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.
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Review of 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' 2.1-2.5
Great to see Star Trek: Strange New Worlds back with its second season, even if it has too little of Pike, who may be becoming my favorite Star Trek captain. I should add, Strange New Worlds is already my favorite new Star Trek series.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Why the Final Beatles Record via AI is Not So Revolutionary
Everybody's talking about Paul McCartney's comment in a BBC interview that AI was used in the creation of the "last" Beatles record, based on a demo John Lennon made in the 1970s, and already worked on by the surviving Beatles -- Paul, George, and Ringo -- in the 1990s, when The Beatles released two other Lennon demos they recrafted, "Real Love" and "Free As A Bird". I'm really looking forward to this new record, to be released later this year, but I expect it won't be very much different in production and outcome than any other Beatles recordings released in the past few years, including the beautiful things Peter Jackson did to the Beatles recordings from their 1969 rooftop concert and a little before in Jackson's 2021 documentary, "The Beatles: Get Back."
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Beat
Review of 'Fatal Attraction' (2023, the TV series), Season One
Fatal Attraction -- the new 2023 series -- finished its 8-episode first season on Paramount this past Sunday. Yes, it's the same story as the 1987 stunner of a movie, retold and refigured in all kinds of significant and even profound ways, and I think it largely succeeded.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Citadel' 1.3-1.6
So, I said in my review of The Diplomat that it had elements of James Bond. Citadel, an outright spy thriller, set in the future, of course has elements of Bond, too. And watching the third episode, I was struck by the vibe of Star Wars it conveys, too: Citadel which fell, with just a few disparate agents left, is a lot like the Jedi, and the few of them that remained in the darkest days of the fall and the rise of the Force.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of Silo 1.4-1.5
The excellent episode 1.4 of Silo up on Apple TV+ last week was entitled "Truth," no doubt after the word inscribed on the back of Holston's sheriff badge, now in the possession of Juliet. But there wasn't much truth revealed in this episode, as far as I could see, and hence no spoiler warning immediately after this paragraph. But the episode was still a pleasure to see, and my guess is some of what we saw will be crucial further on in the series.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Silo' 1.1-1.3
Just saw the first three episodes of Silo on Apple TV+, show-run by Graham Yost, whose previous impressive credits include The Americans, Sneaky Pete, and Justified, based on the Wool series of novels by Hugh Howey that I haven't read. These first three episodes bear some resemblance to most post-apocalypse stories, and even more to Apple TV+''s much lauded Severance. But Silo has a story and an ambience all its own, and it looks to be on its way to a top-notch science fiction series.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of Pretty Much the Final Episode of 'Picard'
Well, I stopped reviewing Picard Season 3 after the 3rd episode of that season in March. Why? A combination of work on the radio play of my alternate history story about The Beatles, "It's Real Life" ... and, truthfully, I wasn't finding this final season all too captivating. But I've watched the rest of it in the past few days, and I thought the final four episodes were pure gold. Here's why:
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Diplomat'
My wife and I just binged the first season of The Diplomat and loved it. [Spoilers ahead ... ] To begin with, it seemed like for most of the first episode -- in fact, until to the very end of that episode -- we were watching an updated, 2023-rendition of West Wing, on a more global scale. Which would have been very welcome. But the news at the end of this first episode made The Diplomat much more than that. Almost a James Bond, without the central character being an MI6 agent with a license to kill. So think The West Wing in politics, and Bond in terms of intrigue bringing the world to the edge of nuclear war, and that's even more welcome than just an updated West Wing. More welcome, that is, as fiction on the screen, not of course as reality.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'The Last of Us' 1.9
The Hollywood Reporter tells us that as of last night's season finale, The Last of Us surpassed House of the Dragon in "full season viewers," and I'm not the least bit surprised. House of the Dragon was superb. The Last of Us was something else, something more, and well, the season one finale on HBO Max last night was the best episode in the series.
By Paul Levinson3 years ago in Futurism
