Nurse Jackie at 6

Hey, I've seen the first six episodes of Nurse Jackie on Showtime, so I figured I'd pop back in here with a little review....

First, I'm glad to see that Paul Schultze's Eddie is finding getting some good sex with Edie Falco's Jackie. Back on The Sopranos, Schultze's Father Phil never quite got to first base with Falco's Carmela, but it's more than possible that he didn't really want to, and preferred the food dance instead.

Though, it's intriguingly not at all clear on Nurse Jackie exactly how she feels about the relationship, and what she wants from it. She certainly values Eddie as a source of her pills - which she clearly can't live without - and she seems to enjoy the sex. But it may well be that she'll drop him like a hot potato if the drug pipeline is closed. And it's not easy to maintain an affair with Eddie with her husband Kevin - with whom she also enjoys a good relationship - often on the verge of dropping by the hospital.

Jackie's relationship with her two daughters - especially her older daughter, Grace - also bears watching. Grace's drawing without sun or color catches the concerned attention of her teacher, and Jackie is slowly beginning to see that Grace may need some help. If you ask me, the drawing is no big deal - I agree with Jackie on that - but there may be other symptoms.

The series is slowly percolating, with a suitably slightly zany cast of characters and stories, and I'm looking forward to it coming to a boil....


See also Sneak Preview of Nurse Jackie ... Nurse Jackie at Eight




5-min podcast review of Nurse Jackie

The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.2: Firing on All Cylinders

Excellent second episode of second season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles tonight - with action in all areas of thought, emotion, and, of course, action...

Among the highlights -

1. I really like Cameron this year - more multi-dimensional. Although she's recovered from the exploding car, and gotten back her override, there's more to her than the lingering suspicion that she could go bad at any instant. Her brush with death has made her more human.

2. John is starting to hook up with a girl at school. Don't tell me she's a Terminator, I won't believe it, and I'll be disappointed. It would be far more interesting to see them have some kind of relationship, with Cameron jealous, Sarah concerned, etc.

3. Sonya Walger's back as Charley Dixon's wife. Now, if they could bring on Charlie Pace and Desmond ... But, even so, it's always good to see Sonya/Penny.

4. Speaking of shoutouts, good to see Paul Schulze on the show tonight - aka Agent Richard Garrity on Journeyman, Ryan Chappelle on 24 and Father Phil on The Sopranos. Alas, Schulze's character on Sarah Connor had the same fate as Garrity on Journeyman and Chappelle on 24....

5. Back to Charley - good scene with him and Agent Ellison...

6. And Sarah gets exposed to radiation - which may or may not be what ultimately kills her. Nice can't avoid your fate touch there.

This season is off to a better than last year's, and is already firing on all cylinders.

See also 2.1: Cameron's Back ... 2.3 Who, Truly, Is Agent Ellison? ... 2.4: Meet Allison ... 2.5: Unpacking the Future ... 2.6: Terminator Mom, Human Daughter, Questions



See also 2.1 Cameron's Back

---

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

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Journeyman Continues: 10: Jack's In! // Contest Winner!

And we have a winner for the contest - I got the correct answer for Dan's last word in tonight's superb episode about 30 seconds after it was over. Look for the name of the winner, and some consolation prizes, at the end of this review...

Tonight's Episode 10 of Journeyman was a wonderful, satisfying chapter, in many ways.

First, it daringly courted but avoided paradoxes. Dan's traveling back to stop the guy who shot him risked unraveling Dan's and everyone's reality: had Dan gotten to the boy, gotten him out of his abusive home, then the boy might well have grown up not to do the bad things he did last week, and not to shoot Dan tonight.... Which would have left Dan - and us - where? A lot worse off in the narrative than Dan being wounded and seriously infected.

Speaking of which - I liked that Dan got infected because he carried bacteria back with him two decades, which were resistant to antibiotics back then. Very nice time traveling touch.

Also helpful to maintaining the time travel sanctity of the show was the bad guy killing the FBI guy. Although I'll miss Paul Schulze and his fine acting, the character clearly knew too much to continue on his course. He either had to brought into the fold - not likely if he was FBI - or eliminated.

Which brings us to Jack - the most satisfying development of all in tonight's episode. Jack has been edging closer in previous shows to believing Dan. Tonight Livia comes to see Jack in the present - because Dan needs his help - and that of course finally convinces Jack that his brother is not crazy, and is really time traveling....

Which brings us to the contest winner. At the end of tonight's episode, Jack asks Dan if this - the near insanity, the brushes with death, everything Jack went through tonight - is the way it always is.

To which Dan gives a fine answer: "Welcome to our life."

=======================================================
And Matt Pollari of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota emailed me with the correct answer within 30 seconds: "life"!

An autographed copy of The Plot to Save Socrates will be in the mail to Matt tomorrow! Congratulations, Matt!

For everyone else who answered, and who keeps watching the show: If you've already answered the question correctly - but got it in after Matt - or if you tell me Dan's last word on the next two shows,* I'll be happy to send you, via e-mail, a copy of my 1997 award-nominated time travel novella, Loose Ends (first published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine, and widely reprinted, including on Fictionwise.com).

And, further, for anyone who answered tonight's question correctly, or who e-mails me Dan's last word on the next shows,* I'll be happy to autograph and return to you at my expense any copies of The Plot to Save Socrates that you send to me between now and the end of this year.

My email is Levinson.paul@gmail.com

But Matt gets the free copy.

*NOTE ADDED 3O NOVEMBER 2007: I've decided to continue the contest for the next three episodes of Journeyman, and give a free, autographed copy of The Plot to Save Socrates to first person, after each show, who e-mails Dan's last word on the show to me! See Extending The Plot to Save Socrates - Journeyman Contest for details.

And, you know, "life" is an apt last word. Journeyman has more life than ever now. I want to see Dan and Jack finally working together. Years ago, in the 1960s, NBC made a mistake and canceled Star Trek - I hope they don't make the same mistake with Journeyman.

My reviews of other Journeyman episodes ... 1: NBC Quantum Leaps Into Journeyman ...2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6... 7 ... 8. Livia's Story ... 9. Dan Unravels His Present 11. Livia' Beau//Save the Newspaper, Save the World ... 12. The Perfect Time Travel Story ... Lucky 13

---

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

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Journeyman Continues: 7: Jack

Episode 7 of Journeyman on NBC tonight was really mostly about Livia - it's clear now that her role in jumping around in time is to be Dan's guardian angel, and do for him what he does for everyone else. And there was some great root canal in the teeth of time travel work tonight as Dan fights with his slightly younger self... (all time travel is root canal work, veering so close as it does to paradox)...

I liked all of that.

But what struck me most about the show tonight is what's up with brother Jack (played by Reed Diamond)? He finds out about Dan's money from the hijacker past - I love the way the show has been semi-starring that money - and begins to investigate. Paul Schulze plays an FBI agent (Richard Garrity) who comes sniffing around - was great to see 24's Ryan Chappell and the Sopranos' priest back in action (hey, he played the hobo on Mad Men, too) - and Jack tries to fend him off...

But, in the end, Garrity presses Jack, threatens him if doesn't cooperate. And Jack, unaccountably, tells Garrity the money came from Jack's brother!

Which makes no sense, based on what we've seen of Jack's love for Dan so far.

So, either, we weren't seeing right (not likely). Or Jack's love for Katie is so strong, and his resentment for Dan so great that ... no, that's even less likely.

Which leaves us with something else going on. Jack wants Garrity involved for some reason ... and that reason would be-

I wonder if it has anything to do with the tachyon scientist, who will be back in play next week, explaining his call across time to Dan ...

My reviews of other Journeyman episodes ... 1: NBC Quantum Leaps Into Journeyman ...2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6... 8 ...9. Dan Unravels His Present ... 10. Jack's In! ... 11. Livia's Beau//Save the Newspaper, Save the World ... 12. The Perfect Time Travel Story ... Lucky 13

---

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

Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo, Excellent

AMC's Mad Men was firing on all cylinders tonight, in a powerful Episode 8 which furthered and deepened the story of at least three sets of characters:

Peggy and Pete start off with a morning quickie in the office. Pete of course feels a little guilty about this - he has a quintessential late 1950s mix of starched morality and male entitlement - and later disapproves of Peggy dancing the Twist. Peggy is not happy about that, but just about everything else is going her way, including even getting a little patronizing admiration from Don and the guys about her excellent ad idea for the lipstick campaign - which Don brilliantly maneuvers the client into loving.

Don gets a $2500 bonus - a lot of money, obviously, in those days, in which a brand new book sells for a couple of bucks. He wants to use it to take Midge to Paris, gets stoned on weed with Midge and the beatniks instead, and in the process we see one of the best sequences in the entire series so far: Don as a boy in the 1930s, his family getting a visit from a sage hobo played by Paul Schultze (heroic death as Ryan Chappelle on 24, lasagna Father Phil on The Sopranos), and Don seeing what a mean-spirited man his father is.... Meanwhile, back in 1960, I don't think Midge and Don have much of a future.

And Salvatore (well played by Bryan Batt) finally gets a little more screen time, in a sensitive, strong scene in which he turns down an opportunity for a tryst with man. This scene, I thought, had Salvatore acting right in key for the temper of the times.

But other 1960s elements were a tiny bit forced - like "the medium is the message" line in Episode 6. True, the Twist was around then, but would the ad crowd really have been dancing it in such numbers? The Cha-cha, absolutely, the Twist ... I don't know...

And there's something slightly, temporally off in Don and Midge and company getting stoned. First, some of Midge's friends look more like hippies than beatniks - but hippies were at least five years in the future. And I'm not convinced that Don would have smoked weed - tobacco and weed were and are, after all, two very different things.

But the stoned scene did give us a chance to see more of Don's boyhood family, and I'll just mention one other good thing that struck me about that: did the hobo look a little like Don's younger brother, or was that just my imagination?...

In subsequent episodes: I'd like to learn about Harry Crane - who looks just like Isaac Asimov did back then!



20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through

See also reviews of other episodes: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarettes and Nixon Coming ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium Is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad Men 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes




6-minute podcast review of Mad Men

---

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