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 'Rememory'
I finally saw Rememory on Amazon Prime. Or maybe I saw it a while ago, but forgot to review it. As Todd, a middling-minor character in the movie aptly notes, "the mind forgets things for a reason." No, Rememory wasn't that bad, but it wasn't as good as it should have been either.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Orville' 2.8
The idea of a species of AI—robots (mechanistic), androids (flesh and blood), what have you—rebelling against, overthrowing, massacring their human, or biological creators is at least as old as Karel Čapek's 1922 R.U.R. Against all odds, The Orville picked up that theme with the lovable Isaac and his polished, gleaming "people" on Kaylon in last night's episode 2.8.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Counterpart' 2.10
An excellent season two finale of Counterpart last night—which is the series finale as far as Starz is concerned—but I'm expecting it won't be that because Counterpart will show up and continue on another venue, but more of that at the end of this review.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Orville' 2.7
A perfect Orville —2.7—last night for Valentine's Day, which explains why The Orville didn't have a new episode last week. The powers that be wanted to make sure this episode aired on Valentine's Day. And they were right. Love was in the air for Ed and Kelly—or the rekindling of the continuation of their love—and for Talia and a brilliant Moclan engineer, Locar, who comes aboard to refit the ship with a new deflector system. "Deflectors," the title of the episode, works well, since there are all kinds of psychological deflectors, in addition to the physical, at play in this story.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Project Blue Book' 1.6
My favorite part of Project Blue Book 1.6 last night—and also likely to have some beneficial consequences for Hynek's investigation—is his decision to bring his wife Mimi into his investigations of extraterrestrial visitations, so the two of them are a "team."
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Project Blue Book' 1.5
A taut, tight episode 1.5 of Project Blue Book—may be my favorite so far—in which Hynek and Quinn chase down numbers and radio broadcasts and the mysterious Fuller, who meets his end by self-immolation. Harding—more about the General below—thinks someone set off the kill switch in Fuller's head. We know that Hynek did—unintentionally—by showing Fuller the diagram.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists'
Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists, the new documentary on HBO, is lots of things. A paean to an age of journalism (Breslin would say "reporting," as this movie tells us) which is either gone or transmuted into another form, depending upon whom you listen to. A story of New York City, which, also, is either dead or transformed. But definitely a story of two uniquely gifted writers who indeed worked on a deadline, the deadline of timely reporting (i.e., at most, last hour's or yesterday's news, not last week's).
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in The Swamp
