Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 12 Monkeys, Altered Carbon, Babylon Berlin, Big Little Lies, Bosch, Colony, Counterpart, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dark, Fauda, Game of Thrones, Goliath, Homeland, House of Cards, Humans, Narcos, Peaky Blinders, Outlander, Ray Donovan, Sense8, Sneaky Pete, Stranger Things, The: Affair, Americans, Deuce, Man in the High Castle, Orville; Timeless, Travelers, Vikings, Westworld +movies, music, politics

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

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Humans Season 3 Final Three Episodes: Hybrids

I decided to review the final three episodes of Humans, Season 3, as a single piece, since they're even more closely connected than episodes usually are in this fine series. The upshot of these episodes, and a great foundation for a fourth season, is that it's possible to have a true synch-human hybrid - true, that is, and assuming I'm understanding this correctly, on the genetic level.

Leo was already a hybrid of sorts. But he was born human, and given parts of a synch brain to save him after he died, or almost died, depending on how you look at it, from drowning. That synch part was taken out of him this season. But it turned out that the totally human Leo was not quite totally human. He was something a little more, retaining something of his synch essence even after the hardware was removed.

And as Odie now V who attained his hybrid quality in a different way, tells Niska, who has now also risen to a superior level, the baby that Leo and Mattie are having will be a hybrid from the moment of birth. Or, actually, she's a hybrid already in the womb.

This takes Humans to a whole new level, almost reminiscent of the best of Dune and its genetics. (I also dealt with this in a different way in my Locus-award-winning first novel, The Silk Code.) In fact, I can't think of any other AI story - including Westworld - where the genetics and digital have been so tantalizingly woven together. Or promise to be - for at this point, at the end of season, it has not quite fully happened.

So our synths have now progressed from (a) most of the green-eyes are non-sentient, but our original cohort are sentient because David Elster wanted them to be that way to take care of Leo, (b) all of the remaining green-eyes are sentient due to the awakening due to the release of the code by Mattie to save Mia last year, (c) to human-synch hybrids on a different level, including synchs on a different level, as evidenced by V, Niska, and soon Mattie's baby.

Sadly, Mia's death means that Mattie's release of the code to save Mia had no long-term effect on Mia, though she did play a crucial role in the new order that's arising. And, hey, death is never necessarily dead when it comes to androids, so ... who knows, we may see Mia again.

And you'll see me back here with reviews whenever Humans returns.

"DNA is the ultimate dossier."

photo THECONSCIOUSNESSPLAGUE5_zps8e1b18e3.jpg

Monday, July 16, 2018

Why Trump Loves Putin

Blackmail has often been cited, sometimes along with gratitude for the help Russia gave him in the 2016 election, as the reason Trump so adheres to Putin, as seen again in the Helsinki press conference today.

That may well be, but I think the deeper reason is that Trump has an affinity to dictators - to people in power who don't need the votes of anyone to continue in office. Though Trump often trumpets how he won the election of 2016 - including again today - he knows full well that he lost the popular vote and only is in office because of the quirks of the Electoral College. And that must rankle him.

When he sees our allies in Canada and in Europe, he has contempt for them, because he knows full well that they can be swept out of office in the next election. As can he.

When he sees Putin, or the leaders of China, North Korea, and Turkey, he sees something quite different. He sees people who have somehow managed to stay in power, in some cases decades already, without needing a single real vote. He sees people who think of themselves as Plato's philosopher king, though who knows what any of them, especially Trump, actually know of Plato's work.

This means that Trump is neither stupid nor out of control. And though he may be subject to blackmail, and though he may be grateful to Putin for what Russia provided to him in the 2016 election, I think that Trump's embracing of Putin reflects what he feels and desires in every ounce and the deepest part of his being: to stay in office, to do as he pleases, without the annoyances of the press or the need in his view to pander to voters, for as long as he pleases.

Possibly other politicians and even presidents in American history have felt the same. But I'd say none as fanatically and irrevocably as our current President, and this is a far more serious threat to democracy than blackmail or gratitude could deliver.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

The Affair 4.5: B'shert

A powerful, unusual, altogether brilliant episode 4.5 of The Affair tonight. For starters, it had a half hour just about Vik. But even more significant for the history and arc of the series, it had an episode of Cole, giving him back-to-back episodes this week and last.

Let's start with Cole. The denouement of his half hour is that he realizes it's Alison he's always loved, still loves, and wants to be with again. We the audience of course have always known this. But the way Cole discovers this was a page right out of Mad Men, and what going to California meant to and did to Don Draper.

Amy Irving put in a great performance as Cole's father's (Gabriel's) lover. Her Nan is quiet, soulful, wise, and beautiful. I could live without the California mysticism verging on voodoo, but her story of love lost was a masterfully tragic gem. She thought for years that her exorcism plan - a strategy to get Gabriel to get over her - had worked. But she finds out the two were permanently b'shert - destined to always want and love each other.

Cole coming back to New York with a clear love and desire for Alison should shake things up there nicely. Cole will now be on a collision course with Ben. And I predict ... well, I predict Alison will get back with Cole. But that's just a prediction. Significantly - though I can't say exactly significant of what - this episode had no flashforward prelude with the search for the missing Alison.

But back to California, Vik's story was a wrenching, heart-in-your-throat episode in itself. Helen doesn't want to raise a child alone, so she torpedos Vik's plan to get pregnant. He winds up buying a Porsche - presumably to give to his father - that serves as the vehicle for sex with his next-door-neighbor in her house. Will she end up bearing the grandchild Vik wants for his parents? It's a sad story, whatever happens.

Sad but full of tinder - in the old and new senses - for subsequent episodes, for which I'll be back with reviews.

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Sunday, July 8, 2018

The Affair 4.4: Ben

I thought the most interesting - and provocative - character in The Affair 4.4 tonight was Ben, who appears in both Alison and Cole's segments, and is more than just a passing character in Cole's. That in itself would be noteworthy, but the specific nature of Ben's double appearance makes his dual role especially significant. (I'm tempted to put in a link to Michael Jackson's "Ben" here...)

For Alison, he's nothing but a wonderful, attractive, irresistible guy. He gets her to reveal things about herself which, as she tells him, she never told Cole or Noah. With someone this caring and easy to fall in love with, it's no surprise that that's exactly what effect he's having on Alison.

But in Cole's segment, he's revealed as someone who committed a serious lie of omission to Alison: Ben is married with two kids. He tells Cole that he and his wife are apart, but who knows if we can believe him. Apparently Cole does - but he's on his way to California to clear his ahead about his life and how to be a better husband to Luisa.

When you combine all of this with the continuing Alison-is-missing flash-forwards at the beginning, Ben has now become a prime suspect in Alison's disappearance, including he did something bad to her (which I doubt, but it's now a possibility). And Ben's wife can also be added to the people who might want to see Alison gone.

With this now suspicious character of Ben, the fourth season of The Affair is on the way to becoming a good successor to the who-killed-Scotty story which propelled the previous seasons. Maybe even better - more harrowing - since Alison is a vastly more important character than Scotty ever was.

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Saturday, July 7, 2018

12 Monkeys: Ends and Begins with Sunsets

Well, I'm a sucker for happy endings, and I never would have forgiven 12 Monkeys if ended with Cole and Cassie apart, or dead - which indeed is the worst kind of apart - and I'm very glad I don't have to. That is, forgive, 12 Monkeys. Because ... [spoilers ahead]

Well, obviously there are spoilers ahead, and I know the first paragraph is of course a spoiler, but what else can I do? The series ended with one hell of a satisfyingly happy ending, and after all it and we the audience have been through, that was manifestly the right thing to do.

Of course Jones would find a way a way of not only saving her grandson, but saving him for a happy life with the woman he loves. And what I especially liked about the ending was the way that Cassie played an active role in this, by acting on her instincts and premonitions in the original and final timeline, and going to that house in Binghamton. (Did we already know it was in Binghamton? I'm not sure - but I also like that that's where it was. I've been there at least 12 times.)

It was also appropriate that Jones engineered this, while Cassie and Cole and everyone around her reluctantly consented to go their own different, separate ways. In fact, the only thing I didn't much care for in the ending is something I didn't like as soon as she became the villain of the series. The Witness was too much of a cartoonish, fairytale, whatever the right word is here, villain. And the people around her were even more so.

Still, that red leaf at the end shows the red forest -- i.e., the end of time and existence -- is ever nigh. As Cole rightly says more than once in this two-hour finale, it's the reality of endings that makes what comes before them so meaningful.

He offered the metaphor of a sunset. Here's a picture I took of one earlier tonight over Cape Cod Bay, which I enjoyed before seeing the finale of this outstanding series, and proved an apt prelude. And here's one of the best-known songs from my 1972 LP, Twice Upon a Rhyme - Looking for Sunsets (In the Early Morning). Thanks everyone for a great four seasons of time-travel television.

Available on Prime

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Paul McCartney's Two New Songs

I heard a new song by Paul McCartney earlier today on Sirius XM's The Beatles Channel - "Come On to Me" - and liked it enough that I just listened to it again on iHeart Radio, along with another new McCartney song, "I Don't Know," which I like even more. You can hear both along with the videos and lyrics over here.

So here I am on that path again. When I heard Sgt. Pepper the first few times in June 1967, I thought The Beatles had gone off the deep end. Nothing on that album was as good as just about anything on Rubber Soul or Revolver. By the fifth or six listening, I realized that it was my ears that had gone off the deep end, and I came to love Sgt. Pepper as a work of genius. I wrote a piece for my Electronic Chronicles series in the mid-1980s entitled "Sgt. Pepper and the Presumption of Genius," in which I explained how my initial experience with Sgt. Pepper had taught me to distrust my initial responses -- at least, to a band with as much talent as the Beatles.

And, indeed, over the years, I've come to love various McCartney songs - especially "My Brave Face" and "Hope for Deliverance," after not too many listens. So what's going to happen with "Come on to Me" and "I Don't Know"?

First, the videos are no great shakes - but, then again, which ones are these days? (Other than the Playing for Change live videos around the world - Denis Reno turned me on to them a few years ago - which I could listen to all day, and in fact I just listened to this one, and had to pull myself away to get back to writing this blog post. Also check out their renditions for "Cotton Fields" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads".) But on first listen, McCartney's two new songs are good - very good. And I predict, as I hear them in the months to come (they're from McCartney's new album Egypt Station, to be released in September, which is a promising title, too), I'll be enjoying them more and more. In the meantime, I recommend listening to The Beatles Channel and reading Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles.

Look, nothing can catch up with McCartney's work with The Beatles through Wings, which I've been loving for so many decades. But "My Brave Face" comes close, and I'm amazed to think that these new songs could come close, too. It seems there's no end to this man's talent.

Humans 3.5: Progress

On the eve of the Fourth of July in America last night, it was good to see the synths in Humans 4.5 making progress towards independence, even though the show has been moved from 10pm to the less desirable 11pm hour by AMC, thank you.

But the council did vote to make hurting synths a crime - too late to help poor Karen - but a step forward nonetheless. And Mia is getting an audience with the council, which is good to see, too.

But lots of evil is still arrayed against them, the worst of which may be from other sentient synths, bent on killing humans as well as synths who, though sentient, are viewed as collaborators. Most disturbing is the orange-eye the Hawkins' house. His conversation on the phone means either that (a) orange-eyes are not as docile as promised, or (b) he's wearing contacts lenses to make his eyes look orange, when in fact he's a green-eye.

And if that isn't enough danger to the Hawkins, Mattie's been uncovered as the person who let loose the awakening code. She's one of my favorite characters, and I can only hope she doesn't end up like Karen.

But to end on an upbeat note, Sam seems to be coming along fine, now able to feel loss, like Mia and Niska. This, again, raises the question of do synth children grow up - a question sharpened by the revelation of an elderly synth, happily living with an elderly human woman. I'm looking forward to learning more about synths at various ages, and seeing where this leads as we reach the concluding episodes of this fine season.

Sunday, July 1, 2018

The Affair 4.3: Dire Straits (Not the Band) in California

A grim episode 4.3 of The Affair tonight, namely Helen's half hour, and how she's trying to deal with Vic's awful diagnosis. On that, I've got to say that I think Helen did nothing wrong tonight, including telling Vic's parents after he expressly told her not to. Her actions were 100% understandable.

Also of interest is what came into Helen's mind when her shrink asked her whom she couldn't live without. After saying her kids, someone else was in her mind, and at that point, Helen ends the session. Was that someone after all Noah?

Noah's segment was more nuanced, if a little trite. So is what happened at the end between Noah and the principal - you know they're going to have a full-fledged hot affair, so what's the point of resisting that or pretending it won't happen. (But she had a good line when she said she doesn't want to see her son in Noah's next novel.)

And that leaves us with what in effect is a third segment - the prelude or intro. Alison has gone missing. She's involved with Ben. But, most significantly, Noah and Cole are in the car together, starting to look for her. We saw this in the first episode two weeks ago. It will be fun to see how they both end up in that car, looking for the woman the two still very much love.

This season is increasingly unlike the first three. No crime of any kind, so far. Noah apparently a much better person than he's ever been on the series. Same for Alison. And Helen's in the most difficult situation she's ever been in.

And I'll be back here next week with more.

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Saturday, June 30, 2018

12 Monkeys 4.7-9: One-Bettering The Movie

I've been saying for years - well, since 1995, when Terry Gilliam's movie, starring Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe first came out - that 12 Monkeys (based on the 1962 short, La Jetée), is the best time-travel movie ever made. This gave the television series, which came out in 2015 and I've been reviewing here ever since, a lot to live up to. Up until tonight's penultimate three episodes (4.7-9), the best it did was sidestep the movie, and tell us other time-travel stories. Especially in this final season, some of these stories were as good, in their own ways, as the movie.

Tonight the tv series did something very different. It took the mind-blowing, gut-wrenching, paradox-respecting ending of the movie [spoilers ahead] -- in which time-traveler James Cole, haunted all of his life by something he saw happening at the airport, discovers that what he saw as a little boy was his own death, of his older self, trying to stop the plague, as a horrified "Kathryn" Railly who loves him holds him in her arms and can do nothing more than exchange glances with the little boy - and daringly throws this ending in our faces and turns it on its head. By which I mean: in the three hours on tonight (actually, the third hour, 4.9, which was one superb hour of television), Cole and "Cassandra" Railly (the same character as in the movie, with a new first name) realize that in order to stop the Witness and her plan to end all of time and existence, they must not stop the plague but make sure it's set loose in the airport (changed in the TV series to JFK from whatever the name of the airport in Philadelphia in the movie). The Witness knows this and tries her best to stop this by killing Cole - which she fails to do because Cole's mother takes the assassin's blow and dies in his stead. So, Cole dying in Railly's horrified arms in the movie is replaced by Cole's mother dying in Cole's arms and Railly looking on horrified in the TV series. Now that's what I call a pretty good twist - with sensitive acting by Amanda Schull as Railly, Aaron Stanford as Cole, and good work by Brooke Williams in the pivotal Hannah role. (Ok, maybe not better than the movie's, but certainly in the same league.)

The other part of this twist is that Hannah not Emma is Cole's mother. I did see this coming. I'm not sure why, but when Hannah and Emma were making their escape (again, from the Witness's assassins), it popped into my head that, hey, if Emma is killed it could well be that Hannah is Cole's mother. This of course makes for a much more meaningful and satisfying lineage, with Jones being Cole's grandmother.

So here's where we are for the two-hour finale next week. Deacon and Hannah are gone (with heroic deaths by both). The plague was released and kills seven billion. And Jones doesn't have much longer to live. I'm routing for the plague not to be released (I'm with Cassie and her reticence to release it - she's a doctor, but any normal human being should feel that way), and for Jones to somehow recover. That, of course, in addition to the Witness being stopped.

And I'll be back here next week to let you know what I think of how this all turns out.

Available on Prime

Friday, June 29, 2018

Humans 3.4: Sam

A big development in Humans 3.4, one which puts Sam very much in the spotlight of this narrative. It was a logical move, putting him right in the middle of our central characters, but one which I was not happy to see.

That would be the killing of his synth mother, Karen, at the hands of a brutal human mob (who, I can't help saying, remind me of the people at Trump rallies). On the one hand, she was always a marginal character, never quite in the center of this narrative. On the other hand, she was a very appealing and powerful character, well played by Ruth Bradley. I'll miss her.

But her death means that Joe will taking charge of Sam, which inevitably means Laura and family will be brought into his life, all the more significant in that this family now includes Leo and all of his knowledge. Does Leo know about Sam? Not clear. Indeed, I can't recall who else among our originally sentient synths know about Sam - maybe none of them.

As I said in an earlier review, Sam's very existence raises all sorts of interesting questions, first and foremost being will he age, or be an ageless Peter Pan? The actual construction of all the synths is far from clear. Clearly they have the stuff of circuits inside. We know from season one that they don't digest their food - they live on electrical energy. But it's still not clear if any of them age. Probably not. Which would make Sam an especially significant character.

One of the best things about Humans is the way it mixes interpersonal and philosophic issues, along with the action which keeps the story moving. Karen was a victim of this action. It's result has now put Sam on center stage.

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"challenging fun"
- Entertainment Weekly

e-mail received from a reader:
Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom

I of course happily replied...

35 reviews of The Plot to Save Socrates!