372. Web-series Reviews – 187

More web-series reviews…

Nagendran’s Honeymoon – Came out in 2024.  Story revolves around Nagendran and his wives who he marries due to different circumstances.

A review from IMDB...

Nagendran's Honeymoons - One life 5 wives

A subtle drama moving on a humourous track with deep nuances and human emotions.

The movie revolves around the life of Nagendran,a carefree guy who lives at the mercy of his aged mother who has no regards for him, trying to find a way to escape from his village with the help of his childhood friend,Varkey for a better livelihood.

Soman, Nagendran's buddy convinces him with a dubious idea to fund for his journey to Persia and the trouble they both faces together forms the crux of the story.

Nithin has conceived the story in 6 episodes and the way he carries each fragment of the story forward is intense and keeps the audience hooked into the story.

Brilliant recital of the character by Suraj with varied emotions in each segments. Prashant Alex's full length performance alongside Suraj was impressive. Excellent performances by the female leads especially Grace Antony with her hilarious actions,poignant act by Kani Kusruthi & Shwetha Menon.

The story formation is predictive but Nithin has managed to bring variations through each characters and background set in each episodes. The colour grading especially in the night visuals is repugnant to the structure of the movie. Great move by Nithin to keep this light hearted story to OTT for a wider reach.

A simple light hearted hilarious entertainer for a weekend watch.

My Take – An ok watch!

 

The Rehearsal – Came out in 2022.  The series is set in a world where nothing seems to ever work out as you had hoped, Nathan Fielder gives people the opportunity to rehearse for their own lives. HBO wouldn't say whether it was scripted or more in the vein of Nathan For You.

A review from IMDB...

I'll start off by saying that I really enjoyed Nathan For You, and Nathan Fielder's typical style of absurd comedy. I think in that context, Nathan's awkward, goofy character comes off as more lovable and misguided. But in The Rehearsal, it takes that same one-sided character and puts it at the center of the show.

After watching the first episode, I had really high hopes that this would be another rather insane, hilarious comedy from the mind of Nathan Fielder. Unfortunately, by the second and third episodes, the concept deviated pretty far from the original outline, and the actual story arc dwindled to almost nothing. Episodes would pass by with little actual character development or story, and the pacing felt very slow.

It seems like this show was trying to do a sort of Bojack Horseman-esque mix of existentialism, societal critique, and comedy, but ultimately was unsuccessful. I don't think anything in the last three episodes made me laugh, and I don't really see much depth to Nathan Fielder or the story. I heard people raving about The Rehearsal changing their lives, and how they couldn't stop thinking about it. After I finished the season, I couldn't stop thinking "is there something I'm missing....?"

I will say that I kept watching and didn't just give up partway through, and I overall found the show interesting. But I don't see any real profundity in how it all played out. I read multiple articles "explaining" the show, and didn't really see why the message seemed to stick with so many people. I think there were opportunities in this show to explore real emotions and existential thoughts, but it just didn't go there. I think it would have been really interesting to see Nathan's cold, calculated, awkward persona break down in a more human and relatable way, but it just never did. My sense is that Nathan Fielder probably isn't an emotional person, and genuinely does lack the ability to feel things deeply, which is why this came off as mostly fake-deep to me.

It became a character-study of Nathan, who lacks depth, and so the whole show seemed to falter with the inability to actually cross the emotional, raw threshold that it seemed to want to. I wish that the show had either kept it light and comedic, as the first episode did, or really delved deeper. It seemed to waver between both ends, and ultimately felt very hollow to me.

I suppose some could say that this is all the point of the show- that reality TV inherently is cold and unfeeling, and so we never truly get to know the characters as well as we think we do. But like... duh? I didn't need to watch this show to realize that, and I think it would've left much more of an impact if it did go into the uncharted, emotional territory that reality TV doesn't get right.

Overall, I found the show interesting, and I like Nathan Fielder, but I don't think it's deserving of a 10/10, because it was neither funny, nor profound. I will tune in for the second season, because I do think this show has so much potential, but it just didn't land for me this season.

My Take – An ok watch! Saw 4 episodes and gave up and read about the other episodes on Wikipedia😊!

 

The Claremont Murders – Came out in 2023.  It centres on a police investigation of the disappearance of young women who disappeared from the streets of Claremont and the 25 year race to capture a killer.

A review from IMDB...

This Australian-made production dramatised the events which led to the conviction of Bradley Edwards, known as the Claremont Killer. Told over two 90-minute episodes, the tragic disappearance in 1996 and 1997 of first one young girl and then soon afterwards the abduction, rape and murder of two other young women in the affluent Claremont area of Western Australia triggered a massive manhunt.

It seemed that the perpetrator waited until the small hours of the morning when the local clubs were emptying to pick up isolated females looking for a taxi home. Two detectives, a male and female partnership, pick up the case determined to solve it and soon arrive at a prime suspect who circumstances more than actual physical evidence put very much in the frame. This was in the early days of DNA and although some such evidence was found on the clothes and under the nails of one of the victims, there just wasn't enough concrete evidence to charge the suspect.

Time goes on, with years passing by, as we see the special unit initially set up to investigate the crimes wound down and eventually reach cold case status. However, advances in DNA and a deeper dig into the original evidence and other crimes in the area material at around the same time threw up a new suspect, Edwards. When he comes to trial, not by jury but by a presiding judge, it's up to the prosecution to build a sufficiently strong case to get the convictions they need after a twenty five year wait.

I found this to be a well-made if stylishly old-fashioned production sympathetically directed and well acted all the way down the cast. I was especially impressed by Aaron Glenane's playing of the sad-eyed, road-weary detective who's never quite givien up the ghost on the case who , his determination rekindled, joins the cold case team some 12 years after the first murder occurred.

Not being personally familiar with the case, I couldn't tell where the licence taken to fictionalise events which always happens in programmes like this begins. I suspect it may have been in needlessly introducing a hint of romance between the two detectives at one point and also in the prominent part given to them asxeell as to a persistent female reporter on the case. I did feel that the production could have been more critical of the initial police handling of the case which saw an innocent man for a time ceaselessly hounded by the police although he does at least get a personal apology when he's finally ruled out as a suspect

Nevertheless, this was a highly competent production which may just have been more easily digested if broken down into four shorter episodes but otherwise made for interesting and entertaining viewing.

My Take – Worth a watch!

Adios till next time😊!