Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

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

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

Showing posts with label Mireille Enos. Show all posts

Friday, May 15, 2026

For All Mankind 5.8: Firing on All Cylinders

Ines Asserson

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday, May 5, 2026

For All Mankind 5.6: Earth vs. Mars

Episode 5.6 of For All Mankind, up on Apple TV since late last week, was a middling good episode depicting the rising tensions verging on war between Earth and the human settlement on Mars..

First, Earth vs. Mars is a well-trodden topic. On TV, it was well explored in The Expanse. In books, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy did an excellent job of it. The best part of this episode, for me, was seeing the role of the Soviet Union, still in existence and thriving in this alternate history. The kiss between Lily and Alex was also nice to see.

The ending of the episode promises an interesting stream with Dev now determined and on-track to doing something big to stop and/or surmount the escalating conflict between Mars and Earth. Bringing Dev into For All Mankind in the first place was a good dramatical move -- he's a wildcard, like Musk and Bezos in our own reality. All have billions of dollars, rankle under the yoke of governments, and have the power to march to some extent to their own drums. In Dev's case, he may not only have this power, but the wherewithal to impose it on the US, the Soviet Union, and the countries on Planet Earth. We'll see.

Actingwise, Edi Gathegi as Dev is a good choice to deliver the goods. And speaking of acting, Mireille Enos's Celia is by far the best of the military on Mars. There's also a lot of potential in the Titan mission, and what it might discover there. I don't know if we'll get a chance to see that this season, but I'm looking forward to more -- more profound developments, more eye-opening, brain-teasing wonders in our solar system, more than the ICE-like agents on Mars, which (as I've said in my review of episode 5.5) I've already seen more than enough of in our real world these days down here in the United States.

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Friday, April 3, 2026

For All Mankind 5.2: Actor Reunions

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

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

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

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

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

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Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Hanna Season 3: The Roller Coaster Arrives at the Station

Finally had a chance to see the short final season -- six episodes in season 3, rather than the eight episodes in each of seasons 1 and 2 -- of Hanna on Amazon Prime Video since 24 November 2021. Yeah, the competition, i.e., The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+, was just too appealing.

But Hanna was as strong as ever, non-stop rollercoaster action with unpredictable swerves with characters we've come to care about, starting with Hanna. She's more accomplished than ever, but also more introspective, as befits someone with her pedigree and current situation.

As was the case since the second season, she's enormously helped by Marissa, whose backstory is finally spelled out in Season 3. Indeed, this season is so much about Marissa that it could have been called Marissa, or maybe Hanna and Marissa. Esme Creed-Miles does a fine job as Hanna, and Mireille Enos is better than ever as Marissa, which is to say, she deserves at least an Emmy nomination for her performance in this final season.

Ray Liotta is introduced as the new archvillain Gordon Evans, replacing Dermot Mulroney's John Carmichael in that role. Here I'd say the combination of the characters and the acting and plot wasn't the best. Evans was too one-dimensional, betraying not a shred of decency, and Carmichael's evolution needed a bit more explanation.

But the young women in UTRAX were all well acted and motivated as characters. and all in all I'd rate this finale season as well worth seeing, and providing a satisfying closure that leaves room for a sequel somewhere down the road, which I'd definitely find time to watch.

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

The Lie: Acting about Acting

My wife and I caught The Lie last night on Amazon Prime Video. A scalding little movie from Blumhouse, and from the brain behind The Killing (Veena Sud), with one of its big stars ( Mireille Enos).

[spoilers follow]

First, let me say that I guessed the big shocking reveal at the end -- foresaw this about halfway through the movie. The reason was two-fold: 1. We didn't see Britney actually being pushed to her death. 2. Britney's body wasn't recovered. And although the current was swift, the water didn't look particularly deep.

But this didn't spoil in the least my enjoyment of the movie, which grabs you by your collar as soon as Jay hears his daughter Kayla cry out, and keeps you there for the next ninety minutes. Further, the acting is really impressive, with a typical brilliant performance by Enos across a simmering and wild range of emotions.

Joey King as Kayla was also noteworthy. Her acting was, in effect, a double meta-performance. She has to act to her parents as if she did shove Britney to her death. And she has to pretend just the opposite to the police: that nothing untoward happened. And then the big reveal that she and Britney were putting this whole thing on: we need to believe, after that, that Kayla was acting about everything she said before.

I believed it, and so did my wife. If you've read this far, through the warned spoilers, you've already seen The Lie. If somehow you haven't, it's well worth seeing.

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Hanna 2: High Intellect and Octane Espionage

Hanna 2 starts a little slow, with a few too many episodes devoted to Hanna getting back to The Meadows and re-uniting with/saving Clara. But once it gets over that, this second season delivers a story with far more punch and complexity than the first season, especially the complexity part.

The essence of the narrative is the power of the brainwashing that takes place in this facility. It's so strong that it works completely on all the young women, with the exception of Hanna and Clara (well played, again, by Esme Creed-Miles and Yasmin Monet Prince) . The question, until the last few episodes, which are pure twists and turns on adrenalin, is how far gone the two of them are.

Mireille Enos is back as Marissa, and her loyalty to Hanna is clear throughout. Dermot Mulroney is new in the story as Carmichael, and he makes a suitably single-minded and recalcitrant villain. So, too, is the soft-spoken Anthony Welsh as Carmichael's prime and gently lethal assistant Leo. But my favorite new character (well, almost new, she was in two episodes in the first season) is Áine Rose Daly as Sandy. There are few combinations bound to be as effective as a pretty face and an evil mind in these espionage kind of tales. The pretty face is easy, either you have it or you don't. The evil mind is not, and Sandy provides an excellent rendition of that pivotal role, with subtlety and focus.

The sector of the spy drama genre devoted to creating a cadre of super young agents is well worn, but Hanna 2 does a good job of keeping it new and surprising. Part of its secret is in the details, as in the "face and trigger" method of conducting a smooth assassination. Part of it is the way it masterfully uses digital text to convey affection that the cadre knows in their hearts is a lie, but they find so difficult to resist. But the part of the narrative that will be most responsible for keeping you glued to the screen until you've watched every episode is the implacable intelligence of the villains, keeping you and the heroes on the edge until the very end.

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Hanna: Top Notch

Hanna on Amazon Prime - a series based on a movie - has been described as a combination of high-tech thriller and coming of age story. It is all that, and excellently executed. But it's also science fiction, and, in one way of looking at it, related to Westworld.

Hanna is the result of some kind of CIA program of investing human female babies with something akin to at least low-level superpowers, by which I mean, slightly but significantly better than the best that we normal people can do. Hanna is a brilliant fighter - able to take out out more than a handful of military with her acrobatic skills and hand-to-hand combat dexterity. She also has almost a sixth sense of being attuned to trouble and crucial people in her life. Clara has super keen hearing and is also a master fighter.

The most significant person in Hanna's life is Erik, who raised her in a forest and whom she considers her father. Eric was working for the CIA some 16 years ago, recruited a pregnant woman for this CIA program, and fell in love her. He rescued her baby Hanna from the CIA facility and ... I don't want to tell you any more of the story.

So let's turn to the acting. Esme Creed-Miles is great as Hanna. And seeing Joel Kinnaman (as Erik) and Mireille Enos (as his boss Marissa) back on the screen after their dual starring in The Killing a few years ago was outstanding. Here they play very different roles, mostly antagonists but maybe veering towards being on the same side. They two put in two superb performances, down to facial expressions and tones of voice.

A sign of a well-made movie or television series is how well the more minor characters are portrayed. Hanna is grade-A on this account, with memorable portrayals of Erik's associates and a family from England whose daughter Sophie becomes friends with Hanna. That's where the coming of age part comes into play, and it's done just right.

High-tech thrillers are almost a dime a dozen these days on streaming services. If you're in the mood for one, put Hanna at the top of your list.

'DNA is the ultimate dossier.'

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams 1.7 The Father Thing: Dick from Space

The 1950s were invaded with science fiction in which entities from outer space arrived here and took over the bodies of human beings. Invasion of the Body Snatchers - made into a movie at least three times (1956 and 1978 by that name, and again in 1996 as just Body Snatchers) and many more times as riffs on the same story with different names - is the best-known iconic template for that tale. It was good to see it back again in The Father Thing, episode 1.7 of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, standalone stories all streaming on Amazon Prime, which I've been reviewing here one at a time.

The Father Thing tells us this story from the perspective of a boy whose father has been taken over by an alien from space. Written and directed by Michael Dinner (Justified) from Philip K. Dick's 1954 story "The Father-Thing," The Father Thing without the hyphen nonetheless has an appealing 1950s flavor, with a Twilight Zone ambience and a Stranger Things wrap-up - as the boy and then his friends in effect become freedom fighters - which brings the story into the present in terms of what we're seeing these days on television. Indeed, that and the hashtag #RESIST and video-chatting, plus the use of the word "dick" in several pivotal places (such as when the son refers to the invaders as "dicks from space"), are about the only concessions The Father Thing makes to 2018.

It's not surprising that Dick the writer partook of this theme, since the question of whether the man is my father or an alien who has commandeered his body is another version of is it real or my imagination, this or that dimension, which all but consumed Philip K. Dick. But Dick and now Dinner do an especially good job at telling this story, melding the angst of the son with the beginning of a coming of age story for him. Good work by Greg Kinnear as the father thing, Mireille Enos as the mother, and Jack Gore (Billions) as the son. Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams episodes continue to have excellent performances by big name and lesser known actors.

See also Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams 1.1 Real Life: Mutually Alternate Realities ... 1.2 Autofac: Human v Machine ... 1.3 Human Is: Compassion or Alien? ... 1.4 Crazy Diamond: DNA Batteries ... 1.5 The Hood Maker: Telepathy and Police ... 1.6 Safe and Sound: This Isn't A Drill ... 1.8 Impossible Planet: Eye of the Beholder ... 1.9 The Commuter: Submitted for Your Approval ... 1.10: Kill All Others: Too Close for Comfort

more alternate identities ...

Friday, August 8, 2014

The Killing Season 4: Masterpiece Finale

I just saw the final season of The Killing on Netflix - all six episodes of Season 4 - and it is a masterpiece.

Not because of the new murder story, which was excellent in its own right, with all kinds of brutal twists and turns. With a much shorter arc than the earlier murders in this series, this one - about a family execution with only the son surviving - had to be tighter, and it was.

But the part of season 4 of The Killing which will make it, and the whole series, something which will be watched and remembered through the ages was the Linden and Holder story. Part of that is the continuation of the Skinner story from Season 3. But the even more important part is the toll that takes on Linden and Holder, and the aftermath. Don't worry, I won't give anything specific away. But if you'd rather not get any inkling that even a generality can give, don't read any further.

First and foremost, the ending was something I often want to see in a television series, but never do, because most television is afraid to deal with the realities of human nature, ugly, beautiful, destructive, redeeming, and all together. The final season shows Linden and Holder at their best and worst. They support each other magnificently when one or the other is down, and they turn on each other like nearly rabid dogs when the going gets impossibly tough. They're both deeply flawed but brilliant. And the kicker is they're brilliant not only as detectives, but in their understanding of human relationships, often occluded but always on the verge of breaking through.

The last 10 minutes of the very last episode are like nothing I've ever seen on television - hell, that's true of the last 50 or more minutes, but the last ten are something else. If you think you'll know how this is going to end, I promise that you don't, unless you have even more sensitivity than Linden and Holder in their best moments.

And, by the way, all six episodes are superbly acted. Joel Kinnaman is better than ever, and Mireille Enos is never anything short of fabulous (hey, she was even the best part of that big bad Schwarzenegger movie earlier this year). Joan Allen puts in a strong performance, and Gregg Henry is excellent. And there are nods to events from the first three seasons - just what you'd want in a final season - including a crucial appearance from Richmond.

But most of all, as I already said, it's just great and uniquely satisfying to finally see a finale to a television series that in its very last seconds its right where you always wanted it to be.

See also The Killing 3.1-2: Poe Poetic Po-po ... The Killing 3.3: Hitchcockian Scene and More ... The Killing 3.7: "Opiate of the Masses" ... Killing 3.8: The Kidnapping, and a Prediction ... The Killing 3.9: Suspect Elimination and Incompatible Components ... The Killing 3.10: Capital Punishment ... The Killing Season 3 Finale: We Need Another Season

See also The Killing Season Two Premiere ... The Killing 2.2: Holder ... The Killing 2.11: Circling Back ... The Killing Season 2 Finale

And see also The Killing on AMC and The Killing 1.3: Early Suspects ... The Killing 1.5: Memorable Moments ... The Killing 1.6: The Teacher ... The Killing 1.8: The Teacher, Again ...The Killing 1.9: The Teacher as Victim, Again ... The Killing 1.10: Running Out of Suspects ... The Killing 1.11: Rosie's Missing - from the Story ... The Killing 1.12: Is Orpheus the Killer? ... The Killing 1.13: Stretching Television

another kind of crime story

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Friday, April 8, 2011

The Killing on AMC

Caught the first two hours of The Killing on AMC the other night. The series has a lot going for it, including

a genuine whodunit, where we don't know who killed Rosie Larsen - in contrast to Criminal Minds, where we usually know the killer fairly early, but like Wire in the Blood from England and Wallander from Sweden - and The Killing is indeed an English-language adaptation of a very successful Danish series
Mireille Enos in the starring role of Sarah Linden - Enos did a great job on Big Love, and on also played memorable guest roles Numb3rs, Lie to Me, and Medium which I happened to see ... here, Enos is reminiscent of Olivia from Fringe, though at once grittier and more emotional ...
Michelle Forbes in a supporting role as Rosie's mother ... Forbes always puts in a winning, no-holds-barred performance

Rosie's father is good, too, and the reactions of the family, the various police, and the politician and his staff who (at this point) may or not be involved in some way in the murder are all believable, and more real - less contrived in their reactions - than you often get on television. This is especially true of the family, and it's already clear that the search for Rosie Larson's killer on The Killing will be no search for Laura Palmer's killer on Twin Peaks, but instead will be an unvarnished, powerful look at a murder, its impact on the family, and on a police investigation comprised of detectives with talent but no ready answers.

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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

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

"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!