reviewing 3 Body Problem; Black Doves; Bosch; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Dexter: Resurrection, Original Sin; Dune: Prophecy; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; MobLand; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Prime Target; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Way Home; Your Friends and Neighbors +books, films, music, podcasts, politics
George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.
22 December 2024: The three latest written interviews of me are here, here and here.
I grew up listening to rock 'n' roll, which was half doo-wop, and half Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Elvis. As the 1960s began to emerge, the Four Seasons in 1962 and the Beach Boys in 1963 carried on with a modernized, popified doo-wop sound. The Beatles were closer than just around the next corner. And that was the milieu in which I formed my first group, The Transits, slightly more old-fashioned than the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys, but covering their best songs.
The Transits sang at the YMHA on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, a stone's throw from Yankee Stadium in early 1964. "Dawn" and "Rag Doll" by the Four Seasons and "Surfer Girl" by the Beach Boys were at the top of the list of the songs we covered. As I walked a girl home whom I'd met at the concert, I told her I was tired of being in a group that sang those kinds of songs -- I wanted to be in a group that sounded more like The Beatles.
The Four Seasons would never progress very far beyond their pop doo-wop origins. But the Beach Boys under Brian Wilson's leadership sure did. As is well known, The Beatles' Rubber Soul in 1965 inspired the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds in 1966 which in turn inspired The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. While The Beatles were recording and releasing Sgt. Pepper, the Beach Boys were doing the same with their Smiley Smile album featuring "Heroes and Villains" (also released as a single). So the two groups were not only inspiring one another, they in effect were co-creating across the continents, a musical incarnation of Marshall McLuhan's global village, which he prophetically wrote about in The Gutenberg Galaxy back in 1962.
For a variety of reasons, however, "Heroes and Villains" didn't get the immediate acclaim it so eminently deserved. It has been one of my all-time favorite recordings since the moment I first heard it, though I can't quite recall where that was. The harmony in that recording -- like the harmony in the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B" adaptation on Pet Sounds -- is in the stratosphere, the ultimate evolution, at least as of now, of multi-dimensional doo-wop.
Brian Wilson did not get the adulation at first hearing that "Heroes and Villains" amply merited. But I touted it everywhere I could. My wife Tina and I were thrilled to hear Brian sing it in the Beach Boys reunion tour, at their performance in 2012 in White Plains, NY. It was a sad night, not only because of course Dennis and Carl Wilson weren't there, but because WFUV disc jockey Pete Fornatale, who had been one of the champions of everything Beach Boys and Beatles on his Mixed Bag shows, had recently unexpectedly passed away. (Come to think of it, I may have first heard "Heroes and Villains" on Pete's original "Mixed Bag" show on WFUV back in the 1960s. Pete, by the way, is the hero of my 2024 novel, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles.) But it was wonderful indeed to see and hear Brian in person.
I still think The Beatles are the best rock group to ever have written and recorded myriad forms of rock music. Over the years, I've switched back and forth between the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones as to which is the second greatest rock group in history. But I think I'm content now to leave it with both of them tied for second place, and every other great group vast caverns below them.
Thank you Brian Wilson, rest in peace. Your "Heroes and Villains" will always be playing somewhere, and you are its hero.
Just saw the finale of what will almost certainly be the first season of a tour-de-force series about warring crime families on the other side of the pond, i.e., the UK. MobLand has everything -- a powerful, unpredictable story bristling with what The Godfather and its sequels did so well in movies. That would be a potent, explosive blend of violence and family dynamics that can make your head spin.
Here I'll talk about two ingredients that brought this kick-in-the-solar-plexus across: the music and the acting,
First, MobLand has one of the best theme songs I've heard in years: "Starburster" by Fontaines D.C. I mean, I'm no expert in hip hop, but I know "Starburster" has powerful elements of it, and the recording suits the story to be told in every episode to a tee, as well as being instantly unforgettable mind candy.
And that's just for literally starters. In the finale alone, we get major songs by Johnny Cash (sung twice) and The Rolling Stones. Like in The Godfather trilogy, Goodfellas, and all immediately classic crime family dramas, the music of MobLand is at once avant garde and classic.
Now let's get to the acting. Pierce Brosnan gave an astonishing performance as Conrad Harrington, the anti-hero crime boss whose gang is at the center of the action. This man played two characters who were suave to the max -- Remington Steele and James Bond -- and in MobLand he trashes those icons and goes vehemently in the opposite direction, cursing and screaming and giving loud and withering vent to his anger and his other moods with the best of 'em. Meanwhile, Helen Mirren, a world-class actress, is every bit as vicious and violent in her role as Maeve Harrington, Conrad's wife.. Neither of them are youngsters, but I wouldn't want to meet either of them in a dark alley. Or a lit one, either, for that matter.
And alongside these veritable criminal forces of nature -- Emmy-worthy spectacular -- we have Tom Hardy's portrayal of Harry, the Harringtons fixer (a lot of "Har"s in that sentence). He's calm, contemplative but deadly when he needs to be. Like Brosnan and Mirren, Hardy is a world-class actor, great in just about everything he does, but yet to establish himself in a role as luminary as James Bond, Vito Corleone, or Michael Corleone. But his performance in MobLand could move Hardy into Al Pacino territory.
The lesser-known actors in MobLand were excellent, too. Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon) as one of Conrad and Maeve's sons, gives a heart-rending performance, as does Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey), for different reasons, as Harry's wife. The truth is, there's not a weak performance in this powerhouse of a series.
Hey, I managed to review MobLand without even a hint of a spoiler. I'm going to listen to some more Fontaines DC music now.
I've always been a big fan of Nordic Noir. That might seem a bit unusual for a bigger lifelong fan of science fiction, as well as an author of science fiction novels and stories. But the two genres are close cousins -- if detective mysteries are whodunnits, science fiction can be aptly read and seen as whatdunnits -- and some authors combined the two genres, as Isaac Asimov astutely did with his robot detective novels (I took a crack at that genre blend as well, with my Phil D'Amato stories and novels).
But Nordic Noir -- which can be geographically identified as stories that take place in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland -- has a special zing, a platter of gruesome crimes, investigated by slightly cracked but brilliant detectives who also manage to have a wicked sense of humor. Dept Q., which takes place in Scotland, has all of these characteristics in gleaming pitch black spades.
The TV series, which debuted on Netflix at the end of May, is based on a series of novels by the Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. My wife and I binged the nine episodes over several evenings concluding last night. (Is watching nine episodes over several nights rather than in one sitting aptly termed "binging"? You tell me. I will say thanks Netflix for putting all episodes up at once, which permits binging, whatever exactly that means.)
The transplantation to Scotland works great -- it is, after all, in the northern part of the British Isles, and many of the characters have Nordic names. The cold case team that investigates the disappearance of Prosecutor Merritt Lingard is, as per Nordic Noir protocols, a group not of three misfits, but of deeply wounded, highly talented people. DCI Carl Morck was nearly killed in a previous case that left one of his partners (James Hardy) unable to walk, and killed another. Akram Salim is a Syrian immigrant with a calm Sherlockian logic and demeanor and a harrowing past (one of my favorite characters now in any series). And DC Rose Dickson is on desk duty at the beginning of the series, traumatized because she accidentally killed an elderly couple with her car. See what I mean about deeply wounded?
And to make matters worse for our characters, but better for the series, they're actually embroiled in one way or another in at least three horrendous cases: the disappearance of the prosecutor, the shooting that hit Morck (he's physically healed but psychologically struggling), and the case that Lingard tried and lost before she disappeared (in which a man who probably killed his wife was found not guilty). And indeed there are all kinds of other murders that come to light as the story proceeds, propelled by gunfire, tempestuous family relationships, various kinds of romance, dreams, and a hyperbaric chamber.
The great story is served by memorable acting, with Matthew Goode as Morck, Alexej Manvelov as Salim, Leah Byrne as Dickson, Jamie Sives as Hardy, and Chloe Pirrie as Lingard. And hats off to Scott Frank and Elisa Amoruso for inspired directing. I give Dept. Q my highest recommendation and can't wait to see more.
Just saw the finale -- the 9th episode -- of the first season of Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV+. I'm saying first season because Apple renewed it for a second season before the first season begun. A smart move because Your Friends and Neighbors, billed as a comedy-drama, but more a drama with some comical touches about some of the ethical profundities of life -- at least life in the New York City area -- is a tour-de-force of a series in a multiplicity of ways.
Here are some of those (in general non-spoiler) ways:
1. It's easily Jon Hamm's best role and performance since Mad Men. Indeed, Hamm is so natural and energized in the lead role -- Andrew Cooper aka Coop -- that it could be Coop could equal or even exceed Don Draper. Time will tell.
2. The rest of the acting is top-notch. Amanda Peet as Coop's former wife, Olivia Munn as his sometimes lover, even Corbin Bernsen as, well, Coop's despicable boss, a minor role, are all memorable. So are Isabel Gravitt and Donovan Colan as Coop's kids.
3. The essence of the plot: Coop is fired from his high-stakes financially wheeling-and-dealing job. He takes up stealing -- literally stealing -- from his neighbors to stay afloat. As a result of which, he ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, looking guilty for a murder he didn't commit. Along the way, we meet bevy of compelling characters including his fence; an unlikely but effective partner-in-crime; and a sister with a pretty good voice and some impressive songs (Lena Hall plays Coop's sister, and actually wrote and sings an original song as well as singing the covers -- a nice touch).
I have no idea if the depiction of this upper crust in Your Friends and Neighbors is accurate (I live in the greater New York area, but as a professor I'm not really privy to what goes on in boardrooms and the like). But that doesn't really matter. Your Friends and Neighbors is not a documentary, not even a docu-drama. It's a work of fiction, in which it splendidly succeeds.
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 412, in which I interview Tom Cooper about his new book Wisdom Weavers: The Lives and Thought of Harold Innisand Marshall McLuhan published on May 1, 2025 by Connected Editions.
A group of 51 scholars from the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Poland gathered on May 1 via Zoom -- a mini global village -- to see this interview with Tom Cooper. The interview and subsequent Q&A is presented here in audio its entirety. We started off with some casual conversation ...
Transcript of the complete Zoom Chat that took place after the interview
Get the book in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover here
Other audio interviews about Wisdom Weavers: Captain Phil interviews Paul Levinson about Wisdom Weavers on WUSB Radio ... Frank LoBuono interviews Paul Levinson and Tom Cooper about Wisdom Weavers on the Being Frank podcast
Just saw Black Bag, which popped up on Peacock on May 2, after debuting in theaters here in the U. S. on March 14. It has a lot to commend itself, including a top-notch cast, with Michael Fassbender (whom I just saw in The Agency, the CIA in London series which I reviewed the first three episodes of here), Cate Blanchett (who starred in lots of great movies and series, including recently Disclaimer, a brilliant literary psychological drama which I reviewed here), and Pierce Brosnan (formerly Remington Steele and James Bond, of course, currently starring in Mobland (giving a tour-de-force performance as a gang boss; I'll be reviewing it after its finale next week, but I can tell you now that it has one of the best theme songs I've heard in many a year).
Black Bag actually has some music running through it, too. It has some action, but most of the time it's more a chess-piece cosy that Agatha Christie would have appreciated. It also, like The Agency, flaunts the very best of current and possibly imagined AI and digital media in the spy-craft it details. But its best feature is Fassbender's George and Blanchette's Kathryn as a loving couple who are likely good guys, and the rest of George's team, evenly matched between men and women who are also romantically involved in one way or another.
If I had a complaint, it probably would be that the narrative resolved itself a little too quickly, and may have played better as a limited series of three or four episodes. Also, the villain was not as ingenuously concealed as in Agatha Christie's work, and maybe more time for that story to spool out would have been helpful too.
But the mix of espionage and romance worked well, and one advantage of a movie over a TV series is that you're not investing as much time in watching a movie as you would a series, so the movie's lack of perfection is less objectionable.
It's been a while since I've seen an episode in any television series as emotionally effective -- as emotionally right -- as episode 18.3 of Criminal Minds: Evolution (actually, the third season of Criminal Minds: Evolution, which got the appendage Evolution in its title when Criminal Minds resumed on Paramount Plus in November 2022 after 16 powerful seasons on CBS, which concluded in February 2020).
[And there will be big spoilers ahead ... ]
The occasion was the funeral of Will, J. .J.'s husband, who died of sudden natural causes at the end of last week's episode 18.2. Penelope and Emily are sitting together. Penelope says the flowers are stunning. Emily points to them and says those are from Hotch, those are from Derek, and those are from Spencer.
The mention of three major characters from Criminal Minds -- Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, and Spencer Reed -- for various reasons no longer on the show, but still alive (and that actually confirmed by this mention) -- was itself a classy move by the makers of this rebooted series. All too often in television, especially broadcast TV where Criminal Minds spent its first 16 seasons, characters who leave the series are all too often out of sight out of mind, and never mentioned again. So when I heard Hotch, Derek, and Spencer mentioned, I thought good for Criminal Minds: Evolution for growing up and becoming more like real life. (I will say the Chicago shows and the Law & Order shows, both on NBC -- with the exception of Law & Order: Organized Crime, now on Peacock -- occasionally make references to characters no longer on the show.)
But the best was yet to come, when Spencer arrived at the funeral and joined his beloved colleagues/friends. I've been wondering since Evolution began three years ago why Spencer was no longer on the BAU team, i.e., on the show. I even said so in my reviews. Whether this appearance was a one-time event, or the beginning of a re-integration of one of the best characters from the original series (the best, in the opinion of many) remains to be seen. But his appearance at this funeral, what he said to J. J. -- "I'm always here for you guys" -- was a memorable moment, indeed. In fact, I would say that moment, and the entire reappearance of Spencer, was one of the most memorable moments I've ever seen in a fictitious TV drama.
Matthew Gray Gubler played this moment as Spencer (Dr. Spencer Reid) just perfectly. A. J. Cook as J. J. deserves an Emmy for her performance. And the truth is all the acting was letter perfect in this remarkable episode. Kudos to everyone involved, including Jeff Davis and the other writers, and Joe Mantegna who directed (who also plays Rossi, a major character). This episode, entitled "Time to Say Goodbye," is the way television should be done. It's definitely not time for Criminal Minds to say goodbye.
So I just got around to watching Carry-On, a Die-Hard-like roller-coaster of an airport thriller which has been on Netflix since December.
No Bruce Willis in the movie, but Carry-On does have Justin Bateman as an anti-hero, "Traveler," though just outright, contemptible, highly intelligent, ruthless villain may be a more apt description. The hero (Ethan Kopek) is played by Taron Egerton (Elton John in Rocketman!), and he puts in a very good performance.
The plot is vaguely familiar, though I don't think I've seen anything exactly like Carry-On before. How do you get a lethal aerosol weapon on board a plane? You target the pregnant wife of a young TSA screener and tell him you'll kill his wife (who conveniently also works at the airport) if he doesn't let the deadly package go through and on to the plane the bad guys want to destroy.
The movie has plenty of action, all kinds of would-be heroes and outright heroes, including Danielle Deadwyler (Station Eleven) as a rambunctious LAPD detective. There are some good twists and turns along the way, and the movie also has the you-never-know-who's-going-to-die ingredient that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
I won't tell you anything more about Carry-On because I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that if you're looking for a fast-paced, chic car-chase of a movie (and there actually is a car-chase in the movie), one that takes place on Christmas Eve (hence its kinship to Die Hard, and also Black Doves), you can't go wrong with Carry-On.
Well, a lot of characters died in the season 2 finale of The Last of Us on Max tonight.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Two more of the people who presided over Joel's killing die in 2.7: Owen is killed by Ellie because he draws a gun and attempts to fire on her. Mel is accidentally killed by Owen as he fires his gun (after being shot by Ellie) and his bullet hits the wall, bullet bouncing off whatever the wall is made of, so the bullet hits a very pregnant Mel in the neck, who dies before Ellie can save her baby (by cutting the baby free) as Mel is pleading with Ellie to do.
And that's the least of it.
Before the episode is over, Jesse is shot and killed by Abby (he was the most ethical character in the show), and Abby fires point blank at Ellie, before the screen turns black in an end-of-The-Sopranos moment.
Of course, that final scene in The Sopranos was the final scene of the series, not of the second season in a continuing series. And there was no gun shot in that final scene, before all went black. David Chase, the main brains behind the series, now says that scene was meant to "imply" Tony Soprano's death. But having read I. A. Richards, who a century ago, back in the 1920s, said we can safely ignore explications by authors of their works (there could be interpretations they didn't intend which are nonetheless valid, or the authors could just be lying), I don't think we should pay much if any attention to what Chase says about his masterpiece.
But back to The Last of Us:
Since the series is continuing, even a gun fired before all goes black is no proof of anything.
And there's no point looking at the game from which The Last of Us series is derived, because the makers of the series have been free to change whatever they wanted to change from the game when they made the series.
So is Ellie dead? How should I know? At this point, we can't even be sure she's been shot. But I'd bet we'll find out more in Season 3.
And although it's too soon to say the following about Ellie, paraphrasing what Shelley said about Keats' death -- weep not for Ellie, 'tis death that's dead not she -- we can certainly apply that to Jesse, a brave, highly ethical soul that we could certainly use more of in our world off-screen, and the ethical crisis that's now raging. Here's to Jesse, whose morality is eminently worthy of veneration.
I just saw Bob Dylan singing Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party" in San Diego (on May 15, 2025) a few hours ago on YouTube. I posted a link to it on all my social media. But I had to say more. In no order of importance (because I think all of these points are important):
Dylan's voice is outstanding. I mean, his voice was already sounding better in his 2020 Rough and Ready LP (with a standout performance in his "Murder Most Foul" lament about the assassination of JFK), but his vocal in "Garden Party" has a real depth and subtlety, hitting some notes with a fluency almost approaching that of "Lay Lady Lay".
This cover shows, again, how Dylan is a mentch. He must have greatly appreciated (1) when Ricky Nelson did a fine cover of Dylan's "She Belongs to Me" and (2) probably even more so when Dylan heard his name in "Garden Party" ("Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes"). This was, after all, certainly more appealing than what John Lennon said about Dylan explicitly in "God", and a whole lot better than Lennon's put down of Dylan (without mentioning his name) in The Beatles' "I Dig A Pony" (it was no doubt no consolation that Lennon also put down The Rolling Stones in that great song as well).
There's something very, I don't know, comforting, in reciprocal covers. It shows, at least to me, that there's something fair and good about this cultural universe we all inhabit. That's an important discovery, because the universe as we all know deals out all sorts of disappointments and betrayals (especially in show business, but more recently even more obvious in politics and its tentacles).
Dylan, when he broke through in the 1960s, was an absolute master of lyrics, at the zenith of that craft. Cole Porter previously held that position, and Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison were often close seconds, but I've always thought that Dylan held and still holds that position alone. It's good and gratifying to now see him make his mark in the increasingly important micro-genre of covers.
Just saw Fountain of Youth on Apple TV+. I don't feel any younger -- though I already felt quite young -- and the movie didn't star Harrison Ford, though it did have echoes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a bit of the Da Vinci Code thrown in. So, all in all, I'd say it's diverting enough and worth a watch.
[There will be some spoilers ahead, starting with the next sentence ... ]
Bernie Sanders would likely like this movie, because the arch villain turns out to be the billionaire financing this mission to find the fountain can bring those who drink from it eternal youth. And I have to say I found this a little trite, even verging on ridiculous.
But the action was brisk and had some unexpected turns, including a beautiful agent of the Vatican, who seemed to be a villain but turned out a hero. And appropo the search for youth, a boy contributed a lot to the narrative, with his knowledge of music.
And I always consider it a plus when it turns out that I actually learn something from a movie, especially when it's a fantasy adventure not a Ken Burns documentary (which I always learn a lot from). Did you know there's a so-called "wicked" Bible, in which the word "not" is left out the Seventh Commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery." This was supposedly an error in a printing of the King James Bible, but you never know.
John Krasinski (recent Jack Ryan), Natalie Portman (Star Wars of course and everything), and Eiza González (Baby Driver) lead a fine rollicking cast, able to throw out funny one-liners and real and metaphorical punches with equal ease. No sequel has yet been announced, but given the starpower and savvy that went into the movie, I'd say it's certainly likely there'll be one, and I'd definitely see it.
With all the promotion of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, set to debut in U.S. theaters in the next few days, I thought it was high time to see Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, released in 2023, and which is actually Part 1 of the two-part story which will conclude with The Final Recognition.
So I saw Dead Reckoning on Paramount+ last night. And I was struck by several things, all of which have been inexorably building over this eight-movie run, which, as we all know, began as one of the best television series in history:
1. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt has been getting more and more like the best secret agent in movie history, i.e., James Bond. Hunt is a far better fighter than anyone ever was in the Mission Impossible TV team. In fact, the strength of that team resided in its group prowess, and while Hunt has an impressive group behind him, he clearly has powers not only equal to Bond's but sometimes approach Superman's. I mean, he leaps more than tall buildings, and in Dead Reckoning he jumps off a jagged mountainside, high above a fast-moving train he's attempting to intercept.
2. Cruise's Hunt shares another Bondian characteristic: a penchant for beautiful women. In Dead Reckoning there are at least a handful. My favorite is Ilsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson, most recently in a crucially starring role in Silo. Much like Bond's women, Hunt's are not only beautiful but keenly intelligent and resourceful, and they're central to events in which the narrative turns.
3. Whereas the MI team on television were invited to lend a hand in reducing or stopping significant challenges to US security, Hunt and his crew are called upon to stop challenges to the world order that verge on jeopardizing humanity itself. In it that sense, Hunt may be even a little more than Bondian, and in Dead Reckoning he approached Terminator territory, fighting an AI menace that -- in the opinion of at least some so-called experts -- has become since 2023 the greatest threat our species has faced, and in this case engendered.
I don't share that view, but I do look very much forward to see how it all turns out on the screen in The Final Reckoning very soon.
A superb, emotionally wrenching flashback episode 2.6 of The Last of Us on Max tonight -- actually a series of flashbacks -- in which we learn why Ellie and Joel were so estranged in the opening episode of this second season.
[And I suppose there are spoilers ahead ... ]
The reason, in a nutshell, is that Joel swears to Ellie that he won't kill Eugene, who was bitten, but Ellie estimates has enough time see his beloved wife, Claire (played by Catherine O'Hara), the town's psychologist, but Joel kills Eugene anyway, then lies to Claire, saying Eugene killed himself, in front of a horrified Ellie.
Before this, we see Joel and Ellie at some of Ellie's earlier birthdays, as the two grow closer and closer together as father and daughter. Flashbacks, if done well, can really make a series soar, as was demonstrated so brilliantly in Lost. And this a standout episode in the second season of The Last of Us, where we already have seen the seen the immediate future to this father-and-daughter narrative: after the two sort of reconcile as the last flashback in 2.6, Joel is tortured and killed in 2.1 by Abby, and her gang and a worse-than-horrified (too weak a word) Ellie, unable to do anything, look on.
Pedro Pascal puts in a masterful performance as Joel, as does Bella Ramsey as Ellie. It was also great to see Joe Pantoliano back on the screen as Eugene, and Claire reading George R. Stewart's Earth Abides (made into a TV series that's pretty high up on my list of science fiction series to see). And I really liked Ellie in the space exploration museum in the flashback that preceded the one in which Joel kills Eugene. Getting out beyond this planet is arguably the greatest accomplishment of our species. And it was potent indeed to see this astonishing accomplishment laid low by the fungus that has wiped most of our species.
And on that pessimistic note, I'll try to lighten the atmosphere by wishing Ellie a happy birthday. I have a daughter, but I'm no expert on father-daughter relationships, because every one is different, not to mention that Ellie has been celebrating her birthdays in an apocalyptic nightmare of a world. Ours certainly is no bargain these days, but we're nonetheless a lot better off on the other side of the screen than are Ellie and her cohorts.
Law & Order on NBC -- the original Law & Order -- has pretty much since the day it debuted in 1990 excelled in confronting some of the toughest ethical issues in the prosecution of crime. Its focus on DAs, ADAs, and their assistants in the courtroom part of bringing criminals to justice could amount to a veritable MA in the ethics of criminal justice, and I'd wager that specific programs in this TV series have found their way into many a class in the John Jay College of Criminal Justice here in midtown Manhattan, a few blocks away from the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University, where I've been a Professor (at the Bronx Rose Hill Campus) about the same number of years that Law & Order has been on the air, taking into account its eleven-year hiatus from 2010-2021.
[There will be spoilers ahead ...]
And the Season 22 finale of Law & Order that aired last night provided a fine example of that ethical probing, in this case the problem of (a) if you know for a fact that someone committed multiple brutal murders over the years, but (b) the evidence via which you know this is ruled non-admissible by the judge (either thick-headed, or brilliant, or anywhere in between), is it (c) right to bend the rules, to the point of doing whatever it takes to get the guilty party off the street and behind bars or worse?
It was clear that this episode would be morally gut-punching about 30 minutes into the story, the beginning of the "Order" part, when we learn that ADA Samantha ("Sam") Maroun's sister was years ago one of the victims of the killer who would be on trial. Executive ADA Nolan Price, who will be prosecuting the case in court, wants Sam to have a minimal role in this prosecution, but of course she doesn't, and in her zeal to see the killer brought to justice she coaches a witness to make sure he gives a conclusive ID of the suspect. Nolan struggles with whether to let the defence attorney know. The DA Nick Baxter subtly advises Nolan to forget that he knows what Sam did, but after agonizing over what to do, Nolan plays by rules. This in turn also of course results in the arrogant smirking killer being found not guilty.
And things only get worse from there. Not only is killer found not guilty, he's soon shot dead. Nolan pays Sam a visit. He knocks on her door. She opens it. "Please tell me you had on nothing to do with this," Nolan says to her. Sam, looking stricken (as she has for most of this episode), slams the door in his face.
Now the question of whether to take justice into your own hands is one which has arisen not only in crime fiction but science fiction, where the question of whether it would be right for a time traveler to kill Hitler as a baby has been considered in more than one narrative. It would be hard to ipso facto say that course of action is out of the question, and the same is true about Sam and the man she knows brutally murdered her sister. But I have to say I think there's a good chance that Sam didn't do it. The parents of the latest victim were in court when their daughter's sicko killer was declared "not guilty," and they looked none too happy. Sam's stricken look at the end of the episode (especially fine acting by
Odelya Halevi as Sam and Hugh Dancy as Nolan in this episode, by the way) could well have been not one of guilt for what she did, but one of anger at Nolan for thinking she might have murdered her sister's killer.
The good thing about season rather than series finales is we'll learn more in September, when Law & Order will return for its next season. Have a great summer!
Transcript of Complete Zoom Chat that Took Place During Interview
00:26:23PHILIP MORAIS:Hi Tom. Hi Paul. Good to see you both.
00:32:32Joe Kennedy:@#$%^&(!!
00:33:05Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Boa noite from São Paulo, Brazil! 🖖🌟
00:33:08Michael McLuhan:Greetings from the Estate of Marshall McLuhan in Canada NOT THE 51ST STATE!
00:33:17Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "@#$%^&(!!" with 😁
00:33:20Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to @#$%^&(!! with "😁"
00:33:23Robin Levenson:Reacted to "Greetings from the E…" with 😂
00:33:31Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Greetings from the E..." with 😁
00:33:32Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Greetings from the E... with "😂"
00:35:01Renee Peterson:Greetings from Australia 🇦🇺
00:35:14jessicanicolet:Reacted to "Greetings from the E..." with ❤️
00:35:17Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Greetings from Austr..." with ❤️
00:35:51Dr. Mary Donohue:Reacted to "Greetings from the E…" with 😂
00:35:59Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Greetings from the E..." with ❤️
00:37:03Renee Peterson:Reacted to "Greetings from the E..." with ❤️
00:37:10Renee Peterson:Reacted to "Boa noite from São P..." with ❤️
00:37:13Thomas Klinkowstein:Greeting from Soho in Manhattan 🙂
00:37:17Renee Peterson:Reacted to "Greeting from Soho i..." with ❤️
00:37:33Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Greeting from Soho i..." with ❤️
00:38:03jessicanicolet:Reacted to "Boa noite from São P..." with ❤️
00:38:19jessicanicolet:Reacted to "Greeting from Soho i..." with ❤️
00:38:25jessicanicolet:Reacted to "Greetings from Austr..." with ❤️
00:38:52Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Greetings from Austr... with "❤️"
00:38:53jessicanicolet:Howdy from Kansas
00:38:55Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Greeting from Soho i... with "❤️"
00:39:00Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Howdy from Kansas" with ❤️
00:39:06Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Howdy from Kansas with "🍻"
00:39:38Phoebe Loew 'student':Greetings from Los Angeles!
00:39:49Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Greetings from Los A..." with 🌟
00:39:53Renee Peterson:Reacted to "Greetings from Los A..." with ❤️
00:40:03jessicanicolet:Reacted to "Greetings from Los A..." with ❤️
00:41:08Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Boa noite from São P... with "❤️"
00:41:45Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Greetings from Los A... with "🌟"
00:43:44Thomas Klinkowstein:Reacted to "Greetings from Los A..." with ❤️
00:43:46Thomas Klinkowstein:Reacted to "Howdy from Kansas" with ❤️
00:43:47Thomas Klinkowstein:Reacted to "Greetings from Austr..." with ❤️
00:43:48Thomas Klinkowstein:Reacted to "Greetings from the E..." with ❤️
00:43:50Thomas Klinkowstein:Reacted to "Boa noite from São P..." with ❤️
00:43:54Thomas Klinkowstein:Reacted to "@#$%^&(!!" with 😁
00:45:21Howard:Greetings and salutations from Winnipeg, Manitoba where Marshall McLuhan grew up from ca. 1915 to 1934 upon graduating from the University of Manitoba to continue his studies at Cambridge University, England. Regards, Howard R. (J.) Engel, President & C.E.O. The Marshall McLuhan Initiative Inc.
00:45:32Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Greetings and saluta..." with 😲
00:50:42Robin Levenson:Media Ecology was NEIL POSTMAN
00:51:40Michael McLuhan, Estate of Marshall McLuhan:Regarding Gutenberg Galaxy, the contract was signed in that name in early '61 and the book was in progress from at least 1959.
00:52:04williambuxton:Didn’t MM use a phrasing similar to media ecology somewhere?
00:52:36Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Media Ecology was NE..." with 🤔
00:53:17Renee Peterson:Thank you for discussion on ‘media ecology’ I am currently finishing my final edits of my literature review for my PhD thesis featuring media ecology + celebrity + social media influencers + traditional media personality. I am now thinking about my chapter on media ecology.
00:53:42Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Thank you for discus..." with 👏
00:55:00Michael Grabowski’s iPhone:Our brains fill in the gaps from incomplete perceptions
00:56:33Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
How great Renee! I'd like to read your PhD thesis as soon as it's ready.
00:56:57Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Our brains fill in t..." with 👍
00:57:11Renee Peterson:Reacted to "How great Renee! I'd..." with ❤️
00:57:56Renee Peterson:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
Thank you! Fingers crossed submitted this year and finalised. Can you please connect with me via LinkedIn? https://www.linkedin.com/in/renee-peterson/
00:58:46Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Thank you! Fingers c..." with ❤️
00:59:28Robin Levenson:Neil was my teacher & head of my dissertation committee & I believe he said he came up with Media Ecology to name our Dept.
00:59:49Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
I don't have any social networks (I'm from the 19th century), but I'll save this link of yours. Thanks :)
01:00:10Renee Peterson:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
no worries - here is my email: renee.peterson@me.com please connect
01:00:20Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Neil was my teacher ..." with 😲
01:00:30Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Thank you for discus... with "👍"
01:00:38Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "no worries - here is..." with ❤️
01:01:15Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
Got it! I finished my PhD last year and it will be a pleasure to talk to you!
01:01:15Howard:AI is " A-1" according the U.S. Secretary of Education because we have so much stake in it. -- HR(J)E
01:01:50Renee Peterson:Reacted to "Got it! I finished m..." with ❤️
01:01:59Renee Peterson:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
Congratulations! Amazing!
01:02:27Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "AI is " A-1" accordi..." with 🤖
01:02:28Dr Greg Lewicki:Replying to "AI is " A-1" accordi..."
Absolutely. I work with military forecasters on that issue and it will be - already is - a multiplier of state power
01:03:36Robin Levenson:Replying to "Thank you for discus…"
Yes, I finished mine in 2007 but feels like yesterday…..
01:03:51Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Congratulations! Ama..." with ❤️
01:03:55Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Yes, I finished mine..." with ❤️
01:04:14Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to AI is " A-1" accordi... with "🤖"
01:05:30Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
(The truth is: it ‘never’ ends, because we keep wanting to learn... the research bug is contagious...)
01:05:39Renee Peterson:Reacted to "(The truth is: it ‘n..." with 😂
01:06:08Robin Levenson:Reacted to "(The truth is: it ‘n…" with 😂
01:08:21John Donovan:Reacted to "(The truth is: it ‘n..." with 😂
01:13:25Gabriel Kennedy:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
How much of an influence was Joyce on McLuhan?
01:14:24Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "How much of an influ..." with 📚
01:16:25williambuxton:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
big! particularly Finnegans Wake.
01:17:01Michael McLuhan, Estate of Marshall McLuhan:Reacted to "big! particularly Fi..." with 🎉
01:17:56williambuxton:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
Innis gave MM’s Mechanical Bride as an Xmas present to his son.
01:18:22Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Innis gave MM’s Mech..." with 😲
01:18:28Tripp Whetsell:Replying to "Thank you for discus..."
What was your biggest surprise about McLuhan in terms of new discoveries while writing this book and were there any particularly formidable hurdles you had to overcome in writing it?
01:18:38Dr Greg Lewicki:Quantum computing will boost AI. No opposition between the two here :)
01:20:30williambuxton:Did you have much contact with A.J. Watson when doing your PhD?
01:27:44Laura Trujillo:Congratulations to both!! This interview was great!!
01:28:16Dr Greg Lewicki:Thank you for the invitation and insightful interview! I have to succumb to 3AM momentum in Europe. My utmost pleasure, let's stay in touch via LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grzegorzlewicki
best regards, Greg
01:29:11Prof. Paul Levinson:Thanks for attending this event, Greg!
01:29:18Dr Greg Lewicki:Reacted to Thanks for attending... with "❤️"
01:30:04Renee Peterson:Congratulations @tomcooper - this was amazing! Very insightful and inspiring! Thank you @Prof. Paul Levinson for the invitation - I look forward to watching the recording of the questions. I am off to teach at The University of Melbourne. It was great to see familiar faces and new faces! Please feel free to connect with me via LinkedIn. Have a great day or evening!
01:31:06Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Congratulations @tom..." with ❤️
01:31:36Prof. Paul Levinson:Thanks for coming by, Renee!
01:33:01David Nostbakken:A mater class, Tom! Would loved to have been your student. Looking forward to your full book. Good on you. Unfortunately I have another session at 9:00 and must step away.
01:33:11Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "A mater class, Tom! ..." with ❤️
01:36:33Joe Kennedy:For anyone looking for the Raise Hand, Click Reactions on the bottom and there's an option.
01:36:52williambuxton:Innis’s daughter Anne often remarked on her fathers
01:36:53Joe Kennedy:Not very intuitive IMO.
01:36:55Prof. Paul Levinson:Thanks for coming to our interview, Laura — and thanks for all the promotion!
01:37:07Laura Trujillo:Reacted to "Thanks for coming to…" with 👌
01:38:40williambuxton:Fathers good sense of humour. This comes across in his correspondence
01:39:57Michael Grabowski’s iPhone:Reacted to "Our brains fill in t…" with 👍
01:44:01williambuxton:Very enjoyable! I look forward to seeing the book. I have to go.
01:45:45Gabriel Kennedy:Thank you for hosting this great conversation Paul. Best of luck with the book, Tom. It sounds like a great read.
01:46:28Prof. Paul Levinson:Thanks for coming by, Gabriel!
01:49:41Howard:As McLuhan said "There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew."
01:51:07franklobuono@optonline.net LoBuono:It's tough enough for me!! LOL
01:52:00Prof. Paul Levinson:Reacted to "As McLuhan said "The..." with 👍
01:52:36Morgan Stone:I have to head out, but thank you so much for the talk! It was very insightful, and has been a fascinating conversation. Have a great evening!
01:52:36Michael McLuhan, Estate of Marshall McLuhan:There is a McLuhan for young adults: Marshall McLuhan Wise Guy by Judith Fitzgerald . It is very good.
01:53:04Prof. Paul Levinson:Thanks for coming to our interview, Morgan!
01:53:50Prof. Paul Levinson:Replying to "There is a McLuhan f..."
Thanks — good to know!
01:54:46Michael McLuhan, Estate of Marshall McLuhan:Replying to "There is a McLuhan f..."
Great job here Paul. Great book Tom! I must check out though.....
01:55:35Howard:Another good title along these lines is W. Terrence Gordon's "McLuhan for Beginners" (2012)
01:56:28Four Arrows, aka Don Jacobs:I think it would be useful to have Marshall here today. He did not hire me after my making it to his top three candidates in Marin County. He told me there was only on reason that was full of many possible reasons (or words to that effect.) He had asked me how many hours I slept each night and I told him, as an athlete, I sleep an average of 8 hours. He said he did not think I would work out. I thought at first it was about work hours, but do you think it was that it’s also possible he saw 8 hours of sleep as a sign of being too "normal" or perhaps not radically committed enough. He surrounded himself with people who were intensely driven—sometimes to a fault, perhaps, but, I wish he were part of our team today!
01:57:59franklobuono@optonline.net LoBuono:This was terrific!! So nice to meet everyone!! :)
01:58:32Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "This was terrific!! ..." with 😎
01:58:38Kathy Merlock Jackson:Thanks for an enlightening interview and discussion.
01:58:51Prof. Paul Levinson:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM4GZ99J/ref=nosim/?tag=dexter2a-20
01:59:10Matthew Lindia:Thanks! Great interview and insights!
01:59:42Thomas Klinkowstein:Thank you Tom and Paul. A wonderful 90 minutes!
01:59:49franklobuono@optonline.net LoBuono:Reacted to "Thank you Tom and Pa..." with 👍
01:59:52Four Arrows, aka Don Jacobs:Thanks Tom , fourarrows73@gmail.com or fourarrowsbooks.com
01:59:52Prof. Paul Levinson:Thanks Tom!
01:59:58tomcooper:Replying to "Thank you Tom and Pa..."
twcooper@comcast.net
02:00:08Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "twcooper@comcast.net" with 🖖
02:00:29tomcooper:Tom Cooper twcooper@comcast.net
02:00:45PHILIP MORAIS:Replying to "Thank you Tom and Pa..."
Great talk.
02:00:46Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Muito agradecida! Grazie!!! Thanks 🙂 Great conversation. 📚
02:01:19Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto:Reacted to "Perfetto!!!!" with 😎
02:01:34Michael Helm:Thanks so much for doing this and hope for more!
02:01:36Howard:Many thanks fo a most enlightening and engaging evening. Congratulations to Tom for a total de force of a book on two of Canada's world class thinkers! -- HR(J)E
At the Gary Gumpert memorial organized by Lance Strate at The Players in Manhattan late last night: yours truly, Joshua Meyrowitz, Lance, Ed Wachtel, Susan Drucker, Thom Gencarelli (with Mark Twain and others in the back); photo by Michael Grabowski
I saw Gary Gumpert's 1960 Gutenberg Galaxy last night (April 29) at the Memorial Event for Gumpert (who left us late last year at the age of 91) organized by Lance Strate (sponsored by the Institute of General Semantics) at The Players in Manhattan. The 30-minute black-and-white discussion between Marshall McLuhan, Harley Parker, and Robert Shafer of course is primitive -- but, hey, it had no AI, which should make some people happy (sorry, had to throw that in) -- and is easy enough to laugh at. A TV on a stand is made to roll in, apparently of its own accord. A single overburdened camera is made to do all the work. But the conversation, particularly the things Marshall had to say, the comments he continually made ... well, they were more than enough for me to say this recondite bit of television is an outright, not to be missed, masterpiece.
McLuhan was 49 years old. Much younger than I am now, just a few years older than my son is now. His hair was jet black and his tongue was golden. He had most of the pieces already in place that would populate every book and essay he would soon be writing. He talked a lot about the global village. And this was 1960, two years before the launch of the Telstar telecom satellite in 1962 that some people thought gave him the idea for his mini-essay on the global village that would appear in one of his two breakthrough books, entitled The Gutenberg Galaxy, that would appear that same year, in 1962, and would become (along with "the medium is the message" in Understanding Media in 1964) one of his two best-known "probes" (as he liked to call the brilliant insights that poured out of his mind), and indeed was recognized by scholars like me (see my Digital McLuhan in 1999) as nearly literally prescient about the Internet age. He talked about ear-man vs. eye-man, a lesser-known but key probe he would come to call "acoustic space". I recall walking down the street with him near the University of Toronto, must have been around 1978, when a glitzy car drove by with 1950s-style fins -- might have been a Chevy Impala -- and he looked at me with that trademark twinkle in his eyes and said, "you know, the automobile retrieves the knight in shining armor". He didn't say that in Gutenberg Galaxy, the show Gary Gumpert directed, or in The Gutenberg Galaxy, the book McLuhan wrote, but the 30-minute televised conversation teemed with that kind of nonchalant genius that Marshall McLuhan was justly known for. (I say "justly," because many self-appointed media "experts" who either were too jealous or lazy, or maybe just too creaky in their thinking, professed to not understand a single phrase that McLuhan so seemingly effortlessly produced.)
There does remain the question of who came up with the "Gutenberg Galaxy" phrase, Gumpert or McLuhan? Gary Gumpert once told me point blank that he not Mcluhan had come up with that title. I actually got to know McLuhan in person in the late 1970s a lot better than I ever knew Gumpert, and I regret that I never put the question to McLuhan in our many New York and Toronto meetings. Thus, my final judgement on that question right now is: I don't know.
But I do know that I hope the world, our 2025 world, gets to see Gumpert's Gutenberg Galaxy as soon as possible. It's already been digitized. Let's see it up on YouTube ASAP.
