The Crossing 1.3: The Missing Inventor

With episode 1.3, it's clear that The Crossing not only has some elements of Lost and FlashForward, but also of Stephen King's The Dome - probably why King, on Twitter, said the first five minutes of The Crossing were "jaw-dropping".  Which it was.

But as the series is progressing, it's less jaw-dropping, and more the kind of mix of good and bad and in-between characters we encountered on The Dome.  And also, at the same time, a mix of characters who know a little to a lot of what's going on, with no one knowing everything.

Those mixes can make a series work, but in order to be truly revolutionary and mind-blowing, like Lost at its best, it needs to have more.  At this point, although the repeated demonstrations of Reece's super prowess are impressive -- especially tonight, quickly recovering from a bullet, and killing someone played by Steve Harris, meaning he could have been a major character - they're beginning to wear a little thin.

Possibly this is a problem of anything on traditional network television, which is increasingly struggling to keep up in narrative daring with cable and now Netflix and Amazon Prime and Hulu streaming.   That was one reason why The Dome faded.   But I still think The Crossing has potential.

Someone invented the time travel that has twice gotten people from the future to the present.  If Apex are the super-human group in the future intent on destroying what's left of normal, i.e., our current, humanity, why would one one or a group of them try to help normal humans by giving them a way to escape to the past?  Or was the time travel invented by some normal human genius (how's that for an oxymoron?) in the future, intent on helping his/her, i.e., our own kind?

Such questions don't even need to get into the metaphysics of time travel.  They're just the makings of good espionage narrative, and I hope we start seeing more of them addressed in The Crossing.

See also The Crossing: Lost Again, But OK ... The Crossing 1.2: Calling for More Time Travel

Colony 2.1: Prelude

Colony was back tonight with the debut of its second season, with an episode that was mostly prelude, and, like the first season, pretty good.

A couple of general impressions:  Colony now feels a little like FlashForward (cars suddenly stopping when the aliens arrive), Lost (prelude flashback), and even Fear the Walking Dead (the dawn of apocalypse).   All of that of course makes sense - especially given that star power from Lost (Josh Holloway) and The Walking Dead (Sarah Wayne Callies, not Fear the Walking Dead, buy close enough) are in Colony.

Colony was also a successor, from day one, to Falling Skies and its alien invasion, except we never saw the aliens per se in the first season.   Now we finally get to see ... well, not quite the aliens, but more of their ships and hardware.   We did see a big tall something, but it's not clear if that's an alien, robot, or even a tall co-opted human.

The prelude was generally satisfying, though - and, like everything else these days, like The Man in the High Castle, especially disquieting because ... you know why, look at who's set to be sworn in as President next week.  So Trump has had the unintended benefit of giving any show about a near-future or alternate history totalitarian state in the US a little more of an edge than it otherwise would have had.

But this first episode of the second has set the board nicely, and put the pieces in motion.  The first season had lots of potential, only some of which was realized.  I get the feeling that the second season will do better, and I'm looking forward to it.

See also Colony 1.1: Aliens with Potential ... 1.2: Compelling ... 1.5: Questions ... 1.6: The Provost ... Colony 1.7: Broussard ... Colony 1.8: Moon Base and Transit Zones ... Colony 1.9: Robot Arm ... Colony Season 1 Finale: Not Quite Enough


not exactly aliens, but strange enough ...  The Silk Code

Under the Dome: Superior Summer Science Fiction

I caught the premiere of  CBS's Under the Dome on demand last night.  Having just returned from a month's vacation in a small New England town, I was especially receptive.  I liked everything about the show - fast moving, daring main plot, good subplots, altogether superior science fiction which is not over the top, which is to say, Under the Dome has that perfect mix of plausibility and out-of-this-world event which is the hallmark of all fine science fiction.  It should be - it's from the Stephen King novel, which I haven't read.  And that's probably good, because otherwise I'd be unhappy about every divergence of the television series from the novel.

The main plot is a force field which descends around the town with no warning.  It's tall enough that a plane flying above crashes right into it.   In one of the most effective scenes, though, we see a single cow sheared in half by the force field descending like a slick swift invisible razor.   The setup - so far - is that people outside the dome can't communicate with people inside the dome, except by holding up signs and the like.   But since they can't see inside the dome, they have no idea where the heads and eyes that might see the signs are located.

In addition to what caused this - aliens, people from the future, a secret government project, take your pick - we have an ample number of percolating subplots inside the sheer teapot dome.   Local councilman Big Jim Rennie - played welcomely by Dean Norris of Breaking Bad fame - is up to some kind of hanky panky involving propane gas, which may or may not in some way have triggered the dome.  Plus, his son is a love-sick psycho, who accidentally knocks out then locks up in his family's fallout shelter the girl who jilted him just before the dome came down.  There's a smart-taking, hard-ass reporter with long curly hair played by Rachel Lefevre - from the Twilight Saga and White House Down - who may have a heart of gold, and lots of other game and appealing characters.

At this point, Under the Dome bears some resemblances to Flashforward, which also debuted with a stunning storyline and a fine set of characters.   To succeed, Under the Dome will need to keep its breathtaking pace and focus.





#SFWApro

Revolution: Preview Review

I caught the complete first episode of Revolution last night - set to premiere later this month on NBC - courtesy of NBC putting this up On-Demand. Herewith a review, with soft (non-specific) spoilers.

Revolution is J. J. Abrams' latest. Now, I know what you're thinking - or, what I was thinking, anyway. With the exception of Fringe and (to a lesser extent) Person of Interest, Abrams has not come anywhere close to his extraordinary triumphs of Lost or even Alias. Half of his efforts have been like last year's Alcatraz, promising at first but pretty soon an irredeemable turkey.

So I approached Revolution with caution, and - I found the debut episode superb! It's chock full of punch-in-the-gut surprises, with characters we think are major dying on and off camera, and big, unexpected revelations right up until the end. The set-up, though it might seem at first glance to have too much in common with the ill-fated FlashForward and the high-flying Walking Dead, turns out to be refreshing and original.

The world has been beset by a power failure from hell - all electricity is gone, including battery power (which, in our real world, the Amish use instead of electricity from power plants). This means that everything digital is gone - useless - too.

We follow a family - no Family Robinson - in the Chicago area. (You notice how often Chicago is popping up in television drama these days? Boss, Revolution, Chicago Fire, last year's Playboy Club - probably another good consequence of Obama, seriously). Charlie, the daughter - a little under 20 - is strong, attractive, and believable. The others are good, too, and I found myself disappointed when the first episode was over - disappointed that I couldn't see more.

There's an endearing hipness about Revolution - the Hurley-like character (we had one, Hurley himself, in Alcatraz last year) - was a big exec at Google, before the permanent blackout. So far, I like this guy better than the Alcatraz guy.

"You say you want a Revolution, well, you know ..." I'm looking forward to this one on NBC.




"As a genre-bending blend of police procedural and science fiction, The Silk Code delivers on its promises." -- Gerald Jonas, The New York Times Book Review

"Daddy, this the best book I've ever read!" -- Molly Vozick-Levinson, age 12 at the time

"cerebral but gripping" -- Booklist

NCIS 9.5: Behrooz's Mother

I first became aware of actress Shohreh Aghdashloo when I saw her on 24 for most of its 4th season a few years ago, playing Behrooz's mother, caught up in a major terrorist plot by her husband that endangered her son and put her on Jack Bauer's radar.  She gave such a powerful performance in that role, I've always thought of her since then as Behrooz's mother, including in a smaller stint last year on FlashFoward.

Tonight Shohreh Aghdashloo turns in another memorable performance as another mother caught up in a terrorist plot, in this case on NCIS 9.5 not only involving her husband of 30 years but one of her sons.  The stakes, it turns out, are high indeed, putting half of Norfolk Harbor at imminent, deadly risk.

Her performance also brings out a great hour from Cote de Pablo as Ziva, who, as we know, has deep and deadly family issues of her own.   DiNozzo manages to be the butt of significant humor, literally, with an apparent detergent stain on his pants giving CGIS (Coast Guard) Special Agent Abigail Borin (Diane Neal of Law & Order fame) a chance to rub his rear (of his pants, that is) in an attempt to remove the stain (that's the funny part) with no success, which then gives Abby the opportunity via chemical analysis to discover evidence of the terrorist plot (the significant part).


The team would like to see Gibbs and Borin get together romantically, but Gibbs is keeping his own counsel on this, and tells Ziva near the end that the team is his family.  Another tender moment from Gibbs at the end of an episode, which has become something of an endearing signature of NCIS this year.


Also worthy of note in this episode is the SecNav backing Gibbs not Leon in one call, and another scene near the end which hints at some kind of problem Secretary of the Navy Jarvis may be facing.  All of which more than hints of a continuingly interesting season of NCIS this year.


Hey, I'll be overseas next week - no, not as part of any world intrigue that I know of, but rather to give Keynote Addresses about Marshall McLuhan in Brussels and Copenhagen.  Depending on the availability of the current season of NCIS in Europe, it may be two weeks before I get a chance to see and put up a review of the next episode - which looks like a good one - but I'll see you then if not sooner.
 
See also NCIS 9.1: Unpacking Partial Amnesia ... NCIS 9.2: Lying to Yourself ... NCIS 9.3: McGee's Grandmother ... NCIS 9.4: Turkey Vulture as Explained by DiNozzo

And see also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman ... NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father ... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story ... NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo In and Out ... NCIS 8.11: "The Sister Went Viral" ... Bob Newhart on NCIS 8.12 ... NCIS 8.13: The Wife or the Girlfriend ... NCIS 8.14: Kate ... NCIS 8.15: McGee and DiNozzo's Badges ... NCIS 8.16: Computer Games ... NCIS 8.17: Budget Cuts ... NCIS 8.18: Gibbs vs. the Kid ... NCIS 8.19: The Deadly Book ... NCIS 8.20: CIRay ... NCIS 8.21: Mask and Eye ... NCIS 8.22: "I'd Rather Have a Lead" ... NCIS 8.23: Answers and Questions ... NCIS Season 8 Finale

And see also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

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Prime Suspect

Prime Suspect on NBC has been getting some excellent press - as has its star, Maria Bello as NYPD Det. Jane Timoney - and it's all deserved.   Timoney is a sassy, take-no-guff, courageous, bright, fearless police woman who may be the best police woman on television since ... well, Angie Dickinson as Police Woman.

And the supporting cast is stellar, too.  Kirk Acevedo (from Fringe) as Det. Calderon, Brian F. O'Byrne (from Brotherhood and Flashforward), Kenny Johnson (Lem from The Shield!) as Jane's love, and Aidan Quinn (Legends of the Fall) as Jane's boss all make memorable contributions to the series and every scene they're in.

Prime Suspect was a long running show over in England - the NBC series is a new adaptation - and said to have influenced The Closer, which also features a high-powered woman steering a course in a police department dominated by men.   But Brenda Leigh Johnson on The Closer, though tough enough, is no match for Jane Timoney, who mixes it up with the best of them, and gives chase to bad guys twice her size.  (We're going to Netflix the British series.)

It's also good to see Peter Berg involved in the production of another show after Friday Night Lights, and set so palpably in the streets of New York.   With Law and Order down to one series, and Blue Bloods a little too formulaic for my tastes, New York's primed for a new, hard-hitting cop show.

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

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The Event 1.11-12: Hardball in Fiction

The Event just finished its 2-hour return on the East Coast - Episode 1.11-12.   It's been a while since the previous episode was aired at the end of November.   I thought the new two hours were the best so far in this series, which still feels like 24 meets Flashforward, high praise in my book.

One point is definitively settled tonight:  The "aliens" are truly from outer space.   They may have come from Earth at some point, and/or time travelled - their DNA is 99% the same as ours - but as Leila's father Michael (himself an alien) explains, his people come from a planet way out in space (with a star number and everything).  In addition, we also get more confirmation that Thomas's plan is to bring a lot more or maybe even the rest of all of his people to this, our, planet, and make it their own.

As a first step, Thomas launches an attack on Inostranka, with a view towards freeing all of the aliens held there, so they can help him prepare the way for the aliens from outer space.  He's a pretty vicious alien guy, that Thomas, slaughtering the aliens who don't want to join him, and torturing Sterling to get a code to help in their escape.   (A nice twist on 24, with bad guys torturing the good guy - though, come to think of it, Jack Bauer was as often a victim as a practitioner of torture.)

Sterling - played by the ubiquitous on television Željko Ivanek (but it's always good to see him) - has a great night, almost saving the day in a torrent of fine action scenes.   Badly wounded, Sterling seemed likely to die before he was forced to give up the code.  But neither happens - Sterling neither dies nor divulges the code.  Alas, a soldier who doesn't want to see Sterling die does give up the code, and Maya is killed, as Thomas escapes with a fair number of his people.

While this is going on, Michael tries to convince Leila to go with him, but not take Sean along.  Leila doesn't want this, but honorable Sean leaves early the next morning, while Leila sleeps, after the two sleep together one last time.  I'd have liked to see Sean do something more dynamic, like insist on going along with Michael.

And the third piece of tonight's story takes place in Washington, DC, as Alaska Senator Catherine Lewis (played by Virginia Madsen) in effect blackmails the President to tell her what's really going in that prison in her state.   Part of this features Sen. Lewis on MSNBC's Hardball, with Chris Matthews playing himself.  He does a pretty good job, but he was not quite as nasty as he is when a guest suddenly starts to snow him on the air.  He should have interrupted more, and started wondering if Sen. Lewis was reading from a script, or in "a trance".   But, hey, it's the second time MSNBC has made it on to NBC drama television - just a few weeks ago, it was Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough, and Tamron Hall on Law and Order: SUV (and last night, Lawrence O'Donnell played a lawyer on Big Love).   Who knows what choice guest gigs Keith Olbermann might have had, had MSNBC not foolishly canned him.

There was also one soft spot in the plot - Sen. Lewis should have not gained such easy access to her husband's office (the office of a former Senator, recently deceased, now sealed on orders from the President).  But The Event has returned with some powerful turns, and I'm looking forward to more.



See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action! ... The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals! ... The Event 1.7: The Portal and its Implications  ... The Event 1.8: The "Republican" VP and the Anti-24 ... The Event 1.9: "Native Populations, Indigenous People" ... The Event 1.10: Satellite

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

The Event Debuts on NBC

The Event on NBC looks like a keeper.

The new series starts off with a complex plot - ala 24 - of bad guys, terrorists, whatever intent on taking out the President (always good to see Blair Underwood back on the screen).   The apparent bearer of a bomb (or whatever) on to a plane turns to be a good guy, whose almost fiance is presumably kidnapped by the real bad guys.   Sean Walker finds himself caught up in a sleight-of-hand of his reality worthy of Hitchcock.

And that's the least of it.  His fiance's (Leila's) mother is killed before her father's eyes, and their younger daughter is kidnapped to boot.   And it turns out the father is piloting the plane, with an eye towards crashing it into where the President and his family and his advisors are all in attendance.   He's apparently a good guy, too, though, and is doing this because the real bad guys have his younger daughter - and I guess Leila, too - and are threatening to kill them.

Now this would be a series worth watching with just the above as a plot.   But the payoff at the end of the premiere episode pulls us into something much more.  For just as the plane nears its executive target, it's sucked into something that looks like it came out of The Philadelphia Experiment, and disappears into thin air.

Sophia (Laura Innes - Kerry on ER!) tells the President: "they saved us".   Who are the "they"?  Sophia explains that there are "some things I haven't told you".

What we do know that is that Sophia is part of some group which is being held in Alaska, and the President wants to free them (contrary to the strong advice of his advisors, including Blake, played by Zeljko Ivanek, who is once again playing a hard-assed a-hole).

And we're off to a brand new series, riveting, complex, frothy, more reminiscent, actually, of FlashForward than Lost, and a good dose of 24, too, as I mentioned above.  Hey, if it stays away from purgatory as an ending,  The Event could end up better than Lost in the end.


5-min podcast review of The Event

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

FlashForward Ends on a High Note

A fine finale for FlashForward tonight, which makes me feel more than ever that the series deserved at least another season.

After tempting us and taunting us all season long with which of the flashforwards would come true - the only we knew for sure did not was Gough's, who committed suicide - we had an excellent series of confirmations of the future against all odds tonight, which included

• Bryce and Keiko meeting in the restaurant after all, when her mother distracts ICE officials at the airport, allowing Keiko to get to the restaurant, and Bryce earlier explaining to Nicole that his true love is Keiko
• Nicole almost drowning after all - she was not being baptized - which explains her bad feeling about her flashforward - but the guy she saw briefly in the hospital didn't come to hurt her, but rescue her
• Aaron's daughter, who seemed to have died last week, coming back to life after all.

But the most interesting, and satisfying story, concerned what happens to Mark.  He of course ends up in FBI headquarters.   Meanwhile, we've seen the first flashforward which did not come completely true - Janis's sonogram in the hospital shows her baby's all right all right, but the baby's a boy not  a girl.  So the flashforwards can be almost completely true.   At chez Benford, Olivia, Lloyd, and the kids are in place, but Lloyd elects to keep his shirt on.   When Olivia looks down at him from balcony, it's clearly not after they just made love (they did kiss pretty passionately).  So their flashforward also came almost true.   And though Vogel does say, outside the Benford house, that Benford is dead, it turns out that that's just the first part of a longer, conditional statement that ends along the lines of, there's no way he'll get out of that building.  So he's not really saying that Benford is dead, but that Benford will be dead.  Nice touch.

And though Mark's attacked by the masked team, he kills them at all, after figuring out that the next flashforward will occur in just 14 minutes.  He gets word out to Stan - who managed to kill a bad guy with a shot from the toilet - and a little of the world is warned, but there's also a bomb that's about to blow up the FBI building, and Mark may not be able to get out.

For those who may be seeing this one and final season Flashforward at some time in the future, and may be reading this, I won't tell you the very ending, except to say it is very good, indeed.

Indeed, like Coronet Blue in the 1960s, I predict that FlashForward and all concerned will fare well in the future.  The television series was a good extrapolation of Rob Sawyer's novel, and deserved a longer run, but sometimes it takes the world longer than expected to realize what's happening....


5-min podcast review of FlashForward finale

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding ... FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon ... FlashForward 1.18: Triple Forks ... FlashForward 1.19: The Stubborn Universe ...  FlashForward 1.20: Rehearsal for Unwarranted Retirement

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

FlashForward 1.20: Rehearsal for Unwarranted Retirement

I saw FlashForward 1.20 last night, right before I came across the apparently definite report that the series was not being renewed for next year.   Which is a shame.   FlashForward had a few less than stellar episodes after its strong debut in the Fall, but the last few episodes - including and since Mark saved Demetri from death via Mark's gun - have been excellent on all accounts.

Last night kept the pressure up on Demetri, who may be slated for death anyway, by a universe intent on seeing its original flashforward will done.  In a chilling conversation, Gabriel insists to Demetri that he will indeed die, somehow.   In the meantime, the FlashForward day is tomorrow, and Zoey wants Demetri to fly with her to get married in Hawaii.   Demetri wants to stay and help his colleagues at the FBI.

And there's also this:  Demetri is taking a greater, literally paternal interest in Janis's baby.   She wants none of that, even though she's grateful for the baby.   She's feeling a little more in control of her life, and she finally breaks free of the pet shop lady and the nefarious group she represents.

Simon, on the other hand, is getting more involved in this group, though it's not clear who controls whom.   He sleeps with Annabeth Gish - score one for Simon - but she's just doing that so Simon could be where her boss, head of the bad guys, wants him.  The guy's a quiet, nasty customer, but as far as I could see, Simon came out ahead.

Back to Gabriel: he's keeping the pressure up on Mark, too, telling him how the future belongs to Olivia and Simcoe.    Mark asks if Olivia will at least be happy.  Gabriel assures Mark she will.  I'm still rooting for Mark and Olivia.

Just a few more episodes left.   I'm predicting that FlashForward will go on to become a cult classic.

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding ... FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon ... FlashForward 1.18: Triple Forks ... FlashForward 1.19: The Stubborn Universe

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Bones 5.20: Ergo Together!

The two big frustrations I had going into tonight's episode of Bones - 5.20 - is that Bones and Booth are not yet together romantically (hopeless case, maybe) and that neither are Angela and Jack, especially given the salient fact that they once were.  Well, leave it to an episode written Kathy Reichs - anthropologist and author the series of novels upon which Bones the TV series based - to take care of the second, in a delightful, superb episode no less!

Here's how that happened:  Angela and Jack are driving back from the crime scene (more on that, below), Jack's "driving like an old lady" (Angela's description), i.e., weaving a little as they're doing some research via their iPhone or whatever, when the last of the straight-laced sheriffs pulls them over.  When it turns out that both have outstanding warrants for minor nonsense, the sheriff puts them in jail until the local judge can adjudicate.

Thanks goodness for the sheriff!   The single cell Angela and Jack are in - overnight - gives them a chance to realize what we've all realized, that is, the two are right for each other.   Before they're sprung from the pokey, the pokey judge at last arrives, and not only springs but marries them.  Excellent!

Meanwhile, back on the forensic anthropology front, the real culprit in this crime, which entails the murder of a witch by other good witches, is one of the ergot fungi, of the genus Claviceps.  Ergot grows on rye and related grains, and produces profound hallucinogenic states.  It's been implicated, via anthropological forensic theory, in everything from belief in demons in the Middle Ages to demonization of witches then and in more modern times.   Tonight it's the trigger that transforms a coven of good witches into killers.

Kathy Reichs should write more episodes.    It's been original author's night on television, with Reichs writing this episode of Bones and Robert J. Sawyer, author of the novel upon which FlashForward (also in the 8-9 hour) is based, writing tonight's episode for that series (see my review).  A great night of television!

See also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ... Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ... Bones Under Water in 5.18



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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

FlashForward 1.19: The Stubborn Universe

FlashForward 1.19 was written by Robert J. Sawyer - author of the novel upon which the series is based - and a great friend for almost two decades now.   I say that in the interest of full disclosure.  But as I mentioned when I started reviewing FlashForward in the Fall, I'm not going to let that stop me from reviewing this fine series, extraordinary in many ways, and from calling things in the series as I see them.

The dominant theme in tonight's episode - appropriately entitled "Course Correction" - is the universe's stubborn resistance to changing its course, in this case, the deaths of people foreseen in the flashforwards.   It's a powerfully attractive theme.   I first began thinking about it when I read Stephen Hawking's "chronology protection conjecture" in the 1990s, which holds that, even if time travel were possible, the universe would not let it happen, lest it risk itself becoming unraveled by time travelers.  My 1995 novelette, The Chronology Protection Case (Analog Magazine), explored that theme in the context of a serial killing of scientists.

It's a theme bursting with paradox at every turn, which is what makes it so much fun.   In FlashForward, one could ask, is the flashforward what the universe "wanted," or was it something that happened contrary to the universe's original course?  Since human beings, who are part of the universe, caused the blackout/flashforward, we could well conclude that this is what the universe wanted (such a conclusion could be warranted in any development, caused by anything in the universe, since it's taking place, by definition, in the universe - this is part of the great paradox of this issue, and another name for it is infinite regress).   This, indeed, is what is assumed in FlashForward, which means that any attempt to prevent what was foreseen in the flashforwards is going against what the universe "intended," which provokes the universe to "correct" it.

Of course, we could say that any changes in the universe's plan are/were also part of the universe, so why would the universe be bent on correcting it?  You could say that, alright, but it's a quick path to driving yourself crazy (this is why I call paradox the root canal work of the human intellect).  In other words, you can only go so far with paradox - that's part of what makes paradox paradox.

On FlashForward, then, the universe seems to be correcting, by whatever means, the saving of people who were supposed to die.   This affects, most notably, Celia (the object of Gough's noble suicide and attempt to change the future in Episode 1.7) and Jeff Slingerland of Blue Hand fame.   Both end up dead tonight.  And, of course, squarely back in the universe's cross-hairs tonight is Demetri.   It's a fine turn  of events indeed, for now his brilliant rescue from the jaws of fate several weeks ago is in danger of being undone.    The mere raising of the universe as course corrector means Demetri is only in slightly better shape than he was before Mark saved him.

Other good moves tonight involve Bryce (who learns his cancer's in remission) and Nicole kissing,  and Lloyd and Olivia ... kissing.   Actually, I'm not so happy about that, I've become a Mark fan, and I also like Keiko, but the recouplings are good story telling.

But, whew, the paradox, that's the thing.   You can't find it served up like this any place else on television.


6-min podcast review of FlashForward

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding ... FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon ... FlashForward 1.18: Triple Forks

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

FlashForward 1.18: Triple Forks

Another superb FlashForward tonight - episode 1.18 - which makes at least two in a row.   And we had two important stories unfold tonight in crucial ways:

1.  The truth about Janis:  I had trouble believing she was a bad guy, a spy for the late Flosso group, for whatever nefarious purposes.   But that's what she told Simon, and it sure looked that way for most of tonight, as we see Janis recruited by Annabeth Gish (Eileen Caffee from Brotherhood) and reporting to her tough handler at a tropical fish store.  Janis even tries to steal a crucial document from Mark's wall. But-  It turns out Janis is not a double agent (an FBI agent working for some mysterious, evil group) but a triple agent!   Vogel recruited her before she was recruited by Annabeth.   And Vogel's mission for Janis was to allow herself to be recruited to spy on the FBI by whatever evil organization!   Nice twist!

I'm still not clear, though, who gunned her down in Washington.   Flosso's group had no reason - based on what we saw tonight, they still thought they had Janis in their control.   Maybe someone in the group had a flashforward which showed the truth about Janis?

Meanwhile, this other crucial, surprising story played out tonight:

2. Gabriel and Olivia: We first saw Gabriel last week.  Tonight he shows up at Olivia's door, with knowledge of her future - not from the general flashforward date - and convictions about what should be and should have been in Olivia's life.   His knowledge of just a little bit into the future, when Olivia could have been killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time at a car crash on a corner, not only turns out to be accurate, but saves Olivia's life.  Had Gabriel not delayed Olivia with his visit to her home, she would have been on that corner.   Gabriel's other knowledge is also relevant:  he's seen Lloyd as Olivia's true love throughout her life.   The relationship began when Olivia was a student a Harvard - which she decided not to be, in our reality.   Gabriel knows about this "fork" in the road of history because he has had multiple, individual flashfowards.   Turns out that Frost was running a center for savants with photographic memories, and sending them on little individual flashforwards (much like Bell and the children which included another Olivia, in Fringe).

The import of Gabriel's visions seems to be that she has been on the wrong track ever since not going to Harvard.  Further, she needs to make a course correction right now, lest things get much worse.

Good, deep, tantalizing stuff indeed, as FlashForward proceeds...


7-min podcast review of FlashForward


See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding ... FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon

Robert J. Sawyer - author of the novel FlashForward on which the TV series is based - told me in our interview at the I-Con science fiction convention in Stony Brook, New York at the end of March that, before the season was over, I'd be standing up and cheering for Mark Benford.  I don't know if tonight's episode - 1.17 - was the one Rob had in mind, but I was certainly cheering.

The fate of Demetri hung in the balance tonight.  In FlashForward time, tonight was March 15, 2010, the day foretold and seen by Nhadra (Behrooz's mother from 24) as the day of Demetri's death.   Zoey's flashforward vision of their wedding, after March 15, which she realized was Demetri's funeral, added credence to what Nhadra saw.  So did the fact that Demetri had no flashforward vision at all.

Gibbons/Frost is holding Demetri prisoner, tied-up in a get-up of wires connected to a gun pointed right at his heart.   Any movement by Demetri, any attempt to put something in way of Demetri and the gun, will cause it fire.

It's not 100% clear what Frost wants out of all of this, but it has something to with stopping his own death, which he has also foreseen for this day.    Frost leaves a set of clues with Charlie, whom he talked to on the bench in the amusement park.

Mark first races brilliantly to get to Frost, in the best action sequence so far in the series.   He gets to Frost with just a little time left to save Demetri - Frost has left Mark a literally ticking clock - and Mark gets the drop on Frost-

Only to see Frost shot to death by Alda (female terrorist) who has escaped.   The Frost's death part of Frost's visions for the day has come true.   Will Demetri's?

Mark risks literally fulfilling Nhadra's vision - Mark killing Demetri with Mark's gun - by trying to turn the gun at least a little away from Demetri.   With seconds left - and with Demetri's life literally up for grabs by fate, because we've seen that most of the flashforwards do come true - Mark succeeds.   Demetri's death didn't happen, just as Gough's death did, both contrary to all the flashforward visions that have irresistibly, recalcitrantly,  come to be.  All that's shot is Demetri's picture on the timeline Frost has created on the wall.

It's a timeline that shows events well into the future - teeming with interconnections, like a Hari Seldon psychohistory map (see Asimov's Foundation novels) - come to life in today's Los Angeles.   But as soon as Demetri leaves the chair to which he's been confined, that map turns to sand and dissolves into the instant like an emptying hour glass.   One last trick of Gibbons/Frost.

You couldn't ask for anything more from this top-notch episode - written by David Goyer and Lisa Zwerling - except more tricks to come in the future.



7-min podcast review of FlashForward

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

Listen to podcast about Asimov's Foundation series

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book 

V 1.8: Is Lisa Becoming 5th Column?

The most significant story in V 1.8 concerns beautiful Lisa - daughter of Anna, and, before the episode is over, lover of Tyler.

She fails the Visitor empathy test - meaning, she's displaying the rudiments of human emotion. Unlike her mother, Lisa may have a heart. As we saw last week with Ryan, this could be the beginning of a conversion from loyal-to-Anna Visitor to V 5th columnist.

The V-doc who tells Lisa she failed the test is, of course, a 5th columnist himself. This raises the possibility that he's lying to Lisa, for the purpose of manipulating her into working against her mother, or who knows what else. But I don't think he's lying.

Lots of good action in this episode, including Father Jack shooting a human who's working with the Visitors, and two love scenes. One is between Chad and Anna, but it's in his dream. The other is between Lisa and Tyler - that's real.

Memo to FlashForward - you could use more scenes like those. One of the great strengths of V, in both its original 1980s and current renditions, is its non-abstract, visceral appeal.

See also V Returns to TV ... V 1.2: The Effects and The Characters ... V 1.3: Multiple Twists and Lizard Visions ... V 1.4: Good Medicine for Television ... V's Back in 1.5 ... V 1.6: Floating Witches ... V 1.7: Ryan's Story

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FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding

The irresistible vice of the future - for some people, at least - grows ever tighter in FlashForward 1.16, as Mark and Demetri fail to retrieve Mark's gun, and Demetri is a no-show at his own wedding - which, if it had happened, would have confounded Zoey's flashforward of a marriage-actually-funeral for Demetri.  Their plans, if they had married, were to fly off to Hawaii, or far away from Mark's gun and the death it was seen to mete out to Demetri in just three days.

The gun is already in the hands of Gibbons/Frost, who uses it to knock out Demetri, and spirit him away.  That's still a ways away from Mark killing Demetri with that gun - what Nhadra (played by Behrooz's mother from 24) - saw in her flashforward.  We should find out how that plays out next week.

Meanwhile, Lloyd and Olivia are moving closer together, despite Olivia's protestations.   After splitting with Mark - because she wanted them to go someplace safe together, and he wanted to stay and face the paradoxical music in LA - Olivia ends up kissing Lloyd, in a lot more than a peck.   I have to say - infuriating person that I am - that although I've found Mark unsympathetic for most of the series, I felt bad to see Olivia and Lloyd getting together, and am now more or less rooting for Mark.

And Olivia - and Mark - may soon have bigger problems.   Gibbons/Frost now also has Charlie Benford, in addition to Demetri, in his possession.   If Mark comes after her, and there's some kind of gunfire, that could be the way Nhadra's flashforward about Demetri and Mark's gun comes to be, after all...



5-min podcast review of FlashForward

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady?

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

Save Flashforward!! - Let ABC know you love it!

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady?

FlashForward 1.15 revolved around the hunt for the mole at FBI headquarters in LA.   The mole has tipped off objects of FBI missions - most recently, in Somalia last week - and resulted in death and injury to FBI personnel.   The most egregious were in Somalia and in Washington, where our FBI team was ambushed.

After first confirming what I thought was the case last week - that D. Gibbons aka Frost can flashforward to pinpoint specified times, and that's how he knew about Simon's designs, was able to talk to Demetri in 2010 from 1991, etc. - the story gets down to ID'ing the mole.

The suspects are all FBI agents, of course, including people we know and we don't know.   I was disappointed that the mole turned out to be someone we don't know - a woman agent - but then-

In a bold move and a great twist, Janis - who we do know, very well, she saw herself getting a sonogram in the future - captures the mole, who has killed a bunch of our agents in her attempted escape.  We then discover, via Janis' conversation with Simon, that she too, is a mole.   And, as Simon realizes, what better way to maintain your cover than to nab the other mole in the outfit.

This was a daring move indeed.  Janis is one of the most popular characters in the series, and making her a villain, apparently reporting to the same nefarious organization that the late Ricky Jay character was fronting, makes life at FBI headquarters much more dangerous.

It also raises at least one question:  If Janis is working for the bad guys, who almost killed her back in Washington?   Another group of bad guys?

Meanwhile, on the inevitable future/avoidable future front, we have another apparently avoidable future - or people moving along on that path.   Bryce kisses Nicole - we saw that coming - and Keiko, almost crossing paths with Bryce in LA, seems to be really liking some other guy.   There's still time for the Bryce-Keiko flashforward to come true, but I like this double diversion.

As I continue to enjoy the show.



8-min podcast review of FlashForward

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

Save Flashforward!! - Let ABC know you love it!

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book