tv review

Reviewing insightful and thought provoking science fiction TV and technology.

Review of 'Emergence' 1.6
Emergence checked in with another strong episode — 1.6 — and brought us to two surprising revelations. Both concern Kindred.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' Season 4
I've been saying ever since Trump began running for President with his anti-immigration polices that The Man in the High Castle and its alternate reality of literally Nazi America had special relevance to the reality in which we now all reside, in which the Allies not the Axis won the Second World War. In the final season of this extraordinary adaptation of Philip K. Dick's extraordinary 1962 novel, immigration plays a major role in the story, especially in the very last scene of the series.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Emergence' 1.5
With last night's episode 1.5 of Emergence, Piper has moved from the category of someone with superpowers to Supergirl. That's because she clearly has more than one incredible superpower.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Emergence' 1.3
A revelatory episode 1.3 of Emergence last night, in which we learn that definitely robots and maybe androids are involved in this series.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Emergence' 1.2
A good second episode of Emergence last week, in which the main action are the bad guys, or superior people, or people from the future, or whoever; they are trying to clean up all traces of what happened the previous week.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Emergence' 1.1
Emergence, which debuted on ABC last week, is another example of a recently well-worn theme back on network television yet again: a child or teenager who mysteriously appears, and turns out to have some kind of superpower.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The I-Land'
I was going to entitle this review of The I-Land on Netflix, "Lost Opportunity." You know, that ABC series Lost, which had an excellent beginning, an absolutely out-of-the-ballpark brilliant third and fourth season, and then took a turn very much for the worse, with one of the worst series finales ever on television? Except ...
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Rook' Season 1 Finale
The Rook Season 1 finale, just on last night, was an excellent, brilliant episode on all kinds of levels, including Gestalt in unified attack action again, and Myfanwy getting the better of the Russian guy who looked like Putin.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Rook' 1.7
A great, almost-all explained penultimate-of-the-season episode 1.7 of The Rook last night, in which we learn how Myfanwy knew she was going to lose her memory, and in turn why she wrote that note and left other information for her future amnesiac self, and how specifically she got into that position with no memory on the bridge, surrounded by a bunch of dead guys.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
She-Ra Is the Best New 'Star Wars'
For whatever reason, Netflix has consistently put out quality cartoon reboots of 80s properties; Voltron, Castlevania, Carmen Sandiego. But the one that I am constantly surprised by just how genuinely good it is, is She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. This show is not only a great science-fantasy show, but it’s giving me the fix I need that I should be getting from Disney’s Star Wars sequels.
By Danny Duff6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Rook' 1.6
Myfanwy meets her sister in The Rook 1.6 -- assuming she is her sister, real family. This in contrast to Checquy, who act as if they're her family. Checquy is certainly as dysfunctional as many families, we'll give them that. (I like how each of the Checquy pronounces their name slightly differently, you notice that?)
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Years and Years' 1.6
Years and Years had an especially powerful finale last week. In part because it was, in effect, a two-part finale. In part because each part was so strong.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism