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 '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.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review 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.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Many Saints of Newark'
After all of these years -- 21 or 14, depending on whether you count from the beginning or the end -- The Sopranos is arguably still the best series ever on any kind of television screen. What's beyond argument is that The Sopranos started it all, and opened the gates, paved the way, for all the great television that ensued on cable and streaming screens.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Criminal
Review 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.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review 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.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Voyeurs'
We caught The Voyeurs -- not real people, the movie that just went up on Amazon Prime Video -- and enjoyed it. It's been compared by critics -- unfavorably, of course -- to Hitchcock's 1954 masterful Rear Window, but it's still worth watching, looking through, choose your metaphor.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Clickbait'
Just saw Clickbait, just up, eight episodes of riveting mini-series, on Netflix. It was that good. Nick Brewer, a happily married family man with two sons, is kidnapped and the apparent victim of a sadistic and dangerous video hoax. He ends up --
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Reminiscence'
So here we are again. Critics are giving Reminiscence (on HBO Max) mixed reviews, saying it's derivative. I agree that it's derivative, but think it's excellent. In general, I think being derivative is not a bad thing, and I disagree with the myopic critics who miss how well Reminiscence does it.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Hit and Run'
I've come to know Lior Raz as one of the creative powerhouses (along with Avi Issacharoff) of three seasons and a fourth forthcoming of Fauda, about the best depiction I've ever seen of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, viewed through the eyes of an Israeli undercover unit, in which Raz plays Doron, and therein stars in the series as well.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Criminal
