Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing Black Doves; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Detective Hole; Dexter: Resurrection; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; Memory of a Killer; MobLand; Outlander; Paradise; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Smoke; Star City; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Tehran;The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Night Agent; Your Friends & Neighbors +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Showing posts with label Costa Ronin. Show all posts

Friday, May 15, 2026

For All Mankind 5.8: Firing on All Cylinders

Ines Asserson

For All Mankind was firing on all cylinders -- literally and figuratively -- in episode 5.8, up on Apple TV today.

The main action was the approaching attack on Mars by the Earthly multi-national alliance, and the defense that our Martian heroes mounted. Celia (Mireille Enos) and Leonid (Costa Ronin) were a good duo to mount the defense, and we get a better understanding of Leonid, his ethics and prowess, in this dangerous undertaking.

On board in the attack from Earth is A. J. Jarrett, granddaughter of the world-famous Tracy and Gordo Stevens, characters that I really miss in this multi-generational story (there is no else in the current story who have their unique mix of outrageousness, heroism, and sheer style). Jarett (Ines Asserson) is a complex character to begin with, and what happens to her when she gets to the Goldilocks asteroid will make her far more complex and conflicted.

Meanwhile, there's also a classic drama brewing with the crew that has landed on Titan. As we saw last week, Kelly Baldwin defied Captain Griebel's command that the Sojourner turn around and go back to Mars, rather than make the perilous landing on Titan. But Griebel doesn't yet know that Kelly did this -- he thinks the failure of the Sojourner to turn around was his fault, some mistake he made in the programming. He's determined to find out what he did wrong, but you and I both know that it's just a matter of time until he realizes what Kelly did. I like these kinds of powder kegs in narratives.

And just to end on a musical note: I really like Ollie's song, "A New Life," played twice in this episode. As soon as I can find a video of it up on YouTube, I'll post it here.

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Friday, April 24, 2026

For All Mankind 5.5: ICE on Mars

Well, I have mixed feelings again about the latest episode -- 5.5 -- of For All Mankind, up on Apple TV today. On the one hand, it's crucial to speak out against the murders and general brutality that ICE has meted out in its treatment of protestors in our reality right now in the USA. I give The Pitt on HBO Max high marks for integrating into its narrative the manhandling and arrest of a health-care worker who dared to stand up to the ICE agents who were interfering with the treatment of someone they had brought into the ER. But that was just one thread in a complex, multifaceted story, the rest of which had no relation to ICE.

In For All Mankind 5.5, we're treated to a full-scale attack on the "Mars is Ours" protestors on the Red Planet. It's ordered by the current Governor of Mars -- Leonid Polivanov (Lenya, a former Soviet cosmonaut, played by Costa Ronin, who portrayed a KGB operative in The Americans), and is reminiscent of both the British attack on America in the Revolutionary War, and the current depredations of Federal agents in the past months in our own country. (This happens in For All Mankind after we and the protestors are reminded in episode 5.3 that the First Amendment doesn't apply on Mars.) From a political point of view, I was glad to see this reminder of the attack on our freedoms that is going on right now. It's necessary to keep these attacks on our democracy front and center, by all means possible.

But that doesn't mean I enjoyed the episode, and this part of its alternate history. It was fun to see Ted Kennedy elected President (no Chappaquiddick), and John Lennon not assassinated. And I know that for an alternate history to be believable, it can't be all a bed of roses. So episode 5.5 deserves credit for that, in addition to reminding us of the ongoing fascist attacks on our democracy. But after watching protestors beaten senseless on Mars, I nonetheless hope there are more brighter interludes in outer space in this series.

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Friday, April 3, 2026

For All Mankind 5.2: Actor Reunions

It's great to see Joel Kinnaman as Admiral Baldwin in For All Mankind Season 5 still flying morally high, still shaking things up, defying authority to do the right thing, still causing good trouble (as John Lewis put it so well down here on Earth in our off-screen reality), in his advanced age. Kinnaman is especially impressive in the role, given that he's now also playing a character much closer to his real age in Imperfect Women, which I'll review as soon as its first season is over.

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

Baldwin in Season 5 of For All Mankind has stage-three cancer, and is not supposed to fly. All the more the impressive that he risks his life in this condition to save Lee Jung-Gil (played by C. S. Lee -- Vince Masuka from Dexter old and new!). And episode 5.2 concludes with Baldwin's plan to save Lee on the way to working, though as that happens, Mireille Enos's character Celia Boyd -- Enos starred with Joel Kinnaman in The Killing around the same time the original Dexter was concluding -- finds Baldwin unconscious at the controls.

Now if For All Mankind were made by Taylor Sheridan, this might be the end of Baldwin. But given that Ronald D. Moore is its creator, I'd be stunned if Baldwin didn't survive until at least the end of this season. In fact, given that Joel Kinnaman has been reported to return as Baldwin in the final season 6 of the series, and though, again, apropos of Sheridan, this could be in flashbacks, I'm thinking we'll see Baldwin in real current time in the final season. (And while we're at it, in the alternate history spin-off Star City to debut in May, though probably at a younger age.)

Anyway, Celia Boyd is a great new character, so is Leonid played Costa Ronan (from Homeland and The Americans), and all the continuing characters are good to see in this 5th season of For All Mankind. And I'll see you back next week with my review of the next episode.

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Monday, February 10, 2020

Homeland 8.1: Lost Time

Homeland was back tonight for its eight and final season, with a strong episode, situated mainly in Afghanistan, that fired on all cylinders.

The main, nearly choking vice that Carrie finds herself in this time is the months of missing time - time she can't remember - inside a Russian prison. This is a theme we've seen on spy shows before - Howard Gordon was a mover of 24 and does much the same for Homeland - so it's not surprising that Jack Bauer and Carrie Mathison have been in similar situations. But Carrie's is more laden with danger than even Jack's, given her bipolar disorder.

In episode 8.1, Carrie worries that she may have revealed information about her source in Afghanistan that got him killed. Seeing Yevgeny in Kabul amplifies those fears - she had come to rely upon him in the Russian prison, and who knows what she may have said to him. But I have to say, maybe it's something about Costa Ronin's manner - he played a sympathetic Russian in The Americans - that makes hope that he's not the bad guy. In fact, he'd actually make a good partner for Carrie, but that's not likely to happen, either. We'll just have to see.

Back to our reality, I'm also wondering if this final season of Homeland will deal in any way with Trump in the White House? Like 24, the Presidents in Homeland have pretty much avoided any parallels to Presidents actually in office (Elizabeth Keane might have been like Hillary, but the Electoral College decreed otherwise). But here's a thought: Homeland will be over before Americans have a chance to vote Trump out of office. The producers had to know this when they were making this final season. They surely must have been tempted to put something of our reality into this narrative. It will be fun to see how much.

And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinde r ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality

And see also Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally

Whew, a powerful Homeland 7.6 tonight which does what Homeland always does best, an episode which changes everything. Plus this one had some other good features -

Such as Costa Ronin, showing up tonight in a role that he does best - a Russian spy (Oleg in The Americans, Yevgeny in Homeland) in the U.S. Except Yevgeny has little of the humanity of Oleg, as he makes clear in the speech he gives to his older fellow spy, Ivan, who is wedded to the Soviet ways of spying. They kept the world safe, Ivan says. Yeah, but it destroyed our country, Yevgeny truthfully says. And he therein is the clearest spokesperson for Putin we've yet to see in the real news, fake news, or just plain narrative fiction.

But there was nothing plain about tonight's episode 7.6. It also featured Carrie drugging and seducing the FBI agent Dante whom she thought was her ally, but was really playing her for his profoundly nefarious plan.

And that's the plan that changes everything. Because this FBI guy is in fact in cahoots with Wellington's mistress to set him (Wellington, the President's Chief of Staff) up, with an eye towards bringing the President down. So the twist here is President Elizabeth Keane is a not a Trump in woman's clothing after all - Keane is really Hillary, and Putin's operatives here in America are indeed trying to bring her down.

I'm happy to see this, because I didn't like Keane acting like Trump in even the slightest way. She's much more convincing, sympathetic, and real as a Hillary Clinton kind of President.

I said in my review of an earlier episode this season that I was a little disappointed in Homeland. I'm glad I kept watching. Tonight's 7.6 was one of sharpest to come down the pike in the entire series.

And see also Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional

"challenging fun"
- Entertainment Weekly

e-mail received from a reader:
Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchildren. Thanks! Tom

I of course happily replied...

42 reviews of The Plot to Save Socrates!