Counterpart 1.9: The Spy Who Came In From The Fold

With all the killings these days of expatriate Russians in London - presumably on Putin's orders but what do I know - the doings in Counterpart, and its facsimile to Cold War East and West Berlin, seem ever closer to our own reality.

Not to mention the harrowing massacre in the our-side offices near the end of the episode - brilliant as as a piece of fiction, all too reminiscent of the massacres in places much more innocent than spy centrals in our own world.

And if that isn't enough, we now have Baldwin set against Howard-prime.  They haven't fought it out yet, but when they do, that should be something to see.

All of which is making Counterpart a prime piece of spy-game fiction.  As I said in my review of Hard Sun last week - another meld of crime and science fiction story - the crime is diamond-hard in Counterpart, and the science fiction soft and blurry.  We have no idea how the alternate reality was  brought into being - not even a nod to the science that somehow made that happen.  Which means the series, strictly speaking, is not science fiction at all.  It's science fantasy.

But who cares?  Labels are not the most important thing in this or any reality.  That would be the contents in the package, the narrative that the labels seek to describe.  And whatever you want to call it, Counterpart is one superb spy-ride of a story, and I'll be back here with a few thoughts on the season finale after it's aired two weeks from today.

See also  Counterpart 1.1: Fringe on Espionage ... Counterpart 1.2: Two Different Worlds ... Counterpart 1.3: Identification and Pandemic ... Counterpart 1.4: The Switch ... Counterpart 1.5: Ménage à Alternates ... Counterpart 1.6: Alternate Prince, Funeral, and Clear Clare ... Counterpart 1.7: Spying Across Dimensions ... Counterpart 1.8: Conversations

   

Hard Sun: Hard Crime/Soft Science Fiction

What better day to review Hard Sun, binge-watchable in America on Hulu since just a few days ago, than the day in which Daylight Savings Time (which I like far better than Eastern standard) takes effect.

Ok, maybe that's bit of stretch.  But there's more than a bit of a stretch in Hard Sun, powerful, searing, and superb as it is.  It's billed as a crime and science fiction story.  And it almost isn't science fiction at all.

The premise is two British police detectives learn that the Earth and humanity have only five years left of life - because the sun is going nova, or some such.  This serves as a harrowing backdrop for a complex and pounding and altogether top-notch police procedural, as only Neil Cross (Luther and MI-5) can do it.  There are twists and turns in both the criminals the two police chase, as well as in their personal lives, not to mention their partnership relationship (Jim Sturgess as DCI Hicks and Agyness Deyn as DC Renko are impressively tough and vulnerable in different ways).  In this regard, Hard Sun is one of the best police dramas I've ever seen - in the top ten, for sure.

But the science fiction part is frustrating.  It's an interesting premise, to say the least - police hunting all manner of heinous criminals, always knowing that the world is going to end in five years.  Some of these criminals are indeed motivated by that knowledge - because it has become public, though denounced as a conspiracy - and MI5 (the British FBI) play a significant role in this action, too.  They know about the hard sun that's coming, and apparently don't want the world to know about it too soon.

Now were this proper science fiction, there would scientists and people trying to do something to stop the nova, or build a fleet of ships to take whatever number of humanity off this planet to possible safety.  But Hard Sun is not proper science fiction.

And though there's a payoff at the end - which I won't tell you - it uses science fiction in a way I haven't ever seen it used before.  Being a fan and author of police procedural hybrids - my favorite as a fan would be Isaac Asimov's The Naked Sun, and as an author see my novel The Silk Code - I'm not at all sure that I like to see science fiction used this way.

But as a devotee of police procedurals on television, I can say that Hard Sun is one rough and exciting ride, and on that score I highly recommend it.

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"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