reviewing Black Doves; Countdown; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Dexter: Original Sin, Resurrection; Dune: Prophecy; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; MobLand; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Prime Target; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Smoke; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Stranger Things; The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Way Home; Your Friends and Neighbors +books, films, music, podcasts, politics
George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.
22 December 2024: The three latest written interviews of me are here, here and here.
I usually wait until the end of the season before I post a second review of a TV series for which I reviewed the first episode or two after the series began. But episode 1.6 of Smoke on Apple TV+ was so remarkable, with such a perfect narrative structure, that I had to say a few words about it now.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Most of this episode is devoted to current and former arson investigators closing in on the disquieting truth, to say the least, that Dave Gudsen (brilliantly played by Taron Egerton), an arson investigator, is himself one of the two arsonists literally lighting up the town, culminating with his last defender, Police Chief Harvey Englehart (well played by Greg Kinnear) finally coming to this conclusion himself.
But as the lights are about to go out for Gudsen, he realizes that Freddy Fasano (brilliantly played by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) is the other arsonist. Gudsen rushes to the house which Fasano is about to burn down with him and his latest victim inside, and stops Fasano in his tracks with a fire extinguisher. In other words: at the very moment that Gudsen is about to be denounced and arrested as one of the arsonists, he's become a life-saving hero, in a brilliantly balanced story in which Gudsen is hero and anti-hero at the same time.
His personal portrayal -- his depiction as a man -- is noteworthy and perfectly balanced too. Earlier in the episode, we find him unable to consummate the encounter with his ex-wife in bed. At the end of episode, we find him standing triumphant, a superhero, fire extinguisher in hand -- having prevented the blaze and driving Fasano to the ground -- and very clearly aroused.
My wife and I saw the second part of the extraordinary Billy Joel documentary last night, after seeing the first part last week. I've been a big fan of Billy Joel since "Piano Man". I thought and still think "Only the Good Die Young" was a masterpiece song, same for "Say Goodbye to Hollywood," and same for "Uptown Girl" which also has a masterpiece video. In fact, I can't really think of any Billy Joel recording I don't like, and the same only applies only to a dozen or so other artists beginning with The Beatles.
But as to his life, the person who wrote and recorded all those great songs, I never knew too much. I knew of course he'd been married to Christie Brinkley. I knew he'd been touring for a while with Elton John -- another piano man -- but that ended on an acrimonious note (they later reconciled). I heard him a few times on The Beatles Channel on Sirius/XM Radio -- talking about The Beatles and playing their records -- and I knew about his recent long run in Madison Square Garden. My wife and I were going to a lot of concerts prior to COVID, and I had in my mind that we should go so see Billy Joel, but that didn't (yet) happen.
But I didn't know much about his personal life, and how that related to his music, and And So It Goes -- directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin -- does a brilliant job of telling that true story. Here are some of my takeaways (in no order of importance, because all are important):
Billy Joel found writing lyrics somewhat of a burden. Given that his lyrics were uniquely descriptive, setting scenes and telling stories that seemed to splash out as naturally as the rain, I (as a songwriter as well as a fan) found that especially interesting.
Billy Joel's manager, his one-time brother-in-law, robbed him of millions of dollars. As is clear in this documentary, Joel, in addition to being incredibly talented, is also highly intelligent, so I found that surprising as well. It's well known that doo-wop groups were regularly robbed of their royalties by record companies in the 1950s, but Joel's misfortunates happened 50 years later.
Billy Joel always loved classical music. (His father, who abandoned his family when Billy was a boy, was a classically trained pianist.) I knew, of course, that Jeff Lynne and ELO did/do, but Billy Joel always seemed firmly rooted in rock 'n' roll.
Billy Joel has always been quick to denounce his tone-deaf critics in the media. Good for him.
Billy Joel was spoken for in the documentary by a cavalcade of musical stars that lit up the screen: Paul McCartney (who said Billy's "I Love You Just the Way You Are" was his answer when he was asked which song did he wish that he had written), Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Garth Brooks, Nas, Sting, and Pink)
Billy Joel has been beset by demons all of his life -- which makes his extraordinary accomplishments even more impressive.
All too often, these kinds of eye-opening, definitive documentaries happen after the subject is no longer with us. Good for Billy Joel for giving that to us now. His active participation in And So It Goes is itself a testament to what mind-blowing talent he has.
Creds to HBO for putting this on! As I my wife mentioned, this is the second great documentary on HBO this summer, after My Mom Jayne.
Well, we finally get to know Peter Dinklage as Leon Prater in the fourth episode of Dexter: Resurrection, and it had lots of other appealing and important elements:
[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]
1. My favorite was the romantic spark between Dexter (posing as the ersatz Dark Passenger) and Mia aka Lady Vengeance (good job Krysten Ritter), an elegant, erudite, attractive, and (by her own account) highly effective serial killer. She invites Dexter to her apartment, leaves the door ajar and begins undressing for her shower-- and Dexter leaves! He has a killing of his own to attend to. Too bad. I would have followed Mia into the shower, but, then again, I'm not a serial killer myself.
2. Romance was in the air in this episode. Harrison tries to kiss Elsa, she says no, but looks a little like she might regret that so ... I'd say they have some kind of future. Meanwhile, Batista's talk with Harrison has shaken him up, and based on the last scene, I'd say Harrison has a future with his father. All things considered, he has to be happy, deep down, that he didn't kill Dexter at the end of New Blood.
3. Back to Prater: As I said, I'm happy to see the chemistry between Dexter and Lady Vengeance, and I'm glad Dexter found a victim for his table, and has others to choose from. The idea of a serial killers club or association or whatever you want to call it is promising. But in this first meeting, the villains (other than Mia) struck me as an unimpressive, even innocuous bunch. We'll see.
4. And a final word for now: I'm really enjoying Dexter in Manhattan. Maybe because I've lived and worked in or very close to New York City all my life, but Dexter looks very much at home here.
Foundation 3.3 on Apple TV+ continues to very much please, as the TV series progresses on its course of being much closer to Asimov's trilogy, with the addition of the clonal Cleon triumvirate, now aka Empire.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Dawn's role is especially pivotal and powerful this season. His meetings with Gaal and his growing interest in The Mule are beginning to point to some very exciting possibilities. One of the weakest parts of the otherwise masterful Second Foundation in Asimov's trilogy is the hokus pokus way Preem Palver beats The Mule, distracting the arch manipulator so Palver could turn the tables and manipulate The Mule himself. I'm thinking Dawn could play a crucial role in ultimately bringing down The Mule, either with or without Palver.
Speaking of The Mule, in addition to being able to rearrange people's minds, he's a sadistic piece of work, isn't he, on the screen. Which gets me to another divergence from the trilogy, which could be significant. In Asimov's books, Magnifico the clown was The Mule in disguise. On the screen, Magnifico and The Mule are clearly two people. The Mule of course could easily manipulate Magnifico, but could The Mule in effect teleport his mind into Magnifico, so the "clown" could do the damage he does in the Asimov trilogy?
What I'm also very much continuing to really enjoy is the ambience and the pacing of the third season Foundation on the screen. The first twos seasons just didn't feel to me like I was watching anything approaching an enactment of what I've read three times already in my life on paper pages. But watching episode 3.3 on my laptop last night, I really felt like I was in Asimov's universe, watching his story play out -- albeit in a different way than Asimov had it -- and that was a fine nearly hour to savor, indeed.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is back for its third season. I watched its first three episodes tonight, and I'd say it's better than ever. The series has really found its footing. Or better, it already had its footing, but really took off in all kinds of gratifying ways in this third season.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
Episode 3.1 was really the second part of the fierce battle with the Gorn that began in the final episode of the second season. The battle scenes were sharp, and it was good writing to find that the price that Ortegas paid to beat the Gorn is she's not quite the same. That bore fruit in episode 3.3 and has yet to be resolved. (As I side note, it was also good to see Uhura's new hair.)
Episode 3.2 was my favorite of these first three episodes of this new season. Readers of my reviews of the first two seasons will know I've been a big fan of Spock and Chapel, and it was fun seeing them waking up in bed together, even if it was the result of someone on the Q level (figuratively not literally) having the ability to change almost everyone's reality. But why couldn't the two have really been together? Well, once again, we see the stern taskmaster that a prequel is always subject to: it's governed by what happened in the earlier broadcast series that told the story of a later time. To which I say to the writers: figure out a way to make Spock and Chapel a real reality. Hey, Star Trek is science fiction, that shouldn't be so hard to make happen. (In the meantime, there's a hint of something happening between Spock and La'an.)
Episode 3.3 could well have titled, Star Trek meets The Walking Dead. Right, it had zombies. But it also had another true love story, Pike and Batel, and was a good piece of biological science fiction, in which moss played a role as well as the Klingons. Biology means that M'Benga also played an important role. He's been one of my favorite characters from the get-go of Strange New Worlds.
Good to see everyone back in such good form, and TOS's Scotty doing so well. And I'll be back soon with another review of this fine new season.
Well, it's no Bosch -- nothing else could be -- but Ballard, all ten episodes of which debuted on Amazon Prime early this month, certainly is a notable, compelling new LA cop series, with some unique, unusual, and worthy aspects.
First, Ballard is very much in the Bosch universe. Detective Renée Ballard was introduced in the most recent (and apparently final) season of Bosch: Legacy late last year. Bosch himself serves a small but crucial role in what I hope will be just the first season of Ballard, which has not yet been renewed. Crate & Barrel, Honey Chandler, J. Edgar, and Mo all put in appearances in Ballard, and they're good and fun to see.
[Some spoilers ahead ... ]
The story itself is pretty close to the opposite of fun, which I guess a cold-case unit, which Ballard is consigned to head, is bound to be. Her rag-tag team seems to have an impossibly uphill job on its hands, which only gets worse as they discover they're not only looking for a serial killer, but a different monster who's a serial rapist, two of whose victims are actually in the unit.
Ballard and her cohort soon discover they're not only investigating bad guys, but people in the LAPD, who not only have disdain for Ballard, but some of whom may be bad guys themselves. The series in many ways is a testament to female intelligence, determination, and resilience in what is still an intensely male chauvinistic world: the police.
There are more than one good detective story that play out in this series, with a resolution that manages to surprise and even shock, even in this well-trodden territory. And there's a stunning ending that cries out for a another season, which I'll certainly be watching as soon as its up.
Good job by Maggie Q in the title role, and in fact everyone in the series.
I've been following and enjoying Superman's exploits since I started watching him played by George Reeves on television when I was a kid in the 1950s, and started reading the comic book a few years later, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster way back in 1938. And as an adult I even contributed an article about The Man of Steel -- “Superman, Patriotism, and Doing the Ultimate Good” (which explored why Superman didn't just wipe out Hitler and the Nazis in World War Two) in The Man from Krypton -- an anthology published in 2006.
I think I've also seen most of the movies. Like the TV series and the comics, they were all immensely entertaining. But none packaged that with the political acumen and clout that James Gunn invested in the new Superman movie that my wife and I just saw in the LOOK Dine-In Cinemas in Dobbs Ferry. Andrew Slack and Jose Antonio Vargas nailed in their guest column in The Hollywood Reporter, "Yes, Superman Has Always Been an Immigration Story," what Gunn did in his movie. Superman has always been the ultimate alien -- literally, he came from outer space. And just as people from other countries helped build and protect America from day one, so Superman has done the same since he started growing into adulthood in Kansas.
The movie also gets all the related political travesties and depredations that currently afflict our country and thereby the world right on target, too. Lying buffoons on a Fox-like "news" channel, a fickle populace gobbling down fake news like it was cotton candy, a Putin-like character invading a neighboring country just as Hitler did in the 1930s, and most important, making Lex Luthor, Superman's brilliant, demented arch-enemy who first appeared in the comics in 1940 into someone we've all come to know all too well the past few years.
My nine-year-old grandson called it when he saw Superman with my son a couple of days ago and told him: "Lex Luthor is Elon Musk". I don't know if Musk is as smart or as evil as Luthor, but he's certainly done plenty of damage. Among the many reasons to cheer what Gunn has done in this movie is the way he put up Musk in Luthor.
And there are indeed many other reasons. Superman is not only powerful but vulnerable and amazingly admirably sweet and good -- he takes the time to save a squirrel. David Corenswet (who was in one episode of House of Cards) was excellent in the title role. So were Rachel Brosnahan (Mad Men, Mrs. Maisel ) as Lois Lane, Edi Gathegi (For All Mankind, StartUp) as Mr. Terrific, and Nathan Fillion (The Rookie, Castle) as Green Lantern. In fact, everyone was in fine form, including the super heroes I didn't know, the robots, and especially the dog.
So, if you're a fan of Superman, you can't go wrong with this movie. And if you're a fan of democracy and a foe of fascism, you can go wrong with this movie, either.
***
Note added: James Gunn claims in this interview that one of the biggest pieces of fake news in his movie -- a recording of Superman's parents, released by Lex Luthor, urging their son to use his super powers to dominate the world -- actually wasn't fake news at all, that is, Superman's parents really said that.
My response: as I. A. Richards advised way back in the 1920s, it's a mistake to ask the author or creator what they intended in a given passage (or scene). They may be trying to manipulate the public, for whatever reason. It's far better, Richards says, to let the work speak for itself.
(Thanks Cynthia Walker and Nick Leshi for getting a conversation about this going on Facebook.)
My wife and I saw Untamed, a six-episode mini-series on Netflix the past few nights. The scenery was breathtaking -- the narrative takes place in Yosemite National Park, and as the protagonist Kyle Turner points out, most visitors get to see no more than ten percent of it -- the acting was excellent, and the plot pretty good, too, slow winding but deep, and coming together memorably in the end.
[Slight spoilers ahead ... ]
Kyle, played by Eric Bana, is a National Parks Agent, investigating what could be the murder of a young woman who falls off a mountain to her death. He has a troubled past -- a lot of the residents of the Park, legal and otherwise, do -- but the investigation would have been difficult even if he was the happiest guy in the world. He has a newbie as a partner, Naya Vasquez (played by Lily Santiago), Paul Souter (played by Sam Neill) is his boss, and Jill Bodwin (played by Rosemarie Dewitt) is his former wife, with whom he shares a very tragic past. It's always good to see Bana and Neill on the screen, Dewitt was excellent (she was in Mad Men), and the strong performance by Santiago (whom I recall seeing in La Brea) indicates a fine career ahead.
As I said, just about every major character in this story has a troubled past, which of course influences and spills into the investigation, and also can sometimes be a bit too much and unclear if you're intent on following what could be a murder investigation. Some of the characters are villains who may not be murderers. Others work for the law and can be just the reverse. Although some of this flirts with confusion, the ending is both shocking and satisfying, and well worth the short six-episode wait.
But as I said at the outset, the biggest takeaway of Untamed is the spectacular scenery and cinematography. The series was so well photographed, you could practically breath it through the screen.
Animal Kingdom, originally on TNT (now on Netflix), is easily in the Top 10 of all-time best television dramas. Jake Weary as Deran was one of the reasons, and for that reason alone, my wife and I had to watch The Waterfront, also on Netflix and no doubt the reason that Animal Kingdom is now there as well. But Holt McCallany from Lights Out and Topher Grace in anything were other good reasons, and the acting in The Waterfront is first class all the way.
[Spoilers ahead ...]
And the plot is compelling, often thrilling and surprising, too. McCallany's Harlan Buckley is head of a North Carolina family fishing business that's declining, in part because because Harlan has pulled it away from the lucrative smuggling that the business used to abet, after his father who was deeply involved in the smuggling part of the fishery was murdered. Weary's Cane is Harlan's son, who has gotten the business back into smuggling, on a hopefully temporary basis, to get the business to make ends meet -- actually, to avoid a looming foreclosure -- until the fishing can get the company back on its feet.
Meanwhile, Topher Grace gives a tour-de-force performance as an au-currant, fast-talking, veering on demented new drug-smuggling lord. He's the most potent danger to the Buckley hegemony, but they're also beset by other criminals, the DEA, and discord in the family, which includes Melissa Benoist as Cane's sister Bree, and Maria Bello as Harlan's wife, who is also trying to save the business.
After a relatively slow, talky start in the first episode (at least to me), The Waterfront takes off with a series of surprises and twists, which arrive like gut punches which leave you black and blue and wanting for more. Highly recommended, hats off to creator Kevin Williamson, and if you're ever in North Carolina visit the Fishy Fishy Cafe, which apparently was the template for the Buckley fish restaurant.
Whew, a powerhouse Dexter: Resurrection 1.3, with at least three things that I really loved:
[Spoilers ahead]
1. Harrison getting out of that murder rap (for now) with that clever Detective Wallace boxing him in with that no sign of him leaving the hotel. He had the perfect answer to her -- that he's sleeping in the hotel, not paying for a room, and he didn't tell Wallace that sooner because he was protecting Elsa, the woman who is letting him stay in the hotel. Nice piece of work, Harrison! Your father (and grandfather) would be proud of you.
2. Dexter not falling prey to his prey -- the other Dark Passenger -- by wearing that metal collar around his neck. Dexter hasn't lost his edge. He always knew how to protect himself even when he was first starting out -- well, not always, but in Dexter: Original Sin he was quickly learning how -- and getting the jump on Red as Red was trying to do the same to him was also a fine piece of work in the Dexter corpus.
3. But of course my favorite was Batista retiring and Masuka and Quinn saying goodbye to him. The last two were in great shape, and so is Batista, as I mentioned in my review of the first two episodes of Resurrection last week.
So, Harrison is free (for now), Dexter has taken care of Red, but he's set to get involved with the serial killers club, because how could he not, it's a perfect hunting ground for him. But Batista is no doubt on his way to New York to nab Dexter as the Bay Harbor Butcher, so in that important way Dexter is still someone's prey.
And let me also say: excellent directing by Monica Raymund, whom we know from her acting in Chicago Fire and Hightown! See you back here next week.
Well, as I said last week, this third season of Foundation on Apple TV+ is a much leaner, tauter, truer telling than the first two seasons of Isaac Asimov's indelible, incredible trilogy, and thus -- though it still is markedly different from the trilogy in all kinds of ways, though the triad Cleon "Empire" would be more than enough to make the screen version very different from Asimov's -- much more fun, at least for me, to see.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
I couldn't help but chuckle when Hari Seldon, not quite alive, but much more alive than Seldon as hologram in the trilogy, remarks to Gaal that, other than the Mule, Gaal and Hari brought the evolution of the galaxy pretty much back on track after it had veered far off course. And whose fault was that, that humankind had gone so far astray? Well, not Hari's and not the Mule's, not any character in the narrative on the screen. No, the blame resides with the writers and people who dreamed up this retelling of the Foundation story on television.
But now they're working hard to get it straight. A significant part of Asimov's story of The Mule and The Second Foundation's attempt to stop him -- in Asimov's telling of his story -- concerns the planet Tazenda, which name sounds like Star's End, where rumor has it that the Second Foundation is headquartered, wherever exactly that may really be. The Mule, misled into thinking he's wiping out the Second Foundation, blasts the planet Tazenda out of existence with his fleet. That Star's End business was so important, there's even a superb podcast with that name, where I was fortunate to be a guest some two years ago. And if I remember correctly, someone wrote a piece in some academic journal decades ago which argued that Asimov was immoral to have his Second Foundation set up an innocent planet to be destroyed in its fight against the Mule. But I'm mentioning the destruction of a whole planet in this review of Foundation 3.2 because one of its most significant elements has Empire Dusk planning on giving Dawn a way to erase a planet, a weapon to use in his battle with Foundation (and as Dawn in beginning to recognize, The Mule).
The Dawn-Day-Dusk triumvirate has been the best part of the first two seasons of Foundation on TV, and its good to see their story continuing so well as the rest of the galaxy veers ever more significantly back to the story Asimov and Hari wanted to tell. Including, I would add, hearing the name Bayta!
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