Category Archives: TV SHOW

BLACK MIRROR SEASON 3 (NETFLIX)

A BLEAK FUTURE HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD !!!

The first two series of Charlie Brooker’s anthology served up some of the sharpest sci-fi in years. This year with the introduction of Netflix the budget has been upped resulting in some of the best production values on TV. The half dozen episodes of Season 3 are a cult TV offering with “unhappy endings” that’ll leave you fully entertained. This classic series revels in seeing people, usually unaware of their frightful destinies, powerless to halt the realizations of their fates. But for us the audience it is cathartic to watch them crash and burn !!!

Social Media. Online Gaming. Porn. Virutal Worlds. Philosophical Consequences of High Tech Warfare. And Social Media again…… are the themes of the six episodes. Don’t let the big words and bigger ideas fool you or put you off— the episodes are superbly scripted, extremely easy to understand and make a great impression on the watcher…

These new alt-future fables come with the same pointed warning: Beware the cost of technologies that dehumanize the human experience while purporting to enhance it.

Think of the episodes as 6 mini-movies which are so immersive that it will take you a while to return to normal once you’ve seen one. This crop of dystopian tales serves to remind us how terminally dependent we are on the iPhones, apps, gadgets, doodads, and next-gen inventions that may sooner “kill” us than make for better living.

This is MUST SEE TV (Warning: you may never look at your gadgets in the same way again !!)

If you haven’t subscribed to NETFLIX do so right away. This series itself is worth the Rs.650 per month !!!

SAUMIL BHANSHALI

DEMOCRACY IS SO OVERRATED! – HOUSE OF CARDS

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A revolutionary idea in 2012-13, stream all the episodes of a top-notch TV show all at once on Netflix — is now commonplace. I can’t imagine now waiting for every episode week after week !! Netflix, for better or worse, has given its users a Pavlovian response to the consumption of its top-shelf programming: binge it soon, binge it fast, and get in on the conversation before it ends.

The new season starts essentially right after last year’s finale, with Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) off on her own after announcing her intention to divorce Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), following a tumultuous season between the two. To retaliate, Frank gets a few of his right-hand men, Stamper (Michael Kelly) and Seth (Derek Cecil), to begin trying to figure out Claire’s next move before she makes it. When Claire hires her own Stamper in the form of campaign adviser Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell), you could practically pop popcorn off the top of your streaming device of choice, given how much heat and tension boils to the surface of the once kinda-happily married power couple.

Having finally schemed, connived, plotted and doubled-crossed his way into the Oval Office, its now Underwood vs. Underwood – the real heavyweight bout – who cares about political opponents, you can’t possibly hit closer to home than this. And that works, since “House of Cards,” at its best, is part political thriller, part “Dallas”-like soap opera, part Shakespearean tragedy.

HoC’s cleverest trick is that despite committing some undeniably evil acts you still kinda like Frank. It’s the way he breaks the fourth wall, directly addressing the viewer, drawing you into his schemes, confiding in you. It’s a career best performance from Spacey, terrifying yet still effortlessly charismatic.

The other career best is from Wright, so good at being meticulously cruel – she makes it look like an art form. At one point, Claire’s mother tells her that she is stronger than Frank. That’s the whole question, now isn’t it? Claire might be stronger. But is she craftier, more sly, more manipulative? Those are the compelling questions hanging over this fourth season.

The 4th season deck is definitely stacked in favor of “House Of Cards” – I repeat binge it soon, binge it fast and get in on the conversation before the new addiction comes along…….. A small aside Netflix stock price on the airdate of the first season in January 2013 was $13 and today its already $100, you can’t argue with the market — we definitely want more such content!!!

SAUMIL BHANSHALI

Mr. ROBOT

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The best new show of the year !!!

Summer television was once the place where good (but usually very bad) TV went to die a merciful death away from the eyes of the public… and advertisers. It was the place networks dumped their undesirables and under-performers. Mr. Robot has single-handedly changed this emerging as the sleeper summer hit of the year. Its freshman season is compulsively watchable and the new obsession of millions of fans..

For the uninitiated, Mr. Robot stars Rami Malek (a definite Emmy contender) as Elliot, a hoodie-ensconced, disorder-riddled antihero with a penchant for hacking. Mr. Robot confronts the everyday realities of massive corporate greed, cyber terrorism, and the way the Internet makes us all very, very vulnerable.

Unafraid to move furiously fast and hypnotically slow at the same time, it’s the writers’ ability to go from zero to (ro)batshit in the blink of an eye that keeps us hooked. Deeply immersed in current events it’s a rare gem that is the dictionary definition of fresh. The show also relies extensively on its star Rami Malek whose performance is twitchy explosive perfection. The others at Fsociety and Ecorp are also phenomenal and I almost forgot to mention there’s Christian Slater too…

Creator Sam Esmail’s background as a “film nerd” certainly helps to enthrall us for the entire series. He’s a virtuoso at intrigue and misdirection and the whole TV show seems as if it was made for the big screen! A feat few can boast of….

At its heart, Mr. Robot is cyberpunk, the sci-fi subgenre set in a near-future world where the reality that exists within computer networks can feel more real than actual reality — if this sounds and feels familiar – its because this is the way most of us live now and more importantly how most of us have chosen to live now !! Whatsup YouTwitFace — if you get the drift…

“Democracy(Capitalism) has been hacked” — better login as soon as possible to find out how, why and by whom. Binge-watch just got its next Must-See member!

SAUMIL BHANSHALI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug4fRXGyIak

GAME OF THRONES

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ARTICLE 1.0 TELEVISION SHOWS – REVIEWS IN SWITCH MAGAZINE APRIL 2015.

GAME OF THRONES – signifying the golden age of TV….

The main reason why TV shows trump cinema these days is the space it affords for the story to breathe and the characters to grow. When applied correctly, the elongated storytelling opportunities afforded by television trump cinema’s frayed reliance on the drudgery of 120-minute three-act plots. At its best, a TV show can be freeform, veering from comedy to thriller to horror and back again. Take House Of Cards, Breaking Bad, Homeland, The Americans, Battlestar Galactica, Lost or the big bad dragon of them all “GAME OF THRONES”

Viewership for the season 5 premiere topped 8 million first time and cumulatively 20 million the world over. Add in another 20 million who downloaded it and watched. If it were a movie with a $10 price of admission – the first episode itself would have raked in anywhere between 200-400 million dollars !!! It should be noted that the finale episodes get an almost 30% bump up in viewership, so ….. you get the math !!

Starting with the theme song and ending most likely with a twist – this is must – watch television. For the uninitiated, Game of Thrones is based on the still-in-progress fantasy epic book series called A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin. Epic, breathtaking, heartbreaking, vivid, violent, awe-inspiring and addictive, it remains the single most remarkable feat of television, possibly ever, increasingly admirable for its ability to grow rather than simply sustain. Ardent fan Jimmy Kimmel recently noted on his ABC late night show that the series literally could go on for thousands of seasons, given the voluminous goings-on in George R.R. Martin’s fantasy book series. All I’m saying is just don’t kill Daenerys !!!!!

If you’ve not started on this journey, please do so with haste you won’t regret it.

Winter is Coming !!! and it has never looked nor felt so good !!!

SAUMIL BHANSHALI