Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing Babylon Berlin; Beforeigners; Curb Your Enthusiasm; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hightown; His Dark Materials; Invasion; La Brea; Night Sky; Outer Range; Outlander; Peaky Blinders; Severance; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Picard, Strange New Worlds; Suspicion; The: Crown, Man Who Fell to Earth, Orville; Peaky Blinders; Tokyo Vice; Westworld; You; Your Honor +books, films, music, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Tokyo Vice: Vivid, Dirty, Colorful, Riveting

Just finished watching the eight episodes of Tokyo Vice, first season, on HBO Max, and I'm sorry I didn't see them sooner. A vivid, dirty, colorful sojourn into the Yakuza underbelly of late 1990s Tokyo, with cinematography so convincing you can smell the smoke, taste the booze and the delicious food as you're glued to a narrative so compelling you don't want to be anywhere else.

The story is said to be loosely based on Jake Adelstein's nonfiction book with the same name as the movie. In both cases, he's a young American who gets a job as a crime reporter with a Japanese newspaper -- first American to get such a job. I haven't read the book, know nothing more about the real Adelstein, so the rest of this review will be about the television series.

The story in the series abounds in partnerships -- business, romantic, even cop and criminal. My favorite of these is a triad of sorts between Jake, Samantha (a hostess in a men's club with dreams and plans for opening her own), and Sato (an up and coming enforcer for one of the two Yakuza clans in a life and death struggle for dominance in Tokyo). The acting of Ansel Elgort (I last saw him The Goldfinch), Rachel Keller, and Shô Kasamatsu in these roles was just superb. Other partnerships that animate the narrative are Jake's with Detective Katagiri, and Sato with Ishida (second in command but running the day-to-day operations in the gang). Ken Watanabe and Shun Sugata put in memorable performances in these roles.

There are, unsurprisingly, a bunch of surprising twists in just about every episode. I won't tell you anything specific, but I will say I very much regretted the apparent murder of a very major character in the end -- though I always say that if you don't see the character's head literally blown to pieces there's at least an outside chance that the character survived -- and I'm not a big fan of series that start with a provocative scene, and then devote the rest to the story that happens years before. But there will be a second season, and Tokyo Vice is so good that I it give my highest rating even with these flaws.

Friday, August 5, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville season 3 finale

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 336, in which I review episode 3.10 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written review of this episode

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4... 3.5... 3.6... 3.7-3.8... 3.9

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

First chapter of It's Real Life novel, mentioned at the end of the podcast

Check out this episode!

The Orville season 3 Finale: Matrimony and the Prime Directive

A really satisfying, gratifying season 3 finale of The Orville on Hulu this past evening, especially welcome after last week's harrowing, kinetic masterpiece in which a major crew member was lost.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The two main themes were a treatment of the Prime Directive ala The Orville, and the marriage of Claire and Isaac. Not doing anything that might unhinge a less-than-space-faring civilization is of course a theme that goes back to Star Trek. The Orville handled it well -- as it did back in the first season in episode 1.12 -- this time with its story of Lysella (well played by Giorgia Whigham), back from the "Majority Rule" episode 1.7 of the first season. The short lesson Grayson gives her is a fine primer on the dangers of what contact too early can do,

And speaking of the first season, it was also good to see Alara (Halston Sage) back from the first two seasons -- as a guest at Claire and Isaac's wedding. That ceremony and its build-up had all kinds of goodies, including Bortus's atrocious effort at being best man, Gordon's excellent job at it, the wedding vows, the Kaylon guests, and Ed and Kelly holding hands at the end.

I've been raving about the music in the past two episodes, and the concert in space of songs in my lifetime continued with Aretha in the background, Bortus giving an atrocious rendition of Elvis (I know, you're not supposed to use the same word twice in such proximity, but there's no other word for Bortus's performances), and Gordon on guitar singing James Taylor's "Secret of Life". Now, I liked Gordon and Charly's harmony last week more than just Gordon alone tonight, and the same for Simon and Garfunkel a little more than James Taylor, but Gordon's performance was still memorable, and an excellent capstone to the role music has played this season of The Orville.

Gordon also figured in the time travel nod in which the sandwich he sent to the future a few episodes back suddenly appears. That's what I call continuity! And the expression on Mercer's face, who knows that he made Gordon forget what happened to him after he sent the sandwich ahead, was just right.

The Orville has really grown up this season into a wonderful science fiction series. It has managed to retain its humor -- see what I said above about Bortus -- while presenting consistently superior stories, such as tonight's marriage of a human woman and an android. I'll see you back here with reviews of every episode of the 4th season, wherever and whenever it might be.

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Peaky Blinders Season 6: The Big Twist

Well, it's rare indeed that a series on as high a level as Peaky Blinders surprises me at the end as much as the final, sixth season of Peaky Blinders did, but, yes, indeed it did, big time.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

What I'm talking about, of course, is Tommy not really dying of some kind of tubercular infection of his brain stem, as his doctor told him and even showed him on (by our standards, primitive) X-rays. Turns out that doctor is a Nazi, and convinced Tommy he was dying as the key to a nefarious Nazi plan to get Tommy to take his own life. Given Tommy's seeming invincibility to bullets fired by his enemies, the fascist plan of getting Tommy to die by a bullet fired by his own hand, as a way of ending his own existence, as a way of avoiding needing care that could only be given by those who loved him very much, was pretty ingenious. But Tommy figured it out, just in time.

How did he manage to do that? Not completely clear, but the likely explanation is Tommy wasn't feeling as sick as he should have, if he was really dying of natural causes. And there's also this: maybe Tommy realized he was suffering from tremors and hallucinations before he picked up the lethal bacillus from his sweet little daughter Ruby, who did succumb to it. One thing is clear: Tommy hasn't lost his mastery of strategy, including his capacity to recognize a brilliant piece of work by the Nazis that almost succeeded, which included doing everything they could to separate Tommy from his wife Lizzie, who might have at least been a little suspicious of the doctor who broke the bogus news to Tommy.

As always in Peaky Blinders, the surrounding characters were played perfectly. The scene between Tommy and Arthur, when Tommy tells his older he's dying, was nonpareil. Cillian Murphy and Paul Anderson were once again just perfect in the roles. And so were the Naziss -- of the British and American variety -- played with subtle to conspicuous despicability. At the end of the final episode, though their plan was foiled, they're still at large and riding high. Good to see there'll be a a final Peaky Blinders movie coming up. Stay tuned, at least a few years, for my review.

Saturday, July 30, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville 3.9

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 335, in which I review episode 3.9 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written review of this episode

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4... 3.5... 3.6... 3.7-3.8

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

Check out this episode!

Friday, July 29, 2022

The Orville 3.9: Why It's Become Better than any Current Star Trek

Having just watched The Orville 3.9, let me explain why I think The Orville is better than any current Star Trek series, as well as in the same league with The Original Series and The Next Generation.

It's because The Orville is not beholden to any prior or current Star Trek, not burdened with being true to all that was Star Trek before, and is Star Trek now. The Orville can plot its own course, take its own chances. And now that it's on Hulu not Fox, The Orville is also free fromall the network constraints, including length of episode and language.

Spoilers ahead ... ]

Episode 3.9 makes use of, and epitomizes all of those advantages. It was unafraid to kill off a semi-major character, Admiral Perry (played by Ted Danson) and a major, vibrant new character introduced just this season, Ensign Charly (played by Anne Winters). Charly was so impressive, she even sang some great harmony and lead when she and Gordon performed Simon and Garfunkel's "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall" in Grayson's family cabin. And the lyrics of this song -- "I'll continue to pretend, my life will never end" -- have a special, pang-in-your-heart significance, given Charly's extraordinary sacrifice at the end of the episode. This accentuates the ethical incandescence of Charly doing this to save the Kaylon, whom she understandably hated up until the episode before last.

The story line was also top-notch, for a bunch of interlocking reasons. "The Orville" has increasingly become a continuing story this season. Episode 3.9 picks up on the Moclans leaving the Union, and they form an alliance with the Krill against the Kaylon. And by the end of the episode, the Kaylon (impressed by Charly's sacrifice) are aligned with the Union. These seismic shifts are conducted with subtlety and apt motive. For example, the Moclan at first balk at giving the Krill co-command of their military, because the Krill leader is a woman. And we see the Kaylon leader very aware of the enormity of Charly's sacrifice.

The battle scenes were also outstanding, especially the spaceship dogfights between the Union and the Kaylon vs. the Moclan and the Krill. All of this was reminiscent of an extended scene from a movie like Star Wars, and was possible because "The Orville" as been given room to the breathe on Hulu, in this case, an hour and nineteen minutes.

Next week is the season 3 finale. I'm very much looking forward to that, and to many seasons to come.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Podcast Review of No Time to Die

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 334, in which I review No Time to Die, the final Daniel Craig as James Bond movie

Blog post written review of this movie

Check out this episode!

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

No Time to Die: Quibbles about that Death

My wife and I finally saw the new (to us) final Daniel Craig as James Bond movie -- on Amazon Prime. We very much enjoyed it. In fact, although it has its flaws, I'd say No Time to Die is certainly among best James Bond movies ever made.

[Spoilers follow, of course.]

Let's begin with that shocker of an ending: Bond dies. I didn't like to see that as it was happening --not at all -- but it is a highly original way of ending a Bond movie, and deserves credit for that. It does explode or reveal as a myth the fact that Bond never dies. Those around him die, and he must suffer that. But not Bond himself.

The words on the screen at the end of the movie assure us that we'll see Bond again, and this will no doubt occur the way it's been presented in every transition to a newly acted Bond since it first happened back in Sean Connery's reign, actually twice, once for one time with George Lazenby, and then for a new series of Bond movies with Roger Moore. In those and every subsequent case, the new Bonds were introduced with no mention of the fact that they looked different from their predecessor. The same logic says the new post-Craig Bond can be introduced with no reference to his predecessor being killed. What this, I suppose, means is that Bond's death at the end of No Time to Die is no big deal -- even though it meant the world in the context of that movie.

I did have two quibbles about the two characters must crucial to that death. Rami Malek was superb as the arch-villain Safin who engineered Bond's death -- no one can match Malek's way of delivering powerful lines in a soft voice and a nearly expressionless face. But given the profundity of Bond's death, I would have rather seen it done by a life-long adversary, like Blofeld, who's not able to step up to that role because he's earlier been killed by Bond in another nefarius Safin move on the lethal chessboard. Similarly, although Madeleine (well-played by Léa Seydoux) with a most worthy love of Bond's life. we unfortunately don't meet her until the beginning of this very movie. I would have rather seen someone we already got to know in previous movies. Of course, since Vesper was already killed, it would have been difficult to pull someone out of the earlier Craig as Bond movies, but, nonetheless, that would have added a special gravitas in No Time to Die. Bond's daughter was a really nice part of this movie, and had a gravitas of its own, but a mother with a history of Bond loving her before this story began would have added more.

Otherwise, I thought every other aspect of the movie was outstanding. I especially loved the reprise of Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time in the World" at the end of No Time to Die. The reprise, of course, was from Her Majesty's Secret Service, where it was also played at the end of the movie. In other words, the death of Bond's true love, and then all these years later, the death of Bond, get the same musical aftermath. Unless you're made of stone, that song is bound to bring a tear to your eyes.

Thinking about what the next Bond movie will bring, we have the question of how many of the agents and administration in No Time to Die with survive. I see no reason why all of them can't, deprived of course of any grief at the loss of the Bond played by Craig. I've seen and really enjoyed every Bond movie ever made, pretty much in the year in which they were released, and I'm looking forward to more.

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville 3.7 - 3.8

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 333, in which I review episodes 3.7 and 3.8 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written reviews of these episodes: 3.7 and 3.8

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4... 3.5... 3.6

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

First chapter of my just finished novel -- mentioned in the podcast -- alternate history about The Beatles: It's Real Life

Check out this episode!

Saturday, July 23, 2022

The Orville 3.8: Dolly Parton and Topa

The Orville checked in yesterday with another superb episode -- 3.8 -- a ninety-minute bases loaded home run that continued the story of Topa, and, believe it or not, had the real Dolly Parton in the holographic flesh singing and playing a significant role. You may be getting tired of hearing me say the episode of The Orville I'm reviewing is the best so far in the series, and/or the episode clearly puts The Orville in the best of any Star Trek territory, but both are true once again about this episode.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

First about Dolly: Heveena's haven of Moclan women, striving to increase their number, and free themselves of the Moclan male insanity of wanting them to have no existence at all, venerate our very own Dolly Parton. We first hear about this, then get a tantalizing playing in the background of "Jolene" (good choice -- my favorite Dolly song), and then Dolly herself on The Orville's whatever its called holodeck, summoned by Captain Mercer to talk sense to Heveena. Dolly succeeds, at least in part because she sings "Try" (another great and very appropriate Dolly song, about the stars). Dolly (de-aged) looked and sounded great. She would have looked and sounded great without the de-aging.

Meanwhile, we get a powerhouse story of Topa, with all the trimmings. Back on Earth, we're treated to a meeting of all the Union delegates, including the humorous slime (the voice of which was played by the late Norm MacDonald), who, unfortunately don't speak. I was hoping we'd at least see them raise their amoebic extended hands, like we did for Yaphet in a recent episode, helping Isaac and some tech creature frantically working to fix something.

Grayson and Bortus put in some good hand-to-hand combat with the Moclan who are keeping Topa hostage in a black ops enclave, and Bortus gives the Moclan who was torturing Topa just what he deserves. I was sorry to see Grayson order Bortus to stand down.

Before the episode is over, Klyden is back in the fold, he invites Grayson to the family dinner table, and Bortus and Klyden have renounced their Moclan citizenship. Their home is now The Orville. The Moclans leaving the Union may not be good for the fight against the Kaylon, but it made for one really satisfying ending in this outstanding episode.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Monday, July 18, 2022

The Orville 3.7: Seconding that Emotion

Well, we saw Isaac in simulated flesh in episode 3.6 of The Orville last week, and in this past Friday's episode 3.7 we get to see him love Claire.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Love and sex (and death, too) were actually everywhere in this episode. Claire and Isaac kiss. Lt. Commanders Lee and Keyali are in bed together several times, and the literally broken bones that Lee keeps getting from Keyali's passion make for one of the humorous interludes. Freud with his focus on libido and thanatos would have been happy to see all of it. I know I was.

We also get an important backstory about what led to the Kaylon attack on the Union. It was no fun being a robot slave to a sadistic species. Unfortunately, the Kaylon generalization that all biologicals were the same as the ones who tormented them was not entirely warranted.

Back to Isaac and Claire, I once again would have liked to have seen a different ending. Though letting Isaac keep his emotions and Claire so fulfilled in her love for him would have changed the dynamics on The Orville for sure, I think it would have been fun to see at least a few more episodes of that. Television series always seem to have a tendency to revert to their "bibles" -- the specs on the characters that writers need to abide by -- but sometimes it's better to tear out those pages and toss them in the metaphorical trash bin.

At least we get to see Charly finally come to terms with her understable fury with Isaac, which of course was bound to happen, but it will be good to see them working together in the future.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville 3.6

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 332, in which I review episode 3.6 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written review of this episode

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4... 3.5

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

First chapter of my novel in progress, alternate history about The Beatles: It's Real Life

Check out this episode!

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

The Orville 3.6: Masterpiece of Time Travel with a Missed Opportunity

Another superb, powerful, intellectually complex and morally challenging episode -- 3.6 -- of The Orville, and it's about time travel. This episode was so good, I think it will take its place along with "City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Inner Light" as an all-time great Star Trek (in The Orville's case, Star Trekian) time-travel episode. But I'll be honest with you. I didn't like the ending.

[Spoilers follow ... ]

I would have had Mercer et al take Malloy and his family back to the future, as Malloy suggested. It would have avoided all the potential damage to the future -- no Union, etc -- that Grayson astutely outlined. Although Mercer and Grayson were technically right that Malloy should have held on and not mixed with our 21st century populace -- let alone have a wife and two children -- come on, have a heart. Malloy's new family, and what he learned in his 10 years in our time on Earth, would have made for even more intriguing characters aboard The Orville.

I will say that in taking the route it did, this fine episode of The Orville followed in the time travel tradition of the original Star Trek. Kirk loses his 20th love in "City on the Edge of Forever," for the same reasons as Malloy does in The Orville. And, even worse, Kirk initially has a memory of that love. In The Orville, it is Mercer, Grayson, and the rest who must carry the burden of that memory with them. They inform Malloy about what happened, but that's not the same as having a real memory from your life.

I think rather than upholding "The City on the Edge of Forever" tradition, The Orville had a chance to do something new. But, hey, I'm just a viewer not a writer for this series, and 3.6 was nonetheless a kind of masterpiece, with the bonus of seeing Isaac in the "flesh".

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Friday, July 8, 2022

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.10: Everything!

Well, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, already off to a generally superb start, posted its far and away best episode so far, 1.10, the season finale, which in one fell swoop contributed mightily to the corpus.

[Some spoilers ahead ...]

This episode had everything -- at least, everything of what I most like and consider most important in the Star Trek universe: time travel, Pike learning the hazards of trying to avoid his fate, Pike and Spock drawing closer, the Romulans, and ... Captain James T. Kirk!

The set-up: Captain Pike gets a visit from his older self, determined to get the current Pike not to do something now that will profoundly alter the future. Current Pike touches a Klingon time-travel green crystal which instantly lands him on the future Enterprise.

The story moves quickly. Pike and the Enterprise soon find themselves in a standoff with the bellicose Romulans. Fortunately, the Enterprise gets a visit from none other than James T. Kirk. We've already met Sam, James T's brother. This James T. Kirk (very well portrayed by Paul Wesley) is a little younger Shatner's Kirk, and we get the pleasure of seeing him and Spock meet for the first time. We also get to see James T. flex the smarts and ingenuity of this Star Trek foundational kingpin. (And, as a special treat, we hear the voice of a Scot in engineering -- hello Scotty!)

Before the episode is over, we see some great strategic jockeying between the Federation and the Romulans. But, predictably for this stage in human-Romulan interstellar relations, life-and-death battles in space result nonetheless. And ... Spock is a casualty. He survives. But his body is badly damaged, and a crestfallen Nurse Chapel tells our time-traveling Pike that Spock will never be the same.

Our Pike realizes that his current actions will set in motion a series of events in which Spock not Pike will be the one who is mutilated, who suffered the fate of Pike as shown in "The Menagerie". In a sage, satisfying, emotionally rewarding ending, Pike not only discovers that he can't let this happen to Spock, but he and Spock mean a lot to one another. And this sets up nicely the mutiny that Spock will commit in "The Menagerie" to get his former Captain to a planet where he can live out his life in some happiness.

As I've been saying in these reviews -- and in interviews as well, such as the one I did a few weeks ago on Joel McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast (see below) -- I think Strange New Worlds is up there with TOS and TNG. This season finale brings that point home with light speed.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek: SNW and much more

Stranger Things 4: A Big Step Forward

As I've indicated in these reviews over the years, horror isn't my favorite form of fiction and science fiction. But Stranger Things on Netflix had something special from the beginning, and it's gotten better each season. In fact, I thought season 4 was by far the best, and was in many ways outstanding.

Except the beginning, which was slow moving and even ponderous in parts. But as the season picked up momentum, we got at least three parallel but ultimately intersecting, converging stories, and they were a sight and a story to see.

[Definitely spoilers ahead ... ]

The Soviet story, for example, was somehow exciting, very moving. and even funny at times, all propelled by Hopper surviving what happened to him at the of the third season, and Joyce going to Russia to find and ultimately rescue him. The Duffer Brothers, who made this series, know not when we to do away with an unlikely charismatic character.

The El story was also powerful, to say the least, and its connection to the arch-evil Vecna/Henry who at this point is behind all the terrible things that have befallen the good and not so good people of Hawkins was well conceived and developed. Brenner aka Poppa and Dr. Owens were also well positioned and played, and it was good for a variety of reasons to see Brenner die a noble death.

Speaking of noble deaths, though, the first place for that goes to hard-metal Eddie, a complex new character whom I would liked to see in another season. And the best almost death was Max's, who probably had her best season so far.

I guess what I liked least were the dumb, violent, high-school jocks -- we've that so many times before -- and what I would have to have seen were Steve and Nancy get together. But, hey, that's what next seasons are for, and I'm looking forward to binging the final season of Stranger Things (there maybe a spin-off series, though) which I hope takes less than three years to get back on the screen.

more parallel worlds ... "flat-out fantastic" - says Scifi and Scary

Social Media and Mass Murder

Important conversation between Bob Mann and me on his Bob Mann Hot Media podcast about the role of social media in the mass murders that continue to erupt in the US.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville 3.5

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 331, in which I review episode 3.5 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written review of this episode

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

Check out this episode!

The Orville 3.5: Topa

Well, The Orville episode 3.5 moved into Emmy-worthy territory, with an episode on a sensitive, important issue, presented in a plot with letter-perfect detail and twists.

You may recall that in a prior season, Topa, Moclan child of Bortus and his husband, was obliged to undergo "corrective" surgery that changed Topa biologically from female to male, because females were not allowed in Moclan culture. Now, in the present, a young teenaged Topa is feeling confused and unhappy. Commander Grayson figures out why. The solution is an easy surgery which would restore Topa to womanhood.

Except, Bortus's husband goes ballistic at the prospect, and the Union doesn't want to antagonize Moclus given the Kaylon threat and the need to have Moclus as an ally. The Orville leadership applies all of its wisdom and energy towards finding a way to do the surgery, and --

Well, I won't tell you anymore, because if you've read this far and haven't seen this episode, you need to see it.

[Well, ok, here's a general spoiler.]

I will tell you the solution is brilliantly logical, and serves all kinds of purposes. Plus, it will tug on your heart strings and get you to see The Orville in a new light. It has always been far more than mere satire of Star Trek. But now it can justifiably claim the status of being right up there among the best episodes in any Star Trek series.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime