tv review
Reviewing insightful and thought provoking science fiction TV and technology.
Review of 'Foundation' 1.4
Well, once again, I thought the narrative on Terminus in Foundation 1.4 ended much too soon, almost in mid-action. I suppose I should get used to it. And once again, my favorite part of the episode were the scenes with the clonal Cleons. I suppose I should get used to that, too. Yet episode 1.4 was because of those clones my favorite so far.
Paul LevinsonPublished 3 years ago in FuturismReview of 'La Brea' 1.2
A strong second episode of La Brea on NBC last night, in which the situation of the narrative -- x number of people suddenly sucked 10,000+ years into the past, and x number of people in the present knowing something about this and trying to do something about it -- is clarified, deepened, and fleshed out with characters who are beginning to come into sharper focus.
Paul LevinsonPublished 3 years ago in FuturismReview of 'Foundation' 1.3
I said in my review of the first two episodes of the Foundation series on Apple TV+ last week that the relationship among the Cleon clone triumvirate -- Brothers Dawn, Day, and Dusk -- was fascinating, and "one of the best parts of the TV series not in the Asimov stories". In episode 1.3 that relationship took up at least the first third of the narrative, and it was easily the best part of the episode.
Paul LevinsonPublished 3 years ago in FuturismReview of 'La Brea' 1.1
Well, I thought I'd take a look at La Brea, which debuted last night on NBC. One on the one hand, a time-travel sinkhole story is right up my alley. On the other hand, science fiction on network television all too often turns out to be annoying. Or, if not -- like Debris, which was pretty good -- it's cancelled after one season. Gone are the days of Star Trek the original series on NBC, or Lost on ABC. But it's time travel. I won't say no to at least giving a time travel series on network television a chance.
Paul LevinsonPublished 3 years ago in FuturismReview of 'Foundation' 1.1-2
I've been saying on Twitter and Facebook and anyplace with an eye or an ear that I've been waiting most of my life to see Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy and then series on a screen. That's surely a prescription for disappointment. But I just watched the first two episodes of Foundation on Apple TV+ and I thought they were superb. Not perfect, but more than enough to be not disappointed but thrilled.
Paul LevinsonPublished 3 years ago in FuturismReview of 'Star Trek' Discovery season 3
Checking in with a review of Star Trek: Discovery season 3, which was on CBS All Access now Paramount+ nearly a year ago, but I just had a chance to binge-watch the past few days.
Paul LevinsonPublished 3 years ago in FuturismStar Tracks
" You are in your own little world, are you not " , said someone to me, just not in those exact words. If I recall I had no interest in whatever he was insinuating ( somehow I imagine this now seventy something year old guy has little if any even ex Ivy League fake prestigious instructor memories of his own smart ass attitude that day ) . Virginia, there may be a Santa and a Clause or two but I challenge you to ever introduce me to an Ivy Leaguer worth two shakes of a lamb's tail, to be polite about things. Do not let us get started on the relative worth of said grad versus what comes out of the space under the sheep's tail.
P. B. FriedmanPublished 3 years ago in FuturismSeries review: Mr. Robot
They are the most entertaining episodes in the series - for example if you see one of the show's most compelling computers - but much of the plot is revealed in episodes of two show people - where the characters who weren't connected three seasons ago sat down and talked to each other. In the first episode of the series the main villain Elliot Alderson is so cut off from reality in the first episode that some of the characters in the series appear as ciphers, unwanted and different.
Zuvin MaharzanPublished 3 years ago in FuturismMachine Learning is Our Only Hope
https://medium.com/neodotlife/computational-psychiatry-c05a32f20705 Directors Cut And so like Obi-Wan Kenobi before him the great Jedi Machine Learning (direct descendant of the greatest of all Jedi, Artificial Intelligence) was hailed as the only one who could save the princess and ourselves from tyranny and oppression at the hands of the evil, human psychiatrists with many years of medical school training, clinical experience, and actual (not made up) intelligence. led by the terrifying Sith Lord Darth Prescriptius Maximus. Unfortunately for the legendary Jedi the fact that he was a logical contradiction and logically impossible made it difficult for him to exist let alone save anyone. Luckily Konrad Kording had a backup, Padawan Dell 5720 All-in-One. Although Padawan Dell 5720 was also incapable of learning and in no way intelligent like his non-existent Jedi master, he did in fact exist and was a fast enough computer to run the software package that analyzed the data from the studies. And so using ancient but tried and true methods of computing handed down from at least 15 years ago, the exact same lessons were learned and conclusions drawn without need for the great but fictional Jedi master Machine Learning. In an unfortunate twist of fate the conclusions turned out to be way off base thus heralding the return to power of the dreaded human psychiatrists led by Darth Maximus and their legions of well educated, well informed, generally effective if somewhat too quick to reach for the prescription pad, shock troops. Jedi Machine Learning has returned to his home planet of Sil-Val to retrieve the one weapon of power that may allow him to turn the tide of war back to the good side, the long rumored Artificial Neural Network. No doubt once armed with this powerful computational model based on (what we think we understand about) the structure and functions of biological neural networks and the human brain, Jedi Learning will be able to banish the humans from their places of authority and power forever, restoring peace, justice, and balance to the universe.
Everyday JunglistPublished 3 years ago in FuturismAnalysis of the loki series
In this episode it is observed how loki tries to change his destiny by escaping with the third act of the avengers, however the time patrol tries to capture him to end his life and correct that deviation. Within the dimension of time it is clearly seen how time can be controlled by 3 extraterrestrial beings without as much good intentions as it is believed and then we will see how Loki goes from villain to a kind of antihero. It leaves us all astonished since when observing Loki what his destiny would be like in the original timeline, he realizes that his life was going the wrong way and reveals that he was only a villain because he felt weak and wanted to hide that. The fact that surprised everyone the most was when Loki was the villain of the time patrol, since one of the variants of him was the greatest villain they had. At this point it seems unlikely that Loki is an ally of the Time Patrol, but we'll see what happens later. I liked the naive detective portrayal of Owen Wilson who tries to play psychologist with Loki, who is the god of lies, ultimately failing in his attempt and complicating things even more for the time patrol. We will see how these two characters complement each other later and it will be somewhat funny how they try to work as a team. I hope to see later characters from the MCU like doctor strange or ancestral showing us more concepts of the workings of time or being the defenders or the heroes in this story. I remember in the trailers how it seemed that Natasha Romanov, Black Widow was going to appear, but she was another character that would make her appearance in this series. Again Marvel playing with the viewer to attract more nostalgic audience haha. Another of the curiosities of this episode was how the variants of loki evolved to be such powerful characters not only being a loki male, but versions such as lady loki, old loki or kid loki. Unlike the other marvel series such as falcon and the winter soldier and wanda vision, in a single episode the internal motivations were seen and why loki behaved like this. Living as an adopted brother never felt the same as Thor's family and that frustration that grew in him since he was little turned into the fear that we see that motivated him to perform that antagonistic role that, looking at it from an external perspective, it is seen that it was incoherent because He did not have a very strong motivation to be the villain as if they had hurt a loved one, they only hurt his ego and he felt minimized and inferior. It may be that at some point he wanted to be Odin's successor and knew that he would never achieve that because he was not the one not because he was a member of Odin's rival clan but that he did not have the leadership that Thor did, and he never knew how to understand his position that was more supportive of Thor and he must have taken it that way. However, he was only someone who wanted to destroy his planet if he was not the king of Asgarth. He never measured the implications of being the god of the universe and what could happen that would happen. He never thought what would happen if he didn't have everyone's backing? Maybe the avengers could organize and easily defeat him or other extraterrestrial beings in the universe? , Let us remember that Thanos, no matter how powerful he was, achievements be defeated by joining many beings in the universe, even Wanda could defeat him alone if her Thanos soldiers had not intervened as seen in the avenger end game movie. Clearly Disney Plus has brought us in one episode the transformation from villain to antihero. But I would like to hear your opinion on this.
To the Max
I well remember the mid-to-late 1980s: that was a very special, magical era for me, personally. Or maybe not. Memory always plays you false.
Review of Debris
Debris 1.1: Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces Debris debuted on good old NBC -- a fast-paced, surprisingly deep piece of science fiction, that had real potential.
Paul LevinsonPublished 3 years ago in Futurism