For the love of series

I grew up watching Disney TV shows (yes, some of us Indian kids were ‘globalised’ way before that even became a thing). Lizzie Mcguire, That’s so Raven, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite life of Zack and Cody – you name it, I’ve watched it and its crossovers plus the movies! Up till a certain age, I was more of a cartoon junkie – meaningful ones (Special mention: Kim Possible, Recess, Winx club) that weren’t very kiddish and nothing like the absurdity that is showcased as cartoons these days on TV. Even though Nickelodeon’s ‘Drake and Josh’, ‘Kenan and Kel’ etc were probably what brought in the obsession with series having actual people and not mere human voices with animated visuals, the old Disney has my love for making the childhood of an only child the least boring. But now, I don’t watch TV – shocking but at the same time made possible by the various OTT (Over The Top) platforms like Netflix, Amazon etc which have given me a new hobby: binge-watching series on series like my life depends on it (it might actually do because what else do we live for if not entertainment and the joy that comes with it?). The kid in me that loved ‘The latest buzz’ and ‘Sonny with a chance’ and then moved towards ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’, ‘How I met your mother’ and ‘Modern Family’ on other channels that were available on the TV has gone into a different level of adulthood that enjoys ‘Westworld’, ‘Killing Eve’ and ‘Narcos’. No, I’m not forgetting ‘Game of Thrones’ (calm down, ya’ll)! It is obvious from the references to various shows that I keep making in my blog posts that the fictional worlds outside books also appeal to me enough to gain a spot in my writing. Even though I have stayed away from Bollywood soaps involving snakes, mother-in-law issues and illegitimate relationships that destroy already messed-up families (don’t even get me started on the butchering of Indian mythology through some of the serials surpassing 1000 episodes), I have accidentally chanced upon good quality Hindi series on websites like those previously mentioned – ‘Made in heaven’ and ‘Kota factory’ being prime examples. In this fast paced world with limited time to spare, the series with run times like that of ‘The end of the F***ing world’ are more convenient. With limited number of episodes, shows like ‘You’, ‘Sex education’ etc are creating some kind of a new magic when they imitate the quality of classics like ‘Dexter’, ‘Breaking Bad’ and so on. But it has also made this field all the more competitive – a win for the viewers but I pity the writers whose ideas didn’t mesmerise the audience enough to get their creations past the first season or to get the pilot itself aired. As for me, I get to learn a lot of aspects of story-telling through these shows. Because I am a millennial, it is easy for me to accept ‘Thirteen reasons why’ with as much enthusiasm as I had for ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Pretty Little Liars’. So, if you ask me what my favorite show is, I will be stumped and might just respond with whatever managed to blow my mind in recent times. The mini-screen is growing at a faster rate than the big screen. Getting into the nuances of the technology like AI involved in making recommendations of the genre you might enjoy over the weekend requires another post and a whole lot of research that my science – loving brain would love to do but unfortunately, I don’t have the time for it because I am busy trying to find a new show to get hooked on to. Hey, tell me, what’s your current watch?

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