24 Season 8 Hours 3 and 4: The Female Jack

Hours 3 and 4 of 24, Day (or Season) 8, were on tonight with a fine, heart pounding, surprising story.   The two hours actually told two very different, though interconnected, stories ...

In Hour 3:  Omar Hassan (played by Slumdog Millionaire's Anil Kapoor - he reminds me a little of Omar Sharif back in his Lawrence of Arabia days) does the right thing, and supports reporter Meredith Reed's (Jennifer Westfeldt) admission to Hastings that she and Hassan had been having an affair.  But Hastings still think she could be part of the assassination attempt, and is swayed by planted evidence on Meredith's computer.   Only Chloe thinks the evidence may have been planted, but Hastings won't listen to her, and the assassination plan proceeds...

Out in Queens, Jack's doing his best to track and stop the assassin, but he winds up with a gun in his hand and a dead cop and his wife - they were killed by the assassin, who is now taking the slain cop's place in the protection detail for Hassan at the UN.   A Vic Mackey wannabee (actually, Domenick Lombardozzi - Herc  - from The Wire, a fine actor) and his partner played by Johnny Wu take Jack into custody.   Domenick beats Jack, certain that he's a cop killer.  Fortunately, Wu doesn't like this and is just convinced enough by Jack's story to call it in ... This allows Jack to get in touch with Cole at the U.N., and arrive there himself, just in time to -

Save Hassan.   As I say in my review of just about every episode, with 24 you never know...  But it's clear now that Cole is a major, valuable CTU agent, able to think and act almost as fast as Jack, and drive a wild car to stop an assassination with the best of 'em.

On to Hour 4:  There's almost always a bad guy behind the bad guy we've been dealing with on 24, and we soon meet that guy and his son (played by David Anders - Alias's Sark! and he just appeared in a reprise of Hiro's arch enemy in Heroes tonight).   There's weapons grade uranium involved, but Jack's still determined to get back to L.A. ... but hey, this is 24, as in 24 hours, so that's not gonna happen just yet.

But the real reason is the not the uranium but a radioactive relationship that didn't quite happen last year - between Renee (Annie Wersching) and Jack.  Here's my take on last year (Season 7): the two are attracted to each other, even love each other, should sleep with each other already.   Other elements:  Renee didn't approve of some of Jack's violent methods last year, but by the end of the year, well, maybe she had been transformed.

We find out just how much tonight.  She's called back from private security to help get to the Russian gang (the father and son) who are behind the uranium dealings.  Jack doesn't think she's ready to get back into the cross fires.   Hastings and Renee ignore his advice.   Jack won't be going to LA just yet.  He's going to go in with Renee.    She's not thrilled about having a babysitter, but, like I said, she feels something real for Jack so I'd say she's mostly glad he'll be with her.

So the two go out on the mission together.  And in Renee's very first interaction with a bad guy, she gets a little frustrated, and cuts his hand off!

This is the first time in the series that I can recall Jack partnered with a woman who has less patience with bad guys than he does.    Should be a riveting day for Jack and Renee and all else concerned.  (By the way, Chloe's better than ever.)


6-min podcast review of 24

See also Season 8 reviews: Hours 1 and 2


And see also Season 7 reviews: Hours 1 and 2 ... Hours 3 and 4 ... Hour 5 ... Hour 6 ... Hour 7 ... Hour 8 ... Hour 9 ... Hour 10 ... Hours 11-12 ... Hour 13 ... Hour 14 ... Hour 15 ... Hour 16 ... Hour 17 ... Hour 18 ... Hour 19 ... Hour 20 ... Hour 21 ... Hour 22  ... Hours 23-24 

And see also Season 6 reviews: Hours 1 and 2 ... Hours 3 and 4 ... Hour 5 ... Hour 6 ... Hour 7 ... Hours 8 and 9 ... Hour 10 ... Hour 11 ... Hour 12 ... Hour 13 ... Hour 14 ... Hour 15 ... Hour 16 ... Hour 17 ... Hour 18... Hour 19 ... Hour 20 ... Hour 21 ... Hour 22 ... Hours 23-24

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Big Love 4.2: Politician or Prophet?

A blockbuster episode 4.2 of Big Love last night, which moved the story further along than most sets of 3 or 4 episodes in the previous seasons.

The main narrative revolved around Bill's imminent future.   Nikki (congrats to  Chloë Sevigny for the well-deserved Golden Globe last night!)  and Joey (who is back) want Bill to become the next prophet at Juniper Creek.   Bill's grandfather (Lois's father) was prophet (and was likely killed by Roman), so history fuels Nikki and Joey's certainty that Bill should step up.  They're passionate about this.  Two of the best scenes last night were Bill's separate conversations with his second wife and (presumably) his only full brother.  But Bill has another idea.

He has received a powerful revelation: the only way he can make life safe for his family, safe from the pressure and witch-hunting of the current world, is to run for office.  If he wins, he'll be on the inside of the political machine, and he'll have a chance of moving it away from its increasing crackdown on Bill's way of life.

The family is stunned.   Won't Bill's running for office bring more bad attention down on them, and have precisely the opposite of the consequence he wants?   Barb needs time to think about this.   Nikki wants Bill to become the new prophet.   Margene, who's often the most sensible and practical, is the most clear and straightforward in her opposition - she sees the illogic in running for office when you're married to three women.   But she's not in favor of Bill's becoming the new prophet, either.  In one of her best lines, she says she's more interested in profits than Bill being prophet.  And, she's already made $10,000 in her new TV sales work, and stands to make more than a hundred grand in a year.

By the end of the episode, Bill comes to a conclusion: he's going to run for office.  The best way to protect his family and his way of life is not to hide, he says, but take it public, to the max and the mats of a political campaign.    They'll need to keep their family secret a little longer, but whenever it comes out, the worst charge that could be brought against Bill would be a misdemeanor - not enough to prevent him from running or serving in office.

I think Bill made the right decision.  It's consistent with his character to push back on people and forces that challenge and try to oppress him and his loved ones.  In his own way, he is a truer expression of the American dream, and its spirit that anything is possible if you follow your deepest vision, than most other people.   I think his turn to politics is one of the best developments on the series.

The other big event last night was Sarah's marriage.  As we saw last year, Bill is a loving father, who is able to surmount his misgivings and accept Sarah's relationships.   In a great last scene, Sarah and Scott get married in the communal back yard, by a Justice of the Peace, as the family looks on under the stars.

But Teeny's still missing in action.   She was on the phone in 4.1, but no one said a word about her not coming to her sister's wedding.

And beyond the family, various kinds of dangers are percolating, with Alby, J. J., and others moving in their nefarious ways.

We should be in for some great Big television in the coming weeks.


6-min podcast review of Big Love

See also Big Love Season 4 Start with Casino, Psycho, and Birds

See also: Big Love, Season 3 ... 1. a 4th ... 2. Two Issues Resolved, Two Not So Much ... 6. Exquisite, Perfectly Played ... Big Love Season 3 Finale: Bigger Love ...

And from Season 2: 2: Oh, Happy Day, and Not ... 3: Sons and Mothers ... 4. Help Me, Rhonda ... 5. The Waitress and More... 6. Just Lust ... 7. Margene's Mama ... 8. Polygamy and Misgivings ... 9. Swing Vote Margene ... 10. Polygamy as the Ultimate Cool/Bad ... 11. Family in Crisis ... Big Love Season 2 Concludes

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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

24 Season 8 Hours 1 and 2: Stop-Watch, Heartbeat Perfect

Another superb 24 2-hour premiere tonight - 24's been making a good habit of that.

Here's the set-up.   Remember the protests in Iran last June, over a good-guy being robbed of his election win?  Well, let's say he hadn't been robbed - let's say the good guy had won, wants peace, and is now at the U.N., negotiating the nuke disarmament of his country with President Allison Taylor, in return for  a bushel of American aid.   The bad guys would want to kill him.

Meanwhile, Jack's also in NYC, about to leave for L.A. with Kim, her husband Stephen, and their sweet little daughter, Terry (named after Jack's wife, stunningly killed at in the finale of the very first Season or day of 24).  You know that Jack's not going to get to L.A. just yet.   But the way he's delayed is, so far, about as stop-watch and stop-heartbeat perfect as a TV show can get.

In the first hour, Benito Martinez (played Captain to Mayor just right in The Shield) comes to Jack with a story about an assassin's plot against Iranian President Hassan.  He's wounded, Jack believes him.   But Jack's attempt to bring him in is blown up - literally - when the helicopter that CTU (re-established and now in NYC) sends is taken out on the roof, right before its pick-up of Jack and the informant, who dies.   The last thing he tells Jack is that the assassin is on the inside, and close to Hassan.

On to Hour 2.   In addition to who the assassin is, a question immediately arises about why the roof extraction team had no protection.   Freddie Prinze, Jr plays Agent Cole, who presses Director Hastings about this back at CTU.  (Hastings is played Mykelti Williamson - who had one of the best minor roles in one of my all-time favorite movies, Heat.)   I think Hastings is someone to watch - it's hard to believe that a Director could be a bad guy, but on 24 you can't rule anything out.

Also back at CTU is Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackoff - looking good and pretty high up on the team - playing Dana Walsh (she's actually Jenny, but that's another story which hasn't fully kicked in yet).  She's supposed to marry Cole, and is supervising Chloe, who's having a bit a trouble learning all the latest computer programs - she just came back to CTU - but Chloe's sharp enough to realize that Hastings' pick for the assassin (an American reporter that Hassan is having an affair with) may not be the culprit, even though lots of evidences points at her.

In one of the best scenes of the evening, Jack wants to leave CTU and get to the airport to fly to L.A. with Kim and family.  Chloe pleads with him, saying that she's always helped him when he'd called on her over the years (that's exactly what I thought she should tell him).  But Jack says no.   Kim comes to the rescue - she'd called Chloe to find out what was going on - and tells her father it's alright if he needs to come to L.A. a day later in order to save the world.   It was probably Kim's best scene in the series - she's finally grown up (she was on her to doing this last season), and Jack and Chloe were letter perfect in their responses.

24, against all odds, looks to be well in the way to re-inventing itself for another season of fresh, smart, adrenalin-pumping television.   It has been one of my top five television favorites since Day One - often my favorite - and it's going to be another contender this year, too.

Fortunately, we'll get the next two hours tomorrow night! And I'll be back within 24 minutes of the show's conclusion with my review.



6-min podcast review of 24


See also Season 8 reviews: Hours 3 and 4

And also Season 7 reviews: Hours 1 and 2 ... Hours 3 and 4 ... Hour 5 ... Hour 6 ... Hour 7 ... Hour 8 ... Hour 9 ... Hour 10 ... Hours 11-12 ... Hour 13 ... Hour 14 ... Hour 15 ... Hour 16 ... Hour 17 ... Hour 18 ... Hour 19 ... Hour 20 ... Hour 21 ... Hour 22  ... Hours 23-24 

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House 6.10 Back in Business with Good Humor and Guest Stars

Good to see House back in play in episode 6.10 on Fox on Monday.  It was a light House, at least as far as major characters are concerned.   Wilson's trying to hook-up with attractive neighbor Nora, who demurs because she thinks he and House, living together as they do, are gay.  House exploits this to try to nail Nora on his own, but Wilson's poignant proposal to House when House and Nora are on a date blows this for House.  Meanwhile, Taub, Thirteen, and Chase make Foreman think he's earning less than they are; he turns this into a double fake-out of guilting them to each contribute a little to his salary, as the price for his not leaving for another job, which he didn't intend to do in the first place.

There was good guest star power in this episode.   It was good to see Sasha Alexander as Nora - I liked her even better in this exuberant role than the too-serious Kate in NCIS.   And Ethan Emby - who played Declan, the troubled detective, in the late, lamented Brotherhood - was good to see as a cop undercover with a drug ring and a disease that even House can't cure.

House continues to be one of the most original, riveting shows on television.


5-min podcast review of House

See also House Reborn in Season Six? ... 6.2: The Gang is Back and Fractured ... 6.3: The Saving Hitler Quandary ... 6.4: Diagnosis vs. Karma ... 6.5 Getting Better ... 6.6 House Around the Bases ... Four's a Crowd on House 6.7 ... House 6.8 and the Reverse of Flowers for Algernon ... House 6.9: Wilson

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Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Rent-a-Car, eBags, eHarmony, eMusic, Nutrisystem

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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 

Nasty Guns and Dexter's Dad in Numb3rs 6.12

A fine Numb3rs 6.12 on CBS tonight, featuring Dexter's father - Harry aka James Remar - as a arms dealer who discovers his heart.

The catalyst of the action is a shipment of guns which aren't worth much on the battlefield - they're unstable - but have a quality that can wreak havoc in the city. The bullets can rip through cars, sides of houses, and kill people far beyond usual range who were no one's intended victims.

The FBI has enough problem hunting down killers who are aiming at their intended victims, so getting these guns off the street and out of circulation has some urgency. Charlie has some good moments with trajectories, and David works his persuasive, humanizing influence on the arms dealer (Remar as Randall Priest).

Meanwhile, Charlie and Amita finally set a date for their marriage - and it's not based on mathematics. It's the date that Charlie and Don's parents married - their anniversary - and it sure sounded like October. I hope CBS lets us all see the wedding this Fall.

Meanwhile - oy vey! - the road to true love, if that's what it is, is not running smooth for Don and Robin. He ask her to marry him, saying "it makes sense". Robin understandably declines this lame proposal.

But she does love Don, and he likely her, so who knows, we may see a double wedding in October, if we see any at all...

See also Numb3rs: A Review

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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 

New New Media to the Rescue in Haiti

Business Week carries the welcome news that Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been playing a major role in getting donations to Haiti.

These social media - or, what I call "new new media" - played major roles in getting information out of Iran in June 2009, and have done the same in Haiti since right after the earthquake. For many broadcast and cable media, the only way of getting video out of Haiti in the day after the earthquake was via Skype, which requires not broadcast tower or even electricity beyond the battery in a mobile phone. That in itself was a revolutionary, crucial event in the coverage of disasters.

But now social media are also helping raise money for Haitian relief - the American Red Cross reports more than $36 million raised through texting. The key advantage of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in these desperate circumstances is that potential contributors can be reached anywhere they may be, via alaptop or mobile web device that provides an easy way to contribute via PayPal. As the Business Week article aptly termed it, the result is smaller contributions from many more people than usual.

Natural disasters are facts of life on this planet that can never be completely prevented. But as indicated in Haiti, our newest media are daily, hourly providing better ways of recovering, of helping our planet heal.

Feed Hungry Children in Haiti on Facebook

Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles

Tonight's Bones 5.11 was more like the X-Files than was Fringe tonight, as Bones and Booth do a pretty good Scully and Mulder - hey, it's all in the FBI family - with a case out in Roswell, New Mexico.

But the best part of the episode, I thought, was what happened back in Washington with Angela, Jack, and Wendell.   No, not quite a menage a trois.   But Angela and Wendell are definitely hooked up (lucky Wendell), and the question is how Jack will take this.   In a next-to-last scene that played like a Hitchcock mise-en-scene - meaning, great, in film making - Angela and Wendell are together in a bar, and the camera pulls back to reveal Jack looking at them through the window.  He turns and walks away, and the expression of his face says that this is not the end of it for him and Angela at all, whatever he and Angela may say.  Good.   I think the two belong together, and sooner or later Angela will see that.

Meanwhile, back in New Mexico, we get a fine tableau of all the various characters in UFO land, plus, of course, the murderer.   My favorite was the "important" blogger, characterized by Booth, as "important blogger - that's an oxymoron".

It was my favorite line in the show - I'm always on the lookout for good material for the second edition of New New Media, about how television writers love to take shots at blogging, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Wikipedia (this is a major theme in the current, first edition, which also talks about the part MySpace played in an excellent episode of Bones a few seasons ago).

I don't hold Booth responsible - he had to say what writers told him to say.   But he needs to be careful not to start sounding too much like Sarah Palin...
 


6-min podcast review of Bones

See also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10

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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 

Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chianti, with Hints of Star Trek, Twilight Zone & Arthur C. Clarke

A really heart-warming, outstanding episode 2.11 of Fringe tonight - this one definitely moving forward in this, our universe and Fringe's second season, and providing some of the best development of Walter's character we've seen in almost two years.

The story is another fine take of 1950s science fiction, with a neat 21st-century twist.  A town named Edina has people who look deformed - sometimes.  Are they "metamorphs," beings like werewolves who can transform themselves, either at will or under the influence of moonlight or something else?  Not quite.  The first hint we get of the truth is a beautiful butterfly which may really look like a bedraggled moth.  It's unlikely the moth willed itself to look better.

But was moonlight the cause?  Not quite that, either.  Walter realizes what's really happening, as he remembers a US Army piece of research he worked on briefly in the 1970s - an attempt to render soldiers invisible by scrambled the optic nerves of all who see them.  The experiment failed, and also left all inhabitants of Edina (where the research was being conducted) badly disfigured.   The head scientist did his best to remedy this:  he created an electromagnetic pulse which fooled the eyes of everyone who lived in the town, everyone who visited the town, into not seeing the inhabitants as disfigured.   The town people could live quiet, normal lives, which could withstand the scrutiny of any one who happened by.

The plan, which has worked for years, begins to unravel when a boy - reminiscent of the kid who was able to literally change people's minds in Episode 2.7 (another excellent episode this season) - tries to leave town.  A cop from a neighboring town picks the boy up on the road.  The boy's true face becomes visible as the car leaves town, people from Edina can't let people outside the town know the truth, and several police are killed.

After Walter solves the case - quoting what an old "friend" said about "any sufficiently advanced technology [being] indistinguishable from magic" (that would be Arthur C. Clarke, cool tie-in!) - Walter pleads with Broyles not to report the discovery, so the people of Edina can return to their quiet lives.  It's a great moment, for Walter, who's been a showing more heart and less insanity with every episode, and Broyles, who grants Walter's request.   Like the ending of The Menagerie on Star Trek, the ending of this episode of Fringe gives the disfigured the opportunity of continuing to live their lives with their saving illusions.  (This episode also reminded me of the classic Twilight Zone "Eye of the Beholder" episode, though most of the two stories are quite different.)

And as a coda, Walter tells Peter that he's grateful that Peter has chosen to see Walter in a good light, which shines a light on the question of how long will Walter be able to keep Peter from knowing his true identity - unless, maybe, Peter already knows it.



5-min podcast review of Fringe

See also Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ...  New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe?

See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best

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Three Cheers to Google for Standing Up to China

Three cheers for Google's momentous decision to no longer go along with the Chinese government's attempt to censor the results of Google searches. The current regime in China has a long and disgraceful record of limiting the access of its own people to international information. Like the worst totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, the Chinese government - which has progressed in many other ways - continues to try to keep its people in a bubble of carefully controlled information.

As the Soviet Union found with samizdat video and even Nazi Germany discovered with the brave White Rose, such attempts at controlling information, of treating your people like children or prisoners, do not work. Sooner or later, information breaks through. Fortunately for freedom, information is inherently corrosive to oppressive regimes.

I was disappointed that Google ever agreed to play ball in the first place with the Chinese government. But Google has made up for this now, with a courageous stand that will ultimately help bring the most populous nation in the world fully into the 21st century. Whatever ad revenue Google may lose by not being currently available in China will be more than made up by the great boost to democracy and freedom of expression that Google's action proclaims.

And, in the long run, likely sooner than later, not only the rest of the world but China will thank Google for pressing it to step up to our new century of information, to become a full participant in our world of new new media, where increasingly anyone anywhere can be not only a consumer but a producer.

Heroes 4.15: The Chess Game Continues

Another deeper, humanistic Heroes – 4.15 – last night, as we meet Sam’s lost love for the first time.  She’s played by Battlestar Galactica’s Kate Vernon, who’s a lot more vulnerable than Tigh’s wife, at least most of the time.

She doesn’t want to talk to Noah about Sam, until Matt changes her mind the good old-fashioned Heroes way – getting into her mind, literally, and changing it.   This a profound revival for Matt, who had been determined to stay in retirement.  Fortunately for us – Matt’s always been one of the more interesting characters – Noah brought him to his heroic senses.

Noah’s also making some good progress with Lauren – and/or she with him – and they even start kissing last night, until they’re interrupted by the three musketeers, aka Hiro, Ando, and Suresh,  who materialize out of space and time in Noah’s room.   Hiro’s brain has been unscrambled, so he’s able to navigate through space and time again, but who knows for how long.  One good sign, though, is Suresh is taking an interest.  With any luck, he may be able to effect a cure.  But knowing Heroes, it’s likely to come with some kind of steep price, for Suresh, Hiro, who knows.

The other significant woman in Sam’s plan, not yet among the carnival people, is the cello player.   Peter and Mamma Petrelli see that cello doing serious damage to the world, so Peter smashes it.  But, of course, this only makes the cello player unlikely to listen to anything Peter has to tell her, which makes it only more likely that she’ll move further under the influence of Sam, who told her he gave her the beloved cello in the first place.

The intricate chess match that is Heroes this year continues, and Sylar is barely on the board yet.


5-min podcast review of Heroes


See also Heroes Season 4 Premiere: Metaphysics, University, Carnival ... Heroes Meets The L Word in 4.5 ... Heroes 4 Mid-Season Finale  ... Heroes Season 4 Resumes

See also reviews of Season 3 Heroes Gets Lost ... Heroes 3 Begins: Best Yet, Riddled with Time Travel and Paradox ... Sylar's Redemption and other Heroes and Villains Mergers ... Costa Nuclear ... Hearts of Gold and the Debased ... Seeing the Future Trumps Time Travel ... Superpowered Chess with Shifting Pieces ... Villains and Backstories ... The Redemption of Sylar ... Thoughts on the Eclipse, Part I ... The Lore of the Comic Book Store ... Hiro's Time Traveling Closure ... Augmented ... Shades of Recalibration ... Baby, Rebel, and Last Fantasy ... All that Shape Changes Remains the Same? ... Season 3 Finale: Hopeful Deceptions

Reviews of Season 2 Heroes: Episode 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 7. Heroes Meets 12 Monkeys ... 9. How Immutable Are Fate and Isaac's Futures? ... 10. Penultimate for the Fall ... Heroes 2 Finale: Heroes Who Didn't Survive

And from Season 1: Heroes in Focus ... Heroes Five Years Gone: Triumph of Time Travel and Comics ... Heroes the Hard Part: Only the Pictures Not the Words ... Heroes Landslide: Winnowing and Convergence ... Heroes Volume One Finale

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Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Rent-a-Car, eBags, eHarmony, eMusic, Nutrisystem

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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 

New Fringe on Monday Night - In Alternate Universe with Dybbuk?

Fringe is on Thursday nights on Fox. But a new episode was shown this evening - Monday - advertised as an all new Fringe. The first hint that this was more than new came in the opening credits. Kirk Acevedo's name was there. He played Olivia's erstwhile partner Charlie Francis - erstwhile because Charlie was first killed, then came back inhabited by one of the alternate universe bad guys (presumably William Bell's current haunts - though maybe the bad beings are attacking both Bell's and our universes).

So I thought, when I saw Acevedo's name ... hmmm ... maybe the bad guys are putting in our universe another Charlie clone, ala the Terminator. But no, this clearly wasn't the case, because Olivia seemed perfectly at home with her former, possessed, doubly deceased partner.

What was going on? One closer inspection in the realm of extra-fiction - meaning, outside of the show on Fox tonight itself - we find on Fox Flash  (see about 1/4 down the page) that tonight's Fringe is a "SPECIAL UNEARTHED EPISODE FROM SEASON ONE." Ah ha! That certainly explains Charlie and Olivia's lack of alarm (to say the least) about him. But why would Fox just slip in this out-of-season (though not especially out of sync) episode from last year? Contempt for Fringe's audience? Well, maybe not ... Fox Flash concludes its blurb about tonight's Fringe as follows: "is it an unaired episode from Season One or is it from an alternate universe?"

Ah, alternate universe! Now we're talking. Fringe has already established that, in its (our fictitious) universe, there are other, parallel, alternate universes. One is William Bell's. But there could be others. So maybe tonight's episode was a story in an alternate Fringe universe, in which Charlie never died, not even once, and is still Olivia's partner.

Once I started focusing on this hypothesis, I noticed some other differences. A character commented on Olivia and Peter's possible romantic involvement - you don't see that too much in our universe. And Walter seemed a lot less crazy. I'm just sayin...

The story itself - in whatever universe - was good tonight. A young woman who's near death (or maybe has died) because of an aneurysm is vulnerable to her brain/mind/soul being taken over by a discontented soul whose body had just been murdered. The play on the Yiddish dybbuk story has a top-notch confrontation between Walter and a priest, who argue over explanations based on science verses those that come from faith. And the ending, in which the soul is freed from the young woman, only to inhabit someone else has almost or just died, makes perfect sense, since the soul has not yet gotten its revenge on its body's murderer.

So, kudos to Fox not only for putting this show on, but tying it in the Fox Flash to the alternate universe possibility. Ordinarily, I'd be a little annoyed by such television programming mind games. But, in this case, I-

Wait a minute, this just isn't like me. Am I in some alternate universe right now? How about you?

Whatever universe I'm in, I hope Fringe at some point in one of its futures puts in some little reference to tonight's story, just to make these meta-connections even more intriguing.


6-min podcast review of Fringe

See also Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon

See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best

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Big Love Season 4 Starts with Casino, Psycho, and Birds

Well, I missed the Beachboys and the skating on cracking ice at the beginning, but otherwise, what a splendid return of Big Love for its fourth season on HBO this evening!

Harry Dean Stanton puts in what is likely one last performance as Roman Grant, in the flesh - but it's been frozen, courtesy of Adaleen, and placed in a chair in a pose reminiscent of Norman's dear mother in Hitchcock's Psycho. She's been writing checks and doing business under his name, which attracts the FBI, and a whole lot of aggravation for both Alby and Bill.

Alby, however, may have an ace in the hole, with the new trustee of Juniper Creek. The two have a romp in the woods, prior to either knowing who the other is. Lots of room here for some good story complications.

The FBI dogging Bill may ruin his new casino partnership with the Blackfoot Indians, but so far so good. Kenny Rogers was supposed to sing "The Gambler" at the opening, but Ben and his band step up when Kenny's plane is delayed, and Ben does a great job with the song. The patrons certainly liked it, and gambled away a whole bunch of money.

Bill's relationship with Nikki may at last be soon "repaired," to use that great term of Barb's for sleeping together again. Margene certainly hopes so, she's been picking up Nikki's "share" - "not that I mind," Margene adds, but still.

Zeljko Ivanek's back as Nikki's first husband and the father of their teenaged daughter. At this point, he's apparently off Heroes and Damages, but still on True Blood and it's good to see him in Big Love. With Harry Dean off the show, Zeljko's an excellent addition to Bruce Dern and Grace as inimitable Big Love creepy, crazy characters. Ok, Frank and Lois are sometimes endearing, too, and there were some fine scenes tonight with parrots.

So Big Love is off to a fine new season. And, hey, though I did miss the Beachboys, it was good to hear Johnny Cash singing "Walk the Line" as Frank drove into town.


6-min podcast review of Big Love

See also: Big Love, Season 3 ... 1. a 4th ... 2. Two Issues Resolved, Two Not So Much ... 6. Exquisite, Perfectly Played ... Big Love Season 3 Finale: Bigger Love ...

And from Season 2: 2: Oh, Happy Day, and Not ... 3: Sons and Mothers ... 4. Help Me, Rhonda ... 5. The Waitress and More... 6. Just Lust ... 7. Margene's Mama ... 8. Polygamy and Misgivings ... 9. Swing Vote Margene ... 10. Polygamy as the Ultimate Cool/Bad ... 11. Family in Crisis ... Big Love Season 2 Concludes

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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

A Conversation with Dominic Chianese - The Sopranos' Uncle Junior

Here, at last, is a more or less verbatim transcript of the interview that David Lavery and I conducted with Dominic Chianese - Uncle Junior of The Sopranos - at The Sopranos: A Wake Conference at Fordham University in New York City on May 23, 2008. The conversation also includes 24 questions from the audience. Thanks to Giselle Isner for the transcription.   (April 21, 2011: Video now posted of the complete conversation - see it here.)

A Conversation with Dominic Chianese - The Sopranos' Uncle Junior
Pope Auditorium, Fordham University, Lincoln Center campus
Conference: The Sopranos: A Wake
May 23, 2008
 
Chianese:  Dominic Chianese
Levinson:  Paul Levinson
Lavery:  David Lavery
AM:  audience members
 
Levinson:  Welcome to Fordham University and our conference on “The Sopranos: A Wake.” For those of you who may not know me, my name is Paul Levinson. I’m Chair of the Department of Communication and Media Studies. In fact, I’m ending my second and final term as Chair and I can’t think of any better way to end it than doing a conference like this and in fact this very panel that you’re soon going to hear, with the two people seated at the table.

Let me introduce you to probably the lesser known person, [audience laughter] but certainly a very significant person, and actually he is someone who helped put together most of this conference. In fact he was here with me and the other people who put together this conference back in September 2002, when we had a little vest pocket conference on The Sopranos. His name is David Lavery, and he [audience applause]…He certainly deserves a round of applause. He has edited two books about The Sopranos. One of which I am especially fond of because an essay of mine is in there, but the other book is pretty good too. I would say there’s probably no one in the world who knows more about television - not just The Sopranos, but Lost, Buffy, Heroes - than David Lavery. So I am very happy that David is here with us.

And sitting next to David is someone who was born in the Bronx in 1931. Actually I was born in the Bronx too just a few years after that - not that many years after that. He may look familiar to you because in The Godfather II, you may recall that tall sinister figure, Johnny Ola [applause], but of course he’s probably far better known, in addition to that role and other distinguished roles over the years, for the part he played in The Sopranos as Uncle Junior [applause], otherwise known as Corrado Soprano.

And when I was speaking to Bob Milang the other day, when he called me and we were discussing Uncle Junior coming to this conference, I said to him I thought that that character in many ways was the heart and soul of the show. It was such a wonderful show, there were so many important characters, but there was something about the Junior character that brought out aspects of the show that no other character did. Now the actor has a name other than Uncle Junior, and his name is Dominic Chianese, so we are going to have an interview with Dominic ... well, really not so much of an interview, more a discussion in which both David and I will ask questions and I encourage Dominic to answer however he pleases, however short or long because far be it from me to ever tell Dominic what to do, but then, you know, we want to this to be a group experience as well, so we will leave a lot of time for all of you to ask questions. By the way, we do have another member of The Sopranos cast here in the audience, Katalin Pota. You may remember Lilliana [applause]... She played the housekeeper on The Sopranos, so we’re glad to have her here as well. All right, let's then go to the discussion. I am going to sit down right at that table, and I’ll ask the first question and we’ll see how it goes.
 
Why don’t we start at the end if that’s okay. One of the things that struck me with the final season of The Sopranos was the diminished role that Uncle Junior had on that show, and I was wondering if you could perhaps speak to that. How did you feel about approaching that as an actor? Were you disappointed in that? Did you think the story called for that?
 
Chianese:  You speak specifically about the ending?
 
Levinson:  Yes, we can talk specifically about the very last minutes of the show, and also the whole final season.
 
Chianese:  The final season…well I think the ending is a good indication of, I think of what David [Chase] was trying to write, in my opinion. I noticed that when we read the script, the final script, we were amazed at the quietness of the ending. However, when all the actors read the final script, there was no indication that there would be a blackout for maybe 15 or 20 seconds. We just thought they’d end up having an ice cream soda and onion rings together, and that was it. Finito, complete, you know. Even David said, “Why not?” So we were all surprised when the blackout came. My wife and I thought, of course, we had lost television. But, my daughter pointed something out to me, which I think is very interesting. David – the greater genius that he is – he may put clues sometimes, and we don’t realize it. If you remember, she told me….I haven’t checked on it, but if you go home and check on the jukebox that he was playing at the table,  it had a song in it – “Don’t Stop Believing,” or something like that. There was a “B” side to that. Does anybody know what the title of the “B” side was?
 
Audience member #1:  “Any Way You Want It”
 
Chianese:  “Any Way You Want It.” [audience laughter] I think maybe that’s David’s motive or something, his idea or his motive for putting it in, and that struck me as something David possibly would do. Any way you want it. You make the idea. A lot of teenagers come up to me and got mad at me, and said “why don’t you kill him?” What am I gonna say?  [audience laughter]
 
Lavery:  Paul started at the end. I would like to go back to start at the beginning. Could you reflect or remember anything about the casting, about how you were actually cast in the show?

Numb3rs

I thought it was long since time to review Numb3rs. The series will resume its 6th season this Friday on CBS - shortened from 22 to 16 episodes, and likely to be canceled, according to industry intelligentsia - which would be a shame. Numb3rs is the only show I know that presents full-fledged mathematical and scientific theories, with a unique cast of engaging characters. Charlie (David Krumholtz) could probably give a pretty good exposition of infinite regress in philosophy and numerical sets, and it would play a decisive role in a life-and-death case that his brother Don (Rob Morrow) and his team were pursuing for the FBI.

The last episode in the Fall - 6.10 - shows how good Numb3rs can be. Don and the team may have a solid lead on the D. B. Cooper case, the most famous unsolved hijacking and robbery on the books. Cooper jumped out of the plane with anywhere from 200,000 to 1,000,000 dollars. Neither he nor most of the money have been found.

Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) of Battlestar Galactica plays the presumed Cooper, and the show is worth seeing just for that. But add into that Henry Winkler as a retired cop that Don has had dealings with before, Judd Hirsch as Don and Charlie's father Alan, some unresolved issues over the Vietnam War, and you have a pretty fine, even riveting, hour of television.

In fact, I think the show has been improving over the years, and this season is the best yet. David (Alimi Ballard) and Colby's (Dylan Bruno) have become more clearly defined, Charlie's fiance Amit (Navi Rawat) is looking better than ever and has a more prominent role in the cases, and the music is great. Dylanesque Blitzen Trapper had the closing song - Furr - for 6.10.

Numb3rs also has memorable occasional supporting characters. In addition to Henry Winkler, Lou Diamond Phillips checks in as Agent Ian Edgerton a few times each year, and was the focus of one of the best episodes of the series - "Hostage" - in the Fall.

About the only ingredient Numb3rs lacks is a female agent as captivating and powerful as Ziva on NCIS. The women agents have been good, but they've been transferred in and out at least three or four times in the series, and their stories therefore have not been told as well as David's and Colby's.

But this is a small tick in what is otherwise a highly original, exciting, and enjoyable series. I know that ratings are king, Numb3rs has not had the numbers this year, and six years is a respectable, excellent run, but I hope CBS continues the series. I'll certainly be reviewing every episode starting this Friday and from now on.

Meanwhile, here's a little of Blitzen Trapper's Furr ...

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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!

Heroes Season 4 Resumes: Quieter But Deeper

I've been saying for a while that Season 4 of Heroes is its best since that magical first season. The two-hour resumption of Season 4 on NBC tonight did not disappoint, offering a surprisingly effective, contemplative double episode, with interactions and conversations that went a long way towards weaving a powerful story.

Among the highlights -

1. Hiro, whose mind may be addled by his brain tumor, is speaking in riddles ... which ratify the position of Heroes in the science fiction, mystery, and fantasy genres. Among the stories Hiro draws upon in his attempt to characterize the dangers that he sees are Man of La Mancha, Sherlock Holmes, Star Wars, and Caprica. Yes, you have to give Heroes credit for having Hiro speak of Cylons and Caprica, which will debut on the SyFy Channel this January 22. If Fox can devote almost a complete episode of Bones to Avatar, NBC (part of the same corporate conglomerate as the SyFy Channel) can certainly slip in a mention if Caprica. I like those sorts of cross-references - they may be product placement, but they also give the narrative a nice realism.

2. Heroes also addresses the effectiveness of torture as a way of getting accurate information. Noah Bennet, on the verge of torturing fast-man Edgar for information, is persuaded by Lauren to use a kinder approach - which works, sort of. Noah's better than Jack Bauer (Keith Olbermann is cheering somewhere) - or, depending on your point of view, Noah's no Jack Bauer. Though, Jack has been getting a little gentler in his treatment of suspects in the past season or two of 24. Which will be premiering its new season on Fox next Sunday and Monday, and then will settle into its Monday night slot right opposite Heroes: good thing there's such as thing as TiVo and DVRs.

3. Good stories aborning for Sylar, who ends up menacingly at Claire's window ... for Peter, who wants to get in touch with Claire's flying old boyfriend from Texas, as Peter yearns to get more in touch with Nathan, now that he's gone (presumably) for keeps ... Samuel, who continues to be one of the best villains in the history of Heroes, in part because he manages to seem a decent, caring human being most of the time ... and a brand new character, my favorite heroic addition this season, someone who can literally breath life into the earth ...

A whole lot of good shakin' going on here, and I'm looking forward to more next week.

6-min podcast review of Heroes


See also Heroes Season 4 Premiere: Metaphysics, University, Carnival ... Heroes Meets The L Word in 4.5 ... Heroes 4 Mid-Season Finale

See also reviews of Season 3 Heroes Gets Lost ... Heroes 3 Begins: Best Yet, Riddled with Time Travel and Paradox ... Sylar's Redemption and other Heroes and Villains Mergers ... Costa Nuclear ... Hearts of Gold and the Debased ... Seeing the Future Trumps Time Travel ... Superpowered Chess with Shifting Pieces ... Villains and Backstories ... The Redemption of Sylar ... Thoughts on the Eclipse, Part I ... The Lore of the Comic Book Store ... Hiro's Time Traveling Closure ... Augmented ... Shades of Recalibration ... Baby, Rebel, and Last Fantasy ... All that Shape Changes Remains the Same? ... Season 3 Finale: Hopeful Deceptions

Reviews of Season 2 Heroes: Episode 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 7. Heroes Meets 12 Monkeys ... 9. How Immutable Are Fate and Isaac's Futures? ... 10. Penultimate for the Fall ... Heroes 2 Finale: Heroes Who Didn't Survive

And from Season 1: Heroes in Focus ... Heroes Five Years Gone: Triumph of Time Travel and Comics ... Heroes the Hard Part: Only the Pictures Not the Words ... Heroes Landslide: Winnowing and Convergence ... Heroes Volume One Finale

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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!

Wells, Clarke, and District 9

Continuing to catch up on 2009 science fiction movies, with nothing playing on first-run television this week, I saw District 9 the other night. The applause is justified.

First contact stories, aliens landing on Earth, have been a staple at least since H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds at the turn of 19th into the 20th century and continuing with Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End in the 1950s, V on television in the early 1980s (and again this year) and the Alien Nation movie in 1988. District 9 manages to tell such a story in an original, heart-tugging, humorous way. The aliens seem bedraggled, pathetic. They're kept in filthy camps after they arrive. And they're about to be deported to even worse conditions. With all of this happening in South Africa, the parallels to apartheid are obvious and well taken: we treat others badly, that seems to be in our human nature.

But, from the very beginning, there should have been a nagging question for we humans: if the aliens are so pathetic, how did they manage to build a huge star ship and get here?

As the eviction continues, we start to see some of the scientific brilliance of the aliens. Meanwhile, one of the relocation officers, Wikus, is exposed to an alien chemical that gradually transforms him into an alien. This brings District 9 into another classic science fiction category - humans transformed into aliens - which we saw to excellent effect less than two weeks ago, in Avatar. In Wikus's case, he wants to stop and reverse the transformation, and this leads to an alliance with an alien scientist on Earth and his son, and a breathtaking last 30 minutes of the movie.

District 9 does a fine job of continuing the tradition of Wells and Clarke, and makes a memorable contribution to the canon. I'm definitely up for a sequel.


4-min podcast review of District 9

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Terminator Salvation: A Compelling Time Travel Story Nonetheless

I saw Terminator Salvation on DVD last night, and, contrary to the ton of criticism and weak box office it received last summer, I thought the movie was pretty good - powerful, intellectually provocative, with fine action scenes. It was not as good as the first two Terminator movies, to be sure, but it was better in some ways that the third Terminator, and makes an important contributor to the overall Terminator story and lore.

The action takes place at a time in the future when John Connor is high in the resistance command, but has not yet taken command, and has not yet sent Kyle Reese back to save Sarah Connor from the bad Arnold T-800 Terminator. But the most compelling character is someone/something new - Marcus Wright, first seen as a prisoner being executed in 2003 (before the rise of the machines), but who turns up in the future in the same time as John Connor. Turns out Marcus hasn't time traveled, though. He's been rebuilt into a half-human, half-machine - a cyborg - but by whom? And for what purpose? With the characteristics of both human and machine, Marcus makes for the perfect infiltrator - he can pass as human (until a machine-killing mine unveils him), and as a machine (able to pass Skynet scans). If the humans had created him, Marcus would be an ideal destroyer of Skynet, and vice versa. The denouement hinges of what Marcus really is, and is played out just right.

There's no time travel in this Terminator movie, which for me is unfortunate, but the John Connor we see has lived through the earlier Terminator movies - he knows he will later have to send Kyle back to save his mother, and become his father - and this makes Kyle, a teenager at this time, the person to most need protection and saving in this story. Early on, we and John Connor learn that John is the second most wanted human on Skynet's hit list, and Kyle is the first. Which makes sense, because if Skynet kills John Connor but leaves Kyle alive, he could conceivably still go back in time and father another John Connor with Sarah. Thus, even though there is no time travel per se in this story, it informs the story in a way that makes it a fine, harrowing, paradoxically pummeling time travel narrative anyway. (One of my commentators in this blog, "radabad," wonders why Skynet didn't just kill Kyle when it had him in custody, instead of using Kyle as lure to get John. See my response, in the 5th comment below.)

No mention is made of any of The Sarah Connor Chronicles in Terminator Salvation, but nothing in the movie contradicts what we saw on television for two years, and we do get to see a good minute of bad Arnold in the movie. All in all, if you're a Terminator and/or time travel buff, I highly recommend Terminator Salvation. Don't listen to the critics. They don't know it, but they were probably programmed to dislike it.

See also reviews of The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.1 Cameron's Back ... 2.2 Firing on All Cylinders ... 2.3 Who, Truly, Is Agent Ellison? ... 2.4: Meet Allison ... 2.5: Unpacking the Future ... 2.6: Terminator Mom, Human Daughter ... 2.7: The Saving Robbery and Cromartie ... 2.8 Perspectives and Death ... 2.9: An Idiot's Guide to Time Travel in The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... 2.10: Riley Lashes Out at Facebook ... 2.11: Cameron Meets A. E. Housman and Andre Bazin ... 2.12 Sarah Connor Chronicles in Triple Time ... 2.13: Space, Time, and Blogging in The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... 2.18: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the Life of Riley ... 2.20: Sarah Connor vs. Death in Two Forms ... 2.21: Profound Lessons from a Kidnapping in The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 Finale

And from Season 1: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 1 and 2 ... 3 ... 4. A Robot Primer ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8-9

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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


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