The Madness: A Brilliantly Sane and Relevant Thriller

All eight episodes of The Madness went up on Netflix last week.  This is a good thing -- a savvy thriller like this deserves to be seen in just one or two sittings.  I saw it in two.

Here's its story (and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum).  A rising star at CNN, currently doing guest anchoring, but on a path to get his own show, goes up to the Poconos for a few days of peace (he's doing his CNN gig from Philadelphia).  And, of course, he finds the complete antithesis of peace, getting caught up in a murder involving white supremacists and a billionaire whose company is all about data.  Sounds all too familiar to our real world off-screen, doesn't it.

But to make matters worse -- much worse, with life-and-death consequences -- the local police and the FBI are uninterested in gong after the white supremacists or the billionaire.  They'd both rather go after the rising CNN anchor, Muncie Daniels.  Hmmm ... that also seems pretty familiar to our reality off-screen, in which law-and-order like to take the easy way out.

Especially if they can pin the crime on a black man (in this case, played by Colman Domingo, whom I've seen in Fear the Walking Dead and a few other shows).   Muncie's family is difficult for him, too.  He's divorced, his teenage son is struggling to find his bearings, and Muncie also has a daughter whom he hasn't seen in far too long.  A large part of the story is Muncie's family, and how in their own ways they rally behind Muncie, while speaking much needed truth to him.

A great example comes near the end, when Muncie thinks that by denouncing the billionaire on CNN, Muncie can put an end to his baneful influence and deeds.  His son Demetrius (well played by Thaddeus Mixson) tells Muncie that television does not have the power to change the world for the better.  That right there is a profound lesson indeed -- one that we all should ponder -- especially needed in the world we're all living in right now.

As long as I'm talking about the acting, I'll tell you that I thought it was all excellent.  Marsha Blake as Muncie's ex-wife Elena Powell, Tamsin Topolski as a white supremacist's wife, and Alison Wright as Julia Jayne (I'm deliberately not revealing her role) were especially effective.  And the dialogue is top-notch, too -- at one point, Muncie's lawyer mentions Stringer Bell, one of the best characters ever to appear on television (and the first time I saw Idris Elba).  Hats off to Stephen Belber and the rest of the writing and production people for creating an edge-of-your-seat thriller that couldn't be more relevant to the time and planet we all inhabit.

Hijack: Don't Miss It!

Hey, if you're a fan of Idris Elba, check out Hijack, a seven-episode mini-series just concluded on Apple TV+.   Even if you're not a fan, if you have a pulse and an intellect, you're bound to like it.

I've been a big fan since Elba played Stringer Bell on The Wire on HBO -- I mean, second in command of a drug cartel in Baltimore, who went to night school and read the original Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations?  You can beat that.  There've been lots of shows about drug cartels, but none even remotely like that.

Hijack is about a hijacked plane. Right.  They've been lots of shows about hijacked planes, but nothing quite like Hijack.   Elba plays Sam Nelson.  He's on the hijacked plane.  Good thing for the plane and the passengers.  He's not a marshall.  He's some kind of corporate deal maker.  I'm still not clear what that is.  But the up side of that is that it makes just what Sam will do almost always unpredictable.  He's a good guy for sure, but with an inscrutable agenda, other than saving the plane.

Neil Maskell plays Stuart Atterton, clearly a bad guy, but also with an inscrutable agenda.  The inscrutability of these major characters comes in and out focus, and keeps the viewers almost as much on the edge of their seats as the passengers on the plane.  Ok, the two sides of the screen -- viewers at home and passengers on the plane -- are two different universes, but you get what I mean.  Maskell, by the way, played another inscrutable, charismatic villain -- Arby in Utopia.  

And while we're on the subject acting talent in this mini-series, we get Eve Miles (Keeping Faith) and Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) as minor but memorable characters in the London central control room.  Hey, I've told you nearly nothing about the plot, hence no spoiler warning.  But I will say there are big surprises in every episode, right up until to the very end.

And Hijack gives us one of Elba's very best performances, right up there with The Wire and Luther.  

Kudos to series creators George Kay and Jim Field Smith.

Luther: The Fallen Sun: The Risen Hero

I just saw Luther: The Fallen Sun -- the continuation of Idris Elba's Luther TV series, in a 2+ hour movie on Netflix, and thought it was excellent, in all sorts of ways, for all kinds of reasons.  In fact, minute for minute, I thought it was better than any of the many series we've seen of Luther since it came on the screen in 2010.

[I'll warn you here of spoilers, though you won't find too many here, other than what you see in the blurbs and the trailers.]

So, Luther's in prison, not because he was framed, but because of the corners he illegally cut -- what he "had to do" -- to get the criminals in the past.  His adversary is a brilliant sicko, Robey (played by Andy Serkis), who is adept on the Internet and in torturing and leaving his victims hanging, literally.  One of his victims is a young man, and Luther was on the case but unable to get Robey before Luther was incarcerated.  Fortunately for Luther, the storyline, and the ultimate resolution of this movie, DCI Raine, who is currently investigating Robey without much success, suffers her daughter being kidnapped by Robey.  This is fortunate for the story, because it obliges Raine, who starts out being adamant about not enlisting Luther, and keeping him in prison, to instead welcome him in the frantic hunt.

As most of you no doubt know, Idris Elba was at at one point being considered to play James Bond, but recently actors his age were ruled out of that running.  First of all, Elba looks young enough to me.  More important, he's an outstanding one-of-a-kind actor who played and defined the indelibly memorable Stringer Bell in The Wire and continues to do the same in Luther.  He would have done the same for Bond.   I mention this because the Luther is this story has Bondian aspects, especially in snow and ice-water action near the end of the movie.   The Luther in the TV series rarely if ever made it out of London, if I remember correctly.  The Luther in this movie is now both literally as well as figuratively a man of the world.

But apropos both Bond and previous Luthers, I did miss any love interest (such as Indira Varma's Zoe Luther) or even the partially erotic spark (with Ruth Wilson's Alice Morgan) in this Luther movie.  Maybe that's because two hours is a little too short for such relationships to really start, let alone play out, when there such a demonic psycho to be caught.  But that absence is yet another good reason to make another Luther movie.

See also Luther 5.1: Back in Fine, Depraved Form ... Luther 5.2: "A Chocolate Digestive" ... Luther 5.3: Bitter Fruit ... Luther 5.4: Lethal Love

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

 

Hightown 2.7: Getting Down to Business

Whew, storm clouds really gathering over Cape Cod in last night's powerful Hightown 2.7 on Starz.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Frankie realizes that Jorge was murdered.  He says it's come down to him and Renee against the world now.  He still doesn't know about Renee and Ray.  And it's not one-hundred percent clear how Ray feels about Renee, and what exactly he's doing with her.  He's powerfully attracted to her, and loves to sleep with her, yes.  Probably he really loves her, too.  But he loves his job, too -- his now former job of being a detective, which he wants more than anything else to get back.  Would he use Renee, even sacrifice her, to get back his job?  I wouldn't say definitely, one-hundred percent no.

Meanwhile, Jackie has hit rock bottom, as she tells Ray.  Her rapprochement with her father was short lived, extinguished by his easy willingness to use her as a prostitute.  With no father now added to no lover (Leslie), Jackie turns to Ray for support.  She even wants his support physically, in bed with her. And in the denouement of this great scene, she jokes that it it's ok if they make out, but none of that "dick" business.

In perhaps the only undilutedly positive development, it was good to see Osito's relationship develop with the physical therapist.  It occurred to me, as I saw him reading a book in his cell, that Osito is Hightown's Stringer Bell -- drugsters with a literally literate intellect.

See you back here next week.

See also Hightown 2.1: Switching Ups and Downs ... Hightown 2.2: Some of My Favorite Things ... Hightown 2.3: Dinners and Almost Dinners ... Hightown 2.4: Approaching Midseason Predictions ... Hightown 2.5: Bullets and Love ... Hightown 2.6: True Love and Deception

And see also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry ... Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood ... Hightown 1.5-6: Turning Point and the Real True ... Hightown 1.7: Two Things ... Hightown 1.8: Up and Down and Up

Hightown 2.2: Some of My Favorite Things

 

A top-notch second episode of the second season Hightown tonight.  Among my favorite parts were:

• The body in Nickerson State Park.  We have a house not too far from there.  Oi!
• Osito reading Lean In. Not quite as good Stringer Bell and The Wealth of Nations in The Wire, but definitely headed in the right direction.
• Jackie's in bed with Leslie, after the latter says she likes "dick".  Another win for Jackie's powers of seduction.  Plus, she's coming up in the world of whom she seduces.
• Ray waking up in a car in the street by Renee's (and Frankie's) house.  A daring albeit black-out drunk move.

Now on that issue, it's still not clear that Renee's baby is Ray's.  But I'd say Hightown is spending far too much time on the pregnancy if Ray's not the father.  Which would be a great development for the story, if not precisely for the characters.  If this series or even season had a happy ending, Frankie would end up in prison for life, his cousin would be gone, and Ray and Renee (hey, their names rhyme) could live happily ever after.

But happy endings are hard to come these days in television series in which most of the characters are drug dependent, burned out, heartbroken, or at least two out of three.  Hightown at least does this with the ever rolling sea in the background, or sometimes in the center of the action, as it is when Frankie and cousin Jorge dispose of the guy who brought the heat down on them by selling the deadly drugs to those college kids.   How long will it take before Frankie has to dispose of Jorge?  He'd definitely do that to his cousin, if the choice was Jorge or Renee -- unless Renee and Ray get together, and Frankie finds out.

See you next week.

See also Hightown 2.1: Switching Ups and Downs

And see also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry ... Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood ... Hightown 1.5-6: Turning Point and the Real True ... Hightown 1.7: Two Things ... Hightown 1.8: Up and Down and Up

Bosch Season 7: Can't Let Go

It's the theme song of Bosch (written by Jesse Nolan, performed by Caught a Ghost) because it's the story of Bosch's professional life. It's animated every season in this best cop drama ever on television, and never more so than in it's seventh and final season on Amazon Prime Video.

What Bosch can't let go of is satisfying his profound sense of justice, or bringing to justice the perpetrators of the murders he's investigating and haunted by, or haunted by and investigating.  In season seven, the victim is a 10-year old girl who dies in a deliberately set fire.

The eight-episode season is powerful and memorable for other reasons, too.  Episode six contains one of the most intense short shoot-outs I've seen on any screen.  Paul Calderon is practically shaking with tension and fear as his Jimmy Robertson tries to protect Bosch's beloved daughter Maddie from a skilled hitman who has just taken out a judge who is Bosch's current lover.  The acting, by the way, is superb on the part of every character, both in this scene and the entire series.

Titus Welliver in the title role gives the performance of his career.  Jamie Hector as Bosch's partner Jerry Edgar may be even more than impressive than he was as Marlo in The Wire, which is the biggest compliment in my book, in case you didn't know what I think of The Wire.  Speaking of The Wire, Lance Reddick is always good, and he's as good as ever in Bosch.   I've seen Amy Aquino in a few prior series, but she became an essential character in Bosch.  Madison Lintz has really grown into her crucial part as Bosch's daughter, and I'm looking forward to seeing her in the Bosch spinoff.

Bosch began on Amazon at the dawn of our age of streaming, and helped establish it.  The series went out every bit as strong as it began, something you can't say about every great series.  Similarly, it kept a consistency of character and focus, something you can't say about too many things, period, in this our uncertain age.   But I'm certain I'll be watching the Bosch spinoff, and I'll see you back here with a review of that when it's up on Amazon.

See also Bosch: First Half: Highly Recommended ... Bosch: Second Half as Fine as the First ...  Bosch Season 2: Dragnet with Uber ... Bosch 3: Best Season So Far ... Bosch 4: Delivering and Transcending the Genre ... Bosch 5: Room with a Killer View ... Bosch Season 6: The Best Police on Television ... 

                   another kind of police story 

 

Lovecraft Country 1.2: Malleable Dreams

I decided to watch Lovecraft Country 1.2 tonight - though it was on last night - instead of the first night of the Republican National Convention because, come on, you know which one was the greater horror.

But Lovecraft Country nonetheless had horror a plenty, which I'll talk about in a minute or two, after I go over two of my favorite ingredients.

The music in this series is brilliantly chosen.  I have to give a shout-out to "The End," because the one and only Jimmy Krondes wrote the music all those decades ago.  And, I actually wrote some songs with Jimmy, too, a few years after he wrote "The End".  Here's a YouTube video of one of them - Snow Flurries (#s 38, 59, 86 on this list were also written by Jimmy Krondes and me.)

The other stand-out ingredient is the acting.  I mentioned Jonathan Majors as Atticus, and Jurnee Smollett and Courtney B. Vance in other lead roles in my review of the first episode last week.  The second episode gives us a good  couple of scenes with Michael Kenneth Williams as Montrose, who is Atticus's father.  I've never seen an actor (includes actress) from The Wire in another role who wasn't excellent - I often think that series was the best ever on television - and it was great to see Williams aka Omar Little doing what he does again in Lovecraft Country.  My only regret is that I hope Vance's character (Atticus's Uncle) didn't die.

I don't know the story (haven't read the novel), so I don't know that he did.  But (and here we get to the plot) there's apparently a pretty good chance that anyone who is killed in Lovecraft Country can be brought back to life, if they were even dead in the first place, as long Atticus does what the powers that be want of him.  It worked with Leti (Jurnee Smollett) in this episode.  I'm still not clear exactly what's going on, but apparently a lot of what happens to people are dreams, illusion, or being under spells, which are more amenable to alteration and improvement than real life.

See you back here, I hope, next week.

See also Lovecraft Country 1.1: Racist Police Get Horror Comeuppance

 

 

Motherless Brooklyn: Go Down Moses and Black Lives Matter

The wife and I just saw Motherless Brooklyn on HBO.  It's billed as an Edward Norton movie - he also starred in it - based on the Jonathan Lethem novel.  I didn't read the novel (I was busy writing the sequel to The Silk Code when Lethem's novel was first published in 1999).  But it's just as well.  As readers of my reviews in this blog may know, I like reviewing movies and TV series on their own terms, not on how they compare with the novels or short stories on which they may have been based.  I will say that my wife mentioned that she saw that the Norton movie departed from the Lethem novel in many major ways.

The story in the movie is about Robert Moses, the controversial, legendary builder, responsible for any number of highways in and around New York City (including the Long Island Expressway), bridges, and even Jones Beach. Moses was controversial because it was claimed he ran roughshod over and failed to provide for the poor communities near or over which he erected his great structures.  This accords with the focus and expansion of Black Lives Matter now, at long last happening, though Lethem's novel and even Norton's movie were created long before this happened.

In the movie, Robert Moses is renamed Moses Randolph, and unsurprisingly very well played by Alec Baldwin.  His antagonist is Lionel (nicknamed Brooklyn and long without a mother, hence the title).  Lionel is a detective whose boss is killed, likely because he crossed Randolph in some big way.  Also, Lionel has Tourettes, which makes for an especially memorable character, and gives Norton the opportunity to deliver an Oscar-worthy performance, which he does.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Laura Rose, a pivotal character to Lionel and the movie, and she puts in a winning performance, too.

I also liked the less leading characters.  My favorite was The Wire's Michael Kenneth Williams, who plays a Mile Davis-type character (identified only as "The Trumpet Man") who uses his trumpet in more ways than one. Also, The Trumpet Man and Brooklyn have a conversation about the shared basis of extreme musical talent and Tourettes that is itself worth price of admission.

I should mention that The Wire is in my view sometimes the best series ever on television, and always in contention for that position, and one of the reasons is that its cast was so stellar.   But back to Motherless Brooklyn, it's a satisfying and altogether excellent movie, and I highly recommend it.

 

DNA Nation (Part 3, Chapters 14-17): Two-Edged Swords

I've long held the obvious view that technology is a two-edged sword, ethically speaking: a knife can be used to cut food (good) or cut people (bad, unless the person wielding the knife is a surgeon) (see my "Guns, Knives, and Pillows" in On Behalf of Humanity: The Technological Edge for more).  In Part 3 of the excellent DNA Nation: How the Internet of Genes is Changing Your Lives, Sergio Pistoi looks at some of the dark sides of the revolution in genomics, while keeping his eyes on the astonishing benefits of opening the documents of our DNA that are beginning to come into play.

Pistoi explains that, in contrast to the relatively few deadly diseases (such as Huntington's) which are monogenic or caused by a single harmful mutation, most (including cancers) are multifactorial, "with thick and elaborate plots, where a criminal network of genetic and non-genetic factors conspire to develop the pathology. Think of Breaking Bad, Narcos and The Wire combined – but way more complicated" (p. 121).  Although I and no doubt Pistoi loved those series, the upshot for prevention and control of such illnesses is that identification of a complicit gene tells far less than the whole story.   Pistoi reports on a man who had what was mostly likely unnecessary extensive prostate surgery, after a suspect genetic mutation was flagged in his DNA.

But Pistoi goes on to detail some of the treasure-trove of benefits of DNA testing that are becoming available so fast that Pistoi may need to update his book on at least a yearly basis.  Via "a technique called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnostic ... embryos are obtained in vitro from the egg and sperm of the couple, and DNA tested to select the ones without the mutation” (pp. 123-4).  I still have a book on our shelves called A Fortune in the Junk Pile - about finding valuable antiques in tag sales and flea markets - and Pistoi delves into the value of what was labeled "junk DNA" because it seemed to have no connection to somatic traits.   In fact, this DNA is now known to have the crucial "epigenetic" function of regulating the performance of genes, which allows the "reprogramming" of normal adult cells into stem cells (p. 147).  (As a science fiction author, I was especially glad to see this redemption of junk DNA - my April 1996 novelette in Analog, "The Copyright Notice Case," situated an ancient copyright in our DNA in the junk DNA we all carry; the story is in my 1999 Bestseller anthology).

And, just for good measure, Pistoi tells us that “Our bodies host ten times more microorganisms than our own cells" and "there is evidence that gut bacteria can protect or predispose us to pathologies ranging from inflammation to diabetes and obesity" (p. 149).   I was especially glad to see this, just as with the junk DNA, since my novel The Consciousness Plague hypothesizes that our very consciousness is made possible by communicative bacteria that live in our brains.  Outside of the realm of science fiction, Pistoi notes that bacteria and fungi in our biome add an important dimension to our DNA unveiling.

And I'll be back soon with my concluding review of this book which has updated my knowledge of DNA more than anything else I've read in the past twenty years.  Its overarching message: no food, no medication, can be deemed to be good or right for you, until it's matched to your DNA, a process which is still in its toddlership.

See also: DNA Nation (Part 1, Chapters 1-5): Reconfiguring Your Human Family ... DNA Nation (Part 2, Chapters 6-13): The Extraordinary Revolution and Its Intrinsic Limitations .... DNA Nation (Part 4, Chapters 18-24, Epilogue): Talkative Cookies

                                                    The Consciousness Plague

Luther 5.1: Back in Fine, Depraved Form

Luther was back for its fifth season on BBC America last night.  First and foremost, it stars Idris Elba in the title role, one of my all-time favorite actors since I first saw him in The Wire as Stringer Bell, second-in-command in a drug empire, so erudite he was studying economics in night school and quoting Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations.

The Luther character is a detective genius who has been through the mill in his personal and professional life, which often are the same and almost always intertwined.  As the trailer for this season aptly shows, Luther's wife and young partner were both murdered in previous seasons.   In the first episode of season 5, Luther continues to take a physical pounding, from the likes of a crime boss we saw in fine crafty and brutal form last season, but the apex case is a sadistic serial killer who's getting more frequent and gruesome in his killings.

Luther's opponent here is not just the serial killer, but a shrink, Vivien Lake (played by Hermione Norris, who was so good as Ros on MI5).  Lake is understandably protecting the serial killer, Jeremy, from the police. He's not Lake's patient but her husband, and likely her partner in sexual kinkiness, which may or may not extend to the killings.   At very least, Lake sacrifices one of her troubled patients, James, setting him up to take the fall for the recent spate of murders that presumably her husband committed.   James commits suicide before the police can nab him, but the case isn't closed.  Luther's new partner, Catherine Halliday, shows her mettle and realizes something is not adding up with James as the killer.

So Luther's faced with the fine kettle of depraved fish we've come to expect on this series.  But the knock on his door in the last scene was better than icing the on cake.  It was from Alice, back from the dead, played by the inimitable Ruth Wilson, back from our side of the Atlantic in The Affair.

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

 

Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend

Ray Donovan returned for its sixth season last night, with Ray in New York, and fished out of the river, alive and punching, by a New York cop.   That's not too surprising - no one at all expected Ray to die - but what is of note is how quickly in the hour and the passage of narrative time Ray and Officer Sean ‘Mac’ McGrath become friends and allies.

He's well played - no, perfectly played - by Domenick Lombardozzi, whom I first remember seeing on The Wire.  Hey, it becomes increasingly apparent, year after year, that there were no actors on the The Wire who weren't and aren't superb at their craft.  (Well, the "were" part was clear to anyone who saw The Wire).   If you think about how many subsequent TV series The Wired alum have lit - The Affair, Fringe, etc - not to mention Idris Elba's career as a movie as television actor (his Stringer Bell on The Wire will always be one of all-time most brilliant characters) - The Wired almost seems like the launching pad for at least the subsequent decade and more on the screen.

But back to Ray: he's quieter, more introspective, and I'd say more interesting in New York than he was in Los Angeles.  When he declines Lena's invitation to come back with her to L.A., it's no surprise, and that's not just because he associates L.A. with Abby.   He's like a fish in water in New York, though maybe that's not to best metaphor giving his dive into the water, which he correctly insists was not an attempt at suicide but just following his hallucination of Abby.

Ray in New York is far less connected to his family than he was in Los Angeles, though that may change.   Not only is Lena out of daily sight, but so are Ray's brothers (his kids were already scarce). Mickey's in prison, so he's in his own world, anyway, but the coming attractions show that will change, too.   But for now, Ray has no one in New York that he can trust at all or bond with, which makes Mac all the more important - more important than a replacement for Avi, though that would be pretty important in and of itself.

I'm very much looking forward to this new locale and season.

See Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending

And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption


 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Orville 1.1-5: Star Trek's Back!

I'd planned on catching up on all the episodes of The Orville thus far before writing a review, but episode 1.5 was so good - and a time travel story to boot, my favorite kind of science fiction - that I couldn't wait any longer.  So here's this, and then I'll post another review when I'm caught up, and then I'll review every episode that comes after.

First, let me thank my colleague at Fordham University, Lance Strate, who recommended The Orville to me just last week.  He has a pretty good track record, his best recommendation so far being the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, which was much better than the original and superb.

I'm tempted to say The Orville is to Star Trek: The Original Series as Battlestar Galactica 2004 was to Battlestar Galactica 1978, but that wouldn't be quite right, because: (1) The original Star Trek was one of the best series ever on television, and the first BSG was, if not one of the worst, certainly nothing special, and (2) Battlestar Galactica 2004 was so dark as to be apocalyptic whereas The Orville is laugh-out-loud funny.

That's not surprising, since Seth MacFarlane not only stars in this latter day Star Trek as Captain Ed Mercer but is the creator of the series.  And the jokes are not only funny and continuous, with words like "dick" tossed around in just about every episode, but they don't interfere in the slightest with the outstanding science fiction in every episode, which was the strong suit of the original Star Trek.

In fact, I'd say The Orville is more like Star Trek the original series, truer to its pace and elan and sense of wonder, than any Star Trek since, with the exception of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was in some ways better and some ways worse (and, come to think of it, The Orville is in some ways more reminiscent of the best parts of TNG and its interspecies-diverse crew than it is of TOS).  But everything else that's come since, whether on TV or in the movies, is just not as good, whatever their redeeming qualities.  (Ok, I only saw the first episode of Discovery, because I'm too cheap to pay for yet another streaming service, but that first episode was at best only all right in comparison to the first episode of The Orville.)

I won't summarize that for you - if you haven't seen it, do - but each of the five episodes I've seen so far packs a different kind of punch.  To return to episode 5, it's not quite as good as "City on the Edge of Forever" from TOS or "Yesterday's Enterprise" from TNG -- which are about the two best hours of time travel ever on television -- but it's pretty close, has respect for all the paradoxes of time travel, and like almost all fine time travel, even a thread I don't quite get.  When Kelly confronts Ed about telling the time traveler about Kelly and Ed's marital problems (they got divorced, because Ed found Kelly in bed with an alien who came in blue),  Ed says of course the time traveler knew, she came from the future, and Kelly says no, our problem took place in the past, and Ed admits he told the traveler.  But ... wait a minute, maybe that was a joke!

Kelly, by the way, is played by Adrianne Palicki of Friday Night Lights, and I'm always happy to see a star from that great series on TV again, just as I am about anyone from The Wire.  The crew, by the way, consists of five humans (Ed and Kelly, a woman doctor, and two guys on the bridge or whatever that is), a younger officer who looks like a Bajoran (well played by Halston Sage), a Lt.  Commander of some sort who looks like a Klingon (and lays an egg - not a bad joke, as Ed quips, but offspring), and some kind of highly intelligent android who sounds like Data but looks like the Tinman digital edition and maybe a little C3PO.  There's also an intelligent kind of slime with Norm MacDonald's voice, but I'm not sure if he's part of the crew.  These homages to Star Trek are of course deliberate and delightful, as is the music and the overall feel of the series.

Star Trek's back!

See also: The Orville 1.6-9: Masterful ... The Orville 1.10: Bring in the Clowns


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

The Deuce Season 1 Finale: Hitchcock/Truffaut

Hitchcock/Truffaut, a 1966 book of interviews of film genius Alfred Hitchcock by film genius François Truffaut, is generally recognized as one of the best, if not the best, book about the strategies of film making ever published.  I certainly do, and just this term at Fordham had reason to cite in one of my classes Hitchcock's distinction  between surprise and suspense mentioned in the book.  (Surprise is when the viewer doesn't know what's going to happen - a bomb suddenly explodes on a crowded bus.  Suspense is when the viewer knows there'a a bomb ticking on a crowded bus.  Hitchcock correctly thinks suspense is usually a much stronger way to go.)

So, I was delighted to see Harvey compliment Candy and her film making natural savvy by saying what she was talking about was straight out of Hitchcock/Truffaut.  She of course hadn't read the book, and Harvey knows that.  So his compliment was high praise indeed.  And that's high praise for The Deuce, for mixing a little high culture into its pop culture of pornography.

It was also great to see Clarke Peters holding forth as a retired pimp.  There's of course a lot of The Wire in The Deuce, with David Simon involved, and that includes not only the flow and ambience but the actors.   Peters is having a good year - I was just enjoying his performance on The Tunnel, Season 2, on PBS.  I hope he's a regular character on The Deuce.

But the creme de la creme of this season finale was Harvey and Candy going to see a porn film which all but made the X-rated movie legitimate back then - Deep Throat.   Linda Lovelace played by Heather Cole was there, and I swear I saw the real Andy Warhol there, too, though of course that's impossible (on the other hand, people are saying this is Halloween weekend).

There's powerful, simmering material for a second season, and The Deuce has been renewed.  Count me in.

See also The Deuce: NYC 1971 By Way of The Wire and "Working with Marshall McLuhan" and Marilyn Monroe on the Deuce 1.7 

  
It all starts in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn walks off the set
of The Misfits and begins to hear a haunting song in her head,
"Goodbye Norma Jean" ..

The Deuce: NYC 1971 by way of The Wire

I thought, what's not to like about The Deuce, a new series,  now four episodes along, on HBO?  David Simon and George Pelecanos, best known for The Wire (unarguably one of the best series ever on television) are producers and writers, as is Richard Price (author of the superb Bronx novel, The Wanderers, as well as The Night Of, last year on HBO).  The Deuce even has two great actors from The Wire - Gbenga Akinnagbe and Lawrence Gilliard Jr. - and a riveting storyline about prostitutes and porn back in 1971, with lots of skin in the story.

So what's not to like about The Deuce?  Absolutely nothing - meaning, it's another example of outstanding and unique television, as only HBO and sometimes Showtime, have been able to deliver.  For HBO, The Deuce is very much in The Sopranos, The Wire, and Treme lineage -- meaning, memorable characters, searing narrative, served up with vivid color and style.

Richard Price and his way with words is in evidence all over.  Barely a conversation goes by without an apt phrase and a ringing line.  Simon and Pelecanos come across with their keen eye for detail, as a character mentions Penny Lane as a good song, and the songs playing the background are always bang-on right for the time.  I walked down or close to those New York streets, and nothing in The Deuce looked out of place.

And the characters and their vectors and actors are real and rewarding, too.   Gbenga Akinnagbe portrays a pimp with heart, Gary Carr with maybe a little less kindness but more than enough swagger to make up for it.  Maggie Gyllenhaal is just right as an older prostitute who wants to be in show business aka the porn industry; Margarita Levieva is very appealing as an NYU student who drops out (where I was student just a few years later - too bad I missed her) and into porn or prostitution or maybe not, it's still too to tell; and Emily Meade as the ingenue hooker under C. C.'s thumb (played by Gary Carr) and more, as they may be falling in love, or at least something, is just perfect.

Yeah, and I haven't even mentioned James Franco, who plays a bartender turned bar owner with a heart of gold - with money put up by the mob (with boss played by Michael Rispoli, who played nearly the same role years ago on The Sopranos, but doesn't look a day older) - as well as a gambler twin brother who's not quite as golden, with his typical sensitivity and splash.

The upshot: I'm looking forward to watching The Deuce for a long time.

Bosch 3: Best Season So Far

Binge-watched the third season of Bosch on Amazon the past few nights, and found it better than ever.

Among my favorite parts of this unconventional season of an unconventional hard-boiled LA noir cop series are: a serial killer who comes in and out of the story, and apparently has no connection to the central story lines, rides by Bosch, untouched, and likely to play a central role in season 4; Bosch discovers that he has not solved his mother's murder, and the new suspect is, well, I don't want to give that much away; and, Frank Herbert's Dune makes a cameo appearance.

Bosch has a gut connection to The Wire, and not just because Jamie Hector and Lance Reddick play major roles.   There's nothing in Bosch like The Wire's drug crime and culture of Baltimore, but the police part of Bosch has the same compelling intra-gritty cop story.

Loyalty is always put to the test, in an environment in which almost no detective is thoroughly ethical or reliable.  Bosch epitomizes this - he's par excellence no angel, but someone you'd want on your side and not on your case.  Titus Welliver delivers the best performance of his career - by far - and is well on his way to portraying a character as iconic as Sgt. Friday.  In fact, I'm feeling more and more that this Bosch series of Dragnet meets The Wire will be as significant in our popular culture as those 1950s network television and early 21st century cable series.

Unlike many other fine police shows - such as Chicago PD, which deals with a different case just about every week, and has a Sergeant who is not quite believable in the violence he dishes out - Bosch sticks with its several cases throughout its 10-episode season, with some of those cases even going a lot further than one season.  And the quality of the detective life portrayed on Bosch feels to me more realistic, though I have no direct knowledge myself of what police life is actually like.   It's testament to the writing, acting, and production of the series that it feels so real.

I've enjoyed Bosch from its first season two years ago. But having just seen the third season, I'm thinking Bosch is not only the best police drama now on screen but on its way to being one of the best police dramas ever on television.

See also  Bosch: First Half: Highly Recommended ... Bosch: Second Half as Fine as the First ...  Bosch Season 2: Dragnet with Uber

                   another kind of police story 

Masters of Sex 4.3: Hugh Hefner and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Masters of Sex is back in good form in its 4th season, with an episode - 4.3 - that featured not only Hugh Hefner but Sammy Davis, Jr. in the intro.

Hugh Hefner and the scenes at his mansion have been the best parts of this new season so far.  First, the guy who plays him - John Gleeson Connolly - looks and sounds almost 100% like the Hef we remember.   But his role in this Masters of Sex story is great, encouraging Masters and Johnson to be a couple.   At this point, the coupling is professional.   But Hef and we know that there is much more in store - not to mention what we've seen with our own eyes in previous seasons - and Hugh Hefner is therefore playing the role of the matchmaker, the guardian angel, of what we and history know to be right.

Sammy Davis, Jr. has played no major or even minor role in the overall story so far, but he was a treat to see and hear in Sunday's episode, in an appearance made al the more enjoyable because Sammy was played by The Wire's inimitable Andre Royo.

Meanwhile, the overall rest of the story so far is appealing, and slowly gathering a full head of steam. Mad Men's Rich Sommer (whom I interviewed on my podcast years ago when Mad Men was young) was good to see as a husband with a problem in earlier episodes this season. But the most explosive development so far came from another couple and the wife on Sunday who wanted her husband to be a little more rough in their love-making.  He gives every indication that that's just not in him - until he erupts in violence that brings Masters and his assistant running into the room to stop the action.

The assistants threads - Masters and Johnson each have one, as per their agreement - has possibilities, but their being married, secretly at first, now revealed, is a bit contrived.   But that's ok, as long as the Masters and Johnson story progresses on its rocky road, which I'm eager to see.


See also Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex and Biography Come to Life ...Masters of Sex 3.1: Galley Slaves ... Masters of Sex 3.2: The Shah, the Baby, and the Book ... Masters of Sex 3.3: The Bookstore ... Masters of Sex 3.7: Going Ape ... Masters of Sex 3.9: Calling Hugh Hefner ... Masters of Sex Season 3 Finale: Cliffhanger

#SFWApro

Bosch Season 2: Dragnet with Uber

I just finished the second season of Bosch last night, streaming on Amazon Prime.   Like the first season, this gritty, fast-moving, wise-cracking LA cop series is the living incarnation of Dragnet - that iconic very early television series featuring Jack Webb as Joe Friday - which is to say, very good indeed.

There were some differences between this second season and the first.  Almost no romance - which I missed - but made up for by a stunner in the middle of the season, and one of the best shoot-outs ever on television a little after that.  Indeed, my main complaint about this second season is that it took a little too long to get there, after which the action was lightning on the screen.

The repartee, as it was in the first season, and in Dragnet, was nonstop and top-notch.  It's also pretty hip, with Bosch invoking Uber - not using the app but invoking the name - at one crucial juncture. As was clear in the first season, Titus Welliver inhabits this role with perfect intensity and laconic style, and there's no doubt that, although he's played cops on television often in this past, this will be the defining role of his career.

Jamie Hector is also excellent as Bosch's partner, and although this hasn't quite yet attained what Hector did as Marlon in The Wire, it's a strong contender.   Lance Reddick, whose career also began to catch fire on The Wire, is excellent as always in a top brass role, and in the second season he plays an especially pivotal role.

Back to the lack of romance in the second season, there are also fewer really memorable women on hand.   But this is just one season, and with Bosch already renewed for a third, there's every reason to look forward to stories with all sorts of people in bed in what has become the best cop show on television.

See also Bosch: First Half: Highly Recommended ... Bosch: Second Half as Fine as the First ... Bosch Season 3: Best Season So Far

                   another kind of police story 

#SFWApro