Tag: hollywood

The Residence

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https://www.theguardian.com/

Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Starring: Uzo Aduba, Giancarlo Esposito, Molly Griggs, Ken Marino, Randall Park, Susan Kelechi Watson, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Edwina Findley
Where to watch: Netflix (8 episodes, 50-odd minutes each)
To watch or not to watch: A closed mansion mystery with multiple suspects and Rian Johnson style storytelling. It is highly recommended for fans of typical whodunnit.

It is the night of Australian state dinner at The White House, rather THE WHITE HOUSE, where Hugh Jackman and Kylie Minogue are also present. In the middle of this, they find the chief usher AB Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) dead on the third floor. The chiefs of all the major intelligence/security/investigation agencies are at the scene and are quick to call the death a suicide, except Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), the greatest detective in the world (not unlike Poirot, only she is female and has less differentiated mannerisms) is called upon. She declares the death a murder and presents compelling evidence or lack thereof to boost her statement. What follows is a non-linear sequence of statements, evidence, lies, corroboration, congressional committee, exposure of personal lives and bird-watching to arrive at the truth. Oh! And Kylie Minogue performs. She is chiefly assisted by Susan Kelechi Watson (Jasmine Haney) who was Assistant Usher until Wynter’s death, and Edwin Park (Randall Park), an FBI special agent. Did Jasmine murder Wynter to quicken her promotion, or was it Harry Hollinger (Ken Marino) who was suspected of having a fight with the victim sometime before the “incident”, or was it the drunk butler Sheila (Edwina Findley), or even the pastry chef?

The brilliance of the series lies in the manner of storytelling ie, the pacing. It is quite like Knives Out, with the opening scene being the discovery of the body, fun quick cuts to scenes which lead to non-linearity and dizziness in the viewer, also making the viewer’s attempt to solve the crime difficult. Cordelia follows clues, which are lost on everyone, gets people to talk by not asking questions, push people into the corner by questioning everything, all in all, the fast-paced movement of scenes and dialogues and characters themselves, make for a really fun viewing. There are multiple characters and storylines, complicated by lies and small incidents deemed insignificant but turn out to be the real crux of the matter, Cordelia’s shifting focus to bird-watching, ensuring the viewer is kept on their toes. The show doesn’t take itself seriously and is self-aware enough to acknowledge the heavy borrowing from Christie and Johnson and what-not, it is funny despite the fact it is based in The White House, not because of it.

This show is a brilliant first watch, testing the viewer’s willpower to not binge it in one sitting, but only the first time. After that, the plot holes, the ridiculousness of the setting and extravagant mannerisms are easy to see through as distraction tactics. Aduba is good at her job and has an engaging screen presence, but someone alluding to her ability to solve unsolvable cases is not entirely believable, we are expected to just accept it. Then there is a whole origin story in the middle of the series, which was only a filler to make it last 8 episodes. The uncovered truth about the murder and the murderer is underwhelming so adjust the expectations accordingly. This is also the point where the series loses a score in the rating. There is so much underhanded display of female empowerment, that it is tiring. If you want real female empowerment in cinema, start paying equal wages, but putting men down only reverses the problem. Sigh!
Shonda Rhimes has made women-centric content in the past, while they were highly superficial, this is much, much better than the convenient, self-congratulatory plotlines of series like Scandal. It is flawed, but there is progress. And it is a good watch for all the mystery-starved people out there.

Nosferatu

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https://www.imdb.com/title/

Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Starring: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, William Dafoe
Where to watch: Playing in theatres
To watch or not to watch: A fitting and honest tribute to the 1922 movie and 1897 book Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But it is not for everyone

It is 1830s and Elle (Lily-Rose Depp) is widowed at a very young age and is terribly lonely. To alleviate the loneliness, she makes a deal with the devil, and in this case Count Dracula, and pledges herself to him eternally. But time passes, she gets married to Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) and they are quite happy together in Wisburg, though rather poor. Hutter gets a quite lucrative job at a real estate agent, and the first order of business is to deliver the documents of a castle to Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) in Transylvania, leaving Ellen with his friend Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). He finds the menacing presence of Count uncomfortable and tries to escape, but he keeps falling more and more sick (because the Count is feeding on him). Thomas ultimately escapes the castle and is nursed back to health by nuns living in an orthodox convent, meanwhile Orlok travels to Wisburg in a ship to be with Ellen. On meeting Ellen, he gives an ultimatum that he will kill everyone in Wisburg in three days if she refuses to be with him, and he has already killed half the population by spreading plague. They manage to find an ostracised scientist named Von Franz (William Dafoe) who believes in occult and has more answers than they have managed to find with conventional medicine, and they can actually win against the devil.

This movie is not for everyone – the dialogue is not in the linear, conventional English we know and use, but rather poetic, true to the time in which the movie is based. There are also a lot of dream sequences as Dracula visits Ellen in dreams for more than half the movie, which is interspersed with the real life having the same characters. The movie is grey-green-blue toned, whenever it is not out and out black-and-white. Despite all this (and maybe because of this), it is a masterpiece! Can this type of movie be scary, in the true sense of horror that we have come to expect? Not really, no. The story is well-known (adaption of a 1922 movie of the same name which in turn was adaption of Bram Stoker’s book titled Dracula) so it is not a surprise element which can work in this case. What can work is the portrayal of the story, the ability to elicit the emotions different from what has been done and maybe give a different perspective. And this movie delivers! Thanks to (in no small measure) Bill Skarsgård’s portrayal. He has the ability to go beyond himself and totally into the character where it becomes difficult to ascertain if he is even there or is it wholly the devil. This performance is closely followed by Hoult’s as a naive husband (who is so ripped, by the way) looking at his wife getting sicker and in a twisted way more pleasure from Orlok than him. Depp on the other hand, is a one-dimensional figure who is unfortunately central to the movie and sticks like a sore thumb. She lacks the range which a character like Ellen requires, and most of the sympathy falls to every other character, which doesn’t really tie with the story.

This movie is divisive and it takes no stretch of imagination to understand the other side of the opinion than the one listed above. It is only a matter of focus – focus on the colour scheme, the on-the-nose size and accent of Orlok, confusing dream sequences mixed with real life, and the weird English, and you won’t like this movie one bit, even move out halfway. But keep in mind that this is a nod to the 1922 movie, keeps true to to the book and is not necessarily reinventing the wheel, and you will see the charm and what it brings to the table. At the time of this post, the Google review is 3.0 whereas some of the movies reviewed on this site and have received 2 stars have received 4 stars and above. Eggers in general has been divisive. While The Vvitch is often lauded as one of the best horror movies of this generation, it lacks any definitive storyline, open so much to the interpretation that without the requisite mindset, it will fail to register with 90% of the audience. Keep an open mind with this one and you will definitely enjoy it.

The Day of The Jackal

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https://www.lifestyleasia.com/

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, Chukwudi Iwuji, Úrsula Corberó, Khalid Abdalla
Where to watch: Jio Cinema/Peacock Network
To watch or not to watch: Disappointing at multiple levels. What a crime against the book

The Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) is one of the best snipers in the world and he is using this talent as a hit for hire. He has a beautiful wife Nuria (Úrsula Corberó) and a 1 year old son. He is hired to kill a German politician, which he does with a slightly round-about but terribly brilliant way, which took MI6 some time to figure out. Also, the kill was at a record distance, which set him apart from 99% of other snipers in the world (and hence easier to identify). A firearm expert at MI6 named Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch) is intrigued by this shot and takes it upon herself to find out who the sniper is. This results in an expected, typical and cliched cat-and-mouse chase, only the mouse was smarter but made a dunce, the cat incompetent but blessed with a ton of luck.

The series is true to the book in only the essence, that is, an assassin with military background aiming to assassinate a prominent figure. While in the book that figure was Charles de Gaulle, in the series, it is to assassinate a tech billionaire Ulle Dag Charles to stop him from releasing a software which will disrupt the finances of the world, by somehow publishing the finances of billionaires to everyone??? And there is no more thought put into explaining it or why it would merit $100Mn as assassin’s fees. And The Jackal forgot all about his safety protocols because his greed took over??? He also has no deterrents installed in his home office which stores his passports, cash in different currencies, his tools of disguise, etc, so that even his toddler son could walk in and dismantle his castle of sand. And if this is not enough, the agent in-charge of the investigation is doing so on a prayer. She has caused more harm to innocents without any consequences to herself, is clearly incompetent and has very one-dimensional “I am important” stance at her home with daughter and husband. The only good thing the show does is the elaborate design of the assassination plot, they were truly a treat to see and made the show slightly fascinating.

Eddie Redmayne’s acting chops made something of the character and script which otherwise would not have passed the audience test. Looks like the writers are still on strike because this script could only have been written by 5 different AI tools stitched together by an underpaid human who couldn’t be bothered to check for continuity. There are phases where the Jackal is overcome with remorse to the point of inaction, only to go ahead and unnecessarily kill bystanders to show his brutality. What is the message for the audience, because we already know his profession and all that it entails? And all that is wrong with Bianca cannot even be summarised in one post – it needs to be taken apart scene by scene. What a waste of a good, concept, good book and a good actor. This is a crime against humanity. And it gets renewed for season 2 when Maigret is cancelled? Make it make sense!

Immaculate

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Simona Tabasco, Dora Romano
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
To watch or not to watch: No, for the love of God, no

The opening foreshadowing shot shows a nun sneaking out from a convent in the middle of the night, and running away from that place, only to be caught by a group of nuns at the gates and her legs broken.
Cut to: Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) is a novice who has moved to a convent in Italy from a small town in The USA at the behest of Father Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte). Her belief in Christianity began at a young age when she was rescued from a frozen lake and died for 7 minutes. This rescue was understandably covered in news and got a bit of virality. And her faith and fate sealed for Christianity. At the convent, she goes about her life normally, making friends and trying to do good, but she also has glimpses of something sinister going on, and it involves the higher-ups (because, of course).

Have you seen Rosemary’s Baby? Yes? Then you have watched this film. Goodbye and good night.
If you haven’t, then watch that rather than this. This movie is the rehashing of same old faith vs fanaticism, where good Christian women are used and abused, and for some reason virginity and purity are equated and highly revered. While this genre of movies is supposed to use the concept of objectification of women as a source of horror, they at the same time unironically do the same thing. In this case for example, Sydney Sweeney regularly received comments about her good looks, is shown bathing with the fellow nuns, etc. “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain”.
If that was not enough, they have eerie shadows, abruptly cut scenes, and mockery of science (which is the biggest sin of all). Can we please collectively as a society decide we don’t want to weaponise nor demonise religion anymore? Thank you.

The only reason this movie is not a hot pile of stinking garbage is the lead, Sydney Sweeney. She has single-handedly carried the story, to the point where it became apparent she was trying antics to fill the spaces. There are too many scenes filled with screams, needless to say, unwarranted. She was carrying on the movie so she was over-doing things. Sad but forgivable. There is nothing particularly horrifying in this movie, and nothing we haven’t seen before. It takes a different path from Rosemary’s Baby but it is not impactful enough that it redeems itself, because by that time we have waded through a lot of scene-there-heard-that. Its 1.5 hour runtime feels at least twice as long, and it is no wonder it has a current rating of 2.9 on Google and that tells you everything you need to know. Don’t listen to anyone who says it is good, because it is not. Don’t bother.

The Undoing and what’s wrong with Nicole Kidman

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Starring: Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, Noah Jupe, Matilda de Angelis, Donald Sutherland
Where to watch: HBO Max and JioCinema (India)
Seasons and episodes: 1 season, 6 episodes, 50 – 60 minutes per episode
To watch or not to watch: Watch it if you must. This can be a decent thing to pass time, nothing spectacular

Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman) is a psychotherapist, married to pediatric oncologist named Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant) and they have a son Henry (Noah Jupe). They have, for all intents and purposes, a perfect life, with successful careers, well-behaved son, wealth, home in the Upper East Side which reduces the school run to a stroll across the Central Park. The couple has also maintained the spark in their marriage, with most of the credit given to Nicole Kidman’s apparent sex appeal. Their schedules are quite busy but they do manage to squeeze in time for their social events, including the school functions for their son (Grace’s wealthy father is a huge donor). To complete the picture of the perfect American family, Grace is a part of the fundraiser committee of mothers for school events. There she is introduced to Elena, who is a not-yet successful artist and whose son goes to the same school as Henry on scholarship. On the day of the fundraiser, things start to unravel for Grace from the time she finds a disturbed Elena crying in the bathroom. The next day Elena is found dead in her art studio, which causes an uproar with the parents of the school. Grace is unable to reach Jonathan on his cellphone for a few days and as the police discovers clues to the murderer, things start coming closer to home for Grace.

The protagonist of the series is essentially Kidman, but Hugh Grant is charm made flesh. We have seen this version of him in A Very English Scandal and The Gentlemen, but imagine if the whole personality of such a character is only charm. Impossible not to simper. He brings his inherent sarcastic and self deprecating nature to the fore, which is in a high contrast to the way upper echelons of New York is shown to behave. Then we have Matilda de Angelis and Edgar Ramirez who have more than deserved to work in a high value production. And there needs to be special recognition for Noah Jupe who is very promising.

The plot of the series feels quite similar to Big Little Lies, even when it is not. They both have affluent parents playing a major role in their kids school events, and they have high powered jobs which provides them with privilege the rest of us will need 9 lives to attain. Both series have a much less affluent female protagonist who is mysterious and trying to fit in with other mothers. Not to mention, both series are book adaptations. But while Big Little Lies did a fantastic job of balancing the drama with the thrill, The Undoing is totally lost in trying to find its vision. The makers were torn between showing privilege but not really, resulting in a murk where opportunities to show some key elements of the story were lost, while focus on glamour took center stage. Glamour is not a story and has a shelf life of approximately 12 seconds.

This brings us to the reason which inspired this post – Nicole Kidman and where acting is victimized by sexual appeal. Take Big Little Lies for example – it is centered around Kidman. She had some character traits, primary being clueless about what people closest to her are doing, ultimately being a “victim” to them. In Undoing, she is supposed to be a psychiatrist with close to 2 decades of experience and couldn’t figure out there was something wrong with her husband??? Then she is not a good psychiatrist, not earning as much, dependent on her father to provide for her, and her whole character strength falls away. The compliments paid by her well-wishers is that she is strong, beautiful, cleans up well, has expensive clothes and is successful in her chosen career. But in the series, she is totally lost, depends on her father to clean her mess, is unable to take decisions which affect her son, and as cited above, not really a good psychiatrist. This leaves us with her being pretty and attractive. This is one of the biggest reasons her husband is with her.

This is not a Kidman bashing, but this is apparent in the two roles she has done recently, which are getting attention of audience and news media alike. This peaks through in her other works like Nine Perfect Strangers and older works too. The problem is that through Kidman women are still being reduced to objects of physical appeal. Women are still not seen enough to fight their battles, but always have to be a victim and rely on the men in their lives. Their female friends are also done a disservice where their lives are around how their more popular friend is doing. Haven’t we had enough discussions on this toxicity, how unreal and harmful this portrayal can be? Is the best thing a woman can bring to the table her feminity? Is there nothing more to a female character? Are other females supposed to be in service of the victim queen? C’mon, we have moved from this discourse a decade back. Bring more to character building than just one easy thing.

The Menu

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https://www.hotstar.com/

Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Aimee Carrero, Judith Light
Where to watch: Disney+ Hotstar
Run time: 1hour 47 minutes
To watch or not to watch: An original script, which might not be perfect but is fun to watch

A boat (yacht) is filled with 11 people who are embarking on a journey to a private island called Hawthorn, which has one of the most exclusive restaurants owned by Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The multi-course meals are $1,250 each, are invite only and are a strictly +1 (or more) event. The meal is an event, yes – the customers tour the entire island which shows the raw ingredients grown/bred, the military discipline enforced and followed by Slowik and his staff, the descriptions of the courses are like a soliloquy by the respective chefs. Only in this case, the soliloquy is followed by terror. Let me elaborate…

The people who have managed to bag a table at the over-exclusive restaurant are 3 finance bros, a washed-out actor with his manager (John Leguizamo and Aimee Carrero), an ultra-rich couple (Judith Light and Reed Birney), a renowned food critic (Janet McTeer) with her obsequious editor (Paul Adelstein) and a self-proclaimed foodie, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his companion Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy). Each meal is presented by the chef with a resounding clap which jerks everyone’s attention to the aforementioned soliloquy on the dish – the reason it was designed, what are the ingredients and what is the emotion the dish is designed to bring to the eater. Each of these courses get progressively darker, including drowning of the man who invested in the restaurant, a public suicide of the sous chef who dared to compete with Slowik, a run for survival by the men while a woman stabs Slowik for sexually harassing her in the past. The list of the macabre activities go on, while there is little to no change in the schedule of the service, complete with the clap and descriptions. The one person who is the proverbial fish out of water is Margot, who is not the initial companion planned by Tyler. This does throw a spanner in the works but not necessarily a bad thing for Margot. Read on…

The movie is supposed to be a satire on the wealthy. The intended message is that, well, wealth corrupts (no shit). The people present during the dinner are pretentious, full of themselves, and in general, have had life easier than most. And that is their biggest crime, according to the movie, that they have had it easier, as depicted by the character of Aimee, who went to Brown and her education was funded by her parents. It is all difficult for a person who hasn’t had these privileges but not sure if the rich are to blame. The whole movie falls short in attaining the premise. What is the crime here? Being rich? Wanting to be rich? Wanting to be the best? Just wanting? There are multiple plot holes which cannot be explained by any amount of explanations, as explanation do not brick and mortar make. Even the climax which has been lauded for its unexpected and triumphant nature is unexpected because it doesn’t logically follow.

The movie is made almost flawlessly. That is, the performances, set design, dialogues, sound, character nuances, lighting, editing, etc is what is great. The only thing lacking is a script which has been worked on till it was sparkling. The audience member will find the movie understandably quite unsettling, as the experience for the clientele in the movie is supposed to be comforting and it is anything but. The problem is when plot holes are left in the core or climax of the movie, everything leading up to it feels false. Why was the 90 min storyline needed, if the 20 min conclusion was going to be cutting corners, you know? The primary emotion this movie left was confusion, like was it a good movie, or just a good execution, because the ending didn’t make sense. Don’t think The Menu will go down well in history.

Run Sweetheart Run

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https://www.heavenofhorror.com/

Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Starring: Ella Balinska, Pilou Asbæk
Where to watch: Amazon PrimeVideo
To watch or not to watch: A survival movie with an average amount of thrill along with a pinch of unsuspected supernatural. It is fine

Cherie (Ella Balinska) is a single mother to a daughter, works as a paralegal, studies part time to become a full-fledged lawyer. She has mistakenly double-booked her boss with a client and his anniversary dinner, and takes his place at the client meeting. She is part hopeful for the meeting to turn into something more, as she has been single a long tim, but carries pepper spray nonetheless. She meets Ethan (Pilou Asbæk), who is rich, considerate and says the right things, all of which is very refreshing for Cherie. What starts as a night of part hope, part skepticism, resulting in more hope than skepticism, ends up turning into horror and a chase for her, when Ethan attacks her after returning from dinner. She narrowly escapes his place and runs to cops who arrest her. Ethan posts her bail and gives her a headstart in the hunt he will pursue. Cherie explores all her options to survive and gives a tough fight.

This movie falls in the sub-genre called social horror (think Jordan Peele’s Get Out), only here the social issue is patriarchy. The problem with movies trying to address two things at once is balance, which is often difficult to strike. This problem exists in this movie as well. It starts as any horror movie, but the dialogues are discordant with what’s happening, like the flow of the movie is being forced in a certain direction only by dialogues. The whole chase sequence is pretty cool, and Ethan’s powers are revealed slowly and it is a good surprise, but mixing it with patriarchy was a bit much. Even the protagonist’s actions did not follow a pattern like it happens with a human in general. A lot of this made the thrill questionable. The second act of the movie was the one part which was great, really gory. But it is a very good execution as the actual violence is actually censored, happens off-screen and left to the imagination of the viewers.

The movie is pretty low-budget and it a testament to the director who has made it possible to remove the actual scares from the screen, and still made it possible to be thrilling. It has very small cast and next to no special effects. Other factor which carries the movie forward are the actors, specially Ella Balinska who managed to convey the pain, hurt, fear and strength through the acting alone. Pilou Asbæk is sufficiently hateful and creepy. The music is another positive aspect, complementing the movie in all the right ways. It is pop, lyrics are relevant to the concept and add to the movie where the story subtracts. Watch it for the average thrill, superb acting and vicarious response to patriarchy. It wouldn’t require too much popcorn though.

Rosaline

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Kyle Allen, Sean Teale, Minnie Driver, Bradley Whitford
Where to watch: Disney+
To watch or not to watch: A delightful retelling of the OG of romance makes for a nice, light-hearted watch

Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever) and Romeo (Kyle Allen) are boyfriend and girlfriend, and Rosaline is absolutely smitten by the long, blonde haired hunk from the enemy camp. Her father, Adrian Capulet (Bradley Whitford) is attempting his best to arrange a marriage for his only daughter, and the daughter does everything to be as unsuitable a wife as possible. In one such arranged-marriage-date scenario, Rosaline is out on a boat with Dario (Sean Teale), is waylaid by a storm and is late in reaching the (famous) Capulet ball and a pre-arranged date with Romeo. Romeo’s excess of love is not to be hindered by the absence of his lady love, and remedies the situation by falling in love with Juliet (Isabela Merced), Rosaline’s cousin. Rosaline is understandably extremely pissed by this turn of events and now has a reason for intensely disliking Dario. She pursues multiple schemes to deter the couple, loses her moral fiber, sees the wrong of her ways, works to undo the damage and ensure the couple lives happily every after.

This is no 10 things I hate about you or She’s the Man. It is a refreshing retelling of the eponymous love story, which if viewed objectively is deeply flawed. Rosaline doesn’t make the wrongs right, it makes the wrong seem funny and well yes, rights some wrongs. The titular character is independent, intelligent, knows her mind, isn’t patriarchal but does stumble when it comes to non-platonic attraction – something to which a lot of females can relate. Then she has the normal human feelings of jealousy, rage and frustration when things don’t go her way, finally ending with the silver lining to it all when she finds the man who is a perfect match for her (spoiler alert – Romeo and Juliet aren’t too perfect for each other, by the way). It is joyful to see the other side of this mega love story, from the eyes of the jilted lover. It ties in with the character of the easily-swayed Romeo (though not publicised as such).

Rosaline is a movie carried on by female character, doesn’t take itself too seriously and you shouldn’t either. There is no Shakespearean English (comically explained as being difficult to follow in the movie) and no English accents either. It is quirky, female-empowering, and explores love more than first sight. And if taken the time to think about it, it can actually be deep. What Rosaline’s character ends up finding is someone who is at her side when she needs it, calls her antics for what they are and is not completely, totally, irrevocably in love with her, which is more sane and real. Kaitlyn Dever is a delight, she is channeling her persona from Last Man Standing, and it fits well in this movie. To praise Minnie Driver is stating the obvious, but she is a straight-shooter nurse to the impulsive Rosaline and it fits well with the over-all tone. The movie is surprisingly well written and made. It might surprise even the readers of this post as these movies typically are bad. This one is not. Do watch.

Single Drunk Female

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https://www.primevideo.com/

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Sofia Black-D’Elia, Ally Sheedy, Rebecca Henderson, Sasha Compère, Lily Mae Harrington, Garrick Bernard, Jojo Brown
Where to watch: Disney+
Seasons: 1 season, 10 episodes, 20-odd minutes each
To watch or not to watch: A nice, decently-paced dramedy on adulting

Samantha Fink or Sam (Sofia Black-D’Elia) is an alcoholic. After a major blow-out at her workplace where she arrived late and drunk for a meeting, blamed the “system” and assaulted her boss for firing her, she is mandated by the court to go to rehab, do community service, and is put under probation. As she was broke and without a job, she had to move back home and go through the 12 steps of recovery. Not many people struggling with addiction have a well-functioning family, and such is true for Sam as well. Her mother, Carol, (Ally Sheedy), is not exactly happy to have Sam back, wants to carry on with her life unencumbered after losing her husband. The loss of the father/husband is the major cause of rift between mother and daughter. Anyway, Sam finds help in the AA support group, gets a no-nonsense sponsor, Olivia (Rebecca Henderson), a job in a supermarket under a warm-hearted Mindy (Jojo Brown) and a potential for romance with James (Garrick Bernard). She also confronts the reality of her ex-boyfriend marrying her ex-best friend.

The above synopsis sounds like Mom without the fun, and it is not entirely false. It is only much more than just that. There is hilarity in the struggles of sobering up, a comfort in seeing an adult “adulting”, and succeeding in it. Sam beings as a train wreck but by the end of the 10 episodes, she has been 1 year sober, is more in control of her wants and expectations and that feels like a personal win for the viewer. It is a class of work which makes us wonder why we have the series, since it doesn’t feel like a sitcom, a slapstick and other types of comedies but still delivers. It upends the common belief that humor is in being drunk and consequences thereof, instead there is humor in growing-up while being an adult along with other adults around. Felicity (Lily Mae Harrington) is a single mother who is a party girl, and at the same time, she is highly responsible of her son and her job. This embodies the essence of the series.

Single Drunk Female is made on the real life experiences of the creator Simone Finch, and hence this is not an over-the-top series which makes us live vicariously. Many viewers would know someone struggling with addiction or are that person themselves, and can absolutely relate. It tells us, it is not fun being wrapped up in a childhood which once was, but there is happiness, comfort and pleasure in growing up as well. In this day and age, the media we are exposed to tells us that growing up and taking responsibility is hard and hence it is better not to. This series tells us that that thought is a potential fantasy, and life is hard at all stages, we just need to embrace it nonetheless; there are others who are in the same boat and together we can sort our lives out. This process is not limited to misfits, minority or marginalised groups, but is applicable to one and all. Also, it is refreshing to see new/lesser-known actors and that takes nothing away from the quality of the production. It makes for a light-hearted, feel-good, fresh dramedy which is highly recommended to binge watch.

Magpie Murders

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https://www.rottentomatoes.com/

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan, Alexandros Logothetis, Conleth Hill
Where to watch: Sony Liv
Seasons and episodes: 1 season, 6 episodes 45 minutes each
To watch or not to watch: A unique plot and investigation of a murder. Absolutely a must watch

Alan Conway (Conleth Hill) is a writer of the famous Atticus Pund novels and is writing a much-awaited book in the series (think Sherlock Holmes meets Hercule Poirot style murder mystery detective). Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) is a London editor for Alan, and doesn’t get along with him – mainly because Alan is an irascible man who is not happy writing Atticus Pund and punishes everyone around him for his unhappiness. Susan receives the latest Atticus Pund book, titled Magpie Murders, but it is missing the last chapter where the murder in the book is solved. Susan then goes to meet Alan to get the chapter, and finds that Alan has been murdered. Also, the last chapter is nowhere to be found. She then talks to everyone who was associated with Alan and slowly uncovers the real identities of the people Alan had used as characters in his book, and people had grudges against him for one reason or another. The suspect pool grows bigger.

The series is depicted through the parallels between the case in the book and real life murder of Alan Conway. While Susan is the real detective in real life, she is often thinking like Atticus Pund, to the extend that she hallucinates him. And since the people in the book are same as those in the vicinity of the murder victim, this whole depiction can be understood even with the chasm of the timelines.

The fact that the detective in the series is an editor, not someone who is qualified to find criminals makes the detection even more interesting for the viewers – it makes it more relatable. She is sure that the solution to the murder in the book will help with the murder of the author in real life, and she needs to solve both. Although the series is across timelines with frequent jumps from one timeline to another, it gets confusing only once through the entire length of 6 episodes. It keeps the interest going, not to mention refreshing. Lesley Manville is a very unlikely detective, she is a perfect editor and this goes with the vibe of the series. Highly recommend to watch.