A private eye to the world

Don't F**k With Cats (Netflix 3-part documentary, 2019) 
Hunting an Internet Killer

I just happened to bump into this as I was on the treadmill and I was hooked. It was not much of love at first hello, but I liked the quite convoluted storyline. It illustrates the twisted nature of human behaviour, but at the same time, there are people who, through their actions, show that humanity has not died. But life, as it is, is never straight forward.

In life, Occam's Razor states that 'entities should not be multiplied without necessity' does not solve all puzzles. Things are more complicated than they seem. Simple answers may not be the correct one. 

It is not an easy watch and is not for the faint-hearted. Few viewers could pass beyond the first 20 minutes of the show as the subject matter is unpleasant. It is based on a true story that happened between 2010 and 2012. It involved many countries, including Canada, the UK, France and Germany. But I guess when it consists of the cyberspace, these borders are arbitrary.

The documentary starts with a youtube clip that came out in 2010 of a couple of kittens which were brutally killed in broad daylight under the full view of netizen with a live recording of them being placed in a plastic wrapper and slowly vacuum sealing them! Concerned cat lover netizens, including the narrator, Deanna Thompson, a data analyst from Vegas, who goes under the screen name of Baudi Moovan, started discussing this heinous crime. Pretty soon, they started trying identifying the location as well as the maker of the clip. Everyone chipped in with their amateurish investigative skills. The need to apprehend the perpetrator became more acute as a second video appeared online. In that clip, a cat was fed to a python. 

The internet sleuths slowly browse through pictures over pictures online, scrutinised in between the images, with the help of Google Map and all, managed to pinpoint the crime to a Luka Magnotta. Now, to pinpoint who Magnotta was and his whereabouts, that was an enigma itself. It appears like he was a globetrotting celebrity. The armchair investigators also try to analyse the character. In midst through it all, to avenge the death of cats, an innocent man was wrongly accused. And he took his own life due to the humiliation!

Another problem with this type of crime is jurisdiction. Who is to investigate these crimes when nobody knows where it happened.

The issue became more problematic when the video maker made a chilling clip of a person being stabbed repeatedly with an ice-pick.

The documentary makers cleverly put in the element of doubt into the whole story. They inserted interviews taken with Magnotta's mother. She threw a spanner to the works. She told of a manipulative character named 'Manny'.

From then on, the pace picked up. Police forces from many countries became involved, and the suspect was an Interpol's 'Red List'. It all came to a dramatic end with words like paranoid schizophrenia and bizarre role-playing of movie characters thrown in. Disturbing.

With all the benefits that the internet offers in improving lives and empowering people, there is a dark side to it. It becomes a convenient playground for weirdos and the mentally deranged for their one moment of attention in the world stage and sometimes to create mischief under the cloak of anonymity.

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Between the willing, the forced and the maleficent

The Morning Show (Miniseries; 2019)

On the one hand, we want to empower the weaker one. We say do away with barriers. Let there be no fences between the bosses and subordinates. There should be no discrimination between the sexes. At the same time, we realise that hormones rage high in the spring of youth, at a time when everybody wants to set the right footing for their future. The race to perch at the higher branches has become increasingly difficult. The juicy fruits hanging at the top are so luring. Everyone wants to catch a glimpse from the coveted crown of the food chain.

Everyone can give their time, dedication and knowledge towards this end. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Players have to dig deep into their bags to confer something quite primal to achieve their goals. What is wrong in a little flirting or exchanging little bodily fluids, they would justify, especially when they look at the bigger picture. Mission accomplished, and everybody is happy.

People in positions of power, on the other hand, may use it as a bargaining tool to dangle their carrots.

If it is a win-win situation, why would anyone complain? Are they the sore losers who got conned into an unwilling arrangement? Were they helpless as they overcome by pressures to conform by people in authority? Was there regret? Was there a morning-after self-realisation? Was there ill intent to humiliate? Was it all a well-planned plot to dethrone? Did the juices turn sour? 

Humans being social animals, with continual contact with co-workers or bosses, may be attracted to one another over time. The question is whether this liaison is going to affect their work. No one is a saint and life is not fair. 

That is why it is tricky to deal with the #metoo complains. Sometimes it is the people in power who use their positions to obtain sexual gratifications. At other times, it is vindication on the part of the victim or alleged victims.

'The Morning Show' is a gripping miniseries with sexual misconduct in a TV station. The station is embroiled in controversy as Steve Carrel, the male anchor of their premier show of 15 years, is fired when a co-worker accuses him of sexual harassment. His co-anchor, played by Jennifer Aniston is in a tail-spin as her job is also on the chopping block. In the midst of this, Aniston, at the spur of the moment, uses her time in the limelight to announce her new co-host. The latest addition is fast-talking brash journalist, Reese Witherspoon. 

In a hurried environment of datelines and inflated ego, internal investigations try to portray a safe working environment for the public to see. Beneath all these, this is a compulsion by a few to expose the toxic culture that is happening in the station.

Not only the main stars performed well. Even the supporting actors gave their best to re-create what seems like an attempt to showcase what Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby did to the movie industry.

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You gave me breath, now let me breathe!

Why should I be subservient to you? Why should I bend over backwards to support you? I never asked to be born. I never had the choice of choosing you as my parents. If you two did not get frisky, I would probably be floating around in ethereal world gliding around as an angel or even a bumblebee.

Because of you, I am here. Because of that, you think you own me. Loaning me your DNA to use during my worldly sojourn, you think I should be forever indebted. True, you did not need to make all those sacrifices of time, energy and resources to sustain my wellbeing. But you did. Was it really out of selflessness at work or your selfish plan to forever entrap me? Or is the protective maternal hormones?

But then, you did not have to do all the things that you did to keep me alive and kicking. There is something called free will. For all the early hour awakenings and the regular sponging of my body when the fever hit the ceiling, I am eternally grateful. To make me forever trapped in your petticoat, it is blackmail.

You say my colour is no right that I look disspirited. You make me feel and convince me to be sick even though I am just tired. Also dispirited of your constant ranting. You tell to take this, do that and to eat those. Are these all not your attempt to make me inadequate to manage my own faculties? You are trying to clip my wings. 

What you do you not know is that I am nurturing my own little levitators that would lift me up far away from all these clutches of tentacles of smothering emotions of yours. Do it, Scott, beam me up!

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All for what?

Uncut Gems (2019)

Every day we push our boundaries. We test the waters. We want to stretch our luck an extra inch, hoping that it would give better outcomes. When met with resistance, we recoil only to return to repeat the whole imbroglio all over again.  We plead for clemency when our sneaky plan is discovered, knowing very well that it is not for real. Back in our minds, we are aware that it is certainly not the last, even though we say so. We tend to take things for granted. 

The only problem is that we realise that the threshold is breached when it is a wee bit too late. By that time, the damage is irreparable, and the point of no return has been reached. 

The first Monday of the new year is dubbed as the ‘Divorce Monday’. After months and even years of sweeping the brewing trouble under the proverbial carpet, the events surrounding Christmas and New Year must have had burst the bubble. It is said to be the busiest day for family lawyers when they get the most enquiries regarding divorces. 

I discovered ‘Uncut Gem’ to be a difficult film to watch. I found myself very unsettled. All through the show, all I saw was the protagonist, Adam Sandler, a diamond merchant, Jewish of course, just going around shouting, cursing profanities, blabbing incessantly on his mobile, lying through his teeth and yakking. He is a poor role model for a husband and a father as his tryst with his vivacious mistress is an open secret. He tries to wrangle himself through all his deals because of the money he hopes to make for himself and his family. He rolls dough, cut deals, fixes auctions, bends the truth, dodges the mob and more just to find out that he is not the beneficiary at the end. All for what? For whom to savour the fruit or gloat in the nectar?

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We shouldn't be here

It was a dark, humid night, and as I was traversing a back alley making it to my car, I stumbled upon a meowing or rather a weak yowling. It turned out to be that a tiny kitten, all drench in muck, was straddling to wherever it was heading to.

My heart felt for that tiny creature. No, I did not take the pitiful animal home to nurse it back to health and send it out to the wilderness with a glint in my eye. It is too much responsibility.

What went through my mind was what someone told me (or maybe overheard) long ago; that our existence is just a freak accident of Nature. We, the products, have to fight it out to survive to preserve the entity called Consciousness. The consciousness that probably also happened via the accident of Nature. Life as we knew it was just going on without care as simple organisms with hermaphroditical abilities. We dragged on our existence with self-propagation without care. As life became more complexed, there was a need for variation. Nature dictated that heterosexual reproduction was essential for variety. Together with that came oestrus, lust, copulation and orgasmic bliss.

Not all the outcome of these unions were received with open arms. Some are left to fend themselves against the forces of Nature. As the maturity of offspring became complicated, protracted care became necessary. Somewhere along trickled in Consciousness.

In fact, Consciousness has made Man evolve to such a level that they have become a threat to Mother Nature herself. They squander, slaughter, rape, destroy the environment and bite the hand that fed them in the first place.

Our birth, in that way, is a curse. We should not be here at all. Nature was here long before Man came to existence, and it will still be here without us. The trouble is that the way the world seems to be changing, there might not be a planet at all when this civilisation annihilates itself.

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Amazons rule, ok?

Killing Eve (Mini-Series, 2018 - present)

If you imagine a world where women are in positions of power. And they make life-altering decisions in a cruel world fighting injustices. The villains are not males as we expect, but ladies themselves perform highly sophisticated and well-executed crimes. Males are just there to fill up the quotas. They are just weak characters who can be quickly wrapped around the fingers. They are the male equivalent of bimbos. They are unnecessary. Life goes on with or without them. Sex? They are at the ladies' disposal. The females hold tight the rein that controls their sexuality. Who needs men when all they provide are wild oats that sadly, the female gender has to bear the brunt of the after-effects? Women can give sex with emotional support, minus the physical baggage. Who needs men, anyway?

The miniseries is the one you are looking for. All leading roles are by women, including the directors. Men are merely supporting actors, filling up the gaps, as the story progressed somewhat haphazardly. It appears that filmmakers have no real intentions to tie up the loose ends of the story but rather ride on its popularity as long the interest of its viewers lingers.

An envelope-pushing civil servant, Eve Polastri, suddenly becomes an international high flying assassin catcher when she discovers that she may be connected to a Russian hired assassin at a celestial level. They hate each other's gut but refuse to pull the trigger against each other. 

It is a meeting of female 'James Bond' and 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

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Then reality hits you!

Two Popes (Netflix, 2019)


When you are young, you think you are unique. You think you are God-sent and has some set of things to do. You perceive things that happen around you as living proof that these are signs from the Divine. You carry on convinced that it is the right thing. Challenges come and go. You win some, and that doubles your certainty that you are on the right track. You go into it knee-deep.

Soon the initial euphoria dies down. Pretty fast, the miracles that were supposed to trickle in fail to materialise. Decisions are harder to make. Things are not so black or white anymore. With age and wisdom, you realise, you cannot change everything. Somebody is sleeping on the job. 

Perhaps you were wrong all this while. But then, it cannot be. All of life's work go to zilch? Cognitive dissonance sets in. You cannot falter. Right or wrong, you have to soldier on. You march on questioning everything. Answers do not come, but you make your own anyway. You finally realise that you are just passing through. Nothing you do is going to change anything. You come, you go. You are merely a spectre in the scheme of things. Everything in between is just life lessons. You understand that you cannot change the world. The world has its own trajectory to follow. You compromise, and you switch to suit the times.

This film centres around the fictionalised private conversations that took place between the ageing Pope Benedict XVI and the soon-to-be elected Pope Francis. It starts with the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Amidst the secret ballots, we see much politicking and running down of each other by the candidates.

The movie brings us the full glory of the Vatican City and the interiors of the Sistine Chapel. 

The Holy See is going through some trying times. Exposure of misconduct fo the clergymen does not augur well with the public. Real debates go on within the confines of the four wall of  Vatican. Pope Benedict from Germany and Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina, in a fictional meeting, discuss each other's past, debate their ideological differences and finally find common grounds in football and pizza.

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