Cavy TV

Rating: ★★½ Station Eleven is an apocalyptic/disaster drama series that centres around an instantaneous outbreak of a very deadly flu-virus. Based on a novel of the same name published in 2014, and from my understanding, which stands under correction, already put into works for the TV series before the actual outbreak of our real-world Covid-19 pandemic. With a similar co-incidental nature, the story of Station Eleven also teases some sci-fi/fantasy elements that seem to hint at a full circle ethereal force that is behind all of the happenings in this story. Fascinating as it may sound, and believe me, it did so too for me as well prior to starting the show; I could only last 3 episodes. The show takes on a high concept mystery approach which did not do enough for me in those 3 episodes to intrigue me or feel anything for it. The show is all over the place with multiple characters and timelines, and just does not offer any centre of gravity emotionally or thematically. Some of the acti...

  Rating: ★★★★  Just get passed the first episode. You might be liable to find it very cringe, and end up thinking this is just another "insert inclusivity" Twitter-lingo Generation-Z show after that first episode. But believe me, just give it one more chance and you will notice how all the intriguing dramatic angles pick up from the second episode onwards. The Sex Lives of College Girls does not do anything special in form or technicality to change the game or challenge the status quo, in fact, it falls pretty neatly into the camp sorority subgenre. But it does so with a lot of heart and realism. The realities of the challenges that freshman college students face are put on display, and even if the main focus is on the lives of the four main girls, the show does well enough to add and explore colourful characters from all spectrums of identity, and lays good enough foundations to promise to do so more in the already-confirmed second season. The main characters are Kimberly (...

  Rating: ★★★  FX's Atlanta finally came back for its third season, after - like so many shows - struggling to get shooting and post-production done in order to get a solid release date because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I really enjoyed the first two seasons, especially more so the first one. I appreciated the grounded serial/procedural aspect of the show in season one, which seemed to promise a series that will revolve around the life and struggles of Earn (Donald Glover). That's why it was a bit surprising for me when season 2 shifted away from that in favour of the more absurdist-anthology driven episodes. Nonetheless, being a fan of the absurdist-satirical aspect of the show too, I did enjoy season two for the most part as well. However, this 3rd season - centering around the main group's escapades throughout major European cities - just feels completely lost out on an island untethered from the show's solid foundations laid down in the first two seasons. Creator Do...

  Rating: ★★★★★  Severance is an invigorating story about an ominous company by the name of Lumon that performs a medical brain procedure in which its workers' personal and work life are mentally separated, creating two persons for one individual being. The work life person is called an "innie", while the personal life person, the real person so to say, is called the "outie". The workers, of course, approach the company out of their own will and choice to take on the job, being aware of the procedure. Or at least so we think, because as the series evolves more darker undertones about Lumon is revealed, suggesting that they may have their puppeteer hands soaked deep into the societal and political framework of the town (and perhaps even state or country, the entire scope of the company's reach is not made clear yet). The best part of Severance is that it is a complete breath of fresh air in originality with its low-to-mid budget setting making use of sci-fi ...

  Rating: ★★★  I held skepticism for this show going forward after season 1, which I really liked. I just couldn't see how they would progress the plotlines and overall narrative and momentum of the show. And for the most part, I believe I was proven right with this season. Like for instance, though I'm probably wrong on this because surely not even showrunner Sam Levinson would make such a plot inconsistency, but wasn't season 1 portraying their final year in high school, so why were they still in high school for this season?  Irregardless of that, the 2nd season starts off with a solid episode where it maintains its best attribute of caring for all of its main characters by trying to lay the foundations for their development throughout the season. But then the next few episodes don't build any good momentum for these narrative threads, instead it just panders to the show's style-over-substance gimmick. The newly-formed love triangle between newcomer Elliot, Rue an...

Rating: ★★★★ Arcane: League of Legends is a gorgeous video game adaptation that exists within the world of the steampunk genre. It functions on a lot of levels - in the beginning it lays the foundations of a strong and loving bond between two sisters, then throughout most of the middle episodes it focuses on the politics and system of the city (twin cities), and by season's end it unfolds into an outright coming of age punk tale.  One could say a better TV series would have fleshed out the entire narrative structure here, by offering slower storytelling in order to give greater backstory to these characters and their city's history which would in turn provide for greater empathy towards the characters and greater emotional payoffs across pivotal moments in the entire narrative. However, one must understand the platform for the show, it is a Netflix animated series after all, so the audience will be made up of the general public who would want to be entertained and not run the ...

  Rating: ★★★★  Follows the life of a middle-aged, divorced detective Mary-Ann, or just Mare, played incredibly by Kate Winslet as a series of serious crimes bewitch their small town. Missing young girls and murders are those crimes, and Mare is still fresh off dealing with the suicide of her eldest child. Lots of bleak you might think, and fair enough, since this kind of revives the small American town family despair atmosphere in some of the miniseries we've gotten from HBO recently such as Amy Adams' wonderful turn in Sharp Objects (2018) and the more underwhelming I Know This Much Is True (2020). Yet, there's so much lighter moments of comedy and raw love and emotion weaved into the show as well. The writing is tremendous for the first 4 episodes when the stage is still being set for these characters, their lives and relations with one another. Not only does every single episode end on a cliffhanger, but every single minute of those 4 episodes are absolutely entrancin...