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Review of 'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey' 1.6

The End

By Paul LevinsonPublished 2 years ago 2 min read
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The last episode of The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, on Apple TV+, was better than it could have been, but not what I'd really hoped for.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

At least Ptolemy didn't take his own life, as suggested by what we saw in the opening of the first episode. But he did die, with barely if any at all of the enormous improvements in his mentality brought about by Dr. Rubin aka Satin's medical treatment. And I wanted Ptolemy, with his exceptional intelligence, to come up with a way of making that brilliance last. But many years ago, when I started out as a writer, I once heard another writer retort, when his work was faulted by a critic and peppered with suggestions to do this and that, "hey, if you think those are such good ideas, why don't you write your own story?" And Walter Mosley could certainly say that to me in response to what I would have liked to have seen in the ending his Ptolemy Grey story.

And there were many enduringly beautiful and profound elements to this TV series (again, I haven't read the book). Robyn's development was wonderful, a real pleasure to see. The baddest guy got just what he deserved. The interplay of Ptolemy's memories with the complex reality that swirled around him was handled perfectly and memorably. Indeed, I don't it's too clever to say that this whole story about the loss of human memory was handled memorably. Because that's true.

Getting old is a hell of a thing. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is eminently worth seeing, even if it doesn't have the happy ending my stubborn heart desired. The story will stay with you for years, for the rest of your life, and that's the lasting gift of this short series.

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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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