155. Web-series Reviews – 22

More web-series reviews…

Lewis – Another excellent BBC series, which is a continuation of the Morse series.  Now the character Lewis (Kevin Whately)has been promoted to Detective Inspector and solves murder cases with his junior James Hathaway.

From Wikipedia…

Lewis is a sergeant on the staff of the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England, and in Inspector Morse, is assistant to the eponymous Detective Chief Inspector Morse. Although Lewis's given name is Robert (Robbie), he was rarely referred to as anything but "Sergeant Lewis" or "Lewis."

The background and personality of Lewis – a working class, easygoing family man with a Geordie accent – is frequently contrasted with that of Morse – Oxford educated, RP-accented, lifetime bachelor. Morse frequently uses these differences to insult or demean Lewis, perhaps from Morse's point of view in a playful manner, but Lewis is often not amused by the jabs. In his frustration, Lewis is often more in step with their joint superior Chief Superintendent Strange, himself an evident supporter of Lewis; however, despite a great respect towards Strange, Lewis is always unflinchingly loyal to Morse and follows his lead.

In Inspector Morse, Lewis is often shown following a hunch that Morse criticises, and in the end Lewis is usually proved correct, or at least more correct than Morse. Near the end of the television series, Lewis moves on in his career and takes a promotion. With the end of Inspector Morse and the death of its star, John Thaw, Lewis's adventures had seemed to come to an end.

In the pilot Lewis episode, Lewis returns to Oxford from a two-year stint training police in the British Virgin Islands, following the death of his wife Valerie in a hit-and-run accident. Lewis still must work partly in the shadow of the now-five-years-dead Inspector Morse, who some time prior to his death had worked a case involving one of the murder suspects as a juvenile. In the new series, Lewis gains his own junior, Detective Sergeant James Hathaway (played by Laurence Fox), a Cambridge-educated man who joined the police after giving up training for the priesthood. Another staple of the series, pathologist Dr. Laura Hobson (played by Clare Holman), who appears late in the Morse series, continues on through all of the Lewis episodes as a witty part of the team, with a cynical sense of humour and as a romantic interest to him.

After Robbie retires (and before he returns to work at the request of their superior, Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent, played by Rebecca Front), Hathaway gains his own assistant, Detective Sergeant Elizabeth (Lizzie) Maddox (played by Angela Griffin). Maddox is black, married, smart, and usually very matter of fact, and occasionally shows a sense of humour in her work with James (and Robbie). In one episode, she is almost killed (an attempted murder by the villain of the episode).

The popularity of the one-off episode spurred the continuation of the story into a total of nine series comprising 33 episodes, the most recent airing in 2015. In the latest series, Lewis had retired from the police force, but is brought back as a consultant to work with Hathaway, who is now a detective inspector himself.

I found the series to be more entertaining than Morse series.  Lewis gets lot of wonderful one-liners to mouth and his equation with James is also very entertaining.  Both of them needle each other regularly and it is a great fun to watch and enjoy!  I enjoyed every episode. Imagine a guy acting out for aound 30 years as the same character😊!!

A Simple Murder – This series features actor Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub who plays Manish in the series. He is assigned to kill someone. However, a goof-up happens and he kills the wrong person, who is Amit Sial's girlfriend. This leads to an onset of troubles for Manish as Amit Sial wants to avenge his girlfriend's death.

Overall a good series with a possibility of a second season thrown in at the end. 

Taish – Rohan and Sunny are best friends from their childhood days. Sunny goes to attend Rohan's younger brother's weeklong wedding in a scenic country estate in UK. The boys look at this as an opportunity to catch up and let loose - unabashed and fun revelry dotting the weeklong affair. Somewhere else in the dark grimy corners of South Hall London, a violent criminal family of moneylenders is headed by Kuljinder with his two brothers Pali and Jassi. Pali has been planning to quit the family business and start life afresh with Kuljnder's wife Jahaan with whom he has been having an affair. But fate has other plans for him. Both these worlds collide when Kuljinder comes to attend the wedding in the country side. A past secret connected to Rohan and Kuljinder sparks an incident of violence which then kick starts a chain of violence changing all their lives drastically. Taish is a story of friendship and loss of innocence narrated in the format of intense thriller.

Can be watched once.  But if you have other stuff to watch, this can be on lower priority.  Stars Jim Sarabh, Harshvardhan Rane and Pulkit Samrat. 7 episodes totaling to about 3 hours.

Today’s Observation

Behind every successful man, there is a woman and behind every such woman, there is a man asking her to stand behind him.