RIFLE RANGE BOY

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 8, final season) After a long hiatus, Brooklyn Nine-Nine returned with its last season. A lot of things happened after the previous season. George Floyd's mishandling, Black Live Matters movement and calls to defund the police did not put the police in the best of light. Despite the public sensitivities and the problems of filming under pandemic situations, the team managed to churn out an entire ten-episode season. The producers decided to keep it neutral by avoiding too much police work and limiting the storyline more to the precinct's pranks. Fonzie on water skis, in a scene from the 1977 Happy Days episode "Hollywood, Part 3", after jumping over a shark Maybe it is just me; I feel that actors have all grown lethargic playing their roles. The initial glow and enthusiasm seem to have been lost. Perhaps the producers saw that too. Rather than creating a 'jumping the shark' moment or even 'nuke the fridge' scene, they wisely ...

Wandavision (Miniseries, Season 1; 2021) Disney + (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Now that memory and brain activity can theoretically be digitised and stored, and our cinematic presentation, (i.e. movies and TV shows) are essentially data that can be modulated and transmitted from port to port, nothing will stop these two forms of data (series of 1's and 0's) from intermingling.  With our fixation with Tinseltown and penchant to immerse into instant visual gratification added with the obsession with having our TV/computer displays on 24/7, we may want to run our lives like they do on the silver screen. But, unfortunately, nothing will stop what is real and what is fake, fuelled by a fetish for hyper-reality, virtual reality, and obsession to experience in 3D and VR imaging. How often have we seen children expecting their parents to be like those depicted on American sitcoms? How they wished their parents were cool like them too? When the hard knocks of life hit them hard at their ...

Master of None (Season 3, Ep 1 - 5; 2021) Netflix After riding high with the first two seasons of 'Master of None ', Aziz Ansari got entangled with a nasty sexual assault claim that took much of the bejesus out of him. Maybe because of that, this season is not much about Aziz Ansari and his co-creator Alan Yang. If the earlier seasons were light comedies looking at the lives of first-generation immigrants and their interaction with their parents, this one is anything but funny.  Aziz only appears as a co-star in two instances. Viewing the first episode itself, I had a certain deja vu feeling that  I had seen all that before. Then it clicked. It reminded me so much of Ingmar Bergman painfully slow 1973 miniseries, 'Scenes from a Marriage'. This season centres around Denise (Lena Waithe), one of Dev's (Ansari) close friends. We know previously that she is a lesbian. She is now a thriving author living in the quiet countryside with her partner, Alicia. They seem to be ...

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Seasons 1-7; 2013-present) Netflix These days, the men in blue are painted as inhumane, dishonest and incompetent. With the ease of remotely recording them at work and with the benefit of hindsight, the public is quick to shoot, kill and bury the force. Things have become worst now, because of lockdown, as more vent their frustrations at the officers who are just trying to earn an earnest income (most of them anyway), carrying out duties assigned to them. Nobody likes to do the dirty job, but somebody got to do it anyway. What the powers-that-be can do is to improve public opinion. Like everything else in life, it is all perception. Police morale will further improve if they think that their job is given due credit by the public. They should not be looked upon as glorified gangsters working hand-in-glove with crooked politicians or even in cahoots with the very people they are supposed to protect the public from. Rosa and Amy One imagines the overhanging moo...

Friends (1994-2004; Season 1-10) People need role models to guide them through the uncertainties of life. Every living day is a new experience. Hence, newbies who step into different stages of their lives necessitate the presence of someone with authority to emulate. Parents and teachers are sparse representations of adulthood. Their paths are dull, unexciting and merely outdated. Juniors need to follow routes that are 'compelling' and approved by their contemporaries. They aspire for someone or some icon to tell them what normality is. For teenagers who peeled their inner eyes of awareness at the turn of the century, the Gen-Y's, the TV rom-com 'Friends' could have influenced their perception of what relationship is all about.  Come to think of it, a generation before them formed their opinions on more significant life issues from Oprah. Oprah Winfrey set the standards on women empowerment, relationship issues, and accepting body image issues. It was as thou...

The Good Place (Seasons 1-2; 2016+ ) Yes, Ted Danson of the 'Cheers' is at it again. No, not a remake of the 1980s sitcom but he stars in another sitcom. Danson does not reprise his role of Sam Malone, the bartender. Maybe for old time sake,  he gets to the back the counter to serve in one scene.   This show deviates from your typical offering of American comedy where canned laughter spliced with unimaginative jokes weaved with sexual innuendoes rule the day. Interestingly, this show deals with something out-of-the-world, literally, that is.   It delves into the meaning of life and talks a lot about philosophers who gave their input trying to explain our existence,  the purpose of it all and the way one should live it. Questions like mortality, morality, telling white lies, mindfulness and inter-human relationships are dealt in a playful yet profound way.  Bartender, at your service! The first episode starts w...

Master of None (Season 1-2; 2015-now) At one look it may look like a satire of non-Caucasians trying to act and to fit in into contemporary American society. It is not. It starts with the story of four friends, Dev Shah (Aziz Ansari) as the first generation Indian American; Brian, son of a Taiwanese immigrant (Alan Yang); Arnold, a white friend who enjoys eating and Denise, a black lesbian lady and a childhood friend. Unlike most American TV shows which put down the Indian actors as social misfits to find it difficult to blend with the American society, here Brian and Dev, being born, bred and educated in the American system, blending is not the issue. Their predicament is mostly the first world kind. Dev still goes around thinking that he is discriminated against for his ethnicity. The question is whether it is just his perception or is it just what the society wants. Being a part time advertisement actor, he goes on life working occasionally, still waiting for his big break. ...

Just the other day, I was watching two sitcoms back to back in the morning - episodes of '2 and a half men' and 'How I met your mother'. For the inhabitants of the Stone Age who are not familiar with these shows - '2 and a half men' is acted by the dysfunctional Charlie Sheen as a drunkard womaniser who shares his house with his 'forever broke' and dysfunctional and gullible divorced brother with a pre-teen son who sometimes stays with him. They have a sarcastic housekeeper with attitude and a nymphomaniac daughter who is a single mother. On the episode that I watched, the subject revolved around what the son overheard from his mother's bedroom when she was with her current live-in partner! 'How I met your mother' is a story of 5 late 20s friends - 3 guys and 2 girls; 1 couple is a pair who are living together, another couple used to date but have separated, and the remaining fornicates with anyone who carries the XX chromosome! This group w...