Paul Levinson

Watchmen checked in with a clarifying, excellent episode 1.3 this week, introducing Jean Smart as FBI honcho and super good-guy killer Laurie Blake, and giving us a nice extended rendition of Desmond Dekker's "Israelites," one of my many all-time favorite songs (in fact, I'm listening to it on YouTube right now).

His Dark Materials debuted on HBO Monday night. It was good to see—especially Ruth Wilson as the mysterious and alluring Marisa, the very night after The Affair concluded, splendidly, on Showtime, where Wilson played the alluring Alison, of which I'll say no more in case you haven't seen it.

So here we go again. The critics panned it. The box-office in the first few days is not impressive. All manner of self-appointed prognosticators pronounce the franchise deader than an outmoded Terminator model, because that's what it is.

With last night's episode 1.5 of Emergence, Piper has moved from the category of someone with superpowers to Supergirl. That's because she clearly has more than one incredible superpower.

I just watched Mnemophrenia, put up yesterday on Amazon and made last year. It's a brilliant, provocative, startlingly original movie, with no actresses and actors I've heard of, and written, directed, and produced by Eirini Konstantinidou, her first time out with a feature-length movie. I'll predict flatly that Mnemophrenia is destined to become a classic, and the first of movies made by Konstantinidou that will be similarly received.

I guess I'm either the best or worst kind of person to watch and review Watchmen on HBO: I've of course heard of the iconic comic book story and its adaptations over the years, but I never read or saw any of it, and really know nothing about it. But with a cast consisting of Regina King and Don Johnson, and the creator being Lost's Damon Lindelof, how could I resist?