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 'Game of Thrones' 8.1
A very fitting beginning of the end for Game of Thrones tonight—8.1, first episode of the final season—in which nearly every crucial, living human player in the grand narrative is on hand. Not altogether in terms of being truly united against the menace from the north, but at least in evidence in one or another scene or conversation or plot or intense worry.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'The Orville' 2.12
Another powerful episode of The Orville last night—2.11—which follows the two-part "Identity" episodes (rebroadcast the past two weeks) even better than did the episode that followed the first showing of "Identity," though that episode was excellent, too.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'IO'
IO's a quiet gem of a movie—on Netflix—which reverses the usual pattern of humans embarking out into space, to the edges of our solar system and to neighboring star systems such as Alpha Centauri, so humanity can survive a dying Earth. I'm vividly in favor of humans going out into space—see Touching the Face of the Cosmos—but not at the expense of our planet. I want to see humanity thrive both on our planet and off it in the universe beyond.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Mirage'
A sad-sweet glistening star of a time travel movie—from Spain—on Netflix. Although Mirage doesn't break any new ground in time travel, it offers an endearingly memorable story, and takes its place as a vivid parable on the dangers of changing the past.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Case Against Adnan Syed' 1
The Case Against Adnan Syed debuted last night on HB0, the first in a four-episode documentary about the murder of Hae Min Lee on January 13, 1999, for which Syed was convicted. The podcast Serial in 2014 generated enormous international interest about this case, and the possibility that Syed was not the killer. Presumably at least in part as a result of this and new evidence brought to light, the path to a new trial was set for Syed in July 2016 by a Maryland Court of Special Appeals. That court indeed ordered a new trial in March 2018. But a higher Maryland Court of Appeals overturned that order on March 8, 2019—or, amazingly, just two days before the premiere of the HBO series. You just can't make this stuff up.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'The Orville' 2.10
Well, critics are waking up, after the two-part episode last week and the week before, about how good and important The Orville is. Will Harris of The Verge observed that "With the two-part episode 'Identity,' The Orville has matured into serious science fiction." I actually thought the series was born serious science fiction—that is, in its very first episode—but, hey, welcome to the club.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
