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)
Filter by community
Review of '3 Body Problem' Season One
I haven't read the novel by Liu Cixin and its sequels, and I didn't read much about the series because I wanted to be surprised. I'd say the first season of 3 Body Problem was superb -- a powerful mix of thought-provoking, stunning action, and heartbreaking human stories, all in support of a story of a life-threatening interstellar intelligent species, the San-Ti, who have been in contact with our planet for more than 50 years and now are approaching us, some 400 years away from arriving, which may mean the end of our species. And there was a wise and funny joke about Einstein and God which I hadn't heard before.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'True Detective' 4.1-4.3
True Detective is back with its fourth season. So far, as of the first three episodes, it's quite good. Not as brilliant as the first season, which was a masterpiece, but at least as good as the second and third seasons, each in their own way memorable. And this fourth season has something which is always especially appealing to me, a touch of science fiction.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'For All Mankind' 4.9-4.10
"Without competition, there is no progress," Sergei says to Margot and Aleina, near the beginning of Episode 4.9 of For All Mankind, on Apple TV+. Later, he suggests that he and Margot leave the US and go to Brazil, which already has started an impressive space program (a nice alternate history touch). And ...
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Who Killed JFK' Episodes 9-10
Episode 9 of the Who Killed JFK? podcast with Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien is devoted to Jack Ruby (born Jacob Rubenstein), the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live television two days after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Tetrads for History and Alternate History
Marshall McLuhan's tetrad is a useful tool for discovering and understanding how human activities, especially media, are connected to one another. It maps a four-part relationship that happens in any human endeavor. That activity AMPLIFIES or ENHANCES an aspect or certain aspects of human life; as it does this, it OBSOLESCES an activity that had previously been amplified; and the human endeavor also RETRIEVES an activity that had previously been obsolesced or pushed off center stage; and the amplified activity REVERSES or FLIPS INTO a new activity, at once very different from but closely related to what was amplified.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in History
Review of 'For All Mankind' 4.3-4.5
So, at this point in the story, episodes 4.3-4.4 of For All Mankind, Gorbachev didn't make it too far into the 21st century. He's been forcibly replaced in the Soviet Union by Korzhenko, a hardliner. So my hope that Putin would not come to power was fulfilled only by one fascist leader replaced by another, or a Putin coming to power with just a different name.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Who Killed JFK?' Episodes 7-8
Given the depth of the pain I and everyone I know felt about the assassination of JFK in November 1963, it's hard to fathom how many different people fervently wanted it. The seventh episode of the Who Killed JFK podcast with Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien makes the case for three groups, in particular: the CIA, Cuban exiles, and the Mafia.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'The Way Home' Season 1
So, I got the email from TVLine yesterday, alerting me to Rebecca Iannucci's 10 Hidden Gems You May Have Missed From This Year’s TV, and was delighted to find The Way Home on the Hallmark Channel on the list of ten, starting with this comment, "Scoff at a Hallmark Channel series’ inclusion on this list if you must, but we were quickly captivated by this time travel drama".
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Geeks
