Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing Black Doves; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Detective Hole; Dexter: Resurrection; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; Memory of a Killer; MobLand; Outlander; Paradise; Presumed Innocent; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Smoke; Star City; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Tehran;The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Night Agent; Your Friends & Neighbors +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Outlander 5.3: Misery

Well, Outlander 5.3 was a pretty miserable episode. Literally, as in being reminiscent of Misery, though the Stephen King novel may have been better.

Claire at least did get a baby to take care of, but what she and we had to go through to get there did not need to take up almost all of the episode. And while we learned the story of the wretch of a man, in such bad shape that Jamie had to out him out of his misery, we got no advancement on most of the other plotlines.

Jamie tells Claire that Bonner is alive but nothing more on that. Claire tells Jamie that Brianna and Roger want to go back to the their present with their baby, but no motion on that either. The antibiotic story moved just a smidgen when Claire discovered that none of her growing molds are penicillin.

And while we're at it, nothing new in the impending war between the Redcoats and Regulators, either. Jamie's still caught in the middle, and the vice is squeezing just as tightly. So, it's a great series, with an especially great season so far, but this episode was something of an aberration. At least the scenery was as verdant as always, and the horses ridden in the meadow, across the fields, make for wonderful shots.

Homeland 8.4: Helicopter Down

Well, it was obvious that something bad was going to happen to President Warner - why else have him personally go all the way to Afghanistan to end the war? But in Homeland 8.4, it was nonetheless handled pretty well.

We still don't know what brought his helicopter down. We don't know if he survived, was taken prisoner, or is fleeing somewhere in that jungle of trees and possibilities. We do know that the Taliban are on the scene, and at very least shot down one of the choppers that came to find out what happened.

But we don't know, yet, that the Taliban were responsible. It could be someone in the Afghan government, who doesn't want the peace. It could be the Russians. Hey, it could be the American Vice President - who, as I mentioned last week, is a Republican and I don't like.

Meanwhile, the synchrony between Homeland and what's literally going on in our reality right now couldn't be closer. Trump just announced the peace treaty with the Taliban. All we need is a pandemic and a Presidential primary underway and the parallel would be perfect.

Though I assume there's no one in our CIA as uniquely good as Carrie. Though, come to think of it, was her character inspired by or drawn from real life? I'll keep watching the news, and let you know if I see any evidence of her in our actual world.

And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinde r ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

The Outsider 1.8: Two Monsters

So, if I'm understanding The Outsider correctly - as of episode 1.8 on this Sunday - we now have two monsters at large. I don't mean the evil spirit and the person whose identity he/it takes. I mean, we have Jack and now Claude, who now both seem afflicted by the evil.

Claude looks ok, even though he doesn't feel that great and has been seeing shadows or whatever lurking around. The evil has its hooks in him, and indeed is transforming into him, to the point of almost kidnapping another child, this time a boy, in a truly harrowing interlude.

And then there's Jack, the guy with the bad neck. As far as I can tell, he has no doppelganger, at least not yet. But something is, almost literally, eating him up. What's going on with that?

Meanwhile, Ralph is finally almost there, in accepting Holly's position. She's still frustrated with him, but in every episode, he's coming closer to seeing the light, or maybe the true darkness would be the better metaphor for this.

The Outsider continues to be a highly effective, stylish horror story. As I said in my review, it's what you'd expect from Stephen King (who wrote the novel) and Richard Price, who brought the story to the screen. Both, in their own ways, are known for their surprise endings, or at least the unexpected. I'm wondering that will be in The Outsider. I'm guessing it's something that's been right under our noses all this time. But this story is so different, in its flow and intensity, that all bets may be off about how it will conclude in just two more episodes. All the more reason to watch them.

See also The Outsider 1.1-2: Two Places at the Same Time ... The Outsider 1.7: The Tear-Drinker ... The Outsider 1.7: The Guy with the Neck

Sunday, February 23, 2020

The Sinner 3.3: The Baby

An especially chilling episode of The Sinner - 3.3 - this past Thursday because, well, the focus of Jamie's psychotic urges was a baby. His and his wife Leela's.

Nothing happens to their baby, but the mixture of a sweet young newborn and Jamie was disconcerting in a way that psychos in television drama usually are not. Ambroise, hearing about at least a little of this from Jamie, gets him to a hospital, with a shrink, and security. But Jamie, before Ambrose's very eyes, bolts. Which I don't quite get - that is, I don't get why hospital security let that happen.

We saw that the doctor questioning Jamie was disturbed by what he was hearing. So the doc did nothing because .... what Jamie said was insufficient to hold him? Talk about letting a baby fall to the floor was insufficient?

The Sinner is and has always been about crime and psychosis of one kind or another than you don't find elsewhere on television. Jamie and his baby has certainly brought that to a whole new frightening level. And what's Ambrose now going to do? Allow Jamie to go home to his wife and baby?

The one bright spot in this episode was the slight flicker of romance between Ambrose and that artist. It was sweet when she asked for Ambrose's helping hand to climb over a log or a ditch or whatever, Ambrose gives it but remarks that she didn't really need it, and she replies that "someone has to break the ice". Cool. But, Ambrose, do something about that baby. At least, get Leela and the baby out of the house,

See also The Sinner 3.1: Second Degree Murder, First Degree Detective ... The Sinner 3.2: The Contractor and the Contractee

And see also The Sinner 2.1: The Boy ... The Sinner 2.2: Heather's Story ... The Sinner 2.3: Julian's Mother ... The Sinner 2.5: The Scapegoat ... The Simmer 2.7: Occluded Past Unwound - Mostly ... The Sinner Season 2 Finale: The Ambiguity of Harry

Homeland 8.3: Ohio

Well, with our 2020 Presidential campaigns and primaries now in full swing in our reality, I couldn't help but find the domestic political intrigue in Homeland 8.3 enticing, too.

The gist is VP Ralph Warner became President at the end of last season in the wake of President Elizabeth Keane's resignation. The Keane character was clearly created with the notion that Hillary Clinton would become President in our reality. That would make Warner ... who? Tim Kaine? I guess so. And in tonight's episode 8.3, we find that the Republican Warner made VP in the interest of national unity may be running for President, too. And he's rather abrasive. 'Nuf said.

I also thought that Ohio moving up its primary to come right after the Iowa caucus was politically astute, too. One of the biggest problems with our current primary system, often noted, is that it begins in two states that are not representative of the American populace. Bear in mind that this final season of Homeland was written and produced before our primary season began earlier this month. That will make it especially interesting to see how the VP spending time in Ohio pans out.

Meanwhile, I agree with the Taliban leader that he was not wise to let his son walk free. I of course 100% get his motivation as a father. But he may have been signing his own political and physical death warrant. Saul should have been more on top of this, too. I'm saying the son should have been killed. But why not kept under lock and key?

But it was good to see Carrie get closer to Yevgeny, and learn along with her that he saved her life. She deserves a little lasting happiness, and I'd like to see them together and whole at the end of this series.

And see also Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional

Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel

Outlander was firing on all cylinders in episode 5.2 - did they have cylinders back in the 1700s? - of course they did, the cylinder has been known since ancient times, though not in automobiles. But Outlander 5.2 has an excellent time-travel discussion, and important development of Jamie's story, as well as Brianna's.

Claire, as always, wants to use her 20th-century knowledge of medicine in her 18th-century doctoring. She worries that her grandson could die of an infection coming from a scraped knee, in a world without antibiotics. So she starts growing some on moldy bread.

Brianna worries what this "playing God" could do the world and cosmos, resulting in who knows how many people living who would otherwise have died. Actually, the healing properties of antibiotics were also known in ancient times -- "purefy me with hyssop, and I will be clean" (Psalm 51:7) -- but that knowledge was largely lost by the time of pre-revolutionary America, so Brianna's point is still well taken.

But Claire's response is even better. She correctly says that every instant she and everyone who came from the future have been in the past has changed history, and broken whatever the pre-ordinations of space and time. Therefore, in the interest of saving and improving people's lives, let space and time and "history be damned". Wise words, that certainly as an aficionado of time travel I can heartily agree with.

Meanwhile, Bonnet is back in sadistic play, and Jamie is finding it harder and harder to toe the line between the Redcoats and his own very different principles. As I said, firing on all cylinders.

See also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride

And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale: Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6: Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist 1.2: Moondance

Well, the best song in Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist 1.2 on Sunday was "Moondance" - though there was some fine singing and dancing in "I Got the Music In Me," the opening number.

But Peter Gallagher's performance of "Moondance" was just right. And Zoey's attempt to understand what her father was trying to convey, from just making love with his wife, Zoey's mother, to recapturing the first time he told her he loved was just right, too.

As to the rest, I'd prefer more singing and less office complexity. I mean, the ambience and the lingo in the office is cool enough, but the story of Zoey finding her footing as boss has been done countless times before. I'd rather see Zoey find her footing on the office floor as dance floor, as she sings and moves with someone singing a great song.

That's the most interesting part of the narrative - Zoey trying to explain how she got her super power, and, as she increasingly understands it, using it in all kinds of creative and worthwhile ways, as she's beginning to do with her father. Musicals always have to find the right balance between the music and the plot, and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist has the additional challenge and opportunity to work in the science fictional aspect of this, too.

There is actually and always has been a special connection between music and science fiction, as in the music of the spheres. And, consider the playlist below ...

See also Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist: Science Fiction Musical

Sunday, February 16, 2020

The Outsider 1.7: The Guy with the Neck

Most of The Outsider 1.7 tonight was devoted to the guy with the neck, aka Jack.

Here's what I think I get and don't get about him. He's in pain. That draws the evil spirit to him, for whom, as Holly has said, pain is its "wine". I'm not clear on whether the evil spirit is making his body deteriorate more quickly, or whether the spirit is just inhabiting and going for a ride on that deterioration.

Also, I'm not clear on when and where the doppelganger appears and fits in. Will that happen when Jack is completely taken over? Terry had a doppelganger, but his neck with ok. What was up - or down - with that?

Now to Holly: if she's so savvy about the evil spirit, how come it took her so long to realize that it was at least in part afflicting Jack? Why didn't she sense something before she got in the car with him.? I guess she thought that it took 20-whatever number of days for the evil spirit to totally take over, so she had a little time? And her escape in the car with her extra set of keys was well done.

As is Ralph's struggle to make some rational sense of what's happening. He doesn't know he's in a Stephen King story, so his resistance to what Holly and Sablo are telling him, or trying to telling him, makes sense, i.e., is rational. Sablo also has one of the best lines of the episode, when he tells Ralph that the difference between Ralph and him is that Ralph wants to understand what's going on, but Sablo just wants it over.

Indeed, what's gradually happening is Ralph is standing increasingly alone. Well, at least on his side of the screen. Because I'm with him - I'd like a rational explanation for this, too. Even though I know that's just beating my head against Stephen King's fiction.

See also The Outsider 1.1-2: Two Places at the Same Time ... The Outsider 1.7: The Tear-Drinker

Vienna Blood 3-4: Transference

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, February 15, 2020

For Life 1.1: For Sure!

We just caught the first episode of For Life, on ABC-TV this past Tuesday. It's a powerful narrative, with real heart, and real relevance to these times, notably the corruption we see in the Attorney General of the United States almost every day - even though For Life is about justice in New York State, and, so far, not explicitly political.

What For Life is manifestly about is a man sentenced to life imprisonment for a crime he didn't commit. He becomes a lawyer - not just a jailhouse de facto lawyer, but a lawyer with a degree, and with a plan to win his freedom: start winning cases against the corrupt, power-hungry DA who convicted Wallace. The hope is that Wallace will slowly destroy the DA's reputation by winning overturns of the DA's convictions, which would open the gate on all his convictions, including Wallace's.

It might sound like a far-fetched premise, but it's based on a true story, and backed up by Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent, who executive produces. Wallace is perfectly played by Nicholas Pinnock, who played so well in Fortitude, Marcella, and Counterpart, to name just a few. Indira Varma, who also has a stellar career ranging from Rome to Luther, plays the warden who can be counted on to help Wallace, at least some of the time. Boris McGiver (who could play the Rudy Giuliani story, not because they look alike but McGiver's character and Giuliani have the same persona) plays the despicable DA to a tee. And Joy Bryant does a good job as Marie, Wallace's former wife (or maybe they're still married, but she's living with someone else, Wallace's best friend, so not completely clear).

I don't usually have much patience with network TV shows. But For Life will get you really angry at the bad guys, cheer for the good guys, and make you feel good about the hope for our world we so much need in these troubled times.

"challenging fun"
- Entertainment Weekly

e-mail received from a reader:
Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchildren. Thanks! Tom

I of course happily replied...

42 reviews of The Plot to Save Socrates!