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 'The Undoing' Finale
So the ending of The Undoing turned out to be one grand hiding in plain site situation: Jonathan, who had been the first suspect, and whom so much of the previous narrative suggested was too obvious to be the killer -- and with more than a few plausible other suspects around, not convincing but not implausible --turns out to be the killer, after all.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Tiger King'
“The 'content' of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind,” Marshall McLuhan famously declared in Understanding Media back in 1964. The content of Tiger King, the runaway global hit documentary on Netflix, are the tigers and other animals in Joe Exotic's Oklahoma zoo, thrown pieces of meat, juicy and otherwise (some is expired meat from supermarkets). But the deeper story, underlying the meat, is Joe Exotic's unquenchable thirst for fame, relentlessly pursued through social media. And in the irony of ironies, he eventually obtained that fame, along with a prison sentence of 22 years for attempted homicide of an animal activist and mistreatment of animals.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Dylan's Murder Most Foul
I didn't think about November 22, 1963 much yesterday, as I usually do on one of the worst anniversaries of my and maybe your lifetime, because I was busy with all kinds of other things, including doing a little virtual concert at Philcon (a science fiction convention) of songs from my new album, Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, my first new album in almost 50 years.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Beat
Review of 'The Undoing' 1.5
Well, the algorithm and the waiter were by no means the most important features of The Undoing 1.5, on HBO last night, but I didn't want to give away the main thing, actually two main things, in the subtitle, and the algorithm and the waiter were nice touches. Finding that Jonathan's attorney uses Amazon-level algorithms to get the crucial characteristics of the jurors, that was cool. (And Haley's one one outstanding lawyer, isn't she?) And the waiter constantly interrupting the meal that Jonathan, Grace, and Henry were trying to have in the restaurant -- that was a metaphor for this whole little series, being interrupted by all kinds of things, so that after five episodes, we still can't be sure whodunnit.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
The Undoing 1.1-1.4
David Kelley's The Undoing mini-series debuted with a star-studded cast on HBO late last month. I mean, with Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser a psychologist and Hugh Grant as her husband Jonathan Fraser an oncologist on the posh side of New York City, and a murder and a missing person, we can just stop there and how can you go wrong, right? You can't. The first episode was sleek and blockbuster powerful, an East Coast analog in many ways of Kelley's California Big Little Lies, which was pretty hot, suspenseful stuff, too, over two seasons.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Borat 2 (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm)'
My wife and I just saw Borat 2 aka Borat Subsequent Moviefilm on Amazon Prime Video. As with the first Borat movie in 2006, it was at turns and sometimes all together (and altogether) hilarious, horrifying, over the top, sobering, and vulgar. And there's the already infamous Rudy Giuliani scene near the end.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in The Swamp
Review of 'The Trial of the Chicago Seven'
My wife and I saw The Trial of the Chicago Seven on Netflix on Saturday. Having lived through the real trial of the Chicago Seven (originally Eight) in 1969-1970, we thought there was a little too much fiction in this docu-drama to be 100% successful and effective. Nonetheless, it was powerful viewing.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in The Swamp
Running Scared
I was not in the slightest surprised to just hear this news: “I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” Trump told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo... “I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That’s not what debating’s all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate — it’s ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want.”
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in The Swamp
Review of 'Utopia'
Just what we needed, right? A series about a virus that's spreading quickly from city to city -- and killing children no less? And the plot hinges on a hyped vaccine that may not be effective at all? So, yeah, Utopia on Amazon Prime is all of that and more, and at the worst possible time. But maybe at the best possible time, because I found first season of this series really enjoyable and binge-watched all eight of its episodes yesterday.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Horror
Review of 'Raised by Wolves' 1.8-10
The story brought vividly home in Raised by Wolves 1.8 and 1.9, that androids can bear biological children, a hybrid of some sort of android and human, lifts this series into territory not even explored in a series as sophisticated as Westworld. Of course, Westworld takes place on Earth, with a science a lot earlier in its development than what we see in Raised by Wolves, so I'm not criticizing Westworld on this account as much as noting the difference. And that difference is about as profound as it gets.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Futurism
