Review of 'Project Blue Book' 1.6

My favorite part of Project Blue Book 1.6 last night—and also likely to have some beneficial consequences for Hynek's investigation—is his decision to bring his wife Mimi into his investigations of extraterrestrial visitations, so the two of them are a "team."

This is a crucial decision for all kinds of reasons. Mimi is smart and loves him. Hynek is learning that he can't really trust anyone else—including, sadly, Quinn, who folds when the Generals apply pressure. I'm still hopeful that he might break away sooner rather than later, and work 100 percent with Hynek, but this has yet to happen.

My second favorite part is Michael Imperioli in a small role (as of now) as a Soviet agent (or, at least, identified as such by those Generals). The Soviet part of this is a good counterpart to the extraterrestrials. They need to be reckoned with. The blonde's husband is brutal, and doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who he thinks knows too much, and that apparently includes just seeing him. Mimi on the team is thus a two-edged sword: She'll no doubt be a big help to Hynek, but her friendship with Susie (the blonde) means that the Soviets could have even better entree to Hynek's work.

And the role of the priest—who seems to know a lot, or more than Hynek, about the extraterrestrials—is also an important development. I've been saying for more than a couple of years that religion and space explorations are natural partners—see Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion—and it will be fun and significant to see where this goes.

Project Blue Book could easily be mistaken as an obvious, superficial narrative with 1950s B-movie values. It's indeed that, but it's beginning to mine deeper elements. Stay tuned. I definitely will.