Paul Levinson

His Dark Materials 1.5 on HBO earlier tonight upped the evil of the villains, making them, well, the equivalent of Nazis.

To be blunt: I thought Emergence 1.8 was, well, a weak episode. Here's why:

A fast-moving episode 1.7 of Emergence. I hope the rest of the season continues at this pace.

Emergence checked in with another strong episode — 1.6 — and brought us to two surprising revelations. Both concern Kindred.

The bears took center state in episode 1.4 of His Dark Materials last week. If this is starting to sound like a three-ring circus, that's because it is, but the menagerie in His Dark Materials is far more diverse and intriguing than any you'll find in any circus, or, for that matter, to use another place where the Bears appear, in any football game.

I thought I'd review episodes 1.6 and 1.7 of Watchmen together, since they're both episodes of Nostalgia — the powerful drug that makes Angela relive her family's memories — and I thought two episodes might make a little more sense than the one. Which they do. I think. (Again, with the proviso that I never read the comics or saw any movie, and knew nothing at all of Watchmen before I started watching the HBO series.)