The Sinner 2.5: The Scapegoat

A strong episode of The Sinner tonight - 2.5 - after last week's episode 2.4, which was also strong, with its God knows what happened to Harry at the end, but I didn't get a chance to review.

The most interesting and possibly the most profound aspect of tonight's episode was the Beacon's literal adoption of the ancient scapegoat sacrifice, in which a poor goat that everyone in the community has loved and cared for is slaughtered in the interest of expiating everyone's sins.  His understanding of ancient Greece, however, is somewhat flawed, when he calls this exercise a "catharsis".  The Greeks were not talking about killing goats but releasing pent-up emotions through art.  Freud later expanded this concept to any human activity that resulted in an emotional release, with an emphasis on safe activities that did this.  So, any way you cut this, the Beacon was somewhat out of his mind or jumbling the truth.  No surprise.

Otherwise, the people in town - just about everyone - are closing ranks in their protection of Mosswood, including getting Harry removed from the case.  This is an old story with Harry - going at least as far back as last season - and he's used to it.   He'll continue to work on this case regardless of how many people want him off it, and it's good to seeing him do just that at the end.

In additional news from the commune, it looks as if Marin was killed at some point, after giving birth to Julian.   But we should've learned by now not to take anything for granted in The Sinner, including conclusions which evidence seems to be pointing at.  All of which is to say I won't be surprised if Marin turns up alive before this season is over, despite that coming attraction of the skeleton being pulled out of the lake.

And here's a prediction, which I guess is pretty obvious:  I think we'll see Vera and Harry in bed before the end, if that hasn't happened already in that black-out for Harry at the end of 2.5.  And, for a variety of reasons, I think that would be a good thing for Harry.

See also The Sinner 2.1: The Boy ... The Sinner 2.2:  Heather's Story ... The Sinner 2.3: Julian's Mother

And see also: The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

 

Amazing Stories launch event in Toronto

For Immediate Release

Amazing Stories, the first science fiction magazine created in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback and featuring such luminaries of the genre as Jules Verne, H. G, Welles, E. E. “Doc” Smith, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clark, has returned!

To celebrate the first new print issue of the magazine since 2005, a special launch event will be held at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy (239 College St.). The event will take place on Wednesday, September 12, from 6 to 8 pm.

Editor-in-Chief Ira Nayman will be on hand to give a brief history of the magazine and talk about the challenges of reviving it in the current economic and political climate.

Authors who have confirmed their attendance include: Paul Levinson (“Slipping Time”), Shirley Meier (“Flight of an Arrow”) and Drew Hayden Taylor (“When Angels Come Knocking”). Julie Czerneda (“Foster Earth”) has expressed an interest in attending if her schedule allows. Various other contributors to the magazine will also be on hand.

The first 50 people to attend will receive free copies of the magazine.

“This is both exciting and a little scary,” admitted Toronto native Nayman. “Amazing Stories has a – ahem – storied history. This makes reviving the magazine a delicate balancing act between honouring Amazing Stories’ legacy and updating it for a modern audience. Fortunately, the authors who have contributed to the first issue have given us a great start!”

Advance copies of the first issue of Amazing Stories are now available. Toronto-based author Ira Nayman is available for interviews.

For more information, contact:

Ira Nayman, Editor-in-Chief, Amazing Stories

(416) 630-7331

aardvarkseyes@hotmail.com

Manifest Sneak Peek 9 and 1/2 Mins: Could Be Outstanding

Having flown back a few days ago from The Mars Society Convention in Pasadena, and time-travel being my all-time favorite genre, how could I resist watching the 9 and 1/2 minute sneak preview of Manifest, a series about a plane that travels instantly through time from 2013 to 2018, to debut on NBC at the end of September?

I couldn't.

Airplanes have been vehicles of the very best time travel, from "The Odyssey of Flight 33" on The Twilight Zone in 1961 to John Varley's brilliant 1981 novel, Millennium.   Can the NBC series possibly live up to this?

Very possibly.

Under ten minutes is not much time to tell, but I'd say Manifest has a fair shot of doing this - of finally telling a time travel story on network television in the same league as the very different Quantum Leap, now decades old.  The key to any good story is memorable character development.  From what I saw on YouTube, where you too can see this sneak preview - I've posted the video below - the people in this story are real and appealing.

But it's still too soon to say for sure.   We'll know more after the first episode, after which I'll be back here with a full review.  And even then, the history of television is littered with great debuts that never went anywhere, or flew way off course.  I'm hopeful that that won't happen with Manifest, where the flying of course already took place, but through time as well as space.

See you here in about thirty days.

The Foreigner: Rumble, Bond, and Remington

I reviewed the movie I saw on the plane out to Pasadena for the Mars Society Conference the other day.   Only fair that I review the movie I saw coming back.  Even if that isn't fair, there is at least one very good aspect of the movie.   I'd therefore recommend it, if you'd think you'd find that aspect as appealing as I did.

The two stars of the movie, Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, are no youngsters.   And they play their parts perfectly: oldsters who still have all their smarts and most of their moves from their younger days.

Chan is the devastated father of a daughter killed by terrorists in the U. K.  He's determined to find and punish her killers.  Since he's a lot like an older Bruce Lee, he has the smarts and moves to do this, though he's a little creaky.

Brosnan is a former IRA terrorist now in some pretty high-up government position.  Chan thinks he knows who the killer are, since Brosnan is in charge of the investigation.  In a classic James Bond opening, we first see him in bed with a woman who isn't his wife.  Well, Bond isn't married for most of his exploits but you get what I mean.   And it turns out that the woman is one of the bad guys - bad people - bad because her group has big connection to the terrorists who killed Chan's daughter.

There are good fight and action scenes, and even some surprises in this well-worn kind of story. If anything, Chan is better than he ever was.  And this is best I've seen Brosnan since Bond and  Remington Steele.  So if you like this kind of movie, see it.  You won't be disappointed.

 

Sharp Objects: Final Thoughts

I've resisted reviewing Sharp Objects for the two next-to-last episodes until the finale, because, well I wanted to see how it turned out.  (Spoilers ahead.)

Amma and her friends are revealed as the murderers of the girls - the murder that brought Camille to town - and I'm not particularly happy with that revelation, or the way it was shoe-horned in as a coda.  It's not that I don't think Amma and her friends couldn't have done that - they certainly could - but one of the planks of the investigation has been that it required a man's strength to extract those teeth.  The twist that it not a woman, but more than one woman, strikes me as clever but weak.  Wouldn't a smart detective like Richard have thought of that?

And speaking of Richard, I didn't like how Camille jumped so quickly in bed with Natalie's brother.  I get that this at least was in part designed to show us how hurt and vulnerable she is to anyone who shows her affection.  But, I don't know, it happened too fast, with almost no build-up or prelude.

Back to the murder - I suggested Adora's husband early in my reviews, and I still think he makes the most sense.  He has a man's strength and the motive of protecting Adora. All that was needed to make this work was something that the two victims had over Adora.   Not hard to find or imagine, given that she was all about Munchausening her daughters by proxy.

But hey, I didn't write this, and I assume the TV series adhered to the story in the novel.  Fine acting all around, especially Amy Adams as Camille.  But I can well understand why she said no to reprising the role in a second season.

See also: Sharp Objects 1 and 2: Serial Tennessee Williams ... Sharp Objects #3: Lateral ... Sharp Objects #4: "You Can't Change History" ... Sharp Objects #5: Men in Badges

Red Sparrow: Not The Americans

I saw Red Sparrow on the plane out to Pasadena Thursday night, where I spoke about "Mars and Religion" on a panel with James Heiser and Michael Waltemathe at the Mars Society Conference on Friday.  Hey, Mars is the Red Planet, right?  The movie and the conference were both excellent.  But I'd rate the conference a little higher.

In a phrase, Red Sparrow, about a female Russian agent with a license to kill, is no The Americans.  Which is not to say Red Sparrow isn't good and worth seeing.  It just doesn't break new ground in the genre.

Jennifer Lawrence's Dominika is an appealing, dangerous, deeply conflicted character, and Red Sparrow gets points for having us wonder about her ultimate loyalties until almost the very end, and being at least somewhat surprised if not shocked by the choices she makes.  But most of the characters around her are straight out of central casting, meaning we've seen them on screens many times before.

In the end, Red Sparrow almost seem more like a James Bond as woman movie - which there have also been plenty of - than a profound espionage movie like The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.  I guess the movie received special attention because Maria Butina has been so much in the news along with the Russians in general in our age of Trump and Russian meddling in our elections.  But in all fairness to Buttina, she may be a Russian agent, but we have no reason to think she's the kind who can fight like a karate master and kill on demand.

My recommendation:  Red Sparrow is well worth seeing on a plane, or on some cable or streaming service where you don't have to pay for it.  In that format, it's an enjoyable 2 hours and 20 mins.

 

Hidden 1: You Must See This

My wife and I just binge-watched, over a couple of days, a Welsh-noir short series, Hidden, shown last month on the BBC and now available here on Acorn TV.

In a word: Outstanding!  This is a story of young women kidnapped and kept in captivity - something we've seen a lot of before not only screen but, tragically, in the news.  But Hidden somehow manages to do this differently, with fresh voices, and more than a handful of original, memorable characters, including the minor as well as the major.

The police are DI Cadi John (Sian Reese-Williams) and DS Owen Vaughn (Sion Alun Davies), in a small town in Wales.  Cadi is the middle child in a family of three sisters, whose father is a retired detective in failing health, connected to the case at hand in the past.  Owen's girlfriend is expecting a child - theirs - but he's not quite yet come to terms with that, and finds himself attracted to a very attractive DC, Alice (Sarah Tempest), in the station.  Even the DSI in charge of the precinct, a very minor role, is done with care and originality: she neither gets in the way of the investigation nor is especially gung-ho, which strikes me as being very realistic.

The villains are complex and original, too.  The mother of the kidnapper, Iona Harris (Gillian Elisa), is a tough cookie.  She's on her son's back for, well, kidnapping and keeping these women for years, but she doesn't stop him or turn him over to the police.  Her position as a reluctant accomplice explains lots of things in the end.

And her son, Dylan Harris (Rhodri Meilir), is a first-class monster.  Soft-spoken, really wanting to take care of the women he kidnaps, yet utterly oblivious to the anguish he's causing the victims and their families, including an uncle who is serving time in prison for a murder Dylan committed.

We've been to England and Scotland.  After seeing Hidden - really well acted by everyone, including Gwyneth Keyworth as Megan, the current victim  - Wales is on the agenda.

 

The Affair Season 4 Finale: Best Scenes

A heart-wrenching, sage, so powerful season 4 finale of The Affair just on - with a triple episode - that the most I can do at this point is list some of the best scenes in the series, between key people, that populated this episode.  In no order, because they were all great -

• Noah and Helen, when Noah tells Helen she is strong not broken, and she'd be the one he'd go to feel safe:  best conversation between these two in the entire series so far.
• Cole and his mother, when she tells him he is strong.  Cole is great in every scene, but this one was exceptional because his mother was outstanding, too.
• Cole and Luisa, when they come to terms about taking care of Joanie after they both acknowledge that they're "done" as a loving couple.
• Cole and Noah, when Noah comes to talk to him about Alison's ashes in the urn.  This perhaps wasn't as astonishing and satisfying as the first long conversation between them a few episodes ago, but it had a quietly memorable power.
• Noah and Anton at Princeton, where Anton explains to an angry Noah why he (Anton) did just what writers do - draw on people they know.
• Noah talking to the English professor on the bench outside, as the students wrote in class.  One of my favorite parts of The Affair has always been seeing Noah interact as a famous writer with various people, and this was one of the best.
• Vic and Helen - and Helen telling him over and over that she loves him (you had to be unconscious to have a dry eye after that).

I could go on, but you get the idea.  And bear in mind that all of this was done, all the characters said what they said, under the misinformation that Alison took her own life.  Even Cole, who at first (correctly) objected to that conclusion, has apparently accepted it.  So all of these honest conversations - so honest and truthful, at long last - are predicated on a lie.

Speaking of which, it was supremely galling, wasn't it, to see Ben at the funeral, saying a few words about the woman he murdered.   There has to be more justice in this broken world of ours than this, right?

Which brings me to the last point I'll make tonight:  I read somewhere online that there was some thought about making what we just saw the finale of not just the season but the series.  There's some logic to this, I'll admit.  Helen and Noah's story is resolved, Helen and Vic's story resolved, etc, etc.  But Ben's story most certainly isn't.  And we need to see what happens to this killer, next year.

I'll be back then to let you know what I think of that.

See also The Affair 4.1: Quakes and Propaganda ... The Affair 4.2: Meanwhile, Back on the Island ... The Affair 4.3: Dire Straits (Not the Band) in California ... The Affair 4.4: Ben ... The Affair 4.5: B'shert ... The Affair 4.6: "Good News and Bad News" ... The Affair 4.7: Noah and Janelle ... The Affair 4.8:  I Don't Believe It ... The Affair 4.9: Two Alisons

And see also The Affair 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 3.2: Sneak Preview Review: Right Minds ... The Affair 3.3: Who Attached Noah? ... The Affair 3.4: The Same Endings in Montauk ... The Affair 3.5: Blocked Love ... The Affair 3.6: The Wound ... The Affair 3.7: The White Shirt ... The Affair 3.8: The "Miserable Hero" ... The Affair 3.9: A Sliver of Clarity ... The Affair 3.10: Taking Paris

And see also The Affair 2.1: Advances ... The Affair 2.2: Loving a Writer ... The Affair 2.3: The Half-Wolf ... The Affair 2.4: Helen at Distraction ... The Affair 2.5: Golden Cole ... The Affair 2.6: The End (of Noah's Novel) ... The Affair 2.7: Stunner ... The Affair 2.8: The Reading, the Review, the Prize ...The Affair 2.9: Nameless Hurricane ... The Affair 2.10: Meets In Treatment ... The Affair 2.11: Alison and Cole in Business ... The Affair Season 2 Finale: No One's Fault

And see also The Affair Premiere: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 1.2: Time Travel! ... The Affair 1.3: The Agent and the Sleepers ... The Affair 1.4: Come Together ... The Affair 1.5: Alison's Episode ... The Affair 1.6: Drugs and Vision ... The Affair 1.7: True Confessions ... The Affair 1.8: "I Love You / I Love You, Too" ... The Affair 1.9: Who Else on the Train? ... The Affair Season 1 Finale: The Arrest and the Rest

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

The Sinner 2.3: Julian's Mother

An excellent episode 2.3 of The Sinner tonight - continuing to present the exploits of one of the most humanely compelling detectives ever on television: Harry Ambrose.

But the biggest detective scoop tonight comes from his de facto partner, Heather Novack, who discovers that Julian's mother is none other than Heather's missing lover of 12 years ago, Marin.   We also learn in this extended packet of information that Marin is not necessarily dead.  She's just missing.

The important development comes at the very end, when the doctor who signed Julian's birth certificate takes his own life in the present, rather than continue the interview by Harry and Heather.  That's because he's a member of the Mosswood cult (by the way, does that head in the stone carving look a little like George Washington in profile, or is that just me?)

Meanwhile, Harry continues to provide an appealing combination of smarts and empathy - for Julian and Heather, if not so much himself.  It was therefore good to see him cross paths with a love interest from his youth, who reveals to us that he's now divorced (good).   This provides at least the hope of his having a healthy romantic relationship with someone.  (On that account, it's worth noting that we haven't seen Harry go for that dominatrix stuff that dominated the first season.)

Looking forward to the next episode - when, with any luck, Harry and we will find more evidence that what Julian did was justifiable homicide.

And before I go - good to see Logan Crawford at the beginning, playing a reporter, which he frequently does - in addition to being an actual news guy and anchor in real life.  Here's a clip of Crawford on The Fresh Outlook interviewing me and another panelist a few years ago about Hurricane Katrina 10 years later, Facebook, and other stories:





See also The Sinner 2.1: The Boy ... The Sinner 2.2:  Heather's Story

And see also: The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

 

Justin Hayward in Tarrytown

Mike Dawes, Justin Hayward, Julie Ragins

photo by Tina Vozick

Tina and I saw and heard Justin Hayward at Tarrytown Music Hall earlier this evening.  The concert, in one word, was splendid.   But here's more:

I often say that The Moody Blues, of which Hayward is still very much a member, is my fourth favorite rock group of all time, behind, in descending order, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys.  To be clear about what I mean by that:  I think the best of The Moody Blues songs - let's say "Nights in White Satin," "Tuesday Afternoon," "Question," "Isn't Life Strange," "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock 'n' Roll Band)," "Your Wildest Dreams," "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," to name just just a few, in no particular order, and there are more - are as good as the best songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys.  But I put these groups higher, because they have a lot more best songs - in the case of The Beatles, a lot lot more.

But The Moody Blues are up there, though not everyone agrees.  In 1992, after Tina and I saw The Moody Blues "Red Rocks" Concert on PBS, I queried Rolling Stone if they'd be interested in an assessment of The Moody Blues by me.  I received a snooty reply to the effect that no one was interested in The Moody Blues any more.  (Memo to young writers: That's why I decided to never again query an editor about a potential article.  My philosophy had usually been, before then, to write the article or story first, then shop it around. After 1992, my philosophy has always been that.)

But back The Moody Blues, Justin Hayward was always their stand-out member - being their best songwriter, singer, and guitarist all in one.   Of their songs I listed above, only two of them - "Isn't Life Strange" and "I'm Just A Singer" - were written by another group member, John Lodge.  Hayward has an ear for watercolor detail and an exquisite voice to match.  And he brought of all that to Tarrytown earlier tonight.

He indeed sang all of his songs listed above, and a fair number of new ones.  These were wonderful, too.  You can always tell what a performer is made of when you like his or her songs you never heard before.  I especially liked, among tonight's new ones, "In Your Blue Eyes" and "Western Sky" from Hayward's most recent Spirits of The Western Sky album.

He was joined tonight by Mike Dawes - a young maestro guitarist - and Julie Ragins on keyboards and fine backing vocals.   I suppose I would have rather been at a full Moody Blues concert, but not by an overwhelming margin.  That's because Justin Hayward captures the best of The Moody Blues, and a little something more, with a personal, honest, and charming repartee between numbers.

The Affair 4.9: Two Alisons

So The Affair 4.9 - as brilliant an episode as ever there was, which is to say, pretty brilliant - had two Alison half hours.  Not only that, they covered just about the same time, and were quite different.  As different as if the first episode wan not Alison's, but someone else's - like, just for instance, Ben's - except both the first and second half-hour episodes were clearly labeled "Alison".

So what are we to make of this?  The best that I can do is the first Alison is the way she would've wanted it to be with Ben - truthful from the beginning, vulnerable, and loving - in contrast to the second half hour, in which Ben is quite the opposite, and indeed kills Alison at the end.

But here's a question: where does Alison's voice come from in that second half hour, when she is unconscious and eventually thrown into the water to die by Ben?   Is that her unconscious talking to us, when she is literally unconscious?  If so, that's a new gimmick to pull out of a hat - especially at this juncture, when we the audience are hanging on every world, in our keen attempt to learn what actually happened.

The end of the half hour clearly shows Ben as the killer.   But from whose point of view? God's?  That would be something new on this show.   And if it's Alison talking to us in her unconscious state, that would be something very new, too, as I just said (but it's worth saying twice, in this review of this double Alison episode).

All of which means that this next-to-last episode of the next-to-last season of The Affair, which seems to tell us an awful lot, actually conclusively tells us not too much at all.

Seeing as how there's an episode and a season still to go, I guess that's a good thing.  (As indeed were the sterling performances of Ruth Wilson and Ramon Rodriguez, the only actors in the entire hour.) I certainly enjoyed this episode - until the last few minutes - immensely.  And I'll see you here next week with a review of the season finale.

See also The Affair 4.1: Quakes and Propaganda ... The Affair 4.2: Meanwhile, Back on the Island ... The Affair 4.3: Dire Straits (Not the Band) in California ... The Affair 4.4: Ben ... The Affair 4.5: B'shert ... The Affair 4.6: "Good News and Bad News" ... The Affair 4.7: Noah and Janelle ... The Affair 4.8:  I Don't Believe It 

And see also The Affair 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 3.2: Sneak Preview Review: Right Minds ... The Affair 3.3: Who Attached Noah? ... The Affair 3.4: The Same Endings in Montauk ... The Affair 3.5: Blocked Love ... The Affair 3.6: The Wound ... The Affair 3.7: The White Shirt ... The Affair 3.8: The "Miserable Hero" ... The Affair 3.9: A Sliver of Clarity ... The Affair 3.10: Taking Paris

And see also The Affair 2.1: Advances ... The Affair 2.2: Loving a Writer ... The Affair 2.3: The Half-Wolf ... The Affair 2.4: Helen at Distraction ... The Affair 2.5: Golden Cole ... The Affair 2.6: The End (of Noah's Novel) ... The Affair 2.7: Stunner ... The Affair 2.8: The Reading, the Review, the Prize ...The Affair 2.9: Nameless Hurricane ... The Affair 2.10: Meets In Treatment ... The Affair 2.11: Alison and Cole in Business ... The Affair Season 2 Finale: No One's Fault

And see also The Affair Premiere: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 1.2: Time Travel! ... The Affair 1.3: The Agent and the Sleepers ... The Affair 1.4: Come Together ... The Affair 1.5: Alison's Episode ... The Affair 1.6: Drugs and Vision ... The Affair 1.7: True Confessions ... The Affair 1.8: "I Love You / I Love You, Too" ... The Affair 1.9: Who Else on the Train? ... The Affair Season 1 Finale: The Arrest and the Rest

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

She's Taking the NY Area by Storm!

The Blue Dahlia’s been taking the New York area by storm! Eleven concerts and counting in the past month!  All as prelude to release of her new album early this morning - La Tradition Américaine, which I raved reviewed here - and as ramp-up to her move to France later this month.

And ...  I’ll be joining her tomorrow night for the opening number - a special duet performance with the Blue Dahlia of my "Today Is Just Like You" - as she ignites her CD release and bon voyage party with her kicking band at Barbès in Park Slope, Brooklyn, at 7:30.   If you're in the area, come on by and say hello!  Hey, it's worth making a trip for (the album is fabulous).   But if can't come by, I'll be streaming our opening performance on my Periscope channel - you'll be able to see it here.

More details in this announcement from The Blue Dahlia last night:

en français ! The Blue Dahlia's new album 'La Tradition Américaine,' releases everywhere tonight at midnight! Album release and bon voyage party this Saturday, Aug 11, 7:30pm at Barbes! Over three years in the making, and with the contributions of my amazing bands on both sides of the Atlantic, the new album 'La Tradition Américaine' releases everywhere tonight at midnight, plus CD's available from my website! Read about the album HERE. Come celebrate with us: Saturday, Aug 11th, starting at 7:30pm, at the place where it all began: Barbes, Brooklyn (376 9th Street) Free with $10 suggested donation. *With a special opening song by writer/composer Paul Levinson! Then, The Blue Dahlia is followed by the most fun band I know, besides us, of course :), Cumbiagra! In addition, before departing for France, The Blue Dahliawill also perform these FREE, family-friendly, outdoor shows: Tomorrow, Fri. Aug. 10th, 4-6pm at Ruppert Park & Sat., Aug. 11th, 12:30-1pm at Summer Streets NYC, Midtown rest-stop (E 25th Street at Park Ave S) Then, see The Blue Dahlia this summer-fall-winter in France! Thank you for you love and support!

                                                                          

And here's the Periscope video of Dahlia and I singing "Today Is Just Like You" are The Blue Dahlia CD-release party with The Blue Dahlia band on August 11