Mini Review : Sex Education Season2 (Netflix)

Creator : Laurie Nunn
Directed by : 

Ben Taylor (4 episodes, 2020)

Sophie Goodhart/Alice Seabright (2 episodes each, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7767422/

I was so caught up in trying to do the right thing. I lost track of what that actually is. Its you. Its always been you. 


Spoilers ahead... 

Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) tries to explore his new relationship with Ola Nyman (Patricia Allison) while still continuing the sex clinic secretly at the high school with Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey). Meanwhile, Maeve still got feelings for Otis that she didn't tell him, as she deals with her drug addict mom and a new neighbour Isaac (George Robinson). Things are about to get absurd when Otis learns his mom Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson) is dating his girlfriend's dad Jakob Nyman (Mikael Persbrandt). And there's Otis best friend Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa) who learns that the new guy at school, Rahim (Sami Outalbali) has fallen for him but Eric is confused since he can't forget Adam Groff (Connor Swindells). Also, there is Aimee Gibbs (Aimee Lou Wood) who goes through a sexual assault on bus that starts affecting her daily life. While Jackson Marchetti (Kedar Williams-Stirling) struggles to cope with the pressure put on by his moms and recovering from Maeve's heartbreak as he finds a good friend in Viv Odesanya (Chinenye Ezeudu).

Sooo much is going on in this rom-com series that has sex education as backdrop. For me 1st season was very fun despite it having many cliche or typical romantic moments. They start with Otis having erect problems, which is fun and good that they don't really overdo it, quickly moving to how Otis is constantly struggling to take relation with Ola to next level in terms of sex. You very well know its matter of time before Otis is back with Maeve.

I quite loved the Jackson track, how he finds a new alternative career choice with help of Viv. Also, I like Jean-Jakob together so it was kind of sad to see Jean let him go away though there's definately the scope they might be back next season. With Eric's plot I believe in what Otis says to him that loving a guy like Adam who bullied him for many years is a very odd thing. Many times I feel for Adam but then its hard to say if he has really changed. With Rahim, I have same opinion as Eric's mom had, you could just see Eric was never himself and tried too hard to be someone else. Quite a complicated plot involving these three, as Rahim said in the end to Eric.. that Adam may hold his hand but may not catch him. Have to wait and watch.

Adam's dad Michael Groff (Alistair Petrie) is probably most irritating character of show, good to see him told to take break, I would either want nothing of him in next season or some kind of change happening in him. Aimee Gibbs was fun to watch again, she kind of reminds me of Phoebe from Friends, the way she talks or behaves sometimes. That play on Romeo-Juliet take I would say I would never ever wanna see it again, which I am hoping was the intention behind the way its shot, as its the point of view of Lily Iglehart (Tanya Reynolds) who plays a very wierd student at school. Songs mostly are well used, love 'Sexy boy' when a dirty talk leads to sex between two teachers or the emotional romantic 'Mystery of love' that fits both Jean's story and Eric remembering  Adam. 'Bashed Out' and 'Thank You For The Offer' were my other favourite tracks.

This season had very less of Otis-Maeve together, and the bitter ending of that stupid Issaac (I just can't control anger towards him) makes me wonder if we might have to wait another whole season to see them unite. Because there might be a track of Otis and Ruby Matthews (Mimi Keene) develop thanks to the way Otis handles the party he throws going full drunk and saying shitty things. 

From gays to lesbians to bisexual to pansexual to asexual, this season covered all of that, along with the therapist advices on sexual problems, but Sexual Education yet is a teenager based rom-com that delivers on many levels and has many stories to bind together still in future. I don't think I can seperately rate both seasons, so its very much on same wavelength.  Please please, surprise me with Isaac admitted his mistake or Maeve somehow knowing about it rather than making us watch them get into any kind of relation!

My Rating : 7.5/10 

Mini Review : Special Ops (Hotstar) and Panchayat (AmazonPrime)

Special Ops
Creator : Neeraj Pandey
Directed by : 

Neeraj Pandey (5 episodes, 2020), Shivam Nair (4 episodes, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11854694/

Hamari agency mein hum kahaani aur misaal.. dono bahut accha banate hai. 

Spoilers ahead .. 

Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon) from RAW has been in search of the mastermind terrorist Ikhlaq Khan behind the 2001 Parliament attacks for about 19 years now. He has placed some of his agents throughout the world and has a feeling that he is getting closer and closer to catching Ikhlaq, a name many believe is just a theory and not real. Kay Kay Menon whether he plays the on-field agent in the backstory or how he handles his agents in present day situation, he is just spectacular in his performance, even engaging in the scenes that are dull or stretching to limits. And Vinay Pathak in supporting role is effective too. Same goes for Sajjad Delafrooz who plays Hafiz Ali to perfection, though it would give a dejavu of his character from Tiger Zinda Hai, just a bit. There are times when I did think Hafiz is Ikhlaq only but they did play out the narrative around him well enough to keep you guessing till late end. What spoils the series is the 'finance' interrogation that two guys do with Himmat which is used as narration to introduce the backstory to us. For me it was tiring to watch it, despite having share of laughs in between, the director could easily had used either voiceover of Himmat or some other way of narrating the past 19 years. And it doesn't help with none of the agents getting a decent backstory to get more involved with their enthusiasm to give their life for this secret mission. Karan Tacker was very inconsistent for me playing the role of Farooq Ali, somewhat miscasted, could easily had been better if his role was swapped with Vipul Gupta, who played Bala and had much lesser screentime but felt was a much better actor. Also, Sonya (Sana Khaan) track was pretty boring for me.  I like how various real events like Parliament Attack, 26/11,  mention of Osama, Srinagar Attack etc are used and its executed in a believable way so it doesn't really matter if they have fictionalised certain things in the entire show. The finale was a major let-down, expected better way of catching Ikhlaq Khan, was funny that his guys took so much time to reveal Farooq's real identity. And what happened to that insane guy at the function, when entire focus is just on Sadia Qureshi (Divya Dutta) who gives message of 'people who are hurt and get brainwashed could still find a way of doing the right thing in the end rather than more destruction'. Pretty good series despite all the problems I had, pretty much like FamilyMan, this is a series dominated by one actor, which is Kay Kay Menon in this case.

My Rating : 7/10



Panchayat
Creator : TVF
Directed by : Deepak Kumar Mishra (8 episodes, 2020)
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12004706/

Swades ka 'Mohan Bhargav' banne ka mauka mil raha hai tujhe.. 

A story about engineering graduate Abhishek (Jitendra Kumar) who joins Phulera village of Uttar Pradesh as Secretary/Gram Sachiv of a Panchayat Office. We get to see the journey of Abhishek who finds the place difficult to live and wants to pass CAT exam to get better salary job in some city As his friend in starting scene says to him 'Swades ka Mohan Bhargav banne ka mauka mil raha hai', its fun watching how most of times Abhishek struggles adjusting in this different kind of lifestyle he hadn't been to before or so it seems by the looks of it. Been myself pretty much like that, and the fact that its a short series with episodes mostly lasting 25-30 mins, its fun to watch with the mood mostly light and comical throughout. 'Chakke Wali Kursi' and 'Computer Nahi Monitor' were my favorite episodes, some episodes do go slow but I still ended up liking most of them. That scene where the person tells he mistakenly stole monitor thinking it was TV is hilarious and so is the conversation between Abhishek and Vikas/GramSahayak (Chandan Roy) when they go at the haunted tree in the night. The political angle isn't explored too much which is good. Love how the bonding develops between Abhishek and Brij Bhushan Dubey/Pradhan Pati (Raghuvir Yadav). Performances wise, enjoyed everyone, Raghuvir Yadav, Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, but the pick of the series was Chandan Roy for me, he made me laugh many times and looked so effortless in his act. Would love to see another similar kind of short fun season.

Rating : 7/10

Mini Review : Repulsion and Contagion

Repulsion
Directed by : Roman Polanski
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059646/

We must get this crack mended.

Carol Ledoux (Catherine Deneuve), a manicurist at a beauty salon lives a strange kind of life. She hardly talks especially feels uncomfortable when a guy approaches her and even at work many times is lost in her own thoughts. She lives with her sister, Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) sharing same apartment and often is seen getting irritated by Helen's boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendry) who often stays the night invading her personal space. Then, there's this guy Collin (John Fraser), always chasing Carol seeking a date and much more from her. None of them are aware what actually Carol is going through, the kind of fear and hallucinations she has that is only getting worse. This is my first Roman Polanski film, and to be honest the experience wasn't great. I expected a lot better film, and I know some believe its a masterpiece but I felt Carol's character was under-written to really care about and it doesn't help that the guys she murders were kind of creepy or atleast you can't call them good guys. There's no background shown except for the final shot of her picture when she was young which either means someone from her family did something bad or she was like that even then. There's some long tiring scenes of Carol, either walking on road, or at the apartment roaming from one room to other. I don't mind sitting through a slow pace first half but it has to lead to something interesting. Yes there are some great scenes, the one where Carol hears footsteps and is scared to death or the guys who try to rape her which was ofcourse the hallucinations she was going through. Even the landlord scene is directed very well, as a viewer you know his fate quite early. Catherine Deneuve act is pretty good. But it didn't have the kind of impact say someone like Norman Bates in Pyscho had on me. Polanski could had easily done more on the madness angle either through backstory or maybe show how Carol went with a guy who wasn't trying to just get in bed with her. Repulsion got some admirable shot sequences and very good cinematography, but not enough to make me watch the movie again...

My Rating : 4/10



Contagion
Directed by : Steven Soderbergh
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/

Somewhere in the world, the wrong pig met up with the wrong bat.

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) is at Airport, returning home from a business trip but you can sense she is ill, maybe just some flu. She dies after back home, and so does her son on the very same day leaving the husband Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon) clueless. We slowly see more people dying due to illness before it is learned that some kind of virus has spread and is the reason behind this. Director Steven Soderbergh from the very first scene lets the camera pan to the things Beth is touching or eating, even the credit card she gives to get tickets. He does same with infected people touching door knob or such things which matters, as that will pass on to non-infected people. We get to see the struggle of common people, the chaos that happens when situation goes out of control, the constant effort of doctors and CDC trying to find a cure, and also some idiots among public or the system like a journalist trying to make money out of the pandemic. Basically Soderbergh touches almost everything one would notice happening in such times, how Mitch's daughter feels irritated that she can't see her boyfriend anymore or go out of house, or the urge of a particular community that wants to be ahead of the line when the vaccine arrives. I don't know how it would have felt watching Contagion in 2011, but in 2020 when the Covid thing is going on, its very relatable, you feel like slapping that chef in final scene who was irresponsible to have not washed hands before coming out to take selfie with Beth. I felt Contagion could had gone more complex or explored the political angle but I am assuming Soderbergh probably wanted to keep it a bit simple giving us insight of how different humans react in such disaster.

My Rating : 6/10

Mini Review : The Platform (Netflix) and Asur : Welcome to Your Dark Side (Voot)

The Platform
Directed by : Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8228288/

On those high levels you can eat anything you want, but you don't have anything to wait for. Your mind runs wild. 

Spoilers ahead... 

Goreng (Ivan Massague) joins a vertical prison on his own choice for 6 months, wanting to quit smoking. The prison has one cell per level, and every cell contains 2 people. Daily a platform of food passes by each level, with roughly 2 mins per day they get to eat. At end of every month, surviving people of every cell gets shifted to a new level. Its a surviving test specially with the ratio of food getting reduced if you get a 100 or plus level. Movie starts off on interesting note as the adminstrator is checking all the great looking dishes if they have been cooked perfectly. And then we are cut to Goreng waking up on the Level 48 as like him we get to hear the shock of the place this is. Slowly by slowly we learn as does Goreng, that you can't be stubborn and despite knowing the food is leftovers from above 47 level people, you just gotta eat to survive or you can just end your life with suicide as some others do by jumping down the hole. The conversation between Goreng and Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor) is hilarious that includes 'obvio' for more than 20 times.

There's some gore that's hard to watch where survivors in higher levels have to eat human flesh. Basic message of movie is clearly how humans don't know to adapt and get greedy, when they could have just eaten properly and let food stay eatable and available for the rest levels like the lady that Goreng gets as new partner in cell tries to but struggles. You can view the movie more like a system vs common man or upper class vs lower class, just like Trimagasi says earlier 'Don't speak to the people below because they are down below, and the above people won't answer you'. While Miharu (Alexandra Masangkay) who goes down the hole once every month to feed her little girl can be seen as a person who tries to exploit the system successfully but eventually dies. Similarly, Goreng and his partner at Level 6, Baharat (Emilio Buale) fail when they think stopping people upto Level 50 is the way to get the food till last Level. As far as I can gather, the message wasn't the pannacotta or even the girl, rather it was just eat what you told was your favorite food when you were interviewed before been admitted into the hole. The girl clearly had 'pannacotta' as her favourite food which is why the cell doesn't get too hot or too cold when the food is kept even after the platform goes down. The ending is open, hard to say what happens when the girl reached Level0, maybe nothing, thats how humans are, they never learn and thereby the chaos may continue. Quite a thoughtful and interesting movie, and love that background theme, except for the gore sequences its a movie that I totally enjoyed.

My Rating : 8/10



Asur : Welcome to Your Dark Side
Creator : Gaurav Shukla
Directed by : Oni Sen (8 episodes, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11912196/

Kya tumhe abhi bhi lagta hai ki duniya mein achaayi hai? 

A psychopath Shubh Joshi (Vishesh Bansal) believes in Hindu Mythology while he kills randomly, cuts one hands index finger and leaves no clues about his pattern. Dhananjay Rajput (Arshad Warsi) and Nikhil Nair (Barun Sobti), are working as CBI officers on the case, eager to find the common link if any among all the killings and stop the next death from happening. I think first 15-20 mins of 1st episode was the only time I felt not interested in this series, after that its damn good watching the tussle while the real Shubh Joshi aint revealed. Twists are pretty convincing and so are the first scene of every episode that sets the mood up. Love the use of pure shuddh hindi by the antagonist.

I personally felt Rasool Shaikh (Amey Wagh) was Shubh Joshi which the director clearly wants us to believe too with the final ending scene, but digging up some online comments by other people, their theory seems more likely to be true that we actually haven't seen real Shubh yet and all we saw were 3 male and 1 female followers of Shubh. Amey actually reminded me of Riteish Deshmukh a lot, looks and dialogue delivery wise both. Arshad Warsi is superb, while Barun Sobti dialogues at some places were hard to understand, else he was good too. Liked Riddhi Dogra too, and keen to see if at all there's any surprise in store with her character. Anupriya Goenka who plays wife of Nikhil, was quite irritating character until she starts to help out Dhananjay. Sharib Hashmi great as always, kinda of making his name in these kind of roles now and its a pity that they had to kill him off. The tone does remind of Joker from The Dark Knight, especially that Dhananjay and one of Shubh follower scene where he has to know the location to save people, and even the philosophies of Shubh match to certain extent, a person who just wants to watch the world burn. Would love more of Shubh past shown in 2nd season as Vishesh Bansal (he is too good as young Shubh) and ofcourse reveal him out by the end of season. Except for some very minor issues, I thoroughly enjoyed the 1st season, and totally adore that background theme, very catchy and maybe inspired from Baahubali. Hoping 2nd season lives upto the expectations.

My Rating : 8/10 

Mini Review : Guilty (Netflix) and She (Netflix)

Guilty
Directed by : Ruchi Narain
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10062614/

Yeh kiska khawaab hai, khayaal hai.. main kiski kharaabi, main hoon. 

Nanki Dutta (Kiara Advani) is on the lookout for truth about the accusation of rape made on her boyfriend Vijay Pratap Singh (Gurfateh Pirzada) by a fellow college student Tanu Kumar (Akansha Ranjan Kapoor). Felt like a very amatureish movie for most part that tries to use MeToo angle in a suspense manner without much success. And at places reminded a lot of 13ReasonsWhy which only makes the matters worse for Guilty. There were numerous occasions when I was feeling engaged in a conversation like the interrogation scenes and then either a character would say something very stupid or the scene would totally shift to a different tone for no reason.  The courtroom drama never comes either. And then the stupid climax that tries to manipulate in a long monologue, its like they had a good idea in hand even if not fully original and when it came to execution it just fell totally flat.  Even the music is so average, 'Rehne Do Na' and 'Likhi Meri' are only songs that felt decent. One thing I don't get is why the cliche of 'Neta ka beta so powerful' be used again and again to tell a story about sexual assault, its one of very safest approach of storytelling in my opinion. I did like the performances of leads, specially Kiara and Gurfateh. Even the rest cast acting was spot on, just letdown badly by the writing team. Manu Rishi Chaddha is pretty much wasted. Its a watchable movie and that too if I try to be bit lenient which I don't wish to for the rating.

My Rating : 3.5/10



She
Creator : Imtiaz Ali
Directed by : Arif Ali and Avinash Dash (7 episodes, 2020)
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11905720/

Tum karo.. jo tumko theek lage. 

Spoilers ahead.. 

A police constable from Mumbai, Bhumika Pardeshi (Aditi Sudhir Pohankar) is asked (more of an order) for an undercover assignment where she has to go as a prostitute and try to get information about a drug ring and the future plans they got. Even though the plot is about catching the drug mafia that are trying to expand work in Mumbai, the actual focus is on Bhumika who discovers her sexual side having been told as a 'cold girl' by her husband. The reason behind that is told in last episode with her been through some incident as schoolgirl though its not totally revealed yet. There's this lovely scene where she tries to seduce Sasya (Vijay Varma) and almost appearing like for a moment she did forget she was a cop. Or the final sequence where she offers deal to Nayak (Kishore Kumar G.). Would need next season to be certain if that was just to save her life or she has indeed turned into a monster as the Anti-Narcotics guy, Jason Fernandez (Vishwas Kini) fears has happened. If you view the series from the point of view of Bhumika's transformation then it would work for most of the time. Aditi Sudhir Pohankar delivers quite a good performance minus the dialogue delivery that at times I didn't find perfect. But if you see the series as a cop vs bad guy catching thriller then its very underwhelming. It does work till Sasya's interrogation scenes, with Vijay Varma in great form again, but the moment focus goes to Nayak and the scenes of Nayak derails the narrative. I lost interest in that part of story and was only keen to see where the character of Bhumika will lead to next more than what plans Nayak got. Some cliches like showing montages of Bhumika training could had been ignored, and Vishwas Kini was probably the only weak link in acting.A decent series that has scope to get better in next season.

My Rating : 5.5/10 

Mini Review : Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and Bhoot Part One - The Haunted Ship

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhaan
Directed by : Hitesh Kewalya
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10309906/

My sexuality is my sexuality.. None of your sexuality. 

Kartik Singh (Ayushmann Khurrana) and Aman Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) are in love with each other but when Aman's parents comes to know the reality of their son been a gay, they decide to get him married to a girl. It's Hitesh Kewalya's directorial debut and he does succeed in keeping the typical stereotypes away, almost to extent that there's scenes like Aman riding bike with Kartik behind like open lovers which in Indian cinema is new specially with the new law out just some years back regarding gay love no longer treated as criminal act. If only Hitesh had more of these kind of scenes rather the focus goes to the ongoing marriage of Aman's cousin sister where Goggle Tripathi (Maanvi Gagroo) is hilarious in a scene where she is taking the '7 phere' on her own with husband gone away cancelling marriage. Even Goggle's dad, Chaman Tripathi (Manu Rishi Chadha) gives some fun lighthearted sequences, but all this comes at the expense of Aman-Kartik relationship that just gets lost around. The plot of Kusum (Pankhuri Awasthy) was totally unwanted, and even the 'Kaali Gobhi' scientist angle could had been done away with. Ayushmann Khurrana is better than he was in Bala, it helps that he isn't really the main character here, at places he does ham, I liked the scene where he tries to give Aman a long lecture. In a way Ayushmann plays Raj from DDLJ, we even get the scene when Aman's dad says to Aman 'Jaa simran, jee le apni zindagi'. All this is fun but keeping the comic tone throughtout doesn't help in the serious scenes when Aman's parents (played well again by the last hit pair Gajrao Rao and Neena Gupta) try to show the typical 'what will society say'. They both get scenes that misses the point due to the tone of movie, where they complain that they can't accept the sudden change so quickly. Jitendra Kumar to me is best part of the movie, Bhumi Pednekar has a forgettable special appearance, thank god for that. Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan failed to entertain me enough, and then it never really brings out the gay relationship like I would have preferred, and I am seriously tired of 'DDLJ' train sequences used as spoofs, can you please get past it!

My Rating : 5/10 

Bhoot Part One - The Haunted Ship 
Directed by : Bhanu Pratap Singh
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10463030/

Koi hai.. 

An abandoned ship called Sea Bird is found at the shores of Mumbai with no crew around. Prithvi (Vicky Kaushal) is given the job of getting it off the ground but he slowly explores the ship and learns about various haunting stories about the Sea Bird which he himself starts experiencing. The best scene is when Prithvi with torch in hand tries to inspect the deck, unfortunately we had seen that already in the teaser. It only gets repetitive after that, and also silly. Bhumi Pednekar is yet again in a special appearance that co-incidentally runs away from home to marry Prithvi, just like she does in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Also, another directorial debut, Bhanu Pratap Singh uses the shots of outside the ship well in narration (credit to the cinematographer) but the inside scenes gets repetitive after a while, the jump scares just keep coming and at the end when real story is revealed it only makes you groan in anger. We get a unintentional comedy scene with Professor Joshi (Ashutosh Rana) reciting mantras like he was a regular at 'bhoot bhagao' ritual, or wait maybe he is, as he did exact same thing in Raaz many many years back. On serious note, the death of Prithvi's wife and daughter, that trauma is so under-utilised to carry the movie forward. Something film like Talaash did really well. Vicky Kaushal performance is good enough to sit through this lazy writeup and being a Part1, you can only wonder if they can improve or give similar product in Part2 also.

My Rating : 4/10 

Mini Review : You (Season2) (Netflix) and Narcos Mexico (Season2) (Netflix)

You (Season 2)
Creators : Sera Gamble, Greg Berlanti
Directed by : 

Silver Tree (3 episodes, 2019)

DeMane Davis/Harry Jierjian/Shannon Kohli/Meera Menon/Cherie Nowlan/John Scott/Kevin Rodney Sullivan (1 episode each, 2019)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7335184/

So Karma and I, we are in a fight. Some people, they get what they deserve. Some people don't. 

Spoilers ahead .. 

Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) goes to LA wanting to start a new life but the past always finds you as Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers) seeks revenge. The moment Joe sees Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), he falls in love again and promises himself unlike Beck this one he will make sure works and he won't hurt her. But things expectedly turn haywire with some surprising revelations.

Dear 'You', I Wolf You. Another great season! Penn Badgley plays Joe Goldberg to perfection yet again with that brilliant narrative style, but what catches my eye and I was hoping it would, is Victoria Pedretti.. she is just spectacular! I had the same 'What The Fuck!' expression like Joe, when Love reveals her true side. That was a 'tables turned around' moment done in a super manner like watching a female Joe all of a sudden! And I have loved Victoria previously too in 'The Haunting of Hill House'.

Weak point was Candace, somehow her scenes didn't interest me much and constantly keeping her away doesn't help either. I was actually quite happy to see her die. Leaving asides some of middle episodes, it was another good season to enjoy.

Also was fun to watch Joe with a different perspective, having an idea how he would be acting in similar situations he did in the 1st season, also good to see them show his childhood sequences. I have to say I again ended up rooting for him despite him been a very messed up guy. Love's friends portion weren't fun to watch like it was with Beck's friends in 1st season, but thats then covered with plot of Delilah (Carmela Zumbado) and Ellie (Jenna Ortega).

The final scene I am not sure if its really what Season3 will go to or its just trying to mislead to that. Looking forward to it! In next season I would like lots of new challenges Joe faces including maybe going to prison.. hopefully not killed off as I want this series to go few more seasons!

My Rating : 7.5/10



Narcos Mexico (Season 2)
Creators : Carlo Bernard, Chris Brancato, Doug Miro
Directed by : 

Andres Baiz/Amat Escalante (4 episodes each, 2020)

Marcela Said (2 episodes, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8714904/

You know,, it takes someone special to abandon everyone and still find a reason to blame them. You fucked over anyone who cared about you. Now bad things are happening to you. Because you are a bad guy. 

Spoilers ahead.. 


I liked Season1 but it was nothing in comparison to the Escobar and Cali seasons. Same is the case with Season2 of NarcosMexico.

The plot is about how Felix (Diego Luna) tries to keep the government support while he manages different plazas to work together and then there's Walt Breslin (Scoot McNairy) who seeks revenge for the death of their agent Kiki Camerana.

Initial 3-4 episodes just meanders along, not much is happening apart from Walt's Operation Leyanda where they keep trying to come a step closer to Felix. If you are patient enough then the show gets interesting post 5th episode, even though the pace is still slow only. It was still fun to watch Felix empire crumbling with all the plaza owners not really co-operating as he would had liked. Also how  Felix struggles and always fears death is around the corner, that plane sequence was hilarious when he refuses to go inside for the talk. He certainly ain't a character to love (which even Escobar, Cali guys shouldn't be either), but lets just put it this way that he was lot less human with the decisions he made than those other guys we have seen in previous seasons, like Maria (Fernanda Urrejola) perfectly describes him as a selfish person who never cares about his friends, partners or family.

Walt Breslin who narrated Season1, continues the good work here, episode by episode coming closer to catch Felix. Amado (Jose Maria Yazpik) is one character thats hard to read, thereby you can't easily predict which way he's gonna go in the 9th episode (my most favorite one), and chances are he might be the one on whom next season would be built on. Or it could be mix of Chapo (Alejandro Edda) with him who also gets enough screen-time this time around, liked that tunnel sequence or when he tells Felix to let Hector Palma (Gorka Lasaosa) return back to the federation.

Pacho (Alberto Ammann) scenes with Felix are probably the best part of this season, first the initial episode scene when Pacho rejects Felix change of deal offer reminding killing Kiki Camarana was his mistake. Then the best of all, when Felix goes to Panama with a deal in his head thinking he will rule over Columbians and Pacho does the quite opposite leaving Felix speechless. And then the last where for once Pacho isn't the one calling shots as Felix gets the edge but as viewer you quite well know that its just a moment he got, the actions he did to have this will bite him badly.

Acosta (Gerardo Taracena) was another interesting character, specially the conversations he has with Amado, his girlfriend or Walt. However, sub-plot involving Acosta and the guy who is after him was kinda of dull.

Love the ending scene with Felix giving a detail of how the plazas would work and where it would end in a war one day. And when he says 'You will miss me', I have to admit despite him been such a bad person, I will still be missing him in future seasons. Season2 may not work for most, but if you enjoy watching Felix then like me you won't get bored despite the adrenaline rush missing in this entire Mexico series.

My Rating : 6.5/10