Sonal Pandya

Mirai director Mamoru Hosada’s newest offering is a genderbeat version of Hamlet. In Scarlet, a pink-haired princess travels through the Otherworld to avenge the death of her father at the hands of her own uncle, the king who has usurped his throne. Battling trials and obstacles, Scarlet has help from an unlikely ally and travels to enter the Infinite Land. Mashing up a new mythology created for his film with the classic tragedy by William Shakespeare, Scarlet is action-filled and visually stunning. However, the Japanese anime feature falters in its message of self-discovery versus revenge.

Bridgerton Season 4 turns its attention to the fourth sibling and second son, Benedict (Luke Thompson), who has put off the marriage mart for too long. He finds a mysterious Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball, but she vanishes without leaving her name or address. Based on the romance novels by Julia Quinn, each sibling’s love story follows a different trope. Season 4 is about love at first sight and follows an emotional Cinderella story where the couple has to overcome a few obstacles towards their happily ever after. While the narrative does get a bit overstuffed at times, the central couple sells this season with their magical chemistry.

The therapists at Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Center and their loud and wacky friends are back for a new season of Shrinking. The Apple TV comedy series, created by star Jason Segel and Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, started out about a man coming to terms with his grief after his wife’s death. It has since evolved into a series about found family and friendship when dealing with life issues such as death, illness, and relationships. This season, the makers have amped all these storylines and set up a way for the show to say goodbye and leave fans happy with where we leave them.

Marvel’s Wonder Man is a different kind of superhero series with fewer characters and an engaging story about an actor trying to break into Hollywood, while hiding a terrifying secret. The eight-episode series is co-created by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest and features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams, a struggling actor looking for the role that will change his life. Enter the perfect project with Wonder Man and an old familiar face with Iron Man 3’s Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley). The superhero series veers away from the usual Marvel tropes and instead creates a refreshingly honest and emotional story of two friends who connect over shared passions.

Sophie Turner stars in the London heist thriller Steal, which escalates the drama with each episode. Creator and writer Sotiris Nikias takes viewers into the largest armed robbery in British history as a pension-fund investment company is looted right in their own offices. The twisty drama follows Turner’s Zara, who finds herself at the heart of the mystery and police investigation as she tries to save herself. With a small cast of characters that are hard to read, the Amazon Prime Video series Steal is a bingeable watch for the weekend.

There are a lot of familiar themes in the Game of Thrones (GOT) spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Based on the Dunk and Egg novellas from George RR Martin, the six-part series follows a different kind of hero, a hedge knight named Dunk, who wants to make a name for himself. This is the story of the gentle giant who goes on to become Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his trusty squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Created by Martin and Ira Parker, the HBO series stands out from the other shows in this world, GOT and House of the Dragon. What makes A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms more appealing is its story of the underdog who goes up against the noblest names in the kingdom. This tale of valour and honor will immediately grab attention.

Planes, trains, and automobiles. If there is a third season of Hijack, a car seems the most likely scenario. Until then, the series has relocated to snowy, cold Berlin for its second season. Idris Elba stars as the unlucky Sam Nelson, who finds himself in another life-or-death situation after the Flight KA29 hijacking. Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, the Apple TV series gives Sam Nelson a personal reason to be invested in this latest hijack. The eight-episode series cannot sustain the tension as it introduces new obstacles for Sam to face.

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and The White Lotus’s Haley Lu Richardson team up as two American women bound by the same fate in an unknown country. The dramedy Ponies, created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson, has the two women who are opposites in every way become undercover CIA operatives to solve a personal case. While the situations the two find themselves in grow increasingly wild and unbelievable, the actresses manage to carve space within the story for their characters to stand out. The title Ponies stands for ‘Persons of No Interest’ in intelligence terms.