Sonal Pandya

In 2023, The Night Agent became Netflix’s most-watched series, and it’s easy to see why. Gabriel Basso plays the earnest young government official Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent in this case, who accidentally uncovers a conspiracy to kill the president. The action drama mixed all the right ingredients, and now as it returns for Season 2, it continues where it left off, and adds more urgency. The new season takes place 10 months after the first season, with Peter on assignment as a Night Action agent. Within the first 15 minutes, there’s immediate danger, putting him in the same position as he was in Season 1, not knowing who to trust. However, the smart-thinking agent follows his own leads to find out who amongst the agency is leaking information on the outside. He is reunited with his former girlfriend Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), who proves to be a great asset to him, even as another plotline on the side involves suspicious goings on at the Iranian mission to the United Nations.

Co-created by Vikramaditya Motwane and Satyanshu Singh, the Netflix series Black Warrant is adapted from Sunil Gupta and Sunetra Choudhury’s non-fiction. Set in the 1980s, it follows a young man who signs up to be a jailer in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, as it is the only job available, and finds himself in the process. With compelling performances and an engrossing narrative, the prison drama unfolds just like a page-turner you can’t put down. At the end of the seven episodes, Black Warrant will leave you wanting more. Zahan Kapoor plays the straitlaced Sunil Gupta, who moulds himself and his beliefs according to the job. His co-workers, played by Paramvir Cheema and Anurag Thakur, seem better suited for the position. His boss, Rajesh Tomar (Rahul Bhat), and family don’t think he can last long. But he proves them all wrong as he keeps at it, despite facing the wrath of his superiors every other episode. Sunil must prove himself over and over again. With Sunil’s growth, audiences learn the stories of the prisoners, from the most notorious murderers to the petty criminals. Some of these are taken from the famous inmates who were housed at Tihar, some awaiting execution.

After Law & Order, NCIS, and Chicago TV universes, veteran producer Dick Wolf makes his first streaming show with On Call. The new series is situated in Long Beach, California, where a seasoned police officer trains a newbie after one of her former trainees is murdered on the job. Starring Troian Bellisario and Brandon Larracuente in the leads, Amazon Prime Video’s On Call flies right out of the gate but circles around the same few issues over and over again. Troian Bellisario is by-the-books officer Traci Harmon, who never fired a weapon in 12 years. Meanwhile, Alex Diaz is an overeager rookie who wants to do it again. Following the death of officer Delgado (Monica Raymund) for a routine traffic stop, the Long Beach police force is on the hunt for a cop killer. However, it is Harmon who takes the search to heart while maintaining the on-the-job lessons for the new guy on the beat.

It’s been 20 years since the last Wallace & Gromit feature film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And this follow-up does not disappoint, largely due to the reappearance of the greatest villain in the franchise, Feather McGraw. Yes, that dastardly silent penguin is back, and he wants revenge on the duo that sent him to jail all those years ago. Will he succeed? Not if Gromit has his way. With Nick Park back as co-director, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a funny, delightful romp in the neighbourhood. Wallace’s newest invention in the film is a Norbot, a smart gnome robot ready to help poor Gromit around the house. Even when he doesn’t need any help. What the pair don’t realise that someone’s got their eye on them, all the way from jail, as the quick-witted penguin has been biding his time, waiting to get back at Wallace for turning him into the authorities in the 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers for attempting to steal the Blue Diamond. Soon, Wallace and his trusty dog Gromit are evading the police, who believe he might be the recent spate of neighbourhood robberies.

Since 2018, Netflix has been adapting author Harlan Coben’s catalog in the form of limited series. These have been gaining popularity over the years, and last year’s Fool Me Once with Michelle Keegan broke several records. The newest release, Missing You, revolves around a missing persons detective, Kat Donovan, and a myriad of secrets around her past. Over five episodes, these secrets emerge one by one. Detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar), who is already investigating a series of missing people, connects with her former fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters) on a dating app. Josh ghosted her 11 years ago and is apparently living under a new name. Strangely, there is a connection to the missing woman she is currently investigating. Meanwhile, there is also the matter of Kat’s dad, a police officer who is murdered by a hitman. Eventually, Kat has to figure out what in her past and present is real and what is being kept from her.

After its premiere in 2021, it was easy to see why Squid Game became the most popular show in the world. Writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s universal story of greed and betrayal, which exposed humanity’s basest behaviour, struck a chord globally. Audiences took to the characters created in this universe and mourned as we lost several fan favourites who were treated as pawns in the deadly contest based on nostalgic children’s games. The show returns after three years and a time jump, as the last winner Seong Gi-hun decides to infiltrate the games to take it down. Lee Jung-jae’s Gi-hun is a much-changed man this season as he’s on a mission to dismantle the games. Plagued with guilt about his survival after his friends didn’t make it, he wants to save others from succumbing to the same fate. But his plan faces plenty of hurdles that he doesn’t anticipate. The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), the overseer of the game, has a bigger role than last season, and police officer Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) also returns to find his way back to find out more about the mysterious organisation that runs the games.

The Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, has settled in nicely as the latest Time Lord. The Sex Education star took over the role from David Tennant this time last year. This year, for his second Doctor Who Christmas Special, the actor embarks on a new phase as he leaves behind his old companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). In the time in between, he saves humanity once more, with a little help from Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan. The story of this Christmas special titled Joy to the World moves around to different eras, past, present, and future. All of this becomes important to the narrative, which hinges upon the holiday of Christmas and a Villengard briefcase with a seed star, which is a ticking bomb in itself. A young woman named Joy (Coughlan) checks into a Sandringham hotel, and she ends up being key to the Doctor’s latest mission to save the world during the holidays. But how do they manage to save humanity from destruction? By using every loophole when it comes to time. Doctor Who Christmas Special: Writing and Direction Former showrunner and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat pens this new Christmas special. The opportunity allows us to see a slightly different side of Gatwa’s Doctor as he goes gung-ho on a mission that seems doomed to fail. The holiday episode also grows sentimental, as Joy has an emotional outburst, explaining how she lost her mother during the COVID crisis in 2020.

The final season of What If…? Season 3 highlights Marvel characters, big and small, in unexpected ways. Honouring both the comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it allowed the story to be taken further. Once more, Jeffrey Wright returns as the voice of The Watcher as he narrates these eight new stories from the multiverse, where characters from different worlds and times converge. While previous seasons were strong, this last season is a mixed bag. It starts off muddled and ends on a high note, leaving us wishing this season had a bit more substance. Each of the eight episodes of What If…? looks at an alternative universe where characters who wouldn’t ordinarily meet are featured. And of course, the casual fan or newbie will be extremely lost, as the series requires you to do your homework (watch all the stuff) before enjoying this even more. Some of the stories explored here include the Hulk accidentally creating a gamma monster that the Mech Avengers must battle with, Agatha Harkness going Hollywood and meeting up with Bollywood star King, the Watcher disappearing, and the most bizarre of all, Howard the Duck having a baby with Darcy Lewis!