Bosch: Second Half: As Fine as the First

I saw the rest of Bosch on Amazon  Prime last night, and, like a fine bottle of wine, it was as good as the beginning, which I reviewed here a few days ago.

Speaking of libation, I even learned something new in the series.  Bosch orders a "flat tire" bottle of beer.  I looked it up, and I'm going to try one myself at the next suitable occasion.

The story continues with its two-edged plot - that is, two kinds of murders, which may or may not be related, but continue to intersect almost until the end of this first season.  I won't tell you the ultimate outcome, but will say it that we get a great ride, alternately harrowing and satisfying, to get there.

What is most memorable and appealing about Bosch the character, and therefore Bosch the series, is the integrity he's able to maintain amidst the corruption and lies and near-corruption all around him. And he does this not in a high-handed way, but as someone who truly struggles with the difficult decisions and choices constantly thrown in his way, and pertaining not only to his professional but his personal life, which are almost constantly intertwined in this story.

Indeed, we learn more about Bosch's personal story in the second half of the season, with more about his former wife - a former profiler now working the people and odds in Las Vegas - and their daughter.  The acting continues to be top-notch, even in the smaller roles, including Scott Wilson (the memorable Herschel from The Walking Dead) and Alan Rosenberg (L.A. Law).   And the story lines of the supporting characters are rich and intriguing, including at least one unexpected affair with a colleague.

In addition to all of this, Bosch provides a complex political chess game, the outcome of which we don't discover until the very end.   Bosch the character is almost perfectly situated on this board, right in the middle, between the street and the upper brass, each of which want a different piece of his soul.

I'd now rate Bosch as one of the best cop shows ever on television, right up there, in different ways, with The Shield and The Wire.

See also Bosch: First Half: Highly Recommended

                   another kind of police story 

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Radio Free Albemuth: Philip Dick Nixon

Just saw Radio Free Albemuth on Netflix, the 2010 movie released more widely in 2014, based on the Philip K. Dick novel written in 1976 and published posthumously in 1985, or a year after 1984.   The movie is thus an adaptation of late Dick, very late Dick, and contains a smorgasbord of gonzo Dickian conceits, often brilliant, always enjoyable, served upon a constellation of brazen political critique and at times lurid and ingenious science fictional speculation.

The story occurs in an alternate historical America, which diverged from our own some short time after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.   Someone named Fremont is President (played by The Walking Dead's Scott Wilson), reelected umpteen times, and more Nixonian than Nixon.  In this 1984-like dystopia, all agents of the government, not just the plumbers, do the President's illicit bidding, which in this world is not illicit.

Rock music plays a crucial role as a conduit of subversive messages, a realization of the paranoia that gripped the real Nixon administration, whose FCC sought to punish radio stations that played songs glorifying drug usage (this resulted in the banning of Phil Ochs' "Small Circle of Friends" and the Temptations' "Cloud Nine" by some radio stations - two songs that actually were condemning drug usage).  In Radio Free Albemuth, the government shuts down Progressive Records, and executes the man who sought to release a record with a subliminal subversive message - Nick Brady, played by Jonathan Scarfe, who made a memorable contribution to Hell on Wheels last year.

Aliens and extra-dimensions also make an appearance, in what is probably the weakest part of the story, distracting from the realpolitik attack on Nixon Agonistes' America.   But this part is true to Philip K. Dick, who also plays a major role in this story, as a science fiction author named Phil, who has written among other familiar tales an alternate history in which the Nazis won the war (see my recent review of The Man in the High Castle television pilot).   Dick is well played by Shea Whigham, who also put in a great performance as Eli Thompson in the late, lamented Boardwalk Empire.  And good to see Jon Tenney (The Closer) and Rich Sommer (Mad Men) in cameos as evilly madcap Federal agents.

While I'm mentioning names, I should also say I was happy to see my erstwhile science fiction editor at Tor, David G. Hartwell, thanked in the credits.  And the science fiction shown darkly brightly in all kinds of quick bits in this movie, including an alternate reality within this alternate history, of a Portuguese States of America, created in an alternate history in which there was no Protestant Reformation, hence Portugal and Spain, not England and Spain, split up the New World.

An unsurprisingly muddled  review at The New York Times missed all of these touches and more this past June, and Radio Free Albemuth hasn't exactly wowed those who pass solemn judgement on movies from their officious perches.   But that wouldn't have surprised Philip K. Dick, who considered literary theorists KGB agents bent on disabling American science fiction.   As for the movie, I have no doubt that it will amply survive, and go on to become a cult classic in many ways more true to Dick's vision than the high-octane enjoyable big films also derived from his work but which soared off in their own directions.



time travel and alternate history

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The Walking Dead 4.8: Vintage Fall Finale

A fabulously harrowing mid-season finale - 4.8 - of The Walking Dead tonight, with some scenes that will become celebrated vintage, including

• the girl that Carole trained firing decisive bullets in the epic battle for the prison (including killing that stupid girl who took part in the Governor's attack)
• Michonne putting the knife through the Governor (though I wish she had killed him right there)
• Daryl killing the Governor's new sidekick (I liked the actor Kirk Acevedo in Fringe, but I was glad to see his character go in The Walking Dead)
• Carl, in every scene he was in (and Daryl should have agreed to Carl's request and let Carl take a shot at the Governor - could have saved Hershel)

Hershel's death was also momentous - but I can't say it will be celebrated, because it was tragic.  Was it necessary?  I suppose so, in the sense that an horrendous death of a good person - the most moral person on the show (and perfectly acted by Scott Wilson) - was necessary to get the soul-shattering attack on the prison in motion.   Nonetheless, Hershel's death ranks among the worst events on The Walking Dead, right up there with Lori's.

Lilly gets the honor of finally killing the Governor.   But as I said above, I don't get why Michonne didn't do that.  Her motive was what?   Let the Governor go through the agony of becoming a "biter"? Ok, but the safe thing to do would have been to kill the Governor right there, if only to make sure that none of his people rescued him, and nursed him back to psycho health.

And then there's baby Judith.  I don't know, but I've always been a great believer in the principle of, if there's no body in evidence, then life is still a possibility.  It looks as if there was blood in the car seat she was in, but we don't know for a fact whose blood it is, so I'll continue hoping.

We'll find out in February.  For now, it was great to see this breath-taking conclusion to the superb Fall part of Season 4, and its spotlight on the next generation of fighters for humanity.

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 4.4: Hershel, Carl, and Maggie ... The Walking Dead 4.6: The Good Governor ... The Walking Dead 4.7: The Governor's Other Foot

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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