tv review
Big crimes, small screen; true crime television series and TV documentaries that recreate and reexamine some of the mystifying and grisliest cases in history.
Review of 'Big Sky' 1.3
Well, that was the best line in Tuesday night's episode 1.3 of Big Sky -- "You kidnapped the wrong girls" -- said by The Big Rick (title of the episode) to Ronald, after Rick retrieves Grace, with two arrows in the leg, after Grace escapes and almost makes her escape good, by getting a fisherman to help before Rick shoots him dead -- with an arrow.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Big Sky' 1.2
Big Sky 1.2 continued as one edgy kind of show, especially for network television. Interesting that David Kelley took this to a network -- ABC -- rather than a cable or streaming service, where "the goods," as the show artfully put it, could have been seen in the scene.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'The Undoing' Finale
So the ending of The Undoing turned out to be one grand hiding in plain site situation: Jonathan, who had been the first suspect, and whom so much of the previous narrative suggested was too obvious to be the killer -- and with more than a few plausible other suspects around, not convincing but not implausible --turns out to be the killer, after all.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Tiger King'
“The 'content' of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind,” Marshall McLuhan famously declared in Understanding Media back in 1964. The content of Tiger King, the runaway global hit documentary on Netflix, are the tigers and other animals in Joe Exotic's Oklahoma zoo, thrown pieces of meat, juicy and otherwise (some is expired meat from supermarkets). But the deeper story, underlying the meat, is Joe Exotic's unquenchable thirst for fame, relentlessly pursued through social media. And in the irony of ironies, he eventually obtained that fame, along with a prison sentence of 22 years for attempted homicide of an animal activist and mistreatment of animals.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'The Undoing' 1.5
Well, the algorithm and the waiter were by no means the most important features of The Undoing 1.5, on HBO last night, but I didn't want to give away the main thing, actually two main things, in the subtitle, and the algorithm and the waiter were nice touches. Finding that Jonathan's attorney uses Amazon-level algorithms to get the crucial characteristics of the jurors, that was cool. (And Haley's one one outstanding lawyer, isn't she?) And the waiter constantly interrupting the meal that Jonathan, Grace, and Henry were trying to have in the restaurant -- that was a metaphor for this whole little series, being interrupted by all kinds of things, so that after five episodes, we still can't be sure whodunnit.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
The Undoing 1.1-1.4
David Kelley's The Undoing mini-series debuted with a star-studded cast on HBO late last month. I mean, with Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser a psychologist and Hugh Grant as her husband Jonathan Fraser an oncologist on the posh side of New York City, and a murder and a missing person, we can just stop there and how can you go wrong, right? You can't. The first episode was sleek and blockbuster powerful, an East Coast analog in many ways of Kelley's California Big Little Lies, which was pretty hot, suspenseful stuff, too, over two seasons.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Enter The BAU
The show that took you in the minds of some of the most dangerous and deviant minds. 15 seasons, over 300 episodes, and endless hours of entertainment. This is Criminal Minds. This show in my opinion reigns supreme against all other shows. I could watch this and only this for the rest of my life and be perfectly content and happy with myself. Unlike other crime/ drama/ law enforcement shows, this one not only shows you a unique niche of the FBI, but each and every episode is based on a real life case that has happened in the United States. From chasing down bombers, to serial killers, to arsonists and psychopaths this show never disappoints. With almost the same entire cast for all 15 seasons, this has become a comfort show/ staple in my life. I have grown up with show and no matter the challenges I face in my every day life, I always turn to this show for comfort and I always find a new message or meaning in the episodes to use in my life, as well as to help me grow and overcome different situations and obstacles.
By Katelyn Doner 5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'We Hunt Together' 1.3
We learned a lot about our major quarter of characters in We Hunt Together 1.3 on Showtime last Sunday night. Baba doesn't like to kill. In fact, he wants to recapture some of the small boy that he was in Africa, before being a child soldier claimed his body and a lot of his soul, and turned in him into a killer. Freddie says she wants to help him in that quest, but of course she lies about just about everything.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Criminal
