La Brea 2.1: Woolly Rhinos and Apple

La Brea was back with the beginning of its second season on NBC this past Tuesday.  Look, it suffers from the inevitable limitations of any network series, ranging from commercial interruptions to too many entangled plots.  But as I said in my reviews of the first season (see below), it's still pretty good and worth watching as a time-travel series.

Here's what I like most [spoilers ahead]:

• The interaction with the fauna and flora back then in 10,000 BC.  Episode 2.1 featured the woolly rhino.
• Josh and Riley in 1988.  Lots of nice touches there, including Josh's note to the owners of the house he and Riley are camping in: buy Apple (stock).
• The iconic Hollywood sign coming down in the latest sinkhole eruption.  I liked not only what that looked like, but as a shot against Hollywood culture.
• I'm still getting Lost-like vibrations from La Brea, which is all to the good,

  Here's what I like mezza-mezza (so-so):

• That big futuristic building in 10,000 BC.  It has all kinds of exciting possibilities, which I'd like to see more of, sooner than later.
• No doubt in some important way related to that building is what our government and scientists in 2022 know about what is going on, including to what extent they may have caused this.  Those plot threads were already dangling most of the first season, and I'd like to see at least some of them eliminated or explicated soon.
• Speaking of eliminated, I think there are too many characters swirling around in 10,000 BC.  Certainly Eve, Gavin, and Levi are essential, and Josh and Riley are pretty crucial now in 1988, too.  Otherwise, there are a bit too many stories going on, certainly for viewing just once a week.

Here's what I don't much like: the government people are the main or only villains in the present.  They actually weren't in evidence in episode 2.1, and I didn't miss them.  They're trite, and they don't seem up to the profundity of whatever caused the sinkholes, and why.

See you back here next week with my review of the next episode.

See also La Brea 1.1: Pros and Cons of Falling Into the Past ... La Brea 1.2: Deepening Horizons ... La Brea 1.3: Descending Into the Maelstrom ... La Brea 1.4: Expanding Horizons ... La Brea 1.5: The Letter and the Resemblance ... La Brea 1.6: Cross-Temporal Communication ... La Brea 1.7: Time Sinkholes Not Only in Different Places but from Different Times ... La Brea 1.8: Clearer Visions ... La Brea 1.9: Lilly and the Cow ... La Brea 1.10: A Fine Set of Time-Travelling Chess Pieces in Place

 

House of the Dragon 1.5-1.6: Brutal

Amanda Whiting had a provocative essay in The Independent yesterday -- "The battle for the Iron Throne is pointless when everyone in House of the Dragon is this evil".  I don't know if I'd agree that everyone is evil.  I think King Viserys is a little better than that, though in episode 1.6 it's clear that Ser Criston and Queen Alicent are headed to the bad side.  But I will say that the violence and gore and sheer number of deaths are beginning to wear on me.

At the end of episode 1.5, one of the producers remarks that you have to have murder at a wedding, because that's Game of Thrones tradition.  Part of the charm of House of the Dragon is indeed its many anticipations of Game of Thrones, but when it comes to the unbridled brutality, maybe some divergence would be nice.

We also probably don't need to see the harrowing fatality of child birth in every generation, though the suicide by dragon of Daemon's wife in 1.6 was innovative.  I have no idea, of course, what lies ahead in the remaining episodes of this season, but I can only hope that this dearth of happiness is remedied, at least a little.

I suppose at least part of my reaction is a reflection of the horror of our world off-screen, in our reality.  The rise of fascism in the U.S. and around the world, the pandemic, Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, all have filled up my tolerance for depravity.   I'm not saying I'm suddenly longing to see sitcoms on the screen -- though I wouldn't mind some new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm right now -- but I am saying that the sheer ugliness of human nature is not something I'm especially in the mood to see more of, even if it's dressed in a riveting historical fantasy narrative, brilliantly acted and powerfully produced.

See also House of the Dragon 1.1-1.3: Drawing Me In ... House the Dragon 1.4: Lust and Tea

Captain Phil interviews Paul Levinson about the Rise of Fascism and other Current Dangers

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 339, in which Captain Phil on WUSB-FM Radio (Stony Brook, New York) interviews me about the rise of fascism in the United States and other current dangers.

 

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Podcast Review of Quantum Leap (2022) 1.1

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 338, in which I review the new Quantum Leap (2022), first episode.

more about quantum entanglement in "The Chronology Protection Case" (movie, Amazon Prime) (novelette).

more about quantum entanglement in this FREE movie on Amazon Prime

or read the novelet

Check out this episode!

Quantum Leap (2022) 1.1: Off to a Good Start

The new Quantum Leap sequel debuted on NBC tonight.  I was prepared not to like it, though recently, I've very much enjoyed the sequel of The Man Who Fell to Earth on Showtime, and, for that matter, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount Plus.  And turns out I did enjoy this first episode of the new Quantum Leap, for all kinds of reasons, which I'll tell you about after I warn you about spoilers ahead...

[In case you missed that: Spoilers ahead ...]

First, I very much like the way this new Quantum Leap handled its connection to the original Quantum Leap, on NBC  from 1989 through 1993.  We learn that Sam, the original leaper, never returned from his last mission.  This leaves open the possibility that he could return in some way before this rebooted series concludes.  I predict that we'll see Sam again, older and played by Scott Bakula, in the final episode of this season (even though Scott Bakula himself says we won't see Sam again).  We also learn that Al, played by Dean Stockwell, passed away last year -- a nice homage to Dean Stockwell, who also left us last year, and who also received a nice dedication at the end of this episode.  Also worth mentioning is that Al's daughter is wearing his ring, which means she'll no doubt play a role in the new series.

Next, I think Raymond Lee's Dr. Ben Song is a good time traveler, offering an effective balance of physicist smarts, wisecracking, and even willing to throw a punch, which of course hurts his hand.  Likewise his fiance, Kaitlin Bassett's Addison, whose hologram more or less accompanies Ben on his jaunts.  That job was done by Al in the original series, who was pretty much the only other major character in the original.  The 2022 series has expanded the team, and that looks like it'll work well, too.

Of course, everything in Quantum Leap depends on where in the past the time traveler lands -- in whose body the traveler finds himself -- and what the traveler needs to do.  In the original series,  the best episode was the double episode in the final Season Five, in which Sam leaps into the body of Lee Harvey Oswald.  I'm hoping we get a least one such cosmically important story in the new season.  In the meantime, I'll look forward to all the twists and turns this unique kind of time travel can bring us in the new series.

more about quantum entanglement in this FREE movie on Amazon Prime

or read the novelette

House of the Dragon 1.4: Lust and Tea

Push really comes to shove in the lustful, pivotal episode 1.4 of House of the Dragon on HBO Max tonight, in which ...

[of course, spoilers ahead]

Daemon takes Rhaenyra to a brothel, makes like he's going to ravish her, can't do it, but leaves her in the mood, so she seduces Ser Criston back in her room.  And then the strategic chess game starts.  The Hand tells the King that one of the Hand's informants saw Rhaenyra and Daemon going at it.  Rhaenyra denies it.  The King doesn't believe her (in the very last scene, the Grand Maester brings her a tea that takes care of "any unwanted consequences" of the tempestuous evening), but the King uses the occasion to order her to marry Ser Laenor.  The King also fires the Hand for spying on his daughter.

So where does that leave us?  First, we don't see Rhaenyra drink the tea.  The episode ends with her looking at it.  If she concludes before she takes the tea that she might want those consequences, well, that would move the narrative in a whole different direction.  If she marries Laenor and gives birth to Criston's child ... I can't recall whether Game of Thrones "science" has anything akin to DNA testing, but we certainly haven't seen any evidence of it in House of the Dragon.

And who will be the new Hand?  Daemon's been banished again, and I assume Ser Criston does not have a high enough rank.  How about Ser Harrold?  That would be fine with me.

As I mentioned in my review of the first three episodes last week, the King is getting more impressive in every episode.  His actions tonight were both shrewd and powerful -- using his anger at Rhaenyra to pressure her to get her betrothed, which is just what he wants.  He didn't look too good in the coming attractions.  But those could be deceiving, and I hope we get to see him in all the episodes this season.

See also House of the Dragon 1.1-1.3: Drawing Me In

Moonfall: Bad News

Well, the Wikipedia article about Moonfall (now on HBO Max) quotes the consensus on the Rotten Tomatoes site:  "Whether Moonfall is so bad it's good or simply bad will depend on your tolerance for B-movie cheese."  I have a pretty high tolerance for grade B movies, but I have to say that I thought Moonfall was just plain and simply bad.  Very bad.

Where to start?  The intellectual hero of the movie, K.C. Houseman, pretends to have a doctorate, and promulgates a crackpot theory that the Moon is really hollow inside, powered by some alien technology, which turns out to be right!  But that theory is so ridiculous, that what message are we supposed to get from Houseman being proven correct at the end?  That crackpot theories could be right?  I have no objection to that possibility generally, but given the flood of crackpot theories about COVID (such as the one about Bill Gates embedding microchips in vaccines), a pandemic which has cost so many lives, I would say this is one of the worst times to make a movie which champions nutcase theories.

And, frankly, the storyline around that theory makes no sense, and grows like a field of mushrooms out of control.   In the end, it turns out that there's not only an alien operating system inside the Moon, which can actually be helpful, but a malignant force that has a grievance against organic life.  Science fiction author Greg Benford once distinguished science fiction from fantasy by remarking that fantasy is playing with the net down.  I always thought that was not really fair or true, given that Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones are all excellent fantasy with very precise, logical constructs.  But if Benford's distinction were true, Moonfall is not even playing with the net down.  It's playing with no net at all in sight, or ever there.

The special effects are ok, and about the only thing worth seeing in this disaster of a disaster movie.  But they're certainly not worth paying for, and I'm not happy I wasted just time watching this on HBO Max last night.

Podcast Review of House of Dragons 1.1-1.3

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 337, in which I review episodes 1.1-1.3 of House of Dragons on HBO Max

Blog post written review of these episodes.

FREE: My short story, It's Real Life -- expanding it into a novel, and working on a radioplay of the story, is why I haven't put up a podcast review in a month.

 

 

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House of the Dragon 1.1-1.3: Drawing Me In

It's been almost a month since I posted any reviews here -- I've been busy expanding my alternate history story, It's Real Life, in a novel, and helping put together a radioplay of the story -- and I figured House of the Dragon would be a good series to resume my reviewing.  I saw the first three episodes, and I really enjoyed them.  Indeed, I liked them more than some of Game of Thrones.  Here are some non-spoiler reasons:

1.  The dragons are handled very well.  Their scorching fire is very effective and great to have on your side, but the dragon and especially its rider are not invincible.  They can even be hit by well-aimed arrows.  We saw some of this in Game of Thrones, but that action was in momentous battles, and in House of the Dragon it's just a fact of war.

2. I like the way the story just in the first few episodes jumps ahead a few years.  This seems like an excellent way to tell such a big story.

3. There a far fewer pieces and physical places in House of the Dragon so far than in Game of Thrones, and I like that, too.  There were times when GoT had so many moving pieces, the narrative was hard to follow.

4. House of the Dragon at times almost has a Walt Disney Cinderella-like quality -- look at that coach that carries the King in episode 1.3 -- and I sorta like that, too.

Now for some spoilers ...

5. Matt Smith's Daemon is a great character.  He's defeated in that joust in the first episode, but he comes back like gangbusters in the third episode.  True, he wouldn't have made it on his own, but he single-handedly wiped out enough of the bad guys to make it possible for the cavalry to come in and save the day.

6.  Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and Alicent (Emily Carey)'s  stories are both a little obvious and predictable at this point, but they're well played and interesting enough to keep me watching.

7. Same for King Viserys (Paddy Considine), whom I didn't much like in the first episode, but he's growing on me, and could have the makings of a really pivotal, unpredictable character, after all.

So count me in as a fan, and I'll keep watching and reviewing.