Stories (647/0)
Review of 'Three Pines'
Just binged Three Pines, a new series on Amazon Prime Video -- at once charming, dangerous, provocative, with a Sherlock Holmesian detective (Inspector Gamache, played by Alfred Molina) and gorgeous wintery scenery north of Montreal. It somehow manages to have elements of a British cosy whodunnit, with cursing you wouldn't hear even in Chicago PD, and it's an altogether wonderful treat to see.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Criminal
Review of 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'
I thought Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, now on Netflix, was even funnier and more fun than Knives Out, which was plenty funny and fun when it came out in 2018. Plus, Glass Onion was just brimming with social relevance, extending its satire of Agatha Christie to our real world at large with a zest and a vengeance. All to the good -- given what our real world is like, we could use all the satire we can get our eyes and ears on.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Criminal
Review of 'The Mosquito Coast' 2.8
Those of you who have been reading my reviews of science fiction TV series here, even for just the past year, will know who Hari Seldon is. In case you don't, he's the protagonist in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and I think his original trilogy from the 1950s is the best science fiction ever written. Seldon is able to statistically predict the future. He invents a method called "psychohistory," which comes from LaPlace's Demon in philosophy (though LaPlace is not mentioned): if you were able to know everything about human behavior, capture it and put it all in mathematical form, you could see what people will be doing tomorrow or even a century from now. Pretty head stuff, right?
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Futurism
Review of 'His Dark Materials' 3.6
I was going to wait until I'd seen all eight episodes of the third and final season (presumably final, because you never know) of His Dark Materials (on HBO Max) before posting a review, but episode 6 was so powerful, deeply beautiful, and just satisfyingly good, I couldn't wait.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Geeks
Review of 'Harry & Meghan' 4-6
This is a review of episodes 4-6 of Harry & Meghan. You can read my review of the first three episodes here on Vocal. I said in my review of the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan, the documentary by Liz Garbus on Netflix, that I was more interested in the media aspects of their story than the royalty, though the two are of course intertwined. The same is true of the final three episodes -- 4-6 -- which I just saw on Thursday.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Families
Review of 'Kindred'
Just binged Kindred on Hulu the past two nights. It's a time travel story unlike anything I've ever seen or read (I haven't read the Octavia Butler* novel from which it's adapted). And it's powerful, beautiful, tender, and tough, and altogether superb.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Futurism
Criminal Minds: Evolution 16.1-16.4
So, I saw the first episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution aka Criminal Minds Season 16 on CBS and thought it was ok. Last night I watched the next three episodes (16.2-16.4) and thought they were superb. So much so that I think this could be the best season of Criminal Minds in its long run.
By Paul Levinson4 months ago in Criminal
Buddy Holly and Sir Cricket's
Ok, this is about food not music, though good food and music go hand-in-hand. But, just to be clear, this is a not a post about Buddy Holly, much as I love his music, ever since I first heard it, back as a kid in the late 1950s. (I mean, "Maybe Baby" is one of my all-time favorite recordings.) But I just couldn't resist using his name in a post about Sir Cricket's on the Cape (Cape Cod, Route 6, Orleans, MA). On the other hand, you will feel like rock 'n' rolling after having the fried clams, fresh tuna sandwich, fish tacos, just about anything that Sir Cricket's dishes out.
By Paul Levinson4 months ago in Feast
White Tea
You may know me as an author of a dozen books and a writer here of science fiction and reviews about television shows and movies. People often ask me what I'm drinking when I'm writing, when I'm watching television, when I'm writing about watching television. Come to think of it, I'm drinking it right now...
By Paul Levinson4 months ago in Feast
