Vienna Blood 3-4: Transference

Checking in with a review of the next two-part episode of Vienna Blood - #s3 and 4, on PBS - aired two weeks ago, and the week before last.  Another excellent historical whodunnit, which, much like the first two episodes, made you feel like you were in Vienna in the first decade of the 20th-century, even though I was never there.

The big takeaway of this second story is that Max and Clara have finally come to their senses, and ended their betrothment - or, rather, Clara has come to her senses, after nearly being raped by a bad guy who is not the murderer, though that had little to do with her decision.  But Clara realizes that Max loves someone else.

That would be Amelia, Max's cured patient, who previously told Max she couldn't see him any more, in any way, given that Max was engaged to Clara, whom Amelia met with Max.   Clearly, Max and Amelia are falling in love, but that raises an ethical issue which the fledgeling Freudians of that time likely have not yet considered: transference, or patients falling in love with their therapists, and some kind of vice versa.  I was a Psych major for a while at CCNY in the 1960s, and I don't remember exactly when the psychoanalytic group became aware of this phenomenon, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't quite that early.

Meanwhile, regarding other accoutrements of that Edwardian age, we again got to see a disk playing music, and someone mentioned getting a call, which in context sounded like it referred to a telephone call.  Good.  But I was surprised that dueling was still so apparently common in 1907 Vienna.  The last time I heard about it was Hamilton vs. Burr in the United States more than a century earlier.  Did Europe hold on to that medieval-rooted custom a century longer?

In any case, Vienna Blood is a top-drawer series, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

See also Vienna Blood 1-2: Demons in the Architecture

Vienna Blood 1-2: Demons in the Architecture

Took a few minutes (actually closer to 90) out of everything else to watch the first two episodes (actually, one episode, broken into two parts) of Vienna Blood on PBS (my wife aptly flagged it).
It's an excellent historical detective drama, set in 1906 Vienna, with the likes of Sigmund Freud and Gustav Mahler making cameo appearances, and astute historical details (we see a disk not a cylinder on the phonograph - the disk, invented by Berliner, would indeed have been playing there and then, not Edison's cylinder, invented, earlier, in the US).

Max Liebermann is a young psychologist in the even younger field of Freudian psychology. Oskar Reinhardt is a detective with a difficult even harrowing personal story (his daughter died and his wife left him).  Their superiors in one way or another are all calcified idiots.  The two make an outstanding team.

Other important aspects of the milieu include anti-semitism - Max and his family are Jewish - and a city which, at this time, was one of the most impressive cultural capitals in the world.  Art, music, and angels in the architexture (to quote Paul Simon) are very much at hand.  But this world also contains demons in the form of human murderers, and that's what this little series is all about:  how an early profiler and a more seasoned lawman can solve crimes and bring the bad guy to justice.

Give that this is a mystery, I won't say anything more about the plot.  I will say that it was well developed and resolved.   I did wonder about a few missing historical details - I didn't spot any automobiles or telephones.   There had to be a least a few of them in 1906 Vienna.  But there was a mention of Jung's "shadow self," which tracks perfectly with history, since Jung sent his Studies in Word Association to Freud in Vienna in 1906.

I'll try to be back here in two weeks with a single review of the next two-part episode.

Prodigal Son 1.9: Freud and Eve

A hot and powerful Prodigal Son 1.9 last week, with lots of sex and death - or, as Freud, mentioned by Bright at the beginning of the episode, would have put it, libido and thanatos.

The libido comes in the form of a sex club, and in the budding relationship between Bright and Eve.  The thanatos comes in the form of the dead bodies that result from the sex club - which Bright and his team investigate - and what Bright almost does to Eve.

The first - the sex club and the investigation - are a good, standard, sex-oriented police story, which includes Bright almost in bondage to one of principals of the club.  The second is much more serious, with lasting consequences for Bright and Eve.

First, Bright, on his first date with Eve, profiles her, which results in her leaving in tears.  But she shows up later.  They have good sex together - presumably, we saw only the aftermath - but when Bright wakes up, with Eve sleeping on his shoulder in bed beside him, things take a turn for the worse.

Bright after awakening goes into his dream state, imagining the woman whom his father killed - the oft-mentioned girl in the box.  Bright breaks away, but she - the hallucination - comes after him.  Bright takes a knife and waves it at her--  but it's Eve, who has awoken, not the hallucination.

Not good for their relationship, to say the least.  Bright has shown himself to be more dangerous than damaged goods.   Bad news for the relationship, good news for the continuing narrative, which continues to get more compelling with every episode.

See also: Prodigal Son: A New Serial Killer ... Prodigal Son 1.2: Dreams or Memories? ... Prodigal Son 1.3: LSD and Chloroform ... Prodigal Son 1.4: Ainsley ... Prodigal Son 1.6: Bad Boy ... Prodigal Son 1.7: Apprentices ... Prodigal Son 1.8: The Mentee

Luther 5.2: "A Chocolate Digestive"

That's what begins Luther and Alice's renewed relationship when she shows up at his doorstep at the end of 5.1 and the start of 5.2.  She tells Luther she wants "a chocolate digestive" before she passes out, and Luther carries her inside his apartment - she's already inside his head - to tend to her wound.

That wound is physical, but the real wound of significance with Alice is the gaping wound her soul, which manifests itself in all kinds of ways, including killing people and loving Luther.  And the strange thing about this, the compelling glue of Luther, is that Luther, or at least a significant part of him, reciprocates in this powerful inchoate attraction.  Therein resides the true glue of this series, and especially this season, as of the end of the second episode.

The two are not quite unofficial partner detectives as yet, but they're verging on it.   Will Luther accede to George's demand for Alice as the price to stop George's beating of Benny Silver?  Luther says yes, but you know he'll never give up Alice - certainly not to George.   Which will leave Alice free to continue doing what she does, including slaying in ways that exceed what we see in Killing Eve, a lot of which is indebted to Luther for the master female assassin that is Alice.

But what makes this season of Luther so good is Alice's logical depravities, and her relationship with Luther, get a run for their money with Vivien and her psycho surgeon husband.   It was Freud who said the surgeon is a sublimated sadist, whose libido is stoked by the lifesaving good that is done in surgery.   The scene with Jeremy doing surgery is an instant classic of Freud writ too large.  His kidnapping of the next victim, though a real not imagined crime, is actually less shocking than Jeremy in the operating room.

Still an open question at the end of this second episode is what exactly is Jeremy's wife, psychologist Vivienne, up to?  We've yet to see a meshing of the Alice/George and Jeremy/Vivienne stories, which will be fun to see.

See also Luther 5.1: Back in Fine, Depraved Form

And see also Luther: Between the Wire and the Shield ... Luther 3.1: Into the Blender ... Luther 3.2: Success ... Luther 3.3: The Perils of Being an Enemy ... Luther 3.4: Go Ask Alice

 

The Orville 2.7: Love and Death

A perfect Orville - 2.7 - for Valentine's Day, which explains why The Orville didn't have a new episode last week.  The powers that be wanted to make sure this episode aired on Valentine's Day.  And they were right.  Love was in the air for Ed and Kelly - or the rekindling of the continuation of their love - and for Talia and a brilliant Moclan engineer, Locar, who comes aboard to refit the ship with a new deflector system.  "Deflectors," the title of the episode, works well, since there are all kinds of psychological deflectors, in addition to the physical, at play in this story.

But this episode is not only about love.  Apropos Freud's libido and thanatos, it's also about death - or, about an apparent murder - of Locar - and whodunnit.   And although I've given a lot of the story away, I'll leave out the resolution of the whodunnit, in case you haven't yet seen this fine hour.

All of this is also set against a theme that goes back to the original Star Trek, about how the prejudices that currently afflict us on Earth play out in the stars in the future among humans and other species.  Locar's attraction to Talia goes against a profound taboo in  Moclan anti-woman culture: the sexual attraction of any Moclan to a woman - a woman of any species.

The Moclan are in many ways like humans on Earth in the 20th century.  Presumably we're a bit more evolved now.  But we come from a past rife with prejudice and viciousness.  And come to think of it, not all current humans are beyond that today.   Not only in less developed countries, but in the so-called most advanced countries and cultures in the world, including right here in the United States.

I guess that's a sobering thought for Valentine's Day.   But that's why I entitled this review "Love and Death," not just "Love". Thanks to The Orville for an outstanding episode that brings this reality to the screen.

See also The Orville 2.1: Relief and Romance ... The Orville 2.2: Porn Addiction and Planetary Disintegration ... The Orville 2.3: Alara ... The Orville 2.4: Billy Joel ... The Orville 2.5: Escape at Regor 2 ... The Orville 2.6: "Singin' in the Rain"

And see also The Orville 1.1-1.5: Star Trek's Back ... The Orville 1.6-9: Masterful ... The Orville 1.10: Bring in the Clowns ... The Orville 1.11: Eating Yaphit ... The Orville 1.12: Faith in Reason and the Prime Directive

1st starship to Alpha Centauri ... had only enough fuel to get there

The Sinner 2.5: The Scapegoat

A strong episode of The Sinner tonight - 2.5 - after last week's episode 2.4, which was also strong, with its God knows what happened to Harry at the end, but I didn't get a chance to review.

The most interesting and possibly the most profound aspect of tonight's episode was the Beacon's literal adoption of the ancient scapegoat sacrifice, in which a poor goat that everyone in the community has loved and cared for is slaughtered in the interest of expiating everyone's sins.  His understanding of ancient Greece, however, is somewhat flawed, when he calls this exercise a "catharsis".  The Greeks were not talking about killing goats but releasing pent-up emotions through art.  Freud later expanded this concept to any human activity that resulted in an emotional release, with an emphasis on safe activities that did this.  So, any way you cut this, the Beacon was somewhat out of his mind or jumbling the truth.  No surprise.

Otherwise, the people in town - just about everyone - are closing ranks in their protection of Mosswood, including getting Harry removed from the case.  This is an old story with Harry - going at least as far back as last season - and he's used to it.   He'll continue to work on this case regardless of how many people want him off it, and it's good to seeing him do just that at the end.

In additional news from the commune, it looks as if Marin was killed at some point, after giving birth to Julian.   But we should've learned by now not to take anything for granted in The Sinner, including conclusions which evidence seems to be pointing at.  All of which is to say I won't be surprised if Marin turns up alive before this season is over, despite that coming attraction of the skeleton being pulled out of the lake.

And here's a prediction, which I guess is pretty obvious:  I think we'll see Vera and Harry in bed before the end, if that hasn't happened already in that black-out for Harry at the end of 2.5.  And, for a variety of reasons, I think that would be a good thing for Harry.

See also The Sinner 2.1: The Boy ... The Sinner 2.2:  Heather's Story ... The Sinner 2.3: Julian's Mother

And see also: The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

 

Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter

Amidst the many stunning wonders of tonight's return of Westworld on HBO with episode 2.1, beginning with Bernard's dissing of Freud (telling Delores that "dreams are noise" and she should ignore them), through Delores's declaration of war on our human world to Teddy, concluding with what Bernard sees and starts to learn in that sea - what struck me as at least partially the most significant and emblematic is Maeve's search for her daughter.

Her return to Westworld, after escaping, at the end of season 1, because she couldn't leave her beloved daughter, set up this part of tonight's episode perfectly.  Maeve is - presumably - freed from her program's dictations.  So why would she choose to go back for her daughter, giving up her hard-won freedom (which, as she aptly says tonight, she killed herself to get, "multiple times"), when her daughter wasn't real, was a part of her programming, and an earlier one at that?  Did Maeve's return tell us that Maeve, after all, was still under the influence of the deepest part of her programming - or did it tell us something far deeper, even more profound?

Tonight, the programmer who Maeve later will oblige to strip naked, literally, tells her that he and his colleagues ("we") were the one who wrote the program ("story") with Maeve's daughter.  Maeve is well aware of at least some of this programming - when she gets off a line about male anatomy, and the programmer tells her he wrote that, too, she observes that the line was a little coarse or "broad".  So what makes Maeve so sure that her daughter is real and not just a character in one of her stories?

The answer gets to the root - or, at least, one of the main tap roots, of the whole Westworld story - that is, the story we're watching on HBO, about an hour a week once again, which I guess would be the ultimate meta-story for the hosts of Westworld (that is, not HBO, but Maeve, Delores, etc).  Is Maeve's daughter just a construct in Maeve's mind, or a little girl host, wth her own story, who was paired with Maeve?  (We know there are children hosts in Westworld - consider the fateful vignette tonight between the Man in Black and the wise little boy, Robert, apparently Ford in kid's clothing.)  Maeve loved her daughter deeply - does such deep emotion make her incapable for distinguishing reality from programming?

The answer to that question - how real is Maeve's daughter - has bearing on the bigger question of Delores's dreams, which have graduated, in her own mind, at least, to visions and knowledge of history which she's sure is true (or so she tells Teddy, but I don't think she's lying to him or playing him).  How much of what Delores tells Teddy is just an expression of a deeper part of her programming, of her quiet, livid fury at humanity - now liberated - and how much is true and real?

Hey, I haven't even talked about what Bernard discovered tonight - I'm sure I'll get to that next week, along with more about the reality quotient of Maeve's daughter and Delores's dreams, which are promising to be anything but noise.

See also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions

 

Almost Human 1.2: Sexbots

Almost Human was back for its second show tonight - about sexbots aka bangbots - and was as good as the first.  Lots of cool future tech on hand - from "DNA bombs" that bad guys use to erase all DNA evidence in a crime scene, to mechanical toy giraffes that move like the real living kind - all wrapped together in a story with heart and style.

Dorian, as we know, is capable of emotion.  He's attracted to a sexbot who is starting to bond with him - as per her programming - but has to be deactivated aka killed, because her skin is made of human DNA, and that's illegal.

The DNA from human skin is the centerpiece of the story and the police investigation, because the DNA is harvested from human woman who are kidnapped and eventually killed in the process.  One might think that, by the 2040s and with all of this tech savvy, human skin DNA could be rapidly grown from a few cells - which could be grabbed from people without they're even knowing - but that's ok. The destruction of the human hosts in suitably future creepy labs lends a Matrix atmosphere to show, a good combination with the Bladerunner vibe.

Apropos Freud and his thanatos and libido as the motivating forces of life, Almost Human also deals with Dorian's attempt to understand the nature of death, which, of course, Kennex doesn't completely get, either, because none of us humans ever do.   Kennex's view that the departed live on in the memories the living carry of them is as good as any view about how to transcend death, and it's better than most.   This helps Dorian come to terms with the death of the sexbot that he never got to make love to, and Kennex with the death of his partner four years ago, as he pays a visit to his partner's home to tell his son about his father.

But back to libido, there's clearly some ahead, at least for Kennex, with Detective Stahl.  And good humor - not one of Freud's basics, but still important - throughout the episode and, in particular, in the future tech guy, who looks and sounds like a young Ducky from NCIS.

I'll be back next week.

See also: Almost Human debuts: A Review





#SFWApro

Vikings 1.5: Freud and Family

A good personal Vikings 1.5 last night, which no big historical events or tie-ins, but plenty of crucially important developments for Ragnar and his family.

We saw the beginning of this last week, when Haraldson, unwilling to let Ragnar get away with the killing of Knut, sends a group of his Viking goons Ragnar's way.  They're back in force this week, slaughtering anyone they can get an axe on in Ragnar's homestead.  This sets in motion a heart-pounding escape piece in which Rangar's combination of mental acuity and physical dexterity gets him and his family out of harm's way.

We also get some valuable insight into Haraldson, and what makes him such a vicious, paranoid leader.  He talks to Siggy about the loss of their two sons, and the brutal way in which they were killed.  His animus towards anyone who challenges him is a transference - that chestnut of Freudian analysis - of Haraldson's inchoate hatred of the killer of his sons.

There's good treatment of women and their relationship to men in this culture as well in this episode.  Haraldson's giving of his daughter's hand - and body - to an ugly old Swedish lord for political reasons is a story we've seen a thousand times.   Far more interesting is what we've seen in a previous episode, when Ragnar and Lagertha invite their captured priest to join them in bed.   In episode 1.5, we see another version of this erotic generosity, as one of Ragnar's crew visits him at Florki's home, where Ragnar is recovering from the serious wounds he received from Haraldson's raiders.  When Floki's woman flirts with Ragnar's man, Floki's first response is "she's taken," hands off.  But later that evening, with the hearth warmly blazing in the cold night, Floki invites  the visitor to join him and his woman.   I tell ya, those Vikings were not just plunder and pillage - they had some really enlightened qualities.

Vikings continues to be one of a kind series on television, providing a lens onto to a little known culture, and offering a riveting story in the bargain.

See also Vikings ... Vikings 1.2: Lindisfarne ... Vikings 1.3: The Priest ... Vikings 1.4:  Twist and Testudo ... Vikings 1.7: Religion and Battle ... Vikings 1.8: Sacrifice ... Vikings Season 1 Finale: Below the Ash

                                      

Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering"

Tonight's excellent Dexter 7.6 was an episode in double entendre.  Dexter tells Hannah he wants to take her out.  She thinks he means on a date.  His voice-over narration tells us he means it as a hit - he wants to kill her in the classic Dexter manner.  But we and he both know he also means something different - close to a date and what can happen after, if the date is not with a serial killer.

I've been figuring all along - see my review last week of Dexter 7.5 - that the contest in Dexter's mind between wanting to kill Hannah and wanting to nail her - in the erotic sense - would be won by the sex.  Obviously there's been a strong sexual attraction in evidence.  It was a close call tonight.   But Dexter is, in his own way, getting better - i.e., a bit more able to break away from his way of life and death.  He did get rid of the trophy slides, after all.  And although Deb's attempt to cure him obviously didn't work completely or even mostly, it seems to have worked a little.

Because tonight, the combination of Dexter's healthy libido and his slight healing of serial killer urges resulted in something far different between him and Hannah.  He knocks her out with his needle and puts her on the table.  He tapes her mouth and body and then removes the tape from her mouth.  He lifts his knife in the classic Dexter way and plunges it-

Into the table and then the tape binding Hannah.  In the eternal battle between libido and thanatos that Freud saw metaphorically waging in all human beings, but which waged in Dexter literally tonight, libido won.  Sex and life won over death.

It was good to see.   Life is better than death.  Dex and Hannah looked good on that table.   When the two were standing outside the amusement park, all locked up, and Hannah asks Dex how they would get inside, he responds - by "breaking and entering".   And you could say that's also what happened in the rest of the episode tonight.  Dexter broke his ritual, and, well, entered Hannah.

Meanwhile, in the other most compelling part of the season, LaGuerta continues her probe of the Bay Harbor Butcher.  Each week we get another facet from Dexter's six earlier seasons.  Tonight is was Jordan Chase, Dexter's target in the Lumen year (Season 5).  Deb even says Lumen's name at some point, inviting a comparison - at least, in my mind - between Lumen and Hannah.

No comparison.  Hannah's much better - and will be a much better ally or whatever for Dexter as LaGuerta closes in.

See also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac

And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Gellar Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview ReviewReviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter 

In Treatment 4: Love and Death

Love and death - libido and thanatos - the two primal urges that push and pull our lives - at least, according to Freud.

And they both play a primal role in Week 4 of the continuing, powerful In Treatment on HBO...

1. Sophie shows up for her session, casts and neck brace off, and looking good. She makes a breakthrough, and begins talking about what she was thinking before and during her accident- but interrupts this to go to the bathroom (this is apparently a time out that patients take, to regroup their energies). But Sophie uses it to ... swallow a whole bunch of sleeping pills. She collapses on the floor of Paul's office, and is rushed to the hospital (we learn in a later episode that Paul talks the hospital docs out of committing her).

But - what is Paul doing stocking his bathroom medicine cabinet with sleeping pills - when he knows patients use that bathroom?

We find out the explanation on Friday, when Paul tells Gina that since he's sleeping on the couch, he put the pills in the medicine cabinet for his use.

So, love - not enough of it, between Paul and Kate - is the reason for Sophie's (second) near death. But the pills in the patients' bathroom are also an indication of how distracted Paul has become, because of another love ...

2. In Alex's incredible episode on Tuesday, we get all the details of Alex's time in bed with Laura, the day after we hear about the same from Laura. The two stories are of course different and similar. I have to say again that the acting in the whole series is superb - but Melissa George as Laura and Blair Underwood as Alex are in a class by themselves, top-notch movie-quality.

The kicker of this essentially two-part episode comes when Alex makes it clear to Paul that Alex may be falling in love with Laura...

This is probably just what Laura wants Paul to think - though, as we know already, and hear him say for the first time on Friday, Paul really needs no more inducement to love Laura - he's already there.

3. The best scene yet between Paul and Gina comes on Friday. She tells Paul she'll always be there for him as a therapist ... Paul now feels comfortable enough to utter the unthinkable - well not unthinkable, obviously, but unacceptable for a therapist - Paul loves Laura, his patient.

A wonderful, emotionally rich - and even satisfying - ending to a stormy week of In Treatment.

As always, I'm looking forward to more.

See also In Treatment on HBO ... 2. Scalding ... 3. Triangle ... 5. Paul's Greatest Strength ... 6. Paul's Boat ... 7. Alex in the Sky with Diamonds ... 8. A Princely Performance ... In Treatment Concludes: For Now

---

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... good reading if you're in a doctor's office...






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