143. Web-series Reviews – 14

 More web-series reviews…

 Indian Matchmaking – Documentary web-series that created a lot of troll memes!!  8 episodes in the first season.  Apparently, the casting was the biggest hurdle of the show, going through a client list of 500 families and calling to see if they were willing to be on camera. The director also mentioned that the series initially started with about a dozen singles but with some that "fell off" during production.

The series is about matchmaking in India with a middleman speaking to both the families, matching the horoscope, arranging the meeting between the families and then taking it forward.  As per IMDB, matchmaker Sima Taparia guides clients in the U.S. and India in the arranged marriage process, offering an inside look at the custom in a modern era.

An engaging series to know the kind of mindsets people have in looking for a partner.  It is sometimes funny and also gives a peek on the working of minds of the suitors.  One-time watch, just to know how different people think differently on the same topic!! Available in Netflix.

Paatal Lok – An excellent series!  Hindi-language crime thriller web television series which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in May 2020. Loosely based on Tarun Tejpal's 2010 novel The Story of My Assassins, the series is about a disillusioned cop who lands the case of an assassination attempt gone wrong.

Synopsis from IMDB…

A down and out cop lands the case of a lifetime when four suspects are nabbed in the assassination attempt of a prime time journalist. The case turns out to be a devious maze where nothing is what it looks like. The pursuit of it leads him to the dark netherworld - the 'Paatal Lok', and to shocking discoveries in the past of the four suspects.

A big conspiracy is busted and assigned to a struggling but honest cop. His quest for solving the case goes thru dirty lanes of negligence, discrimination, oppression, revenge, apathy, lies, power, politics, and crime in society. After many twists and turns he manages to find the truth, but will it ever come out?

A very intriguing series and well-acted by all.  Produced by Anushka Sharma.  Definitely the best Hindi web-series released this year, so far.  Available in Amazon Prime.

The Gone Game – The series is completely shot during the lockdown phase!!  Every actor acted out his part, recorded it and sent it for editing!!  Just 4 episodes in Season 1 and they are planning to shoot the Season 2 once the shooting permission is given for film shootings😊.  Of course, you have to wait for the 2nd Season as the first one ends in a twist😊!!

Synopsis from IMDB…

A global pandemic, a nation in lockdown, and a mysterious disappearance in the midst of it all. Sahil Gujral is gone. Thought to be a victim of the coronavirus at first, his death points to a mysterious crime. 2020 has changed the world forever, but for the Gujral family, the nightmare has just begun.

Decent acting as everyone had to act alone😊.  Joint interactions shot through Zoom meetings!! Available in Voot.

Tiny Creatures – A 2020 pseudo-documentary that depicts fictional stories starring nature's tiny creatures. Despite the fact that the series' events and sets are largely staged and scripted, it is advertised as a documentary by Netflix.

Synopsis by www.readysteadycut.com …

There’s a lot to be said for the high drama of the natural world, and the thing people always say about great nature documentaries is that they seem like they’ve been written and shot to mimic a blockbuster. Well, Tiny Creatures, a new eight-part series debuting on Netflix today, has been. And the results are quite remarkable.

The first episode, which opens with a kangaroo rat being sinisterly eyed by a diamondback rattlesnake, begins innocently enough; so innocently that you’d scarcely realize this was all planned and scripted if you didn’t already know. But that’s the point, in a way. The orchestration of Tiny Creatures isn’t intended to be distracting, but to italicize the script wild animals already live according to. Soon enough, that rattlesnake has gobbled the rat’s mother, leaving it alone in the Arizona desert under constant threat by hawks and venomous Gila monster lizards.

The eight episodes of Tiny Creatures are ordered according to location; a hamster in New York, an owl in Minnesota, a mouse in Texas, a squirrel in Louisiana, ravens and rats in the Florida Everglades, a duckling in Washington, and a skunk in New Hampshire, all make up the bite-sized cast of this clever hybrid from Emmy-winning British director Jonathan Jones, whose award-winning experience as cinematographer on David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II stand him in good stead for this project.

Well worth a watch😊!

Cheers till next time!!

Today’s Observation

Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, is to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.