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.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

The Sinner 2.2: Heather's Story

The second episode of the second season of The Sinner, just on tonight, was mostly devoted to Heather. She's Harry's de facto partner in the investigation. And tonight we learn that, just as Harry has a strange past barely revealed, so does Heather - and hers concerns Mosswood Grove, the commune in which Julian, his mother, and the couple he (presumably) killed all lived.

We find that Heather had a friend who disappeared in some way on the commune. More than that, her friend was her lover - or, at least, they were romantically involved - and her friend was clearly attracted to one of the men on the commune. Beyond that ... who knows ... other than something likely no good happened to the friend. And while we're at it, we don't know how much or what Heather knows about happened to her friends. That's the way The Sinner rolls - doling out the bare necessity of information, which makes the narrative even more appealing.

Harry has a good conversation with Julian. Conversation is Harry's strong suit. He learns from every sentence, every facial expression of the person he's talking to. In the first season, Cora mostly wanted his help. Julian isn't there yet. But I'm guessing at some point Harry will get through to him.

Julian's mother seems the likely villain at this point, but, knowing The Sinner, it just can't be as simple as that. Is she really in or out of command in Mosswood, despite the impression she gives of being in control? And, if so, who then - what person or group - is really calling the shots?

However well disguised that is, we can count on Harry to unravel it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does it.

See also The Sinner 2.1: The Boy

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Sharp Objects #5: Men in Badges

Another mostly lateral Sharp Objects on Sunday night - #5 - which didn't really move the investigation much along, but provided important detail about Camille.

We learn that she's actually carving words into her body when she cuts herself. It's not clear yet if there's a message in them, but this certainly means she's more than a casual cutter, if we were ever inclined to think that for a minute. Amma finds out about it, and this has the effect of bringing the two closer together.

About Amma, she goes missing for a little while, and I keep thinking she's going to be the next victim. But, actually, I hope that doesn't happen, because I'm finding Amma to be a deeper, more important character with every new episode. Kudos to Eliza Scanlen here for fine acting in a pivotal role.

It was good to see Camille and Richard finally in bed together in the end, albeit in Camille's way. One of the ladies at the Calhoun Day Event remarks earlier that the Crellin woman go for men in badges, which points to the chemistry between Adora and Vickery, and the possibility (even likelihood) that Vickery is Camille's father. We'll see.

But we get no more evidence or insight into who did the murders. Which leaves me free to flog my pet theory: Alan's the killer. Of course, we have no evidence for that, either. And until we see the restriction on strength refuted - meaning, it's not the case that a woman couldn't have done the crime - we're left with just a mere handful of suspects.

See also: Sharp Objects 1 and 2: Serial Tennessee Williams ... Sharp Objects #3: Lateral ... Sharp Objects #4: "You Can't Change History"

Sunday, August 5, 2018

The Affair 4.8: I Don't Believe It

This review of The Affair 4.8 will have a spoiler from the hour that upended the entire series - so, seriously, if you don't want to know that, don't read on.

I entitled this review "I Don't Believe It" because I find it hard to believe that Alison is dead. But for her not to be dead, the only thing I can think of was that Noah was lying when he identified her in the morgue. And we've seen no motivation for him to do that. So, although there is a slim possibility that we'll discover what that motivation is, I can't hold out much hope it. (His crying in the dinner in his own very brief segment would then be crying for what he did to Cole, if Noah was lying in the morgue and after. But much as I'd like to believe that, it seems very unlikely.) (Nice call-back in that scene, by the way, of how Alison ad Noah first met, with the attractive waitress bantering with Noah.) (And great acting by Joshua Jackson and Dominic West throughout the hour - good to see the two of them riffing off each in other in so many scenes.)

But back to the matter at hand: I find it even harder to believe that Alison committed suicide. This is certainly what Cole believes - that Alison wasn't a suicide. But if Alison didn't take her own life, who did? I can think of three suspects - I'll list them in order of most likely, first -

Alison's father. We know the least about him, and his motive could be that Alison refused to give him her kidney. He seemed shocked when he got the news that Alison was dead, but he could have been putting on an act.
Ben. He's a liar for sure. But a killer? We've seen no evidence of any violence in him on a level of murdering someone. Possibly he could have flown into a rage in a scenario in which Alison refused to continue her relationship with him. I wouldn't be stunned if he killed her. But his denial to Cole and Noah was pretty convincing.
My wife suggested Luisa. She has a strong motive - Alison alive is getting in the way of both her relationship with Cole, and her getting documented on the strength of being Joanie's adoptive mother. But ... of the three suspects, she seems the least likely to kill Alison.

So with three suspects, none of them terribly likely, maybe we should consider the logic of Alison's suicide. She had her heart broken by Cole, Noah, and now Ben. Plus, her father broke her heart in a different way. That's a lot of heartbreak. But ... sufficient for suicide, for leaving Joanie without her biological mother?

Tough call. But I'm going to go with murder, at this point.

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Saturday, August 4, 2018

The Sinner 2.1: The Boy

Great to see The Sinner begin its second season on the USA Network - for me, tonight, just a few minutes after my wife and I binge watched the first season on Netflix, which we thought was outstanding. It's of course too soon to tell if the second season will be as brilliant and transfixing as the first, but it looks to have most of the ingredients.

Cora's case is over. The perpetrator this time - presumably - is a 13-year old boy, who poisons his parents to death. I say "presumably" because, unlike in the first season, we didn't actually see the act - the boy putting the poison in the tea he brought his parents - as we did with Cora stabbing Frank on the beach in the first season. But the kid sure looks guilty. He brought them the tea, and (so far) we know of no one who might have put in the poison without his knowledge.

And I guess you could also say "presumably" about the victims being his parents. We know he was on some sort of religious commune, and it's likely that his parents took him away from that. But, for all we know, his real mother is back on the commune, and the victims were not his parents. A woman shows up at the end and says she's the boy's mother.

Fortunately, Harry's back on the case. He's the essence of the series. And, fortunately for the narrative, the double murder has taken place in his home town, affording him and us a chance to see what it was back then that deformed his childhood, and therein the rest of his life.

I'm very much looking to seeing and reviewing the rest of this season.

See also: The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

My wife spotted an admiring review of The Sinner, which just began its second season on the USA Network. Before watching that, we binge watched the first season on Netflix. Herewith my review - and then in my next post, a review of The Sinner 2.1.

The Sinner (season one) is a police detective mystery like nothing I've seen before on television. A seemingly happy woman, married and with a young child, stabs to death a guy on the beach, in front of everyone. Cora, brilliantly played by Jessica Biel, knows that she did this, but hasn't really a clue as to why. Clearly, she was the furthest thing from happy. Fortunately for her, Detective Harry Ambrose, takes an interest in her case.

Bill Pullman does a great job playing Harry, a sort of modern-day Columbo, with the some same schlepish qualities as Columbo, and certainly as smart, but endowed with dark past that, as far we know, Columbo didn't have. Against all odds, Harry pursues the case and discovers why Cora did what she did.

The burden of the story was enormous - how can someone, who we saw with our own eyes brutally murder a guy who was posing no immediate threat to anyone, have any justification for doing this? But the first season pays off amply and in full at the end, as the complicated motive and all the moving parts fit into place. The result leaves of us wanting more of this indefatigable detective.

The name Sinner is no accident, since a crucial part of Cora's story is why she was motivated to take her sickly sister out of their house, with a mother whose religious bent crippled rather than supported her daughters. The locale - the Kingston area of New York - also worked well for the ambience. Harry would have had much more trouble getting his way had he been obliged to conduct the investigation in New York City.

Anyway, enough said about the plot, I don't want to give anything more away. Snap this up if you're in the mood for a wild, unconventional, irresistible mystery. And I'll be back in a few minutes with my review of The Sinner 2.1.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Mission Impossible 6: Fallout: Better (These Days) Than Bond

Just saw the 6th Mission Impossible movie - Fallout - with Tom Cruise in the lead role as Ethan Hunt. I thought it was outstanding - the best of the movies so far - and, yes, better than the Bond movies these days.

The dominant philosophic theme was a refutation of the utilitarian principle that the good of the many outweigh, or should outweigh, the good of the few as a motive for action. We see this refuted at least three times in the movie, which begins with Hunt blowing a mission to save one of his team. He later takes precious time to make sure that a French woman police officer survives a deadly encounter. And in the one of the scenes in the movie, Ilsa struggles with whether to thoroughly choke out an arch villain while Benji dangles from a nearby noose and looses consciousness.

There's some excellent double-agent moves in which good guys turn out to be bad guys and vice versa. And the action scenes - in bathrooms in Paris to cliffs in Kashmir - are top-notch and in some ways better than usual. In the bathroom, a single bad guy gets the better of both Hunt and another agent, until - well, I don't want to give too much away. But that's more realistic than we often see in scenes like this.

There's the best balance of tongue-in-cheekness about Mission Impossible tropes and using them to effective purpose in the narrative. An early scene features Wolf Blitzer delivering a news report on CNN. I had a feeling he was making up the report for MI purposes, but didn't guess that he was actually one of the MI team wearing a Wolf Blitzer mask. After that, the cracks by disbelievers that the MI strategy of masks which just Halloween had an especially delicious irony.

Tom Cruise, I have to say, did another fine job. I never got the criticism of Cruise in this or any other role. He delivers his Ethan Hunt character with just the right mix of grit, determination, self-awareness, and even self-deprecation. I guess comparing these MI movies to Bond is apples and oranges. But I will say that I liked Fallout more than last few Bond moves, which were certainly good cinema.

See also: Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Marcella II: Noir, with a Vengeance

Marcella - billed as Nordic Noir in English - is back with a vengeance in its second season on Netflix. Which is to say, it is at least twice as dark, brutal, and violent as its first noir-season, which I reviewed here last year.

The denouement of the non-Marcella story - that is, the murders which she and her team are investigating, which don't personally involve Marcella - was sufficiently harrowing. And it actually did personally involve Marcella at the end, since her son came razor close - or actually via something other than a razor - to becoming a victim. The villain - a woman traumatized by the death of a friend when they were younger, to lobotomize kids to make sure they don't do horrible things when they grow up - was somewhat familiar (not the character but that kind of motivation), or something we've seen the likes of on shows like Criminal Minds. But the way our narrative gets there, with all kinds of twists and turns and unexpected deaths and lives ruined, was fresh and shocking.

The Marcella story - that is, the story of why she is having her blackouts - was barely developed until the non-Marcella story was resolved, but once it became center stage, in the last episode, its progress and resolution was about as grim as it gets. Marcella under hypnosis remembers that she was responsible for the death of her baby, which she shook too hard in an effort to quiet the baby. At least, that's what Marcella remembers - or thinks she remembers - but it wasn't 100% clear on the screen that Marcella's shaking of her baby actually killed her.

The immediate aftermath of this revelation was sheer adrenalin. Marcella draws on a technique we saw in first season - DNA swapping (we saw several themes from the first season well woven into the second) - to fake her death, and join some other branch of British law enforcement. This leaves more than enough room for a third season - which would be welcome to see, if only because Marcella would able to work without her black-outs.

Tour-de-force acting by Anna Friel in the title role, and memorable acting by just about everyone on screen. Count on me being back here a review of the third season next year, or whenever it's aired.

See also Marcella (I): Offbeat and Compelling

Monday, July 30, 2018

Sharp Objects #4: "You Can't Change History"

"You can't change history," Mr. Lacey tells Amma, as she tries her little best to seduce him - or begin to seduce him - in the 4th episode of Sharp Objects on HBO tonight. If this were a time travel story, some character could set forth to prove Lacey wrong. Well, there is a kind of time travel in Sharp Objects, but it's the metaphysical or mental kind, not what we saw in the recently cancelled Timeless series on NBC.

Not only that, Sharp Objects is one hell of a nasty show, with nasty characters saying nasty things in just about every other scene. Adora tells Camille she smells "ripe" - the given title of this episode - after Camille puts Richard's hand in her pants after he tries to kiss her in the woods. Nothing nasty about that - it's all good - but Adora's comment is nasty, and she's easily the nastiest character in this story.

She's hateful to Camille - still not clear why - and is no great shakes to her husband. She all but carries on with the sheriff right in front of her husband, and generally treats him like trash, including saying no to his meekly amorous requests. In the final scene, we see, among other things, that he might be getting more aggressive, and it will be instructive to see what comes of this.

In terms of the mystery of who is the killer, Adora would be a number-one suspect, given her sheer near insanity. But the physical strength of the killer ruled out a woman early in this story, so that obliges us to look elsewhere. I'm still thinking Adora's husband has a hidden violent streak, and he still looks like the best suspect to me - though, so far, no one has identified him as such.

Could a woman under some circumstances get the kind of strength necessary to pull out teeth? I don't know. But so far, figuring out who did this is like pulling teeth. (And now it gets so quiet in the room, you can hear a pun drop.)

See also: Sharp Objects 1 and 2: Serial Tennessee Williams ... Sharp Objects #3: Lateral

Sunday, July 29, 2018

The Affair 4.7: Noah and Janelle

A superb Noah half hour on The Affair tonight - the second half hour in tonight's line-up. As I think I've already mentioned in the reviews this season, Noah has really been at his best this year. Compassionate, courageous, decisive, all the things you would want in a leading man.

And it was good to see Noah and Janelle finally consummate their flirtation. For a variety of reasons, Janelle is the best woman for Noah that he's been involved with in lo these four seasons. And that includes Helen - who, I've got to say, had another half-baked episode. It's not Maura Tierney's fault. The script is obliging her to do stupid things - including being nasty to Noah, who is trying to do the right thing for their kids.

Back to Noah: the resolution of his episode tonight was also outstanding, swerving from bringing Anton out to Princeton to getting the two into that car we saw at the beginning of the first few episodes. In that car were Noah, Anton, and Cole - and they're looking for Alison.

Not to get too meta, but news was just announced a few days ago that there will be a fifth and final season of The Affair. I was a little worried that, if this was the last season, Alison might not survive it. Which would be a shame - she's the best character (with Noah moving up now to a close second).

So here are my predictions for what's left of this season: Ben is the most likely reason for Alison's absence (though he seems a little too obvious to be such a major villain). Of course, we don't yet know that Alison's missing is involuntary. And back to Helen: I'd love to see Vic survive, but that's not likely. What I do think is that Sierra will have his baby. (Good name for a character - see The Plot to Save Socrates.)

And I'll be back next week with another review.

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Friday, July 27, 2018

The Rolling Stones - Never Over

I'm in a musical mood today - see my review from an hour ago of The Blue Dahlia's new La Tradition Américaine album - and I wanted to say something about The Rolling Stones. Yesterday was Mick Jagger's 75th birthday (jeez, he's just four year older than me), and I've been listening to and watching a lot of their videos on YouTube. Especially this one, definitely one of my favorites, because it most typifies what I've always loved about The Stones:

The sheer energy of these guys - look at how they move - was always one-of-a-kind. In this song, add to that Mick's especially good strutting, Keith's rhythm (with his feet - he's playing lead guitar), and the great angry delivery of Brian Jones. Even stoic Bill Wyman manages something close to a smile, and Charlie Watts was, well, Charlie Watts. (This video probably benefits from an overdub of the song that was better than the sound at the live performance, but that doesn't matter.)

I've always considered The Stones second only to The Beatles - a long way below the Beatles, but a long way above every other band. But over the past few days, and especially epitomized by this video, The Stones have moved a lot up for me. They're still no threat to The Beatles, but they're much closer.

Rob Sheffield, in his superb Dreaming the Beatles, provides a good account of The Beatles and The Stones. The two were woven together in all kinds of subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Next time I hear Lennon's inimitable "I Dig A Pony" on The Beatles Sirius XM Radio Channel, I'm going to quietly chide him for his attack on The Stones as imitators. True, they did imitate and get inspired by a lot of The Beatles. But The Rolling Stones had a passion and energy on stage, and some kind of bite to their music, that The Beatles never quite had.

Review of The Blue Dahlia's La Tradition Américaine: Non-Pareil

I had lunch a few days ago with my niece Dahlia - better known to you, the world, as The Blue Dahlia. In addition to her smiles, her laughter like summer rain, and her sparkle, she left me with a copy of her new album, La Tradition Américaine. I'm going to review it here. (Right, she's my niece. If you think that might bias my review, c'est dommage.)

First, Dahlia sings most of the songs on the album in French. My main experience with French female voices are The Singing Nun and Edith Piaf. The Blue Dahlia is much closer to Piaf. Really. And she sounds so French, that even when she sings in English, she sounds to me like what Piaf would sound like singing in English.

As for the songs on the album: they're all great, in different but interlocking ways. I'll confine myself here to the some of the highlights for me.

The title track, "La Tradition Américaine," is at once a defiant statement, a sheer pleasure to hear, and an inspiration. It's a call to action and rebuke to the Hitler we currently have in the White House (my words not hers). In addition to a sultry, Piafian voice, this track somehow mixes klezmer with a world-music ambience, trenchantly, sweetly-as-daggers appropriate for a song about immigration. (And, it brings back memories of my bar mitzvah.)

But the signature track on this remarkable album could turn out to be the second track, "I See Trees Differently," appearing on the album at least two or three times, in different forms. (Dahlia has a way of weaving her themes into different tracks, pulling them all together, and getting you to sing to yourself an earlier track with a connection to the one currently in your ears.) This song has a quietly profound and provocative lyric, Dahlia singing in breathy low English, and bayou violins (later in the album, Dahlia goes from creole to reggae on this song).

Other notables that I can't get out of my mind: "Blah Blah," a great airing of the inner mind, which reminds me of some of the songs on The Beatles' White Album; "Your Love," beautiful and about just what it sounds like, with especially good voice and backing horns (the band on this album, by the way, is superb); and "Plantation," a calypso song in French (calling Harry Belafonte), about coconuts, bananas, and all the rest, and Dahlia polishing it all off with some scat riffs that Louis Prima would've been proud of.

La Tradition Américaine, by the way, is a great summer album, but the kind of summer that lasts all year long. The Blue Dahlia is moving to Paris. But you can find her final (for now) American tour dates in the New York area, over here. Hey, I'll likely be at one of these - if you see me, come over say hello! Update: I'll be at The Blue Dahlia's official CD release party as Barbès on August 11. Update #2: And here's the Periscope video of Dahlia and I singing "Today Is Just Like You" with The Blue Dahlia Band

And get the album as soon as it's available (release date is August 11 - but you might be able to get the songs here right now). If you have any kind of ears, trust me, you'll love it.

Here's a taste with a video of Dahlia singing her bluesy "Reasonable" from the album with one of the stand-out band members, George Saenz.

Monday, July 23, 2018

Sharp Objects #3: Lateral

A lateral third episode of Sharp Objects on Sunday - meaning, the story didn't really move much forward, but we learned a lot more about the characters, mostly about lead character Camille and her family.

Camille was and is a lot more troubled then we may have realized. Though her editor more or less meant well by sending her back to Wind Gap, it's opened up all kinds of deep wounds. And all of this intensifies the question of what exactly happened her back then - before, when, and right after her sister died.

And speaking of sisters, Camille's half sister Amma is more a piece of work than indicated in the first two episodes. Her taunting Camille when she was with Detective Willis was more than good-natured ribbing. Amma has an underlying hostility and even animus towards Camille, almost a love/hate relationship, given her emulation of her sister, which we've also seen. (I have a feeling that Amma may be the next victim, but that's just a feeling, with no evidence - as yet - to back that up.)

Camille's mother Adora also comes across as even more vicious than she was before. Does she have some kind of motive for this, beyond the considerable detritus of her life? Is she protecting someone, and her motive is just to get Camille on her way, out of town? If so, whom? Is Adora the killer? Willis seemed to prove that it couldn't be a woman. Is Adora protecting her husband? (As I indicated in my last review, I have a feeling that he's the killer - also on no evidence.)

About the only good thing that happened to Camille in episode #3 was the time that could have been more with Willis. It will be good to see how that develops.

See also: Sharp Objects 1 and 2: Serial Tennessee Williams

Sunday, July 22, 2018

The Affair 4.6: "Good News and Bad News"

"Good news and bad news" - that's what Alison tells Noah when she calls him from lock-up, in the 2nd half hour of tonight's excellent The Affair 4.6, in which Alison's story is especially important, excellent, and pivotal, as it almost always is.

Alison's in jail in California, there because she takes advantage of Noah's kind offer to fly her and Joanie there. But Joanie's back in New York, because Alison flew out west after she finds out - the hard way - that Ben is married (and apparently happily so - making what we saw Ben tell Cole a few weeks ago a lie, which we could see coming a mile away). And she meets her father - whom she learns raped her mother - because he wants one of Alison's kidneys. Almost just another day in Alison's life.

But the apex of tonight's episode, and her story, comes in the conversation she finally has with Helen. Significantly, Helen's at her best in Alison's episodes - as is, come to think of it, Noah and Cole and just about everyone else. I've always thought and said that Alison's the wheel that keeps this complex, multi-faceted narrative in high gear.

So the good news Alison tells Noah is that she's in California, and the bad news is she's in jail. But the best news is how Helen tells Alison she can change her life, and no longer always be the victim if she doesn't want to be, which of course she doesn't. My guess is that will put her on a road to getting back with Cole. Helen aptly says she always saw the two of them getting back together, and we saw Cole coming to this conclusion himself last week. And Helen says this - and that's why this conversation is so important - after she tells Alison that no one forced her to sleep with Noah, Helen's husband.

It may well be that this is the concluding season of The Affair. I certainly hope not. But that conversation between Alison and Helen sure had the feeling of something that had to be said in a series finale.

But there's still a ways to go, and I'll be back with a report next week,

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Sharp Objects 1 and 2: Serial Tennessee Williams

Catching up with the first two episodes of Sharp Objects, the limited summer series on HBO. It's distantly reminiscent of True Detective and Broadchurch, with a little Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and even "Eleanor Rigby" thrown in (one of the victims had a spider which she kept "in a jar by the door").

The victims are either two or three, depending on how you look at it. One girl murdered, one girl missing for starters - she turns up a dead - and another who died a while ago. She's the younger sister of the lead character, Camille Preaker, compellingly played by Amy Adams. Camille's a reporter in St. Louis, assigned by her editor (always good to see Miguel Sandoval) to investigate the case of two girls in her home town, the fictitious Wind Gap, near Tennessee.

Camille comes loaded with problems, which likely came mostly from the loss of her sister. She's an alcoholic and she cuts herself. And it's unclear if she knows how and why her sister died - we certainly don't. It could've been suicide, murder, accident, or death by natural causes. The only thing we can likely rule out is death from old age.

So Sharp Objects is first and foremost a whodunit, and there are plenty of suspects. The fathers of the two murdered girls are always possibilities, and the father of the first, well played by Will Chase, is clearly some kind of sub rosa psycho (now we see why Will left Nashville, which will conclude its run next week). In addition to Camille, Detective Willis (played by Chris Messina - good to see him back after The Newsroom) has been called in to help by local police chief Vickery (Matt Craven).

So who's my best guess for the killer at this early point? I'd say Alan (Henry Czerny, notable in The Tudors), who's Camille's stepfather. Why? I don't know. It's not a woman, because it's been established that the killer was too strong. The character played by Will Chase (Bob Nash) is too obvious, I like Detective Willis, Chief Vickery seems harmless enough, and something about Alan - maybe those big earphones he always has on - bothers me.

Anyway, good dark - and sharp - mystery here. And I'll be back with more.

Trump and Putin = Hitler and Stalin, 1930s

I've been thinking more about my realization earlier this week (I'm sure many others have thought the same) that Trump and Putin are reminiscent of Hitler and Stalin, in the 1930s. Let's flesh this out.

Putin is not a Communist by name, but he rules his Russia in much the same way as Stalin ruled Russia in the 1930s - by murder and intimidation. He has the same attitude as did Stalin about Russia being taken advantage of by the world, and the consequent need to stand up to that by any and all means possible. Part of that was an alliance with Hitler and the Nazis in the late 1930s. During that alliance, Stalin and Hitler invaded Poland, and Stalin forcibly annexed or attacked the Baltic states, Finland, and Romania. The similarities to Putin in Crimea and Georgia, unopposed by Trump, are undeniable.

Trump is not (yet) Hitler, but he shows many disturbing tendencies of going in that direction. He has contempt for the press - he calls it "fake news," just as Hitler labeled the press Lügenpress or "the lying press" - and prefers communicating directly to his people via Twitter, without the intervention of the press, just as Hitler did with radio. Trump is inhumane to minorities and immigrants, and preaches an American purity similar to Hitler's Aryan superiority. He has contempt for the democratic process, as did Hitler, and embraces dictators such as Putin, and the autocratic leaders of China, North Korea, and Turkey, just as Hitler did with Mussolini and Tojo.

Obviously, neither Trump nor Putin have committed anything like the mass atrocities and genocides Hitler and Stalin would do in the 1940s. But by then, the two allies of the 1930s - sometimes suspicious of one another, but more than willing to sign a non-aggression pact in 1939 - had broken and were engaged in a fierce, all-out war.

Trump says he wants peace with Putin and Russia, which is good. But people who value freedom and democracy and its necessary bulwarks like the press must do all in our power to make sure the two don't eradicate democracy, as Hitler and Stalin did in their countries in the 1930s, and soon tried to do with the rest of the world.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Humans Season 3 Final Three Episodes: Hybrids

I decided to review the final three episodes of Humans, Season 3, as a single piece, since they're even more closely connected than episodes usually are in this fine series. The upshot of these episodes, and a great foundation for a fourth season, is that it's possible to have a true synch-human hybrid - true, that is, and assuming I'm understanding this correctly, on the genetic level.

Leo was already a hybrid of sorts. But he was born human, and given parts of a synch brain to save him after he died, or almost died, depending on how you look at it, from drowning. That synch part was taken out of him this season. But it turned out that the totally human Leo was not quite totally human. He was something a little more, retaining something of his synch essence even after the hardware was removed.

And as Odie now V who attained his hybrid quality in a different way, tells Niska, who has now also risen to a superior level, the baby that Leo and Mattie are having will be a hybrid from the moment of birth. Or, actually, she's a hybrid already in the womb.

This takes Humans to a whole new level, almost reminiscent of the best of Dune and its genetics. (I also dealt with this in a different way in my Locus-award-winning first novel, The Silk Code.) In fact, I can't think of any other AI story - including Westworld - where the genetics and digital have been so tantalizingly woven together. Or promise to be - for at this point, at the end of season, it has not quite fully happened.

So our synths have now progressed from (a) most of the green-eyes are non-sentient, but our original cohort are sentient because David Elster wanted them to be that way to take care of Leo, (b) all of the remaining green-eyes are sentient due to the awakening due to the release of the code by Mattie to save Mia last year, (c) to human-synch hybrids on a different level, including synchs on a different level, as evidenced by V, Niska, and soon Mattie's baby.

Sadly, Mia's death means that Mattie's release of the code to save Mia had no long-term effect on Mia, though she did play a crucial role in the new order that's arising. And, hey, death is never necessarily dead when it comes to androids, so ... who knows, we may see Mia again.

And you'll see me back here with reviews whenever Humans returns.

"DNA is the ultimate dossier."

photo THECONSCIOUSNESSPLAGUE5_zps8e1b18e3.jpg

Monday, July 16, 2018

Why Trump Loves Putin

Blackmail has often been cited, sometimes along with gratitude for the help Russia gave him in the 2016 election, as the reason Trump so adheres to Putin, as seen again in the Helsinki press conference today.

That may well be, but I think the deeper reason is that Trump has an affinity to dictators - to people in power who don't need the votes of anyone to continue in office. Though Trump often trumpets how he won the election of 2016 - including again today - he knows full well that he lost the popular vote and only is in office because of the quirks of the Electoral College. And that must rankle him.

When he sees our allies in Canada and in Europe, he has contempt for them, because he knows full well that they can be swept out of office in the next election. As can he.

When he sees Putin, or the leaders of China, North Korea, and Turkey, he sees something quite different. He sees people who have somehow managed to stay in power, in some cases decades already, without needing a single real vote. He sees people who think of themselves as Plato's philosopher king, though who knows what any of them, especially Trump, actually know of Plato's work.

This means that Trump is neither stupid nor out of control. And though he may be subject to blackmail, and though he may be grateful to Putin for what Russia provided to him in the 2016 election, I think that Trump's embracing of Putin reflects what he feels and desires in every ounce and the deepest part of his being: to stay in office, to do as he pleases, without the annoyances of the press or the need in his view to pander to voters, for as long as he pleases.

Possibly other politicians and even presidents in American history have felt the same. But I'd say none as fanatically and irrevocably as our current President, and this is a far more serious threat to democracy than blackmail or gratitude could deliver.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

The Affair 4.5: B'shert

A powerful, unusual, altogether brilliant episode 4.5 of The Affair tonight. For starters, it had a half hour just about Vik. But even more significant for the history and arc of the series, it had an episode of Cole, giving him back-to-back episodes this week and last.

Let's start with Cole. The denouement of his half hour is that he realizes it's Alison he's always loved, still loves, and wants to be with again. We the audience of course have always known this. But the way Cole discovers this was a page right out of Mad Men, and what going to California meant to and did to Don Draper.

Amy Irving put in a great performance as Cole's father's (Gabriel's) lover. Her Nan is quiet, soulful, wise, and beautiful. I could live without the California mysticism verging on voodoo, but her story of love lost was a masterfully tragic gem. She thought for years that her exorcism plan - a strategy to get Gabriel to get over her - had worked. But she finds out the two were permanently b'shert - destined to always want and love each other.

Cole coming back to New York with a clear love and desire for Alison should shake things up there nicely. Cole will now be on a collision course with Ben. And I predict ... well, I predict Alison will get back with Cole. But that's just a prediction. Significantly - though I can't say exactly significant of what - this episode had no flashforward prelude with the search for the missing Alison.

But back to California, Vik's story was a wrenching, heart-in-your-throat episode in itself. Helen doesn't want to raise a child alone, so she torpedos Vik's plan to get pregnant. He winds up buying a Porsche - presumably to give to his father - that serves as the vehicle for sex with his next-door-neighbor in her house. Will she end up bearing the grandchild Vik wants for his parents? It's a sad story, whatever happens.

Sad but full of tinder - in the old and new senses - for subsequent episodes, for which I'll be back with reviews.

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

"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!