A weak script, poor execution and inconsistence are, unfortunately, the terms that end up defining ‘Hasmukh’ despite its very promising plot. Even as a Vir Das fan, this show is hard to like and even harder to watch.

Hasmukh (played by Vir Das), is a meek aspiring comic who has been treated like a doormat his whole life, until one day, when after being denied the opportunity to perform on stage by his "mentor"- Gulati (Manoj Pahwa) despite his many promises, Hasmukh snaps, murders Gulati, walks straight onto the stage only to end up delivering a very successful stand-up performance. That's when he realizes that 'murdering' is actually his ‘Viagra’ which helps him channel his art.

Vir struggles to capture Hasmukh, he struggles with the supposed UP accent, he struggles with the comedy and we as a viewer struggle to get through the shoddy screenplay. On the other hand, his smarmy manager and partner in crime - Jimmy (Ranvir Shorey), is rather convincing as both - a duplicitous human and a shrewd businessman. His portrayal of a morally dubious and conflicted man is far more palatable than Vir’s.

In spite of a very exciting opportunity to create a dark comedy that treads the slippery slope of morality, the show falls flat and ends up as a trite and tiring story of a small-towner leaping for his long shot in show business. Except for a couple of funny one liners and gags, the writing is mediocre and at times repulsive.

The show disappoints in multiple ways, but the good thing is that episodes are only about 30 minutes long, so the disappointment is rather brief and easy to move on from.

Effortless and simplistic, ‘Panchayat’ is a refreshing take on “struggles” of a modest rural life. We get to experience the seemingly unexciting yet vivid everyday lives of people occupying ‘Phulera’ (a small village outside of Uttar Pradesh) through our hero of sorts – Abhishek, who has landed the job of panchayat secretary of the village.

Abhishek (Jitendra Kumar) is someone we can instantly resonate with; he is stuck in a job that he never quite wanted. As he begins making peace with his strange new environment, we see him flounder, whine and fail much like we (people accustomed to big cities) would if we were in his shoes.

Beside Abhishek’s, we also get closely acquainted with lives of many peculiar yet affable locals of the village, like - Brij Bhushan (Raghuvir Yadav), the kind-hearted Panchayat Pradhan; Vikas (Chandan Roy), the easy going Gram Sahayak; Prahalad (Faisal Malik), the loyal deputy Pradahan; and finally Manju (Neena Gupta), the domineering, practical wife of Pradhan.

The best part of the show is that it is neither preachy nor a mockery of the rural life. It is in fact an insightful and witty conceptualization of what a typical day in life of a rural Indian looks like. The writing is sharp, tactful and manages to subtly comment on a wide gamut of social issues as well.

With brilliant performances, tasteful humor and a comforting aura about it, the show will easily give you a run for your money.

The strongest selling point of ‘SHE’ has to be its absolutely stunning performances. Show features a mix of interesting characters. But Vijay Verma who plays an eccentric drug dealer- Shasya, is not just memorable but so brilliant that he immediately becomes the center of attention whenever he is on screen. Aaditi Pohankar’s portrayal of Bumi- a reserved cop who goes undercover as a prostitute to bust a drug racket, is carried out with conviction too.

While at its core ‘She’ is a classic crime thriller about Bombay cops and their battle with an elusive drug lord and his strong, infallible drug network. But the show also tracks the journey of Bumi who breaks free from her repressing and restraining reality and learns to embrace her sexuality and herself. Here’s the catch, though her journey is supposed to be empowering, but her "empowerment" isn't really her own and rather depends on how men around Bumi see her and what they think of her. This partial narrative doesn’t allow Bumi’s character to truly shine.

In spite of some convincing performances, show doesn’t deliver to its potential due to a convoluted plot. Story begins at a high note moves at a rather slow pace and ends on a low note, thus making the cliff hanger feel a bit anticlimactic. Overall, ‘She’ is a unique crime thriller that tries to dwell into psyche of its characters, despite a choppy script it manages to hold attention. It may not be ingenious but has its moments of glory.

When I first started watching the show, I wasn’t sure about what to expect of it, and oddly enough I still don’t. With glaring inconsistency all throughout the script, ‘Afsos’ is a mixed bag of sometimes clever but other times pointless dialogues, characters and plotlines.

Nakul (Gulshan Devaiah) is our anti-hero. He is a hopeless and miserable soul whose ineptitude is so vast that he can’t even kill himself. After many failed suicide attempts, he contracts his death to Maria (Ratnabali Bhattacharjee) who runs an assisted suicide agency. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, the story takes one turn after the other and ends up as a stew of half-baked ideas replete with immortality potions, foreign conspiracies and over-enthusiastic journalists. Except for Nakul’s, every other character involved in the show is shallow and writing fails to provide any insight into the characters' minds.

Biggest problem with the show is that it takes itself too seriously. It tries too hard to be profound, philosophical and funny. But in its pursuit of putting up a façade of pseudo-intellectualism, it comes off as annoying. ‘Afsos’ is, at best, a mediocre attempt at creating a dark comedy. It misses the mark by a mile and offers only a few good punches to make the experience worth-while.

After putting out consistently awful content for far too long, Netflix finally offers a pleasantly engaging experience with ‘Taj Mahal 1989’. Delightful performances take center stage and even when the script struggles, there is enough charm in the production design to keep one hooked.

Love is a tricky subject but we get to see a lot of its shapes and forms in the show. For Sarita (Geetanjali Kulkarni) and Akhtar (Neeraj Kabi), love is elusive and nearly lost. The passion in their relationship is long gone, and an empty marriage haunts their future. While for Rashmi (Anshul Chauhan) and Dharam (Paras Priyadarshan), love and lust are synonymous. For Angad (Anud Singh Dhaka), as he cleverly puts it, “love is nothing but the choices available”. Writing at times is poetic and soulful, the other times sappy, much like the character development, which is also a hit and a miss.

With enough romance, wit, humor, substance and drama, ‘Taj Mahal 1989’ is a rather out of the ordinary show that will keep you entertained.

This story about a teenager struggling to make peace with her dad’s suicide, her sexuality, her differences with her mom and her seemingly bleak fate of being stuck in a small town all while navigating high school, might seem like a lot, but Sophia Lillis’s effortless portrayal of Sydney- a misfit and a wallflower, makes for an enticing experience.

Sydney’s journey takes an interesting turn when her emotions channel into supernatural abilities and she learns about her telekinetic powers. She is faced by the truth that she defies ‘normality’ in more ways than she is ready to believe. The episodes begin with Sydney narrating her entries from her diary in a voice over which cleverly draws the viewer in and evokes curiosity. The supporting characters are written just as well as the protagonist. The show follows a similar directorial style to Netflix's other teenage dramas like 'Sex Education' or 'The End Of The Fucking World' which is fresh, edgy and modern.

The series does a fine job when unfolding the story with well paced episodes and the season ends on a major cliff hanger. ‘I am not okay with this’ has the right amount of charm and mystery to keep you entertained.

‘Hunters’ is set in the late 1970s where despite the long end of World War 2, the Nazis are successful in infiltrating the American society and they continue to kill holocaust survivors (Jews). In a very brutal opening shot, a Nazi who kills everyone present at a Barbecue party after his true-identity is revealed, direly announces that “only the dead know the end of war”.

Luckily, an ensemble of most unusual saviors, consisting of a weapon’s expert, a disguise artist, a soldier, a spy, a lock picker - you get the idea - called ‘Hunters’ is already on the Nazi’s trail, hunting them and bringing them to justice.

I couldn’t help but think of another Prime video thriller -‘The Boys’, while I was watching ‘Hunters’. Both shows have a grim and eerie undertone with a very densely packed plot and just the perfect touch of dark humor. Regardless of the show’s vast historical and cultural implication, it can be easily consumed as a dark, thriller drama. Only thing to be a little wary of is the unabashed gory, racial slurring and quite insensitive one-liners.

Akanksha Thakur and Jitendra Kumar are back as Sameera and Neel in an urban romance and their on-screen chemistry is still as charming as ever. ‘Cheesecake’ is a story of fading love being barely held together by a fragile marriage.

After a distressing day at work, Sameera finds herself feeding a lost dog a piece of cheesecake outside a club who then follows her home. Initially, Neel (Sameera's husband) resists this new addition to their family but eventually as they grow closer to the adorable golden retriever, they start growing closer to each other. Who knew a lost dog was all they needed to revive the lost flame in their marriage? My most prominent and maybe the only problem with the script is the over-simplification of a very complex subject. A dog or a child can't always be the answer to a distraught marriage, and in that sense the story may seem a little trite. But besides the script's precarious treatment of a heavy subject, the show is warm and fuzzy with a lot to offer.

‘Cheesecake’ is a light-hearted drama/romance/comedy. It doesn’t reflect profoundly on the ruthless and fast-paced culture of our modern society or the fragile bonds we build. However, the performances are top-notch, and the dialogue is mature, grounded and thankfully, miles away from being cloy. It’s an easy watch and highly recommendable.

Sentimental, cheesy and very Bollywood – ‘The forgotten army’ attempts to remind us of the invaluable contribution of the INA in India’s freedom struggle and its now forgotten history. The show is flooded with unapologetically desi emotions, drama and rather poor dialogue choices. Patriotism often feels forced than natural and over-the-top sentiments take center stage much more than facts and figures.

Two timelines run parallel in the show and the story have been told primarily from the perspective of Lieutenant Sodhi, who is our ‘hero’ of this 5-part series. The show’s interesting approach to unfold the story is the only thing minutely compelling about it. Direction is sharp and incidents seem well researched but the whole experience is tainted heavily by superficial one-liners.

One good thing I could spot was the inclusion of the footage of actual INA gatherings being addressed by Netaji. If you take liking for movies like ‘Mission Mangal’ – mawkish, cloy and brim filled with clichés, then you won’t mind this show either.

The show tries to recreate the infamous Jamtara phishing scams, which costed numerous Indians their life savings. As intriguing as the plot sounds, the chosen narrative of the story isn’t in fact much compelling. The story doesn't talk about how the scams were executed but chooses to make us see the events from scammers' perspective. However, shallow character development and lack of sufficient context makes it pretty boring pretty soon.

What you will learn is that much like most of our history, poverty and oppression lead to awful things and the juvenile youth of Jamtara is no alien to the consequences of being poor in a casteist society. They figure out their shortcut to getting rich fast by scamming gullible people into spilling bank and debit card details. But that's just one part of the actual malice, which is- a flawed administration, manic lust and bleak realities.

The episodes are on average 25-minute-long which works both in favor and against the show. There is little to no character building, and most of characters feel myopic, insufferable or confusing. What keeps the wavering boat afloat are a few good performances, especially by fresh talents.

The series is an easy watch, with fairly short episodes and a couple 'what happens next moments' every now and then, it manages to just keep you hooked. ‘Jamtara’ is a mediocre crime thriller at best. Don’t go in expecting wonders.