The Walking Dead on Mars

Just saw The Last Days on Mars - a British film out in the UK since September, due to open here in the US in early December.  It's a low-budget, pretty good movie that might well have been entitled The Walking Dead on Mars.

The mission to Mars is looking for any signs of life.   They find it all right, in the form of a deadly bacterium that not only kills the humans it infects, but does it quickly - in well less than an hour - and turns them into vicious zombies without pulse or need for oxygen, but a drive to attack and therein infect other humans - i.e., the rest of the mission.

There's a cold and logical ecological aspect to this.   Since Mars is devoid of oxygen, it makes sense that the bacteria would turn the human invaders aka astronauts into creatures that need no oxygen. Perhaps this is what the original denizens of Mars were like, though we see no real suggestion of this in the movie.

The ending is nicely - i.e., harrowingly - ambiguous.   Does the astronaut survivor, who may be infected, allow himself to be rescued, and therein risk bringing the contagion back to Earth, or commit a noble suicide?

Given what we've seen in The Walking Dead, we might have our answer.   But The Walking Dead is of course another reality, which may or may not be linked to The Last Days on Mars - obviously the movie and the comic book/television series are not, so I'm talking metaphysical popular culture.   But we've yet to see - at least in the television series - any indication of what caused the plague on Earth, so I'll opt to look at The Last Days on Mars as a strong, scientific prequel.   And, hey, nice to Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan)  and Romola Garai (The Hour) on a screen together.

See also The Walking Dead 4.1: The New Plague ... The Walking Dead 4.2: The Baby and the Flu ... The Walking Dead 4.3: Death in Every Corner ... The Walking Dead 4.5: Hershel, Carl, and Maggie

And see also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable ... The Walking Dead 3.15: Merle ... The Walking Dead 3.16: Kill or Die, or Die and Kill

And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet ... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale

And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season

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The Hour 2nd Season

Hey, I was on a British roll last night, and saw not only Downton Abbey, but The Hour.

I reviewed The Hour last summer, in conjunction with the American Newsroom, which must have been inspired in some way by The Hour.  But the two shows are also very different, with The Hour not only looking at a live news show on the Beeb in the late 1950s, but also much more a drama that extends beyond the news into interpersonal relationships and crime and punishment stories.

Season Two was especially strong on both.  Freddie finally gives Bel the kiss she deserves, right before he's all but beaten to death by the mobster his expose is all about.  I say "almost" because it looks like he survives,  but he certainly wasn't up and about, and in the realm of television you can't take anything for granted.  No word yet about a third season, but I certainly hope we see one.

The mob was actually a little over the top, I thought.  I mean, I can see a reporter getting roughed up by the mob, even killed, but Freddie is co-anchor of The Hour, and one of its shakers and movers.  Would the mob boss be such as moron as to nearly or try to kill Freddie?

But Freddie's absence from the studio - his detainment via punches - did allow Hector to complete his comeback, not only with his public but his wife, who also announced her pregnancy.  The poaching of Hector by the rapacious ITV was one of the best story lines this season.  And Dominic West, who became one of my favorite actors on The Wire (flawless acting and flawless Baltimore accent), is just perfect as The Hour's anchor not only with a swelled head but a heart and a soul.   Romola Garai is also excellent as Bel, as is Ben Whishaw (probably best known now for Skyfall) as Freddie.

The Hour was ridiculously short this season - five episodes - and I'm eager for more.  Part Mad Men, part political and criminal intrigue, but mostly great media history with a look at the first decade of television, The Hour needs a lot more time to tell its important and captivating story.

See also The Newsroom and The Hour




Praise for the novel...

"...challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"...a fun book to read" - Dallas Morning News

"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" - Brian Charles Clark, Curled Up With A Good Book at curledup.com 

"a journey through time that'll make you think as it thrills ... so accessible, even those generally put off by sci-fi should enjoy the trip." - Rod Lott, bookgasm.com

"Levinson spins a fascinating tale ... An intriguing premise with believable characters and attention to period detail make this an outstanding choice... Highly recommended." - Library Journal,*starred review

"Light, engaging time-travel yarn . . . neatly satisfies the circularity inherent in time travel, whose paradoxes Levinson links to Greek philosophy." - Publishers Weekly

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