Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 271, in which I review Star Trek: Picard 2.5 on Paramount+
written blog post review of Star Trek: Picard 2.5
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.4
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.3
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard season 1
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a little time travel story -- free
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
We meet Picard's great aunt in 2024, Renee Picard, whose accomplishments as astronaut have to happen in order for our timeline to be preserved. Q, of course, doesn't want that, and he's pulling out all kinds of stops to stop that. This of course raises the tricky question of why Q can't just make everything he wants happen by snapping his fingers. He and we saw last week that, for some unknown reason, that's not happening. And Jean-Luc becomes aware of that, too, tonight.
Meanwhile, Q is pursuing another related gambit (they're all related in Star Trek). He's trying to get Dr. Soong -- whose descendant created Data -- to help him (Q) implement some essential part of his plan. His leverage over Soong is to provide a cure for the fatal illness of his daughter. It was great to see Brent Spiner back in yet another Soong/Data role.
And if those two threads aren't enough, let's not forget the Borg Queen and the hold she now has over Agnes. I knew Agnes couldn't have killed the Queen so easily, and, sure enough, in a shocking scene at the end of the episode, there is the Queen indeed right there in Agnes's head, as she works to help the team keep Renee in motion.
Speaking of which, it's great to see the team all back together. They'll need all the help they can get fightning not one but two masterful villains -- Q and The Borg Queen. Well, at least one thing seems to be going very well: Picard's conversations with the woman in 2024 who looks just like Laris (played by the same actress, Orla Brady), but isn't. Doesn't matter, that's bound to help Picard and Laris get back together, right?
See you back here next week.
See also Picard 2.4: 2024 LA ... Picard 2.3: Agnes, Borg, Badge ... Picard 2.2: Q and Borg ... Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel ... Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil
a little time travel story -- free
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 270, in which I review The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, episode 4, on Apple TV+
Written blog post review of this episode
Podcast reviews: 1-3
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 269, in which I review Star Trek: Picard 2.4 on Paramount+
written blog post review of Star Trek: Picard 2.4
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.3
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard season 1
a little time travel story -- free
[Spoilers in the first paragraph and after ... ]
The excellent episode 1.7 of Severance is entitled "Defiant Jazz" -- a fine title, which comes from the scene in which Helly is rewarded for her fine work with a music and dance time, and she chooses "Defiant Jazz," and Dylan attacks Milchick, biting him in the arm -- but I would've gone with "Overtime Contingency" for the title, because ...
Well, that's what happened to Dylan last week, when his outie was awoken in the middle of the night, at home. The name for that outrageous intrusion is "overtime contingency," and since just about everything in the the severance creation of innies and outies is an outrageous intrusion on the people severed -- even though the hype (which Mark bought) is that it brings peace of mind -- that title would have worked very well for this episode.
And this episode was packed with other discomforting goodies:
See also Severance 1.1-1.2: Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside
It was good to see Ptolemy in top intellectual form throughout the whole episode #4 of The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey on Apple TV+. This ranged from putting the cops who came knocking of the door of his apartment in their place, to coming to terms with Hilly, to pretty much figuring out who killed his nephew.
With only two more episodes to go of this fine series, the big question remains of how long will Ptolemy stay in possession of his razor-sharp mind, and his intellectual capacities even better than just restored. Dr. Rubin aka Satan says he honestly doesn't know, because Ptolemy was so strong, so receptive to the restorative treatment, in the first place.
We should also bear in the mind that we see Ptolemy about to end his life in the very first scene of the series. But, of course, that's a far cry from his actually taking his own life, rather than his being obliged to be a helpless witness to his own deterioration. I'm ever the optimist, so here's what I'm hoping to see (I haven't read Walter Mosley's novel, so I don't know how that ended):
I'd like to see Ptolemy, with his still superior intelligence, figure out how he can make his enormous intellectual improvement permanent. Is that too much to ask? We live in a world in which our fictions more often than not have unhappy endings. But Ptolemy realizing what he can do to extend the ascendance of his mind is not implausible.
I'm also wondering what else Dr. Rubin might have up his sleeve. Has he been 100% truthful with Ptolemy? We have no reason to think that he has not, at least so far. I think he would certainly be amenable if Ptolemy were to come up with some ideas about how to extend his mental surge.
I'll see you here next week, with some thoughts on how Ptolemy's path progresses.
See also The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey 1-3: In Flowers for Algernon Territory
I guess my favorite -- and there were many close contenders -- is Picard and a much younger Guinan. This conversation, in which Picard eventually tells young Guinan his name, explains some of the comfort and familiarity she has with him in Star Trek: The Next Generation, when he and we were more than thirty years younger. As you know, I very much like time weaves like that.
On the other side of the profundity/light-hearted spectrum, I thought Seven and Raffi in that car, with Seven driving and Raffi coaching, doing their best to get away from the police, was hilarious. And you can't beat the way the two made good their escape -- Agnes beaming them out of the car. (Good thing, the car had to stop for the beaming to work -- had the two been beamed out while Seven was driving, that would left a car going 100-miles-per-hour, with no driver. Pretty dangerous.)
Speaking of Agnes -- my least favorite part of this episode was Agnes and the Borg Queen. This is no one's fault. The Borg creep me out. And I'd almost rather not see what might happen to Agnes. Here's to her not being assimilated or whatever nice word the Borg Queen might come up with.
So the season's moving along well. I'm still annoyed by the commercial breaks -- I mean, to have to subscribe to a service and still get commercials just doesn't seem right. (Does Hulu do that, too?). But it's a measure of how good Star Trek: Picard is that I'm putting up with it. And I'll see you back here next week with my review of the next episode.
See also Picard 2.3: Agnes, Borg, Badge ... Picard 2.2: Q and Borg ... Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel ... Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil
a little time travel story -- free
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 267, in which I review The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, episodes 1-3, on Apple TV+
Written blog post review of these three episodes
I figured I'd catch up with the first three episodes of The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey on Apple TV+, and I'm very glad I did. I mean, how you can you go wrong with a Walter Mosley novel (which I haven't read), adapted to the screen by him too, and starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role? You can't.
So, how good is this series, which tells the story of Ptolemy Grey, suffering from progressing dementia, given an antidote (science fictional, we don't really have that at present) which allows him to recover all of his memories, but not permanently? Well, the high watermark of that kind of story is of course Daniel Keyes' 1959 "Flowers for Algernon," which I read as a kid shortly after it was published and still think is one of the best things I've ever read. And, based on these first three of six episodes of The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey -- I wish there were more -- I'd say it's certainly in same ballpark as "Flowers for Algernon".
In addition to the emotionally wrenching story of getting one's mind back only to lose it, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is also a murder mystery. One of Ptolemy's main motives is find out who killed his nephew, the clues to whom being buried in his mind. And there's also remembering what happened to the love of his life, a new romantic possibility, and other puzzles for Ptolemy.
In addition to Jackson, there's fine acting all around, including Dominique Fishback as Robyn (who takes care of Ptolemy after his nephew is killed) and Walter Goggins as the scientist who administers the magic potion. There's so much going on here it's a good bet that the concluding three episodes will be as packed with memorable scenes as the first three.
I'll be reviewing each of them after I see them. See you back here with my review of episode #4 after I see it this Friday.
I introduce Daniel Keyes at the 2000 Nebula convention in NYC
I decided to follow through with what I've saying on social media about the very name Fox "News" being a form of false advertising, and I filed this formal report/complaint to the Federal Trade Commission) which investigates instances of False Advertising:
The Fox News Channel ubiquitously advertises itself as Fox "News". But since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fox has broadcast Russian propaganda about the war, not just news. On March 18, 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Russia Today (a Russian TV network): 'If you take the United States, only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view" about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.' Americans who are seeking the news are being victimized by False Advertising every time they see or hear the name Fox News. A more truthful name for this cable channel would be ?Fox Russian Propaganda".
Checking in with a review of Windfall, a consciously Hitchcockian movie -- especially through the opening credits and music -- just up on Netflix a few days now. I'm a big fan of Hitchcock's work, so I don't mind anything that does a good job of capturing his ambience, which Windfall admirably does.
The other distinguishing characteristic of Windfall is that it has just three stars, all playing unnamed characters, and a fourth character, a co-star, billed in the credits as gardener. And that's ok, too, because the characters are all memorable. They would the very rich husband (Jesse Plemons) and wife (Lily Collins), the man who breaks into their home (Jason Segel), and the aforementioned gardener (Omar Leyva). And the last thing I'll mention before I warn you about spoilers is that there's a touch of black comedy lurking around a lot of this story, and the character with the most charm is that the man who breaks in.
Ok, that's two things, and here's your warning: [Spoilers ahead ... ]
Actually, all I want to talk about is the ending, in which the wife kills the burglar, as he stops to tie his ever-loose shoelace* and leave with the satchel of money, and then goes on (the wife, that is) to shoot her husband to death. Now, I get why she kills her husband. She's put up with his self-absorption for two days -- the burglar and his presence throwing an ugly spotlight on that -- and she's been revealed to her husband (by the burglar) as taking birth control pills even though he wants a baby. So I get why, after all she's been through, she wants to set herself totally free by killing him. *I've long thought life is too short for shoelaces -- I wear crocs -- and it struck me as notable that shoelaces ended this burglar's life.
But what gets her to first kill the burglar? I see two possible reasons: 1. She doesn't want him to abscond with all of her and her husband's money (which, if she had any inkling that she would then kill her husband, would soon be all hers). Or, was it: 2. She was afraid that the burglar, after walking out the door with the money, was going to turn around, walk back in, and kill her and her husband? He had indeed left, or been on the verge of leaving, and then turned around and walked back into the house, many times already.
Or maybe both of those motives came into play. What's clear is that her burst of lethal energy, whether born of greed or self-preservation, was a suitably shocking conclusion to this narrowly drawn criminal drama in a sunny California orange grove. Hats off to director and writer Charlie McDowell, and writers Jason Segel (yes, the burglar) and Jason Lader.
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 266, in which I review Star Trek: Picard 2.3 on Paramount+
written blog post review of Star Trek: Picard 2.3
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard season 1
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Let's start with Agnes. Having anything to do with the Borg, let alone being partially assimilated, is always a very dangerous undertaking, to say the least. Picard's saying no to Agnes's wanting to do that with the Borg Queen, to help locate the "Watcher," makes perfect sense, and I'm not sure I would have given in to Agnes's request as soon as Picard did. But the plot and the pace demanded it.
And, of course, the net result, in terms of its lasting effect on Agnes, is ambiguous. She broke free of the Queen, but she and we and Picard know that, as a result of that partial assimilation, there might well be something of the Borg still in Agnes's brain, mind, soul, whatever you want to call it. No, I'd say that's a 100% fact, and it will be very interesting to see how that plays out in the episodes ahead.
Meanwhile, the interlude in 2024 Los Angeles is so far Star Trek at its very best. As readers of this blog will know, time travel is my favorite genre -- as a reader, viewer, and author. And Star Trek, ranging from "City on the Edge of Forever" to "Yesterday's Enterprise" has hit some really high, transcending notes in its time travel stories. Raffi, Seven of Nine, and Cristóbal all make the leap back to 2024 LA. There are some enjoyably witty scenes with Raffi and Seven of Nine -- Raffi of course has better knowledge of our current time than does Seven of Nine -- but the most important part, for a bunch of reasons, is with Cristóbal.
He gets hurt when he lands in his past/our slight future, and finds himself in a healthcare facility. It looks like there's a little romance brewing there -- always nice to see -- but the single most significant event that happens in that sector of our story is Cristóbal loses his badge. And he can't seem to get it back.
Now you just know that badge from the future is going to end up in some significant character's hands -- significant, that is, to the whole Star Trek oeuvre. I can't wait to see who that it is, and how that ties into the whole Star Trek story, across all series and movies.
In the meantime, I'll see you back here next week with my review of the next episode.
See also Picard 2.2: Q and Borg ... Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel ... Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil
a little time travel story -- free
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 265, in which I review Severance episode 1.6 on Apple TV+.
Written blog post review of Severance 1.6
podcast reviews of Severance: 1.1-1.2... 1.3... 1.4... 1.5
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Mark gets sent to the hateful "Break Room" by Harmony, but gets even more rebellious. He leads his three severed compatriots to Burt's Optics and Design division, which seems like a supermarket in comparison to Mark's four-person operation. All of four of them are wondering aloud about the ultimate purpose of Lumon, and what everyone is really doing in their work on the severed floor.
Irving is ready to be friends with Burt, but not yet with any benefits. Dylan gets a visit at his home from Lumon, which tells us how deeply Lumon has the outies under its thumb. We've already seen and are seeing more of Harmony mucking around in Mark's life on the outside. Would be interesting to learn more about how Harmony came to be next door to Mark on the outside, and what role that played in Mark going for the severance.
Back to Dylan -- I said last week that Dylan's rebelliousness as an innie might be a cover for his being a Lumon plant in the innies, but the visit he got at home pretty much disproves that. Yet there's much more story to Lumon and its agents in the outside world. We're beginning to get an inkling of that with the politician -- husband of the woman Mark's sister meets in the birthing cabins -- and the news story that he supported the implementation of severance at Lumon. This means there was public debate about that move. We need to know more about the people who opposed it. Where are they and what are they doing now?
Petey's story could provide more information and insight into Lumon on the outside. The company is obviously not happy about reintegration working. Did they kill Petey, or did he die because of ill-effects from the reintegration? The budding relationship between Mark and Petey's daughter could provide some answers.
And I'll be back here next week with a review of the answers and questions we get in the next episode of this unique and fascinating series.
See also Severance 1.1-1.2: Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 264, in which I review the season one finale of Suspicion on Apple TV+.
Written blog post review of this episode of Suspicion
Podcast reviews of Suspicion 1.1-1.3... Suspicion 1.4 ... Suspicion 1.5... Suspicion 1.6... Suspicion 1.7
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Here are some of the answers:
1. What Katharine did wrong in suppressing Eric Cresswell's report in the 1990s was not only delay the world's awareness of the dangers of climate change, but subvert the very notion of truth itself. That's about the biggest mea culpa I've ever seen in a TV series or a movie. She's responsible for Trumpism, including the lies about COVID, and Putin's spewing of lies about his monstrous invasion of Ukraine. None of that is specifically said in the finale, but the undermining of truth has had those, and other, baneful results. It's not as if that didn't happen before what Katherine did -- propaganda is as old as humanity, and other monsters like Hitler used it very effectively and disastrously against the world. But truth has certainly taken a beaten in this current world of ours, and Katherine is responsible for that? Wow! I'm not sure if that's just a little too ambitious for this finale, or way over the top.
2. Of all the original group of suspects, it looks as if Aadesh was the only one totally innocent at the end of the finale, right? That's a nice piece of work. So, let's see: Natalie killed Martin, Sean is a hired killer (more on him in a moment), Tara (Cresswell's daughter) was responsible for the whole kidnapping plan in the first place, and Eddie was never part of the kidnapping -- he's a cop*. All in all, a nice piece of whodunnit work. *Which means, as ns2110theonly pointed out to me on YouTube, that Eddie's innocent too!
3. Also a very good twist is Leo being responsible -- part of the conspiracy -- for is own kidnapping.
Let's get to some questions:
Actually, they all revolve around Sean. Who sent him that huge amount of money that he was justifiably smiling at as it came through on his phone at end? Katherine? Probably ... though I wouldn't rule out some other nefarious group we don't quite know about. And ... he seemed to be a pretty good shot. Was he deliberately trying to stop Eddie but not kill Eddie when Sean shot him? If I had to bet on this, I'd say, yes.
Questions like that are grist for a second season, which I'd definitely see. The first was a really flavorful, strong cup of tea.
See also Suspicion 1.1-2: Excellent Start, But Is It Four or Five? ... Suspicion 1.3: The Fifth ... Suspicion 1.4: Surprises and Invincibility ... Suspicion 1.5: Tara and Sean ... Suspicion 1.6: Martin, Sean, and Tara ... Suspicion 1.7: The Mystery Continues
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 263, in which I review the Raised by Wolves season 2 finale on HBO Max.
written blog post review of this episode
Further listening:
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.7
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.6
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.5
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.4
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.3
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.1-2.2
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 1-3
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 4-5
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 6-10
Further reading:
Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Interaction of Space and Religion
See also Raised by Wolves 2.1-2: A Viking Out in Space, with Androids ... Raised by Wolves 2.3: Marcus and the Android Skeleton ... Raised by Wolves 2.4: Kinds of Sentience and Conflicts ... Raised by Wolves 2.5: Science Fiction and Horror ... Raised by Wolves 2.6: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction ... Raised by Wolves 2.7: Mothers and Babies
And see also Raised by Wolves 1.1: Fast Action and Deep Philosophy ... Raised by Wolves 1.2-3: More than Meets the Eye ... Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune ...Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face ... Raised by Wolves 1.8-1.9: Frankenstein and Motherhood ... Raised by Wolves Season One Finale: The Serpent
In the past few years, leaders ranging from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin have been compared to Adolf Hitler. I think the comparisons are valid. But Hitler had more than a decade-long career as the leader of Germany, and it might be useful to sharpen the comparisons by specifying to what point in Hitler's career the comparisons apply.
Hitler at his worst was responsible for the murder of six million Jewish people and tens of thousands of Roma. Putin has certainly not come close to that number as yet, and it is not clear at this point that Trump has been responsible for murder. Where, then, do they currently correlate to Hitler's horrendous career?
Shortly before and leading to the onset of World War II, Hitler annexed pieces of the other countries around him. In 1938, Hitler convinced Neville Chamberlain (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. A year later, Hitler and Stalin's conquest of Poland ignited the Second World War. Clearly, Putin's attempt to annex Ukraine is somewhere between Hitler's annexation of Sudetenland and Poland. In that undeniable, tragic way, Putin is indeed like Hitler.
Trump's similarity to Hitler comes at a much earlier time. Hitler rose to power condemning the press that truthfully reported on his activities as the Lugenpresse -- the lying press -- just as Trump labeled and still continues to call news organizations that truthfully report on his activities as fake news. By 1932, Hitler's Nazi party received enough votes in the general election that the German President, von Hindenburg, appointed Hitler as Chancellor. Successive elections resulted in Hitler going out of and back into power. By 1933, Hitler was back as Chancellor, and before that year ended all political parties other than the Nazis were banned in Germany. I would say Trump most accurately compares to Hitler circa 1932 to 1933.
The point of these comparisons, and the hope that resides in them, is that there is still time to prevent the further rise of Trump and Putin. With the current and immensely destructive attack on Ukraine, Putin is the one who needs to be stopped most immediately. The Ukrainian people are doing an heroic job of this, but they need even more help from U.S., NATO, and the free world, as Ukraine has repeatedly requested and experts ranging from U. S. Army lieutenant colonel (ret.) Alexander Vindman and former U. S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul have repeatedly made clear. Trump is not an immediate danger right now, but the Republicans need to nominate someone else for the 2024 election -- or, if they nominate Trump again, he needs to be soundly defeated again.
We the people in this world who believe in freedom have our work cut out for us.
Just saw the The Adam Project, a pretty good time-travel movie on Netflix. Here's a pretty much non-spoiler review:
Adam from the future travels back to 2022, meets his younger, 12-year old self, and enlists him (his younger self) in preventing their father, Louis, from inventing time travel. If you think that set-up invokes all kinds of time-travel paradoxes -- starting with wouldn't his younger self remember all of this, and wouldn't that create a distortive loop that would upend his life -- you'd be right.
I've found you can pretty much divide time travel stories into those that respect and attempt to deal with these kinds of paradoxes, and those that don't. 12 Monkeys, the 1995 movie, would be an example of among the best attempts to deal with the paradoxes, as would Déjà vu in 2006. I usually don't waste time critiquing turkeys of movies and TV shows, so I won't mention the far greater number that ignore or don't bother to pay much attention to the paradoxes.
I said The Adam Project was pretty good, because it at least acknowledged some of the paradoxes. But its solutions were just hand-waving -- saying if a character disturbed time in such and such a way, it would be ok because -- and didn't really supply an explanation. The net result: it was enjoyable as time travel movie, but not great, and its real strengths reside elsewhere.
Those would be in the family story, buttressed by two very talented stars -- Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner -- who act great and play Adam's father and mother. Walker Scobell as young Adam was also quite good, and Ryan Reynolds as adult Adam was ok (Tom Cruise was originally supposed to play the part, back when the movie was first conceived in 2012). All of this added up to the sacrifices made by Louis being meaningful and even memorable.
So ... if you're devotee of time travel, as I am, see the movie. You'll enjoy it, even if you're not rewarded with brilliant renditions of the paradoxes.
a little time travel story -- free
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 262, in which I interview Dr. Christine Feldman-Barrett about her book, A Women's History of the Beatles.
written blog post review of Star Trek: Picard 2.2
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard 2.1
podcast review of Star Trek: Picard season 1
Star Trek: Picard 2.2 was dominated by two very different villains: Q and the Borg Queen.
Q, as ever, is a combination of witty, philosophically savvy talk, and seemingly effortless fundamental reality-shifting alterations. He irritates, frustrates, enrages Picard, who starts out, in these encounters, being Q's pawn or victim, thrust into an alternate reality not of Picard's making or liking, yet figuring out a way to get back to where he belongs, sooner or later. At this point in the second season, we're just at the first phase of that two-part process.
And the most frightening part of that first phase is the presence of the Borg Queen. I've always seen the Borg as the most frightening entity we humans have ever encountered in the universe. Picard was a centerpiece of their destruction. He still hasn't totally recovered from his experience of being assimilated by them, and likely never will. He certainly doesn't want another interaction with them, which raises the question of why Q would place him in this position in the new reality Picard now inhabits.
Which brings the whole second season, at this point just two episodes in, back to Q and his inscrutable motives. Best case scenario is Q is deploying Picard to destroy the Borg totally, once and forever, or if not that, neutralizing them so can't do any damage, in any form. Of course, this raises the question of why doesn't Q -- or someone else on the Q Continuum -- take care of that him or herself? And that, in turn, returns us to the question of who or what exactly Q is.
Such questions are fine by me -- I'm glad Q is already more than a cameo in this season -- and I'll see you back here next week with my review of episode 2.3.
See also Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel ... Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 260, in which I review Severance episode 1.5 on Apple TV+.
Written blog post review of Severance 1.5
podcast reviews of Severance: 1.1-1.2... 1.3... 1.4
[Spoilers ahead ...]
Sure, enough, in episode 1.5 of Severance on Apple TV+ yesterday, Mark comes to the rescue and takes Helly down from that noose before it kills her. We later learn that when she came to, she was in her outie form, an interesting detail that may have some significance sometime later in this unusual narrative. At very least, it confirmed what we already knew, that her outie form was the entity that she really is. I'll also say I'm glad that Helly survived, she's an important, pivotal character -- both in her own right, and as the innie Mark is the closest to, has the most commitment to.
Otherwise, there was not much of transcendent importance that happened in this episode. It ends with Irving's team meeting Burt's team, which is supposed to be a big deal, but I'm not 100% sure why. Are the innies on the way to organizing some kind of union? That would indeed be interesting and important.
Meanwhile, I'd like to see more about Harmony and her relationship with the higher-ups at Lumon. She's clearly beholden to the "board," but she also clearly has a certain independence of mind and action -- certainly a lot more than the innies on Mark's and slightly higher levels. Dylan also has a lot more story in him. It occurred to me that his obvious constant sarcasm and rebelliousness could be a mask for him really being a company operative. That would explain why he seems to be getting away with his comments and attitude.
As I keep saying, Severance is one of most unusual and therefore memorable science fiction series to get on the screen in years -- the very different Counterpart would be the most recent example that comes to mind -- and I'm looking forward to more.
See also Severance 1.1-1.2: Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 259, in which I review Suspicion episode 1.7 on Apple TV+.
Written blog post review of Suspicion 1.7
Podcast reviews of Suspicion 1.1-1.3... Suspicion 1.4 ... Suspicion 1.5... Suspicion 1.6
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
The big development happens at the very end of this episode, when Natalie puts a bullet in Martin, which presumably ends the chance of his series-upending reveal. She's still understandably aggrieved about the murder of her sister, and shoots Martin because he says he didn't mean for anyone to die in that interaction that killed Natalie's sister. Yes, totally understandably, and it serves the crucial purpose of keeping us in suspense about who the ultimate villain is in this compelling mystery.
Before then, we learn in detail that climate change -- or the failure to do anything about it -- is what the kidnappers have against Katherine. Eric Cresswell wrote a report in the 1990s that warned about it, but Katherine had a role in suppressing it. This is interesting, but of course still doesn't tell us who did the kidnapping.
And it continues to look like none of the suspects did it. Next week, if IMDb's information is correct, is the eighth and final episode. There's still no word if the series is being renewed. It would be wild, wouldn't it, if we still don't find out who did the kidnapping next week. There's been an increasing tendency, over the years, for television series not to keep viewers hanging on too long for the resolution of its fictional mysteries. I'm about split, 50/50, on whether I'd like to get an answer on Apple TV+ next week.
See you back here then with my review.
So I was on HBO Max watching Raised by Wolves and I saw a few ads for The Tourist, and I gave it a shot, and I'm glad I did! How's that for a non-spoiler review?
But here's a little more, with some spoilers.
A man is run off the road by a truck in the Australian outback and wakes up in a hospital having no idea who he is. That's a fairly standard beginning, harkening back at least as far as Coronet Blue, one of my all-time favorite summer replacement CBS shows with a short number of episodes because the series was never finished. The Tourist also has a short number of episodes -- six -- and though the mini-series concludes, there's more than enough room for another season or two.
The main character other than the amnesiac is Probationary Constable Helen Chambers. That's barely police, but Helen has a keen sense of justice and morality, and is played perfectly by Danielle Macdonald. Helen is a little overweight, and engaged to a psychologically abusive guy who's even more overweight, but is driving Helen crazy to lose weight and has open contempt for her job. Helen is attractive, inside and outside, and it's no surprise that the amnesiac becomes increasingly attracted to her.
The other police are crooked or barely competent. The amnesiac (well played by Jamie Dornan) has a prior girlfriend with plenty of spunk, great lines, and names, Luci, Victoria, etc, also well played by Shalom Brune-Franklin. The action is nonstop, with major surprises in just about every episode.
Some of the characters are almost unbelievably hard to kill, but that's ok. The amnesiac's status is not clear at the end. But going by my standard that unless you see the character's head severed or blown to bits there's a always a chance he or she can live to show up in a second season. Which, as I said, I really hope to see. Harry Williams and Jack Williams, please write it.
Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 258, in which I review Raised by Wolves episode 2.7 on HBO Max.
written blog post review of this episode
Further listening:
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.6
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.5
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.4
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.3
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 2.1-2.2
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 1-3
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 4-5
podcast review of Raised by Wolves 6-10
Further reading:
Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Interaction of Space and Religion
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
The less apocalyptic story was Tempest and her newborn. Last week, we saw it stolen by one of the acid-sea creatures. This week, we find out why: the sea creature was herself a new mother who had just lost her baby. When Tempest, Hunter, and Father confront the creature in a cave, she's nursing Tempest's baby. Father plans to kill it and take the baby back, but at the last minute Tempest says no. That moment says a lot about the monster/human dichotomy which animates (along with the android/human dichotomy) the entire series. Tempest realizes/senses that the monster is something more (or less or different) than a monster, if she could be nursing her baby. Father gets it, but Hunter doesn't, kills the monster/nursing mother, and takes back the baby -- which Tempest then rejects.
That scene, that story, would have been more than enough to be the centerpiece of this episode. But Raised by Wolves, not content with just one profundity, rolls out another. The flying serpent, which Mother gave birth to and tried to nurture, matures and eats the tree which Sue became or became part of last week. That tree went from a heartbeat to -- after being consumed by the flying serpent -- a Godzilla-level monster. Mother's lethal scream can't stop it -- in part because her maternal instinct likely reduced the strength of the scream, in part because ... who knows, including who knows the ratio of her maternal instant and the power of the mature serpent in accounting for why Mother's scream didn't work.
And there was a third mother/baby story, probably less profound than the other two, but still memorable and endearing. Vrill android, forsaken by her mother, determined to be part of the human community, does her best to help Campion evade the serpent. But, in the end, the girl android dies of wounds she sustains in the fight.
I'm looking forward to the second season finale next week. I know this penultimate episode will stay with me a long time.
See also Raised by Wolves 2.1-2: A Viking Out in Space, with Androids ... Raised by Wolves 2.3: Marcus and the Android Skeleton ... Raised by Wolves 2.4: Kinds of Sentience and Conflicts ... Raised by Wolves 2.5: Science Fiction and Horror ... Raised by Wolves 2.6: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction
And see also Raised by Wolves 1.1: Fast Action and Deep Philosophy ... Raised by Wolves 1.2-3: More than Meets the Eye ... Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune ...Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face ... Raised by Wolves 1.8-1.9: Frankenstein and Motherhood ... Raised by Wolves Season One Finale: The Serpent
