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rahultekk
Reviews
Journeyman (2007)
A fun throwback
Much of my review is coloured by me watching it thirteen years after it originally aired. I watched it in its entirety over a course of a week. Chasing the lockdown blues away..
The series is short and sweet which is part of its charm and possible frustration for many. The essential theme, of a person going back in time to fix someone's life in the past has been captured well with the dilemmas of such meddling is shoved to the background. The story did not have enough time to take off because of the truncated time-line but what is shown is done well. There are hints that the writers were taking this show in interesting directions. The creators have captured the differences in time periods well enough while focusing on little things, like problems a time travel might face. Some of the problems are solved imaginatively (the mobile phone) while others can be termed as cheating (Cash. There is often a ready source).
The actors are competent and convincing in a mid-2000's TV show way. The lead can get a bit staid and boring but the other actors take up the slack. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jessica Chastain in one of the episodes as the person the lead is supposed to help.
The show is a pleasant distraction and fun little throwback to simpler pre-OTT times.
Searching (2018)
A truly digital thriller !!
This is a well acted, well paced, decently written thriller that know how to land its punches and how to hold back when needed.
If you still need convincing read on.
This is a father's desperate search for his daughter, punctuated by little revelations that make him see his daughter in a new light each time. The story moves like a real life crime drama playing out on our mini screens in real time. Everything from intrusive media coverage, judgemental audience, click and like seeking social media vultures feature in this tale. The film also talks of grief stemming from losing a loved on and how it festers and changes you if not addressed.
On that note, one of the most poignant opening ten minutes, after 'Up' features in this movie.
Talking about the plot will possibly spoil the movie for you. Dont let the novel structure and storytelling style scare you off. it's definitely not just a gimmick. The story stands well on its own. The presentation adds to overall effect the director is going for.
I was just concerned about one thing though. How easy it was for the father to gain access to her daughter's social media and email accounts. Did the writer / director take some creative liberties there ? Possibly. But I don't care. This is a well made thriller that should be seen before being read about !!
The Office (2005)
The definitive mockumentry!
The office has over the course of nine seasons charted its own path in terms of the limits and depths a single camera, no laughter track format can achieve. This is no mean feat and all its makers deserve all the praise they get and more.
With that opening out of the way lets talk about the show itself, why should you watch it?
The show is about a group of seemingly ordinary office workers going about their mundane day to day lives, dealing with issues at their workplace, or at problems a their homes which inevitably follow them to their offices. The show depicts the environment of a typical white collar work-space in such an effective fashion that the work itself is meaningless. It could be a paper sales company, an IT giant, a bank, a government office and so on. If you work in such aplace, you will identify with the characters and understand their shenanigans.
The premise offers some humour, its true, but most of it comes from the interaction of the various characters. The crazy boss, the introvert, the extrovert, the toady, the clown, the intern (that doesn't fit anywhere else) and possibly the worst of them all, the HR manager.
What is possibly dull and mind numbing (I spend 8 hours in a place like this already, why do I have to come home and watch this again?) is made special and belly achingly funny by the sheer unpredictability of the proceedings. There is one brilliant scene in one of the seasons where a CPR demonstration (mandated by HR, after an unfortunate almost accident) goes completely off the rails due to the meddling of the boss, the contributions of his subordinates and sheer helplessness of the medical professional who is but a mute witness to the horror. The clip is widely seen on YouTube and sort of encapsulates the series in its insanity.
To talk of the performances is redundant. The premises is simple and vanilla bland as stated above. You have to be great performers with interesting chemistry to pull it off. The ratings, the awards and the popularity should be nice indicators of something being done correctly here. I am not detailing the characters here since they should be discovered by oneself as one is watching. They often begin as tropes but immediately evolve into better versions of themselves. The writers are also often changing things around so that one character you have loved to hate does something poignant or utterly devastating that your sympathies always shift to them. There are still characters who are eternal losers and others whom you would like to punch in the face. Yet, you find that everyone has at least one moment in the sun and at least on time they have been ground down into the dust.
The format of the documentry sets this apart from other such comedies throughout he simple device of the interview. Each charachter speaks to camera in between the scenes often about the scnes that preceded or the one succeding. This adds to the scene in multiple ways, in that there is grater context and greater chances of humour. The goings on at the office often defy logic and common sense and it can be seen clealy in the face of the office workers as they are in real time reacting to the drama unfolding before them. The camera itself goes haywire trying to capture everyone's reactions one after the other.
All of this comes with a caveat, this show is on a really slow burner. The humour is a particular style and the charachters are not really sympathetis atleast not immediately. As one builds upon episode after episode of story the prople reveal themselves to be more human and less caricatures. The time given would not be a waste. Not at all.
This show is brilliance. It is something you kep coming back to time and again even if it is for a short time at a time.
PS : Don't be put off by the comparisons to the original Office TV series from UK. That is a different beast entirely with same premise and charachters who grow differently. Besides that was just two seasons. I say enjoy both, why pick favorites and limit yourself. You will only lose out.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Irreverent entertaining slapstick
I am not a fan of Will Ferrel. I don't get an automatic urge to watch his movies unlike say, Steve Carrell, who incidentally also stars in this movie. With that being said I enjoyed this movie.
It's about a vain, pompous newscaster who is brought down by the fates. It's a predictable fall from grace and rise again story which is made interesting by the delicious left turn it takes.
Sample this, there is a sequence where two rival news teams get ready to face-off in a grudge match but the situation is escalated comically by the appearance of more and more teams each wishing to get in on the action. There are delicious cameos by many of Will Ferrel's friends and contemporaries all of whom seem to be having fun.
Watch it for a mysoginistic clueless showboat being brought down a notch by a surefooted and confident woman professional. Chow!