The Good Wife 3.7: Peter vs. Will

A good Good Wife on CBS last night, at last featuring a confrontation between Peter and Will.

Peter's office has evidence of an alleged bribe that Will took, years ago when he was an attorney in Baltimore. Actually, new character Dana - played by Lie to Me's sassy Monica Raymund - brings the issue to Cary (recently promoted), who questions Will with Dana, and brings this to Peter's attention.

Interestingly, Peter isn't exactly gung ho to get Will, but he wouldn't be averse to destroying or at least damaging Will either.   Will, for his part, is furious, and confronts Peter on the steps of his office building, for one of the best scenes in the series.  Why don't you grow a pair and punch me, Will goads Peter, who pretty easily keeps his cool, even when Will jibes Peter with the observation that, of the two of them, it's Peter who's been on the inside of a prison cell.

Will of course is sure that Peter is doing this out of jealously over Alicia, but that may not quite be the reason.  Clearly Dana has some animus against Peter, who, at the close of the episode, wisely decides to put the investigation and the possible case in the hands of a independent prosecutor to be appointed by Peter's office.  I'd say that this round goes to Peter.

Meanwhile, Alicia learns what it's like to almost be thrown under the bus by Diane, who now all but knows for sure that Alicia and Will are in bed together.  Alicia is caught in bind when she's obliged to answer questions from a Federal investigator - assigned to this task by Diane - but doesn't want to compromise her attorney-client privilege.  Cue the wacky, brilliant Elsbeth - whom Alicia has the savvy to retain rather going with the firm's recommendation - to get Alicia out of this jam.

The show continues to be brilliant, funny, and cutting edge, replete with references to Rahm and Blogo thrown in whenever possible.

See also The Good Wife 3.1: Recusal and Rosh Hashanah ... The Good Wife: 3.2: Periwigs and Skype

And see also  The Good Wife Starts Second Season on CBS ... The Good Wife 2.2: Lou Dobbs, Joe Trippi, and Obama Girl ... The Good Wife 2.4: Surprise Candidate, Intimate Interpsonal Distance ... The Good Wife 2.9 Takes on Capital Punishment ... The Good Wife 2.16: Information Wars

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

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

Boardwalk Empire 2.6: Owen and Other Bad News for Nucky

In terms of a major jolt to the leading characters, here is the most important revelation and develepment in Boardwalk Empire 2.6:   Margaret is yearning for Owen.

We learn this when Margaret finally goes to confession - the stern priest who is working with her son gave her no choice.  Nucky is concerned lest Margaret reveal any of Nucky's criminal undertakings in her confession.  But if he knew what Margaret surprisingly says about longing for Nucky's enforcer- who is often under their roof, in bed with Katie the maid - Nucky would no doubt be far more upset.

There's no surprise in Margaret being attracted to the handsome, charming Owen.  But if Margaret is revealing this attraction to a priest in confession, it must be more than casual.

In other potentially bad news for Nucky, US Attorney General Daugherty knuckles under pressure from the Senator from New Jersey, and takes the Nucky's case away from the attorney who would have soft-pedaled it out of the courtroom.   The upshot for Nucky is that he now faces charges worse than the election fraud - violating the Mann Act by transporting prostitutes across state lines.   (I was never comfortable with the plan to "help" Nucky by bringing Federal charges against him, but nobody asked me.)

And, to make matters even worse, it looks as if Jimmy and Lucky may be forming an alliance - boding ill for both Rothstein and Nucky.

About the only possible good news for Nucky is Lucy giving birth to Van Alden's baby.  Perhaps this will distract Van Alden, at least a little, from his campaign against bootlegging booze?  Nah, not likely, and that's part of what makes this series so good.

And the historical media scene of the episode (I'm adding this category to every Boardwalk Empire review):  Jimmy's wife Angela marveling about the advantages of radio  - you can get great music for free, without having to pay for the recordings.  She hit the nail right on the head.

See also Boardwalk Empire 2.1: Politics in an Age Before YouTube  ... Boardwalk Empire 2.2: The Woman Behind the Throne ... Boardwalk Empire 2.3: Frankenstein and Victrola ... Boardwalk Empire 2.4: Nearly Flagrante Delicto ... Boardwalk Empire 2.5: Richard's Story

And see also Boardwalk Emipre on HBO ... Boardwalk Empire 1.2: Lines and Centers Power ... Boardwalk Empire 1.10: Arnold Rothstein, Media Theorist  ... Season One Finale of Boardwalk Empire

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

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

---

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis

Another great Walking Dead with a stunning ending last Sunday, as episode 2.3 tells us how Shane and Otis fared in getting the crucial respirator back to save Carl.

Shane and Otis are badly over-matched by zombies - to say the least - as they try to make their way back with the respirator to their car.  They painstakingly make progress, saving each other's asses at every turn.  We see all this in a classic series of ongoing flashbacks, against what's happening back at the doc's house, and back in the car pile-up.

Time's running out for Carl, who awakes briefly with a beautiful memory of the deer in the forest.  Even Rick's transfusions - which could soon put Rick in a coma from lack of blood - won't save Carl.  He's losing more blood than can possibly be replaced.   The doc says they have no choice but to operate without the respirator, an operation that could kill Carl right there.  Lori - who was questioning whether Carl would be better off alive or dead in this hellish world - gives the go-ahead.

And Shane shows up, shaken to the point of speechless, with the respirator.  But where's Otis?  He obviously and tragically didn't make it.

Otis's not making it is in itself no great surprise, given his condition.  But the reason that he didn't get back with Shane is the kick-in-the-gut stunner.

Shane, after taking a shower, inspects his bruises.  For a second, I had the horrible feeling that Shane might have been bitten.

But the final flashback reveals their source:  Otis gave the brusies to Shane, as he struggled for his life, and against Shane's move to leave Otis behind to satisfy ans distract the zombies, so Shane could get back with the respirator for Carl.

There was no other way.  But this act certainly supports Lori's misgivings about whether this is a world worth living in.   I guess I'd have done what Shane did in such circumstances, but ... the walking dead have made this a tough world in which to live indeed.   They not only kill us, but put good people in a position to kill other good people, and for good reasons.   Which is a bad situation, any way you turn it.

See also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet 

And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

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

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

Fringe 4.5: Double Return

Last night's episode of Fringe - 4.5 - showed why Fringe is not only the best science fiction on television this season, but among the best science fiction series ever to be on television.

The episode brought us two stories - now slightly intertwining, soon to be more - the shapeshifters and Peter, both of whom have returned.

Dr. Truss used to work for Massive Dyamic, until Bell put an end to his research.  Truss's work was in cell regeneration, or the science at the basis of shapeshifting.  In terms of his genius, belief in his own work, but guilt when things go wrong, Truss is in many ways another version of Walter.

The real Walter has his hands and mind and heart full, as Peter, now in Fringe Division custody, asks Walter to help find out what happened to him.  On the way to his first meeting with Peter, Water hypothesizes that this could be a third Peter, from yet another (third) alternate universe.   Olivia refutes the hypothesis, pointing out that it wouldn't account for why she had been seeing Peter's face in her dreams.  And we viewers of course know that this Peter is our Peter - that is, the Peter from last year's alternative universe (the alternative universe of all seasons thus far), whom Walter kidnapped/saved as a boy.

In one of the most touching scenes ever seen on Fringe, Peter pinpoints in his conversation with Walter just where and when the new reality - without Peter - came to be: the Eternal Bald Observer did not save Peter when he fell through the ice all of those years ago.   Yet he - our Peter - is back now.

Walter, for all his genius, still can't quite accept this.  His heart tells him this is the Peter he raised, and knows as an adult.  His brain tells him this too.   But the guilt he still feels for breaching the two universes, and losing Peter in the water anyway, blocks his coming to terms with Peter's return now.  But give him time.

Meanwhile, Peter is making his customarily excellent contribution to the Fringe team, helping them in their attempt to understand the shapeshifters.  But we'll need more than understanding to beat them.  Their agent has now transformed into someone working in Fringe division, and - guess what - they're under the likely direction of Walternate, or someone from the alternate universe that communicates with ours via clacking typewriter.

Kudos to J. R. Orci and Graham Roland for writing a really memorable episode.

Hey, check out my essay The Return of 1950s Science Fiction in Fringe in this new anthology




See also Fringe Returns for Season 4: Almost with Peter ... Fringe 4.2: Better and Worse Selves ... Fringe 4.3: Sanity and Son ... Fringe 4.4: Peter's Back, Ectoplasm, and McLuhan

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 ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee  ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron ... Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale 1 of 3 ... Fringe 3.21:  Ben Frankin, Rimbaldi, and the Future ... Fringe Season 3 Finale: Here's What Happened ... Death Not Death in Fringe 
 
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

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

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

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam

Hey, I was overseas last week, and missed Dexter 6.5.  But a Showtime screener was waiting when I got back home, with Dexter 6.5 and 6.6, so I'll review the both of them here.  Most of the review will focus on Dexter 6.6 - which was the better of the two episodes - and will therefore contain some choice spoilers (Dexter 6.6 will be live on Showtime tomorrow).

In fact, I thought 6.6 was one of the best episodes ever of Dexter.  It contains a decisive move - to the dark side - in the fight for Dexter's soul.

The champion of the light for Dexter is Sam, and Dexter gets the call that Sam has been shot just as Dex is about to close in and physically confront the Doomsday Killers.  It's a brilliant piece of turning point ironic writing.   Gellar and Travis get to live and religiously kill another day, because Dexter, a decent human being in almost all ways, wants to be with his new friend and partial inspiration.

But when Dexter gets Sam's parting plea on his deathbed in the hospital, Dexter is pitched into a new, harrowing internal battle between the light and dark inside him.  Don't kill my killer, Sam implores Dexter - forgive him,  let your hatred go.  Dexter might have been at least a little convinced.  He confronts Sam's killer - Nick - and might have let him live, but the taunts about getting away with Sam's killing goad Dexter into drowning the life out of him.

This is a decisive moment for Dexter.  So far this season, he's done little of the ritualistic killings that have been his stock in trade.   Dexter was almost about to do this to Travis, but let him loose in the hope that Travis would lead Dexter to Gellar,  which he almost did, had it not been for the call about Sam's shooting.   But Dex's not killing Travis, for whatever reason, continued his streak of non-killing, a continued upper hand for the light.

The streak is now broken, though Dex's killing of Sam's killer was not at all ritualistic.   At a time like this, we might expect some laconically appropriate words from Dex's father Harry.

But what we get, instead, is a reappearance of Brian/Rudy/the Ice Truck Killer - Dexter's brother, killed by Dexter in Season One.   And if Dex's brain is bringing him into view, there is some deep darkness indeed ahead for Dexter.

See also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals?

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

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

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

---

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

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 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home

Bones was back with the debut of its seventh season tonight, and a delightful, satisfying premiere it was.

Bones is pregnant with Booth's baby, and she's "crying at the crime scene," courtesy of the flood of hormones.  But what's giving her real concern, even without the hormones, is where she and Booth will live.  He wants them to move in together, she at first demurs, but even when she agrees, she wants Booth to move in with her - as the Iroquois do - while Booth would like them to get their own, new place.

The case at hand has relevance to their new lives together.  The victim is yet another person with memory loss - this has been a theme on at least three different series other than Bones this season (can you recall which?) - and for Booth and Bones it serves as a good metaphor for the bad memories each of them will be leaving in the dustbin.

The bad guy turns out to be the doctor - for some reason, I saw this in his first scene - who has lots of money riding on the status of his patient's memory.  Bones, every bit as brilliant as before her pregnancy, solves the case on evidence that even Hodgins and Wendell miss.   Speaking of Hodgins, we get some great scenes of him and Angela and their adorable baby, who charms even Cam, who's in officious mode tonight.

Hodgins and Angela are clearly happy together.  And it seems that, against all odds, so by and large are Booth and Bones.  They not only tell each other that they love each other, but they exhult in each other's company, and the prospect of their baby.   In the end, Bones sees the wisdom of Booth's wanting a new home, though they (of course) still can't agree on Bones' logical point that they should get a home commensurate with her millionaire status.

In other words, the chemistry of Bones has definitely changed, at least a little, and I'd say much for the better.

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 ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ... Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ... Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

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

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic, Mozy

---

---

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

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

NCIS 9.7: "You Were My Shannon, Leroy"

A superb NCIS 9.7 on Tuesday, with a case revolving around Gibbs and Fornell's ex-wife Diane and her current husband.  Lots of occasions for NCIS quintessential humor, as well as a good dangerous story.

Among the funny lines were Diane's reference to Gibbs as "Mr. Woodchuck."  But my favorite belonged to DiNozzo who, early in the episode, concerned about his and everyone's thinning hair, remarks about the "skin yamulke" on top of Tim's head.   Ouch, been there (actually, still there).

Meanwhile, the nub of the story concerns an apparently terrorist plot to unleash a deadly virus at a big stadium.   Diane and especially her husband Victor may be involved, but he turns out to be hero, and all Diane really did wrong was cheat on poor  Fornelle in 2004.  And the target was actually of the assassination not terrorist variety.

The best scene comes at the end, when Diane pays another visit to the woodchuck in his lair (den, hole?).   She confronts Gibbs about his having only ever loved Shannon, and Gibbs (again, nicer this season than in previous ones) tells Diane he did like her, and still does.  That's pretty high praise indeed from Gibbs.   But Diane has the best line, saying, "you were my Shannon, Leroy."  With that, she leaves the lair and Gibbs, with his bourbon and memories of Diane and Shannon.

And us with a soft, haunting ending to another fine and funny ride.

See also NCIS 9.1: Unpacking Partial Amnesia ... NCIS 9.2: Lying to Yourself ... NCIS 9.3: McGee's Grandmother ... NCIS 9.4: Turkey Vulture as Explained by DiNozzo ... NCIS 9.5: Behrooz's Mother ... NCIS 9.6: Too Good to be True

And 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" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father ... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story ... NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo In and Out ... NCIS 8.11: "The Sister Went Viral" ... Bob Newhart on NCIS 8.12 ... NCIS 8.13: The Wife or the Girlfriend ... NCIS 8.14: Kate ... NCIS 8.15: McGee and DiNozzo's Badges ... NCIS 8.16: Computer Games ... NCIS 8.17: Budget Cuts ... NCIS 8.18: Gibbs vs. the Kid ... NCIS 8.19: The Deadly Book ... NCIS 8.20: CIRay ... NCIS 8.21: Mask and Eye ... NCIS 8.22: "I'd Rather Have a Lead" ... NCIS 8.23: Answers and Questions ... NCIS Season 8 Finale

And see 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

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

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

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

Bank of America Bends to Will of the People

Bank of America yesterday bowed to the will of its customers, withdrawing its plan to charge 5 bucks a month for use of its precious debit cards.  I see this as being just one of many reversals of corporate rapaciousness and insensitivity in the new world in which we live.

This is a world very different from the old one, which is still in the process of ending, in which corporations dealt out whatever they pleased to consumers.  In that old world, now being set back on its hind quarters, people mistreated by corporations had no one to complain to other than their families and friends, governments which did little or nothing, and corporations which did less.

Now, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube - social media - allow people to instantly and effectively communicate to millions about the bad treatment they are receiving from their banks and other corporate monoliths.  Abused customers no long have to wait for a mass medium - a TV or newspaper reporter - to deign to give their grievance coverage.  The consumers can get their own coverage via YouTube videos and Tweets that cost nothing to produce and can be seen and read everywhere, on any smart phone or old-fashioned laptop.

Bank of America isn't the first corporation to feel this cleansing power.  Netflix earlier reversed its new, regressive polices after a torrent online complaints.  Netflix learned that online media can be used for more than selling movies and TV shows.

Some big corporations think that by hiring a cool PR firm, they can develop an effective presence in the realms of social media.   Such con jobs can be seen a mile away.

Other companies have learned that online presence must be accompanied by real benefits to the consumer. Panera Bread, for example, not only offers free wi-fi in its cafes, but gives free refills for coffee and tea, and other perks to its loyal consumers.   Contrast that to Bank of America's attempt to squeeze five more dollars out of its customers.

The resurgence of direct democracy ongoing in Occupy Wall Street all over the world is now beginning to have tangible economic consequences.  This is very likely just the start of an economic revolution that will go hand-in-hand with the political.




Occupy Wall Street Chronicles, Part 1

The First Amendment =Is= Our Permit

Someone on Facebook sent me an image of this sign - speaks for itself as something to be shown to every cop menacing every Occupy Wall Street demonstrator in the United States.

Occupy Wall Street Chronicles, Part 1

Into the Mind of a Conservative Bully

Here’s an insight into the mind of a conservative bully – or maybe a glimpse of an oft-used game plan favored by unprincipled conservatives in their debates, online and otherwise, with the progressives at hand.

A Facebook “friend” – not really a friend, not even online let alone in person – takes issue with one of my many comments decrying the out-of-control police attack on peaceful Occupy demonstrators out in Oakland, California.   They got just what they deserved, he says, appropriate for anyone who defies the authorities and breaks the law.

Interesting, I replied.  So how is it that the Mayor of Oakland – Jean Quan – issued this statement in the aftermath of the police vicious attack on the Occupy Oakland people:

October 27th, 9pm -- I am deeply saddened about the outcome on Tuesday. It was not what anyone hoped for, ultimately it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what happened. Today I visited Scott Olsen [brave former Marine who served in Iraq, shot in the head by the cops] and his parents because I was concerned about his recovery. And I hope we will keep them all in our prayers.

We have started an investigation into the use of force, including tear gas, on Tuesday. I cannot change the past, but I want to work with you to ensure that this remains peaceful moving forward.

And what was the response of my “friend”?

Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.   After two reminders and three days.

He’s disappeared from the argument, slunk back into the shadows from which he first emerged.

How many times have you seen this hit-and-run behavior, or been treated to it yourself?

A conservative makes a point that’s flagrantly wrong; someone calls him or her on it, and presents the facts; the conservative exits right, with no further word.

The modus operandi of the conservative bully, puncturing rational dialog, bringing down  a discussion, whenever possible.  It would almost be funny, if it weren’t so sad.  And it shows, if ever we needed a reason, that comments emanating from these partisans are probably best ignored.



Occupy Wall Street Chronicles, Part 1

NCIS 9.6: Too Good to be True

NCIS 9.6 was a too good to be true story - not the episode, but the story presented in the episode, which was in fact a little hackneyed and even predictable. Ducky's in love.  This provides a good occasion for DiNozzo to sing a few bars of Rickie Lee Jones' "Chuck E.'s in Love," with a D instead of a C.  But because this is a television series, not real life, you just know that that head-over-heels love can't last.  And so it goes with poor Ducky, with the twist that his love turns out to be the killer the team is hunting, which is also a standard television move.

But the show did have Cheryl Ladd, from the original Charlie's Angels, playing the killer.  And it did have one of Gibbs' best rejoinders of the season, given when DiNozzo says he's fallen off the ladder of trust.   "Not a ladder," Gibbs laconically comments,  "more like a step stool."

In other words, the writing was excellent as always, even though the story was disappointing.   I admit, I'm a romantic.  I like to see our major characters find the happiness they deserve.  I understand why, in this line of work, that often doesn't happen.  But making Ducky's love the killer in this one was just too much.

Gibbs once again plays the comforter at the end of the episode, which, as I've been saying, has been a good leavener for the show.  This time the recipient, of course, is Ducky.

But why can't at least one of our major characters find some continuing happiness in life outside of work?  In Ducky's case, it's because the source of that happiness turned out to be his and the team's work.  To which I crankily say - give the man a break.

See also NCIS 9.1: Unpacking Partial Amnesia ... NCIS 9.2: Lying to Yourself ... NCIS 9.3: McGee's Grandmother ... NCIS 9.4: Turkey Vulture as Explained by DiNozzo ... NCIS 9.5: Behrooz's Mother

And 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" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father ... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story ... NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo In and Out ... NCIS 8.11: "The Sister Went Viral" ... Bob Newhart on NCIS 8.12 ... NCIS 8.13: The Wife or the Girlfriend ... NCIS 8.14: Kate ... NCIS 8.15: McGee and DiNozzo's Badges ... NCIS 8.16: Computer Games ... NCIS 8.17: Budget Cuts ... NCIS 8.18: Gibbs vs. the Kid ... NCIS 8.19: The Deadly Book ... NCIS 8.20: CIRay ... NCIS 8.21: Mask and Eye ... NCIS 8.22: "I'd Rather Have a Lead" ... NCIS 8.23: Answers and Questions ... NCIS Season 8 Finale

And see 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

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

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

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

No Expiration Date on First Amendment

I'm in Brussels, to give a Keynote Address about Marshall McLuhan tomorrow.  I've been enjoying the conference on the Philosophy of McLuhan, as well as this wonderful city.   But I've been following with grave concern the police aggression against Occupy protesters in Oakland and Atlanta, and wanted to offer - to police everywhere in the United States - the following point:

There's no limit in the First Amendment on the amount of time people can peaceably assemble - no time after which the First Amendment doesn't apply.   An assemblage can be an hour, a day, a year.  So when right-wingers tell you, the Occupy protesters have made their point, they should go home, and the police should make them do that, by force, those right-wingers are only displaying an ignorance of the law.

And that's ok.  People are entitled to be ignorant of the law.  But police and law-enforcement are not.  And when police break the law, or based on ignorance of the law deprive citizens of their rights, that's a serious form of crime.  It's a crime that we the taxpayers are paying for.   No person with a conservative philosophy, no American, should be happy about that.

I call upon police everywhere to respect the law.  Don't follow an illegal order by your commander.  You know what the First Amendment says and doesn't say.

And I again urge Obama to considering calling in the National Guard to protect Americans being forcibly deprived of their rights, just as Eisenhower did bravely for people in the South being deprived of their rights by authorities in the 1950s.


Occupy Wall Street Chronicles, Part 1

Boardwalk Empire 2.5: Richard's Story

Lot of beating and worse afoot on Boardwalk Empire 2.5 Sunday evening, along with a tender, sadly beautiful story about Richard.

Let’s talk about Richard first – last night was his best episode.  He goes off into the woods on Memorial Day with lunch, a knife, and a rifle, well dressed to the point of putting on a cap.  It’s all preparation for him to take his own life – which he almost does, except for the intervention of a dog.  Richard has taken off his mask, left it next to him, and the dog takes it and runs away with it, the way dogs are wont to do.  This breaks Richard’s suicide rhythm.  He runs after the dog, finds not only his mask and the dog, but two men in the woods.  They’re both sage, and one of them tells Richard the woods are to live in, not to do something else.  Richard takes this to heart.

Meanwhile, Jimmy is smacked in the forehead by an arrogant Indian war veteran, one of the party of elders who have been backing the Commodore, and are concerned that he’s out of commission.  They have no faith in Jimmy, and the smack in the forehead is to teach Jimmy a lesson about respect.   Jimmy gets a lesson alright, but not the one the cane-wielder intended.   Before the night is over, Richard (back from the woods) and Jimmy (lectured about being strong by his mother) scalp the obnoxious Indian killer. Good riddance.

And in another great sequence of scenes, Eli comes to Nucky’s house to apologize.  Nucky is so furious at Eli he can’t even bring himself to pretend to accept the apology – who can blame him – and the two are soon at each other’s throats, literally.  Eli, being stronger, has the upper hand, but exits when Margaret points a rifle at him.  He apparently didn’t notice that it wasn’t loaded, though Nucky did, and counsels Margaret to make sure it’s loaded next time she points it at someone, with no praise for saving his life.  Why not?  He's likely too embarrassed and shaken up.

But the evening isn’t quite yet finished for Eli.  Back home – out in the shed – he receives a visit from yet another player in the anti-Nucky brigade, also concerned about the Commodore’s condition.  That encounter ends with Eli bashing in his caller’s face – at last he’ll no longer have to worry about the Commodore – and Eli burying the body in an unmarked grave.

All of this conspiracy is reminiscent of what the Roman Senators did to Julius Caesar, and the internecine, destructive aftermath.  But I have a feeling Nucky’s going to come out of this a little better than did Caesar.

See also Boardwalk Empire 2.1: Politics in an Age Before YouTube  ... Boardwalk Empire 2.2: The Woman Behind the Throne ... Boardwalk Empire 2.3: Frankenstein and Victrola ... Boardwalk Empire 2.4: Nearly Flagrante Delicto

And see also Boardwalk Emipre on HBO ... Boardwalk Empire 1.2: Lines and Centers Power ... Boardwalk Empire 1.10: Arnold Rothstein, Media Theorist  ... Season One Finale of Boardwalk Empire

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

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

---

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet

A fine, intense as always, yet in parts endearing The Walking Dead 2.2 Sunday night, with most of the action centering around an old country doctor – actually a veterinarian, much to Lori’s distress – doing his utmost to save Rick and Lori’s son.

Carl was accidentally shot in last week’s episode, by a hunter on the other side of a beautiful buck Carl was wondrously approaching in the forest.  Lori hoped that when the doc said he was a “vet” he meant veteran, but no such luck.  She’s of course desperate that Carl pull through, and good manners towards the doc are the last thing on her mind.

Rick almost loses it, as does Lori, but they hold it together so the doc can work.  Rick’s blood type is the same as his son’s – a piece of luck – but Carl’s condition is still critical, and requires Shane to go off (with the hunter who shot Carl, who feels terrible about this, and volunteers) to find proper medical supplies.

Shane has one his best episodes in the whole series so far, not only thinking more clearly than Rick (understandable), but getting him to focus.  Shane’s foray with the hunter to get supplies runs into zombies.  No surprise, it’s getting dark, but Carl’s life hanging in the balance makes this encounter – not decided at the time the episode ends – all the more harrowing.

Meanwhile, back at the convoy, T-Dog’s developing a fierce infection from his wound, which he could die from, just as surely as from the zombies.  He appreciates this irony, and, fortunately gets antibiotics (part of Daryl’s stash) pretty much in the nick of time.  Antibiotics may be no good against the zombie-generating plague – nothing is, so far – but they can at least dispatch a bad old-fashioned infection.

So far this season, there seems to be a little more emphasis on the human than the zombie – though Andrea nearly narrowly escapes succumbing to one (she was deprived of her weapon last week, because she tried to end her life last season).  I’m liking this slightly more human tilt a lot, so far.

See also The Walking Dead Back on AMC

And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

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

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals?

Two plus two equals Dexter 6.4 tonight - he discovers two numbers in the doomsday killer's corpses, and then realizes that he's likely dealing with two killers not one - but the deeper story is not mathematical or scientific, but the struggle in Dexter's mind between science and religion.

When Harrison's appendix ruptures and he's rushed into surgery, Dexter - under Sam's general influence - asks even God for help.  And Harrison pulls through like a "champ," according to the doctor, Dexter thanks God.  And although he denies to Sam any meaning in Dexter's use of the phrase, saying he's still a man of science, it's clear that Dexter's atheistic insistence is beginning to crack.

And good thing, too.   Professor Gellar - the "middle-aged professor," as Dexter calls him (thanks, Dex, makes me feel like a suspect) - is moving into high gear.  He claims a third victim - in faith, two plus can equal three - and Dexter's understanding of faith, not just the literal Old and New Testaments, but the workings of a sick mind that twists faith and uses it to kill, may be the best weapon Dexter has against the murderous pair.

Travis, the acolyte who looks like McGee from NCIS, is clearly a true, twisted believer.  He goes out with and sleeps with a brunette, and very much enjoys it.  But Gellar has other ideas, and make her the third victim (you could see this coming), and Travis not only goes along with this but enjoys the locust culmination of the ritual.

A fine season, in which Debra not only gets off a lot of great, fucking lines, but actually uses one in a press conference after Laguerta tells her to be "herself".  Laguerta's pleased with this gaff, everyone else is askance, but Captain Matthews gets lots of compliments about Debra's "telling it like it is," and tells her to keep up the "fucking" good work.

That's what I'm takin' about - Thom Yorke would have been proud.

See also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review

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

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

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

---

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

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

Good Day Street Talk - on Fox-NY - discusses Occupy Wall Street

Tai Hernandez interviews Nicole Gelinas, Jed Morey, me, Basil Smikle, Thomas Borelli - we're on a panel - about Occupy Wall Street on Fox-NY's Good Day Street Talk this morning (interview taped last Thursday). Best blend of thoughts about social media, direct democracy, politics, the First Amendment, and the Occupy protests I've been able to present on television thus far ...

Street Talk, Oct. 22, 2011: MyFoxNY.com

Occupy Wall Street Chronicles, Part 1

Obama Should Call in National Guard to Restrain NYPD in Occupy Wall Street

Consider the following -

• Professor and author Cornel West was just hauled off in a police paddy wagon up in an Occupy Harlem protest - see photos
• Professor and author Naomi Wolf was led off in hand cuffs earlier this week when she was walking on a street deemed off-limits - a public street - by the NYPD - see article
• a woman seeking to close her Citibank account as part of the Occupy Wall Street protest was arrested - see video

Obama finally announced the end of the US occupation of Iraq today.  Now he should send some of our National Guard to New York City to restrain our out-of-control NYPD.  Clearly Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly either can't or don't want to restrain the NYPD.

Earlier this week, we also saw the inspiring lecture that former Marine Shamar Thomas delivered to the NYPD - "you're supposed to protect us, not attack us," he said.  Here's the video.  (He was not arrested - Bloomberg still has a clever sense of public relations - he doesn't want a video of the NYPD taking into custody a former Marine.  But professors and authors and other law-abiding citizens are apparently fair game to arrest on camera.)

It is becoming more clear, every day, that what we most in New York City need protection from is our own police.

(I taped an interview and talked about some of these issues Thursday (Oct 20) morning - part of a panel discussion broadcast on Good Day Street Talk, Fox-NY-Channel 5, Saturday, October 22, 6-6:30am - here's the video.)

Street Talk, Oct. 22, 2011: MyFoxNY.com

-Paul Levinson, PhD
Professor of Communication and Media Studies
Fordham University




Occupy Wall Street Chronicles, Part 1