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The Dropout: I'm in a Hurry (2022)
A banger for a pilot - Great story, music, and makes you Hurry
I want you to start watching this TV series casually and read a little bit about the company before you start watching the TV series. Then you start with this first episode, and by the end of it, you are already hard pressed to watch the next episode. There is a compelling story that is built over here, and the role character of Elizabeth Holmes is played very well - the maverick side of it, the millennial who grew up looking at Jobs posters. The best part is, that the story is fast paced and it will take you through her growing up phase, although I do not really understand the cut to her school years where they say "she runs weirdly". There is a great narrative to be told right from the get go, and the episode introduces us to the two main characters using the court hearings - oh what a great trope to open a TV series. I will also praise the music score that blends so well with the story that you just want that music to be there. This first episode is a well packaged product - and if you are in a hurry, It will just add to your speed.
Ozark: A Hard Way to Go (2022)
You need to understand it to give it a high rating
The four seasons of the Ozark comes to an end with an equally unimaginable episode. This episode is as true as it can be to the whole series. This is a plain and simple episode, and not like the finales which can be cliff hangers and spur a lot of discussion. This one feels like a real finale, where everyone returns to the home in the end. It is almost as if Ruth's "..tap dancing your way through every situation" comes true.
As I said, it only takes one to understand it to give it a high rating.
Ozark: The Cousin of Death (2022)
A Gamechnager
This episode so very well follows from the Episode 7, but is totally opposite to it in the tone and setting. Whereas, this episode portrays everything that the this show has carried - you can be killed anytime and with no emotion. It is not the storm that should scare you, but the normalcy and the silence in this muddy lake.
Julia Garner was again spot on this episode, with such a powerful acting delivered. She carries her emotion in balance, but in a very raw state. The flashbacks and Ruth's plans are all very well crafted, with such an engaging sync with the story. I really liked the color scale and camera placements, especially the cafe scene with Ruth has been amazingly crafted.
This was a solid opening for the second part, and guess everything is up for takes now. But, you first gotta wipe it clean of all the blood.
The Batman (2022)
There is no perfect Batman story
This movie tried to live up to The Dark Knight series, but we all need to understand that there is no one single Batman story, and it cannot be perfect. The Batman is a vigilante, he is not a superhero, and he does not claim to carry weird powers. He is a product of Gotham, and his nemesis also rise from the same air. That is why, they are so intimately linked.
This time around, The Batman grapples with The Riddler, while the crime is rampant in Gotham. The Riddler digs up the past pf Wayne Enterprises, but his ways are that of violence and vengeance to bring down the corrupt. Although, this movie again leaves you thinking, what if The Riddler is correct too?
That is the essential part of every batman movie, the right and the wrong are the faces of just one coin. In my opinion, this movie had a good plot too and the actors delivered some lass act. In terms of technicalities and the story plot, this movie is not The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises. This is its own Batman movie, where Mr Wayne finally comes to the streets, and you can see his increased partnership with the police. What confuses me is the opening scene, who is that with that binocular and if it is who you think it is, what is he doing there and what is he looking at?
I am hoping for a new arrival soon, with Batman bringing hope and maybe the collaboration of two cellmates.
Breaking Bad: ABQ (2009)
A pivotal season, and a great season finale
The final episode of season 2, and through this the whole season, has been a banger. I believe this is the season that sets in motion what become a feature film on the character of Jesse Pinkman, and a TV show on Saul Goodman. Every season begins with a dramatic scene, returning back to White's swimming pool. You do not know and you always presume that something big is going to go down at the end, and it does. The whole plot is so intricately meshed here in the final episode, and not for nothing, all the events relate back to Meth. Meth affects two relationships here, rather three. Skyler makes the decision to leave Walter, Jesse and Jane can never be together, and Jane's father will never see her daughter. Although, this whole season, a lot of people have been killed due to Meth, and the finale speaks to it when two plane crashes, because Why? It is Meth, and anyone who followed the story well throughout these seasons know pretty well why.
This season also brings out the best acting by Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. Walter White is slowly easing into his role of the cook, the architect of all that is. He is just brilliant, the scared dad and husband who want all of it for his family but just cannot go out in the world, but a caring partner and friend, who realises he cares for Jesse as his son. He is angry, sometime pompous, but he is tough in the core and he knows when to keep his head down. Jesse has been amazing throughout this season, vulnerable from before, making his life's decisions, standing upto Mr White, but also falling in love. The best part is that you feel for Jesse when he slows down and thinks about the life ahead, you feel it when the realization hits hard on Jesse.
But the masterplot, was the crash and how it comes down in White's swimming pool. Who would have thought, but it is clearly an imaginative thinking.
I would rate this season and especially this episode near the top.
Ozark (2017)
"You need to grow up. This is America."
I read a few reviews, and honestly I believe all of them could be true. Certainly Ozark is one of the best TV shows at this moment, and Netflix has done a really great job at it. When I ended season 3, I was still confused where this show was going, or that I am not waiting for a deadly punch out of a dark corner. This is a master-craft in crime TV series. This TV show has grown through the seasons, and this reflects from producer Jason Bateman double backing as the lead actor Marty Byrde. Marty never seems to loose track of his ideas, and I honestly do not understand how he does not snap. He just grows slowly, "tap dancing his way" if you would ask Ruth Langmore. Similarly, the TV show grows on you as you end season 3, because you are at crossroads with whom to choose going ahead. Season 3 brings it all together, and season 3 tells you why the characters are the way they are. The meteoric rise of Wendy, the very deep seated questions of women having to do way more than men to progress - is portrayed in the story of Wendy and Ruth (and in some ways in Helen's life). Season 3 leaves me with a question - who is going to take charge in Season 4, and honestly I do not have the answer. Who will see the Byrde family through? Oof, so much to think about.
The greatness of this TV show also comes from the comparison that it has garnered. The opening of Season 4 has been compared to the final act of the Sopranos (by Esquire), and the trailers does not make that easy. Would we know where the crash leads to, or we can spin off a Byrde curse as well? Remember! The Langmore curse? The Byrdes were finally looking happy but then the car crashes? Huh.
No on is letting the chance go away to call it the Breaking Bad of money laundering. It just dab smacks put in there with the legendary ones, and I think it reflects upon what the audience has been wanting for long now. This TV series holds a grip on the American way of life - and it holds the mirror to its audience. Those vast camera pans of Chicago city, with cars and trains and trucks rushing, who has the time to stop and look into each others affairs. A McLaren driven by a therapist, and the big idea that money talks and walks has been exemplified (Wendy Byrde, Season 3 "You need to grow up. This is America. People don't care where your fortune came from.")
If you still do not marvel at the underlying realities of this TV show, focus on the nature of gun usage by Darlene Snell and the Navarro Cartel, and tell me why this is not a brilliant crime show in the present day.
King Richard (2021)
Humility, your roots, the wisdom, and determination
I am going to write a sentimental review, and I am going to declare it outright. My sentiments are not with the Williams family, neither I am sentimental about the brilliant biopic I just watched. I am sentimental because I know how it feels, I feel it to my core everyday. I know how it feels to move forward when so many look to you as you do not belong here. This story, the story of this movie is not just a 2 hour long biopic. It is a way of life, it is reality for a lot of people, it is that somber yet unshakable dream to become the best.
A sport drama based on the best female tennis players in the Open Era and their father, who dreamed a dream and wrote out a plan about it. Yes, but more than that, an epic journey with its own high and lows. It is a brazen world, and Mr Richard William knew that well before hand. Richard Williams and Brandy Williams does not raise their kids to just excel in life, they instilled in them the sense to be the best, to learn and remember their roots, and in the face of all adversity, hold onto that and be proud of it. For me the moment that hold onto me was the lessons of humility, to not gas up with your achievements, because they have not reached where the Williams family did on their own. They represent a whole section of people who were treated less than one human (The West Wing Episode - Mr Willis from Ohio), and they were oppressed but they fought their way. They did not hurried to blame, but they rise up, EVERY TIME. Venus and Serena and the Williams sister got these teachings in them. They are the greatest of all time, they are but a result of years of hardwork and toil and the belief in a fair way of living, the revolutions, they are the high point of it. They were carrying a burden, not to beat the best in the world at the time, but to beat the crowd, the tones of race, ethnicity, power, and come out on top while retaining their humanity. They carry a community with them, they know that they just not represent their family, but every black person who has lived and died, and BOY DID THEY NOT DO IT WELL !!!! Many a women had fought this and are champions in their own life spheres, and when Serena and Venus are about to achieve the fame of the "greatest of all time", they are told to do it right because every black girl growing up will learn about them and look upto them, they are the chaperone of so many legacies.
This movie is not just a drama, but it tells you that the sum is greater than the whole, that those years of small sacrifices here and there give birth to a star. When people like the Williams sister rise to the top, they cannot just afford to narrow their horizon. Rather, being at top comes with a very broad horizon, an unprecedented spot from where you can instill change.
I believe in Mr and Mrs Williams - and this biopic is about that belief. When the tide starts to turn in your favor, sir, you have to have a cool head, a calm heart, firm footing, and an immense self belief. Because the tide does not know you, only you know yourself. This is what this movie talks to you about.