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, December 12, 2021

Dexter: New Blood 1.6: Breaks and Arm Breaks

Well, it really hit the fan in Dexter: New Blood, the sixth episode in what is the best reboot I've ever seen (or at least, easily tied with Battlestar Galactica). All the characters are performing at their peaks.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Dexter is sharper than ever. His explanation to Angela about why he adopted the Jim name and persona was perfect. He told her the truth about everything other than being a serial killer. There was therefore so much truth in what he told her, that the sardonic voice in his head -- his voice, not Deb's -- was silent. I also liked that he intervened and stopped Kurt from killing Molly the podcaster. The thing to remember about Dexter is that, other than his being a serial killer, he's a good guy (and, actually, since he kills bad people, one could argue that the serial killer part of Dexter is good, too).
Harrison hasn't killed anyone yet, as far as we know, but I don't think so. He seems too stunned when he gives into his dark passenger and breaks the wrestler's arm (who had it coming, since he head-butted Harrison). He's pretty clearly a kid struggling with his dark impulses, as his father realizes. The question is whether Dexter will be able to prevent Harrison from going completely over to the lethal side (I'm guessing he won't). And on another Harrison topic: creds to him for spending the night in bed with Audrey. She, by the way, is the only one he's been honest with about wanting to hurt people.
Kurt has now been frustrated in his serial killing three times in a row: 1. Last week, he shot his victim in the eye (not the way he wants to kill his women captives). And this week, 2. The young woman's boyfriend shows up at the wrong time, and 3. Dexter interferes with Kurt's move to kill Molly. There must be a lot of pent-up rage and desire to kill in Kurt at this point.
Angela turning to Dexter, not Jim, for help at the end was good to see. But that may not be entirely good for Dexter. Angela is calling upon Dexter's expertise as a forensic specialist. But when Dexter goes down that route, he's getting much closer to his own killing instincts than when he was Jim. Angela could well sense some of that. On the other hand, since Dexter now knows Kurt is the serial killer who got Iris, Dexter can easily work with Angela to nab Kurt -- which Dexter wants to do anyway, since he doesn't like Kurt's influence on Harrison -- and that could keep Angela too occupied to suspect Dexter of his past .... Nah, thinking about that, it's just a matter of time until Angela begins suspecting him.

See you back here next week!

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

Friday, December 10, 2021

Podcast Review of Invasion season 1 Finale

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 225, in which I review the ninth episode of Invasion on Apple TV+.

Earlier podcasts about Invasion:

December 3, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.9 ... November 30, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.8 ... November 20, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.7 ... November 13, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.6 ... November 6, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.5 ... November 2, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.4 ... October 26, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.1-3

Written blog post review of Invasion Season 1 Finale is here.

Check out this episode!

Invasion Season One Finale: Peering Through the Opaque

There's much less talking and no real combat in the Invasion Season One finale up on Apple TV+ today (yes, there will be a second season, the series was renewed two days ago). Our main characters all over the world, still in various stages of profound shock, after what happened last week, struggle to understand what's going on. Much like us, the viewers, on our other side of the screen.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

As I said last week, the Earthly victory felt too easy. We knocked all the interstellar invaders with just one shot, however powerful? Not very likely, not likely at all.

And, of course, as our point of view characters on Earth begin to come to -- that is, come to the edges of an understanding -- we find that the invaders are indeed not gone. Some begin to glimmer and pulse back to life. Or maybe they were never dead. And/or maybe there are other more powerful invaders pulling their strings.

The ruptured human relationships are to some extent repaired. Not completely. And Trevante and the love of his life see that glimmering interstellar ship coming down, landing, in the water off the beach. Just as Heinlein intended. It's a beautiful last scene. What does it mean? What do the beings in that ship want of us, of Earth?

Like all good finales that don't finally conclude a story, it's too soon to tell. There's certainly an intelligence in that shimmering ship that we haven't seen before. As I said early on in my reviews of this series, obviously it took some kind of massive, extraordinary intelligence to get any species out of outer space onto to this Earth. So that glimmering ship, which looks like something from a place we've never been, just as it should, should be no surprise.

But for all its translucence, its intentions remain opaque. In the second season, perhaps those intentions will become more clear. But I have a feeling that we're just at the beginning of an impossible long-form Haiku poem that has no ending. Good. More episodes to watch.

Thursday, December 9, 2021

"The Soft of Your Eyes" added to 19 Spotify playlists in the past three years (updated)

"The Soft of Your Eyes" (from Twice Upon A Rhyme) 26th on this list

And here are four more: You May Sweetly Ask ... 70s (first half) ... NTS Heaven and Earth Magic ... Thanksgiving 2021

And here's one from back in April 2021: Cosmic Country Outsiders

And here's another one added later in December 2021: True

And five from January 2022: I Don't Want To Live the Wrong Life ... NTS 3 ... sagit brother ... My Shazam Tracks ... Soft Sands FM

And two from February 2022: Blue Sands ... pain au chocolat

And one from March 2022: Solibo Magnifique

And one from July 2022: Heart Full of Love

And one from December 2022: Best of Wrapped

And one from January 2023: Music for Watering the Mind

And one from January 2024: Down Home Comforts <3

Thank you!

CSI: Vegas season 1 Finale: The Nose Knows

An excellent all-hands-on-deck to what I hope is just the Season One finale of the revived CSI aka CSI: Vegas series on CBS tonight.

[Spoilers follow ... ]

Everyone working on the same case, just one case, and that's always the most fun. The case, of course, is David Hodges, who has been kidnapped after a false video confession from him has been extorted. That's what we the audience know. The judge is still convinced by the evil Wix. The goal of Sara, Gil, and Maxine is to get the evidence that will convince the judge.

The lead to that evidence is olfactory -- as in perfume, as in scent. Sara and Gil identify the scent and therein the hotel that has it. But when they search it from bottom to top, there's no sign of Hodges. What did they miss? Scents change over time. (We could say, scents are change, just as cents are change.) (Sorry.) But our top-notch CSIs can figure out what the scent was, and therein where Hodges is now. And we get a happy, champagne-popping ending. Sara and Gil celebrate it not with a toast, but a ride on an effervescent roller-coaster.

A strong, concluding episode for the season. And a glimpse of what I hope we'll see next season -- a serial killer. CSI still has spunk and savvy. Its devotion to truth and evidence, to science and reason, is refreshing in this cynical, often lying world of ours, where a former President lies about winning the election, and he and his adherents pretend that a deadly pandemic is no big deal. Right, I sometimes mix politics into my reviews, and I'll be back here for sure with a review of the next season, if there is one, and that's the truth.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Podcast: Rufus Sewell interviewed by Paul Levinson about The Man in the High Castle

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 224, in which I interview Rufus Sewell about his role in The Man in the High Castle and much more, including his work in Victoria, Old, and other TV series and movies.

Transcript of interview (plus reviews of the series): Kindle, paperback

See the video of this interview.

Check out this episode!

Podcast: The Theater of the Mind: Paul Levinson interviews Dan Abella about his New Book

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 223, in which I interview Dan Abella about his new book, The Theater of the Mind.

Among the topics we discuss: Marshall McLuhan, Julian Jaynes, Gestalt psychology, ideas for inventions and music in dreams, the power of the spoken word and the acoustic, the history of motion pictures, the essence of "poetic faith," how art reduces stress, and much more.

More about The Theater of the Mind here and here.

Publications and Music mentioned in the interview:

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (Julian Jaynes)
The Photoplay: A Psychological Study (Hugo Münsterberg)
Biographia Literaria (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
(free article) "McLuhan's Space" (Paul Levinson)
(music) "Welcome Up" (Paul Levinson)

Check out this episode!

Monday, December 6, 2021

Hightown 2.7: Getting Down to Business

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

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

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

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

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

See you back here next week.

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Dexter: New Blood 1.5: No Satisfaction for Serial Killers

Another outstanding episode of Dexter: New Blood -- 1.5 -- in what from the beginning was an excellent reboot, and is just getting better and better.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

In a headline, Dexter's new life is unraveling. And in many ways the most exquisite part of this is the return of Batista (great to see David Zayas back), at least for this episode. He's now a captain of detectives in Miami, and he tells Dexter's faked story to Angela -- that he's dead -- and the truth that he left a son by the name of ... Harrison. It's a fairly uncommon name, and it's enough, along with the rest that Angela knows (what Audrey told her Harrison said, that Jim is not Jim's real name) to search on what happened in Miami all those years ago, and come up with a picture of Dexter, who of course looks like Jim.

To be clear, the jig is my no means up for Dexter. He can and no doubt will come up with a plausible explanation for why he faked his death. Likely he'll say it was to protect his son. But Angela is sharp and tenacious police, and sooner or later she'll begin to realize more about Dexter. And there's no way that, to save himself, he'll kill her. That would be a violation of the code that would dwarf all the other violations Dexter has done, and, besides, he close to loves Angela, and maybe actually does,

Meanwhile, the other serial killer in town, Kurt, is in high sicko gear. Kurt kills another young woman -- not that way he wants to, so he gets no satisfaction -- and now he's briefriended Harrison. He kills women not men, but Harrison under Kurt's wing is no good for Dexter and his genuine fatherly love. Tonight, a combination of that love and Dexter's killer appetite got Dexter to kill the drug dealer, but not in the way that gave Dexter's dark passenger any satisfaction, either.

Dexter's best bet for taking Kurt out of action is Angela, who also discovered in New York that Kurt was lying about hearing from his son Matt in New York City. Should be an exciting five more episodes of this superb season ahead.

Podcast: Page to Screen: Dune, Foundation, The Man in the High Castle, The End of Eternity

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 222, in which I share the talk I gave yesterday in Krakow, Poland via Zoom at PhilosophyCon about the aesthetics and philosophy of assessing the screen adaptations of the science fiction classics Dune (1984, 2021), Foundation (2021), The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019), and The End of Eternity (1987).

Thanks to Michal Tadeusz Norworyta for moderating.

Q & A at conclusion.

Relevant videos:

The complete PhilosophyCon panel
Cora Buhlert, Joel McKinnon, and Paul Levinson discuss the first season of Foundation (also available in audio podcast)
Paul Levinson interviews Rufus Sewell about The Man in the High Castle

Relevant blog posts:

Review of Dune (2021)
Review of The End of Eternity (1987)

Check out this episode!

Saturday, December 4, 2021

The End of Eternity (Soviet, 1987, Konets vechnosti): Surprisingly Good

I saw a thread on Reddit about a 1987 Soviet adaptation of Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity -- my favorite time travel novel, published in 1955 (which I first read as a kid in 1959) -- and of course I had to see it. Fortunately, it's available free, in two parts, on YouTube.

I don't speak or read Russian, but the movie has English subtitles. It's surprisingly good. When I review movie or TV series adaptations of novels and stories, I usually don't go into point by point comparisons with the source material. I try to assess the adaptations on their own terms, and stick to generalities and sprinkle in a few specifics as far as comparisons go. I'll do that here, as well as avoid specific spoilers, for those who haven't read the novel.

I say Andrei Yermash's movie is surprisingly good, because adaptations are difficult to do. The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime was superb, but in part because of the introduction of a new character not present in Philip K. Dick's novel, John Smith (see my conversation with Rufus Sewell, who brilliantly played the part ). There's widespread feeling that the best part of the recently concluded first season of Foundation was the clonal Cleon triumvirate, also not present in Asimov's novels and stories (see my conversation with reviewers Cora Buhlert and Joel McKinnon about this). Yermash's The End of Eternity was powerful and enjoyable and stayed pretty close to Asimov's account of a group of people, The Eternals, who use time travel to control and improve history -- according to their standards, which include stopping our movement off this planet into space -- but are challenged by one of their own who puts falling in love above all else.

Asimov's "allwhen" council of The Eternals works well in Yermash's Russian, and its evocation of the Soviet politburo. The movie also depicted my favorite gambit in the novel, communicating to the future via an ad in a news magazine. The acting was pretty good, with Oleg Vavilov as protagonist Andrew Harlan and Vera Sotnikova as his lover Noyes Lambent. And there was some nudity (I guess the Soviet Union wasn't that puritanical -- on the other hand, Konets vechnosti was made in almost the closing days of the Soviet regime.)

So my recommendation: if you like Asimov (1920-1992) -- who, after all, was born in Russia (I wonder if he knew about this movie?) -- and even more so, if you like time travel, do see this movie (again, it has English subtitles, unlike this 1976 Hungarian adaptation). It's not as good on screen as The End of Eternity is on the page, a creme de la creme of a time travel novel, the last novel that Asimov wrote, before he stopped writing science fiction novels for nearly two decades until The Gods Themselves in 1972. The End of Eternity is Asimov at his very peak as a science fiction writer, and it would be extraordinarily difficult for any movie version to equal it. But this Soviet adaptation conveys enough of the novel with style and flair to be in the upper echelon of time travel movies and well worth watching.

-------

The Loose Ends Saga -- in part inspired by Asimov's novel

' another alternate space travel history

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Friday, December 3, 2021

Podcast Review of Invasion 1.9

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 221, in which I review the ninth episode of Invasion on Apple TV+.

Earlier podcasts about Invasion:

November 30, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.8 ... November 20, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.7 ... November 13, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.6 ... November 6, 2021 Review of Invasion 1.5 ... November 2, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.4 ... October 26, 2021, Review of Invasion 1.1-3

Written blog post review of Invasion 1.9 is here.

Check out this episode!

Invasion 1.9: Tables Turning

A block-buster penultimate episode of Invasion -- 1.9 -- in which it looks like the tables may be turned, or may be beginning to be turned ...

[Spoilers ahead.]

But let me see if I have this right. Over in Tokyo, Mitsuki's sure she's in contact with Hinata, but everyone else doubts that, including her father (who's an engineer) and an audio specialist who concludes that what Mitsuki and the people in the control room are hearing is a synthetic replication of Hinata's voice. But, at the beginning of the episode, we see that David Bowie's "Space Oddity" is very significant in Mitsuki and Hinata's relationship -- Hinata thinks Mitsuki looks like Bowie -- and, later, at a decisive moment in the control room, Bowie's "Major Tom" is suddenly broadcast from space, when Mitsuki prompts "Hinata" to play it. (One of my favorite songs -- see my brief comments about it on WNBC News after Bowie's death in 2016.)

This convinces Mitsuki that Hinata is indeed alive. It convinces the American military guy that this is the time to launch the attack on the invaders -- he says Mitsuki bought Earth some valuable time -- and the attack succeeds. Here I'd just say: what kind of invaders are these, that they would so succumb so easily to the attack on them from Earth? Wouldn't they have expected that we here on Earth would defend ourselves and counter attack in any way we could?

There are excellent action scenes in the hospital in London and the forest in the New York area, where the (presumed) destruction of the Invasion mothership stops the invading creatures here on Earth, dead in their tracks. Unfortunately, not in time to save Ahmed, who sacrifices his life to save Aneesha and the kids, and perhaps not Casper, either, whose survival is uncertain, given that the destruction of the invaders destroyed or disrupted a part of his mind.

And the question remains: how much if any of the invaders survived, and what kind of damage can they still mete out to us here on Earth?

But that's what season finales are for -- and I'll see you back here next week with my review.

Thursday, December 2, 2021

The Sinner season 4: The Festering Seaside

The Sinner starring Bill Pullman as Harry Ambrose came to a hard end last night -- hard in terms of it's not only the end of the season but the series (unless another enlightened network or streaming service picks it up), and hard in terms of everything is difficult for Harry, as he tries to navigate his life through the murders and mayhem he's always prone to investigate.

Harry is really a detective like no other. Plagued with his own problems, including his masochistic taste in sex, utterly devoted to his investigations, to seeking the truth, with or without a badge, no villain or pervert wants Harry on his or her case. But each investigation, even though it results in the truth at last revealed, takes its toll on Harry.

At the beginning of the fourth season, Harry is so distraught he's on the verge of taking his own life. What saves him is witnessing a suicide, as Percy, whom Harry has briefly established a connection with as some kind of kindred sufferer, jumps off a cliff, literally, before Harry's very eyes. He cannot help but be drawn into an investigation of why that happened, even though it's not a murder. His investigation uncovers all sorts of underbellies of life, in a sleepy seaside town in Maine festering with crime, resentment, dysfunctional families, and touches of depravity. Fans of Hightown will recognize the environment.

Harry finds some peace in the end in working through the labyrinth to finally understand why Percy jumped. But he doesn't yet have much peace in his soul, and this means there's ample opportunity for future stories in the world of The Sinner, Harry's world. I hope we can see them sooner rather than later. But Harry is such a timeless character, and Pullman brings him to life so well, that I'd be up for seeing more of Harry any time that's on a screen.

CSI: Vegas 1.9: The Confession and The Stain

An excellent next-to-last episode of what I hope will be the first season of CSI: Vegas on CBS tonight, with both a good standalone story and a sharp ratcheting up of the continuing David story.

The standalone story was a devil and angel story, literally. Well, not quite literally, but the murder victims are a couple who underwent surgery so the guy looked like a devil with horns and his partner had wings like an angel. Their bodies, discovered months after the couple was killed, provided an ideal case for Allie and Josh to investigate, replete with metaphysical overtones.

Meanwhile, as Sara and Gil struggle to get the goods on Wix, they also have to talk David out of falsely confessing to get a lighter sentence. This sets up the story for David confessing via a video, which stops the trial cold and ups the ante for Sara and Gil to nab Wix.

In a classic Gil move, he realizes that the confession was forged. The search is on for where the confession was recorded -- because that would reveal David's location -- and a stain on a wall provides an essential clue. Sara realizes exactly what happened in a final montage of scenes which serves a fine entree to next week's finale.

However that ends -- and I hope it's with the exoneration of David, who has suffered enough -- it will be fun to see where CSI: Vegas goes if it has a second season, which, as I said, I hope it does. The David story provided a powerful continuing thread, and I think the duality of each episode -- the standalone and the continuing story -- worked very well. If Sara and Gil continue in the series, which I'd say is essential, the two would need a continuing case to investigate. I wouldn't mind seeing another character from the original CSI, or maybe one of the spinoffs, come back, but that's getting ahead ourselves.

I'll see you back here next week with a review of the season finale.

CSI: Vegas 1.8: Down the Drain

Best line in CSI: Vegas 1.8 comes from Allie, who can't resist noting that a body in a bathtub with hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid was "poured down the drain". The result -- what was left of the melted body -- is a sickening mess. But it provides a suitable occasion for Gil to earlier say that their evidence went "down the drain". And Allie says "down the drain" a third time. And later on, Sara talks about a likely decedent being "down Eric Starr's [or Shaw's] drain" So that phrase gets four justifiably starring mentions in this episode.

Meanwhile, on the David Hodges case, Sara has the good idea of hiring Janice Woo, an expert witness set to testify against David, to help Sara and CSI with the drain murder. Later, Sara has a satisfying confrontation over garbage with the evil Anson Wix. Fortunately it was not liquified, so Sara was able to haul it off. A good night for Sara.

Gil, in addition to getting off one of the good "drain" lines, also has a good night. He clears a petite blonde from the charge of smashing Shaw's head against the wall and then putting him in the bathtub with the peroxide, the acid, and the drain. And, looking through the nauseating remains in the bathtub, Gil finds Sara's missing ring. Near the end of the episode, he puts it back on Sara's finger, right where it belongs. A noble, loving gesture.

And I'll be back here soon -- actually, in a few minutes -- with my review of episode 1.9, which I also just had the pleasure of seeing.

"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!