Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing Black Doves; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Detective Hole; Dexter: Resurrection; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; Memory of a Killer; MobLand; Outlander; Paradise; Presumed Innocent; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Smoke; Star City; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Tehran;The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, 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 Mandy Patinkin. Show all posts

Monday, April 20, 2020

Homeland 8.11: Kill Saul

My title for the review of Homeland 8.11 - the penultimate episode in the series - almost sounds like something out of combination of Homeland and Killing Eve, which I'll also be watching later tonight, and reviewing here even later tonight or tomorrow. But it's not. It's pretty much the last thing Yevgeny says to Carrie - even if it isn't, it burns out anything he says after - as she receives her marching orders about what she needs to do get back the black (red) box, for the purpose of stopping a nuclear war.

Pretty high stakes. But I don't think Carrie will do it. In fact, I think there's no way she'll do it. So here are some possible ways out of this, for Carrie (because I don't think the series will end with a nuclear war):

Saul kills himself, as a way doing what Yevgeny wants, but getting Carrie off the hook. Nah, I don't think this will happen, either. Saul won't do this, if only to protect his asset, not to mention that I don't think he's the suicidal type, for any reason, however noble.
Yevgeny backs down. Don't think this will happen, either. He's shown himself to be ruthless, almost beyond belief.
Saul figures out what's going on. He and the asset, with Carrie's help, figure out how to get the fight recorder back, despite Yevgeny's opposition. This seems to me to be the most likely. But I'm an incurable optimist.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens next week. In the meantime, I really like Saul cursing his head off at the UN - hats off to Mandy Patinkin for a standout performance tonight - and young Saul put in a pretty fine performance (the character and the actor, whose name I'd mention here but there's no one identified as "Young Saul" in the credits - thanks Showtime - I have seen it suggested that maybe Patinkin was de-aged ala The Irishman - but a little research done by my wife reveals that Ben Savage played this part). Anyway, what I was saying? Yeah, that Saul was outstanding tonight, in his older and younger selves. (My wife did some more research and discovered that Savage played a young Jason Gideon in Criminal Minds back around 2014 - the older character was played by Patinkin.)

Ok, enough about Savage. See you here after next week's series finale.

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

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Homeland 4.10: The List

Homeland 4.10 continues the best season of the series, which has been superb indeed, especially in the last half dozen episodes.

The big question tonight is whether Lockhart - former Senator, now CIA Director - was right to give up the list of CIA assets, which, in Haqqani's hands, will cripple to eradicate US cover operations in the area. Before we judge Lockhart too quickly, it must be noted that he was putting his own life at risk, and likely death. Also, it was Haqqani's response to receipt of the list, in particular his spiteful knifing of Fara - to punish her, I suppose, for betraying her people in Haqqani's eyes - that galvanized Quinn into attacking and wounding Haqqani, a development that may yet prove Haqqani's undoing. And, a few of our people, who would have been systematically killed if Lockhart hadn't provided the list, managed to survive.

Still - had it not been for Quinn, everyone inside and outside the locked room, including the Ambassador, likely would have been killed or at least taken hostage by Haqqani, due to Lockhart's opening the door. So, I guess, on balance, he was wrong. But Carrie was right when she later tells him it was a tough call.

Meanwhile Quinn, who's always a great character, really was outstanding tonight, to the point of being my favorite character in the series. I can't quite say the same for Saul. Although he came back into his own during the actual battle in the street, I'm surprised he left Carrie at the end to travel back to the U.S. He's damaged, I know, but I'm hoping maybe he'll reconsider next week. Brilliant acting by Mandy Patinkin, by the way - the best he's given in the entire series.

As events continue spiralling more wilding out of control in Pakistan, Homeland is spinning up into the best it's ever been, which is one memorable piece of television drama indeed.

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

#SFWApro #SHO_Homeland

different kind of espionage

Monday, November 24, 2014

Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It

Alfred Hitchcock said he preferred suspense to surprise in his stories - surprise being a bomb explodes out of nowhere on a bus, suspense being we see the bomb ticking with the passengers talking unaware on the bus. Homeland 4.9 had both bases covered, in one of its all-time best episodes - something I've been saying about a lot of Homeland's episodes of late.

The suspense came with the prisoner exchange for Saul, and the events leading up to that. Carrie suspected there was something more going on. We thought it was the boy with the suicide vest, but Carrie, in one of her best scenes, was able to overcome both that and Saul's desire to end his own life.

But there had to be something even more. And, as emotionally wrung out as everyone on both sides of the screen were after Saul's release, the last thing we expected, which made perfect sense in retrospect, was the attack on Saul's convoy of cars. And, the kicker, was that this, too, was just prelude, to Haqqani attacking our embassy, as Marines left it to go see what happened to Saul and Carrie.

Both are highly likely to have survived the blast - not because the blast was not strong enough to kill them, but because Homeland is not likely to end Carrie or Saul's life, at this point. Well, maybe Saul's - and that would be a kick in the stomach indeed, if he died after all of this - but, as I've saying in previous reviews, Mandy Patinkin is unlikely to leave yet another hit show.

Still, he could well be out of commission for the rest of this season. Carrie, on the other hand, is not likely, somehow, to even be badly hurt. But that other guy in the CIA, who was in the car, and was the first agent to question the ambassador's husband, well, he could end up dead. I actually hope not, because he is/was a pretty solid character.

But the reinvention of Homeland after the death of Brody continues apace and has proceeded so well that I'm not likely to even mention Brody again. Homeland is a better show, a much better show in many ways, than it was the first three seasons. The potent mix of suspense and surprise has never been better - and, indeed, has been achieved on this level only in the best seasons of 24. In my book, that's high praise indeed.

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

#SFWApro #SHO_Homeland

different kind of espionage

Monday, November 17, 2014

Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life

Homeland 4.8 tonight was about as good as an hour of espionage on cable TV gets these days, which is good indeed - as good or better than what we've come to expect in the best espionage movies.

There were two central stories tonight, somewhat separate but always intertwining as is the case with Homeland.

One is Saul. He escapes his capture in a great series of sequences, only to find himself on the verge of recapture at the rendezvous point. He tells Carrie he wants to die rather being recaptured and used as a pawn. And Carrie lies to him, tells him she's guiding him to safety, when she's really guiding him to recapture, because there's no hope of his escaping, and she'd rather have him alive and captive than dead.

Now, television being what it is, it seemed highly unlikely that Saul would die and Mandy Patinkin leave another series. But the story was done so well that I was close to thinking maybe we would see Saul's death, anyway. And, for all we know, we may see it yet. That's a measure of how good the episode was tonight.

But was Carrie right to save Saul's life? She feels guilty about it, but Quinn and I have no doubt that she was right. Had she forsaken Saul in the bombing of Haqqani, at least Haqqani would have been dead, too. But letting Saul die tonight served no greater purpose, other than robbing the terrorists of their negotiating card, which could lead to the release of other terrorists. But Saul is also a great asset on our side, and Carrie and Quinn might yet figure out a way to get Saul back without giving Haqqani everything that he wants. So, yeah, Carrie was right to do what she did tonight.

The other big story also concerns Carrie - and Khan. Turns out he's not a bad guy at all. Not only did he have nothing to do with Carrie's drugging, but he helped her, and at the end of the episode gives our side the best break it's gotten in a good while: identification of the American ambassador's treacherous husband. It was good to see Carrie, back in good form after her drugging, use Khan's attraction to her to make the political alliance with him.

This is a game changer, and it will be fun to see how it plays out in the remaining episodes. If I had to bet, I'd say at least Saul (and of course Carrie) will survive.

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

#SFWApro #SHO_Homeland

different kind of espionage

Monday, November 3, 2014

Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal

Some shockers in Homeland 4.6 tonight, but in many ways the biggest - the one with most far-reaching significance for our story - is the realization that the brunette Pakistani operative, whom I think of as Carrie's counterpart, is really working not for Pakistani intelligence but the terrorist Haqqani that Carrie wants to kill. Or, maybe she is working for Pakistani intelligence, but she's also working for the terrorist.

And, this, in turn, means that the professor being blackmailed by the brunette is also, unknowingly, working for Haqqani, too. Aayan's Uncle killing Aayan, though brutal and horrifying, is just the tip of this destructive iceberg.

Carrie was presumably so furious at Haqqani shooting his nephew in the head that she was willing to take out Saul along with Haqqani - that's, at least, what Quinn probably thinks, and maybe what we're supposed to think, too. But I think Carrie is better than that, and, though she hated to see her handiwork ruined like that, was focused as she was saying on ridding the world of Haqqani, whatever it took, including killing Saul. After all, she was ready to take out Aayan along with Haqqani, so Haqqani's killing Aayan could not have rattled her all that much.

I think Saul, had he been in Carrie's situation, would have ordered the hit. In fact, if I recall correctly, didn't he do something like that last season, when he ordered Quinn to stop Carrie, and only Quinn's superb aim prevented Carrie from being killed? Well, maybe Saul was banking on that, but he certainly was willing to put Carrie's life in imminent mortal danger.

Of course, television being what it is, there was no way that Saul could have been killed tonight. Mandy Patinkin is too important an actor to leave yet another hit series, especially without warning, so you had to have the guy with his finger on drone trigger listening to Quinn and not Carrie. But the last few minutes of this excellent episode put almost everything up in the harrowing air, and continued to mark this season of Homeland as one of its best.

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

#SFWApro #SHO_Homeland

different kind of espionage

Monday, December 2, 2013

Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die

Another powerful, action-packed episode of Homeland last night - 3.10 - which has really hit its stride, as well it needed to finally do, with only two further episodes left this season.

The mission with Brody trying to infiltrate Iran was outstanding in all kinds of ways, including who dies at the end of the episode, and Brody's interaction with the team, which includes some first-class military repartee between Brody and various personnel.

The scene back home in the U.S. was good too, with Saul standing up to pressures to forsake the team when things start turning bad. I'm still not getting or liking why he's set to leave when all of this is resolved - that is, his plan in Iran plays out, one hopes for the better - but there's still time for all of that to be worked out in the next two episodes. I was heartened to hear Quinn's explanation for why he shot Carrie - better him, a more reliable shot as far as doing Carrie the least damage, which Carrie partly accepts, as indeed she should (that is, only partly - because Quinn should have put up more resistance).

But the big looming question is who will die in the last two episodes of this season. I'm thinking someone has to, and the most likely is Brody. There would be a poetry in his death on this mission, and it would set the show loose to pursue other issues and dangers next year. It would leave Carrie grieving, but perhaps not inconsolably - especially if she's not carrying his baby.

She says she's not to Quinn, but can we believe her? We saw her with another guy earlier this season, which could have been shown to us to let us know that she has not been celibate since Brody left the US. But would she sleep with someone else so close after Brody's departure? I'd say not likely, but you never know.

Carrie herself could die - given that we see her in Iran in the coming attractions - but her death would take the heart of Homeland. The show could survive Saul's death a little better, buy Mandy Patinkin has told the world how much he loves the part of Saul - a feint to throw us off? It could also somehow be Quinn who dies, but he's not quite an important enough character for his death to have the requisite shock value.

If I had to bet, my money would be Brody not seeing the next season, but we'll just have to see in the next two weeks.

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

#SFWApro #SHO_Homeland

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Fringe Evita

There was no Fringe to see tonight, so my wife and I went to see September - aka Michael Cerveris - in the next-last-evening in the fine Broadway revival of Evita. Our daughter, who is not a Fringe fan, bought us the tickets - because she knows my wife and I love Evita. I'd say it's one of best musicals ever on Broadway, one of the best plays, period, on a par with with works of Shakespeare and the ancient Greeks. I've used Evita and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" in my graduate courses in Propaganda. The Fringe connection was thus icing on the cake, and a superb icing it was. September lives on in Evita - for at least one more night.

Ricky Martin as Che was the headliner, and he was fabulous tonight. Not quite as wise as Mandy Patinkin's Che in the original Evita - which we saw back in 1979 - but he more than made up for it in style, voice, sass, and dance, and was better than Antonio Banderas in the movie. Elena Roger as Evita did not sing as electrifyingly as Patti LuPone in the original or as well as Madonna in the movie, but she did offer a compelling interpretation, especially her "New Argentina" rendition, which was part rabble-rousing speech and part song.

Cerveris was the best Juan Peron I've seen. The Peron in the original music was so unremarkable I can barely remember him and his performance. Jonathan Pryce was better in the movie. But Cerveris, much as he did in Fringe, commanded the stage every time he was on it in Evita, making Peron more of a partner than a supporting character in the story.

There's something about Fringe that seems to connect to the theater. My wife and I saw Joshua Jackson and Patrick Stewart - in retrospect, Peter meets Picard - on the stage in London in 2005 in "A Life in the Theater". Let me know if you hear about Walter or Olivia in any Broadway shows, and we'll be there.

See also Fringe 5.1: Paved Park and Shattered Memories ... Fringe 5.2: Saving Our Humanity ...Fringe 5.4: Ghosts of Fringes Past ... Fringe 5.5: "You Don't Even Know What You Don't Know ... Fringe 5.6: "Dad" ... Fringe 5.7: Father and Son ... Fringe 5.8: Love Triumphant ...Fringe 5.9: The Boy Observer in the Age of Aquarius ... Fringe 5.10: Montage Revelation ... Fringe 5.11: September with Hair ... Fringe Finale: A Review

See also Fringe Returns for Season 4: Almost with Peter ... Fringe 4.2: Better and Worse Selves... Fringe 4.3: Sanity and Son ... Fringe 4.4: Peter's Back, Ectoplasm, and McLuhan ... Fringe 4.5: Double Return ... Fringe 4.6: Time Slips ... Fringe 4.7: The Invisible Man ... Fringe 4.8: The Ramifications of Transformed Alternate Realities ... Fringe 4.9: Elizabeth ... Fringe 4.10: Deceit and Future Vision ... Fringe 4.11: Alternate Astrid ... Fringe 4.12: Double Westfield / Single Olivia... Fringe 4.13: Tea and Telepathy ... Fringe 4.14: Palimpsest ... Fringe 4.15: I Knew It! ... Fringe 4.16: Walter Likes Yiddish ... Fringe 4.17: Second Chances ... Fringe 4.18: Broyled on Both Sides ... Future Fringe 4.19 ... Fringe 4.20: Bridge ... Fringe 4.21: Shocks ... Fringe Season 4 Finale: Death and Life

See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron ... Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale 1 of 3 ... Fringe 3.21: Ben Frankin, Rimbaldi, and the Future ...Fringe Season 3 Finale: Here's What Happened ... Death Not Death in Fringe

See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ... New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22: Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch

See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ...17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ...Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best

"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

"A thinking person's time travel story... I felt like I was there." - SF Signal

"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!