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 Americans' 6.6
In The Americans 6.6, Jackson — a new mark Elizabeth is working on, as a conduit to Senator Sam Nunn (of earlier Watergate fame, in case the name sounds familiar) — anyway, Jackson says Rififi (a 1955 French movie), where Elizabeth first contrives to meet him, is the best heist movie ever made. I agree! I felt that way when I saw it as a kid in the late 1950s at a beat-up old movie theater (I think the Globe, on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx), and the movie has stayed with me to this day. Jackson was not only correct in the 1980s when he said that to Elizabeth, his appraisal is true today. The very word, "Rififi," said sotto voce in the movie, gets me in the mood for any great foreign heist movie. So far, Jackson's role hasn't materialized in The Americans, but I just wanted to make that point about Rififi.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in The Swamp
Review of 'Timeless' 2.7
Timeless is nicely mixing it up this session, putting villains on the team with our heroes, where they so far have performed remarkably well. Flynn is now almost admired, if not yet quite trusted by everyone except Wyatt, and in 2.7, Emma joins our team.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Westworld' 2.2
One of my favorite of Marshall McLuhan’s concepts (he called them “probes”) for exploring our relationship with media is “Narcissus Narcosis”: the Greek youth Narcissus was so in love with his own reflection that all he wanted to do all was stare at in a lake, wanting to reach out and embrace it, having no idea it was him. This, McLuhan noted in Understanding Media back in 1964, was us, we humans, looking at television. And this is what William said to young Delores last night in the sparkling city in episode 2.2 of Westworld: “You’re not even a thing, you’re a reflection” of me—i.e. William—who goes on to note that everyone loves their reflections. Clearly William, i.e. the writers of Westworld, know their McLuhan.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Americans' 6.5
The common denominator in last night’s episode 6.5 of The Americans, another perfectly powerful episode, was...sex. It not only was the subject of the delightfully drunken conversation between Claudia, Elizabeth, and Paige. Sex also motivated two major developments in the story. First, Elizabeth sleeps with Philip as prelude to persuading him to set up Kimmy to be jailed in Bulgaria. And then Philip in turn sleeps with Kimmy to convince her to leave Greece to meet him, so that Elizabeth’s plan to get Kimny in a Bulgarian jail as a way of getting leverage on her CIA father can happen.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in The Swamp
Review of 'The Crossing' 1.4
Well, episode 1.4 of The Crossing was moving along pretty predictably until about a few minutes to the end, when "Hofstra" was mentioned, and everything suddenly changed for the better — for the narrative, if not for one of the major characters.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Timeless' 2.6
As has been hinted at and gradually gaining momentum—ironically, after Wyatt was re-united with Jessica, ironically after he and Lucy had made love for the first time—Lucy and Flynn finally get together at the end of Timeless 2.6. Or, at very least, Lucy comes into Flynn's room at night with a nice bottle of vodka. Their being together of course changes everything, and it will be fun to see in the weeks ahead how this plays out.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Westworld' 2.1
Amidst the many stunning wonders of the return of Westworld on HBO with episode 2.1, beginning with Bernard's dissing of Freud (telling Delores that "dreams are noise" and she should ignore them), through Delores's declaration of war on our human world to Teddy, concluding with what Bernard sees and starts to learn in that sea—what struck me as at least partially the most significant and emblematic is Maeve's search for her daughter.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Americans' 6.4
The Americans 6.4 last night was about as stark as this series gets—which is to say dire, for everyone concerned. It's hard not to feel at least a little bad even for Elizabeth—hard because she surely deserves all that befalls her, given all the people she's played and murdered for her cause. But in the bed there with Philip, telling him she's tired all the time—it's hard not feel something for her.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in The Swamp
Review of 'The Crossing' 1.3
With episode 1.3, it's clear that The Crossing not only has some elements of Lost and FlashForward, but also of Stephen King's The Dome — probably why King, on Twitter, said the first five minutes of The Crossing were "jaw-dropping". Which it was.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Timeless' 2.5
Well, I'll just come right out with it and say that Timeless 2.5 was easily the finest episode of the series so far —across one and a half seasons -- and that's because the episode was one of the best JFK and time-travel narratives in any medium, page or screen, of any length that I've seen.
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Futurism
