Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 85

November 7, 2021

Curb Your Enthusiasm 11.3: Highs of Lows

Lots to enjoy in Curb Your Enthusiasm 1.3 tonight. Here are some of my favorites:

(I'm not going to warn you about "Spoilers" -- you can't have spoilers in a review of a comedy, right? I mean, even if you did, the so-called spoiler would be funny, right, so people wouldn't get too upset.)

But back to my favorites:

1. Cheryl had one of her best evenings on Curb in years. Her interaction with that atrocious young actress was hilarious, capped off by the fun of seeing Cheryl and Ted Danson fall down (hey, slapstick has its place).

2. Speaking of Cheryl, she also played a role in Larry and his problem in closing doors. That was the start of an excellent routine -- once before Cheryl, then Cheryl complains, then Larry is super careful when he closes Cheryl's door -- that I'd like to see more of.

3. As I mentioned last week, Leon's tap water, and the linguistic origin of this name, is a real winner. I predict he'll make a lot of money from this.

4. I actually thought the mini-bar --which Larry and/or the producers liked so much, they named this episode after that -- wasn't the funniest. Same for the hot-dog eating contest.

Obviously, that fourth enumerated item (actually, items) was not among my favorites in this episode. But I ran out of good examples.

See you next week.

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Published on November 07, 2021 22:59

Hightown 2.4: Approaching Midseason Predictions

The biggest action in Hightown 2.4 tonight was Jorge punching Brittany aks Daisy in the eye, and Jackie and Leslie in bed together in the end. The second was a lot better to see than the first, but the first led to a real breakthrough in Jackie's career: the punch got Brittany to contact Jackie and offer to be her CI. That's a big deal both for Jackie's future and her case.

Meanwhile, Frankie and Jorge's relationship is beginning to fray around the edges. Jorge's betting that Frankie will support him over Renee, but that would only happen if Frankie had evidence that Renee was cheating on him. Renee being pregnant with Ray's baby would also do it, despite the fact that Frankie directed Renne to play Ray last season.

It's only the fourth episode, but here are some predictions:

Jorge's not going to make it (obvious, but worth saying).There's a good chance that Leslie won't survive, either. She makes Jackie too happy, and Hightown needs her character to be more on edge. Also, Leslie is feeling too good about Brittany's information making her a sargent.Osito will survive -- he's too important and interesting a character not to.And, even though I like him, I'm a little worried about Ed Murphy, too.More generally, this season of Hightown is also due for some other big shakeup sooner rather than later. I'm not sure what that is, but everything seems to be a little too much falling into place right now. We may have seen a little inkling tonight of things to come with Jackie's father, a new character. Will be interesting how he figures in Jackie's story in the weeks ahead.

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Published on November 07, 2021 21:13

American Rust Season 1 Finale: Needed, Another Season or at Least Episode

The ninth episode of American Rust was just on Showtime. The first strange and compelling thing about this episode is that it's the season finale (which, since the series hasn't been renewed as yet, could be the series finale). Why not the usual eight or ten number of episodes?

Though, actually, ten would've made immensely greatder sense than eight, given what we saw in this ninth episode.

[Spoilers follow ...]

Let's see ... Dell winds up killing drug-dealing Bobby Jesus and the drug-supplying pharmacist, and while he was at it, the old lady who shot him in the arm with a shotgun. With Bobby dead, there's no case against Billy. Unfortunately, his life still hangs in the balance, since those Nazis in prison beat him to a coma.

Meanwhile, Isaac doesn't know that the star witness against Billy is gone, so he's taken a Greyhound back home to turn himself and the wrench in. In the final scene, Dell tells him to put it back in his pocket, and never tell anyone about it--

And that's where this episode ends. Left unexplored: Steve looks like he's on the way to realizing what Dell did -- more than enough for another episode. And Dell has learned courtesy of Grace's husband that she set fire to her own house. That also would have worth exploring in another episode. And two Pittsburgh detectives are questioning Dell about what recently happened there. Also worth further elaboration.

But it looks like we'll have to settle for another season, which still hasn't been announced. Count me in as someone who most definitely would be watching and reviewing it.

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Published on November 07, 2021 19:31

Podcast Review of Dexter: New Blood 1.1

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 207, in which I review Dexter: New Blood 1.1 on Showtime.

Written blog post review of Dexter: New Blood 1.1

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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Published on November 07, 2021 17:49

Dexter: New Blood 1.1: Back with a Vengeance

We last saw Dexter -- Dexter Morgan in the Showtime series with his first name -- in September 2013. He was working in the Northwest, as a lumberjack or something similar. In that series finale, this was some amount of time after he had left Miami, his life in a shambles, his beloved sister Debra killed by serial killer Arthur Miller, before Dexter killed him, his son Harrison taken to France by Hannah with Dexter's blessing to protect him, and nothing left for him in Miami except to flee. (See links to my reviews of all eight seasons of Dexter starting in 2006 at the end of this review.)

Dexter: New Blood 1.1 finds him a fictional town in upstate New York that reminds me a little of Livingston Manor. Dexter has a girlfriend who's a cop, and the voice of Debra in his head. He's managed to stay clear of killing -- that is, being the killer -- but we know that it's just a matter of time before he can no longer resist his primal, vigilante, murderous instinct. Otherwise, why would this new sequel have been made.

[Spoilers ahead ...]

And it indeed happens by the end of this first episode. The specific occasion is the killing a buck that Dexter had an idealized beauty-of-nature relationship with. Dexter's victim not only killed the deer, but was responsible for the death of five people. And his father is rich and powerful. Dexter has made a dangerous, mortal enemy.

In addition to this excellent plot set-up, Dexter's son, now a teen, has managed to find Dexter, and shows up at his door. In even his worst days in Miami, Dexter was devoted to protecting Harrison. The other big significant development at the end of this first episode is Dexter admits to Harrison that he's Dexter Morgan, and takes him in. As it was in the original series, Harrison will be a continuingly humanizing experience for Dexter, even as he increases Dexter's vulnerabilities.

Michael C. Hall is as good as ever in this role. Smooth and charming on the surface, sarcastic self-commentary, literally lethal when that vigilante instinct is aroused. I expect it will be riveting, once again, to see how he plays all this out in the ice and snow of the north, rather than the warm salt waters of the south.

Watch here for my reviews of every episode.

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Published on November 07, 2021 16:10

November 6, 2021

Podcast Review of Finch

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 206, in which I review Finch, on Apple TV+

written blog post review of Finch

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Published on November 06, 2021 23:13

Finch: Heartwarming, Even Reassuring, About a Robot

Just saw Finch on Apple TV+, at once a small scale infinitude of a movie, a quiet triumph of a story that may be the best robot AI film I've ever seen.

The bare bones are Finch is a genius inventor in a post-apocalyptic America who builds Jeff, a gangly robot, to take of Finch's dog Goodyear, after Finch is gone, which won't be long. He's dying from over-exposure to UV radiation, due to the solar flare that wiped who knows how much of the world. But the apocalypse is the least important part of the story, a means to an end, which depicts how Jeff learns to be human.

As such, Finch (the movie and the character) builds on Asimov's three laws of robotics -- (1) a robot cannot harm a human, or by inaction allow such harm to occur, (2) a robot must follow every command it receives from a human, except commands in conflict with the First Law, and (3) a robot must act to protect itself, except when such a protection conflicts with the first two laws. So, for example, in Asimov's schema, a robot would have no choice but to destroy itself if so ordered by a human, unless it was needed to protect a human. Asimov's later promulgated a "zeroth" law, that a robot must act to save the many rather than the few, but not every Asimovian purist has accepted that John Stuart Millian utilitarian principle.

Finch (brilliantly played by Tom Hanks) expands the three laws by adding a fourth -- Jeff must protect Goodyear the dog, but that's just shorthand for the rich tableau, sometimes funny, sometimes heartrending, in which Jeff (deftly played by Caleb Landry Jones), growing into his intelligence, seeks to protect both Finch and Goodyear. Jeff makes mistakes, has its/his feelings hurt, but learns the importance of mastering such mundane but essential tasks -- essential to Goodyear's wellbeing -- as playing throw and fetch the ball with the lovable pooch.

They've been many a depiction of robots, with or without Asimov's laws as a guide, on television and movie screens. Demerzel, more properly an android than a robot, began existence as R. Daneel Olivaw in Asimov's robot novels, and became Demerzel is Asimov's Foundation prequel decades later. He became she in the Foundation series also on Apple TV+ these days, and I've found myself irritated at her character, in contrast to the Foundation series as a whole, which I think is top notch. Having just seen Finch, I now understand why.

Jeff in Finch is somehow more than just a character, a cog in the machine of the motion picture. The movie manages to make us believe that he is human in the end, and not because he looks good in a hoodie jacket. That evolution makes the movie heart-warming, even reassuring, despite the apocalypse and its effects, and one I'll always treasure seeing.

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Published on November 06, 2021 21:36

Podcast Review of Invasion 1.5

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 205, in which I review the fifth episode of Invasion on Apple TV+.

My appearance on Ancient Aliens on the History Channel in 2010

Earlier podcasts about Invasion:

November 2, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.4 ... October 26, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.1-3

Written blog post review of Invasion 1.5 is here.

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Published on November 06, 2021 12:35

November 5, 2021

Invasion 1.5: The Little Creepy Crawly Thing

I thought the single most impressive thing in Invasion 1.5, up on Apple TV+ yesterday, was that little creepy crawly thing Aneesha took out of the guy on that operating table. That saved his life, the other doctor told her. And taking it out likely did. But of far greater long-range consequence is that crawly thing is evidence of interstellar life. Whether it's an offstring of the invaders, or some kind of parasite planted in the poor guy on the table ... well, that's very significant indeed, with lots of story to tell there.

Meanwhile, across the globe, Mitsuki's making some real progress. Her former boss at JASA -- she was fired -- turns out to be a decent human being, and he gives her run of the place. The combination of her smarts and the high-tech should help her find out what those sounds that are now being picked up from the destroyed space shuttle mean. A nice bonus would be if she indeed finds her lover somehow still alive.

The U.S. President's speech did tie all four theaters together, as I hoped something would, last week, and that was good to see. The content, though, was obvious, and nothing special. Also, as I told an interviewer back on an episode of Ancient Aliens back in 2010 (at 1 min 23 sec into the clip), it doesn't and shouldn't really matter what our leaders tell us when we're visited by extraterrestrials -- it's a whole new ballgame once that happens, and in a democracy, no President was ever really elected to deal with invaders from outer space.

Trevante in Afghanistan was a little more interesting than his segment last week, and the conversation with his wife provided a good segue into the the Presidential address. Over in England, nothing of any great consequence happened, but as I said last week, three out of four segments performing well is fine with me, especially when two of them are especially strong.

See you here next week with my review of the next episode.

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Published on November 05, 2021 23:41

CSI: Vegas 1.5: Double Header

A strong CSI: Vegas 1.5 earlier this week, with two good stories -- the continuing David Hodges framed narrative, and a standalone story of a plane that lands on automatic with a dead crew. And, actually, I liked the standalone story even more than the continuing.

The set-up is a good classical whodunnit. And the FBI guy who comes in to help with the investigation shared some romantic energy with Maxine. She of course demurs that she's married to her job, but who is she kidding, she'll be getting together with this guy before the season is over, or maybe next season (I hope there is), and that will be all to the benefit of a continuing narrative.

Back to Hodges: Sara and Gil are now sure he was framed on those 8,000 cases, and Maxine agrees but cautions them to stay under the radar, i.e., don't get in the face of that aggressive DA. But as Gil would no doubt say, knowing someone did a crime and proving it are too very different things. So good news on that score: before the evening is over, Gil realizes that man who framed Hodges made some kind of mistake -- revealed, in classic CSI style, by shining a special light on a wall that reveals a pattern of blood splatter -- and he was no doubt working for someone more powerful, more important than him. Good grist for the continuing story.

Joshua, who with Allie always investigates the non-Hodges story, also had his best episode so far. He connects with and plays surrogate uncle to a boy whose father was murdered on that plane, and [spoiler ahead ...]

whose aunt actually did the murders. The CSI's connection to kids is another hallmark of the classic series, and it's gratifying to see it continuing.

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

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Published on November 05, 2021 22:14

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Levinson at Large

At present, I'll be automatically porting over blog posts from my main blog, Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress. These consist of literate (I hope) reviews of mostly television, with some reviews of mov ...more

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