Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 200

Spy x Family Episode 15 Review

Dark, serious, almost scary – the tone of ‘Spy x Family’ Episode 15 is far from the usual hilarity viewers are used to seeing; but only for the first few minutes. The creators use pumping music to heighten tensions and add to the tense drama unfolding on the screen – Loid is fighting a bomb-dog, while Yor is running around town frantically, looking for Anya.

(Read Spy x Family Episode 1 Review if you have no clue what the show is about)

Titled ‘A New Family Member’, the episode starts off on an intense action-packed note, then gets relaxed/homely in tone. All three in the Forger family – Anya, Loid, Yor – play a role in stopping terrorists from executing a bomb plot that would’ve escalated into a war-like situation. Might satisfied with herself, Anya expresses her wish to adopt the big fluffy mystery dog who saves her from the bad guys, but since it’s a special animal that was experimented upon, Loid isn’t too sure about adopting it.

In an rare reveal, viewers get to see a softer side to the Handler (Loid’s colleague) who always has a sour face on, she convinces Loid into letting Anya have the dog. Thus, the Forgers begin a new chapter of their family life with their new pet and Anya has something new to brag about at school. The focus is back on ‘Operation Strix’ and Anya still needs to befriend Desmond’s bratty son. Can a new pet become an excuse for her to get closer to the snooty boy?

It was a thoroughly fun episode which explores each facet of the show, first there’s some tense spy action, then some family bonding time and finally Anya being silly at school.

Stream the series on Netflix.

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Listen To: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ Better Than ‘1917’?!

Spy x Family Episode 14 Review

So, episode 14 of ‘Spy X Family’ was a mixed bag, probably because other supporting characters get more space than usual. Picking up from the last episode, Yor saves Anya from terrorists, though she thinks they are child kidnappers. But our little mind-reader knows what the terrorists are up to and runs off with her new dog friend to help spy dad Loid.

(Read Spy x Family Episode 1 Review if you have no clue what the show is about)

Titled ‘Disarm the Time Bomb’, it’s packed with action, geopolitics and some of the ‘mission-impossible’ spy shenanigans. The episode starts funny, but is also quite dark for the major part of its runtime as the focus is on stopping a group of student terrorists from assassinating Foreign Minister Brantz. After managing to nab a few plotters, Loid’s Handler gives them a sombre lecture on the horrors of war.

The show is finally getting a lot more serious than before, but still manages to be fun with all its light moments. For example, Anya’s developing friendship with the dog is adorable; the two have their own adventure and save the day without anybody finding out. Yor’s brother who works for the government makes a brief appearance in the episode, so maybe we will get to see a lot more of him soon enough. Overall, it was an exciting chapter which marks a darker turn for the series.

With Keith, the mastermind of the terrorist gang still at large, Loid leads operations to thwart his attempts to kill Brantz. The episode ends with an cutthroat cat-mouse chase between the two. Who will prevail?

Stream the series on Netflix.

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Listen To: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ Better Than ‘1917’?!

‘My Policeman’ Review – Badge for David Dawson

Harry Styles, Harry Styles, Harry Styles… that’s all mot people seems to talk about when it comes to the 2022 love triangle ‘My Policeman’. The pop star turned actor dominates the movie posters, review titles and is also the titular protagonist – he plays policeman Tom, who is caught between marital loyalty towards his wife Marion and forbidden love for Museum curator Patrick. But it’s really David Dawson who delivers the most poignant performance as Patrick in this ensemble cast.

Directed by Michael Grandage, ‘My Policeman’ is based on a novel by Bethan Roberts of the same name. The movie starts off with the older versions of the primary protagonists – retired teacher Marion (Gina McKee) insists on taking care of the now invalid Patrick (Rupert Everett plays the older version) even though her husband Tom (Linus Roache) is against it. “You just want to punish him,” he admonishes her, hinting at a strained history between the three. Then, in flashbacks, a tragic triangle is revealed through Patrick’s diary entries.

Set against a melancholic sea-side British region, ‘My Policeman’ dwells into selfish acts of love, jealousy, betrayal and self-preservation. Too often, movies end at a point where viewers are left to wonder – “What happened to them? Did they live all their years together? Did they eventually part ways?”. But this story starts at a point where the protagonists are already in their retired years, so viewers get a fair idea of what did happen to them. Tom and Patrick meet in the 1950s, and sparks fly between the two, and the former tries to be as secretive as possible, for as a cop he is supposed to jail those who indulge in the very same activities he partakes in. Queer rights didn’t exist at the time and ‘unnatural sex’ was a criminal offense.

Emma Corrin plays the younger Marion, who is completely smitten by the handsome Tom; the script leads one to believe she is blinded by a combination of ignorance and naivety, so she fails to see something sexual brewing between Tom and Patrick. David Dawson’s portrayal of the polished artistic Patrick, who would rather live life on the edge than compromise his identity for what’s considered ‘normal’, is flawless. Patrick is the most mature of the three protagonists, it’s he who has to compromise the most, and suffer on the sidelines, for he has to make do with small crumbs of affection from his lover. Harry Styles as the title hero is more of an embellishment, with two people desperately vying for his attention, even though his character doesn’t have a lot going for his except for his exceptionally good looks (and maybe a soft heart).

For me it was David Dawson’s poignant performance that made ‘My Policeman’ stirring, he is seductively savant and fearlessly loyal. Some might not like the retrogressive story, but one needs to see it in the context of the period it takes place in and also reconcile with the fact that people can be terrible. The climax wraps the triangle on a heartrending note, and many might mistake it for a ‘happy ending’, while in truth it’s a bleak conclusion. But like Patrick says in a scene discussing literature – “all love stories are tragic, aren’t they?”.

It’s a 7.5/10 from me. You can stream the film on Prime Video.

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Enola Holmes 2 Review – ‘And It Was Fun’

Okay, I might have called the first one ‘fun’ too, but there aren’t many words in the English dictionary capture its meaning the same way. Synonyms be damned. Even the primary antagonist in ‘Enola Holmes 2’ simply smirks and says ‘IT WAS FUN’, after the detectives expose the villain.

Directed by Harry Bradbeer, the 2022 Netflix sequel sees Milly Bobby Brown reprising her role as Enola and Henry Cavill plays the more famous older brother Sherlock. Enola runs her own detective agency, but since she lives in Victorian era London, when women had little agency, nobody trusts her to investigate their case. And when Ms Holmes finally decides to shut shop for good, a little girl turns up in her office, seeking help in finding her older sister who worked at a matchstick factory. What starts off as a simple ‘missing person’ case, turns into a dangerous complex game with many players and Enola gets entangled in a web of corruption and murders. She’ll need help to keep out of trouble and it might mean turning to her brother for help… among others.

Netflix users are familiar with Milly Bobby Brown from ‘Stranger Things’, and she slips effortlessly into Enola’s character, who is a cheery spirited teenager, poles apart from dark angst-y Eleven she plays in the popular horror-fantasy series. She breaks the fourth wall with ease, and keeps things entertaining. Helena Bonham Carter and Susana Wokoma also reprise their feisty feminist roles as Eudora Holmes and Edith. Their cameos are brief but thrilling, especially because they get to beat the bad guys. Who doesn’t love watching women kick some ass? And in a wise decision, the handsome Lord Tewkesberry (Louse Partridge) also finds his place in the cast; he is exceedingly endearing around Enola. David Thewlis is wickedly despicable as corrupt cop Grail, while Hannah Dodd blends into the background and is quite forgettable in her cameo, but it was expected of her character.

As far as the mystery-investigative part of the film concerned, a lot of elements were predictable and the story isn’t as clever as the makers want it to be. There was a definite attempt to re-create the kind of intrigue and awe Benedict Cumberbatch’s ‘Sherlock’ stirred up in viewers, but the results aren’t as effective. It’s the characters, their banter and Enola’s charm as an individualistic free-spirited young woman which make the story worth a watch. The theme is also interesting, while the first one was about a privileged rich boy, this time the focus is on exploitation of women workers in factories.

From purely an entertainment point of view, ‘Enola Holmes’ is proving to be a great ‘watch with the family’ kind of franchise and I would love to watch a part 3, 4 and many more. Especially if they can keep the primary cast intact, since Milly Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill makes a delightful sibling duo. Like Cavill’s character suggests in the film – maybe the makers should also think of a ‘Holmes & Holmes’ series.

It’s a 7.5/10 from me. Stream it on Netflix.

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‘The Eclipse’ Review – Leads Make It Work

The 2022 Thai series ‘The Eclipse’ revolves around a sinister school ‘curse’ which is believed to punish students to don’t follow its norms. The first few episodes were quite weird/uninteresting and unintentionally funny, making it seem like the show is about a bunch of student prefects who behave as if they are in a cult and not a student body. There’s literally a scene where the prefects burn candles and take an oath to uphold the school’s honor. So what happens when some rebel students flagrantly violate rules, will they bear the burnt of the ‘curse’ or is it just a urban legend to keep kids in line?

Directed by Golf Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, the romantic-mystery is spread over 12 episodes, with First Kanaphan Puitrakul, Khaotung Thanawat Ratanakitpaisan playing protagonists Akk and Ayan respectively. Akk is the head prefect at the all boys school called Suppalo and is obsessed with upholding the school’s strict rules and regulations. New student Ayan challenges Akk’s beliefs and encourages a gang of students who constantly demonstrate against the administration demanding change. For example, why have jackets as part of the uniform in a tropical region?

If it weren’t for the chemistry between the two leads, a lot of viewers would’ve stopped watching it after two episodes. Although, it’s a well intended show, the writers try to show the school as a microcosm of a corrupt world, where leaders suppress the masses with bizarre diktats. But the teachers were extremely stuck up and unnecessarily harsh on students, like they are running a prison and not an educational institution. The exaggerations make it difficult to take the whole ‘students vs system’ theme seriously. The writers throw in a ‘mysterious death’ in the mix, which one of the protagonists sets out to investigate, but that sub-plot just loses steam completely.

What does work for this series is the clean picturesque cinematography. Most of the plot unfolds on the school premises or within dorms, but some outdoor scenes set by the sea are visually stunning. As mentioned earlier, First Kanaphan Puitrakul and Khaotung Thanawat Ratanakitpaisan are quite magnetic as Akk and Ayan. Their slow-burn romance is the highlight of the show and Khaoutung surprises with his nuanced performance as Ayan (he was quite unbearable as the lead in Tonhon Chonlatee), an intuitive student who isn’t afraid to question those in authority. It was refreshing to see the teen Ayan being straightforward about his crush on Akk. He doesn’t indulge in silly shenanigans or mind-games, instead he blatantly flirts and makes his intentions clear. First Kanaphan is sincerely convincing as the head prefect who simply follows rules like a puppet until forced to look at the injustice of it all. His struggle with his emotions and sexuality were realistic and poignant. Louis Thanawin Teeraphosukarn and Neo Trai Nimtawat as the secondary couple Thuapu and Khanlong have an unnecessarily long sub-plot to themselves.

Watch this series for First Kanaphan Puitrakul and Khaotung Thanawat Ratanakitpaisan. You can stream it for free on Youtube.

It’s a 6/10 from me.

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Listen To: Booker Winner ‘The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida’ Worth A Read?

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ Review – Chilling

The second half of 2022 has seen a surge in horror/supernatural movies and series, there are too many titles to choose from, but none of them will probably give you the chills like German war drama ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, a gut-wrenching film about countless soldiers being butchered to death because their megalomaniac masters wouldn’t concede defeat for a farcical sense of honor. Few things are as tragically terrifying as watching thousands of young men march to their deaths on an early winter morning, a cold ghostly mist surrounding them like a pall.

Based on a book by Erich Maria Remarque of the same name, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (German film title ‘Im Westen nichts Neues’) is set during the last leg of World War I. Directed by Edward Berger, it’s filled with war politics, rhetoric, violence, gore, deaths, mangled bodies, blood… so much blood. Spurred by jingoistic speeches, thousands of eighteen year old boys excitedly line up to fight for their motherland. But the minute they find themselves in the ghastly trenches of the Western Front, ground laden with severed limbs, air ringing with gunfire, explosions… their romanticized notions of war is shattered. All that’s left is piercing pieces of fear, paranoia, despair and only a tiny hopeful speck of survival.

Felix Kammerer plays the barely 18-year-old protagonist Paul who forges his parents’ signature to enlist himself (17-year-olds could go to war if their parents allowed it), lest he miss out on the heroism and glory he expects his older peers to experience in their uniforms. Talk about signing your own execution form. There’s a scene where all these enthusiastic boys line up to collect their uniforms, when Paul gets his pair, he reports that the collar has the name tag of another soldier; an officer claims such mix-ups happen all the time and hands the shirt back after ripping the tag out. Paul is happy with the explanation and wears the uniform with pride. In reality, Germany was losing so many men and supplies, they simply washed and stitched up uniforms of the fallen to hand out to new unsuspecting recruits.

The cinematography is stunning, from scenic shots of the French countryside to the blackened bloodied battle grounds, war-torn regions are captured in all their shades, from the few untainted patches, to ruined terrains filled with rotting remains of those who succumbed. And even though the non-combat scenes are sparse, they serve to show the juxtaposition between the starving exhausted soldiers and the generals who sit in comfy war-rooms with tea, croissants and wine, far removed from the violence, yet getting to decide the fate of millions.

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ does a better job at hammering the atrocious futility of war than Sam Mendes’ 1917 (comparing it because of its critical acclaim). The former doesn’t dwell on romances, it doesn’t dwell on civilian life, and it sure as hell doesn’t dwell upon any niceties. Just like the soldiers on the front had no respite from the constant gunfire and fear of death, the film focuses on their plight and the rare moments of respite they can steal when not killing or being killed. The background score is sombre and sounds like a knell at opportune times. It was completely anxiety inducing, horrifying, but worth the watch.

It’s a 8/10 from me. You can stream it on Netflix.

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‘Young Royals’ Season 2 Review – A Worthy Successor

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

A little over a year has passed, and damn, Omar Rudberg has become twice as cute! Maybe that’s not the first thing to write about in a review, but Rudberg’s vocal talent and sheer gorgeousness as Simon in ‘Young Royals’ makes it extremely believable that a crown prince would be ‘truly, deeply, madly’ in love with him. And Edvin Ryding portrays the pining Prince Willhelm with a vulnerability emblematic of first love.

Season Two of the Swedish Netflix series ‘Young Royals’ picks up the plot a few weeks after the first season. Willhelm is back in Hillerska for a new semester, hoping to reconcile with his boyfriend, but Simon wants nothing to do with him. This only makes the crown prince more determined in seeking revenge against August (Malte Gardinger), who had recorded and leaked his private moments with Simon, causing a national scandal. Meanwhile, Simon’s sister Sara (Frida Argento) starts to live on campus and is strongly attracted to August, despite being aware of his heinous activities.

With just six episodes to boot, ‘Young Royals’ season two is gripping, pacy, filled with teenage pangs of love, angst, fear, despair and hope. A little older than before, Edvin Ryding is a lot more charming as Willhelm in this edition as his character gets more multi-faceted. No longer just a ‘back up’ to the throne, Willhelm is still grieving the death of his older brother, the tragic loss only compounded by heartbreak, with Simon no longer on his side. At the same time, he also indulges in devious little tricks to hurt August whenever he can, as legal recourse isn’t a feasible option. So, Edvin pulls off being vulnerable and lost in one scene, then switching to cold and calculated the next. Oh and the chemistry between the two lead actors is glorious. Simon tries to ‘move on’, he has his choir practice to focus on and even finds a great distraction – a student from another school called Marcus (Claes Hartelius).

Again, just like season one, all characters have grey shades to them, except new addition Marcus, who in Simon’s words is quite ‘perfect’. Love a show where they throw in a rival who is good enough to steal the protagonist’s thunder. Because Marcus and Simon are pretty cute together, even if their chemistry isn’t as electric as Willhelm-Simon. Then there’s Sara, who continues to be a problematic character, yet, it’s hard to despise her, she is a weird mixture of innocence and deviance. Malte Gardinger makes for an ambivalent antagonist as August, he seems to be genuinely repentant for his actions, but he doesn’t do much to deserve redemption. The lavish scenic setting of Hillerska, the boarding school for the super rich and royals with fancy balls, exclusive parties, bizarre rituals and sex scandals, makes viewers forget that the primary characters are all just sixteen/seventeen year olds. So of-course they are going to make stupid decisions, be jerks, partake in hasty actions and regret them later.

‘Young Royals’ is set in a world far removed from the daily grind of middle-class mundane lives, but it does have elements that’ll echo with a lot of viewers, right from those who are in their teens to those who remember what it was like to be one and feel like you’d die if things didn’t go your way. While a lot of teen scripts unwittingly make the problems of privileged rich protagonists seem silly and hilarious, the writers of ‘Young Royals’ manage to make viewers empathize with Willhelm. They make you realize he is just a 16-year-old, who is expected to carry the burden of a grown man – of being the perfect crown prince, of indulging in activities he has no interest in, of having to deny his sexuality, even if it means hurting those he loves. Will he be crushed under rules and traditions and become a royal puppet or can he carve out his own path?

Episode six was a bit of a roller-coaster ride, it starts off in a way that makes you wonder “how are they going to wrap this up?”. Pretty much every little sub-plot is only half-resolved until episode six, but the writers cleverly escalate things and bring the story to a full circle.

I thoroughly enjoyed binge-watching this show, so it’s a solid 9/10 from me.

Also Read: ‘Young Royals’ Season One Review: An Engrossing Drama

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Listen To The Review of All Eight Episodes of ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’

‘Blue Lock’ Episode 4 Review

It’s not like I am a soccer fan but episode 4 of Japanese sport anime series ‘Blue Lock’ was a banger! Like episode 3, teams in the facility face-off each other again, but the soccer is a lot less chaotic and fun to watch than the first round.

((Read ‘Blue Lock’ Episode 1 Review if you have no idea what the show is about. ))

After their first crushing defeat, Isagi Yoichi and the boys buckle up and come up with a strategy four round two, for if they lose again, it would end their careers. The animation mixes up mediums to make things entertaining, for example, episode 3 has brief sequences resembling artwork from arcade game era of 1980s and 90s.

While the creators slowly reveal more details about different players in each episode, they don’t go into elaborate back-stories like the volleyball themed anime series Haikyu!! (the title has double exclamation marks, and also, not a volleyball fan, but Haikyu!! is pretty amazing). At least not yet.

The carefree, impish Bachira is probably my favorite character already, his casual attitude adds a breezy touch to the exaggeratedly serious show. But the solemn way in which all characters obsess over soccer is both endearing and slightly hilarious. “I want to be a soccer superhero” says a character called Kunigami without batting an eyelid, when protagonist Isagi Yoichi asks him “why do you play?”. Kunigami goes on to clarify that it might sound childish to want to be a ‘superhero’, but he isn’t embarrassed about saying such a thing. Interesting, as viewers you’d think that’s exactly the whole point of the ‘Blue Lock’ program – to create a soccer superhero.

Can Isagi and the boys from Team Z be soccer superheroes for the day? Or will they lose again? Episode three ends on a major cliffhanger and I cannot wait to stream the next one. You can watch it on Netflix.

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Listen To The Review of All Eight Episodes of ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’

Wendell & Wild Review – Gothic & Mild

The stop-motion animation and puppetry in the horror-fantasy film ‘Wendell & Wild’ is so good, that for a second you might seriously wonder if it’s computer graphics made to look like stop-motion. So visually, the Halloween offering on Netflix is worth a watch, especially for animation fans who love traditional methods of storytelling.

Directed by Henry Selick, ‘Wendell & Wild’ is based on a book by Clay McLeod Chapman. While it’s got a bunch of ghosts, demons, suspicious nuns and what not, it’s nowhere as unsettling as Selick’s 2009 film ‘Coraline’. The story follows thirteen-year-old Kat (voiced by Lyric Ross) who is fresh out of juvenile prison and has been given a chance to start afresh in a Catholic school in her old town. But when two demons brothers called Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) & Wild (Jordan Peele) make contact with a teen and offer her a deal she cannot resist, she agrees to summon them, leading to unexpected consequences. Can the demons be trusted?

The conception of hell as an amusement park filled with tortured souls was a fun take on the underworld and the two scheming demon brothers Wendell and Wild are mildly hilarious. I’d say some of the stuff was on the grosser side than spooky, but was engaging nonetheless. While Selick has his own brand of animation, the dark ‘ghost town’ setting, catholic schools with old creepy nuns, cemeteries where the dead rise up… all of it reminded me of Tim Burton’s work. It evokes a very gothic atmosphere, yet isn’t very scary or spine-tickling.

Kat makes for an interesting teen protagonist who loses her parents in a tragic car accident when she was eight. There’s a strong ‘corporate greed vs small businesses’ theme. Kat is in a ghost town which used to be filled with flourishing businesses while her parents were still around, but a wealthy family looking to build a large prison facility is behind some sinister incidents that change the town’s fortune. How the demon brothers get involved into human corruption for their own goals was between interesting and silly. Angela Bassett lends her voice to Sister Helley, a pretty cool biology teacher with her own secrets, who tries keep Kat out of trouble.

All the voice actors do a fantastic job with their characters, and I love how there’s trans representation in the film. Kat becomes friends with a boy called Raul in her all girls school, who used to be Ramona before. Towards the end, the makers try to pack in too many themes, so we get a contrived ‘family means protecting each other’ kind of a lesson, which didn’t feel too heartfelt. Regardless, the ‘devil’s bargain’ is a classic trope which rarely fails to amuse, so ‘Wendell and Wild’ is engaging until the end, with a whole lot of its own rules about hell, demons and angels.

It’s a 7/10 from me.

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Listen To The Review of All Eight Episodes of ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’

‘Once Again’ Korean Series Review

A 25-year-old carries the guilt of witnessing the murder of a kind young man who was trying to save him from a kidnapper. Shin Jae Woo (Moon Ji Yong) was only ten when the incident transpired, but he is unable to forget his childhood hero Kang Hi Joon (Lee Hyun Jun). In a strange turn of events, Shin Jae Woo finds his adult self back in time, just days before the terrible attack and he attempts to save Kang Hi Joon instead.

While the 2022 Korean series “Once Again” seemed interesting at first, Shin Jae Woo begins to get on your nerves on account of his behavior. For example, he keeps calling Kang Hi Joon ‘uncle’ like a dim-witted duck. Dude is on the heavier side of his twenties and doesn’t find it the least bit weird to call a guy his age an uncle; and this is just one of the many childish/idiotic things he does through the show. Sure, the ‘uncle’ thing was funny the first time, but gets annoying when constantly repeated.

Lazy writing makes ‘Once Again’ a pretty forgettable, mediocre mini-series, where things move too fast and end in an unnecessarily tragic note. It’s like the makers couldn’t decide if they wanted this to be a breezy sweet romantic series or a serious time-travel drama, so it ends up being a weird mix of the two. Definitely not something you can watch again.

It’s a 4/10 from me.

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