Mindhunter: Best of its Kind

Imagine Criminal Minds - which my wife and I watched a lot of, but stopped, a year or two ago - as you might have wanted it to be: sharper intellectual focus, honest language, real serial killers, deeper character development, nudity when called for but actually no scenes of torture or murder - and you have Mindhunter, a 10-episode season (which I hope is the first) on Netflix.  In other words, a show about the BAU, but at its inception in the late 1970s, and unencumbered by the limitations and ticks of network TV.

Mindhunter is produced by House of Cards producer David Fincher, and unsurprisingly has such deft touches as subtitles when a couple are having a key conversation in a noisy bar, and the first mention I've ever heard (twice in Mindhunter) of Erving Goffman, a pathbreaking sociologist from the 1950s and 1960s who talked about the masks we all wear, and the difference between the front and back regions of our personas, or what we show to the world at large versus what we keep private to our families or closest relationships.

That high intellectual octane animates this whole series, and is brought to life by standout performances by Jonathan Groff as the young FBI agent Holden Ford trying to establish a science of understanding and even predicting psychos and sociopaths, and his older partner Bill Tench, played by Holt McCallany (Lights Out!), who pretty much supports what Holden is trying to do but is not entirely comfortable with his methods.   In this battle to establish a new, more effective, scientifically grounded method of identifying and stopping serial killers, Mindhunter also bears strong resemblances to the recently aired and excellent Manhunt: Unabomber series (and there's a lot of Jim Fitzgerald who in reality broke the Unabomber case in the fictional Holden Ford), and even a little of Masters of Sex, which I was sorry to see cancelled.

As a special treat, Mindhunter has Fringe's Anna Torv as a sociologist who joins the team.  She provides one of the Goffman references, and Holden's girlfriend, well-played by Hannah Gross, doing graduate work in sociology, offers the other.  The serial killers, ranging from Richard Speck to Edmund Kemper, are truly chilling, and we get all this with words, not scenes of their horrific actions.

An old friend, photographer Emon Hassan, strongly recommended this series.  I'm doing to same to all of you.

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

Humans 2.4: Android Orgasms

Humans 2.4 offered two new threads to the intricately woven story this year.

Actually, the first was not a thread, but a perspective on the entire fabric of the season.  This year, far more than last year, we're getting a wide and vibrantly populated diversity in the kinds of synths we're seeing, one which goes well beyond the sentient self-aware and slave-to-programming distinction we saw in the first season.  Among those who are self aware, we have not only those who were secretly programmed to be that way, but synths who were turned from automata into self-aware either by Niska's globally transmitted virus (Hester) or by Mattie's direct application (Odi).  And we have Athena's plan, which I discussed last week, to transfer an already-existing human mind into a synth.  When we add these new actualities and possibilities to the range of sentient synth personalities we already saw last season, we get a rich tapestry of synthetic personality indeed - one which moves closer, of course, to the diversity of human life.

The other thread is an insight into how at least one synth experiences a very fundamental human activity - orgasm.  Ed wants to know how Mia enjoyed their first sexual encounter, which was great for him.   The most that she can say, other than that she liked it, is that it gave her a sense of "proximity".  This raises a bunch of important questions.  Did she in fact have an organism, but doesn't know how to describe it, or doesn't even have a word for it?  If not, is that because this was her first experience, which means that, with time and practice, she'll indeed come, in the good old-fashioned human way?  Or is it the case that she and all the sentient synths just don't have the hormonal formula needed have an organism?

Last week, Athena told her synth mind-in-a-desktop that she needed a body because she was "young". That was a good answer, but doesn't yet tell us what sentient androids are capable of doing. If I remember correctly, Niska in the first episode of this season didn't exactly go wild with pleasure when she was in bed with Astrid.   If time travel could be worked into this story, it would be fun to see Masters and Johnson called in for an observation.

See also Humans 2.1: Westworld meets Nashville ... Humans 2.2: The Consciousness Code ... Humans 2.3: Motives and Uploads


And see also Humans: In Ascending Order ... Humans 1.7: "I Think You're Dead, George"

Hey - if you're in the New York area, I'll be talking about Humans at HELIOsphere this Saturday and Sunday!

Masters of Sex Season 4 Finale: Together at Last

Well, it was nice to see the ending of the Season 4 finale of Masters of Sex last Sunday - which, in case you didn't know, featured Masters and Johnson together at last as man and wife.

This of course is no surprise, since in the real history upon which this series is based - but doesn't always adhere to - Masters and Johnson were, in fact, married.   In the series, it took long enough for the two to get there, and this made the ending satisfying in a long overdue way.

But in many ways, the Art and Nancy story was more compelling, and certainly more surprising, since the couple, as far as I know, are fictitious.  Their relationship - to Masters and Johnson - but, more important, to themselves - provided one of the most vivid tableaus on television of a couple who know each other very well, but not well enough, and in the end founder on about as fundamental a difference in a couple you could find.

Their ending was heartbreaking in a way that nothing between Masters and Johnson, certainly this season, has been, and not much on previous seasons, either.  Kudos to Betty Gilpin and Jeremy Strong each for quietly fabulous and deeply memorable performances.

Looking forward to next season, it will be fun to see Masters and Johnson and their life together, not only outside of the lab, but publicly together, under one roof, in a way we haven't seen them. Meeting in smoky places (one of my favorite songs from the early 1960s - actually, of all time, though I'm not sure why) and in hotel rooms can get tedious (not the song - see below for the video), and there are no doubt great scenes in store in the story ahead for this couple.

It will also be good to see how their pioneering work fares in the 1970s - which, come to think of it, was when I first became admiringly aware of their work.   In any case, here's a tip of the hat to those smoky places.

See also Masters of Sex 4.3: Hugh Hefner and Sammy Davis, Jr. ... Masters of Sex 4.8: "I Love You"

And see also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book ... Masters of Sex 3.3: The Bookstore ... Masters of Sex 3.7: Going Ape ... Masters of Sex 3.9: Calling Hugh Hefner ... Masters of Sex Season 3 Finale: Cliffhanger

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Masters of Sex 4.8: "I Love You"

Tender isn't a word you'd usually use to describe an episode of Masters of Sex. But what Virginia softly said to Bill, almost mouthed, astride him after they'd just made love for the first time in a long time - "I love you" - was one of the most tender moments I've seen on any television series for a long time, too.

What it took to get there was far from tender.  Virginia has been trying to work her way back into Bill's heart and arms all season.  She realizes how much she hurt him - she of all people would know that - but couldn't seem to find the right combination of circumstances to help this reunion happen.

In the end, it took the two of them going under cover as a couple who needed sex therapy, a very convincing guise seeing as how they needed just that in their real lives.  Even then, Bill didn't want to perform with Virginia as part of the ruse.   She had to say "it's only sex" to Bill, to get him to not only have sex with her, but make love to her, too.

The unlocking of emotions at this tender moment was beautifully played.  The therapists on the other side of the glass, of course, had no idea what they were seeing.  They congratulate themselves on providing the circumstances for their patients - Bill and Virginia in disguise - to have had a successful sexual experience, but they have no idea what they're really seeing.

We the audience do.  Bill and Virginia belong together.  They have every reason to be together, in all ways, as Virginia has come to realize this season, and as Bill may now be finally beginning to realize, too.

The course of true love never did run smooth, especially when it comes to pathbreaking researchers into the libido, who have been from the beginning their own very best subjects.

See also Masters of Sex 4.3: Hugh Hefner and Sammy Davis, Jr.

And see also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book ... Masters of Sex 3.3: The Bookstore ... Masters of Sex 3.7: Going Ape ... Masters of Sex 3.9: Calling Hugh Hefner ... Masters of Sex Season 3 Finale: Cliffhanger

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Masters of Sex 4.3: Hugh Hefner and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Masters of Sex is back in good form in its 4th season, with an episode - 4.3 - that featured not only Hugh Hefner but Sammy Davis, Jr. in the intro.

Hugh Hefner and the scenes at his mansion have been the best parts of this new season so far.  First, the guy who plays him - John Gleeson Connolly - looks and sounds almost 100% like the Hef we remember.   But his role in this Masters of Sex story is great, encouraging Masters and Johnson to be a couple.   At this point, the coupling is professional.   But Hef and we know that there is much more in store - not to mention what we've seen with our own eyes in previous seasons - and Hugh Hefner is therefore playing the role of the matchmaker, the guardian angel, of what we and history know to be right.

Sammy Davis, Jr. has played no major or even minor role in the overall story so far, but he was a treat to see and hear in Sunday's episode, in an appearance made al the more enjoyable because Sammy was played by The Wire's inimitable Andre Royo.

Meanwhile, the overall rest of the story so far is appealing, and slowly gathering a full head of steam. Mad Men's Rich Sommer (whom I interviewed on my podcast years ago when Mad Men was young) was good to see as a husband with a problem in earlier episodes this season. But the most explosive development so far came from another couple and the wife on Sunday who wanted her husband to be a little more rough in their love-making.  He gives every indication that that's just not in him - until he erupts in violence that brings Masters and his assistant running into the room to stop the action.

The assistants threads - Masters and Johnson each have one, as per their agreement - has possibilities, but their being married, secretly at first, now revealed, is a bit contrived.   But that's ok, as long as the Masters and Johnson story progresses on its rocky road, which I'm eager to see.


See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book ... Masters of Sex 3.3: The Bookstore ... Masters of Sex 3.7: Going Ape ... Masters of Sex 3.9: Calling Hugh Hefner ... Masters of Sex Season 3 Finale: Cliffhanger

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Masters of Sex Season 3 Finale: Cliffhanger

Masters of Sex concluded its third season with a real cliffhanger last night, almost reminiscent of the last scene at the airport with Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.   Except Bill never quite makes it to the airport to intercept Virginia.

But the question is whether his profession of true love to her, earlier in the evening, will prevent her at the last minute from taking off in the plane with the perfume guy.   She's certainly thinking about it, looking over her shoulder, and she could well fly back from Mexico before she makes the mistake of marrying Logan.

It would certainly be a mistake, historically, because the facts of this story have Virginia not marrying the guy she had an affair with for years - an older man, presumably the basis of Logan - and in fact marrying Bill in 1971.

But that's a little in the future in our story on television, which leaves everything a bit up in the air.  As I've been saying all season, the advisory at the end explicitly says that kids' part of the narrative is fictitious, but that raises the question of what else is divergent from history in this powerful series.

If the kids are a fiction, then presumably the real Masters was never brought up on charges because of his son, but he and his wife did get divorced before he married Virginia.   The mixture of fact and fiction is an issue of every docudrama ever made, but it has been especially prominent this year in Masters of Sex.

In any case, it was a good season, if only because Bill and Virginia were so unlike their selves in earlier seasons, and, as the saying goes, if some of that is not true to history, who cares, it's still a good story.


See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book ... Masters of Sex 3.3: The Bookstore ... Masters of Sex 3.7: Going Ape ... Masters of Sex 3.9: Calling Hugh Hefner 

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Masters of Sex 3.9: Calling Hugh Hefner

The last two episodes of Masters of Sex have been pretty good, but there were at least two things that annoyed me.

First, in episode 3.8 last week, there's talk about not drinking if you're pregnant. This is 1966, and at least 15-20 years before that limitation became common practice.  This follows the talk, in episode 3.7, of humans and apes being almost 99% the same - another anachronism, said on the show decades ahead of its time.

But in both episodes 3.8 and 3.9, and especially last night's 3.9, I'm finding it hard to believer that Virginia is falling so hard for perfume-exec Dan Logan.  He's well enough played by The Good Wife's Josh Charles, and the weekend fling in 3.8 made some sense, but Virginia's falling in love with him in 3.9 and out of love with poor Bill doesn't add up.

Yes, she's had her frustrations with Bill, but these have been there all along, but if anything Bill recently has been far more considerate of her than he's been in the past.  Yes, his attempts at finding out what's wrong are lame, but this is also nothing new, and no reason why Virginia should suddenly be pulling away emotionally and faking orgasms with Bill.

And Dan Logan just isn't that good.  He's bright enough, and more attentive than Bill, but he's no Bill, not by a long shot.  One of the problems with Masters of Sex is that we don't know where the real history leaves off and the fiction begins.  We've been told that the narratives involving the children are all fictitious, but was Virginia really involved with this perfume guy or someone like him?  (See this little essay in Bustle, which says that Logan is indeed based on a real person - if so, then I guess the truth of history is stranger than fiction in this case.)

Virginia aptly tells Bill that Logan was his choice to bring into their work, and that she wanted Playboy's Hugh Hefner.   Him I could believe Virginia would fall for, or at least get addicted to having sex with.

See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book ... Masters of Sex 3.3: The Bookstore ... Masters of Sex 3.7: Going Ape

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Masters of Sex 3.7: Going Ape

An hilarious Masters of Sex 3.7 last night - an outrightly laughing out loud episode in many parts - in which Virginia must use not only her savvy as a psychologist of sex but her feminine charms, literally, to motivate Gil the gorilla to do his thing at the zoo.

Simon & Garfunkel sang it's all happening "At the Zoo," but it wasn't happening for Gil, who sadly, just couldn't make it, and Masters and Johnson are tasked to find out why, and put in a cure, if possible.   The key, it turns out, is a woman who used to work at the zoo, and talked endearingly to Gil as prelude to his foreplay.   But the talk wasn't the thing - it was her copious bosom that ignited Gil, and Virginia needs to bare hers to get Gil right again.

That's about where the humor ends.   Virginia's not pleased about what she had to do, Bill is not very sympathetic, but that perfume guy is, and the result is she's drawn closer to him, and with the result that now much more than a bosom is shared, and with increasing frequency.

There was also was an anachronism is this story line - a rare kind of mistake for Masters of Sex - which occurs when Virginia observes that gorillas are  almost "99%" like humans.   That's based on genomic analysis - the Human Genome Project, in particular - which didn't take place until 1990-2003, and in fact the human-great ape comparison wasn't revealed until the end of the project.   True, DNA itself was discovered back in the 1950s, but no one in the 1960s knew the degree of similarity between ape and human genomes.

Hey, it's tough to get things right, and the main reason I know about this is the research I did for my first novel, The Silk Code.   And the error didn't really hurt the story.

What does hurt - not the story, but Bill, and is a powerful marker for potential damage - is when his son partially burns one of Bill's prized football cards.  I almost don't want to see Bill's rage when he discovers that, but of course will be watching the excellent series with rapt attention.

See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book ... Masters of Sex 3.3: The Bookstore

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Masters of Sex 3.4: The Bookstore

One of the pleasures of Masters of Sex for me this season is to see how well - both seriously and comically - Masters and Johnson's excursion in publishing has depicted.   I have no idea if the two actually went through these experiences - actually, it's Masters who's leading the charge on this - but the point is that the experiences are valid and instantly recognizable to any published author who's not comatose.

In episode 3.4, we find Masters wrangling with a bookstore displaying his and Johnson's book.  In days gone by, many's the time you'd find me haunting a Barnes and Noble or a Borders - an activity no longer as fruitful or even necessary with Amazon on the rise, which I otherwise am undilutedly happy about.  But back in the day, I'd check out the sections in the bookstore with my books, and occasionally even stoop to "fronting" one - that is, turning the cover face out, so the browser would see the great art work, and have more to go by than just the spine. One of my peak experiences was actually seeing a customer pick out my novel - it was The Silk Code - then go up to the cashier and buy it!  It had a great cover, but, come to think of it, it was spine out on that occasion.

Masters is under pressure from his traditional publisher to move more copies of his book if he wants to see a second edition.  This portrayal of traditional publishing is spot on.   Maybe William Henry Appleton, a leading character in my Plot to Save Socrates trilogy, cared more about quality than money for his Appleton's press in the 19th century, but he cared about money, too, and in the twentieth century there was decreasing difference between a shoe manufacturer and a book publisher, as far as moving products.  Masters is hoping a little book tour might help.  Johnson resists for personal reasons - she's wanting to stay close to her family - but she's right about the waste of time of most book tours, anyway.  They may boost the author's ego, but usually not sales, or at least not enough sales to justify the effort.

Books play another role in this episode, which finds Masters obsessively reading How to Win Friends and Influence People.  What comes out of this is a fur coat for Johnson - which Masters' wife unfortunately sees - and a dinner invitation, which seems to herald a new tenderness from Masters to Johnson.

Much enjoying this season.   More soon.

See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book

 
"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell"
-Curled Up with a Good Book 

#SFWApro


my first novel

Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book

Well, you couldn't ask for better timing.  A week after the deal is announced that will stop Iran's development of nuclear weapons, we get episode 3.2 of Masters of Sex which features Masters treating the Shah and his wife for fertility problems back in the 1960s.

That treatment was not successful, but, as we discovered in last week's episode, Johnson is pregnant. Not with Masters' baby - as far as we know - but with George's, her ex-husband's.  The episode plays nicely with George as the father of Johnson's baby, and Masters as the co-creator of something wonderful with Johnson, their book.

In fact, this analogy is the focus of what Masters tells Johnson shortly before her delivery, when she worries about her lack of mothering ability. You and I produced a baby, our book, and look how good that came out, Masters tells her.   This analogy affords Masters the chance to be as decent and caring as ever we've seen him so far with Johnson.

And when Johnson has the baby, Masters has decency to leave the waiting room to George.  And he goes - to the bookstore with its display of his and Johnson's book, their baby, which he no doubt thinks will live forever, as do most authors about their work.

And here we are proving him right, in 2015, as we watch this Showtime series, based on Thomas Maier's book.   Well, 2015 is a lot less than forever, but it's still a long way from the 1960s, and the book and the story of Masters and Johnson certainly survived their lifetimes.

As for the Shah, he didn't.  Nor did his regime, which he sought to safeguard by producing an heir.   But what really beat his short dynasty in the end was not a baby or lack of, but a book.  The Koran. The power of the book indeed.

See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ... Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves

 
"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell"
-Curled Up with a Good Book 

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Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves

Hey, I thought it was long since time for me to start reviewing Masters of Sex on Showtime, seeing as how I've been enjoying the first two seasons so much, and last night's debut of season three was a great place to start.

First, it's important to keep in mind what that little advisory on the screen at the end says - that the children depicted in the series, the children that Masters and Johnson have from their separate marriages, are fictitious.  In reality, Masters and Johnson did have children from their prior marriages, but not the ones seen in the series, and in all likelihood not participants in the powerful scenes we saw last night.

Indeed, as often happens in docudrama, these were the best scenes in the show - Johnson's daughter, drunk and partly undressed, kissing a surprised Johnson, whose son see this, and proceeds to curse out his father and throw his precious manuscript up in the air at the edge of the water.

The single-minded devotion that authors have for their galley manuscripts - the first embodiment of their written work beyond the pages they typed or (going back centuries) penned - is, however, a fundamental truth to which every author including me can attest.  We just returned from seven splendid weeks on Cape Cod, where I've been going for parts or all of summers since 1982, and many were the times I'd be slaving over galleys, cursing and correcting errors usually made by the typesetter, while the family was frolicking down on the beach.  Fortunately, this summer I was writing a new novella, not reading galleys, and if that sounds like much more fun, it is, certainly for me, and I suspect for most authors.

Masters of Sex last night captured that role of galleys in Master's life just perfectly, though he has mixed feelings about a lot of what he does, business as well as pleasure, as does Johnson.  But as the narrative moves into the mid-60s, both are looking better, fed by the recognition of their pathbreaking brilliance that's beginning to come in, and moving towards their own marriage which our history records as happening in 1971.

And I'll be back here well before then with more off-the-cuff commentary.

See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life

 
"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell"
-Curled Up with a Good Book 

#SFWApro

Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life

I had the pleasure of seeing Thomas Maier - author of the Masters of Sex biography upon which the Showtime drama of the same name is based - interviewed at Fordham University tonight.  This is becoming a delightful and informative regular occurrence here at Fordram - interviews of people behind great contemporary television - and thanks go to my colleague Beth Knobel, who several weeks ago arranged for House of Cards creator Beau Willimon and tonight Thomas Maier  (a Fordham alumnus - it was also great to see some of my former students at this event) at our Lincoln Center Campus.  Thanks as well to our Department's Artist-in-Residence Jim Jennewein, who twice conducted excellent interviews - i.e., interviews that  allowed their subjects to really expound upon significant facets of their work.

Let me say, right up front, that my wife and I are devoted fans of the Showtime series, set to begin its third season this July, even though I haven't reviewed it here or anywhere.   Why not, if I like it so much?   Good question and I'm not sure sure of the answer.  It's almost and maybe that I like Masters of Sex a little too much to focus on reviewing it, though loving a series hasn't stopped me from copiously reviewing Dexter, Homeland, Ray Donovan, The Affair, and other notable Showtime shows.  But something about Masters of Sex has bid me so far to keep it a guilty pleasure.  Hey, maybe it's the sex - but who really knows, I'm after all no Freud.

Speaking of whom, Maier's description of the real Virginia Johnson really struck me - "Freud meets Ava Gardner".  In other words,  Lizzy Caplan's excellent portrayal of Johnson is visually as well as emotionally and intellectually on target - something you can't always say about portrayals of real characters, in which the performance can be much more compelling than the original.

Maier's description of the real William Masters also rang true.  As we've seen in the series, Masters portrayed by the masterful Michael Sheen was not happy or comfortable with publicity.   The real Masters, Maier mentioned, would likely have done everything in his power to squelch the series and not cooperate with Maier's biography before it

But my favorite moment in the interview came in Maier's response to a question about how it felt to see his words come to life on television, when he spends most of his time writing them for print on paper and screens. Maier said he loved it!   This was a great corrective to something one of my science fiction editors had told me, years ago, about the "soul deadening" impact of Hollywood on a writer.   There's nothing like hearing an assessment such as Thomas Maier's - from someone who's been there, done it, and finds it one of the glorious experiences of his life.

See also Beau Willimon at Fordham

Manhattan Romance: Woody Allen Rebooted

If Woody Allen were in his late twenties or early thirties and made a movie today, it would be a lot like Manhattan Romance.   And, in fact, Woody Allen is mentioned early in the movie, and Tom O'Brien, who is about that age, wrote, produced, directed, and stars in Manhattan Romance - which is a delightfully sage movie, and better than some of Woody Allen's recent efforts.

Danny - played by O'Brien - is making a documentary about love in Manhattan in this day and digital age, but the main story is what happens off the screen of the documentary, in the real lives of Danny and women who are in the documentary.   Two women in particular play major roles in Danny's off-camera life.   Beautiful, new-agey Theresa, well played by Caitlin FitzGerald - seen to good effect the last couple of years as the alternately suffering and liberated wife of Dr. Masters in Masters of Sex on Showtime - is desired by Danny, who gets little more than a hug and a chance to give Theresa a massage with happy endings for no one.  In true Woody Allen fashion, Danny's take away from this relationship is frustration.

That would be ok, since we soon come to realize that Danny loves someone else - Carla, zestfully played by Katherine Waterston, who was on the screen in Boardwalk Empire last season.   But Carla, though she feels something for Danny, has opted to be with a woman.   And even though we see clearly from the outset that that relationship isn't working so well, there's no dividend for Danny.   He spends most of a night together with Carla in bed, but all that happens is good talk and sleep.

All of this is situated in a great, pulsating New York ambience, in which memorable characters make brief appearances, and there's even a little jazz in the air.   The guy Theresa is sleeping with - she's not against sex, just apparently sex with Danny - is a fount of lay-back aphorisms, or afflicted with "spiritual Tourettes," as Danny aptly puts it in one of the many good lines in the movie.   Zach Grenier, of Good Wife fame, plays Danny's mother's husband, and delivers a suitably zany, stoned performance at a wedding.

The movie ends with a great meta-piece about the nature of endings - in stories and realities - and I won't tell you more than that, lest I spoil the ending of that ending for you.   The movie premieres at the Big Apple Film Festival this Wednesday.   See it if you've ever wondered how the genre Woody Allen created half a century ago would play on the screen if it was almost brand new today.

The Bridge 2.4: Marco Redeemed and Mr. Writ Large

Well, Marco didn't really have to be redeemed.   There was no way he would have ultimately sided with Fausto in the complex web in which he found himself.   Yes, he owes Fausto, but he owes more to his profession and even to the El Paso police who, while no angels, are truer to the profession than his own Capitan Robles in Juarez.  And so it was not surprising, but nonetheless satisfying, to see him commit to Prosector Pintado before the end of the 4th episode.

Meanwhile, Sonya continues her development as one of the most compellingly peculiar cops on television.   But what makes her so compelling and odd is not her police work, but her personal life as a woman whose sister was murdered.  She wants some sort of closure on this trauma, and understandably reacts when the killer dies.   But she continues to sleep with the killer's brother, which is certainly giving a lot to maintain contact with whatever is left of the killer, and apparently enjoys it, including the rough sex she initiates.  Asking the brother of the man who killed your sister to choke you during sex -- that's far more unsettlingly grey than fifty shades.

Speaking of grey, John Billingsley starred in just about every episode of Intelligence on CBS this year, including one called "The Grey Hat," before the series was unfortunately cancelled (I liked it, it was a good series).  He only made it to the 4th episode of The Bridge, in which he blows his brains out as Mr. DeLarge.  He has some upcoming appearances in the popular Masters of Sex, which I'll be watching carefully to see if Mr. Mortality Writ Large survives.

The continuing characters most involved in DeLarge's death, so far, are the pair of reporters - who, I've got to say, are my least favorite characters on the show.  It's not that I don't like reporters and stories about them - to the contrary - but these two barely add up.   With any luck, they'll be woven into the central action in a less idiosyncratic way.  Though, come to think of it, idiosyncrasy could be the middle name of this strange and appealing series.

See also The Bridge 2.1: What Motivates Sonya? ... The Bridge 2.2: First-Class Serial Killer ... The Bridge 2.3: Marco's Dilemma

And see also The Bridge Opens Brooding and Valent ... The Bridge 1.2: A Tale of Two Beds ... The Bridge 1.6: Revelations ... The Bridge 1.7: A Killer and a Reluctant Professor ... The Bridge 1.8: Some Dark Poetic Justice ... The Bridge 1.9: Trade-Off ... The Bridge 1.10: Charlotte's Evolution ... The Bridge 1.11: Put to the Test ... The Bridge Season 1 Finale: Marco Joins Mackey and Agnew

 
another kind of crime story

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