The Queen’s Gambit Weaves an Engaging Narrative around a Coming of Age Tale of a Chess Prodigy in the Sixties
The Queen’s Gambit starts with a young woman in Paris rising out of a bathtub in her hotel room, messily getting dressed and swallowing a few pills. She hurries downstairs to join a chess match with the current world champion.…
Blood of Zeus is a Violent, Original Take on Greek Mythology With A Lot of Potential (And A Lot of Room for Improvement)
Blood of Zeus uses a familiar conceit- that of greek mythology- and weaves its own narrative with it. The show introduces its story as a ‘lost’ oral story, which allows series creators Charley and Vlas Parlapanides (who also worked on…
Mirzapur is Still Entertaining in its Second Season, Despite its Slower Pacing
Mirzapur returns with a second season almost two years after it first aired. In case you have forgotten what happened in the first season since then, the show opens with a detailed recap before diving straight into what looks like…
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is a Delightful Farce that Updates the Classic Trickster for a New America
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was announced only a few weeks before its release. Taking place 14 years after the original, the sequel takes aim at Trump supporters, QAnon truthers and Covid protesters. While the movie is not as shocking as its…
Lovecraft Country is a Fresh, Timely Take on Horror and Inequality That Falls Just Short of Greatness
Based on the name, you might expect to see more of the eldritch horrors of H.P. Lovecraft in Lovecraft Country. While there are plenty of Lovecraftian elements in the series, from secretive cults to terrifying monsters called shoggoths, the series…
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a Tense and Eloquent Reenactment of a Real Life Political Trial, Reflecting Many Issues of Our Time
The events depicted in The Trial of the Chicago 7 unfolded more than fifty years ago, but there is an undeniable air of relevancy to them. Helmed by the unapologetic partisan Aaron Sorkin, it’s a crackling courtroom drama filled with…
The Haunting of Bly Manor is a Love Story Disguised as a Ghost Story, Focusing on the Rich Inner Lives of its Characters
The Haunting of Bly Manor, Mike Flanagan’s follow-up to the unexpected hit The Haunting of Hill House, is a different beast than its predecessor. While the first series focused on grief, The Haunting of Bly Manor weaves its tale around…
The Boys Continues its Charming, Irreverent Streak in Second Season, Building upon New Themes and Characters
When The Boys premiered last year, it’s irreverent take on superheroes soon gained a strong following. Using superheroes as a filter, the show took on the entertainment industry, celebrity culture and the military industrial complex. In the second season, it…
Serious Men is an Entertaining Satire of a Ambitious Con-Man Whose House of Cards Starts to Come Apart
Adapted from a novel of the same name written by Manu Joseph, Serious Men is a satire that touches on casteism, endemic problems in the education sector and how ordinary people thrust the weight of the world onto their children…
Amazon Prime’s Utopia is a Conspiracy Thriller Involving a Comic Book (and a Pandemic) That Doesn’t Quite Measure up to Its Source Material
Amazon Prime’s Utopia is, perhaps, the most coincidentally timely series of the Coronavirus pandemic so far. Like the real world, it also features a national pandemic quickly taking lives, scientists testing vaccines and people protesting to have said vaccine released…
