Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code, The Plot To Save Socrates, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (742)
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Review of 'Invasion' 1.1-3
This has been a great week for science fiction on the screen. An excellent episode of Foundation, an outstanding first half of a new Dune movie and ... I decided to see if I could get a trifecta by watching a brand new science fiction series. Like Foundation, Invasion is on AppleTV+, which put up the first three episodes of this ambitious series on Friday. It had a lot to contend with, debuting just as Foundation was getting into really high gear, when Dune was making a justified name for itself the moment it opened. And ... Invasion succeeded.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Dune, Part One'
The first half of Dune -- over two-and-a-half hours of almost a six hour movie -- came up on HBO Max late last Thursday. It's also in theaters, and an expert critic of two proclaimed that it can't be fully or really appreciated unless you see it on the big screen. Maybe my mind is prone to see in cinematic vistas, but I liked the movie just fine on my Mac Airbook.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Foundation' 1.6
Well, the three-hour first part of the Dune movie debuted on HBO Max last night, but of course I watched the latest episode of Foundation on Apple TV+ first. And I was greeted by something straight out of Dune -- interstellar travel via the folding of space. In Dune this is done by members of the Space Guild. In Foundation, the folding is done by Spacers, a nod to Asimov's work, in which people who went to space, in the original robot novels, were Spacers.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.4
Well, I predicted last week that there was more than one sinkhole than just the one in La Brea and Gavin's special vision would show him that Levi was alive after his plane seemed to burn up in the La Brea sinkhole, and I was right. I was also figuring that La Brea would continue to be a series worth watching, and I was right about that, too.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Hightown' 2.1
Last year, Hightown was especially welcome, because, with the lockdown where we live, Hightown was the most we saw of the Cape. This year, we were back on the Cape a whole bunch of times, and Hightown is off to such a good start it's looking to be more welcome than ever.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'La Brea' 1.3
A good solid third episode of La Brea on NBC this past Tuesday, in which Levi, an accomplished pilot and old friend of Gavin, with a real relationship to the family, flies into the sinkhole. The plane is engulfed in flames and [spoilers ahead ...]
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Foundation' 1.5
I knew it! How many times have you read here in my reviews of television series and movies, how many times have you heard me say this on panels at science fiction and other popular culture conventions , that if you don't see a character's head literally blown to pieces, well, he or she may still be alive. I said this about Tony Almeida on 24 and I was right. I'm still saying this about Tony Soprano -- that he wasn't killed, indeed, wasn't even shot -- and I still think I'm right.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Squid Game'
Well, I binged the nine episodes of Squid Game the runaway smash hit on Netflix the past few nights, and I really liked it. A lot more than Hunger Games, as a matter of fact, which the Korean Squid Game has been frequently compared to, though I'll admit none of the Hunger Games movies were ever high up on my favorites list.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
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.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
