Dark (Season One) (2017)

Creators: Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese
Cast: Too many in different versions
Language: German

I stumbled upon this Netflix original show after seeing it being described as 'Stranger Things' for adults. I haven't seen Stranger Things and not really planning to. Dark is so fucking good that I binged it twice within eight days. If you're planning to watch it, I can't recommend it highly enough, go ahead and do it. Plenty of spoilers ahead.

****************SPOILERS****************

I can best describe the show as 'Twin Peaks+Predestination', on steroids. Twin Peaks because of its small town industrial setting, family affairs, haunting atmosphere and music. Predestination reference is quite obvious due to the time travel factor. The way time travel works in the series so far is in the "Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban" mode (the best Harry Potter book by the way). What has happened can't really be changed. Whenever someone from future tries to influence things, they only help in aiding what has already happened inadvertently. So it doesn't take anything goes approach which can be quite disengenous if time travel is your main theme.

Story begins in 2019, the present for all intends and purpose, with shots of Jonas' father committing suicide. It ends with a boy disappearing in the woods near the caves which is again near the nuclear power plant which dominates over the small town of Winden. Boy's father is the cop Uhlrich, who's having an affair with Jonas' mother, Hannah. Jonas, suffering from post traumatic stress,  discovers cave maps drawn by his father in the attic. Different characters in the story discovers the time travel possibility over the course of first season.

The time travel jumps in it is 33 years, a span over which solar-lunar cycle sync happens. So the time periods the series jumps to are 1986, 1953 and for a brief final seconds to 2052. It also has plenty of philosophic references including Nietzsche's musings about eternal recurrence which has a big overhang over its plotline. There is a love triangle in each of the time period: Helge-Claudia-Tronte in 1953, Hannah-Uhlrich-Katharina in 1986 and Jonas-Martha-Bartosz in 2019. It doesn't make a big deal about the twists that come along the way, all of which are pretty much guessable before they are revealed mainly because of the good job they have done with the casting of same characters from different time periods.

Based on the missing pages in Claudia's diary, I have a theory that many of the characters in 2019 are different versions of same people from past and future. Noah is Bartosz grown up and there is some mystery left around from where/when Alexander turned up. His real name Boris suggests some Russian connection, probably Chernobyl, and his surname Niechwald could be a reference to his parents from Nielsen and Kahnwald families- Jonas & Martha? On first watch I ended up with the obvious conclusion that Noah is the villain/dark and Claudia is the light. But on re-watch, I am not that sure especially because of the reference to our propensity to think in terms of duallism. The re-watch is so rewarding and you can see how well the show is edited, with recurrences offering it ample scope to place scenes together. It is masterful storytelling and I can't wait for the second season, which is currently in production.

"You are free with regards to what you can do but you are not free with regards to what you can will"...

PS: I am now more familiar with the family trees in Winden than my own.

Rating: 5/5

Mindhunter- Season One (2017)

Created By: Joe Penhall
Directors: David Fincher, Asif Kapadia, Tobias Lindholm, Andrew Douglas
Cast: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Hannah Gross, Cotter Smith

Mindhunter is a Netflix original crime drama series based on the book 'Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit' by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. The lead character played by Jonathan Groff is based on John Douglas and the first season is set in the late 70s. As they put it in one of the scenes, FBI is still under the influence of Hoover era good-bad binary thinking while the nascent behavioural science unit is trying to bring some grey perspective into it. What we now take for granted from the point of view of nature-nurture debate, psychological interrogation techniques etc were quite niche back then. I didn't know that the coining of the term serial killer was this recent and they dabble with sequence killer instead through much of the season one.

Charlize Theron serves as an executive producer for the series and David Fincher directed four episodes in total, a couple each at the beginning and end. A usual season for American TV drama series proceeds like a 50 over ODI innings, with fast paced beginning and end, and the middle can be a phase of consolidation. They have you hooked with the big hitters Fincher and Asif Kapadia directing the first four episodes. TV is kind of seen as a writer's medium but you do see the difference in style when it is Fincher and Kapadia directing it as opposed to Lindholm and Andrew Douglas.

Se7en is seen as the first big break for David Fincher as a director and had, *Spoiler Alert*, Kevin Spacey playing God as the serial killer in it. He again had a go at this genre with 'Zodiac', which I reckon is the high watermark for it. Many of these films have super intelligent evil genius characters, like Hannibal Lecter, as serial killers and with Mindhunter, Fincher supposedly wanted a more realistic portrayal. Ed Kemper, the coed killer, features heavily in season one. Fincher has supposedly cast for season two the same actor Quentin Tarantino has cast as Manson for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. I truly binged it by basically watching all episodes back to back over a nine hour period. Really looking forward to season two.

Rating: 4/5

Peaky Blinders (Season 3) (2016)

Creator: Steven Knight
Cast:      Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Helen McCrory

The second season of Peaky Blinders ended with Tommy Shelby's (Cillian Murphy) being spared on orders from Winston Churchill because he has a job for him. The third season is about that job and it involves Russian aristocrats who were exiled from their country after the Bolshevik revolution. 

The stakes are getting higher and higher after each season and the series manages to stay cool the whole way through. You get what you expect from Peaky Blinders: slow build-ups, great soundtrack, stylish cinematography, mysterious plot and cool set-pieces. Tom Hardy returns as Alfie for the last two episodes with a typical enjoyable screen-chewy performance,There is a David Bowie song used in the the fifth episode to good effect and couple of Radiohead songs including a glorious usage of 'You and whose army'. You also get the BBC going the HBO route through a full-on orgy sequence with the explanation that the Russian are really mad. The new face for the season is the baddie priest played by Paddy Considine. Got to say that the twist at the end didn't make much sense regarding where the money originated from. 

Unlike the second season, I think one can watch the third season without having seen the previous seasons as it is quite self-contained. BBC have renewed it for two more seasons and Steven Knight indicated that the last sequence for the show that he has on his mind would be the start of the second world war and Birmingham getting air-raided.  

Rating: 4/5

Rubicon (TV series) (2010)

Creators: Jason Horwitch, Henry Bromell
Cast:       James Bridge Dale, Jessica Collins, Lauren Hodges, Dallas Roberts, Christopher Evan Welch, Arliss Howard, Michael Cristofer

Will Travers is an analyst at a New-York based federal intelligence agency who is thrown into a story where nothing is as appears to be. He discovers that he maybe working with members of a secret society that manipulates world events on a grand scale. The series is probably inspired by how intelligence was massaged to get a consensus for War on Iraq in the aftermath of 9-11 attacks. 

I stumbled on to this series after reading a review of Mr. Robot in LA Review of Books. This was cited as a very underrated one with similar conspiracy sensibilities as well as for respecting audience's intelligence. It was broadcast in AMC and was cancelled after the first season, comprising of thirteen episodes. It also had other problems like the creator leaving due to creative differences after the pilot and show was later taken care by Henry Bromell, the executive producer. You could see over the course of the season how that affects the series as there is a conflict between whether it is primarily about the conspiracy or is it about Office politics and team dynamics. That is especially apparent in the season finale which seems a bit directionless and understated in a bad way. 

Overall, it is still a very good watch and a breath of fresh air when compared to traditional TV staple. It does have the cheap look of a TV series, which is not true for Mr. Robot. The fact that it didn't get renewed for a second season doesn't really matter since it reached its logical conclusion and anything after that is better if not done. Same is true for Mr. Robot, which has been renewed for second season, and I can only see it going downhill from here after the excellent first season. In Rubicon, performances from all concerned are very good but I found James Bridghe Dale's acting in the very last sequence of the series a bit underwhelming. Michael Cristofer is deliciously hammy and he will play a bigger role in Mr. Robot's next season, which is great news. Arliss Howard's 'Kale Ingram' is the Doug Stamper (House of Cards) equivalent for this show and like Doug for HoC, he is my favorite from this show. Just found out that he played John Henry (LFC and Boston Red Sox Owner and figurehead of FSG) in Moneyball. 

Rating: 3.5/5

                                                                           

Mr. Robot (Season 1) (2015)

Creator: Sam Esmail
Cast:      Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Portia Doubleday

Follows a young computer programmer (Malek) who suffers from social anxiety disorder and forms connections through hacking. He's recruited by a mysterious anarchist, who calls himself Mr. Robot (Christian Slater). 

It is really great and further discussion is not possible without spoilers. So stop reading, watch it and come back. Don't even fucking google it.

**************************************SPOILERS*********************************

The TV series got nod for second season even before it got aired because of the rave reviews it got after the pilot got leaked on the internet. It has got super high production values and cinematography and the New-York setting is amazing. Thematically and stylistically, it is most similar to 'Fight Club' and rather than presenting the thing as a very big twist, we are given every clue in the first 3-4 episodes to figure the shit out. Not like the subtle clues given in Fight Club, but really blatant ones to make us aware about the Fight Club connection. Even when the twists are presented, the protagonist is always the last one to know, and it makes an effort to make us say it even if we hadn't figured it out earlier. That is really a cool thing and very unique to this program. House of Cards brought 'breaking the fourth wall' as a significant narrative technique for the show but Mr. Robot takes it to another level by giving it a 'Truman Show' like twist. Protagonist is an unreliable narrator because of his state of mind and that can be used to paper over any cracks in the plot-hole sense on re-watch. 

Apart from Fight Club, other things I got reminded of were American Psycho (Scandinavian couple), Matrix and V for Vendetta. I have seen people saying it got a Dexter vibe to it but I haven't seen that show to comment on that. The technical things it shows are supposed to be very accurate for a TV show and that is a fresh thing since hacking is glossed over normally in films and TV shows. TBF, since it is so central to the show, you have to actually do it in this credible manner. You know you are in safe hands when everything is shown through command prompt window rather than some shitty graphics laden window. 

I did think the show suffered a mid-life crisis during the middle episodes but the way it ended with the last three justifies that approach. First 3-4 episodes works in a consistent manner with the Fight Club vibe and the mannerisms of the protagonist is really 'aspergic'. We are made to really think about whether it is all in his head during those but the following three episodes achieve a degree of normalcy and you end up quite disappointed thinking that all the uniqueness of the show is gone. It again swings back into the Fight Club mode in the last three episodes and the middle part of the show was a ploy to lull the audience to lower their guard.  

The show is very referential and self-aware and there is a cool Pulp Fiction reference as well along with the 'I'm pretty fucking far from okay' quip. They even managed to include the Ashley Madison hack and Chinese market crash from recent news into the story-line. 

As for the next season, I am not sure how they can make it intriguing because lot of the intrigue of this season was to do with the possibility of that 'Whether it is in his head' question. There is every chance that it will turn out to be quite average next season. That doesn't matter since it works very well as a standalone show of ten episodes the same way as Matrix did with its first installment. The naming of episodes is really cool as well. Some might criticize the show for the stupidity of what they are doing in terms of ideology but that that would be stupid because it is not happening from a sound basis and same was true for Fight Club. The narrators in both are really flawed individuals and you cannot really expect Chomsky level intelligence from them. Your level of enjoyment would also depend on your assessment of the central performance from Rami Malek and I though he was excellent in it. It is difficult to believe that it is a US Network TV show and not something from HBO or Netflix. It is indeed the 'The Golden age of TV'. 

PS: I binge watched it over a 26 hour period and I do think it is better to do it this way since you don't have time to think about plot-holes. They had to delay the airing of season finale due to the recent Virginia shooting incident. 

Rating: 4.5/5

                                                                              

Show Me a Hero (2015)

Director:Paul Haggis
Writers: David Simon, William F. Zorzi
Cast:      Oscar Issac, Carla Quevedo, Catherine Keener

Mayor Nick Wasicsko (Oscar Issac) took office in 1987 during Yonker's worst crisis. When Federal courts ordered public housing be built in the white, middle class side of town, it divided the city in a bitter battle fueled by fear, racism, murder and politics. It is a HBO miniseries comprising of six episodes of about one hour each and is directed in its entirety by Paul Haggis. It was written by David Simon (The Wire) along with journalist William F. Zorzi and is an adaptation of the book by Lisa Belkin.

The title of the series come from the phrase: 'Show me a Hero and I'll write you a tragedy' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is not to say that the character played by Oscar Issac is a heroic one since the actual heroes in the doing good sense are the judge (Bob Balaban) and his consultant, Oscar Newman, for the housing project. The story is told largely through the mayor  character as well as through would be residents of the housing project and their would be neighbors. The mayor character played by Oscar Issac is very much similar to Tony Carcetti from The Wire in terms of their character arc when it comes to growing desperation. Wasicsko, from the right off, is pursuing his own interests but happens to fall on the right side of the issue due to outside compulsions. He gradually sells himself out like Carcetti as he tries to prop up his flailing political career while Carcetti was doing political climbing in 'The Wire' over the course of its latter three seasons. Carcetti is my favorite character from 'The Wire' and so getting something similar from this series as well worked very well for me. Oscar Issac has been in some great projects lately and this one can be added to the list. 

Even though it is story from the late 80s, it does have great relevance for USA of today as questions regarding racism is again at the forefront. It can also be viewed in the context of so called 'Multiculturalism' Vs Integration debate and I always favor the latter. Be it when it comes to countries with immigrants or be it Liverpool FC when it comes to integrating foreign players. Multiculturalism is an easy way out taken by politicians and integration, while being a complex task to implement, works better in the long run. 'Show Me a Hero' is done with a 'Take no prisoners' approach with the makers fully confident on the back of critical success of 'The Wire'. So you don't even get cinematic/colorful characters like 'Omar', and overall, it is done in an even more realistic manner compared to 'The Wire', if that is indeed possible. I haven't seen any other works of David Simon (Treme. Corner) and so I can only compare it to Wire. Catherine Keener bravely takes up the role of an old lady from the neighborhood who is against the housing project initially. Paul Haggis jumped at the chance of working with David Simon and told his agent to agree even without asking for the script. He offered to direct all six episodes himself after reading the script and that is a practice that I really like when it comes to TV (True Detective Season 1).    

To sum up, it is another social studies class from David Simon with a layer of drama added to it. If you've seen 'The Wire', I'm sure you won't need any recommendation to watch it and if you haven't seen it, let this series be your 6-hour gateway drug towards watching Wire. I ended up binge-watching the series over two days as my broadband connection reached FUP limit pretty early last month. As for this month, I exhausted the initial limit before top-up on the first day of the month itself, thanks to David Simon and HBO. Even though it could be described as tragic from the point of view of Oscar Issac character, it is really a feel good story.

Rating: 5/5

                                                                              

The Trip (TV Series) (2010– )

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Features: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon

Steve is asked to review restaurants for the UK's Observer and is joined on a working road trip by his friend who fills in at the last minute when Coogan's romantic relationship falls apart. This was the premise for the first season where they visits places in North of England. In the second season they are visiting Italy, from Liguria to Capri, following the footsteps of the great Romantic poets.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon plays fictionalized versions of themselves by exaggerating aspects of their real selves with some fictional inner turmoil added in. In the first season Steve Coogan's falling relationship with his girlfriend, who was supposed to be in the trip with him, was the overarching theme. In the second season focus on a personal level is more on Rob with him being involved in a fling with a girl they meet during the trip and also trying out an audition for a role in a Michael Mann film, which makes Steve slightly jealous of him. He is supposed to play the role of an Italian mob accountant which brings out all the impersonations based on Godfather from both of them.

Both the seasons were edited to bring out films of them and my first experience of 'The Trip' was through the film with the same name out of the first season. I saw the TV episodes after that and haven't yet seen the film made out of the second season and I guess I will catch up on it after a while only. I thought the first film was better than the first season's TV episodes with the personal story of Steve coming across better with a very powerful ending which conveys his loneliness. On TV it felt a bit inconsistent with each episode dedicating what felt to be a premeditated time for Steve's troubles. This kind of feel was less for the second season and so I don't think there will be much difference between the film and TV season. The two seasons comprises of six episodes each.

What you get with 'The Trip' is two friends who wants to make it seem as if they can't stand each other and are jealous of each other in some sort of way. Steve Coogan is of course the more successful of the two but he holds resentment for being not that successful in his film career. He looks down upon Rob Brydon' material and is on the whole quite condescending to him. There are plenty of references and impersonations all of which you might not be able to get. The most recurring ones are Michael Caine, latter years Al Pacino, Brando from Godfather and other usual suspects from Britain like Sean Connery, Jimmy Saville, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore etc. It is a very unconventional comedy that is quintessentially British, also playing up their modern relationship with America which is essentially a combination of condescension and inferiority complex. It is great watch and I am also a fan of Michael Winterbottom, which I don't know whether is a precondition to love the show. Along with 'The Trip, my favorite works of his are '24 Hour Party People' and 'The Killer Inside Me'. 

Rating: 4/5

                                                                       

Band of Brothers (2001)

Based on: 'Band of Brothers' by Stephen E. Ambrose
Cast:         Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Matthew Settle, Scott Grimes, Donnie Wahlberg

The story of Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne division and their mission in WW2 Europe from operation Overlord through V-J Day. It consist of ten episodes and was an HBO DreamWorks production . Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg served as executive producers with the former directing one episode as well. With a budget of $125 million, it was the highest budgeted TV show at that point of time.

I had obtained 1080p print of Band of Brothers some time back (joys of ultra-fast XIMB broadband) but had postponed watching it primarily due to the involvement of Steven Spielberg. I am not really a fan of his and the fact that Saving Private Ryan played some part in the production of this series didn't really fill me with a great deal of confidence despite the great reviews that it got. My skepticism could be justified because SPR also got similar reviews when in fact it was a thoroughly average film after the first thirty or so minutes. It turns out that Spielberg was involved late in the production only, to serve as a final eye on the project, and it was largely developed by Tom Hanks and Erik Jendersen. My fears about it were thoroughly misplaced and Band of Brothers was a fucking great watch like everyone said it would be.

The entire story is based on the war efforts of Easy Company and therefore what we are getting is as much of an authentic account that we could possibly get in this format of what it was like for them. By the same token we don't get a strategic account of what really happened during the war and so it is more of a micro look as opposed to a macro one. The main advantage that BoB had over the SPR is the length with which it can work and they were not really under pressure to establish the main characters in the story immediately. In fact I actually started recognizing most of the characters by around fifth episode only. The first episode have them getting trained in USA first and then in England in preparation for D-Day while the second episode depicts their actions on D-Day. I found the third and fourth episodes to be like the low points of the series as they served more as disjointed accounts of some operations that they did. The fact that we don't have any protagonists as such made those episodes quite uninteresting for me but for people who like seeing army maneuvers and such it should still be enjoyable. After that, each of the episodes are told from the perspective of a particular protagonist and it gets better and better. The best two episodes of the entire series are the sixth one (Bastogne) and the seventh (The Breaking Point), both of which are set in Belgium during the brutal winter. By the end of seventh episode we are involved so much into the series that we don't mind the low key nature of the later episodes as the series stay true to what really happened with the war winding down. That said the ninth episode had a brutal depiction of them discovering a concentration camp for the first time. I got to say even though it was quite harrowing, I was affected much more when I saw the concentration camp episode from the documentary series 'World At War', which is also a must watch. 

Like many I guess, the favorite character from the show is the bad-ass Captain Ronald Speirs and the favorite scene would be his mad run in 'The Breaking Point'. I think my opinion of third and fourth episodes will change if I re-watch them because the fact that I know the characters now might alter my perception of it. The series was filmed largely in England and the snow filled Belgium episodes were done inside a hangar. The production quality of it is something else and at around 12 million per episode you can see how it managed to beat films of this genre. If you are hell-bent on finding faults with it, you can maybe criticize for the binary portrayal of most of its protagonists. It is understandable since most of these details are gleaned from the real life characters involved. Each episodes contain several brief interviews with real-life counterparts but their identities are only revealed at the end of tenth episode. Overall it is must watch and I would say the best TV series that I have seen in terms of the overall production quality. As far as favorites in TV drama series go, I think it will be third after 'The Wire' and 'True Detective'.

Rating: 4.5/5 

                                                                          

Flight of the Conchords (TV Series) (2007– 2009)

Creators: James Bobin, Jermaine Clement, Bret McKenzie
Cast:       Jermaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Rhys Darby, Kristen Schaal, Arj Barker

Bret and Jermaine are the Flight of the Conchords, a folk-rock band from New Zealand living in New-York in search of stardom. To quote themselves, Jermaine is the moppy one while Bret the naive one. They have got a New Zealand consulate guy as the manager of the band and all of them are clueless in a good way.

Peep Show, one of my favorite comedy shows of all time, also had two 'losers' living in an apartment even though their personalities differ very much. Their manager, Murray Hewitt, is anti Ari Gold in terms of how he operates but is similar in the sense that he is the star of the show. The show works as a musical comedy with each episode containing two songs with interesting lyrics. My favorite songs in it would be 'Binary Solo' and 'Too many dicks on the dance floor'. Many of the jokes involve the relative obscurity of their country, New Zealand, the intensity of which should be higher if you are in a place like USA whose population is generally considered as geographically challenged. I guess we from cricket following countries cannot grasp how obscure New Zealand would be for Americas who also don't follow rugby along with cricket. Following sports can really help your geography knowledge and I can name many cities in Europe just because I follow Liverpool. 

Coming back to the show, it has got a very cheap look which goes well with the overall theme. Some of the jokes involve taking things too literally and other sort of word plays. Watching with subtitles on is recommended, especially for the song lyrics. It should be good on re watch as well. The show ran on HBO lasting two series with twenty two episodes in total. They had also done a BBC radio show prior to this. They won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album and was surprised to see Bret McKenzie listed as an academy award winner in the wiki page. It was for a song in the Muppets movie.

Overall it is a great watch with a very different format. Jermaine Clement was the director of 'What We Do In The Shadows', which was one of the funniest film from last year. Taika Waititi, his co-director for that, was also involved with some of the episodes of the Conchords. Clement had speculated on the possibility of a film based on FoC in 2011 but HBO clarified later that it is not in their plans. I don't think it will work well as a film because the main attraction of the story, as referenced in the last episode, is that they start at the bottom-'works hard' while remaining at the bottom- and end the show still at the bottom. If you have any doubts, Murray will explain it for you with a graph having time on X-axis and their social status on Y.

Rating: 4/5 

                                                                          

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)

Director: Andrew Jarecki

Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki examines the complicated life of reclusive real estate scion, Robert Durst, the key suspect in a series of unsolved crimes. It can be called as a TV documentary series version of Serial podcast but with a resolution to the story at the end of it.

I decided to watch it after my twitter timeline was filled with a major news about this TV series and guess this is first time real life news spoiler-ing a TV show for me. Fuckers... can't they use a spoiler alert! I have seen the first five episodes and the sixth one, which is the finale, that aired yesterday extracted a confession out of him. The fifth episode ended with them finding a new piece of evidence with which they were gonna interview him again with him having no knowledge about it. He was arrested yesterday before the episode aired. The director had previously made the Ryan Gosling film 'All Good Things' which was based on circumstances regarding his wife's disappearance. Durst thought it was a good idea to grant Jarecki an interview so that he could set things straight. 

Robert Durst's wife had disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1982. One of his friends, Susan Berman, had acted as his spokesperson to media during those times and might have had knowledge about Durst's involvement with regards to his wife's disappearance. The case remained unsolved with a very shoddy investigation as Durst family planted stories to newspapers providing alibi for Robert. The DA of New-York decided to reopen the investigation after 18 years in 2000 and Susan Berman was found murdered immediately after that. The TV series begins with another murder in Texas where dismembered body parts of the victim washed up on the shores. This was again traced back to Durst, who was the neighbor to the victim, living a disguised life after the controversies surrounding Berman murder. He admitted to the Texas murder but escaped conviction as his defense team convinced the jury that the murder was an act of self-defense. 

I went without knowing anything about the history of the cases and the only info I had was that he had confessed to his guilt based on today's news. It is a riveting watch and I was reminded of Foxcatcher in some ways even though the crime as such is not at all related apart from both being very wealthy. He too had a difficult personal background  having witnessed his mother's suicide at the age of 7. The family business was passed on to his younger brother which led to animosity between them. The way the story is told is very good with the first episode covers the Texas murder. Second one covers his personal background and the details surrounding his wife's disappearance. The third episode covers his relationship with Susan Berman and her death. The fourth episode is about how he defended the charge in Texas and went scot-free. Fifth episode sets up the second interview with Durst which is also the title for last episode where he apparently confessed. The actual confession was inadvertent with him doing the same in bathroom with hot mic on.

After getting arrested, his defense team have said that they will fight the charges. The exact wording of his supposed confession which is him whispering to himself  is:' What the Hell did I do? Killed them all, of course'. I guess this can be fought as an ambiguous statement by his defense team and they can claim that he was frustrated that the interview didn't help him prove his innocence and because of that he was thinking out loud what others could be thinking. But the circumstantial evidence is just too much. Beverley Hill (spelled wrong) police station received a letter regarding the body of Susan Berman within 24 hours of her death. They speculated that murderer would be someone who was very close to her since him/her cares about her enough to write that letter so that her body won't decompose. Robert of course denied writing that letter and the breakthrough Jarecki got was another letter written to her by Durst with same spelling mistake and handwriting. He is supposed to have handed it over to LAPD last year and Jarecki claims that they accidentally discovered the bathroom confession just recently. That could very well be them lying about it so that they could all time the arrest to coincide with finale.

Unlike Serial, which was an Innocence project, this one is a 'Guilt' project trying to prove Durst's involvement with the murders. My impression is that, without having seen the finale, he is indeed guilty but he is not the serial killer type who kills for the sake of it. There are motives for each of the murders. The killing of his wife could be to do with marital problems and maybe even the divorce settlement impasse. Susan Berman might have been killed because of the reopening of case or maybe she blackmailed him due to financial difficulties. The same could be the motive for the murder in Texas. He does seem to have a tell based on what I saw from his interviews. I am talking about that occasional twitch and wink, which should make him a really poor poker player. The murder/disappearance of his wife reminded me of Malayalam film 'Munnariyippu'. The title-Jinx comes from Durst saying that he didn't want kids because he would be a jinx to them. 

I am yet to watch episode six which remains unavailable on usual places as of now. Will update this after watching it. EDIT: Finally watched the last episode. I don't think the so called confession will be admissible in court. Their best bet is the letter with spelling mistake and similar hand-writing and they have charged him with murder of Susan Berman. They can prove that he was in California at the time of murder but not specifically in LA. All depends on how he responds to questioning and Jury selection will be difficult because of the popularity and coverage around the show.

Rating: 5/5

                                                                        

House of Cards (TV Series-Season 3) (2015)

Creator: Beau Willimon
Cast:      Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly

The third season of 'House Of Cards' follow the Underwood power couple, having become the POTUS & FLOTUS at the end of second season, trying to get things going on the policy front deflecting enemies from their own party, the congress which is stalling them and some geopolitical troubles from the cold war enemy Russia. This season is much more about them looking inwards into their relationship itself rather than it being about them confronting their 'enemies' like in previous seasons. 

So, that is me finishing the whole season within twenty four hours from starting it, and I need some fucking sleep. But Liverpool-Man City game starts around 90 minutes from now and I guess I won't get much sleep after that if Liverpool ends up not losing, and if they indeed do I would have to cry myself to sleep. I digress...The second season ended with Francis achieving his goal of being the President and that was a logical end point for the show with the iconic line: 'Democracy is so overrated'. Well, they didn't stop there and we have got a third season which won't definitely be the last considering how it ended.

Another big question was the fate of Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), one of my favorite characters from the series, who was fatally wounded at the end of season two. He survives and his is a major plot-line this season, much of it away from Francis Underwood during his recovery. Another major character is Petrov, the very Putin like Russian President, a worthy nemesis for the Underwoods. What is great is that he is portrayed as a complex character which wouldn't do Putin any harm in terms of perception. Even the Pussy Riot band makes an appearance during a state visit and one of their songs feature in an episode's end credits. The main things that Underwood is trying to achieve in terms of his legacy as President is some resolution in Israel-Palestine crisis by deploying a UN Peace keeping force in Jordan Valley and introduction of America Works program, which aims to cut social security spending and divert that money to create jobs for unemployed. Both these sound and are ludicrous when you think about it but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying the show. Claire Underwood is feeling left out in the whole white house shindig and wants to secure her own future by becoming the UN ambassador, just in case Francis don't win the 2016 Presidential nomination. All these kind of end with disastrous consequences for them but still Francis try to win the nomination. 

Overall it is a typical HoC season-at times ridiculous but very much an enjoyable watch nevertheless. I do think it is the least enjoyable of all the three seasons and I don't care whether they proceed to make another season of it. If they do I will end up watching it mind. David Fincher didn't direct any of the episodes and Robin Wright directed two of them. I have read some people complaining about Claire's actions in this season not keeping in with the character from previous seasons. I don't particularly agree since the whole affair about motherhood, abortion, rape etc suggested that she can indeed be impulsive sometimes. Anyway it is only fair that they would undergo some change after achieving what they set out to do. Meechum doesn't have much to do this season and I thought that Seth Greyson would play a much bigger role this season in terms of strategy. At least they didn't go with a cliched route of tensions between the underlings. Season can be summed up by common theme of all of the major characters facing an existential crisis, except for Francis Underwood of course.

Rating: 3/5

                                                                    

Luther (TV Series Seasons: 1-3)

Creator: Neil Cross
Cast:      Idris Elba, Warren Brown, Dermot Crowley, Ruth Wilson

A crime drama series starring Idris Elba as a near genius murder detective whose brilliant mind can't always save him from the dangerous violence of his passions. Luther doesn't always go by the books and some in his department thinks of him as a dirty cop whom they tolerate just because he is exceptionally good at solving stuff. He is involved in the department 'Serious & Serial' and that just sort of sums up the series as it celebrates him solving very inventive serial crimes while battling through personal problems. You do get the perception that London is really a fucked up place where serial crime is a daily routine.

Idris Elba will always be known for his role as Stringer Bell in 'The Wire'. It is sad that he has not went on to be a proper leading man in the films business so far. The leaked mails that came as part of Sony hack suggests that the studio heads see him as a possible candidate to be the next James Bond after Daniel Craig. He can certainly carry it. Coming back to 'Luther', it is much more closer to 'Banshee' than it is to 'The Wire' in terms of its sensibilities. The plot can be very convoluting but you just go it with because it is enjoyably bonkers for most parts. First season consist of six episodes and the personal theme running in it is that he is going through a heart-breaking divorce process. The culprit from the first episode, Alice Morgan, develops a relationship with him and it gives the show a different feel. Her acting can be very hammy though. The crime plots find resolution in each episode while in seasons second and third they are tied up over two episodes and each of those seasons have four episodes each. The second season's personal story angle is very grating but the crime solving in it makes up for that with some bat-shit crazy ways of killing people involved. The last episode of this season is the high point of the entire series. It goes downhill from there with the third season which I found very difficult to finish. They just lose it as it become more and more ridiculous to the point of me not enjoying it at all. There is supposed to be a fourth season of it coming out this year and I am not really interested in watching that.

To sum up, it a good enough watch the first two seasons with a very bad third season which leaves a sour taste. Recommended just for the fact that Idris Elba is fucking great and this coming from someone who didn't like Stringer Bell that much, the character I meant not the acting.

Rating: 2.5/5

                                                             

Peaky Blinders (TV Series) (Series- 1&2 )

Creator: Steven Knight
Cast:      Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, Sam Neill, Tom Hardy, Annabelle Wallis

A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), who means to move up the world. At the face of it, it is an age old story that has been done to death in numerous mob films but I guess the setting of post World War One England and the stylized way it is shot (brutal with some great soundtrack) makes it quite unique. I haven't seen Boardwalk Empire, save for the first episode, and that would be the one with which it is going to get compared. For me, am quite sick of American mob stories and this British one makes for a very welcome change.

The Peaky Blinders are a bunch of Brummie brothers who are all suffering from PTSD after WW1. We are reminded so many times in the series that they were in fucking France in case you forgot. The times are interesting in Britain with the kingdom declaring war on  many enemies within itself-the communists, the Irish who are looking for independence and normal garden variety gangster kind. The gangster activity they are mainly running is illegal gambling activities along with their protection business. The series one involves them getting foothold in Birmingham and the second one have them entering London. First series was built up with bit more subtlety compared to second. But it was a lot more sure about its identity in the second series as I sat there smiling enjoying the sometimes cartoonish but always stylistic portrayal. The use of contemporary soundtrack like the ones from Arctic Monkeys can be quite risky in a period drama like this, but I enjoyed it. We have seen that recently in 'Django Unchained' and 'The Great Gatsby' and I don't mind the anachronism. If you are indeed going for stylishness, then why not? 

They managed to get Tom Hardy play a Jewish mobster/baker in the second series and he is great. He had starred recently in Steven Knight's feature film 'Locke' which was also excellent. The scene in last episode of  the series where Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy are doing an unconventional negotiation was particularly great. Another highlight of the season was:'Read Daily Mail, it will broaden your mind'. Even I got that joke, probably because of me being obsessed with LFC. Peaky Blinders was produced by BBC and in US it was distributed through Netflix. Series 3 has been commissioned and I think the British TV practice of having just 6 episodes every year is just about right since it is better to be left wanting more. The name Peaky Blinders is derived from a historic subculture that was there during those times and not necessarily from a single gangster group. The opening credits song Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand' is also excellent giving a True Detective vibe to it.

Rating: 4/5

The Thick of It (2005– 2012)

Creator: Armando Ianucci
Cast:      Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison, James Smith

The Thick of it satirizes the inner workings of modern British government with the spotlight particularly on a small ministry called DoSAC (Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship). The star of the show is PM's enforcer and media spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, arguably the greatest television characters of all time. It is supposed to be largely based on Alastair Campbell who occupied a similar position in the Tony Blair government.

First two series of it consist of 6 episodes (3 each) in which Hugh Abbot (Chris Langham) is the DoSAC minister. It was followed up with  two one hour episodes special to coincide with Gordon Brown's anointment as the PM with the TV series also following something similar. The third series of eight episodes had Nicola Murray (Rebecca Font) as the DoSAC minister as the story follows up to the last days of the government's tenure with it ending with the final call for an election even as the governing party is divided over leadership. Malcolm Tucker's position also starts looking vulnerable. The fourth and final season again follows the real life British politics with an odd couple coalition in power (the Present Tories & Lib Dems coalition). Malcolm Tucker continues in his role but in the opposition party and the story mirrors the real life News of the World scandal with it also featuring an enquiry into the culture of media  leaks in Westminster.

So that is 22 episodes and around 12.5 hours of television and I would say it is my favorite comedy TV series of all time. I think even if you take the genre away also, it would probably sit at the top along with 'The Wire'. Maybe it is not a fair comparison considering its considerably shorter run time when compared with Seinfeld, but that is really the nature of the best from British TV-quality over quantity. Some have called it the twenty first century 'Yes Minister', but I like to call it as the adult version of 'Yes Minister'. Yes Minister is great in its own right but looks a bit formulaic with its episodic structure for my liking. Yes Minister had politicians as the naive lot with the bureaucracy  pulling the strings whereas in 'The Thick of It', the incompetent politicians and bureaucracy are strung along by the media spin doctor signifying the change in nature of the British politics. As Malcolm himself puts it during the enquiry, the morality of it had gone long way back and it is now essentially a popularity contest.

It is a show that gave us the expressions like one on the left along with, from bean to cup you are a fuck up, the all swearing eyes, omnishambles (used as Romneyshambles in real life much later), NOMFuP (Not my fucking problem) etc. There are just too many and the length of its wikiquote page is testament to that (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Thick_of_It). Not to forget Malcolm Tucker's interpretation of Star Wars which goes like this:

Malcolm Tucker: It's time for you to step up Ollie. What's that film that you love?

Ollie Reeder: What film?

Malcolm: The one about the fucking hairdresser, the space hairdresser and the cowboy. The guy, he's got a tin foil pal and a pedal bin. His father's a robot and he's fucking fucked his sister. Lego! They're all made of fucking lego.

Ollie: Star Wars?

Malcolm: That's the one. It's like that, where you kill all the bad guys, and you'll be able to blow up the big...

Ollie: Death Star.

Malcolm: The Death Star thing. Then you can go and live happily ever after on the planet with the teddy bears.

Ollie: They're Ewoks.

Somewhere in between the specials and season three they also made a film called 'In the Loop' where many of the characters from 'The Thick of It' go to US as British envoy and plays a role in starting the Iraq War in a shambolic way. It was directed by Armando Ianucci and was also great. An American remake of the show was planned without the involvement of Ianucci which didn't take off but the currently running HBO show 'Veep', which is also created by Ianucci, is somewhat like a US  inferior version of 'The Thick of It'.

There might not be another series of 'The Thick of It' on the pipeline unless something very interesting happen in British politics for Armando Ianucci to change his mind. I can't imagine a show without Malcolm Tucker in it and at the end of the series four, his character had a closure from which if he were to make a comeback it would feel very contrived. Armando Ianucci was also the mind behind 'Alan Partridge' which is also another top British comedy series and in Alan Partridge and Malcolm Tucker he has created two of the most iconic characters in British comedy.

If I were to rank my favorite comedy TV series', it would look something like this (rankings below the third spot might vary depending on the mood):

1)  The Thick of It

2)  Seinfeld

3)  Peep Show

4)  The Office (the original UK version)

5)  Curb Your Enthusiasm

6)  Alan Partridge

7)  Spaced

8)  Arrested Development

9)  Father Ted

10)Extras

So that is seven of the them UK and three US, out of which two are from Larry David. Only three out of the ten had more than five seasons (Peep Show, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm). So I guess I prefer UK comedy over US and quality over quantity.

Rating: 5/5

Seinfeld (1989–1998)

Creators: Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld
Cast:       Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards

I had finished my second time watching of the entire series in order, around 4-5 months back. I was meaning to write about it at that point but 'Yadda yadda yadda' and I missed it. See what I did there.  Now am on fourth season in my third time watching. I guess it is never late to write about it amidst plethora of articles coming about the show's 25th year anniversary.

First of all I don't rate Seinfeld as my favorite sitcom. It is 'The Thick of It' for its sheer genius in all its episodes. Maybe it is not fair to compare Seinfeld which had 180 episodes to 'The Thick of It' which had just  24 episodes in which it had to maintain the quality. Well that is generally the difference between US shows which tends to go for over 10 episodes a season whereas 6 is the norm in British TV. But Seinfeld is more of a British show with its sense of humor and maybe one of the reason why I like it a lot.

As they themselves describe in the show 'It is a show about nothing' and that is why it is so timeless. The show really gets its identity from the third season onwards with the creators getting bolder and bolder and having a clear idea about where they want to take it. First season is quite ordinary and their interactions almost unrecognizable from how they are later on. It would seem like just another show about relationship troubles. Jerry's father is played by a different actor and Kramer is named Kessler in the pilot. Still it has its moments with the second episode 'Stake Out' establishing 'Art Vandelay' and George's desire to be a architect which is a running theme throughout the series. I had seen many random episodes of Seinfeld before I got all of them together and watched it in order. You will miss so much if you don't watch it in order because you won't get many of the in-jokes like Kramer's friend whom we never see 'Bob Sacamano', imaginary erotic film 'Rochelle Rochelle', Kramer's sharp lawyer 'Jackie Chiles' etc.   

Many articles have referenced the fact that it was the first popular show with despicable characters as protagonists and laid out the path for characters like 'Tony Soprano' and 'Walter White'. But the genius of it is that I don't find them despicable maybe because I find plenty of it very relatable with my nihilistic, narcissistic attitude towards life. Plenty of us will relate most to the neurotic George Constanaza, the self proclaimed Lord of the idiots who will drape himself in velvet if it was socially acceptable.

I normally prefer sitcoms without laugh tracks but the Seinfeld is different from other shows in its usage because they perform in front of a live audience during recording. That is why we can see them waiting for the laugh to subside especially during Kramer's entrances. We can also see them clearly being not able to hide their laughter during performances and this would normally constitute bad acting. But when they do it it is endearing and we love the show more because of it. Plenty of hoopla was around the finale which I found to be quite crap on second viewing. But that really doesn't matter because it is not a drama where the finale would change the way we view the previous episodes. When they decided to stop the show while it was at its peak, Bill Gates was offering Jerry more than one million dollars an episode. It has now earned more than $1.5 billions through syndication and both Jerry and Larry are about $500 million rich. Certainly I wouldn't cite financial success for quality of the product as can be evidenced by my disdain towards 'Titanic' and 'Avatar'. But for Seinfeld since it is success is earned though a long period of time justifying the timeless nature of it, the financial success is indicative of its quality. 

Larry David went on to make Larry David starring sweary HBO's 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' which is also among my favorites in my top 5. It is largely improvised but there is some predictability to each episodes in the way they structure it. For people suffering from Seinfeld withdrawal symptoms it is a sure shot remedy. 

Rating: 5/5

True Detective (2014)

Creator:  Nic Pizzolatto
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Cast:       Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan

The lives of two detectives get entangled over a span of 17 years as they hunt a for a serial killer in Louisiana.

The season one of the anthology format HBO series True Detective ended yesterday night/today morning crashing HBO Go in the process. It is the ultimate opposite to the Netflix produced House of Cards and its binge release model where the entire season is released in one go. House of cards is a great watch as long as you don't get much time to think about it since there isn't much depth to the story. True Detective is something which need time for the viewer to think, chew on and digest and the frenzy it has created in the internet over the last 9 weeks is testament to that. The brilliant title credits, existential nature of the dialogs, the mythical universe of Carcosa and the Yellow King and at the end of it all you are left with a feeling that they only scratched the surface with their investigation: which I think is very much intentional.

The interviews that Nic Pizzolatto has given over the last month helps a great deal in interpreting or confirming your interpretation of the season. The idea of Carcosa and Yellow King comes from Robert W. Chambers book called 'The King in  Yellow' which got a sales boost because of the TV show. It is a collection of ten short stories and the first four of them mention a play called 'The King in Yellow' which induces despair or madness in those who read it. In similar vein the case ultimately don't implicate any people higher up in the food chain and one feels that those who mattered escaped at the end of it. The detectives know it and we the audience feel it. Marty's daughter Audrey storyline is not taken up and there are many intentional loose ends which ultimately is the whole point.

Pizzolatto has also spoken at great length about storytelling and its importance to mankind. The penetration of religion is proof of that and the creator himself is an atheist who grew up in a very religious environment. In the show Rust starts off as a nihilistic atheist and ends on an optimistic spiritual note with the brilliant line at the end:“Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light’s winning.” The weight of the world or the universal truth seems to be on his shoulder in the earlier episodes and by the end of the season he seemed to let it all go and find comfort in being spiritual which is essentially what religion do for a lot of people. When you are faced with questions, ugly truths and purposelessness, then faith goes a long way in solving all that by ignoring all the above said things. The same is with the case: they didn't get anyone directly connected to the senator and had to be contend with the dead end that is the death of the lawn mower man. The same thing happened with Reggie Ledoux in 1995 who before his death utters that these things will continue to happen. Rust also says the same thing during the interrogation scene where he goes 'time is a flat circle'. 

Another one of my interpretation is to do with the show itself. In the first five-six episodes it was a real genre bender when it comes to the buddy-cop investigative series. By the end it kind of tailed off which again I think was intentional. One can compare it with way the show ended with the allusion to the age old story of light Vs darkness as opposed to the real world situation of moral ambiguity. 

I will most certainly be revisiting the whole season soon looking for more clues. It is good that it will be having a different story and different characters next season. It can be really seen as an eight hour length feature film and the fact that it had just one single director unlike other normal TV series made a big difference in terms of its quality. In what is described as a golden age of television, I think it will be quite difficult to top this season of True Detective.

Rating: 5/5

Veep (Season One)

Creator: Armando Ianucci
Cast:      Julia Louis-Drefyus, Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Matt Walsh, Timothy Simons

Julia Louis-Drefyus stars as Selina Meyer, the Vice President of United states, in this HBO series which kind of depicts what it would be like to have someone like Sarah Palin being just a heart beat away from becoming the most powerful person on Earth. It is not an imitation of Sarah Palin, like 'Game Change' was, but takes inspiration from the possibility of someone with that level of intelligence being in such a position.

The obvious comparison is to be made with Armando Ianucci's BBC series 'The Thick Of It', which is apparently my favorite comedy television series of all time. Veep is also shot in a similar way and concentrates largely on Vice President's office whereas in the BBC one it was the fictional office of  DOSAC. Almost all the main characters like Malcolm Tucker, Ollie, Glenn, The Minister have a counterpart in Veep but their importance to the show is different at least in the first season. Whereas the Spin Doctor Malcolm Tucker was at the center of the show in Thick Of It, it is the Veep in  Veep. This is one reason why show is not as good and the inner competition between her immediate staff is not as intense or as cringy as it was in the British one. Also the quotability is less. It is still a very good show and is miles better than most of what comes out as comedy from American TV.

Rating: 3.5/5

Banshee (2013– Season One)

Creators: David Schickler, Jonathan Tropper
Cast:       Antony Starr, Ulrich Thomsen, Ivana Milicevic, Hoon Lee, Rus Blackwell, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Lilli Simmons, Frankie Faison

 An ex-con and master thief assumes the identity of a sheriff in a small town Banshee after coming out from prison serving a 15 year sentence.

Banshee is part of the original programming from Time Warner channel Cinemax, which can be seen as an HBO sister channel. It usually targets male audience with action films and soft-core programming. The series Banshee caters to this audience with an interesting story, lots of violence and sex scenes. It is like a well made B-movie. First half of the season is really good with the plot details revealed very gradually and the story line of conflicted bad guy Kai Proctor and the Amish storyline keeping everything interesting. In the latter half of the season, it becomes too cliched and the stunt scenes are too tiresome. I don't think I will be watching the second season as there is just too much of disbelief to be suspended. It would have been interesting if they had done it like a western.

Good to see Burrell from wire in it with the quote from bible: 'This is a clusterfuck of epic proportions.'

Rating: 3/5

House of Cards (2014) (TV Series- Season 2)

Created By: Beau Willimon
Cast:           Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Michael Gill

In season two, Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is sworn in as Vice President and he has to deal with the fallout from season one initially as well as a trade war with China, which he engineered to increase his influence over the white house.

All the episodes were released simultaneously yesterday and I have binge-watched them like Netflix wants them to be. One of the main characteristics of the series is Underwood breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience. In the first episode he doesn't do it till the last scene where he goes: '... and in case you thought I had forgotten you, welcome back', which I thought was excellent and had me smiling for some time. I had some reservations about the implausibility of some of the drastic actions taken by Underwood in the first season and we get some of it early on this season with some glaring plot-holes. But the sense of dread that it creates works well in the first half of the season after which it takes a shift to concentrate on Underwood's maneuvers to become the President of the United States. The season is much more darker and more believable as Underwood is not always in control of the situation. The story is set in the present and its great to have the current topics like China's currency war and issues with Japan over the Senkaku islands being used in the plot. Overall it is a very good watch whilst not achieving a status of greatness. Two of the episodes were directed by Jodie Foster and Robin Wright.

The characters Mr and Mrs. Underwood and Doug Stamper continue to be my favorites from the series but one will feel sympathy only for Doug. The character Edward Meechum is also great and he even ends up having a 'Menage a trois' with Mr and Mrs. Underwood. Doug ends up in a limbo at the end of season two and I hope he is alright.

Everyone in the team has signed up for season three and it will be released this time next year. Looking forward to see what Francis Underwood, The President's battles would be.

Rating: 3.5/5

Spaced (1999–2001)

Director: Edgar Wright
Writers:  Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson
Cast:       Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, Nick Frost, Julia Deakin, Mark Heap

Two people Tim and Daisy, who meet accidentally in a restaurant, pretend to be a couple to live in the only apartment that they can afford.

It is basically the Cornetto Trilogy crew + Jessica Stevenson before they made it big in the British film industry. You can see all the elements that make Cornetto trilogy great in this TV series which was broadcast in Channel 4. It is different from other British comedies with plenty of references to scenes from famous Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Shining, Matrix, One Flew Over Cuckoo's nest etc thrown in. It might not be as enjoyable for those who haven't seen these films.

A must watch for those who love Cornetto Trilogy. Just 14 episodes over two seasons.

Rating: 5/5