NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father

As I noted in my review of last week's NCIS, this has been a season for fathers and their offspring.  Gibbs and his father, DiNozzo and his father, and tonight Ziva and her father, Eli David, head of the Mossad.

The problem Ziva has had with her father makes all the other parent-child difficulties pale in comparison.  Eli left her to die.   Tonight he explains to her that he had a whole country to protect, and could not sacrifice that even for his daughter.  That may well be true, but it's cold comfort to Ziva.

This makes her protecting him tonight from Palestinian assassins all the more difficult.  Eli's in the United States to bait the trap, but these are no run-of-the-mill assassins.  Indeed, they are connected in some way to a high-level meeting that Leon is attending, leaving Gibbs and team the task of keeping Eli alive.

Almost succeeding won't suffice in this case.  If they kill every assassin save one, and Eli is killed, NCIS and their Israeli allies (Malachi - a regular, first seen in NCIS episode Aliyah a few seasons back - and Liat, a blond Ziva) will have failed miserably.

And in the end of tonight's two-part story, that's just about on the edge of where our people stand.   Ziva and our team killed more than one terrorist, dismantled two automatic shooting devices, but when Eli and Leon were taken back to the safe house, they were vulnerable to someone on our side who had inside information.   (Best guesses are the characters played by The Shield's Catherine Dent and The Unit's Michael O'Neill.)

So Eli's bodyguard - Mossad Agent Hadar (played by Arnold Vosloo of The Mummy movies) - is dead (too bad, I like actor and the character).  Eli and Leon are missing, and NCIS, the Israelis, and the bigwigs at the meeting - likely one of whom is an evil apple - have their work cut out for next week, which means an exciting show for us.

See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman ... NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini"

And see ee also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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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 

The Event 1.8: The "Republican" VP and the Anti-24

A direct down-to-Earth Event 1.8 tonight - no aliens or EBEs or possible time travelers or whatever they are - just humans against humans, sharp shades of 24, though, come to think of it, we can't be sure what the head bad-guy (Dempsey) played by Hal Holbrook really is.

But we can be sure what the Vice President is.  He's a human traitor, who set up the assassination attempt on the President.   The VP is Dempsey's pawn.  Dempsey appeals to him to reach across the aisle, and join Martinez, in the first bipartisan ticket in history.  Which won.

Ok, the word "Republican" was never used, and I don't recall anyone saying that President Martinez is a Democrat.   But given that Martinez started the season wanting to release the EBEs, given that Blair Underwood is playing the President as tough but not always jumping to take the military option - well, the conclusion that we're looking at Obama and a Republican who did not get the nomination of his party in the last election, but instead went on to run and win on bi-partisan ticket, seems pretty well taken.   Does make The Event an anti-24, since 24 was regarded by some (not me) as being a pro-Republican show?  

To be clear,  VP Jarvis not so much an evil man as a weak man, whose family would be in jeopardy if he didn't do Dempsey's bidding.  But as Martinez rightly tells Jarvis in their confrontation - so to protect your family you would kill me, my family, not to mention the 200 people on the plane?  Apparently so.   And Dempsey got the same results from Leila's father.

So the question remains: who is this Dempsey?  At very least, a big "Republican" contributor, a political wheeler and dealer, and also someone who commands a pretty big private and deadly security force.   We've come upon such villains in 24, but not with possible alien/time traveler connections, which is why I think The Event is weaving a story worth watching.

See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action! ... The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals! ... The Event 1.8: The Portal and its Implications

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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

Olbermann vs. Koppel: I Mostly Agree with Olbermann

So, we were just treated to one of Olbermann's "Special Comments".  It was advertised as about Ted Koppel, which indeed it was.  I consider Koppel one of the greats of TV news people - successor with his Nightline (which I watched raptly for more than 25 years) to Murrow and Cronkite.   I was prepared to say in this blog post, well, I came to Olbermann's defense over MSNBC's inane suspension of him last week, but now I'm back to disliking his tone and even the content of many of his "Special Comments".  Except - I think Olbermann is mostly right in what he just said about Koppel.

Ted Koppel's op-ed in the Washington Post - Olbermann, O'Reilly, and the death of real news - is what, understandably, attracted Olbermann's attention and ire.   You all know the points that Koppel makes - that Fox and MSNBC are conservative and progressive equivalents,  presenting opinions not news, and their success has destroyed "objective" i. e., "real" news.

I agree completely with Koppel on the first point - the style and partisan equivalence of Fox and MSNBC - and that's in fact the one big point Olbermann made with which I flatly disagree.  I don't know why Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and others on MSNBC insist that they are more factual and less partisan than Fox.  Maddow made this same point to John Stewart, in her superb interview with him last week. 

But otherwise - neither Fox nor MSNBC are newsless.  Indeed, the news reporting of Bret Baier and Shep Smith on Fox is every bit  the factual equivalent of actual news that is reported on MSNBC throughout the day and night.   On that point, then, Koppel is point blank wrong, and Olbermann is wrong in saying that MSNBC has more respect for facts than does Fox.

Were this where Olbermann vs. Koppel ended, I might give the match to Koppel - right where Olbermann was wrong on the first point (Fox and MSNBC are indeed equivalent), then both wrong on second (Koppel that neither Fox and MSNBC present facts, Olbermann that Fox does not but MSNNC does).

But Olbermann showed his mettle and rose to the occasion with as lucid an analysis as ever I've seen about the myth of objectivity in news.  It was never true and therefore, of course, is not today.

I often make the point to my classes that when The New York Times says "all the news that fit to print" - who are they kidding?  What we're really getting is all the news that the Times deems fit to print - i.e., selects for us to read.  And the same for Walter Cronkite, "and that's the way it was".  Not really.   A more truthful tag line might have been "and that's what the editors here at CBS thought you should think it was".  This is called gate keeping, and it's one of the things the Internet, and what I call new new media, have reduced and in some cases eliminated.

Olbermann correctly cited the finest moments of Murrow and Cronkite as not being objective, but partisan - as when Murrow called out Joe McCarthy and Cronkite spoke out against the Vietnam War.   The fact is that the public is best served not just by blind reporting of the facts, but by strong opinions and keen analyses right along with the facts.  That's what op-eds in newspapers - such as Koppel's about the death of news - are all about.  That, as Olbermann correctly noted, is what Koppel and the news media did not do during the build-up to the Iraq War, when all that was reported was the "fact" that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

Olbermann's  point - that the pursuit of the illusion of objectivity in journalism may hurt the democracy that journalism serves - may just be the important point Olbermann ever made.  It's certainly not made clearly or often enough.

Dexter 5.8 and Lumen

A superb Dexter 5.8 tonight, in which his relationship with Lumen moves beyond anything he had with Lila, Miguel, and even Rita.   I'm obviously not talking sex here - Dexter hasn't yet slept with Lumen, and he never slept with Miguel.  This is something deeper, Dexter on his way to finding the truest soul mate so far.

Lila did guide Dexter into really letting go physically - it helped him with Rita - and she endorsed and in the end goaded him in his avenging angel slayings.   She supported, protected, and killed for Dexter.  But in the end, the darkness in Lila's being was something Dexter could not countenance, especially when it threatened those he loved.

Rita, may she rest in peace, was never right for Dexter.  Although she saw the good that was in him, she was essentially in love with a man who never was.  I don't see how their marriage could have lasted, even with no Trinity in the picture.

Lumen is really the most like Dexter.   Her thirst for vengeance is not the depraved lust for violence that animated Lila,  but rather the same quest to make herself whole, to recover from the damage that was done to her psyche, the trauma to her innocence, by the scum of the universe, or, at least, of Miami.   That is, to recover from something of a magnitude equivalent to what was done to Dexter.

Dexter thought that Rita might heal him, and though her murder left that undertaking inconclusive, it's certainly undeniable that at the time of her death she had not.   Dexter found someone like him in his brother, but he turned out to be too evil and threatening to those that Dexter loved to do any good for Dexter.  Much like Lila.

Deb loves Dex, but much as I hate to say it - because Deb and her mouth are one fine character - Deb's just another version of Rita, in that Deb does not know or see the real Dexter, either.

So that leaves Lumen.  She's moved faster, has come closer to Dexter more quickly, than any except perhaps Miguel - but he obviously was no innocent, either.   Do Lumen and Dexter have a future?

I hope so.   I like her far better than Rita or Lila.   But Peter Weller's Liddy is mean and tough, and Quinn may be unable to stop him, even if he wants to ...

See also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience


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

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter

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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

Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations

Well, what Daisy actually said was "accidental intercourse" - to Bones, about what Daisy and Sweets were doing, when Bones and Booth walked in - but I didn't want to scare anybody away, so I went for relations.   (I'm only kidding - the real reason is that I'm too much of a gentleman.  No, I'm only kidding about that.)

But this was a Bones about Daisy and Sweets - about their relationship - and good to see.  Tonight we saw that they just can't keep their hands off each other, even though they're no longer a couple - that's what Daisy meant by accidental, as in not planned.  But the two clearly care about each other, even love each other, even if Sweets persists in his illusion that they're not right for each other.   And unlike Bones and Booth, this illusion blows away at last like the unreal bubble it is, as Sweets and Daisy get together after a Season 6 of separation.

Lots of good visuals in this episode, including the fluffy pink worms that Hodgins hopes are his own discovery, with a nice cut to the french fries with ketchup that Bones and Booth are consuming as they discuss the case.   They of course crack it, but not before we're treated to scenes of Sweets being sought by cougars aboard a cougar cruise.   (A good episode for Sweets indeed, desired by both cougars and Daisy - though Bones remains immune to his charms.)

An especially strong moral fiber to episode 6.6, too, as Cam in particular but everyone on the team is moved by their work on bones of slaves from a slave ship, including those of Cam's ancestor.   Putting the bones back together, and Angela's sketching of their faces, at last restores their identities as human beings which were stolen the moment they were enslaved.

But no Hannah in this episode and, ok,  I miss her - and the impact she is having on Booth and Bones.

See also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty

And 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 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ... Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ... Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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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 

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NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini"

A"James Bond movie directed by Fellini".  That's what DiNozzo says as he looks at his father - Anthony DiNozzo, Sr. (played by Robert Wagner) - on his way up to a high-stakes mission in a soiree, Ziva in sleek, elegant black on his arm, to smoke out the arms dealer on his way to acquiring an American nuke found in a plane that crashed years ago.

Fathers play important roles in the infracture of NCIS, in particular Gibbs', Ziva's, and DiNozzo's.  Anthony Sr is every bit as suave as his son, with as keen an eye for the ladies.   But he has extravagant tastes which, coupled with his penchant for bankruptcy, had made for difficult times for him and Tony.  Indeed, he manages to run up a huge bill on behalf of his NCIS mission in episode 8.7, but Gibbs, pleased with the happy ending, says it was well worth it (and Vance agrees).

There were some good tense moments near the end of the cocktails, as the Turkish arms dealer recognizes Ziva (she was accompanying Anthony Sr as his colleague, Sophia - close to Sophie, one of her other aliases) to the point of knowing her whole story - father in charge of Mossad, Ziva now an American operative (a probie, as Tony and McGee remind her, but happily in possession in this episode of her first American passport).   NCIS prevailed tonight, but the mention of Ziva's father sets the stage for next week's episode, which will follow up on what we saw at very end of the first episode this season.

Tonight story ended, though, with a great scene between Tony and his father in which they finally draw a little closer.   Gibbs has reconciled with his father, now Tony with his.   Next we'll see happens with Ziva and hers.   I have a feeling it won't go too smoothly....  Parent/child relationships are tough enough when they're not on separate continents, now working for separate governments.

See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman

And see ee also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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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 

The Event 1.7: The Portal and its Implications

As The Event has progressed on NBC, some viewers have contended that the aliens - the ones who caused the plane on the verge of crashing into the President to disappear and materialize elsewhere, the ones who don't age - are really not aliens or extraterrestrial biological entities (EBEs) but human beings from our own future.   Although episode 1.7 tonight had the reporter repeat her assertion that they're EBEs (not different from aliens, just a better name for them), we also saw a conversation between Sophia and Thomas (revealed as her son - nice touch!) in which they talk about building a "portal" to get back "home".

So suddenly the humans-from-the-future hypothesis has a bit more traction.   At very least, the presumed EBEs are not trying to build a star ship to get them home.  They're working a portal.  Of course, a portal can be used for jumps across space, or jumps across time, or jumps across both at the same time.

Here's a brief primer:  Space ships and star ships travel mostly across space (though they can also go through time via worm holes or some other wild encounter out there).   Time machines are the old-fashioned vehicle of choice for the time traveler - as in H. G. Wells - but portals have been responsible for some pretty significant temporal journeys too (Harlan Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever" is a great example, and probably my favorite Star Trek episode from the original series).   But portals are also the vehicle for jumps across the universe in Star Gate.

So where does that leave us regarding the portal and its significance in The Event?  Although Sophia and Thomas's people could still be aliens or EBEs - and I still think they very likely are - the portal does open the possibility, at least a crack, that these folks are humans from our future (or, for that matter, a past in which a branch of our ancestors were technologically highly sophisticated).   We do seem to know for a fact that their DNA is different from ours - Simon (who survives the blast) escapes detection tonight when an EBE agent swaps out Simon's DNA for a human's.   Different DNA points towards alien or EBE, but could also be the case for humans from our distant future or past.

Meanwhile, we also had a pretty good Blake back story - his wife was a Russian spy - which although seen before in Alias, had a very different resolution in The Event.  And we meet Hal Holbrook, who plays a very old, very bad guy, who at very least is responsible for killing Leila's mother, kidnapping her sister, and who knows what else.   He's presumably human, because he's obviously aged, but for all we know he could be another kind of EBE, maybe a rival group - though, on a third hand, he doesn't seem to be commanding the kind of EBE power we've seen.

Will be fun to see how these portals progress in the weeks and months ahead ...

See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action! ... The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals!

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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 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber

Back from hiatus was Fringe, back from the amber was its story last night, and it was a good story indeed, except for one thing which I'll get to later.

We learn a lot more about the other side - why Walternate initiated the amber sealings of the portals, and the toll they have taken (innocents get frozen in them).  Waltnernate is about the most human we've seen him so far, if not yet likable.  He has real concern about the loss - or freezing - or life in the amber, but for him almost no sacrifice is too great to keep his world from being undone by the tears in the space/time fabric unleashed by our Walter.  (It's nice that tears meaning rips and tears meaning crying are spelled the same, isn't it?)

We also learn that the amber doesn't kill, but suspend life - and people can be broken out of the amber.  The specific story last night of twins caught up in the amber and its toll - one literally caught up in the amber, the other caught up in the consequence of that - was another good serving of fine science fiction/mystery on television.

Meanwhile, Olivia on the other is getting in touch with who she really is - which would be our Olivia.  The mental construct of Peter comes to her - that is, not really Peter, but Peter in her mind - to tell her and prod her about who she really is.   This makes sense, Olivia would use Peter to be the messenger of her truth in all of this, but the ghost in the room was already exploited on Battlestar Galactica - with Baltar and Caprica Six - and worked so effectively in that series that it seems uncreative to use that same trope in Fringe.

That was the part that annoyed me.  But 3.5 was otherwise a top-notch episode, with good new details about life on the other side, including a Nixon Parkway and a smallpox outbreak.   Neither are pleasant to think about, but both make for enjoyable stuff to learn about in alternate worlds.

See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side

See also reviews of Season 2: 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? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22:  Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch

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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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

MSNBC Wrong and Self-Destructive to Suspend Keith Olbermann

The news just broke that Keith Olbermann has been suspended from MSNBC, indefinitely and without pay, because he contributed money to three Democratic candidates in the election just past.

I don't know all the details - and I've been a critic of some of Olbermann's histrionic rants over the years - but suspending him for the reasons stated strikes me as an outrage.   For some reason, news media of all sorts cling to the myth that everything about them must be objective.   Certainly news itself should be reported accurately.  But aren't commentators like Olbermann supposed to have strong political opinions, and, if so, where is the problem in their putting their money with their mouths are - i.e., making monetary contributions to political campaigns they deem worthy?

MSNBC is already doing miserably in the ratings.  They do not understand the realities and public expectations of a 24/7 news and commentary station -  airing canned documentaries on weekends rather than live news, and, until recently, going for reruns in the 10pm prime time weekday spot.

Taking Olbermann out of the line-up will only make MSNBC sink faster.  And this action is evidence of the cloud-nine lack of touch with reality and ethics that apparently afflicts the powers that be at MSNBC.  I'm a Professor, and even I know that.




15-min podcast from me on this subject

Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty

"I'm shot, I'm pretty," Hannah tells Booth in the resumption of Bones with episode 6.5 tonight - after the World Series, and, here in New York, after greedy Cablevision and Fox finally settled their dispute which led to no Fox on our screens.   Regarding Hannah, what she tells Booth is true enough - her boss will now definitely keep her on the reportorial job in Washington given her looks plus affinity for bullets back home.

But the deeper truth of this scene is what happens when Bones enters the hospital room, with news that Hannah, who's intending on getting back on the job in the morning, has an "avulsion" fracture.   This could make Hannah not only pretty and shot but dead, because the tendon if unduly exercised could pull the fractured part of the bone way out into severing an artery.

Now this might well make some/many Bones fans happy, but Bones herself cannot be one of them, because she's after all inside the story, not watching it from the outside.   So she's happy to save Hannah's life, and so are Booth and Hannah, who both deeply appreciate that Bones has done this, and we've got almost one big happy family.

How do I feel about this?  Well, short of a menage a trois resolution,  I don't particularly like it, especially the additional bonding between Bones and Hannah that happens at the end of the episode.  I guess it makes sense on some level - Bones and Hanna both love Booth (though on very different levels of awareness) so they are already bonded.   But I'd be happier if they two were in open battle.

On a brighter note - and what gets the cake for the funniest scene tonight - we have a bronze Shakespeare who turns out to be one of those human statues.  There was an hilarious episode of Monk a few years back which featured a silvered dude standing outside of a bank (where there was a robbery), who maintained a steely silence.  The bronze on Bones does the same - but Sweets diagnoses his "dissociative disorder" - he can only converse in Shakespearean, literally.   And Sweets is then able to have a witty, useful, and satisfying interrogation of the bronze Bard.   "Brush up yer Shakespeare, start quoting him now..."

Good special effects tonight, too, with the murder victim being not even bones but an impression of bones.  And come to think of it, Bones is also able to use her knowledge of bones not just to solve a murder but save a life.   And if the life was Hannah's?   Well, there's that bone to pick, but it was still an episode that cut to the bone on many levels and, ok, I'll become one of those silent statues now.

Nah ... "Just declaim a few lines from Otella, and she'll think you're a hell of a fella ..."



See also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah

And 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 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ... Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ... Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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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

Back In Treatment 3.1.1-2: Bengali Candy, Twitter, and Superb

In Treatment's back on HBO for its third season - and, significantly, its first with totally new stories (the first two seasons were American adaptations of Be'Tipul, the Hebrew name of the series that originated in Israel and played there for just two years).  So, when I say the first two episodes were superb, that's high praise indeed, because an original story is always more of a challenge than an adaptation of a proven winner, though that's no piece of cake, either.

And the first two episodes were fine, indeed - the same deep, cool, drink of the human intellect and our undeniable capacity for rationality, the same mix of emotion and warmth and heartfelt soul, the same welcome respite from all the smack in your face violence of most other shows on television (which I admit I like a lot of, see what else I review here) - in other words, the same unique, narrative power  of the past two years.   And as in the last two seasons, the acting in these first two episodes was outstanding.

Sunil in the first episode is an appealing, original character, an Indian man living with his son and unhappy daughter-in-law and their children in New York.  Sonya Walger plays the daughter-in-law, down to just one major role in a television series after her double billing last year in Lost (Penny!) and Flashforward.   Irrfan Khan (he played the cop in Slumdog Millionaire) looks a bit too young for the part of Sunil, but gives a quiet, convincing portrayal, replete with deftly unwrapping and putting in his mouth "his favorite Bengali candy" (as his son tells us) and deftly wrapping and putting in his mouth some kind of cigarette.  Paul lets him smoke - daughter-in-law hates it but she's left the office - because Paul wants to make Sunil comfortable, and Paul still enjoys the smell of tobacco.

Debra Winger as Frances in the second episode is just great, as good or better than her fine recent work in the movies.   Her facial expressions are as good and multifaceted as her dialogue, which runs from challenging Paul (as his attractive female patients always do) to complaining about social media and her daughter "blasting evil shit on Twitter" about her.  (Paul sympathizes and admits to still having "a problem with email";  see my New New Media for more about Twitter and social media.)  And Debra's character is perfectly cast - an actress her age, worried about forgetting her lines.

But the deeper story of Frances intersects with Paul's personal life and history, and could be the real payoff this season:  Frances' sister Patricia was Paul's patient 18 years ago, and she now has Stage 4 breast cancer.   This of course is having profound impact on Frances, but it also deeply affects Paul - whether out of feeling he still has for an early patient, or of feeling he had especially for Patricia, is not clear - which makes for an intriguing story.

And Gabriel Byrne is as wonderful as ever as Paul, somehow managing to be strong, in command, vulnerable, and almost never petty.   And this season, in addition to everything else, he's worried that he may be experiencing early symptoms of Parkinson's, which his father had.    At the end of the Frances episode, Paul calls a doctor asks him for a "good neurologist"  (I've always found that usage amusing - who in their right mind would ask someone for a doctor who wasn't good?)

Off to an excellent start, and I'll be back here with another review after I've seen episodes 3 and 4.

See also Back in Treatment on HBO ... Back in Treatment: Three More Fine Times ... 2.1-2: Fathers and Daughters ...2.3-5: A Senior, A First Love, A Boy and His Turtle ... Sleep and Ethics ... In Treatment, In Retrospect

And Season One reviews: In Treatment on HBO ... 2. Scalding ... 3. Triangle ... 4. Love and Death ... 6. Paul's Greatest Strength ... 6. Paul's Boat ... 7. Alex in the Sky with Diamonds ... 8. A Princely Performance ... In Treatment Concludes (For Now)

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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




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NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman

Ray Bradbury's 1951 The Illustrated Man told the stories in tattoos all over a vagrant's body - it was a Canterbury Tales for the science fiction age.  Last night's NCIS 8.6 tells the story of a naval officer with all kinds of self-inscribed writing all over her body.   She's drugged and runs into the street and is killed by a car.  The team has to understand what she was trying to convey in her writing if they are to understand why she died.   The result is a cerebral, compelling episode of NCIS which resonates with Memento and Fringe.

My first thought that was that the ink in the self-inscriptions contained some kind of poison, quietly infused by the killer, which is what got Clea Thorson drugged (like Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, I suppose).  I wasn't that far off.  The poison came cumulatively from Clea's showers.   Meanwhile, Abby does a great job of cracking the code and Clea.  It was good to see her snap at Gibbs in the heat of the investigation - realistic.

My favorite line came from McGee this week.  When DiNozzo reveals the name of his new flame - Ethel - and waxes on about what the name means to him, McGee offers: "I've fallen, and I can't get up."  Point McGee!  The only name with an "E" that I can think of that's even more great-grandmotherly than Ethel would be Edna.

But DiNozzo polishes off the episode with a banging impersonation of John Travolta, in Saturday Night Fever garb.   Michael Weatherly could have a good career doing impersonations, if this NCIS gig ever gives him some time.

See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball

And see ee also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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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 


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The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals!

Well, we found out something else for sure about our aliens on The Event 1.6 tonight:  they're not only aliens, but immortals, or, at very least, age-much-more-slowly-than-we-do-ers.

The story tonight most centers around Simon, previously revealed as an alien working for Thomas under cover with the Feds.   Tonight we learn that he fell in love with a human woman back in the 1950s, but was forced to decamp by Thomas.

We've seen this theme before, most recently on New Amsterdam.  It wore a bit thin for a whole series such as New Amsterdam, but worked ok as just one element of a more complex plot in The Event.  Simon is also more believable than Richard on Lost, who came by his immortality through the least scientific part of the island lore.

It's totally believable that sentient beings from off of our planet might age at a different rate from us, and be, in comparison to us, immortal.  And tonight we also get confirmation - for those on the Web who doubted - that Thomas, Sophia, Simon et al are indeed aliens.   We get this from a crazed but plausible reporter who briefs on Sean and Leila on what her father the pilot came upon up north in Alaska.

So The Event continues to hold my interest.  It's so far nowhere as good as 24 and Lost were at their best, but it has its own style and appeal.   And with its unfolding of the alien story, and the kinds of powers they have - Thomas escapes tonight by creating another worm hole, this time in a building which collapses into a void - The Event is beginning to weave in some elements of V and Fringe, which is all to the better.   The Event continues to be a compendium of intelligent science fiction and action.

See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action!

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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

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Robert Scoble, Tristan Harris, Paul Levinson, Michelle Anderson, Apture and Scribd

What do Robert Scoble (aka the Scobleizer), Tristan Harris (CEO of Apture), Michelle Anderson, and I have in common?

Well, back in the summer, Michelle Anderson published a primo interview with me on Read Write Web.  And last week, she sent me a congratulatory email saying I'd been "Scobleized" ...

By which she meant, Tristan Harris had used our interview as the prime example in the video interview Robert Scoble had conducted with Harris about Apture.   Here it is:





After watching the interview, I decided to give Apture a try, right here on Infinite Regress.  Piece of cake to install the one line of code, and it's at work right here on this blog, right now.   Can't see it?  That's because it doesn't get in your way.  But highlight any word or phrase, and watch what happens.  You can click on the Learn More bubble, and, well, learn a lot more about the subject and online connections of the word or phrase you highlighted.   The bounty of the web - links, photos, videos - in a click.   And you can do the same for any of the places you see in the bubble.    Bubbles within bubbles, all glistening with information.

Think about what this also means for books online.   Apture on a site such as Scribd would allow any word in the book to be highlighted, with the resultant delivery of web connections an instant later.  References are no longer necessary for scholarly books, because you can get them, live, always in the waiting, from the Apture app.   And they continually update.

The very beginning of what I see as one of the more profound revolutions in New New Media...

Caprica's Back 1.10-1.12: Cleaner More Powerful Lines

I finally had a chance to sit down with the resumed season of Caprica - episodes 1.10-12 to be exact, courtesy of SyFy On Demand - and was pleasantly surprised, though pleasant is about the last word I would use to describe this intellectually and emotionally powerful, wrenching prequel series to Battlestar Galactica. But by pleasant I mean that these three new episodes were a lot better than the most of the episodes last Spring, which ranged from pretty good to superb.

The main theme, so far, is the difference, the intersection, the interface between virtual and physical reality - between images and flesh and blood, and the human brains that propel them both.   It's a theme I explored in depth in my 2003 book,  Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet - soon to be available in a Kindle edition - and I consider one of the defining issues, if not the defining issue, of our age.  In Caprica, Daniel and Clarice each use the immortality of the virtual being to further their own ends - Daniel's business and power, Clarice's religion and power.   Both are keenly interested in Zoe's digital self - Daniel because he loves her as his daughter, but also because she's connected to her third, Cylon self, and Clarice because she knows that Zoe possesses valuable information, which could be key to Clarice's cementing of power in the terrorist/monotheistic surge that threatens Caprica and the other planets.

We don't see much if any of Zoe-Cylon in the first three episodes, but we do see perhaps a fourth Zoe, who comes to her as a child, and serves as her angelic adviser in the virtual world, similar to some of what we saw in Battlestar Galactic.   Virtual Zoe is consolidating her power in V-world, forging a painful alliance there with Adama's daughter, who understandably hates Zoe because she considers Zoe responsible for the bomb on the train that took Adama's wife and daughter's lives, as well as flesh-and-blood Zoe's, at the very beginning of this series.

Meanwhile, Daniel is back in power at Graystone in the flesh-and-blood world, partnering with the Ha'la'tha to oust Vergis.   First on his private list of things to do is re-create Zoe the prototype Cylon.   And Amanda is alive.  She was taken in by Clarice, but trenchcoated cop Duram has apparently convinced her that Clarice was responsible for Zoe's death.   Duram also thinks Clarice was responsible for the bungled attempt to blow up the Caprican space port - which I was glad to see failed, since I like space ports (see Realspace for more) - but in fact the culprit in that instance was Clarice's rival for power Barnabus, whom she soon dispatches.

So the resumed season is off to a complex continuation of where we left off in March, but the lines feel cleaner, more poetic and convincing than what we were given back then.   I'm looking forward to more.

See also:  Battlestar Galactica Caprica: Exquisite, Flawed Copies ... 1.2:  Dawn of a Different Machine ... 1.3:  Daughters, Missing and Present ... 1.5: Adama's Daughter ... 1.6: The Chip and its Roots
... 1.7: The Cylon and the Dog ... 1.8: The Metaphysics of Flesh ... 1.9: Zoe at Large

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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 

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The Good Wife 2.4: Surprise Candidate, Intimate Interpersonal Distance, Ultimate Loyalites

A first class episode 2.4 of The Good Wife on CBS last night, with a least three telling, even crucial, developments:

1. Chief Justice Adler - played tough as nails by Kate Burton (Richard Burton's daughter) - is about to announce her entrance into the race for State Attorney, competition that neither Peter nor Childs needs.  Gold talks Diane into pressuring Adler not to run - Diane's more than happy to do this, after the hot and cold treatment she received from Adler last season about Diane's political prospects.   Adler seems to yield, but at the end of the episode we learn that Adler has gotten Wendy Scott-Caar to run.  Scott-Carr is attractive, articulate, sharp as a whip.  And she was Childs' attorney during the deposition.   In many ways an even more dangerous challenge to Peter than Adler would have been.

2. Kalinder and Blake continue to spar.  When Blake gets literally in Kalinder's face about her smashing the windows of his car so she can poke around inside, Kalinder gets even closer to Blake, in what we communication theorists call intimate interpersonal distance.   It's a powerful scene, in which Kalinder essentially turns the tables on the sexual intimidation that men have been known to try on women in business situations.

3. But the best part of the episode has Cary trying to destroy Alicia by getting her to admit that Peter gave her a heads-up about her first case in the first episode of the series.  This could damage Peter, who was not supposed to share such information with anyone, certainly not his wife acting as a defense attorney.   Will at first tells Alicia she has to sacrifice Peter, if necessary, on behalf of the firm.  Alicia can't do that, she's caught between a rock and a hard place on this, and-  Will at the last moment uses an intimation of something Will knows about Childs to get Cary to desist.

What we learn about Alicia and Will in this interlude is telling.   Alicia's not going to sacrifice Peter.   And neither will Will sacrifice Alicia, or put her in an impossible situation.   Will Alicia's appreciation of Will's devotion to her eventually get her to reconsider her decision at the beginning of this season, and learn about the voice mail that Gold erased?

See also  The Good Wife Starts Second Season on CBS ... The Good Wife 2.2: Lou Dobbs, Joe Trippi, and Obama Girl

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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


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NCIS 8.5: DJ Dead, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball

DiNozzo loses his voice in NCIS 8.5 as the team investigates the murder of an abrasive radio talk show host - a double loss of voices - but DiNozzo nonetheless speaks clearly of his yearning for the sexier Ziva of a few years ago, which is good to hear.

In fact, DiNozzo and Ziva even have a nice tight clinch - she on top of him - as Ziva tackles DiNozzo to shield him from an explosive.   She tells him she can tell he's enjoying it, and DiNozzo, ever quick with a retort, says, "don't flatter yourself, that's my knee."

As for the case, turns out the killer wasn't after the naval officer who was being interviewed live on the air, and not after the DJ because of his strident opinions.   Rather, the purpose of the murder was to stop the DJ from exposing a domestic terrorist cell.   This is a nice twist on the variety of talk jocks as targets for personal reasons, or because the perps disagree with the DJ's general political opinion, that we've seen as plot lines in the movies and on television the past few years.  Instead, the Howard Stern, Glenn Beck, or whatever the DJ in this episode is killed because he's in effect an investigative reporter.   If you've gotta be killed, that's surely the most noble reason.

Also good to see that DiNozzo and McGee are such big baseball fans.   Worked great for me, seeing NCIS on DVR yesterday right after the Yankee-Ranger's playoff game on TBS from Yankee Stadium.  In fact, it was the highlight of the evening for me, seeing as how the Yankees lost (the Yanks and Rangers are playing an early game right now, at Yankee Stadium, as I write this.)

And we had one the nicest endings I can recall on NCIS last night - Ziva and Gibbs throwing the ball, as DiNozzo and McGee look on....


See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne

And see ee also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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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 

Fordham Grad Class Reviews of Blue Bloods, Dexter, Glenn Beck, House, Mad Men, Modern Family, One Tree Hill, Undercovers, Young and Restless, Walking Dead, Weeds

Hey everyone - I'm teaching a brand new graduate class this Fall - Television and the New Media.  It's really about the intersection of what I call new new media and television - media in which readers and consumers become producers - but I figured "new new" was a little much for a course title.  Anyway ... as the main work for this course, students are writing and producing their own blogs, podcasts, and vidcasts about current television shows.   A list of their sites with links follow.   Enjoy:

• Kristen Foley, reviewing Dexter on her A New Generation blog
• Celine Egraz, reviewing One Tree Hill on her Shows Over Prose blog
• Lauren Jackson, reviewing Modern Family on her ABC's Modern Family blog
• Andrea McCrary, reviewing Undercovers on her Drama, Passion, and Criticism blog and vidcast
• Amanda Meister, reviewing Weeds on her Real Nancy Botwin vidcast
• Alexandra Petrello, reviewing Mad Men on her Mad Men, Suits and Don Draper blog
• Garret Richard, reviewing Glenn Beck on his Beck to the Future blog and podcast
• Cesar Rodriguez, reviewing Blue Bloods on his Blue Blood blog
• Michelle Suarez,  reviewing The Young and the Restless on her The Young and The Stylish blog
• Y Mae Sussman, reviewing The Walking Dead on her The Watching Dead blog
• Michael Vinciguerra reviewing House on his Nothing Common about Common Sense blog and podcast

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Rubicon Season One Finale: Andy, Truxler, Clover

Rubicon ended its first season on AMC much as it has been doing all along, a riddle wrapped in a clover leaf inside an enigma. We don't even know if what we saw last night was the end of the just the first season or the end of everything - that is, it's not completely clear if Rubicon will be renewed, though I certainly hope it is.

The surprising reveal, which raises more questions than it answers, is Andy, Will's mostly welcoming neighbor.   Katherine's late husband directs her to an apartment, where Andy happens to be.  She agrees to go with Katherine to briefly meet Will, though Andy cautions Katherine that that's dangerous.  And Katherine is indeed murdered - by a swift injection in the back of the shoulder by Mr. Roy, doing Truxler's work - as Will looks on from an overpass, and Andy from the underpass, neither able to do anything to save Catherine.

Will is horrified.   But what about Andy?   Who, indeed, is she?  She's obviously some kind of spy, and was no doubt assigned to keep an eye on Will, but whom is she working for?  Unlikely Truxler, otherwise she could have easily killed Will herself, rather than leaving that attempt to Bloom.  Possibly for Kale - who has a maddeningly low profile in this episode - or the FBI, CIA, or the group that sentences Truxler, take your pick.

Meanwhile, Truxler presents another mystery.   He's given the clover leaf.  But he hasn't yet taken his life when Will finds him on the roof.   Truxler notes how much better the roof is than struggling with the window - presumably easier to jump off a roof than out of a window?   (If he'd planned on shooting himself in the head, he could have already done that.)   I thought the episode would end with Truxler jumping off the roof right in front of Will's eyes, after congratulating Will on his success in id'ing and essentially stopping Truxler.

But Truxler walks away - to live another day?   One of many reasons I hope we get to see another season of this fine, chess-game of a show, which somehow manages to pack a lot of power and punch in its low-key story telling.

See also Rubicon on AMC ... Rubicon 1.5: Bloom

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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

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Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience

Back with a review of Dexter 5.4, in what is continuing to be another stellar season.

Dexter has always had a heart - one of the many things that has made his character so appealing, so compelling.  Tonight it comes to the fore again.  Lumen (well played by Julia Stiles) has seen Dexter dispatch Boyd.   She's nearly dead herself - having been brutalized by Boyd, his next victim - when Dexter opens the door and takes her in.

Harry's advice is predicable and clear.  The very first of his rules is "never get caught".  Lumen could easily lead to Dex getting caught, if she lives to tell the police or just about anyone what she saw.  But Dexter can't kill her.  He has a heart, a conscience, despite what he says to himself about himself.  He doesn't intentionally kill innocent people, even to save himself.

So instead of killing Lumen, he has to win her over, make her take "a leap of faith" and trust Dexter.   He succeeds in this, only to find that she has been victimized not just by one man.  There's a band of these sicko killers, and Dexter will no doubt be drawn into Lumen's attempt to kill them.   That's the price for his winning her over.

Meanwhile, Quinn is trying his best to link Dexter to the killing of Rita, by way of Trinity's family.   He fails - narrowly - but Deb is leading him off to bed together, again.  In a rare display of decency, he tells he's no good for her - after all, he's trying to nab her beloved brother - but he's going to bed with her anyway.

Julia Stiles brings a lot to Lumen role.  She's more than a bit reminiscent of Rita - both victimized, brutalized, by life.  Dexter also has a place in his soul and heart for such women.   Will be fun to see the roller coaster ride of where this goes.

See also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review


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

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter

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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 


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