Tulsa King
Sylvester Stallone headlines this show created by Taylor Sheridan. Sly’s name is enough to make most 1980s or 1990s kids tune in with curiosity, but the show offers much more to hook you once you are in. Stallone is, of course, fantastic as the protagonist Dwight “The General” Manfredi. Even at this age, the charm and charisma with which he essays the role of a mobster who sacrificed 25 years of his life and his ties with his wife and daughter while serving a prison sentence as a fall guy for his mafia family, are to be marvelled at.
Upon release, he walks out into a world that he does not recognise anymore. Soon after, he realises that the family that he sacrificed everything for hardly has any appreciation of his loyalty as he is exiled to Tulsa. Disillusioned, he sets out to make his own family and climb up the ranks of mob power. The most captivating moments of the show however are when Stallone the star takes a back seat and the actor takes the wheel as the father trying to mend bridges with his estranged daughter or the man who has to deal with the loss of his brother and the guilt of abandoning his siblings simultaneously. Domenick Lombardozzi plays the perfect foil to the Italian Stallion as the antagonist Chickie.
Platform: Jio Cinema
Dark Matter
This one is based on a bestselling novel by Blake Crouch and is for all my fellow sci-fi enthusiasts. Fair warning, it’s a little bit of a mind-bender and you might have your patience and understanding of the plot tested frequently but the payoff is worth every single minute. The show explores the possibilities of quantum physics and alternate realities through a very fundamental question, one that in fact cannot quite be dismissed as a possibility even by the very real scientific community of our day and age.
What if every choice we make could possibly create a new branch of reality? While the MCU has made the multiverse a household term by using it as deus ex machina far too many times, Dark Matter asks much more pertinent existential questions while believing in the existing scientific theory that states that granted both time and space are infinite, all that can be, will be.
Yes, it’s heavy sans the campy feel-good factor of Marvel. Joel Edgerton, Alice Braga and Jennifer Connelly lead the cast and watching them play different variations of the same character is delightful. Truthfully, the execution falters slightly in the finale given the vastness of the subject at hand and the difficult task of adapting it for the screen from the books, but overall, the plot is riveting and the portrayal of the various worlds that are explored are on point and dare I say, spectacular.
Platform: Apple TV
Presumed Innocent
Unlike the other shows on the list, this one hasn’t yet concluded its run nor is it between seasons. With a new episode dropping every Wednesday, it’s become the reason I now look forward to Wednesdays. It’s a remake of the 1990s Harrison Ford film, or rather it’s another adaptation of Scott Turow’s novel of the same name which was then made into the film.
Presumed Innocent stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role, one of my personal favourites and perhaps the most versatile amongst his contemporaries despite the fact that he hasn’t quite enjoyed the same superstardom that the others can lay claim to.
This show is yet another feather on his hat. It’s a gripping thriller and courtroom drama but perhaps what is most unique about the narrative is that as a viewer you cannot ever, at least not yet, be a hundred per cent sure that you are rooting for the right guy. Rusty Sabich, an assistant district attorney, is accused of murdering his colleague Carolyn Polhemus, a woman whom he was working on a case with and subsequently had a passionate affair with.
Initially, Rusty himself was investigating the case but as proof of the affair starts coming out in the open, he is taken off the case citing conflict, post which in a bizarre turn of events, he finds himself being considered the primary suspect. Parallelly, Rusty’s marriage, which was already showing signs of stress, starts falling apart even more and his children become more distant. Rusty’s own mental stability starts showing cracks and as the audience we are left asking, could he have in fact killed Carolyn?
Platform: Apple TV
Bijoya
By now reviews and posts in adulation of the show have already inundated social media. Therefore, only one question remains — is it worth the hype? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’, it absolutely is. One common reservation about the show was that it might feel a little exploitative given how the real incident that inspired the show is still fresh in our memories and how at the centre of it is an innocent life and perhaps a brilliant future, sacrificed at the altar of a ritual that is evil, torturous and has been tolerated far longer than it ever should have been by civilised society.
While there are several reasons why the show is receiving so much love, Swastika Mukherjee’s performance as the titular character has to be the primary one. Let’s understand the character she portrays first — Bijoya might be a naive, small-town woman, but she was in no way weak to begin with.
The first major injustice she faces is the death of her husband. Even back then, she could have fought, channelled her strength and made justice her mission, but instead, she decided to deal with the loss, put any notions of vengeance aside and move forward. Not because of cowardice, but rather out of love for her son and her sense of responsibility towards shaping his future.
Years later, when she has to fight for the same son, she doesn’t suddenly discover the strength that she never had, rather she loses any reason to hold herself back, there is no barrier holding back her strength and ambitions of justice anymore. These little nuances that were inherently present in the character arc and were brought to the fore brilliantly by Swastika Mukherjee’s performance, are primarily responsible for the character fast becoming somewhat of an icon.
In fact, Bijoya has the rare distinction of being one of the few Bengali web series that can boast of multiple brilliant performances. Bidipta Chakraborty, Gulshanara Khatun (essaying a character almost a decade older than herself), Jeet Sundor, and Shaheb Chatterjee all bring their A games to the fore, the first three especially managing to tug at your heartstrings while the last manages to get under your skin. The cinematography, music and writing add to the list of the show’s strengths, making for a wholesome and emotional binging experience.
There are a few moments that are perhaps formulaic and predictable, yet, Sayantan Ghoshal and his team put forth a narration that rarely lets your attention go and almost never falters.
Platform: Hoichoi