison's mother, slain by Trinity -- and then he attacked Ethan.  Why Ethan?  His drawings, which Harrison saw, made Ethan a good victim, someone whom Harrison could spin his made-up story around. And Harrison knew that Audrey and the school bullies, for their own separate reasons, would admire Harrison for his "heroism".  The only problem that Harrison may not have thought about, or thought out to any big extent, is what his father Dexter will do about this.   Possibly, one of Harrison's motivations is to get his father to totally love him by doing what Dexter did and does.  As for Dexter, I'd say there's no way he'll do anything other than using all his smarts and talents to protect his son.

And then there's Kurt, someone who, so far, Dexter doesn't know the full truth about.  Clearly, Kurt made up the story about Matt facetiming him, to tamp down the police investigation into Matt's disappearance.  And that's because ... Kurt is the sicko who is kidnapping and then killing those girls, and doesn't want the police anywhere near him.

Is it too much of a coincidence that the father of the guy Dexter killed is himself a killer? Probably.  But the story is so good, the situations so compelling, that I'm ok with that coincidence, and very much looking forward to next week and beyond on this riveting reboot.

See also Dexter: New Blood 1.1: Back with a Vengeance ... Dexter: New Blood 1.2: Dark Tendencies ... Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Fathers and Sons
And see also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future" ... Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son ... Dexter 8.10: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Dexter 8.11: "Not the Old Dexter" ... Dexter Series Finale: Solitude, Style, and a Modicum of Hope


And see also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle

And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Gellar Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

And see also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

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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"The Soft of Your Eyes" on new Folk/Psychedelic Rock NTS Radio Playlist

 

  Paul Levinson  [image error] Hey, it's been a while since I wrote to you about a song from Twice Upon A Rhyme, my 1972 album reissued on remastered vinyl by Whiplash/Sound of Salvation Records about a decade ago.   But I just found out that "The Soft of Your Eyes," the song I wrote for Tina back in the late 1960s, was added to Jocelyn Romo's folk/psychedelic rock  Heaven and Earth  playlist on NTS Radio where it's been getting tons of play, alongside songs by Gerry Rafferty and Don Everly. 
Meanwhile ... Peter Jackson's documentary The Beatles: Get Back is amazing and life-changing and I highly recommend it!  I review all three parts  here  (written reviews) and  here  (audio podcast reviews).

Songs from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time played this and last year onPlastic Tales from the Marshmallow Dimention, WNYU-FM Radio
Dig Vinyl's Melodic Distraction playlist, American Dream with Yvonne
Howard Margolin's Destinies, 24 & 31 July, 7 Aug 2020, WUSB-FM RadioHoward Margolin's 37th Anniversary Destinies, and 38th Anniversary Destinies, WUSB-FM Radio
Carl Thien's WZBC show (8 Dec 2020, and earlier this year)Patrick Rands' Abstract Terrain show on WZBC-FM Radio in BostonKevin Anthony's Psychedelic JukeboxCaptain Phil's WUSB-FM show. Plus the following stations: Bellarmine Radio, Louisville, KY; KDWG Radio, Dillon, Montana; The End, Cleveland, OH; SYN Radio, Melbourne, Australia
You can get all the Welcome Up music, any time, here:Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp and SpotifyOrder multi-color vinyl from Light in the AtticCDs in stock - get them hereAnd here's Twice Upon a Rhyme:Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp and SpotifyOriginal, sealed 1972 HappySad Records vinylNew remastered Sound of Salvation vinyl from Those Old RecordsHere's a one-hour virtual concert I did in April 2020 with songs from both albums at HELIOsphere: Beyond the Corona.   Here's a video of me singing "Alpha Centauri" at my virtual concert at Amazingcon in June 2020.  More video clips from Welcome Up here and here.
Welcome Up Reviews and Interviews:Jon Pruett says in Ugly Things Magazine that Welcome Up is "eight slices of interstellar delight".Joseph Neff says in The Vinyl District that Welcome Up "hits the ear as the best kind of long-delayed follow-up to a phenomenon of cultish proportions ... sounding like nothing else on the current scene."Taro Miyasugi says Welcome Up is "a stunning folk pop album with gorgeous late 60s elements like vintage velveteen cloth..." Evan LeVine observes about Welcome Up that "any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it... As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity." in-depth interview about Welcome Up in Klemen Breznikar's Psychedelic Baby Magazine audio Bear Tones podcast in which I talk about Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme.I talk with John Anealio -- with whom I wrote "If I Traveled to the Past" and "Tau Ceti" -- about those songs on The Functional Nerds podcast.
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Looking a bit into the future ... I may be doing another new album in 2022 ... stay tuned! 
 Music  Samantha (from Welcome Up) If I Traveled To The Past (from Welcome Up) MORE MUSIC  Press 

"Welcome Up is ... eight slices of interstellar delight."— Jon Pruett, Ugly Things Magazine, Aug 15, 2020

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Catch and Release 1.1: Nordic Noir in the Twilight of Life

 

I just saw the first episode of Catch and Release, a new Norwegian Nordic noir series by Kristine Berg and Arne Berggren, the team who made Outlier, which I saw on Acorn via Prime Video and very much liked and reviewed here this past August.   Catch and Release is currently airing in Norway, and should be up on Acorn in 2022.  I'll definitely watch and review the rest of the series as soon as that happens.
Like Outlier, it's a very different kind of suspense thriller.  The protagonist is an elderly former police woman, Irja Lantto, who has left the force because she has only weeks or a month of so left to live.  In fact, she's putting a gun to head, to end her life right there and then, when she hears the sirens of a police car.  They're on the way to investigate the murder of a man who was fishing in the clear waters of Norway.
Of course, the current police would rather Irja go home and rest (i.e., die) rather than be troubled by her investigating the murder, but she'll have none of that.  And in this first episode, we see there is plenty to investigate, including people with all kinds of problems in all kinds of situations.   Near the end, we also learn that there's a man who lives deep in the woods, who tells Irja that there's some kind of inchoate evil afoot.
The last TV series about an elderly investigator that I recall was Barnaby Jones, in which Buddy Ebsen played Barnaby from 1973-1980 on CBS.  That show was one of the pillars of my "defective detective" theory of television back then, in which I noticed that just about every detective on television had some kind of physical problem:  Barnaby was old, Longstreet was blind, Ironside was in a wheelchair, etc.  The hero (or anti-hero, still a little early to tell) of Catch and Release would fit right in with that group, and in fact Irja will likely give a more profound accounting of herself.
I'll be back here with a review of rest, as soon as I see it.

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