tv review
Reviewing insightful and thought provoking science fiction TV and technology.
Review of 'Foundation' 1.9
Well, quite a penultimate first season Foundation episode -- 1.9 -- which as I think about what I just finished watching, I'd say is the best episode so far in this series. I said that about episode 1.7, didn't I? Does this mean that I think 1.9 is therefore better than 1.7? No. I think they're equally the best at this point. Is that a problem? Not in a story in which triplicate clones of different ages are as much or even more of the riveting story than is the adaptation of Asimov's original tales. So I'll stick with the equal bests, separately aged, and see if the season finale makes the analogy even better with a triple equal.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.7
Well, the most important thing that happened in La Brea 1.7 happened at the very beginning: we heard again that the sinkholes not only exist in different places but different times. There was one back in the Civil War, which lead to the chest of gold going back 12,000 years. We already knew that some people from a few years ago went back to that past. But the Civil War origin shows that these gateways to the past exist throughout history.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Invasion' 1.5
I thought the single most impressive thing in Invasion 1.5, up on Apple TV+ yesterday, was that little creepy crawly thing Aneesha took out of the guy on that operating table. That saved his life, the other doctor told her. And taking it out likely did. But of far greater long-range consequence is that crawly thing is evidence of interstellar life. Whether it's an offspring of the invaders, or some kind of parasite planted in the poor guy on the table ... well, that's very significant indeed, with lots of story to tell there.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Foundation' 1.8
A towering, slowly moving like colossi in motion, powerful episode 1.8 of Foundation just up on Apple TV+, with new significant changes from Isaac Asimov's writing, and also replete with surprises even in the parts of this narration that were not in the original stories that appeared nearly a century ago.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.6
One of my favorite parts of La Brea is the cross-temporal communication between the people 12,000 years in the past and in present Los Angeles. Last week, Eve in the past sent a message in a bottle to Gavin in the present. This week, Gavin in the present returns the favor and sends a message in a video back to Eve in the past.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.5
A good La Brea 1.5 last week, with the best at the end with the letter. (Queue up the Box Tops' "The Letter".) The letter -- from Eve -- traveled from the past to the present the hard way, second by second, in a bottle, which could also be considered the natural way. And it (of course) arrived at a most propitious time: the tear in the sky (as in rip, but it's emotionally also a teardrop from an eye) is closing. Dr. Rebecca Aldridge carefully explains to Gavin that this could be his last chance to rescue his family from the past.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
The Foundation Trilogy Is Made Into a TV Series That Appreciates Its Intricacy for the First Time.
Foundation was originally a collection of short stories published in "Astounding Science Fiction" magazine in the 1940s. It eventually became a trilogy of books written in the 1950s, with Asimov intending to illustrate the fall of some great future culture.
By Alejandro Betancourt4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Invasion' 1.1-3
This has been a great week for science fiction on the screen. An excellent episode of Foundation, an outstanding first half of a new Dune movie and ... I decided to see if I could get a trifecta by watching a brand new science fiction series. Like Foundation, Invasion is on AppleTV+, which put up the first three episodes of this ambitious series on Friday. It had a lot to contend with, debuting just as Foundation was getting into really high gear, when Dune was making a justified name for itself the moment it opened. And ... Invasion succeeded.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Foundation' 1.6
Well, the three-hour first part of the Dune movie debuted on HBO Max last night, but of course I watched the latest episode of Foundation on Apple TV+ first. And I was greeted by something straight out of Dune -- interstellar travel via the folding of space. In Dune this is done by members of the Space Guild. In Foundation, the folding is done by Spacers, a nod to Asimov's work, in which people who went to space, in the original robot novels, were Spacers.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'La Brea' 1.4
Well, I predicted last week that there was more than one sinkhole than just the one in La Brea and Gavin's special vision would show him that Levi was alive after his plane seemed to burn up in the La Brea sinkhole, and I was right. I was also figuring that La Brea would continue to be a series worth watching, and I was right about that, too.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
