The AI in Scarpetta: In Defense of the Cardinal Sin of Science Fiction

The wife and I binged Scarpetta, an adaptation of two of Patricia Cornwall's novels, on Amazon Prime. It started off slowly, but was top-notch forensic thriller by the time it got to its 8th and final episode of its first season.

I'm a big fan of forensic scientists in fiction -- as a viewer, a reader, and an author (see my Phil D'Amato series) -- and Nicole Kidman in the lead role, and a wild cast of characters, did the narrative justice.   But what interested me most, and has attracted a lot of attention, is the subplot of Scarpetta's niece, Lucy, continuing her relationship with her beloved deceased wife Janet via an AI of Janet.

This AI has received some criticism, because it committed the cardinal sin of science fiction.   Cathal Gunning in Screen Rant offered the outraged assessment that Janet in Scarpetta is akin to "You’s Joe Goldberg inventing a teleportation machine, or True Detective’s Rust Cohle using time travel to revive his dead daughter." And, even worse, the sentient AI in the TV series was not even in the original novel (Autopsy, 2021, which I haven't read).  My response would be a combination of: "And?" and/or "So?".

I might be prejudiced, because I encountered some of this response to my Phil D'Amato stories.  Bookstores didn't know whether to shelve The Silk Code (1999) -- which won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2000 -- in the science fiction or mystery section.  I get that labels are important.  If I'm in the mood for sushi, I don't want to find after I'm seated in a restaurant advertising itself as serving Japanese cuisine that the only seafood on the menu is calamari or shrimp scampi, much as I love that, too.  But surely reading and watching fictional stories is different.  Isaac Asimov's robot detective R. Daneel Olivaw is aptly regarded (at least by me) as one of the best characters in literature  (speaking of which, see Alexander Zelenyj's "These Streets Are Bruised" and "Shells", both recently published in Amazing Stories).

The only problem I can think of regarding AI Janet is that some viewers may get the incorrect impression that current AI can actually be like "her" -- getting jealous and petulant -- but we're really not there yet, and may never be.   In the meantime, my unasked for advice would be enjoy Scarpetta as the provocative hybrid of mystery and science fiction that it is.

The Perfect Couple: The Perfect Series

So, the family and I spend a lot of time on Cape Cod, and have been loving it for decades.  The Perfect Couple takes place in nearby Nantucket, and the shots of the water and the sand and those wind-blown weathered wooden fences look so much like those on the Cape I felt like I was back there again, and it was still the summer.  Hey, for all I know, those scenes were shot on the Cape.  How could I not love this series?

And the lead actors, Nicole Kidman as Greer and Liev Schreiber as her husband Tag, top-notch any time, were especially outstanding in this scenic murder mystery adapted from Elin Hilderbrand's novel (which I haven't read), so well plotted, with so many nearly convincing suspects, that this novel could have been written by Agatha Christie.

The supporting actors, most of who I haven't seen on the screen before, were excellent as well.  Here are some of my favorite scenes and characters:

[And there may be spoilers ahead ...]

• Eve Hewson as Amelia Sacks, half of the imperfect couple, was perfectly convincing in her combination of almost sultry and deeply vulnerable.
• Schreiber as Tag, when he tells Merritt (pregnant with his baby) that having a baby is the most beautiful thing a man and woman can do, as prelude to his telling her he doesn't want her to have it, is a truly memorable scene of repulsive personal betrayal.  Schreiber as Tag is also noteworthy when he bursts in and deconstructs Greer's book launch.  (Greer being an author is something else I identified with -- here's a video of my most recent event. Note a bit of the tribulations at the end of the introduction.)
• I also got a kick out of Donna Lynne Champlin's gruff, Rosie O'Donnell kind of police detective, and her interaction with Michael Beach (whom I have seen a lot of over the years) as her de facto partner in the murder investigation was a fine piece of police repartee.
• Ishaan Khatter as Shooter Dival was the most tempting of the false leads (he wasn't the shooter and indeed the murder victim wasn't shot), and his relationship with Amelia gave rise to one of the best lines in the series, "the girl on the B train," which come to think of it would make a good title for any novel, short story, movie, or TV series (Irwin Shaw certainly would've liked it).
  
• Back to Dan Carter, my favorite relationship in the series -- maybe the closest to the perfect couple -- was Carter's daughter Chloe (not Zoey!) and her shared feelings with Will, the youngest Winbury. After she's told by her father to stay away from Will -- Dan's understandably worried that the Winbury family is connected to the murder -- she leaves Will a note on a napkin, "you're cute". Hey, a little sweetness goes a long way in a story like this. (Will is also key to figuring out who the killer is, but I'm not going to drop any more spoilers.)

Anyway, I defy anyone who hasn't read the book to identify the killer before the ending, and I highly recommend this Netflix short series, especially if you've just returned from Cape Cod to the big city and its B train.

Special Ops: Lioness: Women in Focus

I just finished watching the 8th and final episode of the first season of Special Ops: Lioness on Paramount Plus, and here's my shot at a mostly non-spoiler review.

To begin with, this is a story about a recruit to a CIA hit team.  The recruit is a woman, the target is an Arab oil magnate who funds terrorists, and the way the recruit is supposed to get to the target is she becomes friends with the target's daughter, so much so that she'll be invited to the daughter's wedding.

So, the first two parts -- the recruit being a woman, the target being a terrorist-funding oil dealer -- is obviously nothing new.  But the way the recruit is supposed to get to the oil man is somewhat new, and the nitty gritties of the eight episodes are bristling not only with excitement but lots of originality.

Perhaps the most original is the impact this hit job has on three women:  Cruz (the recruit), Joe (her superior and primary trainer), and Kaitlyn (head of the operation).  I don't recall any CIA series in which women had so much power, and that in itself makes this series well worth watching.  Men play important roles, for sure, but in many ways their most important roles are those that they play in the three women's lives.

And there is a fourth woman who also plays a central, crucial role -- Aaliyah, the target's daughter.  Suffice to say that Cruz's mission to get to know Aaliyah has all kinds of unexpected consequences.  Aaliyah is well played by Stephanie Nur, as is Cruz by Laysla De Oliveira.  I don't recall seeing Nur on the screen before.  De Oliveira was in Needle in a Time Stack, but I don't particularly remember her from that.  It's a safe bet that I won't forget either of them after seeing Lioness.  And Zoe Saldana as Cruz and Nicole Kidman as Kaitlin are of course very well known to me and everyone, but I've never seen them play characters quite like Cruz and Kaitlin.  All of this adds up to characters who are fresh and powerful and convincing.

There were some cliched elements in the overall story, but I can't tell you what they are without giving too much away.  But even if ten or twenty percent of the story is something we've seen in one way or another before, those kinds of tropes are unavoidable, and they really don't detract too much if at all from this blockbuster, painfully and redeemingly human, of a narrative.

The Undoing 1.1: A Murder, A Missing Person, and NYC Bustling in the Snow

David Kelley's The Undoing mini-series debuted with a star-studded cast on HBO tonight.  I mean, with Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser a psychologist and Hugh Grant as her husband Jonathan Fraser an oncologist on the posh side of New York City, and a murder and a missing person, we can just stop there and how can you go wrong, right?  You can't.  The first episode was sleek and blockbuster powerful, an East Coast analog in many ways of Kelley's California Big Little Lies, which was pretty hot, suspenseful stuff, too, over two seasons.

[spoilers below]

The Undoing starts off with a nice long build-up of rich mothers (whose kids are in an elite private school) plus one (who's among them on a scholarship) meeting on some auction committee.  Before the hour's over, Elena (the young mother with a scholarship for her son) has a conversation in the nude with Grace in a locker room (that is, Elena has not even a towel around her), Elena on the night of the auction kisses Grace on the lips, and Elena is found brutally murdered the next morning.  And, when Grace tries to let her husband know about the murder -- he left in the morning to (supposedly) to attend a meeting in Cleveland -- she finds that he's gone missing.  About as good a set-up as you're likely to find on any screen.

So here's where we stand:

1. Is there a connection between Elena's murder and Jonathan's disappearance?  We don't know that yet, for sure, but, how could there not be?  

2. Did Jonathan murder Elena?  He's the most likely suspect at this point, his motive being jealousy, or maybe he was sleeping with Elena and she or he wanted to end that.  He did say something to Grace about Elena, and his being missing doesn't help,  but that's all still circumstantial at this point, as they say.  There's even a chance that he, too, could be dead.

3. Any other suspects?  The husband -- Elena's -- is always a possibility, but he seems like a nice guy.  I suppose there's a very outside chance that Grace did it, but she didn't really have the time, and she seemed genuinely shocked to find out about the murder.  So, make that chance very slight and outside.  (My wife suggested Grace's father Franklin.  We don't know much at all about him, but he's played by Donald Sutherland, which suggests some kind of significant role.)

4. How about someone not at all in the first episode?  I'd say no -- Kelley's too good to pull rabbits like that out of a hat.

So we have a nice, taut, high-octane mystery on our hands, set in snowy, pre-pandemic New York City, which is fun to see in any case.  See you back here next week.

 

Top of the Lake: China Girl: Top of the Genre

My wife and I saw all six episodes of Top of the Lake: China Girl on Sundance last night.  It was that good.  The first season a few years back took a little longer, and not just because it had seven episodes.  It was compelling and memorable, but meandered down side stories a little too often.  In contrast, China Girl was even more compelling, and tight as a drum in its complex, multi-tiered plot.

Elisabeth Moss is back as Robin Griffin, a detective with a palette of smarts, passions, and vulnerabilities like none you've ever seen on television (I guess Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson in The Fall would be about the closest, but even she is figuratively as well as literally continents apart from Robin).   Robin's back in Sydney from her visit in season 1 to New Zealand, this time to investigate the death of a prostitute who turns out to have been part of a surrogate mother ring.  Robin's personal life is woven in perfectly - which is to say sometimes harrowingly, sometimes lovingly - into the plot, including her 17-year old daughter last seen by Robin shortly after she was born.  Moss's performance is incandescent.

Her police partner is a nice surprise - Miranda Hilmarson played by Gwendoline Christie from Game of Thrones, with Christie showing a much greater gamut of acting talent than she did on Thrones.  Robin and Miranda are a complicated, ultimately powerful team, alternately screaming at and consoling each other, and one of the best scenes in this series is the two of them sitting on a dock, coming to terms.

There are paucity of really worthwhile men in this story - I'd say maybe one and a half - with the majority being liars, psychos, sleazes, and killers.  But that's the story, the scoundrels are very well acted, and some of the women are close to despicable and well acted, too, including Nicole Kidman (with grey hair) as the adoptive mother of Robin's daughter.

The plot contains all kinds of twists, some sudden, some long and dangling, and I'd rate these six hours as among the best ever on television.  Kudos to Jane Campion who wrote and created this.

Big Little Lies: Elvis and Answers

A superb conclusion to the Big Little Lies - a superb conclusion to one of the best series ever on any television.   Although there's always room for a second season, and I hope it happens, this short season was about as good as it gets.

First, let me say that the Elvis renditions on trivia night were themselves worth the price of admission.  Zoe Kravitz's "Don't" - one of my favorite Elvis songs anyway - was nonpareil.  And Adam Scott's performance of "The Wonder of You" was nothing to sneer at, either.  (Though my wife tells me he was lip-synching - well, kudos to the singer and the lip synching.)

But back to the plot: the ending was just right for this kind of whodunnit, because the "culprit" was the person who we would have least reason to even remotely suspect.  Bonnie (played by Zoe Kravitz) had no reason to kill anybody.

Until she saw what Perry was doing.  And, even then, she didn't intend to kill him.

But, boy, did he deserve to die. (Which is why I put "culprit" in quotes.)  Not only because of what he had been doing to Celeste, but because he is revealed as Jane's rapist.  That was a wild twist, and maybe the one weakness in the plot - wouldn't she have recognized Perry?  However much he changed, his eyes, his voice would have been the same.  But we do get the additional irony here that not only was Perry to father of violent Max, but of sweet Ziggy.

I'll conclude with saying I honestly don't know who should get the Emmy for best lead actress, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman were both so extraordinary in different ways.  Reese Witherspoon walked the line between being a bitch and a caring woman just perfectly.  And Nicole Kidman as an abused woman, trying to hold together her marriage, was indelible.  As for acting, hats of to Alexander Skarsgard for an unforgettable performance as the despicable Perry.

I'd watch another season in a heartbeat.  But this short season has already made television history.


See also Big Little Lies: Big Good, Truly ... Big Little Lies 1.5: Multivalent Whudunnit

Big Little Lies as of 1.5: Multivalent WhoDunnit

Big Little Lies, as of its fifth episode on HBO this past Sunday evening, continues to be one of the most unusual, provocative, appealing, and original shows on television - continuing to demonstrate that HBO has a unique beat on television, that you find nowhere else.

At this point, we still don't who the killer or the victim is.   In fact, just about everyone has a motive for killing someone, not just Jane, whom we saw in close enough proximity to the man who raped her and fathered her child that she might well have killed him, off camera at this point.  The multiplicity of suspects makes Big Little Lies somewhat akin to a classic Agatha Christie story, except the suspects are suspect for different potential victims, and, again, we don't yet even know who the victim is.

Perry and Celeste, for example, could each easily be the killer of the other - Perry because he's a keg of violence on a short fuse, Celeste to defend herself against one of Perry's assaults.   And, while we're on anger, Renata has plenty of it - justified insofar as her daughter is being bullied and bitten - but likely directed at the wrong person, Jane, which gives Renata a motive and again Jane in defense of herself or her boy.

Madeline and Ed seem to be most peaceful, but even they have the potential to murder.  Ed is already suspicious that Madeline has been having an affair, and there's no telling what he might do if he sees and finds out more.  And Madeline - well, in some ways, she's the most fascinating character on the show.  Superficially, she's the most by-the-book and conventional of the women.  But she has a wild side, and a propensity to express it, as whens she admits to grabbing Joseph's "ass" - prelude, in effect, to their car crash.

And the acting that animates this complex story is, as I said in my previous review, just all around superb.  Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley could and should each get Emmys for their performances, and Laura Dern, too, for supporting actress.  And the men are putting in memorable performances, as well, with the less time they have on screen.

Speaking of less, my only regret, as I often say about these short series on HBO and elsewhere, is that they're short.   Let's hope there's at very least a second season.

See also Big Little Lies: Big Good, Truly

Big Little Lies: Big Good, Truly

My wife and I have been much enjoying Big Little Lies, set to put on its third episode in a limited series on HBO tonight.

Murder stories are a dime a dozen, ranging from some of the almost unbearably trite series on the old networks to the compelling Nordic and kindred noir series streaming on Netflix and Amazon.  In view of those superb binge-watchable programs, I'm sometimes moved to say that the cutting edge of television has already passed from cable to streaming services.

But Big Little Lies proves otherwise, and at very least shows that HBO can still come up with a unique kind of story.  For starters, here we are after two episodes, and we still don't know who the victim is, let alone the killer.  HBO is showing that it can still put up a whodunnit with the best of 'em, without not only an identifiable body but a name.   Other series - such as The Affair - have woven a little of this into their stories.  In Big Little Lies, it's the whole story, or at least, one of two of them.

And the star power, especially regarding the women, is incandescent.  Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, and the lesser-known Shailene Woodley are just superb, conveying a range of nuance not often found in a television series, especially not one about a murder.

But Iain Armitage, who plays a boy who at this point is accused only of grabbing a little girl by the neck, puts in a stellar performance, too.   So much so that, although I think he's being wrongly accused, I wouldn't quite bet the house on it, yet.   (But if I had to bet, my wife and I think the culprit is likely one of Celeste's - Nicole Kidman's - twin boys - which would follow from their having a physically abusive father.)

That incident at school, by the way, is the second story I alluded to earlier.  But everything's intricately connected and woven together on Big Little Lies, and I'm looking forward to more of this compelling David E. Kelley creation (who also does Amazon's Goliath, and goes back to great network drama such as The Practice), based on the novel by Liane Moriarty.