Aspirants (mini-series)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 1
CULT – 1

 

 

VERDICT – 5/5

 

 

PROS –
1) Life and struggle of 3 UPSC aspirants in Delhi’s Old Rajendra Nagar. A spiritual sequel to Kota Factory with a similar plot.
2) Hat’s Off to the TVF team for coming out with this brilliant binge-worthy web series in the ocean of web shows currently in the Indian OTT space.
3) A mediocre story uplifted with superb performances, great writing and, music.
4) Noteworthy performance from Sunny Hinduja as Sandeep.

 

 

CONS –
1) Lukewarm climax.

 

 

QUOTE –
Plan B is for losers.

WandaVision (2021) (mini-series)

STORY – 0
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 1/5

 

 

PROS –
1) A devastated Wanda (after the death of Vision) manifests a fictional family with her magical abilities assimilating a small town.
2) The sit-coms episodes
3) Evan Peters appearing as Quicksilver. This opens the door for more X-Men characters joining the MCU in future projects.

 

 

CONS –
1) An underwhelming adaptation of House Of M.
2) A lukewarm launch of MCU Phase 4.
3) Agatha Harkness: a weak villain.

 

 

QUOTE –
Agatha Harkness: Same story, different century. There’ll always be torches and pitchforks for ladies like us, Wanda.

JL 50 (2020) – (miniseries)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 1

 

 

VERDICT – 4/5

 

 

PROS –
1) A mad scientist in 1984 cracked an ancient time-travel code and conducted his experiment on a passenger plane named JL 50. He miscalculated and instead of returning in 35-hrs, the plane crash-landed after 35 years.
2) Project Ashoka – The space-time experiment with a Mauryan connection.
3) A remarkable series in terms of story, direction, screenplay, and of course performance from a brilliant cast including Abhay Deol, Pankaj Kapur, and Piyush Mishra.
4) Amongst the plethora of web-series available on OTT platforms, this sci-fi miniseries is a must-watch.

 

 

CONS –
1) The cliched explanation of wormholes using a sheet of paper and a pencil.
2) The cop investigating the case, going through a divorce is also now done to death.

 

 

QUOTE –
Das: We made it!

Paatal Lok (Mini-Series)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 1

 

VERDICT – 4/5

 

 

PROS –
1) A small-town politician decides to get rid of his rival’s loyal henchman and ends up opening a pandora box. The numerous colorful characters involved in this mess are merely a ruse, irrelevant to the main puppeteer Bajpayee (played surprisingly by Anup Jalota).
2) The sub-plots and backstories are better than the main plot. Without the flashbacks, it’s an ordinary episode of Crime Patrol.
3) Jaideep Ahlawat finally landed up in a show where he can show his true prowess.
4) Fast-paced screenplay and brilliant writing by Sudip Sharma.

 

CONS –
N/A

 

QUOTE –
“aisa shaastron mein likha hua hai, par maine WhatsApp mein padha hai”

Dracula (2020 Miniseries)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

VERDICT – 3/5

 
PROS –
1) Ep 1: Gripping screenplay; the first episode was somewhat faithful to the original book and also the best in the series.
2) Agatha Van Helsing vs Count Dracula grand dual at the gate of the convent.
3) Ep 2: Climactic 123 years time-leap was surely surprising.
4) Witty one-liners by Count Dracula in all 3 episodes.

 

CONS –
1) Lucy Westenra sub-plot in Ep 3 was utterly useless. The entire modern-day England twist was disappointing.
2) The quality of the show goes down with every passing episode.
3) Climactic revelations establish Dracula as an ashamed warrior with survival guilt.

 

QUOTE –
She: What’s the state of him?
Dracula: He’s downstairs.
She: Drunk?
Dracula: Well, that’s certainly one way of putting it.

War & Peace (2016 Miniseries)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 1
CULT – 1

VERDICT – 5/5

 
PROS –
1) A grand adaptation of a grand novel. Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece with a classic happy ending. Primary themes of this classic include love triangles, forgiveness, sacrificing love for family, spirituality, the cycle of karma, etc.
2) Great casting including Jim Broadbent, Brian Cox, Paul Dano, etc.
3) A story is as good as it’s the main villain. This grand story’s grand villain is none other than Napoleon Bonaparte.
4) Rated-R war scenes
5) Andrei and Natasha love story
6) Some of the most fascinating characters of this story are the mild-mannered generous Count Ilya Rostov, and the villain-turned-hero Fedor Dolokhov.

 

CONS –
N/A

 

QUOTE –
Pierre Bezukhov: They say sufferings are misfortunes. But if I was asked, would I stay as I was before I was taken prisoner, or go through it all again? I would say for God’s sake, let me be a prisoner again.

Chernobyl (miniseries)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 1
CULT – 1

 

VERDICT – 5/5

 
PROS –
1) Chernobyl (2019) will go down as one of the greatest mini-series in the history of TV along with Band of Brothers (2001)
2) Thanks to this series we now know the level of disaster and how entire Europe was at stake due to this man-made catastrophe.
3) The series provides great insight into the sacrifices made by Russian miners, soldiers, doctors and the common Russians conscripted in the Exclusion Zone, contrary to the constant negative portrayal of Russians in Hollywood movies.
4) Storytelling: The series is based on a real-life disaster which is part of documented history. The makers of this show did an exceptional job pulling a thriller out of it.
5) The finale with Legasov explaining how an RBMK reactor explodes. The ease with which the Nuclear disaster was explained was exemplary.
6) The eerie dosimeters clicking soundtrack will make any viewer experience the dangerous level of harmful radiations.

 

 
CONS –
N/A

 

QUOTE –
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”

Wild Wild Country (Mini-Series)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
MUSIC – 1
CULT – 1

 

VERDICT – 4/4

 
PROS –
1) Osho owes his empire in Oregon to Ma Anand Sheela. The foul-mouthed no-nonsense boss bitch is possibly the most under-rated Gujarati of all time. One can wonder what she’d have done as a politician or as a businesswoman.
2) Building Rajneeshpuram: A Shangri La destined to doom. The disillusioned architects of this paradise were as corrupt as anyone outside. In the hindsight, it’s fascinating how Osho was talking about “deprogramming” USA while hiding behind the same US constitution.
3) Muddy Ranch to Antelope to Wasco County – A new “Mayflower” community within the USA. A perfect case study to understand how US voting laws can be misused.
4) One of the most gripping and binge-worthy Netflix documentary series.Kudos to Netflix for producing this long-overdue documentary about the cult of a dopehead sex maniac conman called Osho and his overly possessive secretary Ma Anand Sheela.
5) Great soundtrack: Void Vision – Sour

 

CONS –
N/A

 
QUOTE –
Ma Anand Sheela: Rajneeshpuram is a big living opera.Sheela a soprano.Bhagwan a tenor.Rajneeshpuram the setting. Operas are, at the end, always tragic. But there were so many facets, so many dimensions in this opera.I would like to say, “People of Oregon…think yourselves lucky that this opera came your way.”

The Terror (Season 1)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 1
CULT – 1

Verdict – 5/5

 

Pros –
1) The sheer production value of this entire miniseries is amazing.
2) Great background score
3) The vicious psychopathic character of the imposter Cornelius Hickey
4) Tuunbaq: The supernatural creature and its final battle.
5) Cannibalism: This sub-plot is not for the weak-hearted.

 

 

Cons –
N/A

 

Quote –
Captain Crozier: Friend. Mother. Lover. All the things they say a ship is to a captain, and they miss what really matters. Confessor. This ship knows everything about me.

The Night Of (2016)

STORY – 0
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

Verdict – 2/5

 

 

Pros –

1) John Turturro as John Stone : Saved the best of himself for the finale monologue
2) Courtromm drama
3) Riz Ahmed as Naz : The transformation
4) Bill Camp as Dennis Box is a revelation
5) The Cat Subplot analogy with Naz’s.

 
Cons –

1) Poorna Jagannathan as Nasir’s mother : huge miscast, she should’ve been playing the lawyer instead of Amara Karan
2) The mini-series is NOT a murder mystery or Crime Drama or anything of that sort.It’s a cinematographic-crime-murder-mystery which is being captured by expressions of actors which got nothing to do with solving the crime.
3) Unnecessary sub-plots not impacting the story-line

 

Quote –

“Stone : You’re free.”