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 'Humans' Season 3 Final Three Episodes
I decided to review the final three episodes of Humans, Season 3, as a single piece, since they're even more closely connected than episodes usually are in this fine series. The upshot of these episodes, and a great foundation for a fourth season, is that it's possible to have a true synch-human hybrid—true, that is, and assuming I'm understanding this correctly, on the genetic level.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of '12 Monkeys' Finale
Well, I'm a sucker for happy endings, and I would never have forgiven 12 Monkeys if ended with Cole and Cassie apart, or dead—which indeed is the worst kind of apart—and I'm very glad I don't have to. That is, forgive 12 Monkeys. Because ... [spoilers ahead]
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Paul McCartney's Two New Songs
I heard a new song by Paul McCartney earlier today on Sirius XM's The Beatles Channel—"Come On to Me"—and liked it enough that I just listened to it again on iHeart Radio, along with another new McCartney song, "I Don't Know," which I like even more. You can hear both along with the videos and lyrics over here.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Beat
Review of 'Humans' 3.5
On the eve of the Fourth of July in America earlier this week, it was good to see the synths in Humans 4.5 making progress towards independence, even though the show has been moved from 10 PM to the less desirable 11 PM hour by AMC, thank you.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of '12 Monkeys' 4-7.9
I've been saying for years—well, since 1995, when Terry Gilliam's movie, starring Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe first came out—that 12 Monkeys (based on the 1962 short, La Jetée) is the best time-travel movie ever made. This gave the television series, which came out in 2015 and I've been reviewing ever since, a lot to live up to. Up until tonight's penultimate three episodes (4.7-9), the best it did was sidestep the movie, and tell us other time-travel stories. Especially in this final season, some of these stories were as good, in their own ways, as the movie.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of '12 Monkeys' 4.4-6
12 Monkeys 4.4-6, which I saw last night, was so good on so many levels that I wanted to let it simmer, at least overnight, before posting a review. At this point, and on the basis of both these three and the first episodes of this final season, 12 Monkeys is well on the way to cementing itself as the best—most thoughtful and at the same time entertaining and exciting—time-travel series ever on television.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Humans' 3.3
Humans, the excellent British series about sentient androids a.k.a synths struggling to be treated like human beings in a racist society—i.e., a society that puts the human race above other sentient beings—has an important, especially disturbing relevance to the treatment of people seeking refugee status at our southern border. The subject matter of Humans would always make it disturbing, but it's never been less escapist and more relevant to what we see on television news these days, in which Trump and his minions have severely damaged the American ideal like no other President in my lifetime, exceeding by a long way any runner-up, which I guess would be Nixon and Watergate.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Westworld' 2.9
It's a measure of how good an episode I'm reviewing is, that more than one apt title for the review springs to mind. That was eminently the case with Westworld 2.9 last night, which tied up at least a few powerful loose ends while introducing others. All in all, it stands as one of the top two or three episodes of the entire two-season series so far.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of '12 Monkeys' 4.1-3
12 Monkeys was back last night for its 4th and concluding season on the SyFy Channel with three episodes (there will be three more Friday evenings of episodes). If these first three are any indication, we're in a for real treat in the weeks ahead. These three were not only intellectually daunting, like everything in the previous seasons, but about as tight and logically explicable as any I've seen in a series which delights in and seriously pokes every paradox it can, rather than shies away from or paper's over them. Since paradox is the ever-present, silent middle name of time travel, probing them, in a way that makes sense, is the best you can do in a story like this. And since time travel is my favorite genre, this means that what 12 Monkeys did last night is top-notch television of any kind.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
