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Hillary Spokesman Howard Wolfson is the One Like Kenneth Starr - not Barack
2008-03-07 02:43:00
You've no doubt already heard about this, but just in case you haven't, here is what Hillary Clinton 's spokesman Howard Wolfson had to say about Barack Obama today: "I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president."Hillary Clinton had no comment about her spokesman's remark.Wolfson's comment is supposed to suggest, what, that Barack Obama's rather mild criticism of Hillary Clinton - certainly milder than Hillary Clinton's criticism of him - is analogous or in some sense similar to Special Prosecutor's Kenneth Starr's brutal investigation and hounding of Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky escapade?The only thing the two situations have in common - the current primary campaigns and the Lewinsky scandal - is that they both concern a Clinton.Indeed, I said back when the Lewinsky scandal broke that what Bill Clinton did in his private activities was nobody's business, and he should not have been obligated to answ...

The Impact of Saturday Night Live on Last Night's Election Results
2008-03-06 03:23:00
I'm quoted twice in this savvy Hollywood Reporter article by Paul Gough, which just went live - along with CNN political analyst Bill Schneider and John Edwards campaign manager Joe Trippi.listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Saturday Night Live , Tube , Results , Night , Election

A Proposal for the Obama and Clinton Campaigns
2008-03-05 06:15:00
Well, Hillary Clinton won Ohio and Rhode Island tonight, Barack Obama won Vermont, and Hillary Clinton won by small margin in Texas. It is nonetheless clear that (a) Obama still has a substantial, likely insurmountable lead in elected delegates and (b) Clinton will redouble her efforts in the race.The speeches given by the two candidates to their supporters were as expected: Obama's was far more inspiring, but Clinton's was fine.Two things I did not like in the Clinton speech were (1) her inclusion of Michigan and Florida in the tally of states she had won (especially egregious in the case of Michigan, where Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot), and (2) her reference to the 3 o'clock in the morning ad which her campaign is apparently very proud of. From my perspective, having studied the history of propaganda, that ad ranks as one of worst panderings to public fears (right up there with Tony Schwartz's atom bomb ad on behalf of LBJ in 1964).And Obama again offered his view...
More About: Proposal , Cain

Barack Obama and 24
2008-03-04 22:46:00
Have David Palmer and Wayne Palmer - two powerful, admirable, African-American Presidents on Fox's 24 - contributed to Barack Obama 's success as the first African-American candidate with a real chance to win the White House?Win, lose, or draw in the important primaries tonight, Obama has a already made an undeniably extraordinary impact. I happen to think (and hope) he is the next President, but even if he doesn't get there, his candidacy has already changed American Presidential politics forever, and for the better.As a professor and author of books about popular culture and its impact, I take a keen interest in the way of our media fiction influences our real politics. I've already blogged here about the importance of the Obama Girl videos in the early days of Barack Obama's campaign.As I also reported here last July, Obama Girl producer Ben Relles told my class at Fordham University that the original "I've Got a Crush on Obama" song was "I've Got a Crush on Jack Bauer". ...

The Sarah Connor Chronicles 8-9: Terminate with Puzzles, Surprises, and Sou
2008-03-04 04:40:00
The two-hour season (and I hope not series) finale of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox tonight was about as offbeat yet compelling an ending as ever I recall seeing on television. I could speculate about why the producers did it that way - but I think what happened on the television screen, which was pretty extraordinary in a low key way, is much more important than why it was made that way.Agent James Ellison finally gets the FBI to take out Cromartie. Unsurprisingly, the terminator totally devastates the team - but lets Ellison live. Why? Because Ellison will play some future part in the emergence and success of Skynet... Cameron turns out to be good, through and through. She kept the terminator part because it contained information that could help save John. She risks her own cyber brain so it can be plugged into the city's traffic control system. As Derek rightly remarks, she could certainly have used that access to do something bad - but she does not.But she is appar...
More About: Sarah Connor , Puzzles

The Wire Season 5 Episode 9: Cold, Killer Sweetheart
2008-03-03 02:28:00
And now there's just one - one episode left in this fine, fine finale season of what in many many ways is the finest series ever to be on television. One of the brightest parts of our new golden age of television.This was Michael's show. He has heart, but he's also learned a lot about the way of killing. He had good instructors in the bloody craft. Chris Partlow and Snoop. You wouldn't want to run into them angry at you, or on some business concerning you, in any alley. For that matter, you wouldn't want to run into them if they were looking for you on any grand boulevard in broad daylight.I don't know who has been more deadly- yeah, I do, it would be Snoop. She had no fear, no connection to anyone or anything except her deadly job. (Chris at least has a family.) These two, Marlo's muscle, were somehow more deadly than the worst that the Barksdale crew could muster.But they weren't enough to get Omar - for the first time in their story, they faltered. It took a boy...
More About: Episode , Cold , Season , Killer , Season 5

In Treatment 5: Paul's Greatest Strength
2008-03-03 00:33:00
A great week 5 of In Treatment on HBO, with things getting worse for almost everyone - but that's what makes a serial therapy story top-notch...Laura's as beautiful and manipulative and needy and insightful - about herself and Paul - as ever, and, yeah, she says she's leaving treatment. This of course would be just what Paul should want, if he didn't love her. But of course he does love her, and that's precisely why he desperately doesn't want her out of his life, professional or otherwise, even though he should want her out of his life, because as Gina has made crystal clear and Paul knows full well, he can never sleep with Laura, let alone be romantically involved, at least according to the applicable canon of ethics...But, not to worry too much about this vicious circle, we all know Laura will not be out of Paul's life.Laura says she's through with Alex, but he may not be through with her, and Alex has one of his best episodes (I can't recall which one wasn't his best...
More About: Greatest , In Treatment

MySpace Poet Lance Strate Writes Verses for Sierra Waters
2008-03-02 10:06:00
MySpace poet Lance Strate has written verses for time traveller Sierra Waters ... I sent it to one of her listening posts in 2042, and who knows if it will get through, but you can read it any time at A River Song for Sierra Waters...Sierra is really taking on a life of her own, with a Facebook group, a MySpace page, a Second Life life (see picture below), an appearance in an 18th century painting (see below), and now this poem...And, of course, there will be more Sierra adventures in Unburning Alexandria...You can read her story, known to me as of 2007, in The Plot to Save Socrates ... enjoy the first chapter, FREE!painting by Jean-Baptiste Régnault, 1785Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of S.listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Myspace , Poet

Lost 4.5: Desmond 1 and Desmond 2: The Exquisite Loops of Time Travel
2008-02-29 04:42:00
Time travel is a wonderful, exquisite, exasperating, paradoxical thing. It tugs at the very edges of our understanding. It is shimmering and fragile, and yet somehow embodies the most profoundly imaginable possibilities in the cosmos. It is exceedingly hard to do well - to tell a time travel story that doesn't flinch from the paradoxes, that embraces them, yet still tells us a story we can (mostly) understand.Journeyman on NBC last year rose to the occasion once, in its splendid episode before the finale. Journeyman was a time travel series.Lost was never really about time travel. But its Desmond story - a man who sees the future - certainly could have been a time travel story. I wrote in my reviews here last year that time travel might well explain what was going on with Desmond, and those he touched.Tonight, in Episode 5, Lost took that path - or, actually, made good that path which it had already been on its way to building, from the time Desmond unaccountably ran into Jack ...
More About: Travel , Time , Time Travel

Reading from Unburning Alexandria in the Artists Village in Second Life thi
2008-02-29 01:50:00
Reading from Unburning Alexandria in a Greek amphitheater in the Artists ' Village in Second Life another reading right on your computer! Sierra Waters rockin' the ancient world!Sunday, March 2, 200812:00pm - 1:00pm SLTArtists Village, Second Life The hits keep on coming! I've been getting such good response to my readings in Second Life - which you can attend right on your computer - that I decided to accept a invitation to do a reading this Sunday!It will be in a breathtaking virtual space - a Greek amphitheater in the Artists Village - in Second Life.... what better place to read a little more from my novel in progress, Unburning Alexandria - sequel to The Plot to Save Socrates...Sierra Waters rockin' the ancient world..If you already have a Second Life account, IM me at PaulLevinson Freenote, and I'll reply with a landmark to the reading.If you do not have an SL account, you can get one, for free, at secondlife.com - once you have an account, just do as above. You can use the ...
More About: Reading

Obama Shines in Ohio Debate, Clinton Shines And Whines to the Moderators
2008-02-27 04:51:00
Obama and Clinton both did well, once again, in their debate in Ohio on MSNBC tonight. As Obama indicated at the end, and has said before, both are far, far better than what the Republicans are offering with John McCain.What seemed to most distinguish Clinton from Obama tonight was also, once again, Clinton's occasional aggressiveness and one round of outright whining, in contrast to Obama's calm grace. This is something he first showed last week, and I thought then and now that it feels Presidential. He seems to be wearing the potential coat of the highest office very well.Hillary Clinton's carping came early in the debate, when she complained to moderators Brian Williams and Tim Russert that she's always asked questions first in the debates! This is supposed to be Presidential? What a petty point. I have to admit that I always like speaking first in public events, but, even if I did not, I would hardly complain about it in a national debate. And she topped it off with an...
More About: Debate , Obama

Links To Some of My True Confessions as a Writer...
2008-02-27 00:53:00
mixed in with some observations on the writerly life ...at ... Pillow Talk .... Book Pleasures ... Smoking Poet ... emonomeand I'll be back tonight after the webcast interview in the Knitwitch Zone at 8pm and the Obama-Clinton debate in Ohio starting at 9pm (all times Eastern)..listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Confessions , Links , True , Writer

I'll be interviewed tonight on web radio about books in the digital age - c
2008-02-26 19:41:00
I'll be interviewed tonight by the Knitwitch - an hour before the Presidential debate! 8pm Eastern...I'll be talking about writing and promotion of books in the digital age - you can call in and ask questions, or just listen.Here's the official announcement:You have been invited by Maia Whitaker to join a live Community Call.KnitWitch's SF/F Zone LIVE (Join in)Host: KnitWitch - podcast@knitwitchzone.comEpisode: EP#8 - Zone LIVE -Paul Levinson InterviewTime adjusted earlier than usual for Presidential Debate. A live open interview with science fiction author, Paul Levinson. We'll talk about promoting a book in the digital multimedia age, reading his novel The Plot To Save Socrates in Second Life and take questions from the live audience.Call ID: 28497Date: Tue, February 26, 2008Time: 08:00 - 8:50 PM ESTHow to participate - details at:Knitwitch ZoneMessage Maia at podcast@knitwitchzone.comor ask me any questions right here in the Comments...You can call in and just listen, or ask...
More About: Radio , Books , Tonight , Web Radio , Digital

The Sarah Connor Chronicles 7
2008-02-26 04:21:00
Episode 7 of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox tonight was mostly about the education of FBI agent James Ellison - well played by Richard T. Jones. He started the evening in possession of a Terminator hand and some doubts and suspicions. He ended being rescued by Sarah from a blaze - a blaze set by Sarah's psychiatrist from the mental institution in which she had been held in the 1990s. The psychiatrist - also well played by the perennial Bruce Davison - didn't believe her then. But he believes it now. So much that he doesn't trust Ellison with the hand, and wants to kill him and take the hand himself.But, he doesn't lend himself a hand at all - sorry - because Sarah frees Ellison, who puts the psych in a mental institution in a nice nasty bit of poetic justice. And Sarah takes the Terminator hand and destroys it.So where does that leave us? Ellison could think the shrink was just crazy all along, including when he was raving about the attack from the future. But a part...
More About: Sarah Connor

The Wire Season 5 Episode 8: Two Down
2008-02-25 03:31:00
Omar's dead. Live by the sword, die by the sword, and all of that.I have to admit that, although I first felt really bad about Omar getting killed, I felt a little less bad when I recalled that Omar killed Stringer, still my favorite all-time character on The Wire , played to the hilt by Idris Elba.It took two grown men, two fiercesome, stone killers, to kill Stringer - Omar and Brother Mouzone.It took just a boy to kill Omar. A boy with a gun. Says something about the power of a gun, doesn't it.The scene, and what happened after, was so powerful, it's hard to talk about anything else in this brilliant episode.But there were some good developments. Dukie - well played by Jermaine Crawford - is getting an honest job. He's helping a trashman. The antithesis of glamorous, but it's filled with hope, because it's honest. And speaking of honesty, Gus is beginning to get the better of Scott on his dishonesty at the paper - and that's heartening, too.Just two episodes left. Mc...
More About: Episode , Season , Season 5 , The Wire

In Treatment 4: Love and Death
2008-02-25 00:31:00
Love and death - libido and thanatos - the two primal urges that push and pull our lives - at least, according to Freud.And they both play a primal role in Week 4 of the continuing, powerful In Treatment on HBO...1. Sophie shows up for her session, casts and neck brace off, and looking good. She makes a breakthrough, and begins talking about what she was thinking before and during her accident- but interrupts this to go to the bathroom (this is apparently a time out that patients take, to regroup their energies). But Sophie uses it to ... swallow a whole bunch of sleeping pills. She collapses on the floor of Paul's office, and is rushed to the hospital (we learn in a later episode that Paul talks the hospital docs out of committing her).But - what is Paul doing stocking his bathroom medicine cabinet with sleeping pills - when he knows patients use that bathroom?We find out the explanation on Friday, when Paul tells Gina that since he's sleeping on the couch, he put the pills i...
More About: Love , Death , Melissa George , Sigmund Freud

Hillary Clinton Swings Wildly at Obama - Saturday Night Live Provides Comic
2008-02-24 09:08:00
It was predictable. When candidates get desperate, they make mountains out of molehills. They take huge offense at their opponents. They try to make federal cases out of any criticism they receive.Hillary Clinton is down to her last two primaries. Not only does she need to win in Texas and Ohio, she needs to win by very big margins to catch up to Obama .She spoke well in the debate on Tuesday, but so did Obama. The result was no stop in his surging popularity.So, it was predictable. Take a look at this video ...This is about, what? Obama's mailings say Clinton would require everyone to purchase health insurance? That's true, strictly speaking. And although it is also true that Clinton's plans would provide tax subsidies for people who can not afford to purchase this insurance, this does not erase Obama's point that everyone is nonetheless required to be part of this system, in contrast to his health plan.Does making that point make Obama guilty of using Karl Rove-like ta...
More About: Comic , Saturday Night Live , Barack Obama

Publication News about "Unburning Alexandria" - the sequel to The Plot to S
2008-02-23 21:50:00
Dear Infinite Regress Friends and Readers -Many of you have been asking me when the sequel to my novel, The Plot To Save Socrates , will be published. As some of you know, its title is Unburning Alexandria , and I'm currently about half-way through writing the novel (and really enjoying it!)For a variety of reasons, I still can't give you an exact date for publication of the novel.But, I'm pleased to tell you that Analog: Science Fiction and Fact magazine will be publishing the first two chapters of "Unburning Alexandria" as a standalone novelette, later this year.For those of you who have read The Plot To Save Socrates, you'll find some dangling questions at the end of the novel answered - as well, of course, as some new ones raised. (My original draft of The Plot to Save Socrates actually had some of this material in the final chapter.)I am especially pleased that this novelette will be published in Analog. I consider its editor, Stan Schmidt, one of the best editors in the busi...
More About: News , Sequel , Amato

Further Questions about Lost 4.4: Jack and Aaron, Kate and Sawyer
2008-02-22 21:37:00
Some further thoughts on last night's heart-wrenching, powerhouse episode of Lost :1. Jack and Aaron. I'm still thinking about what it could be about Aaron that keeps Jack from going back with Kate to her home, after she invites him. He clearly loves her deeply. If Aaron were Sawyer 's baby, then, ok, perhaps he wouldn't want the pain of coming into Kate's home - but even that is not really convincing. And if Aaron is indeed Claire's baby ...What could have happened with Claire and Jack and Aaron that would cause Jack to have that reaction? If Jack had been responsible for Claire's death, or leaving her on island, why would that keep him from getting together with Kate and Claire's baby?I guess we won't be able to answer these questions until we know, for sure, that the Aaron at the end of last night's show was Claire's baby Aaron on the island, just a few years later.And my wife makes an interesting point: since Jack and Claire are half-siblings - they both have the ...
More About: Questions

Lost 4.4: Kate and...
2008-02-22 05:59:00
Breathtaking, heartbreak in progress, tender, superb episode 4 of season 4 of Lost tonight...Kate 's episode ... We learned why she was not in prison when we last saw her in the future in the finale of Season 3 ... We learned that Jack loved her after they got off the island, and she loved Jack, but ... what was waiting for her at the end of Season 3 - "he" - is keeping Jack from going to her.But why? He is a little boy, maybe about three or four, and his name is Aaron. Claire's baby.What happened to Claire? Is she still on the island, involuntarily separated from her baby ... or she is one of the "eight" who survived the crash, but didn't survive getting back into the world at large? (We learn more about the cover story - eight are said to have survived the crash, but only six are alive in this future - the Oceanic Six.)Back on the island in the time before anyone other than Michael left, with Desmond and Sayid's helicopter now missing, we see Locke becoming more like Ben, g...

Obama Shines in CNN Debate with Clinton in Texas
2008-02-22 03:49:00
Hillary Clinton needed a knock-out punch in the debate tonight with Barack Obama on CNN in Texas . Not only did she not do that, but Barack Obama gave the best debate he has given so far, with lots of specifics about his plans, experience, and policies, ranging from his work on "googling government" legislation to make government spending and programs more transparent and available to public scrutiny, to the reasons why his opposition to our going to war in Iraq was so important, and so significant an indicator of the kind of judgment he would bring to his Presidency.Hillary Clinton spoke well and with specificity, as she usually does, and gave a moving final statement about how the crises in her life do not compare with those faced by many Americans. But her performance was also marred and diminished by cheap shots she took at Obama, including a line about Obama being for "hope we can xerox" - a reference to that nonsense about Obama using a line in his speech earlier used by Deva...
More About: Debate

New York Times Needs Named Sources for McCain Lobbyist Story
2008-02-21 19:12:00
I'm supporting Barack Obama for President, and wouldn't vote for John McCain if he was squeakiest clean candidate in history. But I'm also a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City, with a keen interest in wanting journalists to report with the highest ethical and professional standards to Americans, and I want those standards to apply to reporting about all candidates - whether I agree with their politics or not.With that goal as my guide, I have to say that The New York Times needs named, on-the-record sources for its front-page story about John McCain possibly having a romantic entanglement with a lobbyist that caused his aides in 2000 to take action. Unnamed sources have their role in journalism. But in a story of this magnitude, concerning someone who has all but received the Republican nomination for President, and whom the Times endorsed, the public interest requires real names of real sources. In their absence, the public is...
More About: Story

Just for fun - recommended for Obama campaign theme song
2008-02-21 07:03:00
Barack Obama 's going to be the next President of the United States. But the road to getting there is never easy, and this great song captures an emotion that I hope all of Obama's supporters are feeling and will be feeling in the months ahead...The lyrics are not 100% apt - Obama is hardly down - but, hey, they've been working great for a car commercial...Thanks to the Electric Light Orchestra - ELO - for this song and video. The song was released in 1981. Jeff Lynne's writing and singing are right up there with the Beatles.And the video itself is an excellent piece of work - with an uplifting message at the end about dreams merging into reality...listen to Light On Light Through podcast also iTunes Paul Levinson's books
More About: Barack Obama , Song , Campaign , Theme

Obama's Very Success Disproves His Critique of Television and Video Games
2008-02-20 21:50:00
I'm an Obama supporter, but, as I indicated here last night, that doesn't mean I agree with everything he says. One thing I disagreed with in his excellent speech last night after the Wisconsin primary was his swipe at television and video games, as activities we need to get our children away from - I said I thought television actually made a positive contribution to our lives, by giving more of us more useful information, and video games certainly don't do anyone any harm.One of my best students, Mike Plugh, wondered how I could say this, given the claims of critics such as Robert Putnam that watching television engenders civic apathy and lack of participation, and Neil Postman that watching television makes us rude, illiterate, uncivilized.There is no convincing statistical evidence that television has caused any of this - there was plenty of public apathy in Victorian times, it just wasn't surveyed - but there is a far better way of refuting Obama's point:Just look at the e...
More About: Video , Television , Video Games , Games , Barack Obama

Obama and McCain Win Handily; A Night of Three Speeches; And Chris Matthews
2008-02-20 05:39:00
Barack Obama and John McCain won the Wisconsin primaries handily tonight, with percentages in the high 50s, better than 15 percent over their rivals, at this late point in the vote count.This set in motion a night of three speeches, and a surprising (or maybe not so surprising) outburst from Chris Matthews :1. John McCain has got to be one of the worst speakers in national politics today, let alone running for President, and all but sure to get the nomination of his Republican party. He has a flat, sing-song delivery, which deflates the few decent lines his speech writers give him, including his best phrase tonight about Democrats wanting to take a "holiday from history".2. Hillary Clinton was in the process of giving a good if pedestrian speech in Ohio, avoiding any mention of or concession to Obama, when Obama took the stage in Houston to give his speech. MSNBC, CNN, and Fox all switched to Obama.Later in the evening, some of the Hillary's people thought that was rude, Obama's c...
More About: Night , Speeches

Two Pieces of Nonsense Yesterday about Bill Clinton and Barack Obama
2008-02-19 20:06:00
As primary voting is underway today in Wisconsin and Hawaii, I wanted to comment briefly on two campaign issues which received considerable media coverage yesterday.1. Bill Clinton 's heated lecture to a person at a Hillary Clinton rally waving a big anti-abortion sign has been cited - by Fox News and others - as a return to his self-centered aggressive campaigning, which may be hurting more than helping Hillary.My take on this: Nonsense - it's good and helpful for a former President to take a strong stand on this issue, whenever possible, whether or not he's campaigning for his wife. More specifically, it was not Clinton's aggressive style, or his insertion of himself into Hillary Clinton's campaign, that caused problems for Hillary a few weeks ago, and received criticism from lots of people, including me. It was the nature of Bill Clinton's attacks on Obama.And, clearly, a verbal exchange with an anti-abortion protester is not at all the same as an attack on Hillary Clint...
More About: Barack Obama , Barack

The Sarah Connor Chronicles 6
2008-02-19 07:51:00
The sixth episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox last night was the best yet, after the pilot...Derrick Reese - Kyle's brother - becomes a central player, more in the apocalyptic future that he and his brother are trying to prevent, than on the table in our present on which Charley is desperately trying to save him. (Last week, Cameron pronounced Derrick's injuries incapable of repair.)To the extent that Derrick is conscious on that table, he wants Cameron nowhere near him. They clearly have had some interaction in the future, and near the end of the episode we find what Derrick fears in Cameron: good Terminators sometimes go bad. Cameron says this to Derrick in the future ...This may be one of the most important revelations in the series so far: is it true that Cameron is not 100% trustworthy? At very least, she seems to be lying at the end of this episode about a little something she is holding in her hand.We also find out more about what Derrick's mission was: K...
More About: Sarah Connor

Back in Second Life Next Sunday - Public Reading of The Plot to Save Socrat
2008-02-19 01:25:00
Back by popular demand - I'll be reading from a section of my novel, The Plot to Save Socrates, never before heard in public...You can hear and see this on your computer, just by connecting to Second Life .The time of the reading - 3-4pm - is EASTERN TIME, this coming Sunday , Feb 24If you already have a Second Life account, just send me a note (or leave a comment right here), befriend me on Second Life (if we're not already friends), and I'll reply with a "landmark" which will bring you right to the reading.If you do not have a Second Life account, you can easily get one, for free, at SecondLife.com - once you get an account, just let me know here or on Second Life.This reading will not be recorded. If you can't attend, the only way you will be able hear this section is in The Plot to Save Socrates audiobookAnd, of course, you can read it in the paperback novelBut here are some Plot to Save Socrates goodies that are FREE:- read the first chapter online!- listen to me reading the ...
More About: Reading , Public

The Wire Season 5 Episode 7: King of Diamonds
2008-02-18 04:21:00
"Ain't you the King of Diamonds ," Bunk sarcastically remarks to McNulty, as McNulty hands out resources to a revitalized Baltimore police - revitalized because McNulty's charade about a serial killer of homeless people has galvanized everyone from the Mayor on down. No "weak shit" this, as Bunk termed this a just a week or two ago.McNulty started off the show with a great performance as the putative serial killer, putting in a new call to Scott Templeton, his contact at the Baltimore Sun - a conspirator in his own sham on the same serial killer, which McNulty is taking good advantage of. Freamon compliments McNulty on his fine Baltimore accent in the phone call. The comment is especially and meta-well deserved: Dominic West's accent from the east, old side of the Atlantic is so strong that I can sometimes barely understand the actor when he speaks as himself. McNulty's accent in The Wire is just another part of West's tour de force performance.But McNulty may be getting m...
More About: Episode , Season , Season 5

In Treatment 3: Triangle
2008-02-17 23:58:00
Alex - brilliantly played by Blair Underwood (all of the acting is brilliant in this series) - was something of the outsider in the first two weeks of In Treatment on HBO. Unlike Laura, Sophie, Jake and Amy, he had no intersection with Paul's wife.In week 3, Alex leapfrogs that intersection for something more profound and potentially disruptive to Paul: Alex is now sleeping with perfectly seductive Laura (Melissa George ).They meet when Alex shows up on the wrong day - Monday - and runs into Laura, who is leaving after a particularly aggravating session (actually, they all are, and that's part of the fun - Laura and Paul's, and ours).I'm still not quite convinced by Alex's explanation that he lost track of the day, but maybe this is another indication that his well-ordered life is crumbling.Even more important, this new affair yanks Paul around in multiple ways, like a puppet on half a dozen strings. He'll be jealous of Alex - because Paul clearly feels something for Laura ...
More About: Triangle , In Treatment