Fatal Attraction (2023, the TV series), Season One: Welcome to the Jung-le

Fatal Attraction -- the new 2023 series -- finished its 8-episode first season on Paramount on Sunday.  Yes, it's the same story as the 1987 pathbreaking movie, retold and refigured in all kinds of significant and even profound ways, which I think largely succeeded.

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

First, I saw and much enjoyed the 1987 movie, though I don't recall many of the important details.  The TV series is half a retelling of that story, and half a narrative that takes place 15 years in the future, when Dan Gallagher is released from prison after serving his time for killing Alexandra.  As we soon learn, though, he lied when he told he the parole board that he understood the evil he had done in murdering Alex -- he lied to get his freedom, which he intends to use to prove his innocence and find out who really did do the murder.

So that's a pretty strong set-up for a new take on this story, and it's enhanced with an increasing focus on Ellen (Dan and his wife's Beth's daughter), 15 years older, now in college, and immersed in the cognitive joys of discovering the theories of Carl Jung, second only to Freud as the inventor of modern psychology.  Jung has popped up in all kinds of places in our popular culture, but none as explicitly and effectively as with Ellen, who is attracted to Jung's concept of the shadow, and in the final stunner of the TV series becomes an embodiment of the concept, as her shadow takes her over and she becomes the new Alex. 

But who killed the original Alex?  The answer gives us the other shocker of the TV series.  The killer is indeed not Dan, and nor is it Beth, who did the deed in the movie.  I was thinking throughout the series that the killer might be Mike, but it turns out to be Arthur, friend of the Gallaghers, whose wife is dying of cancer, and who will later become Beth's partner.    I thought this worked -- his wife dying was a plausible foundation for taking such a drastic action -- but it was the weakest part of the new story.  First, too much time was devoted to Arthur before he killed Alex, so much, indeed, that I began to suspect that he was going to be the killer, or why spend so much time on him?  And, unless I missed it, I didn't see any foretelling of Arthur's propensity for violence earlier in the series.

But, all in all, I found the TV series daring and intelligent, and well worth viewing.  The acting was superb, with  Joshua Jackson as Dan, Lizzy Caplan as Alex, Amanda Peet as Beth, and Alyssa Jirrels as Ellen especially outstanding.  And hats off to showrunner Alexandra Cunningham (see Jackie Strause's interview with her in the Hollywood Reporter).

Whether there will be a second season is unknown at this point.  I certainly hope there is.  Indeed, Ellen's story itself could well take more than one season to be properly told.

Citadel 1.4-1.6: The Arch Anti-Hero

Well, I held off reviewing the final three episodes of the first season of Citadel (on Amazon Prime Video) until I'd seen the sixth and final episode -- which I just did -- because events were moving so fast in these episodes that I realized I wouldn't know what was going on, at least not well enough to write a coherent review, until I'd seen the final episode.

And, yeah, was I right.

[Huge spoilers ahead ... ]

So the big stunning reveal in the final episode of this season tells us how and why the mole in Citadel brought it down.  And along with that -- who the mole was.   It's none other than Mason Kane, who turns out to be Dahlia's son.   Dahlia of course is the head of what we thought was the nefarious organization Manticore that brought Citadel down.  The revelation that Kane was the instrument of Citadel's destruction is the equivalent of James Bond being Blofeld's son, and he helped his father bring down MI6.

And before that beyond-shocker, we get a quick series of just slightly less profound reveals.  We meet Nadia's daughter, who, unsurprisingly is also Mason's.  This is followed almost immediately with Mason/Kyle being reunited with his new family (we found out a few episodes ago that his wife, whom we met in the first episode, is actually another Citadel agent, who also had her memories wiped and replaced, due to Mason's insistence!).  In a memorable sequences of scenes, we see Mason/Kyle's two families meeting each other for the first time.

And this, as I said, happens right before Mason, his memories restored, discovers that he is the villain he has been searching for and we have been wondering about this whole short season.  If I wanted to get literary about all of this, I'd say this makes Mason an arch anti-hero.  But I'll confine myself to saying these six episodes were fine fictional spycraft indeed, and good science fiction, as well.  I'll be sure to watch and review whatever new Citadel stories become available.

See also:  Citadel 1.1-1.2: Memories and Questions ... 1.3: Jedi

Silo 1.5: Revelations

Well, I said last week that I thought Marnes would survive, and

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

I was wrong.  As we quickly found out at the start of Silo 1.5, just up on Apple TV+ tonight, he succumbed to shotgun we saw pointed at him last week.  And what followed was a powerhouse episode with all kinds of disconcerting touches, such as parents afraid to send their kids to school, which sounds a hell of a lot like the USA right now and our deadly contagion of guns, doesn't it.

And we get all kinds of revelations, among the biggest that Trumbull is likely/definitely the killer of the Mayor and Marnes. He almost kills Juliet, as she's hanging over the side, fighting for her life, which she likely would have lost had those two good Samaritan runners not come and saved her.  I was thinking, as she was struggling, that she's too important a character to die, but then again, the Mayor and Marnes and Holston were too important, too, and that didn't save them.

I had a feeling Sims was going to kill Trumbull, as Sims was remarking how much he liked the quiet of the dead of night, with no one around.  Right, no one around to see him throw Trumbull over the railing.  As I think I said before, Sims strikes me as the most villainous character so far in this story.  I'd say he killed Trumbull because he didn't want Trumbull to tell anyone that he'd killed all these major characters on Sims' orders.

Silo 1.5 also comes packed with all kinds of scientific and tech revelations about what's going on in this hole.  We find out two tonight: that the Pact forbids any automatic ways of getting up and down -- no elevators or escalators.  And the even more significant thing -- more significant to my scholarly work about media -- that the Pact forbids any magnification devices.  Presumably to keep the denizens from reading any fine print and seeing who knows what else.

As I said, a powerful episode, capped off with a discovery of stars.

See also Silo 1.1-1.2: A Unique Story, Inside and Out ... Silo 1.3: Like Chernobyl, Repaired ... 1.4: Truth, Not Quite

It's Real Life audiobook

 on Audible, Amazon, Apple, Spotify, etc

My alternate history short story about The Beatles -- "It's Real Life" (which you can read for free here) -- has been made into a radio play, which you now obtain in an audiobook on Audible, Amazon, Apple, Spotify, and all the usual places. Among the people and places you'll find in this 24-minute radio play, followed by an 18-minute interview with me: Pete Fornatale, Dennis Elsas, The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, WFUV Radio, Barnes & Noble, with musical performances by The Bangles, Anne Reburn, and Spencer Hannabus. Enjoy! 

 "The radio play of 'It’s Real Life' is set on Paul Levinson’s home campus of Fordham University and has a fictional version of the legendary New York disk jockey, Pete Fornatale of WNEW-FM and WFUV (Fordham’s radio station), hurrying through the tunnels under the campus, which transports him to an alternate reality. Full of Beatles references and music, and the interview with Levinson at the conclusion of the play is rich with Fordham and musical history (and music) and is extremely well done — the whole package is highly recommended. Tune in and be transformed into your own alternate reality. --John F. McMullen, Poet Laureate, Town of Yorktown, NY

Silo 1.4: Truth, Not Quite

The excellent episode 1.4 of Silo up on Apple TV+ today is entitled "Truth," no doubt after the word inscribed on the back of Holston's sheriff badge, now in the possession of Juliet.  But there wasn't much truth revealed in this episode, as far as I could see, and hence no spoiler warning immediately after this paragraph.  But the episode was still a pleasure to see, and my guess is some of what we saw will be crucial in subsequent episodes.

It was good and informative to see Juliet as a teenager, and Iain Glen does a fine job of portraying her father over a decade earlier than we see him in the present.  We do confirm that the mortality rate is really high for these denizens of the silo, and not because they all go outside to clean and apparently die.

[Ok, some new developments are ahead, so here's a mild warning about Spoilers ... ]

I'd say the most interesting strategic development in this episode is the deal that Juliet and Marnes pretty much make (pretty much, because Marnes may not be 100% aboard), which is Marnes will help Juliet find out who killed George (even though Marnes is not sure George was murdered) and Juliet will help Marnes find who killed the late Mayor Jahns.   This makes Marnes an even more crucially important character than he's been so far.

Which in turn makes the final scene, and Marnes' survival or not, a really pivotal moment.  We earlier are faked out in a scene in which it looks like Marnes is preparing to take his life, when all he's doing is constructing a punch bag or whatever that contraption is called.  But the last scene clearly shows Marnes on the wrong side of a shotgun, after a valiant fight in which he almost gets the better of his presumably murderous intruder.   Again, I haven't read the books, so I honestly don't know what will happen, but I think that Marnes will survive.  On the one hand, life is cheap in the silo, as I said before.  But on the other hand, Marnes's murder would take away a really big character, and one which Juliet has talked into what would really be an essential deal.

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

See also Silo 1.1-1.2: A Unique Story, Inside and Out ... Silo 1.3: Like Chernobyl, Repaired

"Robinson Calculator" in Robots Through the Ages

available for pre-order here

Beyond honored and delighted to announce that my 2019 novelette, "Robinson Calculator," will be in Robots Through the Ages, an anthology with stories by Ambrose Bierce, Philip K, Dick, and other past masters of the genre, to be published by Blackstone Press on July 25, 2023.

Here's the Table of Contents.  More details including blurbs, reviews, etc over here.

DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION by Robert Silverberg
PERFECTION by Seanan McGuire
MOXON’S MASTER by Ambrose Bierce
WITH FOLDED HANDS by Jack Williamson
GOOD NIGHT, MR. JAMES by Clifford D. Simak
INSTINCT by Lester del Rey
A BAD DAY FOR SALES by Fritz Leiber
SECOND VARIETY by Philip K. Dick
THE GOLEM by Avram Davidson
FOR A BREATH I TARRY by Roger Zelazny
GOOD NEWS FROM THE VATICAN by Robert Silverberg
DILEMMA by Connie Willis
THE ROBOT’S GIRL by Brenda Cooper
THAT MUST BE THEM NOW by Karen Haber
R.U.R.-8? by Suzanne Palmer
ROBINSON CALCULATOR by Paul Levinson
OF HOMEWARD DREAMS AND FALLEN SEEDS AND MELODIES BY MOONLIGHT by Ken Scholes
TODAY, I KNOW by Martin L. Shoemaker
AFTERWARD & RECOMMENDED READING by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Paul Levinson interviews Spencer Hannabus

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 352, in which I interview Spencer Hannabus, who sang "If I Traveled to the Past" at the end of the It's Real Life radio play adapted from my alternate history story about The Beatles, streaming on Killerwatt Radio.  We also discuss our views of The Beatles and their preeminent role in popular culture.  The interview concludes with a mini-concert of three songs by Spencer Hannabus.

Links:

• It's Real Life radioplay
• the original "It's Real Life" short story
• video of this interview with Spencer Hannabus
• Spencer Hannabus and The 286 Bandcamp page
• original recording of "If I Traveled to the Past" by Paul Levinson (words by Paul Levinson, music by John Anealio), produced by Chris Hoisington for Old Bear Records and Light in the Attic Records
• interview with Anne Reburn, who sang "Real Love" in "It's Real Life" radio play
• more about "Robinson Calculator" and Robots Through the Ages

 

 

Check out this episode!

Silo 1.3: Like Chernobyl, Repaired

A thrilling edge-of-your seat episode 1.3 of Silo, that felt a lot like Chernobyl, except the damaged generator is ... repaired.

And, of course it had to be, because if it wasn't back up and running, it would have killed everyone pretty quickly, and that would have been the end of the series right there.

[And there are spoilers ahead ... ]

Which would have been a shame, because Silo is shaping up as one riveting series.  Juliet not only comes through on the faulty generator -- along with her crack team -- but she's agreed to be the new sheriff, after the mayor gives Juliet the sheriff's badge, and Juliet turns it over to find her predecessor, Sheriff Holston, left her a one-word message: "truth".  There's definitely something vital going on here.

And then there's that big shocker at the end: Mayor Jahns is dying or dead. And she apparently knew she was dying, that's why she excused herself and asked Marnes to choose a dusty bottle of wine.  At least, I think so.  But if she knew she was dying, how long did she know that?  And was she dying because someone poisoned her, and she knew that?  Other possibilities are she took her own life, or she died of natural causes.

One thing is clear so far in the first three episodes of Silo:  life is pretty expendable, in this haven, or prison, or whatever this silo is.  It's pretty clear, now, that anyone and everyone can die, with little or no warning, at any time.  An excellent state for a drama to be in.

See also Silo 1.1-1.2: A Unique Story, Inside and Out

Silo 1.1-1.2: A Unique Story, Inside and Out

Just saw the first two episodes of Silo on Apple TV+, show-run by Graham Yost, whose previous impressive credits include The Americans, Sneaky Pete, and Justified, based on the Wool series of novels by Hugh Howey that I haven't read.   These first two episodes bear some resemblance to most post-apocalypse stories, and even more to Apple TV+''s much lauded  Severance.  But Silo has a story and an ambience all its own, and it looks to be on its way to a top-notch science fiction series.

[Spoilers follow ...]

The narrative so far takes place in, well, a silo.  You can leave, if if you want, but that's apparently a ticket to death, because there's poison in the air outside.  I say "apparently" because, in the first episode, there's some talk that the deaths of people who leave, which inhabitants see in the silo on a big screen, is what we would today in our off-screen world call deep fakes.  But in the second episode, it seems that Holston and his wife, who left the silo two years earlier, really did die.  If I had to bet ... I don't know, but I'd come down on they're both being alive.

At this point, I don't see too many villains at hand -- maybe the Judiciary, which wields ultimate police power -- but just about all the action involves a bunch of varied people who for a variety of reasons think and maybe are sure that there's something more outside.  These include Sheriff Holston and his wife Allison, who now are either dead or alive outside; George who has discovered something crucial about the silo but is now definitely dead inside it; and Juliet, an engineer, George's lover, sure that he was murdered, and now she's determined to find out what's really going on in and outside the silo.   As I said, a unique narrative in a genre -- post-apocalypse -- where it's not easy to be unique.  And characters are very well played by David Oyelowo as Sheriff Holston, Rasheeda Jones as his wife, Rebecca Ferguson as the engineer, and Will Patton as Holston's deputy.

Eight more episodes to go on a weekly basis, and count me in as an eager viewer.

See also Silo 1.3: Like Chernobyl, Repaired ... 1.4: Truth, Not Quite ... 1.5: Revelations ... 1.6-1.7: The Book and the Water ... 1.8: What Really Happened ... 1.9: I knew It! But What Then? ... 1.10: Three Truths

The Ark 1.9-1.12: Real Science Fiction

I binged the final four episodes of the first season of The Ark -- again, I was busy talking about the radio play of my alternate history story about The Beatles, "It's Real Life" -- and I'm glad I did, rather than watch those episodes on a weekly basis.  Especially for a narrative like The Ark, binging is the way to go.

And what kind of narrative is The Ark? It's classic science fiction, in the tradition of Hal Clement, and Analog Magazine (where my science fiction has been published more than a dozen times, so I'm a bit biased).  But the hallmark of that kind of science fiction, which The Ark does so well, is life-and-death problems arise which can be solved by the application of ingenious science.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

So in The Ark, that strange disease killing Bryce and Maddox can be cured by an anti-toxin in which the active ingredient is a spider's venom.  Except it doesn't work. The scientists in Ark 1 come to the rescue: they realize the venom quickly decays, so to get it into the system of the afflicted people, they need to be bitten by the spiders, which naturally injects their venom directly in Bryce's and Maddox's bodies.  That's what I call real science fiction.

Or realizing that what was thought to be water on Proxima B is actually methane, which explodes part of the planet when it's set in motion.   In this case, the only cure is getting out of the way of the debris from the planet, which Ark 1 only barely does, with the ship barely intact.  Science doesn't provide much of a fix, but at least an understanding of what has happened and why.

It used to be said about classic science fiction that it may be good with the science, but not with the human relationships in the story.  That was never really true in the first place, and The Ark does a pretty good job at this, in any case.  I guess my favorite couple is Bryce and Markovic, though outside of that relationship, Bryce is too quick to throw a punch.  But Markovic makes up for that with her savvy and her smile.

I was happy to see that The Ark has been renewed for a second season.  All the way out there in space, on the more advanced Ark 15 now, this story has a lot of life left to it, and I'm looking forward to watching it play out in the years ahead.

See also The Ark 1.1: Worth Watching ... 1.2: Why I'M Enjoying It ... 1.3: Asteroid and Comet ... 1.4: Hallucinations ... 1.5-1.6: More than One ... 1.7: "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" ... The Ark 1.8: "Follow Your Future Selves"

a second ship around Proxima Centauri B, too ...

Citadel 1.3: Jedi

So, I said in my review of The Diplomat that it had elements of James Bond.  Citadel, an outright spy thriller, set in the future, of course has elements of Bond, too.  And tonight, watching the third episode, I was struck by the vibe of Star Wars it conveys, too:  Citadel which fell, with just a few disparate agents left, is a lot like the Jedi, and the few of them that remained in the darkest days of the fall and then rise of the Force.

Of course, Star Wars takes place way way in the future, across the galaxy,  and Citadel is all in here on Earth.   But the Jedi excel in mind tricks, and the surviving Citadel crew exult in that, too.

Bernard as a prisoner put on a good show of that tonight in episode 1.3.  He's not just a prisoner, he's a captive on the verge of getting his brain cut into by a ruthless enemy intent on knowing what he knows.  And Bernard talks his way out it, or, at least manages to get his prime torturer to do his bidding by promising something very dear to this guy with a beard.

Meanwhile, we're earlier treated to a great Bondian Jedi scene some ten years earlier, when Nadia, a brand new agent, first meets Mason, and rescues him on a crucial mission.  Speaking of which, we've yet to understand how and why Citadel fell.  Mason is wondering about this, too, including if Nadia was the inside agent which Manticore deployed to deconstruct Citadel.  Of course she isn't, and neither Mason.  I also don't believe that Bernard is some kind of arch double agent.

But, if not one or more of these three, who?  Possibly Carter, whom Citadel was desperately trying to rescue years ago, but I sort of doubt that, too.  All of which is making for a good spy story, which, as I said before, I wish were already all out there for full season streaming.

See also:  Citadel 1.1-1.2: Memories and Questions

Star Trek: Picard 3.4-3:10: Biological AI

Well, I stopped reviewing Picard Season 3 after the 3rd episode of that season in March.  Why?  A combination of work on the radio play of my alternate history story about The Beatles, "It's Real Life" ... and, truthfully, I wasn't finding this final season all too captivating.  But I've watched the rest of it in the past few days, and I thought the final four episodes were pure gold.

[Spoilers follow... ]

The dominant theme in those final four episodes was the interface between biology and AI, a fortunate coincidence, given all the attention Chat GPT has been getting these days.  In this final season of Picard, we have Picard himself, whose human mentality was infused into what we would today call an android that looked just like Picard.  That happened in an earlier season.  In the final episodes of this third season, we see Data, an android to begin with, finally achieving the full dimension of human intelligence and spirit he has been so desperately seeking, going way to back to the original Next Generation television series.

But the decisive example of the bio-AI in this streaming season on Paramount Plus is the Borg, in particular, their evolution from circuits to DNA as conduits of their totalitarian order, and in particular, the merger of bio and Borg that we learn close to the end of this season is embodied in Jack, Crusher and Picard's son.  This not only makes biological sense, given that Picard once and in some sense still is the Borg Locutus, but Jack as Borg makes for one of the most exciting life-and-death battles in the whole Star Trek universe of series, as the Borg take over almost all of Starfleet, and threaten the Earth itself.

By the time this fearsome battle in multi-facets is played out, we have the entire original major cast of TNG re-assembled, including Riker and Troi, Geordi, Data, Worf, and Beverly Crusher, who along with Riker had been aboard in the story from the first episode of this season.  The battles were not only breathtaking, but sparkling with humor, with Worf falling asleep and snoring after winning some hand-to-hand combat with some of the Borg in their cube.

And there were heartwarming scenes of the original crew around that poker table, and the depth of the retrieval of the original characters was excellent, going so far as Q in a coda (I had thought that Jack's affliction was caused either by Q or the Borg) and a descendant of Chekov from TOS (voiced by Walter Koenig).  I did regret not seeing Whoopi Goldberg again as the older Guinan, and I did miss Alison Pill as the Borg Queen.

But those are minor quibbles indeed, and having seen all three seasons of Picard, I'd now say it is a memorable success, and a jewel on the Starfleet of Star Trek series.

how AI has been written about through history -- Robots Through the Ages