Squid Game

Squid Game (2021)

Created, Written and Directed by: Hwang Dong-hyug

Netflix's most watched show till date.

Spoilers Alert.

It is about 456 bankrupt contestants, who risk their lives to play games to win a huge amount of money. One good thing the show does is, they show us how badly they want the money - instead of directly jumping into the show. That makes the show more human, in spite of it having a template. Another good thing is that the show has distinctly designed characters, in a way that we root for them. My favourite game is the one where they have to take all the marbles to win the game. This game had the most amount of tension. The one where Ali dies. The game with the old man, that's using someone's weakness against them to kill them - that's the most brutal I felt in the entire show. The one where the girl convinces the other to play, and ends up dying. It was so heavy.  

The tug of war was also beautiful. It could be a quintessential Telugu mass scene. The way they end the episode in a high tension moment was also beautiful - a classic cliffhanger that was. It's a lot of heavy drama, and usually I'm not into such high drama stuff. But I realised, it's because most of the times, it doesn't land and it doesn't work. Here, it does. Everything works. The reveal of the Front Man, the reveal of the old man, the ending fight, and the most kind moment of the show is where the protagonist offers to end the game, give up everything, to save one life. Such a beautiful moment it was.

House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths

House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths

Created by: Leena Yadav
Streaming on Netflix.

This show gives us a bizarre, strange experience. It gets more eerie as it keeps progressing. The event in itself is mind bending, and confusing as it is for everyone. But as we get to know more details, about how and why this entire debacle happened - it gets scarier. The first episode starts with the event, the details of the event, and it ends with the hint that this was a planned event, and not something that happened out of an impulse. The second episode deals with the diary, and how they all are being controlled by a voice in a man's head. It's extremely bizarre and mind bending. 

The craft of this material is on point - especially how it's edited. I think documentaries are entirely created on the edit table. In the beginning where they explore the details of the event, they add shots of water leaking from a raw tap, a shot of a lot of wires tangled, and all of these definitely add to the eerie tone of the show. The way the interviews were shot, was also interesting. I remember one of the interviewees was mildly sweating and that added to the tone. They don't have a lot of real footage too, but they crafted a very nice show out of whatever they had. They extensively used a family photo, and some old photos and footages. Netflix has carved a niche for creating these true crime documentaries. 

Little Things S4

Little Things

Starring: Mithila Palkar, Dhruv Sehgal
Streaming on Netflix.

I've always loved this show for how it seamlessly blends two big parts of our 20s - adulting and romance. I'd say the show is more about adulting than about romance. Dhruv feels like he'd be constantly adulting throughout his life. Well, we all do but his character is a good portrayal of that side in all of us. The episode where he realizes he is doing exactly what his dad used to do, I had this thought so many times and I thought it was a very personal thought - but it's great to see art doing its job - telling us that we're not the only ones. Kavya's back pain is a beautiful way to explore how things could change as we grow up, the inevitability of time, and sometimes how no matter what you do, some things are not in your control. I think that's the reason you believe in free will when you are young, and when slowly life starts happening to you, you realize that maybe everything is not in your control and maturing is realizing that, that's completely okay.

The show touches on so many beautiful ideas about life - the episode where they talk about how it needs courage to wake up and want to be nobody. It changes the way you look at everything, the things that you'd disrespect all your life, about how some people never do anything, subconsciously exist, laze around all day, and their lives are so slow - now you think, what's wrong with that? It's not that you'd probably change your worldview after looking at these things, but it's an endearing invitation to different worldviews. The craft is on point, the way it's shot and edited, and the kind of music that is used - it has a warm, cozy feeling to it. The pace of the conversations has a more soothing pace to it, than a few seasons earlier, also a way of showing how they grew up.