TV Review: The Undoing (2020). HBO Max.

The Undoing, a major HBO mini-series released late in 2020, stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as a rich and successful power couple on the upper West side of New York, whose pre-teen son attends an elite private school.

Early in the series, another parent from the son’s school is murdered, and the series shows the impact of the unfolding murder investigation on the couple’s "perfect marriage", as it comes apart under the pressure of unfolding events and revelations.

This series came in for a lot of critical commentary by reviewers -- one writer said it was "lifestyle porn", because of the obvious wealth and privilege of the main characters -- but I thought it was perfectly appropriate to the story. Excellent and riveting entertainment, with tremendous, suspenseful acting and script. Recommended.

Book Review: The Looming Tower (2007). Lawrence J. Wright.

I read this very good book and Pulitzer Prize winner after seeing the same-named HBO mini-series (starring Jeff Daniels) based on it. It is an absorbing account of some of the key events in the late 1990s and early 2000s which led up to the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

The story is told through the experiences and perspectives of a few important characters, particularly in the F.B.I., C.I.A. and Al Qaeda. It gives a disturbing view into how bureaucratic infighting between the F.B.I and C.I.A., and a lack of comprehension (by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence groups) of the nature of the Islamic Jihadist movement, organizations and leadership led to the intelligence failures before the Nairobi Embassy bombings in 1998, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, and the 9/11 attacks.

It may seem that these events are all well-worn or tired stories by now, but I found the book (as well as the TV series) provided a fresh perspective, and some valuable new insights into the human and institutional fallibilities that allowed Al Qaeda's terrorism to carry out its most successful attacks on our country and its people. Recommended.

Book Review: The FBI Way (2020). Frank Figliuzzi.

The author, who is now a cable TV analyst, was a career FBI agent who eventually rose to high-level leadership within the organization. His book is a combination of insights into the "FBI Way", that is, describing the norms of the organization and the processes they use to foster excellence, responsibility and integrity in their staff, with illustrative examples of how these norms and processes have succeeded and failed, taken from his own career and experience.

Figliuzzi is not a fan of Donald Trump, so he does cover topics in the latter part of the book relating to how the FBI was challenged by Trump's attitude toward the Bureau, and by his attempts to destroy its independence, and turn it and the Justice Department into tools of his own authoritarian and gangsterish aspirations. Recommended.

Movie Review: The Railway Man (2013). Netflix.

Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman star in this movie based on the true story of a British World War II veteran and former prisoner of the Japanese, tormented after the war by his past, who tracks down one of his wartime torturers, and ultimately forgives and reconciles with him. Kidman portrays the protagonist's later-in-life romantic interest and then wife, who believed in him and helped him through his postwar struggles.

An interesting and well-acted historical drama about the savagery of war and its traumatic aftermath, as well as the healing possibilities of forgiveness. Recommended.

Book Review: American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts (2019). Chris McGreal.

This is a deeply-researched account of how the American opioid crisis began in the early 2000s. There was so much about how the opioid crisis came about that I did not know, but that I learned from this book.

It began in West Virginia, where coal miners wracked with pain from their hard work in the coal mines were offered a “cure” for their pain by local doctors, consisting of the heavily marketed new artificial opioids such as oxycontin and oxycodone. At the same time, medical practice and thought had been veering from the prohibitionist approach of the mid-twentieth century toward a more “liberal” view that it was the doctor’s job to treat pain wherever possible, using whatever pain-killing drugs were available.

Into this mix of social conditions, changing medical treatment philosophies and opportunities for profit came several Big Pharma companies, with some brand-new drugs to push and a lot of money to be made.

Soon, prescription “mills” were springing up in little towns in the coal fields, aided by a few unscrupulous physicians, and then almost overnight, billions of pills were being sold by a few rural drug stores. From there, the scourge moved outward, as Congress failed to respond to the small number of physicians and whistleblowers who raised the alarm about the addiction crisis in the making. 

McGreal does an excellent job tracing the social and political history of the opioid crisis, and describing in devastating detail the way it spread through American society and families. Recommended.

Book Review: A Long Night in Paris (2020). Dov Alfov.

A very promising first novel by an Israeli journalist, this well-written spy thriller and murder mystery starts with the mysterious disappearance of a young Israeli high-tech businessman at Orly Airport in Paris.

From there, the fast-paced adventure pits two resourceful "acting" leaders at different levels in a top-secret Israeli spy agency (one young and female, the other older and male) against their own organization's internal political conspiracies, the plodding French police inspector who is trying to manage the case, and a complex Chinese assassination plot.

To make it more challenging, another Israeli agent goes missing, as our two heroes rush to understand the underlying cause of the sudden outbreak of high-profile murders in the French capital.

An enjoyable and satisfying tale, with excellent characterization, plenty of high-tech intelligence wizardry, and an amusingly jaundiced view of the inner workings of police and intelligence organizations. This would make a great movie. Recommended.

Book Review: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (2016). Cathy O'Neil.

Ms. O'Neil, a PhD data scientist, peers behind the curtain of how our automated society uses algorithms based on opaque assumptions and dubious logic to reach conclusions about us in every sphere of our lives, that tend to perpetuate stereotypes, increase unfair discrimination, and undermine the democratic ideal that as individuals, we should all be treated equally under the law.

She explores how this dynamic of biased and opaque algorithms works to our detriment in education, personal finances, job-seeking and employment, voting and health care among other important spheres of our lives. Recommended.

Book Review: The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google (2017). Scott Galloway.

This book provides a dire warning on how each of the "Big Four" tech companies (five, if you include Microsoft, i.e. Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple) is undermining freedom, democracy, economic fairness and other positive values by the different ways in which they mine and exploit our data and manipulate us, using tools of control that dwarf anything ever seen before.

On The John Oliver Show (on HBO) last Sunday (June 5, 2022), Oliver's main segment described two bipartisan bills being considered in Congress right now to address issues of anti-competitiveness and monopolistic practices by these same companies. The Four is excellent background reading for understanding why and how these practices are destructive to individuals, small businesses, the democratic political system and the economy, and why these proposed anti-monopolistic bills are a necessary first step in reigning these companies in.  

Galloway does a particularly good job highlighting how all the destructive aspects of these companies' activities are carried out under the guise of friendly, liberal corporate images, and aided by the seductive attractions of all the everyday conveniences, incredible tools and bright shiny objects they provide, and upon which we all depend. Recommended.