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Podcast Review of Dexter: New Blood 1.3

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 214, in which I review Dexter: New Blood 1.3 on Showtime.

Written blog post review of Dexter: New Blood 1.3

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

Coming tomorrow, Tuesday, 23 Nov 2021 -- a conversation with Cora Buhlert, Joel McKinnon, and me about the first season of Foundation. If you're not familiar with their work, here's where you can get to know them:

Cora Buhlert's reviews of the first season of Foundation ... Joel McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast ... Joel's What I Like about the Show on Reddit

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Published on November 22, 2021 11:45

Baptiste Season 2 Finale: Never too Late

Well, it was quite a season 2 finale for Baptiste on PBS tonight, and

[Spoilers ahead ...]

until and up to and including the very end, with immensely powerful high points and low points.

First Highpoint: Emma gets out of her wheelchair, crawls up the stairs and across the porch, to save the life of her son, Will.

First Lowpoint: It looked like Baptiste died of that stabwound ...

But he didn't. So that was a second highpoint. But then the highest point comes when we see him all but reunited with his wife and family. He followed the good advice Emma gave him, that it's never too late to do what you need to do.

But there's another meaning to those good words. There were originally supposed to be three seasons of Baptiste. But series co-creator Harry Williams changed his mind, and decided to end it with two. That was the second lowpoint and the lowest point. To which I say: it's never too late ... never too late to change your mind.

Because Baptiste is a unique character in the history of fictional detectives. A remarkable blend of tenacity and vulnerability that you just don't find anyplace else. A character brought to life by a unique and immensely gifted actor, Tchéky Karyo.

So here's what I predict. Someday, with any luck in the not too distant future, Harry Williams will wake up with a great idea for a third season. Or maybe his co-creator will. Or maybe someone else will come up with that great idea, and communicate it to the creators.

And a third season will be made. And I'll see it here in New York, on PBS, some five or so months after it airs in the U.K. And then I'll review it right here. See you then.

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Published on November 21, 2021 20:56

Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Fathers and Sons

I'm really enjoying Dexter: New Blood -- the internal commentary from Dexter, his combination of good luck and cleverly getting out of incriminating situations, his capacity to deal with total wild cards that come his way -- all are in appealing abundance in this new series/season of Dexter, and in fine display in tonight's episode 1.3.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The big question that looms up at the end of the episode is why is Matt's father lying about getting a phone call, FaceTime, no less, from his slain son? Either (a) someone somehow impersonated Matt on the phone (someone with superior knowledge of digital media, like perhaps Harrison?) or (b) Kurt Caldwell is lying for some reason. The second option seems more likely -- but he couldn't be lying for Dexter's sake, because Kurt was already drunk and had no idea Dexter would be driving by.

And speaking of Harrison, we now know that he's highly intelligent and physically dexterous -- pardon the pun, just like his father Dexter. And also like his father, Harrison is a charmer with the ladies, and someone who is prone to confront bullies -- of other people. Should be fun to see how this plays out in this new series.

And last but not least -- because this character is sure to come within Dexter's deadly focus -- we have the question of who is the sicko who killed and then drained the blood of that poor girl? I said last week that I thought it was most likely Kurt (maybe that's why he was so happy at the end of tonight's episode), but tonight I'd also add the rich guy Edward Oleson. (My wife says it's not Oleson, because the killer looks to be bigger and more imposing). All we know for sure at this point is the killer has watery blue eyes.

See you back here next week with my review of the next episode of this excellent reboot.

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 November 21, 2021 17:31

Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Superior Intelligence and Physical Dexterity

I'm really enjoying Dexter: New Blood -- the internal commentary from Dexter, his combination of good luck and cleverly getting out of incriminating situations, his capacity to deal with total wild cards that come his way -- all are in appealing abundance in this new series/season of Dexter, and in fine display in tonight's episode 1.3.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The big question that looms up at the end of the episode is why is Matt's father lying about getting a phone call, FaceTime, no less, from his slain son? Either (a) someone somehow impersonated Matt on the phone (someone with superior knowledge of digital media, like perhaps Harrison?) or (b) Kurt Caldwell is lying for some reason. The second option seems more likely -- but he couldn't be lying for Dexter's sake, because Kurt was already drunk and had no idea Dexter would be driving by.

And speaking of Harrison, we now know that he's highly intelligent and physically dexterous -- pardon the pun, just like his father Dexter. And also like his father, Harrison is a charmer with the ladies, and someone who is prone to confront bullies -- of other people. Should be fun to see how this plays out in this new series.

And last but not least -- because this character is sure to come within Dexter's deadly focus -- we have the question of who is the sicko who killed and then drained the blood of that poor girl? I said last week that I thought it was most likely Kurt (maybe that's why he was so happy at the end of tonight's episode), but tonight I'd also add the rich guy Edward Oleson. (My wife says it's not Oleson, because the killer looks to be bigger and more imposing). All we know for sure at this point is the killer has watery blue eyes.

See you back here next week with my review of the next episode of this excellent reboot.

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 November 21, 2021 17:31

Star Trek: Discovery 4.1: Had Its Moments, But ...

Let's get a couple of things out of the way before I offer this non-spoiler review of Star Trek: Discovery 4.1, up on Paramount+ TV since this past Thursday, November 18, 2021.

First and most important, that "up on" does not include most of the world. On November 16, 2021, Paramount+ announced that the new season -- along with everything else on Paramount+ -- would not be available outside the US until early 2022. People around the world, who had been enjoying the rebirth renaissance of Star Trek on Paramount via Netflix, were suddenly unable to watch the highly anticipated debut of the new season. This has to be one of the dumbest moves in the short history of streaming.

Second, and much less important, more of an annoyance than a major issue, but still worth mentioning: the new season of Star Trek: Discovery became available here in the New York at 3 o'clock in the morning on Thursday. Why not at midnight, the beginning of the new day, as Apple TV+ does with its new series? Again, not at the level of cluelessness as keeping all of Paramount+ from the rest of the world, but, still, an irritation.

Now as to episode 4.1. I enjoyed it. But it's worth mentioning that this is the first time I'm watching the series in real time -- I binged all the prior seasons of Discovery, as well as Picard. And, well, as a standalone debut episode of a new season, this one didn't knock me out.

There was one great twist. And it was fun to see all of our favorite characters who survived the previous season, as well as a new one or two. The on-planet action had a technicolor Star Wars flavor, which is all to the good. And the repartee among the crew was customarily sharp.

But, I don't know, the hour lacked a gravitas, despite the series issues at hand. At times, the crew's banter was distracting rather than refreshing. Possibly it was because I saw Star Trek: Discovery 4.1 within hours of seeing the season 1 finale of Foundation on Apple TV+, but this first episode of the new season at times had a lightweight quality, despite the enormity of perils Captain Michael Burnham and her crew gamely encounter and contest.

But next week will afford Star Trek: Discovery a standalone spot on the stage of incandescent 20th century science fiction reimagined and brought to the streaming screens of the 21st, and I'll back with another review.

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Published on November 21, 2021 10:44

Podcast Review of Invasion 1.7

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 213, in which I review the seventh episode of Invasion on Apple TV+.

Earlier podcasts about Invasion:

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.

Talking in 2010 on the History Channel about the role of elected governments in dealing with interstellar visitors.

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Published on November 20, 2021 11:25

Invasion 1.7: Two Boys and their Connection to the Invaders

Another top-notch episode -- 1.7 -- of Invasion up on Apple TV+ today, with excellent interludes in the three areas of our planet that we didn't see in last week's episode 1.6, devoted solely to the New York sector.

In London, we got my favorite segment, as Casper tells Jamila about the voices he hears in his head, which hurt, but apparently have some connection to the the interstellar invaders. We also get to see one of them, even more clearly than last week, or perhaps this one is a more streamlined version. It also was nice to see Jamila and Casper almost kiss. (Good acting here by Billy Barratt as Casper and India Brown as Jamila.) As I said in an earlier review, Casper joins Luke in New York as having some sort of relation to the invaders, and it will be fun to see how this plays out.In Kabul, there's no real advancement of our knowledge of the invaders, but it was heartwarming to see how Trevante managed to get that Afghan family on to the last departing plane.In Tokyo, we have the most outer-space focused story -- as we always do -- in which Mitsuki may have picked up a signal from her lover on board the (presumably) destroyed space shuttle. Of course, she's stopped before she can complete her work, and verify what she's hearing, but in Invasion the government is almost worthless in every sector of the Earth. Here again is what I said more than a decade ago on the History Channel about governments and interstellar beings:

So Invasion continues to be a compelling series, even unique, and I'll be back here next week with my review of the next episode.

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Published on November 19, 2021 18:42

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Studia Humanistyczne (in English) on The Future of Social Media

The Future of Social Media

Call for papers for special issue of Studia Humanistyczne AGH. Contribution to Humanities guest-edited by Paul Levinson, Fordham University

Social media are at a crisis crossroads here in the United States, and therefore the world. Beginning with the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency in 2016 and continuing with the fight against the deadly COVID19 pandemic, social media have been blamed for spreading misinformation and outright lies that have, in the case of COVID19, cost numerous human lives. Calls have therefore arisen in the mass media and around the world for government regulation of social media. But such regulation would run contrary to the tradition of a vibrant Internet, in which free expression flourishes. Indeed, such regulation could be a path towards the dissolution of democracy and the rise of fascism.

This special issue of Studia Humanistyczne AGH. Contribution to Humanities looks to explore all sides of this issue, around the world, in social media of any kind, via scholarly, well-researched and reasoned articles, 2000-6000 words in length, written in English. Appropriate topics would include:

· Case studies that examine how disinformation on social media led to loss of life, endangerment of public health, etc.

· Examination of elections in democracies which were adversely affected by disinformation on social media

· Examples of how attempts to control social media backfired or succeeded in countries with authoritarian leadership

· Proposals for moving forward in a way that limits disinformation but respects freedom in social media

Final articles will be due February 15, 2022. Expected publication date will be June 2022.

Please send proposed title, draft abstract, and bio-brief by December 31, 2021 to Levinson.paul@gmail.com

After acceptance of the draft abstract, the manuscript should be submitted by the author on the journal platform: https://www.editorialsystem.com/shaghen

Studia Humanistyczne AGH. Contributions to Humanities provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Access and distribution is allowed under the CC BY 4.0 license. There is no fee for publishing in the Journal. More information about the Journal: http://www.journalssystem.com/shagh/en

Detailed guidelines can be found at: http://www.journalssystem.com/shagh/Editorial-Rules,2335.html

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Published on November 19, 2021 16:24

Podcast Review of Foundation 1.10

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 212, in which I review the tenth episode of Foundation -- the Season One finale -- just up today on Apple TV+

earlier podcasts about Foundation: November 12, 2021 Review of Foundation 1.9 ... November 5, 2021 Review of Foundation 1.8 ... October 29, 2021 Review of Foundation 1.7 ... October 22, 2021 Review of Foundation 1.6 ... October 15, 2021: Review of Foundation 1.5 ... October 8, 2021: Review of Foundation 1.4 ... October 1, 2021: Review of Foundation 1.3 ... September 24, 2021: Review of Foundation 1.1-2 .... July 17, 2021: Thinking about Asimov's Foundation Series on AppleTV+ ... March 12, 2009: Asimov's Foundation and Herbert's Dune Trilogies as Sources of Philosophy written blog post review of Foundation 1.10 postcard from Isaac Asimov to me in 1979 about the Foundation trilogy

Coming Tuesday, 23 Nov 2021 -- a conversation with Cora Buhlert, Joel McKinnon, and me about the first season of Foundation. If you're not familiar with their work, here's where you can get to know them:

Cora Buhlert's reviews of the first season of Foundation ... Joel McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast ... Joel's What I Like about the Show on Reddit

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Published on November 19, 2021 01:02

Foundation Season 1 Finale: Right Up There

It's a little after 1am, Friday, 19 November 2021, a few miles north of New York City, as I write this. I just saw the season 1 finale -- episode 1.10 -- of the Foundation series on Apple TV+. It came on the screen at 12 midnight, as the day began. Unlike Paramount Plus, which says a show (such as Star Trek Discovery) begins on a given day, but doesn't make it available on the East Coast until 3 in the morning of the stated day. I just wanted to give a shout-out to Apple TV+ on that account.

And there are other, more profound accounts, when it comes to the Foundation series. It says at the end of this episode that the series is based on the novels of Isaac Asimov (in the same size letters as the other major credits). And that's why I started watching this series. I had hopes, but I didn't expect all that much. I saw on Reddit that there's a Soviet adaptation of Asimov's The End of Eternity, to this very day, still my favorite time travel novel, which I first read in the summer of 1959. I'll watch that, too. It has English subtitles. A series made in 1987, in the steep twilight of the Soviet Union. I really doubt that I'll love it as much as the novel, but I'll watch it.

As I watched the first ten episodes of the Foundation series. And it far exceeded my expectations. I didn't enjoy them quite as much as I enjoyed the first novel in the Foundation trilogy, but then again, I loved and treasure the second novel a lot more than the first. And there were things that I loved in first season of this Foundation TV series, which bore vibrant, compelling fruit in the season finale.

[Spoilers follow ... ]

Like the triple Cleon clone story, a standalone masterpiece. Day's willingness to bend and accept Dawn despite his differences; Demerzel killing Dawn anyway, in defiance of Day; and Day learning that his DNA was tampered with, possibly not likely even Dusk's, was brilliant drama. And Demerzel, for whom killing seems to be all too easy, though she rips off her human face at the end, is a powerful piece of storytelling, even if it defies Asimov's laws of robotics. Given, however, that the clone story has almost nothing to do with Asimov's Foundation stories, I find that breach of Asimov permissible. (Again, kudos to Lee Pace and Terrence Mann for their performances as Day and Dusk.)

Now as to the story that has much more to do with Asimov's writing: I like that Gaal and Raych are Salvor's parents. Makes sense, a nice way to tie Salvor to Hari, who is her grandfather. And a nice way to set up the mentalism of the Second Foundation. As to all the prior action that took place on Terminus and its environs, some of it was closer to Asimov, some of it was not, and none of it was all that great, anyway, in my opinion. But as I said before, Asimov's first novel was the least splendid in the original trilogy, so that's ok.

Making this first season of Asimov's masterwork, which I consider the best science fiction ever written, was difficult. Making it as good as Asimov's masterwork was impossible. The Foundation series first season succeeded in the first, and could never succeed in the second. But it got up there, in that rarefied atmosphere, by offering an alternate history of Asimov's Foundation stories, and a story of the beginning of the dissolution of the clonal Emperor which is the best clone story I've ever read or seen.

So I'll take that, happily, and be back with reviews of the second season as soon as it begins, back on the screen on midnight in New York, at the time of day it's supposed to.

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Published on November 18, 2021 23:04