Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Best-known short story: The Chronology Protection Case; Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (697/0)
Review of 'Watchmen' 1.6-1.7
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.)
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'His Dark Materials' 1.3
I'm enjoying His Dark Materials, most of all the nature, behavior, and variety of the Daemons. As I understand them, they're some sort of external manifestation of the humans they're connected with, including their human sensibilities, with perhaps some other things that Daemons have on their own.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'Watchmen' 1.5
That was the best thing about the insane episode 1.5 of the insano Watchmen on Sunday—"Some Enchanted Evening"—sung first by Sinatra at the beginning of the episode and at the end by some group unknown to me. But my favorite rendition of the song that Ezio Pinza first sang in Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific all those years ago has always been this one by Jay and the Americans.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' Season 4
I've been saying ever since Trump began running for President with his anti-immigration polices that The Man in the High Castle and its alternate reality of literally Nazi America had special relevance to the reality in which we now all reside, in which the Allies not the Axis won the Second World War. In the final season of this extraordinary adaptation of Philip K. Dick's extraordinary 1962 novel, immigration plays a major role in the story, especially in the very last scene of the series.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Watchmen' 1.3
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).
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'His Dark Materials' 1.1
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.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'Terminator: Dark Fate'
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.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Mnemophrenia'
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.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Watchmen' 1.1
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?
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'El Camino'
El Camino, aptly described by IMDb as "a sequel of sorts, to Breaking Bad," is nothing but a success, unqualified. The "of sorts" does apply to El Camino's status as a sequel, and one of the key reasons, perhaps the key reason, why it is so satisfying. Walter (Bryan Cranston), Mike (Jonathan Banks), and Todd (Jesse Plemons), none of whom survived the original series, each appear in El Camino in flashback scenes that we haven't seen before in Breaking Bad. Todd's was much better than Mike's, and Walter's was sheer magic, but all three in-and-of themselves make El Camino eminently worth watching.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Geeks