Rating: 5 stars out of 5 Starring: Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall, Nicholas Pinnock, Shubham Saraf, Aymen Hamdouchi Where to watch: Netflix Seasons: 2 seasons, 3 and 4 episodes each, 43 min per episode To watch or not to watch: A highly recommended watch for every whodunit aficionado
Criminal comes in different versions, that is, for different countries, but this review is only specifically for the UK version.
Jumping the gun here a bit (and breaking structure of the reviews), this is one of the best series written (and seen) in a long while. In a world of mediocrity, comes this masterpiece which will have you at the edge of the seats and biting your nails, heart beat so loud that you can’t hear the dialogues. Ok, that last part was a bit exaggerated. But the series is good. Ok?
This is an anthology series, with every episode a new case, so the viewers get the gift of 7 expertly crafted episodes, which have compelling stories with masterful performances. The concept of the series is to get to the bottom of the crime and the criminal while the suspect is in the interrogation room and is being questioned. Most of the investigation is already done and that makes the series a kind of closed room mystery, what is left is either irrefutable proof of the crime or a confession. The police officers in the interrogation room and the ones in the observation room (on the other side of the mirror) have one goal only – to catch the criminal.
The series is very focused on the case, but there is a small sprinkling of office politics to keep the viewers invested in the characters as well as the case. The tangential story line is only the sprinklers, and not the actual donut so it adds to the whole, but doesn’t distract. All in all, a refreshing, must watch.
Aside: There are about 3 plot holes, which appear towards the last few episodes, but it is nowhere a deal breaker.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Starring: Eric Mun, Seo Hyun-jin, Jeon Hye-bin Streaming on: Netflix Episodes: 18 episodes, each close to 70 min long To watch or not to watch: Should watch, it leaves a happy feeling in the heart
One day before getting married, Oh Hye-young’s (Seo Hyun-jin) (aka just) fiance calls off the wedding, saying he has fallen out of love with her and that he doesn’t like to watch her eat. Understandably devastated Hye-young has only one condition, that the world should know she has called the wedding off. Some time passes, and Hye-young meets Park Do-kyung (Eric Mun) and they start to fall for each other. There comes the twist in the story. Park Do-kyung was engaged to be married to another named Oh Hye-young (Jeon Hye-bin) (aka pretty), who left him on the day of the wedding. One year after that, he hears Oh Hye-young getting engaged to another man, and ruins his business as revenge. Only that woman was not his Oh Hye-young. So yea… Also, Do-kyung is suddenly clairvoyant and can see how the future will pan out.
The biggest reason why this series stands out is because of Oh Hye-young’s (just) attitude. She is the boss. Despite being gossiped about, ridiculed and almost cast away from society for cancelling her wedding, she owns it like a bada**. Whatever her internal emotional state may have been, she never let anyone put her down. Another reason to like the show is because it is good. The story line is very different and refreshing and all the main character and most of the supporting characters were well crafted, they had depth. The human state of mind is pretty rightly defined, there is jealousy, revenge, want of societal acceptance and self-esteem issues. The chemistry between the main characters is lacking though – Oh Hye-young (just) has a better on screen chemistry with her ex-fiance than the man she is supposedly in love with.
K-dramas do know how to play on the heart strings, they have that right. The viewer cannot help but feel Oh Hye-young’s words when she says she is ok to not be happy later, but she wants to be happy now. As with all other K-dramas, the series could have been wrapped up within 12 episodes easily, if they had reduced the work which Park Do-kyung was doing. And his sister’s absurd behaviour was overly exaggerated and at some places stood out like a sore thumb with respect to the tune of the main story. These can be easily skipped. But the rest is well worth the watch, highly recommended.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Starring: Lee Joon-Gi, Moon Chae-Won, Jang Hee-Jin, Seo Hyun-Woo Streaming on: Netflix Seasons and epiosdes: 1 season, 16 episodees, slightly over 1 hour per episode To watch or not to watch: Brilliant watch 90% of the time
Beak Hee-Sung (Lee Jong-Gi) seems to live a happy life with his wife and daughter, but doesn’t seem to get along with his parents. His wife, Cha Ji-Won (Moon Chae-Won) is a police detective and stumbles upon a murder case which has links to a serial murder from 20 years ago. It also brings up Hee-Sung’s past. Nothing is as it seems since he met his wife 14 years back. There is more to him, his family and his personality, which is revealed slowly and need-based as the story progresses.
This is a typical thriller where there are hidden depths to the protagonist. There are parts where the viewers doesn’t know whether to root for the hero or not, and it makes for a fascinating watch. The first truth, where they reveal a mysterious part comes up pretty quick in the story and makes the series exciting from the beginning. Then comes the second truth, which makes the first truth questionable. All a very twisty-turny roller coaster ride, all very thrilling and exciting, minus the unnecessary gore. It also balances out the serious and tense moments with few moments of humour and cuteness.
About 70% of the series is streamlined, with the information coming out as it is supposed to, which makes logical sense to the viewer and also keeps enough information of the action to keep wanting more. It touches the topics of effects of unwarranted social stigmas, and how the victims sometimes get no respite. It ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. After that 70% mark, the series then becomes a bit too unexpected. There is overuse of twists, exciting, but tiring. All this combines results in a series which is a brilliant watch 90% of the time.
Starring: Im Si-Wan, Lee Dong-Wook, Lee Jung-Eun, Lee Jong-Ok, Park Jong-Hwan, Lee Hyun-Wook, Ahn Eun-Jin
Streaming on: Prime Video/Netflix
Runtime: 1 season, 10 episodes, 1 hour each episode
Language: Korean (Prime Video’s subtitles are better)
To watch or not to watch: A must watch for people looking for a true mind-bending psychological thriller
Yoon Jong-Woo is a young man who has moved from his hometown to Seoul when he lands an internship at a company run by his school senior. Seoul also meant being in the same city as his girlfriend Ji-Eun and being away from home with struggling single-mother and sick elder brother. Jong-Woo is looking for a cheap accommodation where he can adjust for a few months, while saving money for his family and security deposit for a flat. He ends up renting a room at Eden Studios, where the neighbours are strange to say the least and the landlady who appears friendly, is a miser and has her own secrets. The relationship with his girlfriend is also less than ideal and is not helped by his work situation, which is filled with jealousy, suppression and harassment. In the parallel is the dentist Seo Moon-Jo (Lee Dong-Wook), who is everything that is successful, charming and friendly – only on the surface. The rest is Jong-Woo’s struggle with life and how it all comes to a head.
It is one of the best in the psychological thrillers genres. It subverts the tropes in that it doesn’t play big on blood and innards. It keeps the audience at the edge of their seats by playing the show-not-tell rule perfectly. We go back and forth in time when Jong-Woo was in the military and had to deal with unruly subordinates. It keeps us guessing about the truth about Jong-Woo, and what drives him. Then we come to Moon-Jo, the one normal functioning around Jong-woo, and how he fits in with the rest of the residents of Eden Studio. Another important character of the story is So Jung-Hwa (Ahn Wun-Jin) who doesn’t have a high run-time but is critical in joining all the plot points to make a comprehensive whole.
The series is near perfect, starting from scenes telling us about his search for a dorm and how sequentially Jong-Woo compromises on the living standards for cost. The scene where he visits Eden Studios has subtle hints on how he gets signs that living there will be difficult like his luggage trolley loses a wheel and he has to lug it up a flight of stairs to reach the dorm. It wins hearts right there. We also feel sorry for the protagonist as he has to tackle everything at home and work, not helped by the lack of support from his girlfriend as she has her own problems to solve. The soundtrack is subtle and well done (underrated part of production but critically important). The end will keep you guessing, and that’s all there is to say about it. Highly recommended to watch at one go, not to lose the beat. Keep something light-hearted lined up to watch after to help get over it. It is that good.
Starring: Kim Young-Kwang, Jin Ki-Joo, Kim Jae-Kyung, Koo Ja-Sung
Streaming on: Netflix
To watch or not to watch: A light-hearted, funny watch
Do Min-Ik (Kim Young-Kwang) is a director of a big company. He is extremely intelligent and hard working, with a knack of reading people’s faces to know what they are really thinking – but doesn’t connect with people at a personal level. He has only one friend Ki Dae-Joo (Koo Ja-Sung) who is also a Director at the same company. He also relies a lot on his secretary Jung Gal-Hee (Jin Ki-Joo), works her to the bone, but also doesn’t trust secretaries in general and gets a new secretary every year. Due to a freak accident, he hurts his head and develops prosopagnosia, or the inability to recognise faces, and the only one he is able to recognise is his secretary, because of her unchanging appearance through the year. This leads to him mistaking her for a heiress, and she goes with it.
Even though this K-drama is not rated too high on IMDb, it is actually pretty good. It tackles class issues, impact of loss of family at a young age, dreams and aspirations of people and how they work towards it. It is also humorous. The dynamics shift between Min-Ik and Gal-hee is contrasted beautifully between two situations. As most K-dramas also have a sub-plot to add thrill to the romance and comedy, this one has one too, and it is also not too shocking, but keeping with the theme of classism and equality.
The common objection people might have with K-dramas is the sometimes and somewhat toxic behaviour passed off lightly. This series is better on that front – Gal-Hee’s deception of Min-Ik is taken seriously. Same with Min-Ik’s treatment of his secretaries. Gal-Hee felt like an equal to her boos for the first time, and she was treated with respect because she was not being herself. Most importantly, she treats herself with respect in front of Min-Ik and that changes his attitude towards her in real life too. This is subtly done, not explicitly called out, and stays away from the making the series one about self-improvement and social issues.
The side characters are also close to reality. Like Kim Jae-Young’s character Veronica Park is born into wealth and doesn’t know how the other half lives. Whereas Dae-Joo has worked his way up and knows the value of what he has. Also, the ending is pretty cool, and the protagonist is not the end-all be-all of business and personal life. The only reason it loses on one star in rating is small plot holes which are not closed, no matter how insignificant to the story line they be. Highly recommend to watch this one. And the pretty faces on screen don’t hurt either.
To watch or not to watch: Good in pieces, not as a whole
The story of the series is about the lives of some of the residents of an apartment complex called Sunflower. One morning, one of the residents of the society, Mr. Kapoor (Ashwin Kaushal), is murdered by his neighbour, Mr. Ahuja (Mukul Chadda). What follows is an investigation into the murder by two police officers, Inspector DG and Sub-Inspector Tambe (Ranvir Shorey and Girish Kulkarni). Sonu Singh (Sunil Grover) is the protagonist and falls under suspicion due to his erratic nature. Along with the main story line with a protagonist, we also have an ensemble cast and an insight in the lives of a select few residents and one person each related to them.
Over-all the series is funny, sometimes thrilling and mostly lost. There are too many sub-plots, which have nothing to do with the main plot and have nothing to do in general, except probably elicit some laughs. In each of the 8 episodes, we have Dilip Iyer (Ashish Vidhyarthi) interviewing and rejecting potential residents because of one or the other social bias. There are certain points in Sonu’s character which throw an insight into his past life and make the viewers feel there’s more than meets the eye. All this has nothing to do with the main plot, even tangentially. After about more than half the series is over, you wonder if the series even has anything to do with the murder mystery. Sunflower society and slowly and suddenly takes center stage and things revolve around it.
There is a conflict between the advertisement and the real idea of the series. it comes off as more of an ensemble cast series than a thriller series. Since it is going head-to-head with an acclaimed thriller series, The Family Man, it needed to be made more in-line with the advertisement or changed the messaging. If one has watched these two series together, Sunflower will definitely lose. Though it does go head-and-head with the performances.
The webseries these days have latched on to the nostalgia effect, by getting older actor, who were quite popular in the yesteryears to come back and act in the series. While it is commendable and gets more viewers along with the promise of good performances, it can be overdone, specially when it is the focal point of the series. After finishing watching the series, the only thought that makes a viewer feel they haven’t wasted their time, that all the loose threads and the unresolved sub-plots make for a good foundation for season 2. Right on the heels of that, is the knowledge that each episode is only about 30 minutes long and has only 8 episodes (though it didn’t need even that for the amount of content it had). That might be the only reason for people to watch the second season, to get some closure. All in all, if one is not suffering from FOMO, skip it.
Starring: Sophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Sofia Bryant, Richard Ellis, Sophia Tatum, David Theune, Zachary S. Williams, Aidan Wojtak-Hissong
Genre: Sci-fi/supernatural, coming-of-age story
This series is about a 17 year old girl Sydney, who lost her father the previous year. As a result, the family life has changed drastically and not for the better. She has trouble connecting with her mother, trouble getting along with peers, trouble focusing on school and trouble in general with her temper, which flares and is acted upon. She has one best friend named Dina who is the “popular one” and is dating the school jock. She also has a neighbour called Stanley Barber who has a crush on Sydney and is as much as an oddball as is stereotyped.
The story follows Sydney managing her life, her anger and then her very sudden super powers. She becomes a target or a fascinating study for some savoury/unsavoury characters. And if that was not enough, she is also trying to figure out the matters of her sexuality. She is definitely not okay with any of this.
Netflix is so used to producing below average stuff that the one time they have something good which has all the elements to grasp the attention of the audience, they balk at the thought. They are not used to producing good original content and hence they have cancelled the show (this is the real reason, despite of what is said by the company). They are producing season 2 of Bridgerton.
Amazon, please pick this up. But then you aren’t without faults of your own.
Starring: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Adria Arjona.
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy (slightly theological)
Aziraphale and Crowley are Angel and Demon, respectively and have been assigned to do their respective jobs on Earth since the seventh day of creation (Crowley/Crawley is the snake with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden). They have grown rather fond of the planet and grudgingly, of each other too. In the present time, the grounds of Armageddon have been laid down and in only a week Heaven and Hell will fight it out to establish their supremacy and effectively end Earth. The Angel and Demon duo must prevent it from happening at all costs. Thus begins their adventure to find out The Chosen One and manipulate their respective offices in their favour. Their natures have evolved through thousands of years on the planet and it is shown through some cleverly inserted flash-backs at the important moments in history.
This series is adapted from a Neil Gaiman book. When it comes to book adaptations, this is something near perfection. The acting and the direction leave nothing to be desired and it doesn’t feel incomplete or staccato at any point. The storyline, peppered with theology through the ages is smooth, smart, witty and dark too.
This show was cancelled as it was called out for hurting religious sentimentality. While a case can be made for that, it can be said it shows changing for a higher calling, namely humanity and to get priorities straight, regardless of what we have been taught since birth.
Religions have survived thousands of years. An itty-bitty Amazon series with some 8 hours runtime can hardly harm them suddenly. Please lift the embargo on it and get out season 2.
Starring: Nick Frost, Samson Kayo, Malcolm McDowell, Susan Wokoma, Emma D’Arcy and Simon Pegg
Genre: Horror-comedy
Gus is a broadband installer for Britain’s largest network provider, Smyle. He also moonlights as a paranormal activity investigator and has a YouTube channel, Truth Seekers. His boos, Dave, assigns an apprentice to Gus by the name of Elton Jon (LoL!) to train, and Gus isn’t too happy about it. Together Gus and Elton go around fixing and providing broadband connections. Gus luck seems to have turned around as they have real paranormal encounters at each of the places they visit. They also meet Astris, who is running from the demons haunting her and they try to figure out how to exorcise them.
No story is complete with a supervillain with an extremely nefarious agenda. In this one, the supervillain wants to attain immortality and the way to reach there is mega destructive and the consequences dire.
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg come together again on screen for yet another spectacular production which has humour, thrill and horror combined. There is also a threat to humanity, similar to the movies in the Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The End of the World – all must watch). There is emotional investment for the recurring cast and also for the anthology-like ghosts they encounter. There is no moment which is dull or draggy. In the short time, it manages to show EVERYTHING. Utter shame it is cancelled and Goliath gets seasons after seasons.
Maigret is adapted from a book series by Georges Simenon, featuring the detective Jules Maigret. It has 2 season with 2 episodes each and the episodes are in anthology format, with new cases in each episode. It is a police procedural, set in Paris of 1950s. What sets this apart from the other police procedurals is primarily Rowan Atkinson. It is very refreshing to see him in a serious role, which he performs flawlessly (goes without saying). Also, the cases are quite interesting and there are little to no red-herrings. The cases are solved by old-fashioned police work. The cases are dark and gritty which keeps one guessing throughout. The performances in the individual episodes too are commendable – no shoddy work here.
Given we don’t have too many of whodunnits series these days, this would have been a good addition to the online content. It is refreshing, nostalgic and pleasing to the eye. With very little personal drama and good storyline, can’t see this failing. And yet it is not renewed for further seasons. It is saddening.
The movie is adapted from the 2015 Paula Hawkins’ novel of the same name. The book has been adapted into a movie earlier too, starring Emily Blunt (early warning: watch that one, not this).
Mira Kapoor (Parineeti Chopra) has become an alcoholic after the death of her unborn child in a car accident. As far as she knows, she cannot be a mother again, when all she wanted in life was to be one. On top of this, she is suffering from trauma and has short-term amnesia (a concept explored in Memento and Ghajini). All this puts a strain on her married life and her husband Shekhar (Avinash Tiwary) and she separate. In her previous avatar she was a bad-ass lawyer who wouldn’t cower even in the face of death threats and would see justice done. All that is lost within two years. She travels on the same route everyday in a train (whereto – no idea, she just does) and she spots Nusrat John (Aditi Rao Hydari) having a picture perfect life with her husband, and she lives vicariously through Nusrat. One day she sees Nusrat with another man and is furious at her for ruining her supposedly perfect marriage and seeks her out. Thus ensues the memory lapse where she doesn’t remember what happened, but she is left with bruising all over her. It turns out Nusrat is killed and the police are suspecting Mira. The investigation is led by Dalbir Kaur Bagga (Kirti Kulhari).
There are so many questions. First, how was it possible to screw up a movie, which has been made only recently? The script is literally in your hands. While the whole internal conflict written in the book is understandably difficult to put into a visual medium, there is already a blue print, just 5 years old. Second, why did this movie have to be shot in London, with London street names and NRIs who justifiably do not have an Indian accent? It would have been so much more easier to follow and so much less cringy if only they had shot it in India with Indian actors. Third, given the above two, who thought it a good idea to diverge from the original story? And who thought the new angle was good? Fourth, what’s with that bruise on Mira’s temple dude? It looked like something straight out of a Ramsay brothers’ movie make-up.
Even though, Dear Reader, you have understood how unwatchable the “movie” is, it bears repeating. If you watch this movie, a demonic presence like in the movie The Ring will possess you and you would want to kill everyone. It will need to be exorcised. There is not even one single thing which can be said in the favour of this, not even cinematography, costumes, lighting, nothing. This movie is the point where sanity goes to die.
PSA – Do Not Watch It
Spoiler: Dalbir Kaur Bagga is the daughter of the man whom Mira put behind bars and she commits the crime to frame Mira. There. You are welcome.
Starring: Johnathan Bailey, Phoebe Dynevor, Regé-Jean Page, Claudia Jessie, Luke Newton and Julia Andrews (voice over)
Streaming on: Netflix
To watch or not to watch: Recommended to watch in extenuating circumstances where one is a glutton for punishment
Bridgerton is an 8 part series which follows the Bridgerton siblings through their life-partner finding journey.
The first season is based on Daphne’s quest to finding a husband. She comes from a large family with 4 brothers and 3 sisters. She wants a love match just like her parents had, but the only man interested in her is Nigel Berbrooke (we are supposed to know it is a laughing point). In comes Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings who has returned to England because his father is on his death bed and there are formalities to be taken care of in the inheritance of the dukedom. There is no love lost between father and son and the toxic relationship has left lasting effects on Simon’s mind – he doesn’t want to get married and have kids. Simon and Daphne literally run into each other at a ball and they decide to hatch a mutually beneficial plan – they will pretend to court each other so that Daphne is more in the notice of the men of the ton and Simon is saved from the mothers of unmarried ladies of England. As with all best laid plans, this also falls apart when Simon and Daphne are found in the garden in a compromising position and had to get married. Knowing full well Simon’s resolve to not have kids, Daphne gets married to Simon, as the other choices were limited and she was falling for him.
They embark on their married life and all is going well in the beginning till Daphne starts finding out more about Simon’s childhood and his reasons for resolving to never father any kids. This drives a wedge between the loving couple and the rest of the story follows the story of how the conflict is resolved.
Along with the main plot, there are many sub-plots which don’t seem to have much significance on the face of it. There is the family of Featheringtons who are also trying to be successful on the marriage mart but the patriarch has gambled away the dowries of the daughters. The Featheringtons have a guest Maria, who has a sketchy past (according to the times) and is looking to catch Colin Bridgerton, who in turn is deeply loved by Penelope Featherington. There is also Eloise Bridgerton who is forward thinking and challenges the societal norms with her best friend Penelope. Benedict Bridgerton is also trying to find a place in life by challenging society and getting in with the artist crowd, honing his sketching skills.
This is something which is easily missed, unless one really hates oneself. There is no steady storyline and whatever is there is highly unbelievable. The sub-plots seem out of place with no significance at all. The timeline is also all over the place. At some points the series looks hurried and at others it moves at a leisurely pace. There are quite a few explicit scenes for nothing but shock value. The conflict resolution is also flat without any real discussion, it just happens because the protagonists need to have a happily-ever-after, which isn’t very surprising as there is no character arc and whatever character build-up is there, it lacks any strength.
The series would have been well served if it had stayed true to the original books as they are much better and infinitely more entertaining. There is an element of wit among all the Bridgerton siblings and allied familied. Lady Danbury and Lady Bridgerton are mighty females on their own, and if the creators had stayed true to them, it would have resolved many women repression issues they were trying to address in the series. Just goes to show, change for the sake of change is rarely ever beneficial.
Highly recommend to miss this one. Let the sub-par output be not glorified and treated rightly. This series has been renewed for the second season, unfortunately.
Starring: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Partridge
Streaming on: Netflix
To watch or not to watch: An average movie which loses its track with runtime
Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) has been brought up single-handedly by her mother Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter) who is a feminist and quite talented in word plays, hand-to-hand combat, etc. Enola adores her mother and learnt a lot from her. On Enola’s 16th birthday, Eudoria disappears from their home and their town, leaving only breadcrumbs for Enola to follow. She lists the help of her two elder brothers, Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft to find Eudoria. They in turn want Enola to be a proper lady according to the day and age they lived in. Enola runs away from home and directly into the path of another absconding teenager Tewksbury (Louis Partridge) and enters London to look for her mother. Follows a series of shocking stories, often putting Enola’s life in danger.
The movie is directed by Harry Bradbeer, who also directed the wildly popular (and deservedly so) Fleabag. He has incorporated breaking the fourth-wall in the movie too, which was so seamlessly done in Fleabag, though he isn’t able to carry it off throughout the movie. The fourth wall merely cracks a little in the first half hour of the movie and then stays the same way for the rest of the run time. This theme of inconsistency is seen throughout the movie – Enola not so much as solves the crime, as she is blindly thrown into it, quite literally. The movie pays a homage to the women’s liberalization movement on the late 19th century, but frankly that concept is overused these days. And trying to please the PC police, they have cast a woman of colour who runs a teashop and also teaches jujitsu which not era appropriate (the teashop bit, not the jujitsu one).
There can be no fault found with Millie Bobby Brown’s performance, she has really showed the wide spectrum of roles she can do from Eleven to Enola. Henry Cavill is cool as cucumber in his role. Though his and Helena Bonham Carter’s characters seem to be done a disservice, in not been used to their full potential. It is an easily missed movie, as it doesn’t add much fun to the watching experience. Being more than 2 hour long, it drags at times. It also doesn’t justify the plot points bring dropped at quite a few places. All in all, pretty meh.
To see or not to see 