Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code, The Plot To Save Socrates, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (698/0)
Review of 'Invasion' 1.5
I thought the single most impressive thing in Invasion 1.5, up on Apple TV+ yesterday, was that little creepy crawly thing Aneesha took out of the guy on that operating table. That saved his life, the other doctor told her. And taking it out likely did. But of far greater long-range consequence is that crawly thing is evidence of interstellar life. Whether it's an offspring of the invaders, or some kind of parasite planted in the poor guy on the table ... well, that's very significant indeed, with lots of story to tell there.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Foundation' 1.8
A towering, slowly moving like colossi in motion, powerful episode 1.8 of Foundation just up on Apple TV+, with new significant changes from Isaac Asimov's writing, and also replete with surprises even in the parts of this narration that were not in the original stories that appeared nearly a century ago.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.6
One of my favorite parts of La Brea is the cross-temporal communication between the people 12,000 years in the past and in present Los Angeles. Last week, Eve in the past sent a message in a bottle to Gavin in the present. This week, Gavin in the present returns the favor and sends a message in a video back to Eve in the past.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.5
A good La Brea 1.5 last week, with the best at the end with the letter. (Queue up the Box Tops' "The Letter".) The letter -- from Eve -- traveled from the past to the present the hard way, second by second, in a bottle, which could also be considered the natural way. And it (of course) arrived at a most propitious time: the tear in the sky (as in rip, but it's emotionally also a teardrop from an eye) is closing. Dr. Rebecca Aldridge carefully explains to Gavin that this could be his last chance to rescue his family from the past.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Invasion' 1.1-3
This has been a great week for science fiction on the screen. An excellent episode of Foundation, an outstanding first half of a new Dune movie and ... I decided to see if I could get a trifecta by watching a brand new science fiction series. Like Foundation, Invasion is on AppleTV+, which put up the first three episodes of this ambitious series on Friday. It had a lot to contend with, debuting just as Foundation was getting into really high gear, when Dune was making a justified name for itself the moment it opened. And ... Invasion succeeded.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Dune, Part One'
The first half of Dune -- over two-and-a-half hours of almost a six hour movie -- came up on HBO Max late last Thursday. It's also in theaters, and an expert critic of two proclaimed that it can't be fully or really appreciated unless you see it on the big screen. Maybe my mind is prone to see in cinematic vistas, but I liked the movie just fine on my Mac Airbook.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Foundation' 1.6
Well, the three-hour first part of the Dune movie debuted on HBO Max last night, but of course I watched the latest episode of Foundation on Apple TV+ first. And I was greeted by something straight out of Dune -- interstellar travel via the folding of space. In Dune this is done by members of the Space Guild. In Foundation, the folding is done by Spacers, a nod to Asimov's work, in which people who went to space, in the original robot novels, were Spacers.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.4
Well, I predicted last week that there was more than one sinkhole than just the one in La Brea and Gavin's special vision would show him that Levi was alive after his plane seemed to burn up in the La Brea sinkhole, and I was right. I was also figuring that La Brea would continue to be a series worth watching, and I was right about that, too.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Hightown' 2.1
Last year, Hightown was especially welcome, because, with the lockdown where we live, Hightown was the most we saw of the Cape. This year, we were back on the Cape a whole bunch of times, and Hightown is off to such a good start it's looking to be more welcome than ever.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Criminal