Debris 1.5: Fine Tuning

Make that two weeks in a row with strong episodes of Debris -- in fact, tonight's episode 1.5 was even better than last week's, on all kinds of levels.

The destruction was averted, and it would have been a major piece of devastation indeed: sending a piece of Manhattan to who knows where.  This evokes not only the song "I'll Take Manhattan," but John Stith's novel Manhattan Transfer.  It requires not one but two pieces of interstellar debris, posted in just the right places, fine tuned in appropriately near-distanced skyscrapers. 

And the beings doing this come not from the stars -- at least as far as we know -- but are apparently the human beings in Influx, that mysterious organization trying to marshall the powers of the debris for their own benefit.   They take pills which enable them to teleport through short, maybe longer, spaces, and the guy with the beard who is in command can join in a song playing blocks away.

Again, all of this feels like an update of Fringe, and that's just fine.   Debris has the addition of the CIA/MI6 complex relationship of incomplete allies, and this is being well developed as well, in the interactions of Finola and Bryan, both with one another and with their higher-ups in the agencies.

What I'd still like to see: how about a joint mission out into space to see exactly where the interstellar ship first appeared?   If there were no such thing as discrete networks and streaming services down here on Earth in our reality, there could be a crossover event between Debris and For All Mankind.  But I'll settle for whatever Debris can dish out.

See also Debris 1.1 Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces ... Debris 1.2: Clones ... Debris 1.3: Trapped Out of Time ... Debris 1.4: Suspentia Belief

The Cry: Taut Thriller, with One Flaw

Checking in with a review of The Cry, a 4-episode Australian-British miniseries I saw last night on Netflix. In a word: outstanding!

First, Jenna Coleman, who was so good in Victoria in the title role, may be even better as Joanna Lyndsay in The Cry, the mother of a baby who is apparently kidnapped on a trip to Australia with her husband.  Surprises abound, especially at the end of each episode, and you just won't know what really happened until the very end.

[Spoiler ahead]

Just one quibble:  the ending of the narrative, the truth of what really happened, hinges on the husband mistakenly giving the baby his wife's medication.   He doesn't taste the medication first, to make sure it's the right medication, as his wife does, and then he blames his wife for what happened to the baby by implying/saying she was the one who administered the wrong meds.   But ...

Wouldn't a mother taking a medication very different from her baby's make sure the bottles were very clearly marked, or at least in dispensers of obviously different shapes and sizes?   There is a scene in which Joanna correctly gives Noah (the baby) the right medication, and it does appear that the bottle looks different from the one with her medication.  So, what happened with the husband?  Are we supposed to believe that he was so lackadaisical about their baby that he didn't pay any attention at all to the two different dispensers of the two medications?   Although he was not the most attentive father, that's a little hard to believe.  I suppose there's also a possibility that he did this deliberately, but if so, that should have been made clear in the end.

Anyway, The Cry is otherwise a thrilling ride that holds together very well, and I'd definitely recommend it.

 

Podcast Review of Shtisel 3: Cheesecake and Faith

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 169, in which I review Season 3 of Shtisel.

Blog post review of Shtisel.

the first interstellar seder in space takes place in this novel

 

Check out this episode!

City on a Hill 2.1: Big Dig

City on a Hill is back with its second season on Showtime today, firing of all cylinders.  In the first minutes, we see DeCourcy denounced by a black cop in Boston as "Huxtable-looking," after DeCourcy tries to reprimand the cop for being too tough on a black kid, whose erudition reminds DeCourcy of himself.  And Jackie Rohr dumps a nearly-dead Holly Gunner at the front of a hospital after she ODs in his car.

And it gets even better from there -- or, rather, worse for the characters, which is better for the narrative. Jackie's new boss from the new Clinton administration  tells him the best thing he can for himself is retire.  DeCourcy's new case is an 11-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet in a drug gang-war.  Boston in 1993, where the Big Dig is in play, is even more edgy, more perilous, than it was in the first season of the show.

The personal relationships are tense, too.  This episode could have been titled "amends," given what Benedetta is trying to do with her parents.  Neither Jenny nor Jackie want to hear them from their daughter.  Is this something from Irish culture, or Boston culture?  I could tell you.  I'm not Irish and I'm a New Yorker.  But it makes for a good story.

The language is especially apt given the racism of our own real world in 2021.   You not only hear the N word, but anti-Asian slurs, courtesy of Jackie and his opinion of the FBI superior who tells him he would do well to resign.  All that's missing in terms of the attitudes and close-to-the-brink existences between City on a Hill and our world today is the pandemic.   I guess the lesson in that is life was rough even before the pandemic and Trump.

But it's good to see it in such gritty form on the screen, and I'll be back here with my review of the next episode next week.

See also City on a Hill: Possibilities ... City on a Hill 1.2: Politics in a Cracked Mirror ... City on a Hill 1.3: One Upping The Sopranos ... City on a Hill 1.4: Enjoyable Derivative ... City on a Hill 1.6: Tony's Mother, Mayhem, and Family ... City on a Hill 1.7: The Bodies ... City on a Hill 1.8: Personal Business and Its Accompaniment ... City on a Hill 1.9: Changes ... City on a Hill season finale: "You Ain't the Good, and I Ain't that Bad"

 

Shtisel 3: Cheesecake and Faith

The wife (froi) and I binge watched the third season of Shtisel on Netflix -- hey, it debuted on my birthday, March 25.  And, I was delighted to find, these nine new, long-awaited episodes also had a shout-out for me, with a fairly major family named Levinson.  Thank you, Shtisel!

And these episodes were immensely enjoyable!

[Spoilers hollow.]

Especially the ending, which had more happy endings than I've ever seen in a series before.  Kiva defies his father and goes to live with his wife Racheli.   Yosa'le defies his mother and says he will marry Shira Levi (not Shira Levinson, but I'm very happy for Yosa'le anyway).  Shulem may be able to reconcile with his brother. And, most important, Ruchama and her baby are both fine -- their faith beat the thousand-to-one odds.  With so many unhappy endings in our real world -- with Trump's defeat being a remarkable exception, a blessing! -- it was gratifying and timely indeed to see so much happiness at the end of Shtisel.

The language, the Yiddish, was also a joy to hear, as it always is.  Where else can you hear the word fakakta, as Nuchem, Shulem's brother, says his finances are.  And to stay with the same character, the same sentiment, and the same area of the body as metaphor, it was good to hear Nuchem tell his brother he's a shtick drek, as well as this being well deserved in this case.

And the food was gesmacht to the max.  That cheesecake from Brizel made my mouth water.  (Is Brizel a real place?  Hey, send me some of that cheesecake -- look at this great publicity I'm giving you.)  The lessons Shtisel so effectively conveyed, from the power of food to the power of art to the power of faith, are not only appealing but deeply memorable.

The acting was outstanding, too.   Doval'e Glickman as Shulem, Michael Aloni as Kiva, Shira Haas as Ruchama, and Sasson Gabay as Nuchem were all just perfect, and I also especially liked Daniella Kertesz as Racheli and Reef Neeman as Shira Levi.

The ending did tie up a lot of stories, but hey, there's always room for another season.  I'd drop everything else to see it, even if it doesn't debut on my birthday,

See also Unorthodox: Less and More than Shtisel

the first interstellar seder in space takes place in his novel

For All Mankind 2.6: Couplings

A really excellent episode 2.6 of For All Mankind on Apple TV+ today, I'd say the best so far of the second season.  The theme was couplings.

First and foremost, in terms of space travel and alternate history, would be the Apollo-Soyez joint mission, or, as of course the Soviets would have it, Soyez-Apollo.  This mission is a perfect vehicle for both of the intertwining narratives, humans in space and the alternate history of The Soviets getting to the Moon very shortly before the United States.  And as a special treat, it's Aleida who comes up with the final fix to the technological solution of the docking problem, in which both sides want to do the penetrating and neither one the passive receiving.

And there were some good human coupling stories in this episode, too.  I'm glad that Gordo told Sam he aimed to get Tracy back.  I guess the odds are against him, but, hopeless romantic that I am, I hope he succeeds. And Ellen and Pam was good to see, too.   The scene in which Ellen breaks the news to her husband was really moving -- in fact, in many ways, the best scene in this episode, in which about every scene vied for being the best.

Including that ominous last scene, in which our astronauts are now in Russia.  The two groups -- the astronauts and the cosmonauts -- learned to work together, in free America.  But the Soviet Union was totalitarian, and the question will be whether the humanity we saw in the cosmonauts in America -- including another primo scene in which we learn the truth about Laika the dog -- will survive on the other side of the world.

See also For All Mankind, Season 1 and Episode 2.1: Alternate Space Race Reality ... For All Mankind 2.2: The Peanut Butter Sandwich ... For All Mankind 2.3: "Guns to the Moon" ... For All Mankind 2.4: Close to Reality ... For All Mankind 2.5: Johnny and the Wrath of Kahn

*** Note added 27 October 2023:  Check out my review of Jack Dann's new book, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Deadly Illusions: Not Quite Deadly

Just saw Deadly Illusions on Netflix.  In a nutshell, it's a fairly good thriller about a writer (Mary) who may or may not be imagining scenes in her book which have her hiring a seductive, psychotic nanny who seduces her, kills her friend, and almost kills her husband.

The nub of the narrative, then, is whether or not we're witnessing a lurid imagination, or a terrible mistake in hiring.  The few reviews I've read seem to think it's the latter -- that Grace/Margaret is indeed a split personality prude/insane seductress.   They cite the final scene, in which Mary visits Grace in a psych ward.  But I'm not so sure.

Because, how do we know that the final psych ward scene is not part of Mary's new novel?  That's the problem with any kind of story in which the imagination of a character could be the essence of what we're reading or seeing on a screen.  And Deadly Illusions, having raised this possibility, does an insufficient job in resolving it in the end.

To be clear, I have nothing at all against unclear endings.  I thought the ending of The Sopranos, for example, in which we don't know if Tony lives or dies, was a sheer masterpiece.  But that's because the two possibilities, life or death, were brilliantly given almost perfectly equal weight.  Obliging viewers to make their own decisions.

Not so the ending of Deadly Illusions.   Which is why I said the movie was "fairly good".  Look, it takes a lot of work to get an ambiguous ending like this just right.  Deadly Illusions, though offering a very enjoyable ride, just didn't do this in the end.

See also The Sopranos End and the Closure Junkies

The Gloaming 1.1: Two Detectives and a Cat

All right, so here's what I can say about The Gloaming, which debuted Sunday evening on Starz:

It has a great name.  The gloam is that time between sunset and darkness.  It's a good word for writers and songwriters to know.  It rhymes with home and foam.  I may put in a new verse in my song Pictures on the Phone.

The story is pretty good, too.  Or, at least, it's starting out that way.  A teenage girl (Jenny) was murdered in Tasmania two decades ago.  The guy (Alex) standing next to her was not, and he's now a cop on the mainland (Melbourne), sent to the island to help with a new murder.  He had a relationship of some sort with the cop (Molly) in Tasmania who is already investigating the new murder, so much so that Alex named his cat after her.   There's a school of some sort that involved in some likely nefarious way, and some kind of cult is on the island, that we've just seen a hint of, so far.

So, in addition to the intriguing title, that's a promising set-up.   On the other hand, cults have been seen on the screen many times before, so The Gloaming will have pretty steep hill to climb if it seeks to be original.   The key to its success will likely be the relationship between Alex and Molly.  Why was he spared back in 1999?   Did he know the killer, the man (presumably) who pointed the rifle at Jenny and pulled the trigger twice?   

Stories with cults can tip into the supernatural.   If The Gloaming does this, it will enter into a realm which goes far beyond the detective story, and requires a very different set of conventions.   Based on the first episode, I'm thinking The Gloaming can do just well without this.  I'm hoping it will stick, as far as possible, to the world as we know it.

Debris 1.4: Suspentia Belief

Well, I know I keep saying this, and that's because it's true.  Debris keeps getting better and better, and it did this again this week in episode 1.4

I especially liked the use of extra-terrestrial tech -- "suspentia" -- to cure a different Debris effect, the extra-terrestrial terraforming of our atmosphere into one in which chlorine, deadly to life on Earth, replaces oxygen.   This (again, like many an episode of Fringe) is an old and still intriguing science fiction chestnut of terraforming other planets to make them suitable to human life, and vice versa.

Finola plays a major role in applying suspentia to save a group of people who will die on Planet Earth, having been transformed into chlorine-breathing beings: put them into suspended animation, until we humans develop the means to bring them back to life in our oxygenated world.  It's a big risk, of course, but far better than the alternative.

Meanwhile, Finola also learns that Bryan knows her father is alive, and didn't tell her.  This will put a sizeable schism in their relationship, and in doing so will further separate the CIA and MI6.  Missing in action this week, except in one short sentence, is "Influx" -- we need to learn more about them already.

But as long as the episodes get tighter and tighter, as they've been doing, I'm more than happy to wait for the central plot to move along and find a more satisfying pace.  There's something about Debris that increasingly has classic --- as in destined to become a classic -- written all over it, and I'm eager to sit back and see that happen.

See also Debris 1.1 Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces ... Debris 1.2: Clones ... Debris 1.3: Trapped Out of Time

Balthazar 3: Pure Gold, Except...

The third season of Balthazar has been up on Acorn via Amazon Prime Video for at least a month.  My wife and I saw the first two seasons and loved them.  We felt the same and even more about the third season.

Except for the first episode, which was a standalone with Balthazar on an island, and Captain Hélène Bach eventually goes out to retrieve him.  That episode was obvious, and all right, at best.

The rest of the season, in contrast, was pure gold.   We finally learn who was responsible for Lise's death and [some spoilers ahead, so the usual cautions]

Her relationship to Balthazar, and the impact on Bach, and how Balthazar seeks to resolve this was riveting and top-notch in every way.   This fundamental story towered over all the other cases, even in the early episodes in which B & B were absorbed nabbing other villains.  And yet these other stories were excellent, too, with all kinds of nice twists and turns.

[super spoilers ahead]

But let's cut to the chase.  It was satisfying indeed to see Bach cradling Balthazar in her arms, declaring how much she loved him, after he had maybe been mortally stabbed in the neck by Maya, just as he was about to probably light a match, literally, that might have consumed him and Maya both.   But there were two problems in this ending:

1. One, we know that there's going to be a fourth season.  Which means we know that Balthazar will survive.

2. And we also know that Hélène de Fougerolles who plays Hélène Bach, and plays her so well, won't be returning to the show (Google that and you'll see).  WHAT?!    I don't care what the reasons for this are in our off-screen world.  The chemistry between Balthazar (also brilliantly played by Tomer Sisley) and Bach was so good, even before that final heart-rending scene, that the fourth season just cries out to see them again.   To the producers of the show or whomever: make that happen!

Yeah, I'll watch the fourth season anyway, but I'll miss Captain Bach in every scene she isn't in.

See also Balthazar: Quincy and the Fugitive with Much More

Beatles Together Until 2030: Heart Rending, Wonderful Video

 

Here's a video by Angelo di Carpio that literally speaks -- and sings -- for itself.   Masterful "mega-real aging" photography, with an alternate-history intelligently thought-out story of the Beatles performing, writing, recording together and individually through the end of the 2020s.   Hard to see without a lump in your threat and a clanging pang in your heart.

time-traveler is determined to save John Lennon's life in this video

What Happened to Monday: Worth Seeing Any Day

So I'm on a roll tonight -- or maybe a nice fresh package of rolls, considering what I'm about to review for you -- and thought I'd watch a 2017 movie on Netflix, What Happened to Monday?  Let me tell you, those rolls were quite good.

The set-up of the movie is something we've seen or read a myriad of times -- the UK about 50 years in the future, struggling to limit an exploding population by decreeing a maximum of one child per family.  And a grandfather of septuplets defies the decree (which would require turning over six of the babies to the state for cryogenic suspension of life) and raises the seven girls until they can more or less take care of themselves.  We've seen something like that before, too.

But this is where What Happened to Monday really takes off.  Monday (each girl is named for a day of the week) has been living and working as Karen Settman out in the world, and suddenly falls off the grid of contact she's maintained with her six sisters.  They are holed up, with various individual talents, in an apartment with all kinds resources.  The authorities soon come to investigate, armed to the teeth, and a large part of the movie is how the six sisters, each with their own prowess, fend off the attackers.  Every scene, every interactions, has a surprising result, including who survives and who not.

More than that, the battles spill over into future London, where more unexpected interludes and life-and-death encounters await.   Noomi Rapace does a bang-up job, often literally, playing the seven Settmans.  So does Glenn Close as a kind of evil Margaret Thatcher, and William Dafoe as the grandfather who does what is necessary.   It's rare that a movie packed with so much action and roller-coaster ridings can deliver so much satisfaction, but What Happened to Monday does just that.

                   "DNA is the ultimate dossier"

For All Mankind 2.5: Johnny and the Wrath of Kahn

Another good episode of For All Mankind tonight -- 2.5 -- with lots of time in Jamestown on the Moon, which is always one of my favorite places for this series.

And the touches of our reality which made it through to this alternate reality were also enjoyable to see. I especially liked Johnny's interviews with Tracy on the Moon, and Ed's mention of The Wrath of Kahn as a movie option.  Good to see the Star Trek franchise thriving in this alternate history.

The scenes and stories back on Earth were, as usual, the least interesting for me.  Gordo's condition is getting boring already.   Likewise Ed's interactions with his family, and, for that matter, even Molly being tough at NASA.  We've seen all of this, in slightly different configurations, many times in this series. It was good to see Ellen with her true love, though.  She remains one of the most interesting, i.e., unpredictable, characters in the ensemble.

Back to Jamestown. Tracy's rough time there makes sense and was good to see played out.  The scene between her and the commander of the base was fresh, as was the arrival of the military unit.  As of now in this season's narrative, at the end of episode 5, the best scenes are the build-up for some big stories ahead.   These would be US and Soviet relations -- on space and on Earth -- and the Pathfinder mission to Mars.  I'm looking forward to seeing those happen.   In the meantime, the best thing about this second season, as I mentioned last week, is the feeling it conveys that what we're seeing on the screen is more than an alternate reality, and in some real sense actually happened, too.  Kudos to the series for creating and stirring that excellent impression.

See also For All Mankind, Season 1 and Episode 2.1: Alternate Space Race Reality ... For All Mankind 2.2: The Peanut Butter Sandwich ... For All Mankind 2.3: "Guns to the Moon" ... For All Mankind 2.4: Close to Reality

*** Note added 27 October 2023:  Check out my review of Jack Dann's new book, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

The One: Excellent Series about Imperfect Matches

I binge-watched The One (based on the 2018 novel of the same name by John Marss) the past two nights on Netflix and very much enjoyed the series. It’s a science fiction/detective hybrid, a genre mix that goes back at least as far as Isaac Asimov’s robot novels, and I’ve tried my hand at myself with the Phil D’Amato forensic detective series. The One does a good job of it. 

The premise of The One -- that DNA profiles with sufficient detail and ubiquity can help you find your one true reciprocal love, resulting in irresistible mutual attraction if and when you meet -- is certainly appealing and provocative, and something which Sergio Pistoi who wrote DNA Nation would think is not implausible in the not too distant future. It surely seems not beyond the realm of scientific possibility, which is the sine qua non of science fiction versus fantasy.

But plausibility does mean free from wrenching complications, and therein lies the fun of The One. What happens when someone in a happily married couple finds his DNA “match” is not his wife? If a brother and sister have close genetic predisposition in the right ways, will sometime who is powerfully attracted to one sibling feel the same about the other?  (Right, the matches that turn up in The One are not only hetereosexual.)

And there’s not just personal heartbreak but cutthroat corporate intrigue and murder at play in this volatile situation, which is where the police detective, Brit-style, comes in. Kate Saunders, a tough and smart detective who has found a surprising true match herself, is one of the better flawed heroes we’ve seen on the screen of late.  She's well-played by Zoe Tapper, as is Rebecca Webb, CEO of the mega-corp that runs the DNA dating app, by Hannah Ware.

There are some weaknesses in the plot, such as why some people are a little better at resisting their perfect matches than are others, which is never quite explained. But if the mix of biological science fiction, high terrain corporate intrigue, and good old murder investigation is your cup of tea, I recommend a nice long sip of The One.

"DNA is the ultimate dossier"

Party Hard: And Find Truth and Jest

So, here's a movie I want to tell you about: it debuted at a drive-in in South Carolina this past September, I just screened it on Vimeo, and it's now streaming on Amazon (coming to Prime on March 30).

Party Hard is actually not about a party per se, but a night of bar hopping and binge drinking by three guys in their twenties in Columbia, South Carolina. At its best, the movie evokes slivers of After Hours, American Graffiti, and Diner, and that's not at all because Party Hard is some kind of period piece.  It's because the interactions of three guys somewhere between throwing up and discussing Immanuel Kant -- with each other and the world around them -- transcend time.  Or at least, most times.  By which I mean, Party Hard is very much a narrative situated before COVID-19, and I hope not too far in our future as far as that pandemic is concerned, too.

One of the real standouts of Party Hard is the music, all by generally non-famous local artists.   I really enjoyed every song in the movie, but my two favorites are Shadows by Boo Hog and Hey Beautiful by E. Z. Shakes.  Hey, I'm in that kind of mood today.

The dialogue ranges from funny to profound, with the inevitable skullduggery and striving for wise-cracking that typifies this sort of story (creds to writers William Nicholas Clay & Stephen T. Canada), and the directing by William Nicholas Clay is effective.   The three guys are well played by Hunter Bolton, Brian Forbes, and Ty Rowe, as are the women in their lives (who have much smaller roles,  Amy Brower and Elizabeth Jennings are on screen the longest).  For what it's worth, I regretted that Chandler (Hunter) couldn't talk Lauren (Giulia Marie Dalbec) into ... well, see the movie.

To return to our off-screen reality:  one of the unexpected consequences of the pandemic is the revival of drive-in theaters.   But Party Hard will be enjoyed on many more screens than that.

Debris 1.3: Trapped out of Time

An excellent episode of Debris tonight -- 1.3 -- that connected in a bunch of ways and opened up some intriguing possibilities.

The main agenda are people who disappear and are trapped in another dimension barely perceivable to us, as a result of the debris.   We hear clearly for the first time that the extra-terrestrial ship was both intergalactic and extra-dimensional.  In the case of the trapped people, they disappeared from Earth ranging from very recently to at least as long ago as 1976.   Since the intergalactic extra-dimensional ship arrived in our solar system -- at least as far as we know -- just six months ago, this means that among the effects of the debris are some wild extra-temporal consequences, too, i.e, a type of time travel.  For the people who are trapped, it seems that just a very short time has passed.  And judging by their apparent lack of aging, it has.  But by our tracking of time, in which the weirdest thing is setting the clock backward or forward twice a year, the time passed can be as long as half a century.

So there's that.  And another good thing is that all the temporally trapped people in this episode are actually rescued, giving us the first passably happy ending in the first three outings of Debris.

Meanwhile, the overlay of spy story is gradually getting more appealing, too.  There's the CIA and MI6, cooperating, at least most of the time.  There are the Russians.  And there's the mysterious group called Influx.  Again, as far as we now know, the first three groups are human.  But what about Influx?

And then there's the question which will likely be looming for a long time.  Actually, two questions.  Why did the ship come here?  Why did it blow up or become a wreck and spew debris down on Planet Earth?

More than enough science fiction in all of that to keep us occupied for a long time, unless we get pulled into another dimension.

See also Debris 1.1 Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces ... Debris 1.2: Clones

first starship to Alpha Centauri ... and they only had enough fuel to get there

For All Mankind 2.4: Close to Reality

I'll start this review by saying episode 2.4 of For All Mankind up on Apple TV+ today was my favorite episode so far of this second season.  The reason is that, for a variety of reasons, it coaxed me into nearly believing that this alternate history was a real history, and what I was watching was a true story of astronauts who had made it to the Moon really planning on riding to Mars in the early 1980s.  This episode really felt like that was the way it truly was and was supposed to be, and we are the ones living in the alternate history of coming out of the pandemic and all of that when we're not watching For All Mankind on the screen.

John Lennon not assassinated and organizing a conference for peace in the early 1980s was one big reason.  The Pathfinder as a ship that will go to Mars and how it will be crewed was another reason.   Both seemed as natural and as meant to happen as the sun rising tomorrow (and setting an hour later on Sunday, just sayin').

I also, for once, liked every single one of the personal stories in this episode.  Molly appointed by Ed to take over for him at NASA, after he appoints himself to lead the mission to Mars, felt right.   So did Ed's giving Danielle the captain's seat in the Moon mission.  Even Tom Payne seemed the most human, and it was inspiring to hear how much he, too, believes in out future in space.

The very ending, of course, was literally and figuratively a call back to Earth.  One way in which the alternate reality of For All Mankind and our real existences coincide is that even getting slightly off this planet always carries spur-of-the-moment life and death risks.

See also For All Mankind, Season 1 and Episode 2.1: Alternate Space Race Reality ... For All Mankind 2.2: The Peanut Butter Sandwich ... For All Mankind 2.3: "Guns to the Moon"

       John Lennon and the space program here too

*** Note added 27 October 2023:  Check out my review of Jack Dann's new book, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Debris 1.2: Clones

Well, I liked Debris 1.2 on NBC this week considerably more than 1.1 the week before, and that's always a good sign.  The story hung together a little better, and maybe that was because its main theme was clones.

One -- or, at least two -- were clones of Bryan.  He kills one of them, which gave Craig the opportunity of getting off a good sarcastic line, something to the effect that it hurts to kill what you love most in this world.  The other was a clone of Bryan with two heads, which harkened back to some movie from back in the 1970s, I think, about a guy with two heads (ok, here it is, The Thing With Two Heads, starring Rosey Grier, 1972).

I should have mentioned last week that the creator of Debris is J. H. Wyman who did a lot of work on the late, lamented Fringe.   That show had a deliberate B-movie 1950s feel to it, which Debris almost happily picks up on.  I don't mean this as an insult.  I've been a fan since I was eight or nine years old.

The other clone of interest in this episode is Eric, who is wounded by a piece of alien debris that fell on his house, which then did him the favor of creating some of clones of him, while it moved pieces of cars and other non-alien wreckage around his home.   To mark the spot?  Who knows, or why.

The pace of Debris is amazingly slow in terms of telling us what's really going on here.  It holds its cards very close to its chest.  So far, in two weeks, all we've learned about the grand scheme of things in this narrative is that an alien shipwreck left debris on Planet Earth which is causing all kinds of strange effects.

As in Fringe, these effects so far are a blend of horror and science fiction, and that's ok by me.  But I'd like to learn more, and  I guess that's the reason for the slow pace.  I'd also like to see a little more story for Finnola the MI-6 agent, played by Riann Steele.

See also Debris 1.1 Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces

first starship to Alpha Centauri ... and they only had enough fuel to get there

I Care A Lot: Evil vs. Evil

A here's a review of a top-notch movie with an original theme my wife and saw and much enjoyed on Netflix.  I Care A Lot is billed as "comedy, crime, thriller" on IMDb, and "black comedy" on Wikipedia.  Although there are some funny elements in this movie, it's the crime/thriller part that lifts it pretty high in the stratosphere as a movie to see.

[Spoilers below]

The best part of the story is the battle between two arch villains it sets up and portrays in appealing, escalating fashion.  Rosamund Pike plays Maria, who runs an ingenious scam in which she becomes the legal guardian of elderly people who or may not be mentally diminished, with Maria appropriates their assets for her own benefit and profit.  (I have no idea if this scam actually occurs -- I hope not, it's evilly clever.)  But Maria makes the mistake of doing this to Roman's (Peter Dinklage) mother Jennifer (Dianne Wiest) who has no real problems with her brain at all.   What Maria doesn't know at first but comes to realize with a literal vengeance is Roman is a Russian mobster -- someone as driven and sharp as Maria, and even more ruthless, along with a ready ability to use deadly force.

The battle between them is a contest to see.   And so is the twist upon twist in the end.  Maria against all odds survives Roman's attempt to kill her, she then lands Roman in a hospital but accepts his offer that they start a swindling-the-old partnership, only to be killed in the very last scene by an aggrieved son who could never see his mother -- because Maria wouldn't allow it -- and now his beloved, unfairly locked away mother has died (I told you there would be spoilers).

I felt a little bad for Maria, though she got what she deserved.  The ending -- that it's the overlooked peril that will get you -- has been a staple of everything ranging from crime to science fiction (Asimov used it in one his Foundation prequel novels in the 1980s), and it worked well in I Care A Lot.  That in itself, and the whole movie before, is something you won't even feel a little bit bad about seeing, and indeed should immensely enjoy.

Tell Me Your Secrets: Riveting and Worth Knowng

Checking in with a review of Tell Me Your Secrets, which my wife and binge-watched on Amazon Prime Video, and very much enjoyed (contrary to many myopic critics, what else is new).  It's a story of a young serial killer Kit and his girlfriend Karen -- he's in prison and she's just released with a new name, Emma -- and the mother (Mary) of one of his/their victims (Theresa, but body not yet found), and a serial rapist (John) released from prison and hired by Mary to find her daughter, because she firmly believes she's still alive, and will do anything, literally anything, to find her.

That in itself is a great setup for suspense, surprise, and action, but Tell Me Your Secrets plays at the top of the game for this genre, with all kinds of secrets, expected and unexpected, revealed and worked into the narrative, especially in the concluding episodes.

[Spoilers follow]

The ending is both satisfying and chilling, if that make sense.  Turns out Mary was right and Theresa is indeed still alive -- but she was actually the prime mover with Kit in the terrible killings, and Karen/Emma an emotionally traumatized victim.   John's story arc is notable too, evolving on the screen from urbane former rapist to brutal killer, so physically powerful that he survives a brutal, much-deserved attack in the end.   And Mary, after learning the truth about her daughter, still wants to save her and reputation.  This only makes sense, given that Mary earlier murdered an elderly woman in an attempt to find Emma and therein Mary's daughter.

A few things don't quite make sense.  Why did Mary hire John in the first place?  Why would a former rapist know how to find someone (Emma) who was in witness protection?   John in fact does just that, and that vindicates Mary's hire, but doesn't at all explain how and why John had the kind of smarts to do that.

But that's ok.  Tell Me Your Secrets is gripping, cerebral, emotional, and fast-moving -- fine acting by Lily Rabe as Emma, Amy Brenneman as Mary, and Hamish Linklater as John -- with an ending that sets up a sequel, which I'll be sure to watch and review if it's made.  

  

Boss Level: The Re-Livings in this Time-Loop Movie Get Better and Better

Back as promised, threatened, with a review of the second time-loop movie I saw tonight on Hulu -- Boss Level.  It was surprisingly good.

Surprising, because it started off as almost a parody, and a ridiculous one, of both action movies and time-loop movies. But Boss Level is one of these movies that gets better and better as it goes along -- in this case, no small feat, because it's a time-loop story after all, with the same scenes over and over again -- and in the end, we have one impressive, excellent movie, packed with all sorts of goodies.

First, Boss Level is a science fiction not a fantasy time-loop narrative (see my review earlier this evening of Palm Springs for more on that).  Second, or maybe part of the first point, the hero Roy actually makes a hard-won progress as he lives and dies and lives and dies again, day after day.  His opponent, the evil Colonel Ventor played by Mel Gibson, sends all manner of master assassins against Roy.  And every time or two he gets killed, he learns how to combat the assassin and move ever closes to winning the life-and-death game. If this sounds like video game, Boss Level in a sense is, and in any case video games play an important role in the movie.

Mel Gibson isn't the only star in Boss Level. Naomi Watts, Annabelle Wallis, and Michelle Yeoh also put in good appearances, and after all is said and done, I liked  Frank Grillo's performance as Roy more and more as the movie progressed, just like the movie itself.

There still was a lot over the top in Boss Level, like the end of the world itself being at stake.  But the movie left us with some pretty good lines like "yesterday was months ago," and ended on an appropriately ambiguous note, which leaves room for a sequel.  Count me in for a view and a review.

Palm Springs: Quantum Mechanics in Addition to Romance and Comedy in this Time-Loop Movie

So I reviewed an excellent time-loop movie (on Amazon Prime Video) here a few weeks ago -- The Map of Tiny Perfect Things -- and I figured I might as well review another time-loop movie, Palm Springs, that came out almost eight months ago on Hulu, in hopes that it would be excellent, too.  It was.

Like The Map, Palm Springs is the story of not one but two people (actually, three) caught and interacting in a time-loop.   Like The Map and Groundhog Day, there's lots of romance and comedy underscored with some serious threads.   As a minor point, I also like that quantum mechanics are explicitly brought into Palm Spring, and [spoiler ahead]

Sarah applies her understanding of QM to get her and Nyles out of the loop.  The more important story is the love that the two find, as they struggle in the throes of the loop to make sense of it and their lives.  Their romance, despite the comedy, actually has a realistic basis not too often seen in any kind of movie: Nyles (Adam Samberg) loves Sarah (Christin Milioti) more than she loves him, but she does love him, and loves him enough, to make their commitment to each other and their escape from the loop work.

The third spoke in this time-looped wheel is Roy, played by none other than J. K. Simmons.   Roy's living a pretty good life in the loop, but he's more than happy that Sarah contacts him with her escape solution.  

Back to the QM: not that this crucially matters, but I generally like science fiction more than fantasy, which made Palm Spring refreshing for me, after The Map and Groundhog Day, both of which are fantasies.  So I guess the quantum mechanics is a little more than a minor point.

And I just heard that Hulu has a new time-loop movie.  I have no idea if QM plays a role, but I'll definitely be seeing and reviewing it very soon.  It should provide an opportunity to wonder if Infinite Regress -- this blog -- may be stuck in some time-loop of time-loops movies.

For All Mankind 2.3: "Guns to the Moon"

Well, a remarkably unlunar episode 2.3 of For All Mankind this week, with almost no new action on the Moon, and barely a smidgen of alternate history.

In fact, the closest this episode got the Moon was the hotly debated option of arming Jamestown, so our astronauts could maintain control of the lithium mine the Soviets stole from us up there.  And a good debate it was, decided, of course, in favor of arming our astronauts.

Meanwhile down here on Earth, Tracy's take on Ed allowing Gordon to go back to the Moon is "boys will be boys".  She's upset because she doesn't want the story of her going back to the Moon to be the once-married couple back together again on the Moon.  You know what?  I'm with Ed and Gordon on this one.  But I guess that proves Tracy's point of boys will be boys.

Ed also figured in the other big part of this episode's narrative, coming to terms with the loss of his son Shane last season.  The emotion was important and the acting good, but the situation was a little obvious: adopted daughter Kelly wants to go to Annapolis. I'd say here that, in general, the family-focused episodes of For All Mankind work best when set against people pushing the boundaries of humanity up on the Moon, or on the way to it.

I'm very much looking to more episodes in space, or on Earth getting out into space, or on an alternate Earth which is the whole great set-up of this series.

See also For All Mankind, Season 1 and Episode 2.1: Alternate Space Race Reality ... For All Mankind 2.2: The Peanut Butter Sandwich