Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Dune: Prophecy; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Diplomat, Last of Us, Lazarus Project, Orville, Way Home; True Detective; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

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

Monday, June 18, 2018

The Affair 4.1: Quakes and Propaganda

The Affair was back on Showtime for the start of its 4th season tonight, with half the kit and caboodle out in LA. In fact, all we saw of the central four in 4.1 were Noah and Helen, with a little Cole in a flash forward at the very beginning, and none, unfortunately, of Alison at all (she's my favorite character).

But the stories and the general structure were good. It was fun to see another rendition of the mirrored stories of Noah and Helen, replete with the other peeing in each's rendition. This serves as a clear enough metaphor of what is usually the case in these alternate renditions, in which each character softly reverses the hero and villain role.

As for the stories themselves, there was a strong surprise at the end of Helen's story, with Vic passed out on the floor. This might have made for an even more important twist if he had suddenly died, but the coming attractions say otherwise.

I liked the Anton thread in Noah's half hour. Although we've seen this before - the kid in school thought to be cheating in some way when he's really brilliant (this actually happened to me when I was in high school - immodest, I know, but true) - it was still enjoyable to see Anton give a spot-on explication of propaganda in Noah's course, including a mention of Joseph Goebbels, but not (as yet) Trump. (Believe it not, I've for years, on and off, taught a course in Propaganda and Persuasion at Fordham University and other schools - see my Fake New in Real Context for more of my analysis of propaganda.)

And Helen fearing a quake, and realizing the quake was Noah, was a nice touch, too. But I'm waiting for next week, where I hope we'll see a full hour of Cole and Alison, for this new season of The Affair to kick fully into gear. (Hey, here's a suggestion is there's a fifth season - start with a 2-hour episode.)