Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

Why The Public Option Is Crucial

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:22:00 +0000

A brief reminder about why a public option in health care is so important:

Insurance companies are in business to make money, or financially profit from their work. The time-honored way of maximizing profit is straightforward: increase income and reduce costs. In terms of health care, this translates into raising the cost of health care to businesses and consumers, and turning away or refusing to pay for as many claims for health care as are legally permitted. In other words, a health care system motivated only by profit is bound to cost more and do less for the population as a whole.

Good things can and do come from private enterprise in health care - in stimulating research and increasing patient choice. A public option won't limit that - it will only offer health care to Americans locked out of the profit-making system, and provide more choices for people who already receive health care.

See also Private, For-Profit Health Care Is Self-Contradictory

Soviet Dust: A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:55:00 +0000

Never underestimate Soviet science. In reality, they got out into space before we did in the 1950s. In the intersections of science and science fiction, the Soviets experimented with mental telepathy and all kinds of things. Who knows what they may have accomplished, or what strange forces walked through the doors they opened.

Tonight's Fringe 2.6 considered one of them - actually, a possibility that the U.S. was concerned about, regarding our own astronauts. They were quarantined at first, to protect us from any exotic organisms they might have brought back home from space.

This was the the different "stripe" of incredible, as Walter put it, that Fringe explored tonight. As Walter also said, those "pinkos" were up to all sorts of bizarre activities. One of which was their treatment of a cosmonaut who returned from space with an alien, shadow passenger.

Not the most original theme in the world - or, in places beyond our world - but, as I've noted about Fringe frequently, it excels in the retelling of classic science fiction motifs. Tonight's retelling embroiled Broyles, and gave us a bit of back story on how he lost his family - his wife left him, and took along their children - as his attempt to keep them and the world at little safer kept him too far from home.

But the best parts, as often on Fringe, were the visuals. Tonight's alien turns people into dust, leaving their skin intact as a fragile shell, which a strong breeze or the gentlest touch can shatter. The most memorable scene was a fly landing on a face, and causing it to crumble.

Fringe itself sometimes seems to be a such face. I hope we keep seeing it on television.

See also 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

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

Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:30:00 +0000

Well, I've often said that truly good combinations of mystery and comedy are as scarce as hen's teeth, and none do it better than Bones, as tonight's episode 5.6 about a murder in a chicken coop so tastily shows.

The chicken part led to fine puns, which I'll just let simmer without pulling apart. And there was also a pig in this episode - not the male chauvinist kind, but a real pig - which provided the emotional foundation of the story.

Angela, who was been abstinent for months, is channeling her pent up emotions into concern for the plight of pigs. She asks Bones to contribute to save one - Bones refuses. (Don't hate me, but I'm 100% with Bones here.) Angela is hurt, and says she can't see how she could be such close friends with Bones, since they have almost nothing in common. And now Bones is really hurt.

This opens up the best part of the episode, as Booth tries to advise and support her. The two have been getting closer and closer this season, in a gradual, realistic, emotionally satisfying way.

Bones supports Booth as well, as he misses a call on seeing through a killer's deception. He's still recovering from his days in a coma, and this, too, is refreshingly realistic in a television show. Bones assures Booth that she trusts him, whether he's 100% or not.

He advises her to contribute to Angela's cute little piggy fund. Well, I already told you how I feel about that. And Angela should be getting beyond that by now, anyway. She's no longer refraining from sex.

Good for Wendell, the lucky recipient. Good for us. And even good for Jack - I have a feeling this may be the beginning of a reunion with Angela, though maybe that's just chicken pot pie in the sky.

Okay, I'll stop writing now. I don't want you to wring my neck.

6-min podcast review of Bones

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

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

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ...

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:35:00 +0000

The sweeping winds of November brought as an episode of FlashForward - 1.7 - that may be better then even the pilot.

It starts with a scene which in part is actually close to the end of the episode - that is, the end of the piece of the present we are seeing unfold each week. We also saw a significant part of the past, and of course some flashforward time in the future. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

That opening brings a woman with two children on a beautiful morning. She finds an invitation on her windshield, which tells her she is not alone. We soon learn that she is being invited to join a group of people who have had no flashforward vision - a death club, The Blue Hand, of people with no visions who see themselves as doomed and want to put a modicum of control back in their lives by determining the time of their deaths. At the same time, we hear a voice reading a letter which says you can indeed have control over your life. It is this voice and letter that actually comes from the end of this episode....

The voice is Agent Gough's, and the incredible story tonight was his. It turns out that his meeting in London with Fiona Banks (Alex Kingston from ER) was not the most significant part of his vision. It has seemed to us that it was, because Gough and Banks were the first to mutually confirm their joint vision, apparently proving that the future visions are views of the real future. But Gough saw and heard something else, in addition, in that vision - a conversation in which he is devastated to learn that he is responsible for someone's death.

That would be Celia, the woman with the children in the opening scene. And Gough struggles with this for the whole rest of this episode - he can't live with himself, knowing that he did something to kill this woman. In the end, he comes upon a solution. He says he knows how to change the rules of the game. He jumps off a roof.

He's left a letter for Demetri - who, with Benford and Stan, in a superb scene, tries in vain to talk Gough down. The letter is the one we heard at the beginning. Gough wrote it the night before. And it is now Demetri's voice we now hear reading it.

So the future can be changed. There is hope for Demetri - we earlier had been treated to a good scene with him and Zoey, in which he tells her the truth, and they confront their conflicting visions. Zoey's vision of their marriage was not enough to give him real hope. But Gough's death is. So Demetri now has hope. And Benford does, too. He hugs Olivia as never before since the flashforward (and, indeed, he says the least on the roof - not that he wants Gough to jump, but he finds the possibility that the future can be changed irresistible).

But this still leaves open a crucial question: what is Banks now seeing in her recollection as the vision she and Gough originally shared? Will she continue to recall that vision now wrong, realizing it is wrong, or will she now recall seeing something different, a flashforward with no Gough?

And as the episode show us that the future can be changed, it also showed us that it seems to have some inevitability, too. Aaron wants his vision to be true, because it shows his daughter alive. He at first gets confirmation of that tonight, from a soldier who gives Aaron his daughter's pocket knife - Aaron has seen himself giving that knife to his daughter, alive, in the future. But the soldier later tells him that his daughter died. It seems the future with her alive did not come to be, either. And then, in a great last scene, Aaron's daughter is sitting on his couch, in our present, very much alive.

Flashforward has a lot of explaining to do. Which is precisely why, with episodes like this, it is such emotionally and intellectually commanding television.

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost and 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability and 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures and 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

V Returns to TV

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:48:00 +0000

Kenneth Johnson's original 1983 mini-series V - along with its 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle - was oddly one of my favorite television shows. Actually, it still is. But I say "oddly," because although the story was trite - aliens landing on Earth, claiming they want to help us, only to eat us - the media savvy and political implications were compelling.

Damon Knight's 1950 short story "To Serve Man," adapted into one of the most enduring Twilight Zone episodes in 1962, told the story best. Aliens land, cure our illnesses, bring peace, want happiness for us - because they view us as livestock. V in 1983 expanded this story to show the aliens - The Visitors - manipulating the media, and provoking underground freedom fighters all over the world who discovered the truth about The Visitors. Indeed, V posted a dedication "to the heroism of the resistance and the freedom fighters, past, present and future." In 1983, freedom fighters encompassed everyone from the Hungarians who bravely stood up to Soviet tanks in the 1950s (viewed as heroes by most Americans) to Contras fighting the Sandinistas in power in Nicaragua in the 1980s (viewed as heroes mostly by Ronald Reagan and his supporters).

Tonight's V had political analogies, but a little more obvious and less complex than the 1980s version. Tonight's Visitors promise "universal health care," a clear and unnecessary shot at the good work Obama and the Democrats are trying to do right now in Washington. A more apt connection was made tonight between the Visitors and terrorists.

Actually, the Visitors are referred to as the "V's" in this incarnation, and I prefer the "Visitors". But V 2009 does have Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch, who played Frank Vasser on Journeyman), which opens up some good theological threads (I'm suspecting his superior might be a Visitor undercover), and Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell has a top role as Erica Evans.

The new version also has the winning mix of good and bad Visitors, and Visitor-collaborator and rebel humans as the original, as well as some echoes of Battlestar Galactica (the Visitors as Cylons), and an appealing media criticism component, so I'm going to give it a chance. And kudos to ABC for stepping up with science fiction a lot more than once this decade - Lost, Invasion, FlashForward, and now the return of V.

5-min podcast review of V

Dexter on the Couch in 4.6

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:08:00 +0000

Poor Dexter was on the couch in 4.6 - the shrink's couch, brought there for couples counseling by Rita, concerned about their lack of communication. She of course doesn't know the tenth of it, and when things work out just fine at the end of the episode - Dex is moving his stuff into a shed right next to their house - she's as clueless about Dex's dark side as ever.

I'm a little worried, though, that Dex's trophies - the slides with blood samples - will sooner or later get discovered. Their hiding place in the air conditioner is by no means completely immune from detection. We'll see...

Meanwhile, Dexter has a confrontation with the Trinity killer, in which Dex is the victim. He picks up the urn containing Trinity's sister's ashes, to provoke him, and he's provoked. John Lithgow goes from helpful deacon to enraged almost-monster in the blink of an eye, and comes pretty close to choking Dexter out. It's instructive to see Dexter's extraordinary control in these situations. He's able to keep his meek cover, essential to what he ultimately wants to do to his adversary, but at the price of risking his own life.

Speaking of risks, Laguerta and Batista are risking a lot lying to Captain Matthews about ending their relationship - at least, I think they're lying, because they love each other far too much to end it, and they love their work too, so neither wants to be the reason the other leaves homicide. But pretending you're no longer in a relationship, with so many eyes on you, can't be easy.

Debra's not having an easy time of it, either. But she's finally realized that Lundy was killed by the Trinity killer, which gives her focus which is the best thing for her - but points her right at her brother Dexter, who is trying to take care of the Trinity killer all on his own...

See also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 3.5

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

6-min podcast review of Dexter

Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:52:00 +0000

Skeeter Davis's The End of the World played under the closing credits of Mad Men 3.12 tonight, and it came pretty close to that in many, but not all, ways...

We knew it would be coming. But the logical time was the Season 3 finale - which will be on next week. Instead, Mad Men surprised us with a kick in the heart tonight, which started as a cold day with no heat in the offices of Sterling Cooper, proceeded to too much heat being pumped out, and soon showed us the television in Harry's office, which told us it was November 22, 1963.

It was painful to see those news clips again - worse than painful, as it always is, but also always instructive. Don's says everything will be fine, but of course it won't. In many crucial ways, our country has still not recovered from the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I know that some of the tears I quietly shed as I watched the funeral of Teddy Kennedy this summer were for JFK.

And, yet, incredibly but not surprisingly, that wasn't the worst of it for Don. The assassination and the emotional cauldron it creates makes Betty realize she no longer loves him. Significantly, it's not just what Betty found out about Don's assumed identity - in a crucial scene the night before assassination, she still looks with love at Don as he takes care of their baby in the middle of the night. But after the assassination and Don's reaction to it, Betty gives Henry an incandescent smile that's the happiest we've seen from her in the three years of the series. Another brilliant performance from January Jones, and Jon Hamm, too.

What will become of Don now? What does the finale have left to tell us? If I could imagine that Mad Men could continue without Don, I'd almost see suicide as his next move.

But maybe not. Don still has some reserves of strength. People land on their feet in strange ways on Mad Men. The same terrible end of November that split Don and Betty have pulled Pete and Trudy closer.

What an episode. I'm looking forward to watching Dexter now - I could use a breather from the angst - a contest of serial killers would be relaxing.

But what an episode ... in addition to all of its other superlatives, it may well be the best fiction ever on the screen about the impact of November 22, 1963 on a stratum of Americans, influential and otherwise...

And I'll be back here next week, after I've seen the Mad Men finale.

Listen to a little of Skeeter Davis's The End of the World ...

7-min podcast review of Mad Men

See also: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through

Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:49:00 +0000

A softly compelling episode 1.6 of FlashForward tonight, double slits across the universe, or, more precisely, an episode that started with Simon (Dominic Monaghan) talking about Young's double-slit experiment (which showed that light is both waves and particles) and ended with Rufus Wainright's wonderful rendition of one of my favorite Beatles songs, John Lennon's "Across the Universe".

The wave and particle duality is, in our reality, part of the paradox of quantum mechanics, because, ordinarily in our world, things are either waves or particles but not both. In FlashForward, Simon's reference provides a nice way of summarizing the paradox of seeing the future, and trying to make it not happen - as is the case with Mark and Olivia, for starters. It also provided the occasion for a nice crack, from a woman Simon was starting to seduce, about double-slits being about some kind of sex she tried in college. (The L Word shows up again, but enough double-entendres.)

Back to our main FlashForward story, tonight indeed inexorably brings Simcoe much further into Olivia and Mark's lives. Simcoe's son Dylan wanders out of the hospital on Halloween, and makes his way to the Benford house. He says he belongs there - because that's what Charlie told him in his flashforward. Simcoe comes by to pick up his son, Mark doesn't like it, Mark and Olivia argue ... and, they're starting to fall apart, creating the very future they're struggling to avoid.

Meanwhile, across the universe - which, in this episode, is across town - Janis will (of course) survive due to the fine doctoring of Olivia, who also performs a difficult operation that may, just may, safeguard Janis's reproductive capacities. And, call me crazy, but Wedeck is looking at her asleep in the hospital bed with some strong, real feeling, that makes me wonder if somehow he may turn out to be the father...

And Simon and Lloyd Simcoe meet, and tell us that they're responsible for the flashforward.

Could they possibly have the power to undo the flashforward at this point? Not likely in this universe, but it's something to think upon as you watch and listen to Rufus's fine video, which you can see over here, because, in another plot twist perhaps have nothing to do with FlashForward, embedding has "been diabled by request".

5-min podcast review of FlashForward

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost and 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability and 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures and 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

Michael Jackson and This is It: This Is Great

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:28:00 +0000

My wife and I just got home from an afternoon showing of This Is It - just in time to see the World Series, but I wanted to write this first.

What a wonderful, heartfelt, inspiring, original movie. All of it was great, here are some of the highights for me:

.Michael Jackson and Mekia Cox dancing a kick-ass, erotic The Way You Make Me Feel - and seeing how much the other dancers and singers were enjoying how much Michael was getting in it. This was one of the inspiring threads throughout the movie - the faces of performers working with Jackson.

.Michael Jackson and Judith Hill singing "I Can't Stop Loving You," the two of them riffing at the end, and Michael saying afterward that he shouldn't be encouraged like that - "I have to conserve my throat"

.Michael Jackson explaining to keyboard man Michael Bearden that MJ wants the music to sound just the way the audience expects it (how many times have you been annoyed or disappointed by a current rendition that doesn't sound enough like the original?)

.all the Jackson Five numbers, which didn't sound exactly like the originals, but were still superb and brought tears to me eyes

.any time Orianthi, the blondly brilliant guitarist, was in the scene ... especially when Michael and she did "Black and White"

The World Series is starting in a few minutes, so I'm logging off now. As MJ said after one his numbers, I just wanted to give you a taste.

But go see this movie when you can. Unlike Elvis and John Lennon, who tragically died with months of a vibrant rehearsals on tape, Michael left us these incredible, indelible performances. Kudos to Kenny Ortega and everyone else for bringing to us.

Francesca Maxime interviews me about the impact of Michael Jackson in July 2009

Shepard Smith Speaks Up and Does the Right Thing - Once Again

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:51:00 +0000

I've been saying for years that Shep Smith, who anchors the Fox Report on Fox News, is a class act. He did an heroic job - along Anderson Cooper of CNN, Geraldo Rivera of Fox News, and other reporters on the scene -- in holding the Bush government to account for its disgraceful Katrina response. Smith smacked down Joe the Erstaz Plumber last year, when the "Plumber" was waxing ignorant about Obama and Israel. And last night, Smith did this:

Smith's stubborn integrity - in the above case, apologizing to his viewers for the blatantly unbalanced Fox coverage of the New Jersey gubernatorial campaign, with a beaming Shannon Bream interviewing only the Republican candidate - shows the error of dismissing all of Fox News as worthless or worse. The reality is a lot of that operation is hopelessly right wing, but a professional on camera can still do the right thing.

And, in some ways, that's more valuable than blanket denouncements of Fox from the left and the White House. Given the political attitudes of the audience that Fox has attracted, a few words from Shep Smith can do a lot more to shake up their view of the world, and see it more clearly, than all the ranting of Keith Olbermann (who, coincidentally, wasted yet another few minutes of his show tonight lashing out at a Fox Entertainment television show, 24).

Lie to Me

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:25:00 +0000

I thought it was long since time that I checked in with a review of Lie to Me, which last night aired episode 5 of its second season on Fox.

It's one of my and my wife's favorite shows, and along with 24, Bones, House, and (formerly) The Shield, makes Fox easily the network with the greatest number of cutting edge, entertaining series on television.

Lie to Me serves up a riveting variety of stories - including politics, police work, and all manner of business and personal relationships - all tied together by Dr. Cal Lightman's genius is reading facial expressions and body language for truth and falsity of communication. The science is sound - Paul Ekman, whose work I examined in my own PhD studies, is the source of the science and an adviser to the show. Tim Roth's acting is brilliant and volatile as Lightman, and the supporting case is stellar, too.

My favorites are Kelli Williams as Lightman's partner Dr. Gillian Foster - I've enjoyed her work since she was Lindsay on The Practice - and Monica Raymund as Ria Torres, one of the hottest women on television. Unlike Lightman and Foster, who studied their way to facial expression mastery, Ria is a natural, which gives her an intriguing packet of advantages and flaws in comparison to her bosses.

Lightman is divorced from Zoe Landau, played by Jennifer Beals, whom I'm glad to see continuing on television after a fine run in The L Word. Foster is divorced, too, and is certainly in some kind of love with Lightman, who feels the same way about her. But their attraction so far is less erotic than Bones and Booth, if equally under the surface.

And even the more minor characters are unusual, including Brendan Hines as Loker, who veers between going by the book and taking matters into his own hands, and Mekhi Phifer as FBI Agent Ben Reynolds, not quite willing to do whatever Lightman asks, but coming through in the end in one way or another.

The series engagingly grapples with the ethics of colleagues who can easily know more about each other than any of them would want, and the pros and cons of reading the lies of their clients. Mix into that some great photos of real politicians and other public people with lying eyes and faces, and you have a series that is at once more realistic and out of left field than just about anything else on television.

I'll be reviewing episodes more regularly from now on. You can't see my face, but I can assure you that's true...

7-min podcast review of Lie to Me

Don's Night of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Well, Betty finally brings it all up to Don on Mad Men 3.11 last night, in an evening's confrontation that puts her in the superior, stronger position, and may well change everything in the series.

With Suzanne waiting in the car outside for a week away with Don - Betty doesn't know this - Betty at last confronts Don about the secret life he left behind. Don tells her who Dick Whitman was, how he came to be Don, and most wrenchingly and even pathetically, about his brother - the little boy in the photographs Don had kept out of his life and in his locked drawer.

January Jones was superb, Jon Hamm was unbelievable, in his best performance in the series. I know he had this coming, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. This complex state was rendered perfectly by Hamm.

What will happen from now on? Don's back at the office the next day. He clearly still has strong feelings for Suzanne, but tells her he can't see her for the time being. I don't think she's out of the picture just yet, but it's also obvious that things will never be the same in Don's life.

Betty is a different person, too. She is finally out of her shell and Don's dominance, and won't be going back. This was cleansing, for her and us. I don't think she's likely to leave Don, but their marriage will be something else, far more equal in power distribution, from now on.

Last night had some good scenes with Roger and an early love and client, too. She ostensibly is shopping for an ad firm to help with the dog food business she inherited - "I'll tell you what I am telling the Avenue," she says to Sterling Cooper, which is, she's looking for the best ad company - but what she's really looking for is the company of Roger, and even a more lasting reunion. But Roger, either out of loyalty to his young wife, or because he prefers his women young, or both, says no. In either case, it was a great performance by John Slattery.

Two more episodes to go this season. And with Halloween over, we're knocking on the door of November 1963.

5-min podcast review of Mad Men

See also: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through

The Family Man on Dexter 4.5

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:31:00 +0000

Back with clockwork weekly reviews of Dexter Season 4. Episode 5 was on tonight, the first new episode since my sneak preview non-spoiler review of the first four episodes last month.

What I couldn't tell you in that non-spoiler review was that Lundy and Debra would be shot at the end of episode 4 - it was one of the best shockers in all the seasons of Dexter. Alfred Hitchcock correctly told Francois Truffaut that suspense (knowing that there's a bomb ticking on a bus) is better than surprise (something happening almost out of thin air), but that surprise shooting was one of the best I've ever seen on television.

The takeaway - Lundy's dead, Debra's shot but will totally recover, and Dexter's out to get the shooter. Anton was certainly a reasonable suspect - he killed Lundy out of jealousy, but not Debra, because he still loved her - but it seemed pretty clear tonight that he is not the killer. For that matter, Dexter had a motive - Lundy was more likely than most to discover the truth about Dexter - but Harry's code would never allow Dexter to risk killing Debra in the process.

That leaves Trinity, the John Lithgow killer. But why didn't he kill Debra? Because his only real concern was getting rid of Lundy, whom Trinity knew was almost on to him? Probably...

But it turns out that there's a big significant something that Lundy had missed about the Trinity killer, and since Dex is pursuing him based on Lundy's investigation and musings, Dexter's missing it, too. And so did I, when I wrote in my sneak preview review that Trinity had "almost nothing in common with Dex". But, hey, what could I know - all I had to go on was what I saw on the television.

The secret that changes everything, makes the Trinity killer someone completely different from what Lundy, Dexter, and we had assumed, is that Trinity is a family man. Or, as Dexter realizes at the end of episode 5, "just like me".

But the further irony is that Dex's family life isn't going so well, after all, as Rita gets on his case about lying to her about his secret apartment. My wife noticed that someone had observed about Rita on Twitter or a board somewhere - maybe Dexter can bend Harry's code and kill her.

The character's incredibly annoying, but she's not likely to go anywhere, and she does bring out some of the best lines from Dexter. My favorite tonight was Rita is telling Dexter she went through the belongings in his apartment, and Dexter's internal narrative voice says "And?" with just the right tone of impatience.

And Dex will have his hands more than full getting Trinity - not to mention keeping Debra out of his apartment and the trophies it contains.

Did I say that I think this may be the best season so far of Dexter? I tend to say that every season...

8-min podcast review of Dexter

See also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review

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

6-min podcast review of Dexter

Yankees, Travelers, and Langhorne Win

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:52:00 +0000

Great Yankees win, in the face of blind umping, and biased Fox sportscasting.

But the Yankees were great. Girardi has really settled into his managing. A-Rod is playing like a full-fledged superstar. Teixeira got back his magical swing, Cano is in the game, and Mariano is invincible.

Even the commercials were great. Especially the Travelers Insurance spot with Langhorne Slim - which didn't make it to Game Six tonight. But it's always satisfying to see your team win and discover a new singer at the same time. Langhorne reminds me of John Sebastian and the Lovin' Spoonful - I expect he'll soon be a superstar himself.

On the World Series. I'm picking the Yankees and Langhorne.

Here's a video of that commercial...

Coen Bros A Serious Man - You'll Laugh Til It Hurts

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:13:00 +0000

My wife and I saw the Coen Brothers "A Serious Man" last week and loved it. We laughed until there were tears in our eyes, and had tears in our eyes at other times during this profound film.

The short preface of the movie - itself worth the price of admission - was entirely in Yiddish. I can't remember the last time I heard mitten derinnen at the beginning or for that at any time in a movie. In fact the last time I heard it at all was from my parents, years ago. (It means, roughly, "right in the middle of everything" - as in, everything was going great, and mitten derinnen he or she walked in.) Same for plopple - meaningless or loose-lipped chatter - one of my all-time favorites. As in, I was trying to leave, but he was ploppling his head off. Or, she can't keep anything to herself, once she starts talking she'll plopple out the truth...

And the rest of movie was a flat-out masterpiece of Jewish and academic culture. Anyone who has ever tried to get clear-cut advice from a rabbi will recognize the rabbis in this movie. My father, for example, once went to a rabbi and asked- nope, I'm going to resist ploppling about this.

Francesca Maximé interviewed me about A Serious Man last week, and we definitely didn't plopple. Well, maybe a little. But we covered a lot the highlights of the movie, with no spoilers, and I even told one of my favorite rabbi jokes about the husband and wife who- well, watch the video clip.

Here's the takeaway - after the interview, go out and see the movie. You'll laugh till it hurts.

John McCain's Internet Freedom Act is Eminently Warranted

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:36:00 +0000

I voted for Barack Obama, don't like Fox News, and think our health system is in need of long due reform. I thought the McCain campaign was one of the worst in years, bringing lowlights ranging from Sarah Palin to Joe the Plumber on to center stage.

But John McCain's Internet Freedom Act, a bill introduced to make sure the FCC does "not propose, promulgate, or issue any regulations regarding the Internet or IP-enabled services" - in the wake of the FCC's unanimous vote yesterday to move forward with debate and promulgation of net neutrality rules - deserves the support of everyone who values the First Amendment and our freedom.

Net neutrality seeks to make sure that the Internet remains a level, open playing field, not dominated by corporations that may give favored treatment - charge less or nothing - for services that may line the pocket of the corporations but deprive users of better services. I strongly support the ideal and practice of net neutrality.

But I strongly oppose any attempt to make this happen by FCC fiat. I take "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" - the First Amendment - seriously.

A surprising number of people miss this. Tony Bradley, writing today in PC World, asks - about what McCain's bill seeks to prevent the FCC from doing - "Isn't that what the FCC does? Isn't that sort of like introducing a bill to prohibit the Treasury from printing money, or a bill to prohibit the IRS from collecting taxes?"

Sadly, yes, and no. Yes, this is what the FCC does - including levying millions of dollars of fines for television programs it finds objectionable - all the time. Even though there is a First Amendment. And yes, tax collection is what the IRS does. Because, like it or not, the Sixteenth Amendment gives our government that power. But the First Amendment has not been repealed or amended, last time I checked.

We have become so accustomed to its trampling that Bradley's argument almost seems plausible. But every violation of the First Amendment makes the press - in newspapers, radio, television, and blogs - less able to do its job for us, which is ever keeping a watchful eye on our democratically elected government, so we can be as informed as possible in the next and every election.

I doubt I could ever vote for John McCain, even with his introduction of this important bill. But he deserves our thanks for introducing it, and the bill warrants our support. We can work for net neutrality in many ways - especially with our patronage of sites and organizations that do the right thing. Extending the FCC's unconstitutional regulation from radio and television to the Internet is manifestly not the way to go about it.

See also The Flouting of the First Amendment

Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:38:00 +0000

Well, the Yankees lost tonight, after coming back and gaining the lead, and that was frustrating, but FlashForward 1.5 came on strong after a talky middle and posted one of its best endings since the premiere, and that was good to see indeed.

The crux of this episode is the reliability of Mark's flashforward vision. Why does he recall only a part of the 2 minutes and 17 seconds, when others seem to recall the full course of their flashforward? The answer is that Mark, off booze for seven years, was drunk in his flashforward.

Courtney Vance puts in his best performance so far as Mark's boss Stan Wedeck. He at first is furious that he's risking his career on a drunk flashforward, but he doesn't pull back the investigation, and in fact just tells Mark to keep his mouth shut as Stan takes the project funding he has pressured the President to provide.

There's a sharp 24-ish flavor to this (likely from Brannon Braga), as we see a President wheeling and dealing with dangerous political adversaries, and a Chinese team of assassins who almost take out Mark, Demetri, Vreede, and Stan, and in a parallel attack badly wound Janis. She looks as if she could be dying in the street - but given the truth of the flashforwards so far, someone is bound to come and save her.

She has a provocative story, too - a lesbian lover, Numb3r's Amita (Navi Rawat), in Washington, DC. It looks as if not only Heroes but FlashForward is picking up on The L Word this year, which risks making this theme a little trite, especially when brought in out of left field. But in Janis's case, it has the benefit of making the pregnancy she saw in her flashforward even more interesting.

Janis also discovers some strange towers in the area of the 1990s blackout ... Lloyd Simcoe will likely know more about ...

6-min podcast review of FlashForward

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost and 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability and 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures and 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

House 6.5: Getting Better

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:46:00 +0000

House is getting better all the time - not the show, House, which has been superb all along, but, House, the character, who is, amazingly, functioning this season without popping vicodin, and whose leg seems to be in manageable shape as far as pain.

Exactly how has this happened, when in previous seasons nothing seemed to work for House? The only explanation given, sort of, by House himself, is the power of the psychotherapy he went through at the beginning of this season.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Meanwhile, House and Cuddy continue to be on the verge of falling into each other's arms, Wilson still hasn't gotten over Amber, and Chase is in full internal conflict over his killing of Dibala.

This is putting Chase and Cameron on a collision course. He hasn't told her, and she knows something is wrong (she would have to be unconscious not to). Chase seeks absolution from a priest tonight, and only gets advice he cannot use to turn himself in.

House and Foreman are Chase's only confidants in this, and in their own ways they are trying to help him. But it's not at all clear that Chase will come out of this, and the moral agony he's going through is giving us a story as powerful as House's himself this season.

Will be fun and instructive, as always, to see where this takes us in November.

4-min podcast review of House

See also House Reborn in Season Six? ... 6.2: The Gang is Back and Fractured ... 6.3: The Saving Hitler Quandary ... 6.4: Diagnosis vs. Karma

Taliban YouTube Channel: New Entry in the Dark Side of New New Media

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:22:00 +0000

This is the third post in my continuing series, What's Newer Than New New Media, published in different blogs, which examines developments in the world of blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc - what I call "new new media" - since the publication of New New Media in September 2009.

Fareed Zakaria had a short, instructive, piece on his GPS CNN show today – October 18, 2009 (see video below) – about the new Taliban YouTube station, Istqlalmedia. This brings home a crucial point I make in “The Dark Side of New New Media” (chapter 13, appropriately enough, of New New Media, published in September): the same access to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook which allows protesters to get out word about government abuse and crackdowns – as with the protesters in Iran this past June – can also be used by terrorists to plan attacks, and by terrorist groups to ply propaganda.

The general principle here is that all technologies are like knives – they can be used to cut food, in the hands of good people, and used to cut people, in the hands of the bad. Actually, in the hands of a surgeon, a knife that cuts is a good thing. But a pillow, presumably innocent, can be used to suffocate someone. And a gun, often used for bad purposes, can be a valuable weapon against crime, or just to hunt food. The ultimate value or danger of any technology, in other words, depends upon how we humans use it.

New new media are no different. Terrorists may have coordinated their attacks via texting in the attack on Mumbai last year. The U.S. Army warned about the use of Twitter by terrorists in a report at the end of last year.

Zakaria raised another significant point – a prime irony – about the Taliban YouTube station. They are group at war with the modern age, using one of the most salient media of the modern age on behalf of their battle. This is an hypocrisy which critics of technology, criminal and civilized, have long been subject to. Jacques Ellul wrote a now classic book, Propaganda, in which he argued that all media – including products of the printing press – were intrinsically, inevitably, and always vehicles of propaganda. So why we should pay any attention to Ellul’s inevitably propagandistic book?

But we do, and the Taliban YouTube station will likely get lots of views. In the end, the best we can do is use the advantages of new new media to call these hypocrisies out.

See also:

What's Newer Than New New Media, Post 1, about Amazon, 1984, and the Kindle

What's Newer Than New New Media, Post 2, FTC Wrong to Fine Deceitful Bloggers

Mad Men 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:14:00 +0000

A memorably media-savvy episode 3.10 of Mad Men tonight - come to think of it, just about every episode is - which quotes the Chinese proverb that is the basis of the invention and flourishing of writing ... "the faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory."

Actually, Kinsey paraphrases the proverb - "the faintest ink is better than the greatest memory" and then "better than the best memory" a second time - but, whew, the media intelligence in Mad Men would have made McLuhan happy, and sure has that effect on me. I taught my "Intro to Communications and Media Studies" class at Fordham that very lesson last month, without mentioning the proverb. From now on, I will.

Kinsey's thoughts on this matter are occasioned by Sterling Cooper's work for Western Union Telegraph, in the early 1960s fighting a desperate rear-guard action in a hopelessly losing battle against the telephone. Ironic, since, as I detail in The Soft Edge, William Henry Orton, President of Western Union in 1881, advised his good friend Chauncey Depew not to invest in the nascent Bell Telephone Company, since Orton thought the phone would never be more than a "scientific toy." In 1881, Orton was the equivalent of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But by 1901, there were already 10 phone calls made for every telegram sent. As Ken Cosgrove put it tonight on Mad Men, "I love getting telegrams, but I never send them." It was fun to get something so rare and so vanishing.

The written word and its durability also turns out to be undermining Don tonight, as Betty finally discovers his true identity paperwork. Her opening of that Pandora's box may be the most significant few moments in the entire series so far.

But I've got to say that I still can't see how Betty would not have already found out about Don and Sally's former teacher, Suzanne Farrell. Don says he's working. Ok. Presumably at the office - but Betty would not have even called him there once?

On the other hand, I like Suzanne (Abigail Spencer) better than any of Don's other flings.

But the clock of heartbreak and worse is ticking ... for Don and Betty, Don and Suzanne, and everyone in that fateful Fall of 1963. Before November is over, there will be an indelible event on television, a permanent searing of everyone alive then, far stronger than any ink...

6-min podcast review of Mad Men
See also: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through

Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:12:00 +0000

The best thing about Fringe 2.5 last night was the last minute or so, which brought us our Peter as a boy in the alternate universe from which Walter took him (to replace his son Peter in our universe, who had died).

How do we know this was an alternate universe? There was a poster on young Peter's wall, celebrating the "Challenger 11 Mission" on "June 28, 1984." In our universe, the 10th mission of the Challenger - not specifically named that way - tragically exploded on January 28, 1986. (My Loose Ends time travel series deals directly with that explosion.)

Although we don't yet know this for a fact, presumably Peter's alternate universe is the same one that Olivia visited, where she met William Bell. In that universe, John F. Kennedy was not assassinated, the World Trade Center stands in 2009, among other profoundly significant differences.

I find this alternate universe stuff so good that I wish - as I've said before - that Fringe would give us more of it. But the show delivered well with another science fiction nugget last night, control of minds from afar - in the case of Fringe, via computers. Sort of wi-fi for the mind.

Fringe continues to be in a strange television class of its own, which I take to be a good thing. I'm looking forward to what they serve up for us in November.

6-min podcast review of Fringe

See also 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

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

Ancient Bones 5.5

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:36:00 +0000

No, Brennan is as vibrant as ever, the series certainly isn't getting old, but the bones on Episode 5.5 of Bones tonight were ancient - as in, a mummy's.

Those Pharaohs and their families have long been the subject of forensic speculation. King Tut's mummy was thought for a while to be the product of an ancient murder - the young Pharoah was in his teens when he died - but a real-life team of Brennans found otherwise. His uncle, Ikhnaton (originally Amenhotep IV), stirred up a lot of trouble with his attempt to promulgate a monotheistic religion in his pagan world. (He was hampered by the inability of hieroglyphics to describe a ubiquitous, omnipotent, invisible deity. See my book on the history of media, The Soft Edge, for more.)

Tonight's mummy on Bones was indeed murdered, but the even better mystery was how his bleeding heart led to a murder in our times, 2009. Not by some conservative wacko. The bleeding heart in the mummy was actually a huge ruby, as Brennan's team discovers.

Bones is at her best when the cases are anthropology, and the victim and killers are scientists, or directors of labs and museums. Lots of good stuff like that in tonight's episode. And she does a fine Boris Karloff impersonation.

And two pieces of romance. Sweets and Daisy - also one of the merry-go-round of Bones' assistants - have their downs and ups. And after Bones goes on a fraction of a date with Booth's boss's boss - she's called away on a case - she and Booth have a very tender scene, in which they're about to kiss-

But are interrupted by the happy team. The course of true love on Bones never did run smooth...

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

6-min podcast review of Bones

FlashForward Meets Shaft and House in 1.4

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:11:00 +0000

A tip-top episode 1.4 of FlashForward tonight, which provides yet another proof that the visions of the future are true. In fact, so far, all we've had are confirmations - Agent Gough's meeting with his London counterpart, the death of the Utah agent who had no vision - with the exception of Demetri's fiance's vision of their marriage. In fact, tonight we had two confirmations, as Lloyd Simcoe confirms that he was in Olivia's home (though he didn't see Olivia, only heard her voice).

But the Shaft part is especially neat and convincing. A white guy's vision on a bus under water sees himself cool, on-top as never before, and African-American in the future, like "Shaft or Bryant Gumbel," as he puts it. Further, he's calm as can be when he wakes up almost under water. He even heroically saves someone.

But how can a white guy change into a black guy in six months?

Back in the present, he ends up in Olivia's hospital 14 days after the blackout, complaining of pain. It's more serious than that - Olivia's says he needs an operation. He's still incredibly calm. This gives Dr. Varley an idea. Like House, he realizes that Addison's disease could account for both the white-to-black transformation, and the smooth calmness. Addison's disease affects the adrenal gland, making it pump melanin instead of adrenalin. A nervous Caucasian can turn into a calm African American...

In one of the most significant interactions of the series, Olivia resists Varley's diagnosis. Of course she does - she does not want her future to be true, just as Varley hopes that his is. The patient almost dies. But Olivia accepts the patient's future and Varley's analysis just in time, with a take away that moves her a big step towards thinking her future may be inevitable.

And so the only opposition to the flashforward visions - the only outright conflict of visions - comes from Demetri and his fiance. Accordingly, he wants to move their marriage up to an earlier date - prior to the date of his murder reported to him by Behrooz's mother, last week (that is, the Iranian agent, who played Behrooz's mother in 24 a few seasons ago). But how can he succeed? If he's able to change the date, that means Zoey's vision was wrong - how could she see them getting married in six months, if they were already married - which pitches them and us right back into the paradox.

And just to up the ante, Dominic Monaghan's character Simon puts in a brief appearance at the end of this episode .... and he seems far more sinister than Charlie ...

6-min podcast review of FlashForward
See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost and 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability and 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

Heroes Meets The L Word in 4.5

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:13:00 +0000

An excellent episode 4.5 of Heroes last night - in fact, the best episode of the new season - in which we get some good progress on Claire's story...

Turns out that Claire's roommate Gretchen (Californication's Madeline Zima) is the not the source of Claire's worst problems. Gretchen didn't kill Claire's original room mate, nor is she trying to keep Claire from making friends at school, nor is she stalking Claire for any reason other than -

Gretchen has a crush on Claire, and gives her a pretty deep kiss, which Claire - surprised but certainly not repelled - permits. Raises some interesting possibilities, and it's good to see that Madeline Zima is being true to her frisky Californication history.

But if not Gretchen, who is the potentially deadly adversary for Claire? A sorority girl, who is really working for Samuel's increasingly more nefarious carnival group.

Meanwhile, Peter's also finding romance, in a tender story with Emma, who sees colors for sounds, and at first has no interest in Peter. But he's picked up her power - an heroic kind of synaesthesia - and by the end of the episode, they're making nice music together. Just music for now.

And Sylar is slowly regaining his identity, after being apparently killed again, but recovering, because he does have Claire's powers. Will Sylar turn out a better person in his gradual self-reconstruction?

Not likely. On the other hand, Samuel's people may well be the worst threat.

See also Heroes Season 4 Premiere: Metaphysics, University, Carnival

House 6.4: Diagnosis vs. Karma

levinson.paul@gmail.com (Paul Levinson) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:58:00 +0000

One fine House 6.4 tonight, with a central story that pits the diagnosis of House against the karma of the cosmos.

A multi-billionaire's son is dying. No one, including House and the team led by Foreman, can come up with the right diagnosis. When House does, it's an incurable malady that leads to imminent death, in about a day.

The father believes that in order for his son to be saved, he has to do something to balance his extraordinary monetary success - set the karmic balance right, by losing all of his money and holdings. No one can ever bear pure, 100% success in everything, he reasons. For his son to live, the billionaire has to lose all of his money.

We've all had that feeling, haven't we. When things are going great, we expect something to go wrong to balance the books. And vice versa. The balanced cosmos can be a source of pessimism or optimism, depending upon your current up or down position.

And, of course, after the billionaire bankrupts himself, House comes up with the right diagnosis. The son recovers. Is this a victory for rational diagnosis versus cosmic karma? Or is House really an instrument of the cosmos? Maybe both are true.

Meanwhile, House is busy protecting his team on all sorts of fronts, doing what he can to keep 13 at the hospital, and giving Chase and therefore Foreman what they need to survive the M & M inquiry about the genocidal dictator Dibala's death last week.

But those situations are far from completely resolved. The plane for a new life is boarding, and 13's walking on it. Chase has still not told Cameron what he did to Dibala.

Karma - or House - still has some work to do...

See also House Reborn in Season Six? ... 6.2: The Gang is Back and Fractured ... 6.3: The Saving Hitler Quandary

6-min podcast review of House