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.
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Tiffany Boone, Manny Jacinto, Regina Hall, Bobby Cannavale
Streaming on: Primevideo
To watch or not to watch: Meh. Watch it because it is available and you have time to kill
Nine people (4 individuals and 2 families) get accepted at a healing centre in Middle of Nowhere, USA. They all have suffered some form of setback or trauma in life and are looking to somehow get over it. The retreat is run by Masha (Nicole Kidman) and she is assisted by 3 other people.They keep everything under control and design the treatment program, customised for each attendee. Every attendee has some dark secret behind their traumas, which they are hididng, and apprehensive of each other in the beginning. Masha claims to have healed/cured/changed people’s lives in the 10 days they spend at the ridiculously expensive retreat. As time goes by, people make friends, share their life stories and generally open up to the others. In the parallel, we have Masha and her team conspiring about the treatment and have secrets of their own, which also forms a plot in parallel with the attendees’ stories.
First of, the name of the series is incorrect. It isn’t 9 perfect strangers all around. There is a couple and a family of three, which reduces the number of “strangers” for them. Secondly, the whole strangers meeting each other has been done with multiple times, ever since Agatha Christie wrote “And then there were none”. Here too, the part of getting to know each other and making friends, which is a large part of the series, is quite expected and hence feels dragged. Except the storyline of Frances (Melissa McCarthy) and Tony (Bobby Cannavale), which is entertaining and sweet and witty. There are instances in the first half of the series in which people question their presence at the retreat, as if it was not voluntary application?! If that is the question posed, the viewer needs either to know the origin of the question (like in Oldboy) or the answer to it (Matrix). That whole plot is left to open, never to be brought up again, discussed or revealed.
The series tries really hard to be full of intrigue or suspense and a sense of underlying plot twist, hinted all along through different memories of the people, but there is none. The deep soundtrack, tracking shots, psychedelic experiences, none of them lead anywhere, only give a sense of building upto something, which is ultimately nothing. In fact, the whole series can be reviewed by calling it “Tries Hard” – the staff tried hard to be full of intrigue while preparing the treatment plan, which is nothing more than felony crime, Nicole Kidman tries hard to be Masha who is inexplicably revered and is all that is ethereal but it fails because watching her speak can be physically painful, the guests try hard to make their lives hard, but in reality the regular medical world already has solutions to most of their troubles.
One thing the show highly favours is the appearances of people – everyone is in awe of Masha because she is this skinny silhouette clad in white, with a Russian accent as far from real as the physical distance between the countries. There is no reason for anyone to like her, or trust her, as it is revealed that she drugs the guests without their knowledge, all in the name of “healing” (really wrong messaging here, by the way, and surprising that not many people are speaking about it). Despite the potential to deliver on life-changing solutions to the very real problems some of the guests do seem to have, it just falls flat on the face, like having a Christmas gift from a favorite person, with beautiful wrapping, but the box is filled with packing peanuts. This analogy is more true, since this comes from the same set of creators and adapted from the same author who wrote Big Little Lies.
Melissa McCarthy deserves an award for her performance in this show, she is finally getting a role where she is able to show her range – no more goofy comic sidekick. She is also the only one who has a more detailed and relatable trauma from which she is a trying to recover. If you need a reason to watch the show, she is it. And nothing else.
To watch or not to watch: Extremely predictable, with good performances
Nikhil Soni (Manoj Bajpayee) is a police officer supervising emergency calls, when they receive a call from a woman in distress, who is planning to commit suicide. She is depressed because of the death of her young son in an accident the previous year. Meanwhile, Nikhil is also dealing with a domestic situation – his 17 year old son has a criminal past and is doing little to mend his ways, giving his mother Prerna (Sakshi Tanwar) sleepless nights. The suicidal woman (Neena Gupta) reveals her true agenda, which is vendetta against the people responsible for her son’s death.
It all sounds thrilling, right? Yea, it’s not. From the first, it is obvious the caller lady is connected with Nikhil Sood and has something to do with the crime connected to his son. All the thrill of the movie is collected in the trailer, which undoubtedly is compelling. The whole is lackluster to say the least. The fact that Manoj Bajpayee is a police officer, same as in Family Man, which was rightfully popular, does not seem like a coincidence. It is definitely clickbait. The actors have all delivered flawless performances. Special mention of Sakshi Tanwar, who is not praised nearly enough and who has delivered absolutely believable performance – quality stuff.
This was another disappointing release by Zee5 and another one which was tirelessly promoted across all platforms. Another release with class A performance and script from the bottom of the barrel. It is fundamentally wrong to continuously produce low quality content, specially by a production house as big as Zee. It is our responsibility as consumers to respond by our actions and not watch or promote content which is bad and plain lazy. As for the movie, nothing against the performances, but don’t watch 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.
Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Daniel Levy, Annie Murphy
Streaming on: Netflix
To watch or not to watch: A must watch – a perfect pick-me-upper
A filthy rich family in a big town has all its assets seized because their accountant misfiled their taxes. The only asset left with them is a town called Schitt’s Creek, which the dad, Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) bought as a joke for his son, David (Daniel Levy). The town is so hopeless that even the revenue department couldn’t sell it. So the family, which also has a daughter, Alexis Rose (Annie Murphy) and a mother, Moira (Catherine O’Hara) move to the motel in Schitt’s Creek. Their current situation is a far cry from their previous life, which was filled with expensive parties and clothes. The entire series follows them on the new adventure and shows how they rebuild their lives and relationships.
The premise of the series is not unheard of (Arrested Development comes to mind, which executes the same plot in a completely opposite story and is a blast) but the rest of it all is totally fresh. The characters are rich, spoiled and are lovable and not relatable at all, unless one is ultra rich. These 4 are utterly clueless on how the real world works and they have to navigate the new waters with only their resourcefulness. It is a huge change they have to make, where they have to adjust with not being the popular and have things come easy. The characters really grow over the seasons. It is heartening to see them really mature into less-pretentious adults and have care about others. Somewhat.
It is a hilarious story about reality check and self-improvement. Not an easy topic to work comedy into, and yet it achieves it. Daniel Levy is the star of the show. He is charming and probably the second least pretentious character after his series (and real life) father Eugene. The first season doesn’t leave the audience wanting too much, but just hang on. It is all more than worth it as the seasons progress. It is not often that series really evolve along with the characters and this show does it beautifully. A shout out to the costume designer Debra Hanson, who has subtly made the Roses look ridiculous and showed the difference in characters. A must watch for some much needed upliftment in these trying times.
To watch or not to watch: Better watch the original BBC Criminal Justice or the American series The Night Of
Starring: Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi, Jackie Shroff, Mita Vashist
An innocent man Aditya (Vikrant Massey) is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is regular college student, looking to get to a party by driving his father’s cab. A pretty, rich girl gets into his cab looking to hire and asks him to take her from one location to another and was obviously on drugs. Because of the delay, he misses his party and the girl invites him over to her place, where they drink alcohol, do drugs and have sex. Aditya wakes up in the middle of the night and finds the girl stabbed to death. He remembers nothing and tries to flee the scene of the crime with the murder weapon in hand. Ensues a long legal battle, Madhav Misra (Pankaj Tripathi) being the constant as legal help on the outside, even though he is way out of his depth in this case. Aditya also becomes street smart in the jail with Mustafa’s (Jackie Shroff) help, who runs a gang in the jail. The whole experience strips Aditya of his innocence and takes his family through emotional, financial and societal roller coaster.
The series is a play-by-play adaptation of The Night Of starring Riz Ahmed and John Tuturro, which is in turn an adaptation of the BBC series called Criminal Justice.
It is a 10 episode series which could have just as easily been wrapped up in 5; it is unnecessarily stretched. Pankaj Tripathi outshines everyone as always, playing the role of a down-on-his-luck lawyer with the heart of gold with élan. He is eccentric with little social skills and gives comic relief along with intensity seamlessly. Vikrant Massey is believable as a wronged college student and the character arc throughout the series is heartwarming. Jackie Shroff is given a lot of screen time to appease the star of yesteryear and is the only actor the series could have done without. If someone is watching the series, they can simply skip the parts with him in them.
There is nothing exceptional or attention grabbing in the direction or cinematography – it is primarily about acting and secondarily about the plot. It could have been much better if the social issues like the drug abuse amongst youngsters and class discrimination had been woven into the story line and made part of the reason of accusation, but they lost a lot of opportunity to make the series stand for something and be more than just storytelling. Viewers can easily swap Criminal Justice with The Night Of, which is also on Hotstar.
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