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Review of 'Manifest' 1.2

Arthur C. Clarke's Magic

By Paul LevinsonPublished 5 years ago 1 min read
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Precious little is offered in Manifest 1.2 about what happened to those passengers on that fateful flight—or who or what caused it to happen—with the government team going over the usual suspects including aliens, etc.

God and magic also came into some other conversations, with Ben observing that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Great line—but I would've liked it better had Ben (meaning the writers, producers, or director of this episode) added that Arthur C. Clarke wrote that years ago. (I don't like plagiarism in any form.)

Otherwise, the compelling, if obvious, family and romantic dilemmas continued to develop in this episode. Ben and Michaela are both apparently forgiving. Michaela seems to forgive Lourdes—her best friend—for marrying her almost fiancée, and Ben is understanding if not accepting of his wife Grace's relationship with the other guy. As a romantic drama, Manifest is firing on all cylinders, and there will no doubt be more ahead. The course of true love never did run smooth (Shakespeare), especially when time travel is involved (me).

And time travel is why I'll keep watching Manifest. I'd like to know what caused the plane to jump more than five years in time, and what connection that has to the voices our time-traveling passengers are hearing. And I'm hoping, to get back to Arthur C. Clarke, that the explanation is technological, not magical.

We'll see.

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About the Creator

Paul Levinson

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.

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