Love and Loss: Amy Bloom's In Love & Netflix's One Day

Reading Amy Bloom's In Love helped me understand Robin William's final act. While there are nine states (Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, Maine and Vermont) and the District of Columbia which have right to die laws, you cannot have a physician assisted suicide without satisfying certain conditions. First, you have to be a resident of one of these states to have the right to die, more importantly you need to get medically assessed as having only six months to live. Which means you have to be almost at death's door to use this right-to-die card to have a physician-assisted suicide in the US of A.  Incurable degenerative diseases like Lewy body dementia (that Robin Williams had) or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's that will slowly hollow out a person over years are not excuses good enough to have the right to die in any of the nine states or DC. This is where Switzerland steps in.  Remember the name Dignitas and Pegasos, just in case.

Just in case was the reason why I decided to read Amy Bloom's In Love after I chanced upon a blurb about the book somewhere. Memoirs focusing on a single event in a writer's life and its aftermath is not my favorite form of non-fiction, but the information provided by the author and her style of writing kept In Love engaging for me.

During the same period I was going through Ms. Bloom's love-n-loss heavy memoir I also accidently started watching a chick-lit(?) series One Day on Netflix. Like Amy Bloom, Ambika Mod's Emma Morley is a bookish ethnic girl who becomes a writer and finds a soulmate in handsome, British upper class Dexter Mayhew.

Emma and Dex in One Day

One Day is based on the book of the same name written by David Nicholls, and tells the story of Emma and Dexter who meet and spend a night together on their last day at the university in 1988 and decide to meet each other every year afterwards, on the same day. There was also a 2011 movie based on the novel, starring Anne Hathaway as Emma. 

I loved the way Emma's character is written. Her one-liners are profoundly deep and funny. Leo Woodall's Dex is hurtlingly handsome and posh. They are from the opposite ends of the spectrum, both socially and intellectually and we, the viewers, desperately want them to be together, to see how it will all turn out. The writing and the script makes sure the audience are invested in Emma and Dex although the plot line of boy and girl from different sides of the track is an over-used one.

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My 2023 list of interesting TV shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime

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Bodies turns detective work into a time-traveling comedy, where four sleuths from different time periods in London team up to solve the ultimate whodunit. It satisfies my time traveling craving for the season.

The Fall of the House of Usher : The series is a wild, haunted romp that turns Poe's classic tale into a dysfunctional sitcom-meets-horror mashup.  It's Netflix's way of turning horror into a comedy of errors, making Usher's fall a laugh-out-loud tumble into the absurdly supernatural.

Guns and Gulabs Season 1 is like a crazy curry of '90s nostalgia and gangster drama. The cast is doing their thing, living on their own terms, and you can't help but be part of the ride. Raj and DK deserve a shout-out for the killer screenplay.

Kohrra is not your typical murder mystery. With knock-out performances and a screenplay that packs a punch, it's like peeling back layers of a mystery onion. Punjab's not-so-pretty realities like drugs, forced NRI marriages, and a sprinkle of patriarchy drama form the background of the story. The characters are a hot mess in the best way, fighting personal battles while solving the big mystery.

Beef: Starting from a road rage incident which then leads off to a cascading series of escalating incidents, 'Beef' explores the human condition with a raw, relatable touch. It is a gripping drama about two people living parallel lives in different circumstances. Money, status, and mental health are key topics covered in this series with a unique Asian American cultural twist

MH370 The Plane That Disappeared: The series navigates the complexities surrounding the disappearance of Flight MH370, shedding light on the emotional toll on families, the relentless search efforts, and the lingering questions that resonate globally. It's a poignant blend of investigative journalism and human narratives and expertly steers clear of sensationalism to present a respectful examination of an enduring mystery.

Cunk on Earth:  A mockumentary gem that simultaneously pokes fun at and revels in the absurdities of our historical narrative. The comedic timing is impeccable, and Cunk's deadpan delivery (Diane Morgan at her comedic best) makes even the most mundane historical tidbits downright hilarious.

-------------------------- AMAZON PRIME SHOWS -----------------------------------

Dahaad Season 1: Dahaad is a stellar crime thriller set in the heart of rural Rajasthan, India, exposing the deep-seated biases and injustices ingrained in the region's culture. Sonakshi Sinha shines as Anjali, a determined police officer challenging societal norms. It is based on a true story, the series keeps viewers on the edge, skillfully unveiling the twisted mind of a serial killer.

The Power Season 1 is  a thought-provoking exploration of societal upheaval in a world where women command electric abilities. The writing strikes a balance between drama and the weighty implications of a world transformed. Strap in for a journey where the real shocks aren't just in the superpowers but in the societal currents they unleash. The show adeptly navigates the complexities of power dynamics, instigating a paradigm shift that is both electrifying and deeply reflective.

Wilderness Season 1: Liv and Will, the seemingly golden couple, take their British charm to the Big Apple. The couple's cross-country trip to iron out wrinkles in their relationship turns into a wild rollercoaster of emotions, and suddenly, that dream holiday takes a detour into a living nightmare. 'Wilderness' isn't just a twisted love story; it's a journey into the chaos of relationships, proving that even the best-laid plans can go off the rails. Jenna Coleman is captivating and capitalizes on a well written female lead character, but most of other characters didn't the same kind of attention from the screenwriters.

Vadhandhi : The Fable of Veloni:  Eight captivating episodes centering around the mysterious death of a young woman, setting off a web of deception. SJ Suryah, in the role of Sub Inspector Vivek, skillfully navigates the intricate investigation, revealing layers of lies and deceit. Sanjana, portraying the beautifully haunting Velonie, adds a magnetic charm to the narrative, owning her role effortlessly. Vadandhi may have its flaws, but it's a compelling watch, showcasing the creators' mastery in crafting suspenseful narratives.

Hush Hush Season 1, with its women-centric vibe, shines a spotlight on the talents of Juhi Chawla, Karishma Tanna, Shahana Goswami, Kritika Kamra, Soha Ali Khan and Ayesha Jhulka. The ensemble cast plays a crucial role in weaving a narrative that delves into friendship, secrets, and the highs and lows of contemporary women's experiences. 

When I look at my Amazon Prime picks I realize that these are all series which are either women-centric or has strong lead characters who are women.  Prime also has more quality international content which is not just Korean.

BTW this is how a blog post would look if it was written by generative AI, like this post was :-) Will be switching back to the human mode in the new year. Happy 2024!

Writing Credits for this post : ChatGPT 3.5, the free version.

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Best shows on Amazon Prime & Netflix: My 2021 List

This is my customary end of the year list post. I usually do best books, but this year I am going to the best TV shows I have watched this year. Some of them were even adapted from books! That gives us one more reason not to read books, we can wait and watch when the show comes out.

My discovery of the year or my best TV show award goes to The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime. Here is the list of my top 10 tv shows of the year in no particular order, except for the one in the first place.

First Place - The Man in the High Castle (Prime): I like history. I like time travel and alternate universes. I don't really like science or fantasy fiction. But I am starting to like Philip K. Dick more than ever. He is the only science fiction writer I have ever enjoyed reading. 

The Man in the High Castle is history, time travel and alternate universes baked fresh from the kiln fired up right after WWII. It is based on Philip K. Dick's book of the same name. I started reading the book after I finished the show which is on Amazon Prime. The show is told from a different perspective than the book. The creators and the actors have kept it engaging, charismatic and it leaves us wanting more. Incredible performances all around. I am particularly impressed by Rufus Sewell who steals the show.  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. If you are a history buff with a weakness for alternate universes, this one is for you.

The Underground Railroad (Prime): What if the underground railroad was a real subterranean railroad transporting slaves to the free lands up north ? Based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer winning novel of the same name, Barry Jenkins' poem of a show is a hard-hitting portrayal of the ambitious and risky flights to freedom undertaken by slaves from southern plantations in the mid 1800s. 

Them (Prime): Amazon Prime has more authentic shows about black people than Netflix. While it has garnered many negative reviews from critics, I liked the period aspect of Them and how it shows a family of four who moved to Compton from the Carolinas battle the duel evils of racism and supernatural evil. Are they one and the same?

Patriot (Prime) : If Wes Anderson was making TV shows, Patriot might be it. Maybe writer-director Steven Conrad is Anderson's brother from another mother. Patriot is about a spy, who cannot be identified as a spy, whose day job is at an industrial piping company in Milwaukee, who also moonlights as a folk singer as an antidote to his stress - the level of which would have killed any other person. It is serious and comedic at the same time. It also reminds me of Asian black comedy crime dramas where periods of silence are abruptly offset by loud action, then all goes quiet again in the next minute and the protagonist carries on with whatever mundane daily task he might have been doing - like sharpening a pencil or reading a bus time table.

The Serpent (Netflix): The exquisitely shot, directed, edited and acted crime drama, The Serpent, follows the notorious criminal and serial killer Charles Sobharaj. Sobharaj was our version of Clyde, of the Bonnie and Clyde fame. There were several Bonnies in the real Sobharaj's story, although in this TV version, Bonnie is Marie-Andrée Leclerc . When I was a kid back in India, Sobharaj was captured and jailed for a brief time in Tihar jail from where he escaped using one of his ingenious schemes. It was great to see re-creation of sixties and seventies, going down the hippy trail in Asia on the tail of a notoriously manipulative psychopath. The production design and casting are on point.

Kim's Convenience, Seasons 1-4 (Netflix) : The best Korean show ever to be made by North Americans. Set in Toronto, it tells the story of a four member Korean-Canadian family who owns a convenience store. While it is light, natural, funny and this is the most realistic portraiture of an Asian immigrant family I have seen on TV.

Harlan Coben series on Netflix: For quick binge-able crime drama, just like the Harlan Coben paperbacks you might pickup from the airport kiosk, the TV shows adapted from Coben's novels are eminently binge-able, no matter what the language. I started with Safe, proceeded to The Five and The Stranger - all produced in U.K, before moving on to The Innocent (Spanish), Gone for Good (French) and The Woods (Polish.) 

Midnight Mass (Netflix) : Midnight Mass is an atmospheric series. It gives me the vibes of Netflix's show Messiah, a favorite of mine which Netflix canceled after the first season. Maybe due to religiosity, which is a cornerstone for both the shows. If you are in the mood for some dark moody horror with depressive undertones that rounds things off with a fiery apocalypse, too specific I know, then you might want to give Midnight Mass a try.

You (Netflix): How does a serial killer who is a book store manager ingratiate himself into high society and find his prey? Watch YOU for the answer. Based on the books by Caroline Kepnes, the protagonist could be called Dexter with a literary bend of mind. Addictive.

If I Hadn't Met You (Netflix): I will take time travel and alternate universes in any language. Si no t'hagues conegut is a Spanish Catalan series, a love story in disguise of a time traveling trope - that's what I fell for.

Other honorable mentions because I am too lazy to write.

The rest of my best on Amazon Prime you have probably not watched, yet.

• Hotel Beau Sejour (Belgium) : Supernatural crime drama with the protagonist murdered, caught up in an after-life limbo, trying to find her killer.
• Unforgotten (U.K) :  British crime series starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhasker.
• The Living & The Dead (U.K): Victorian era super natural of a farmer-scientist trying to prove the existence of after-life, starring Colin Morgan.
• Intruders (BBC America) : Stars Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown before she was famous. Supernatural.

The rest of my best on Netflix you might have watched already.

• Delhi Crime (India): Best Indian crime drama ever.
• Clickbait : Crime thriller set in the U.S, but Melbourne stands in for U.S west coast.
• The Chair : If you have always wondered what happens in academia and what do these professors, especially the ones who teach languages do, The Chair is a quick and easy watch.
• How To Sell Drugs Online Fast Seasons 1-3 (Germany) : Real life Breaking Bad about the true story of a teenage German entrepreneur. Engaging and funny.
• Never Have I Ever Seasons  1-2 : Teen drama. Mindy Kaling takes a look at the troubles and travails of teenage angst, through her protagonist, first generation Indian American teen, Devi Vishwakumar

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Korean Content : Best Korean shows on Netflix

Like half of the planet, I too am majorly into Korean shows these days. No Squid Game or Korean rom-coms for me. But even if you don't watch rom-coms or fictionalized game shows where characters get killed for money, there are plenty of stars to gaze at in the Korean media multi-verse. Here is a list of my favorite Korean streaming content that I had been bingeing on :

Reply 1988 : 1988 in Korea was not very different from the 1988 in my part of the world, when I had just entered my teens. We had small boxy cars, CRT TVs and sat on the floor and had dinner even when we had a proper dining table. Reply series is an anthology series with 3 seasons. It started with Reply 1997 in 2012, Reply 1994 in 2013 and Reply 1998 is the last season that started airing in 2015-16 and the only one I have watched in its entirety.

All the seasons are disconnected except a common concept that they are all about a group friends and their lives during a particular year, a turning point in their lives. Some of the actors re-appear, playing a different character in a different season. The last one, Reply 1988 is the most popular and by the third season it looks like the makers  of Reply series had perfected the formula for success. Reply 1988 is one of the highest ranked TV series in Korean cable TV history. 

Reply 1988 is the story of 5 families with teenage kids in the same neighborhood of Seoul growing up in the late eighties. The success of the series is the connection you will develop with the characters as it progresses - all fifteen of them. With 20 episodes almost an hour long it is a serious commitment, but once you get hang of it, you wouldn't want to get off that train. I almost gave up after first couple of episodes, but I am glad I did not.

Below is a quote by the female lead from the very last episode of the series. She is the one in the middle row, dead-center.

 “1988. This is the end of our Ssangmundong story. Longing for that time and longing for that street isn’t because I miss the younger version of myself. In that place, where we won’t be able to gather like that again, I regret being unable to say my final farewell. To the things that are already gone, to a time that has already passed, I want to say a belated farewell. Goodbye, my youth. Goodbye, Ssangmundong.”

Stranger (Secret Forest in Korean), season 1 : A police woman and a prosecutor team up to solve a political mystery / crime. The handful of main characters are complex and evolve as the story progresses. If you like detective stories or crime thrillers with a legal angle, a la John Grisham, Stranger is it. It was also featured in NY Times list of top international TV shows for the year 2017.

Hello, My Twenties (Age of Youth in Korean), season 1 : 5 girls sharing a house as they embark on their college journeys, part time jobs and share their growing pains. Been there. Done that. I could relate to it more than I could ever relate to Sex & the City or Friends. Both of those I have only watched sporadically, before the days of Netflix or other streaming platforms. How can Carrie Bradshaw writing a worldly wise weekly column in some New York newspaper afford to live in an upper East side brownstone? What could be more further from reality than her implausible NY life with her craze for Manolo Blahniks?

I was not really sure of Hello, My Twenties during the first episode or two. But once past that, the characters started to grow on me and their struggles and happiness started to matter. I finished the first season in a couple of days, but I couldn't bring myself to watch the second season as they switched out the actor - my favorite of the five girls, with a different actor. Thus my revisit of the twenties ended abruptly with Season 1.

Sisyphus - The Myth : If you like sci-fi, you might like Sisyphus. The lead actor from Stranger is also the lead in Sisyphus, that is what first lead me to it. It is also TV-14 which meant I was able to watch it with my kids. Sisyphus is not exactly the best of the best K-drama and it only appeals to a certain kind of audience. You have to check reality and logic at the door. It was good for a light one time watch.

Chicago Typewriter : I find that with Korean dramas or probably it is the case with every foreign language TV series or film, if I like some of the actors I try to find out if anything else is available on Netflix or Prime that these actors have been featured in and if there is, I give it a try. I started watching Chicago Typewriter when I found from Wikipedia that one of the actors from Reply 1988 was in it and it was available on Netflix. Also the theme of the show looked intriguing - how were they going to establish a Korean connection to Chicago, through a typewriter?  There are only a handful of characters, and it could be summarized as a sort of time-traveling ghostly love triangle involving a typewriter. The three main leads are strong and convincing. You cannot apply human logic to ghostly deeds so even if you have questions you can attribute the lack of answers to the ethereal nature of the story.

A couple of other Korean TV shows I had reviewed are here - Tunnel & Signal. These are the shows which got me started on K-drama, in case you are looking for a gateway drug to Korean content and don't really care for rom-coms.

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Supernatural, Paranormal or Time Travel TV shows : Best of Netflix & Amazon Prime 2021

su·per·nat·u·ral  /ˌso͞opərˈnaCH(ə)rəl/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

1. (of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.

Beyond scientific understanding, defying logic and laws of nature - these two attributes give unlimited freedom to story writers. While I pooh-pooh at the fantasy genre and couldn't care less about the American construct of zombies or their living relatives vampires or werewolves, I cannot explain why I am drawn to the type of supernatural / science fiction shows I have listed below, but I am.

Tunnel (Netflix US): Tunnel was my introduction to K-Drama. I still consider it as my favorite. It is a police procedural about the hunt for a serial murderer with a time traveling detective thrown in. All the Korean stars are young and immaculate - must be the reason why Korean skin care products are a rage everywhere. They are easy on the eyes and glide the narrative along a smooth-as-butter path, even when it is along a dark and ominous abandoned tunnel. Highly engaging and binge-able.

Signal (Netflix US): I was looking for Korean shows to watch after Tunnel when I chanced upon Signal. I almost gave up after the first couple of episodes. But I am glad I did not. Signal get better and stays engaging for the rest of the episodes. While no-one really time travels, there is real time communication happening between past and the present through an old radio.

Dark (Netflix US): Dark is like the German cousin of Stranger Things, where time is the upside-down. It checks my time travel subject box. But the story went into the Matryoshka doll zone in Season 3 - nesting of characters never before seen in the space-time continuum we inhabit. I had to quit watching after a couple of episodes in Season 3. Still Season 1 and 2  are worth the watch and many die-hard fans, especially in millennial age group can't sing enough praises of the series.

Equinox (Netflix US): From Denmark, Equinox feels like Frozen meets Stranger Things, played out on a darker, adult canvas. It starts with an incident where 21 high school graduates go missing, never to be found again and progresses through a sister's search for the truth behind the disappearance of her sibling.

The Haunting of the Hillhouse (Netflix US):: This is one of those rare instances where the show/movie was better than the book it was based on. I went to sleep trying to read Shirley Jackson's original. Although I did finish it almost succeeded in driving me off ghost stories, usually one of my favorite subjects to read, altogether. Unlike in the book where the people who spend time at the Hillhouse are a group of strangers, in the TV adaptation it is a family - that change improves the narrative. If you are looking for a spine-chilling ghost story to scare the living day lights out of you, look no further, you have arrived at your destination.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix US): This show is a follow up to The Haunting of Hillhouse, but it is not half as good, not enough spine-tingling qualities and not very scary ghosts. It is more of a gothic romance than a ghost story, if you ask me.

Glitch (Netflix US): Ghosts or the living dead (who are not zombies, not blood-thirsty) who have time traveled to reach the present day. Glitch is Australian for highly binge-able. More detailed review here.

The OA (Netflix US): The first season was addictive with cross-dimensional travel, life after death and blind girls gaining sight. The second season is kind of weird and I am not sure what the producers where trying to do, but then Netflix canceled the show after Season 2. The OA was where I first came across Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Erased (Netflix US): A one season Japanese TV show based on a popular thriller manga series Erased has the protagonist Satori Fujinuma traveling back in time to save some of his elementary school friends. It is a quick and compelling watch if you don't mind watching shows with subtitles.

Intruders (Amazon Prime): Produced for BBC America, you can see a young Millie Bobbie Brown in this paranormal series about returning souls. Ms. Brown is quite an acting powerhouse. The series does have many edge-of-your-seat moments and if you can not get lost in the logistics and timing of soul transfers and mummification is a gripping mini series. 

The Living and the Dead (Amazon Prime): English ghosts in the turn of the (20th) century English countryside in a TV show with excellent production quality - that is The Living and the Dead. During the years 1880s to the First World War, one of the most happening fields was psychoanalysis. All the cool kids were psychoanalytical theorists or psychologists like Freud, Jung, Karl Abraham and the protagonist of the series, Nathan Appleby. Is it schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder or real ghosts from the future and the past?

Truth Seekers (Amazon Prime) : If you love the quirky British duo Nick Frost - Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, The World's End & Hot Fuzz) who usually have been showcasing their talents in movie-dom only, this supernatural ghost buster TV show is their first foray into TV land. If you want a show that is warm, fuzzy, spooky and very British, try Truth Seekers.

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Bron | Broen Review

Almost a decade after Scandi noir or Nordic noir  had migrated from books to TV screen, I happened to watch of one the flagship TV shows of the genre - Bron | Broen or The Bridge.  The bridge stands for the Øresund Bridge across Øresund strait that connects the southern Swedish town of Malmo to the Danish capital - Copenhagen. The crime that starts off season 1 of Bron | Broen leaves it dead body straddling the Swedish-Danish border passing through middle of Øresund bridge.

The long and looming, sometimes foreboding Bridge is an omnipresent character in the series. It is a team of two detectives, a Swedish and a Danish one who are given the responsibility to investigate this cross-border dead body / crime. Sofia Helin headlines as the Asperger-y Swedish cop - Saga Noren and the Danish side is represented by the warm and affable, Martin Rohde played by Kim Bodnia. They make an unlikely pair who hit off despite the odds.

Considering the geographical proximity and the cultural overlap of Sweden and Denmark across the strait, the series must have surely explored and presented nuances and references pertaining to the people of the region. Not being very much familiar to the place or the culture except the civil engineering marvel of Øresund bridge, all that was lost on me.

But the one thing that was not unfathomable is the brooding overcast geography and how it influences the people and their behavior in nordic climate. A third of my life was spent north of the 45th parallel in the snowy gray northern lands. My affinity towards Nordic crime dramas is natural. The landscape and the weather are familiar, the IKEA-ish interiors not so much - but that's okay, mega IKEA box stores are working hard at converting the interior-scape on this side of the Atlantic too. As soon as IKEA introduces two-day shipping to Alaska we will be brewing our own home-grown noir in our northern country.

The other attraction for me is the prominent presence of strong, unconventional women protagonists in Nordic noir, starting with Stieg Larsen's Lisbeth Salander aka The Girl with Dragon Tattoo in the 2000s to Bron | Broen's Saga Noren. While Bron | Boren is an engaging crime drama, that evolves into a better version of itself each passing season, I am not really convinced about the way the creators have coached Sofia Helin to play a detective on the spectrum. Then again most characters on the autistic spectrum on TV are stereo-typical, with certain traits exaggerated - the way the majority neurotypical society perceives how a person with Asperger's syndrome should be. As they say once you meet an autistic person, you know one autistic person. Helin's Saga Noren is probably one of the better depictions out there, because I know, I tried watching the U.S version of Bron | Broen.

Bron | Broen inspired a series of remakes the world over in various languages including a U.S one on FX called The Bridge and a French version called The Tunnel. There are also three other remakes take place at the borders of Estonia / Russia, Malaysia / Singapore and Germany / Austria. I almost started watching the U.S one by accident, then I was warned by a concerned loved one to stay clear of it. I am glad such people exist in my life.

But after finishing Season 1 of Bron | Broen, my curiosity got better of me and I sneaked in a fast forwarded S1E1 of the US series. OMG - it was like I had averted a major catastrophe. It was a let down on all fronts. The Hollywoodization of the show made sure that the direction, screenplay, casting and acting went out of the window. 120 lb, 5' 7" waif like Diane Kruger guarding the El Paso-Jaurez Bridge of the Americas against drug lords, coyotes and ICE, sauntering into mob bosses' dens in the middle of the night without backup? Gimme a break. On top of it - a police officer with Asperger's syndrome wearing make-up? I am so done. I like Damian Bichir, but the dialogs and the hamming of other actors were so over the top that Bichir's natural style looked out of place.

I am half way past Season 3. Kim Bodnia said goodbye to the series after season 2 (the rumor was the presence of anti-Semitic elements at the main shooting location of Malmo) and in comes as Saga Noren's Danish counterpart a much younger Thure Lindhart playing detective Henrik Sabroe. He is another broken character like Saga Noren. I have one more season to go after this, we will see how that goes.

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Glitch : A series co-produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Netflix

Why did Glitch not show up in any of the best of Netflix lists? Glitch, an ABC show, picked and co-produced by Netflix from its second season onwards is one of the highly bingeable shows on Netflix (US.) I accidentally stumbled on it after watching a zombie series (Dead Set, UK) on fast forward and was looking into more 'shows like this.' In a way it is a zombie show without blood, guts and the inevitable zombie apocalypse. No spoilers, check it out for yourself.

If you have been looking for glitch-in-the-matrix, afterlife or paranormal TV shows, Glitch is it. There are three seasons and six episodes per season. With each episode an hour length, you can probably finish watching the entire three seasons over a weekend if you put your mind to it LOL like I did. There is no fourth season or AFAIK nothing is in the works yet.

Glitch takes place in a fictional town of Yoorana, in Victoria, Australia. A set of people come back from the dead, rising out of their graves in perfect physical shape. They are helped by a police officer and a doctor who first discover them. All characters have a back story and their story lines mature as the series progresses. As viewer I felt invested in the characters though all the actors were totally new to me. Brilliant casting, great acting and a solid story / screenplay bring to us the vision of creators Tony Ayres and Louise Fox and director Emma Freeman.

One of the things that made me like Glitch, especially the first two seasons, (the final one was a washout though,) is it is very un-American. There is no hint of Hollywood anywhere, it is feels like an Australian original. Although in reality, it is not. It supposedly got its inspiration from Les Revenants, a French TV show and a cancelled (after season 1) American TV show, The Returned. I am pretty sure the American show would have been too much plastic for me, call it my confirmation bias. Also I prefer the sunnier Australian outback to the dark French mountain towns. 

While the seasons 1 and 2 were gripping and had good production value for a series produced on a tight budget as Glitch was, the season 3 was below par. It was as if the creators of the show couldn't figure out how to bring the series to a culmination. New characters were introduced, then had their stories abruptly cut short. There were a lot of loose threads with explanations lacking and a very anti-climatic ending. I thought the characters deserved more. It was as if there was only enough money to somehow finish the third season and no more. Therefore they had to set a fire, annihilate everything and bring the series to a close once and for all.

Still, it is worth a watch. Because it is not very often that we come across paranormal or tales about glitches without eerie sound effects, cheesy story and production design and ghosts who are not dressed in white.

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Leila : Netflix TV show review

Sometimes the specter of a dystopia is too real and close for comfort. There is no hiding from the fact that we live in portentous times. USA, Russia, China, India, Brazil - the masochistic monarchs (many democratically elected)  who preside over these critical nations of the Earth make me wonder whether we - the human kind, are in the first chapters of a Stephen King horror novel or an Atwoodian dystopia. Wish I had been born a boomer like my parents and done with my time on this planet before whatever Idiocracy that might descend upon us. 

Leila - the Netflix series by Deepa Mehta, is India's take on its dystopian future, life in a pure Hindu utopia - Aryavarta. The production design is commendable considering they didn't construct elaborate sets, rather used what is available along with a smattering of CGI and still came out with a convincing presentation. The Indian utopia/dystopia (depending on which side you are on) in Leila is based on a religion,caste based categorization of the masses.  It has more similarities with Hitlerian version of a pure-bred paradise than the gender based subjugation explored in The Handmaid's Tale. Leila's take, I believe, is more relevant and timely from an Indian (and current global) perspective than the Margaret Atwood's tale of subjugated maids.

Great casting - Huma Qureishi, Siddharth, the lead pair thrown together by circumstance make a powerful impression.  The supporting characters are also well etched out. Leila, got a lot of flak in India for its purported Hindutva bashing. I like to think of it as a possible outcome, an alternative reality that will come into existence if we keep on making bad choices while selecting our leaders. And yes, WATER, like it is shown in Leila, is going to be resource over which future wars will be fought, long as we keep on denying climate change.

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TV Series Reviews : Better Call Saul, Big Little Lies, Fargo Season 3, The Untold History of the United States, The Night Of

This is the golden age of TV series. With the cult of cord-cutting claiming its followers across generational groups it is time we all bowed down to the power of streaming. When Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and HBO provide some amazing content and bring the best actors of our era to the TV, how can we not binge watch, right?

I've jotted down a few series I watched this year and the last, although there are many more that I liked like Stranger Things, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Orphan Black and re-watching Twin Peaks and Twilight Zone that I find too lazy to write about. So let me go ahead with my random picks.

Nothing has yet toppled Breaking Bad from my pantheon of the best TV series ever, but Better Call Saul - the TV series that Vince Gilligan and his team spun off from Breaking Bad is a close contender. Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill (aka Saul Goodman) is phenomenal. The same goes for the supporting cast - incredible acting and the story with its layered metaphors is as engrossing as Breaking Bad.

Big Little Lies brings big name Hollywood stars like Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon to a wealthy Monterrey neighborhood. It is a female oriented series centered around the lives and predicament of mothers whose children go to the same Monterrey elementary school. It is the closest in my list to a traditional TV series,

Oliver Stone's The Untold History of the United States is a ten part series I hope more Americans watched, as the untold in the title stands for untold to the Americans, but known as truth to the rest of the world. A great series for a history buff like me.

To me Fargo is all about its ambience, its colors and light and its all pervading 'winter-ness', which makes it a perfect series for dark and / or snowy nights. Although Season 3 won't be my favorite season, it is still a crime drama set somewhere where icy roads and grey sky are the norm - reminds  me of some place where I had spent a long time.

The Night Of , the mini series from HBO is the one I cannot leave without making a mention. This hard hitting series starring British actor Riz Ahmed was supposedly a pet project of James Gandolfini before he passed away.It is indeed one of the best series that came out in the last few years. John Turtorro plays the role Gandolfini was supposed to play. Ahmed won an Emmy for his role, where he thanked and touted James Gandolfini as the man who single-handedly changed television. Yes, the world was different before The Sopranos.

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