437. Web-series Reviews – 240

More web-series reviews…

We Were Liars – Came in 2025. A 17-year-old girl who survived a horrible accident at her family's summer home two years ago that she cannot remember. She returns, determined to remember the details of her accident but as the pieces start to come together, she discovers not only the painful truth of that night, but a shocking revelation about herself.

A review from IMDB...

This 8-part miniseries hit Prime streaming yesterday. My wife and I settled in and watched the first two episodes.

The biggest issue is nothing much happens in the first two episodes. The main character has an incident she doesn't remember at the end of episode one. Then most of episode two is flashing back and forward to understand why her family and friends reacted the way they did. And juveniles trying to sort out boy-girl issues. Sort of a teenage soap opera.

One reviewer wrote "flat, nonengaging", another wrote "lazy writing, lazy cast saying lazy lines." That pretty well captures this limited series. A story that might have been told well in a 90-minute movie is stretched to roughly 8 hours and the filmmakers expect us to devote all that time with just the HOPE that it will turn out entertaining and worthwhile. 

Well, not for us. After giving it almost 24 hours to set in my wife and I both decided we had no interest in sticking with it.

However a week later I did watch the last episode just to see how they tried to tie things up. In fact I found it to be very interesting and I was surprised at what all had happened. I will go so far as to state, if a viewer doesn't want to spend 8 hours on the whole series then watching episodes 1, 2, and 8 can be pretty entertaining.

But one can tell, from the episode synopses provided by Prime for each episode, most of the filler time involves teenage soap-opera types of topics. That wasn't of much interest to us grandparents.

My Take – An ok watch!

 

Panchayat – Season 4 came in 2025. A comedy-drama, which captures the journey of an engineering graduate Abhishek, who for lack of a better job option joins as secretary of a Panchayat office in a remote village of Uttar Pradesh.

A review from IMDB...

The story of the Panchayat series has now risen above the stereotypical innocence of village life. In Phulera, people no longer just get angry over the chair (power); now, proper politics is taking place. This reality has been effectively depicted in Season 4. A clear example of this is the subtle portrayal of Vikas's wife, Khushboo, as someone with a slight sense of greed. Similarly, the allegations made by Kranti Devi against Khushboo might shock a city dweller, but not someone like me from a rural background. A villager can be just as clever and cunning as someone from a city-sometimes even more.

In Episode 6, when it's revealed that the MP himself orchestrated the shooting at the Pradhan, and yet the Pradhan accepts it to win the elections and secure Prahlad Cha's MLA seat, it further reinforces this point. The feel-good touch of the series seems to be fading, and there are far fewer moments of laughter than before. While some viewers may not like this shift, I believe every story must evolve with time.

Now, coming to the craft of the series - in pursuit of grandeur, Season 4 feels unnecessarily stretched. Some scenes are so dull that I found myself playing chess while watching, and yet I didn't miss much. A season that could have been wrapped up in five episodes has been extended to eight.

Speaking of music, it can be called passable at best. The number of songs is higher than in any previous season, but they feel excessive. None of them match the emotional depth or appeal of tracks like 'Hind ke Sitara', 'Aasmaan Rootha', or 'Khali Khali Sa Hai'.

The acting, however, remains stellar. Raghuvir Yadav and Sunita Rajwar are the most impressive. Neena Gupta and Jitendra Kumar haven't been given as much screen time this season. The story largely revolves around Raghuvir Yadav, and he does complete justice to it. His peak performance comes in the final scene - when, after losing, the Pradhan expresses his frustration and despair. I've rarely seen such raw emotion portrayed in any Hindi series.

Sunita Rajwar and Durgesh Kumar perform so well that their characters actually make you angry - and because of that, the story starts feeling more about Kranti Devi and Banarakas than about the Secretary and the Pradhan.

Finally, the most positive aspect is that the curiosity which Season 3 failed to generate for Season 4, his one successfully creates for Season 5. The question of "What will happen to the Secretary after the election loss?" will make you eagerly wait for the next season.

So, should you watch it?

If you've been interested in this series from the beginning, then yes - definitely watch it.

My Take – An ok watch this season.

 

Squid Game – Final season came in 2025. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children's games. A tempting prize awaits, but with deadly high stakes.

A review from IMDB...

Like the title suggests, Squid Game is a TV show about the greyness of morality in the most extreme conditions, the greediness of humanity when millions of debt-clearing dollars are on the line, and the destruction of the human spirit and willpower when we are pushed to our very limits .

Whilst the first season is truly greater than the second or third, all three show us what humans are like when we only have our instincts to protect us: no rationality, no outside help, no hope, no nothing.

For some, like Gi-Hun, these instincts are our innate empathy and desire to protect other people, despite risk to your own life, as we're seeing countless times throughout the series, but perhaps the most bizarre being him deciding to rejoin the games, with the delusion that he would be able to stop them and save other people.

However, for most, these instincts turn us into the worst versions of ourselves, so that even if our lives are not on the line, we may drive ourselves to kill or deceive or plot against others just for a slightly easier shot at winning, and increasing the cash prize (like 333 in hide and seek).

Gi-Hun 's admirable moral strength is almost impossible to comprehend, and probably would never have been replicated by any real human being if the squid games were real, but even he is not invulnerable to the trauma of the games. His will was broken at the start of season 3, and he did opt to sacrifice a few X's in order for his plant to stage a revolution, to save the greater good, to work (as well as him actually murdering all those guards, but one could argue self defence)

Perhaps the most affected victim of the games is In-Ho himself. A man so broken and driven mad by the games that he lost his hope in humanity, viewing then as horses and decided to continue it, maybe to feel something, maybe to feel like he's not the only person to kill to get where he was, but we never truly know.

I say a lot of good things about this show, but truth be told, I only think the themes that are explored are truly interesting, and a rare few characters here or there. The pacing can be a bit off-putting especially seasons 2 and 3, and the plot did not truly end, leaving us only a conclusion to the protagonist and a couple other characters' stories, but not the overall plot that since season 2 was teased at (that being, the games being brought to an en): setup with no payoff.

The action sequences are not particularly enjoyable, only the season 2 and 1 finale really had me hooked, and I just felt really empty after ending the show.

My Take – An excellent series. 

Adios till next time😊!!