Review time - TV series

Silapala naalavay reviews podaama neria senthu poachu. So posting everything in one shot :)

Have been watching way too many drama series off late and after coming here the list has only increased. The enemy who hooked me onto most of those series have got me addicted to one more - Grey's anatomy.
I've seen some series involving medicine and doctors before. House M.D being the stand out one amongst them. Have seen Scrubs in bits and pieces. But neither of them were the typical hospital based stories that are bread and butter theme on Sidney sheldon or Arthur Hailey novels. Grey's anatomy fills that void. Its almost a chick flick series if you remove the portions involving the patients. Into the second season now and the story line is pretty much similar to "Nothing lasts forever" by Sheldon and "Doctors" by Hailey. My favourite so far is Katherine Heigl, probably her break through series. En enemy is drooling over Patrick Dempsey. She has gone conkers over him :) A totally different series from the usual adventure/comedy themes i prefer.

Next on line is Everybody loves Raymond. I've grown so fond of this series that given a choice i would love to make it in tamil :) Its a wonderful feel good amazingly relevant and relatable drama series. The best part being, be it US or India you can relate to the story and setup. Raymond is a sports writer on a popular newspaper and lives with his wife Debra and 3 kids. His parents Frank and Marie Barone stay right oppostite to their house and their eldest son Robert often stays with them. The typical MIL vs DIL fights that they flog to death on our tear jerker tamil serials are handled so funnily and cleverly that it they are fun to watch  The bachelor who is struggling for survival inside every married man will be able to relate to Raymond. Raymond is a sum total of all guys, married or single. His life is the dream of every guy in the planet. His whims, his liking for sports, the things that he do to avoid household chores, his ever running competition with his brother on kiddish things, his relations with his ever pampering mom  and wickedly funny dad and in falky laws and finally his equation with Debra (the episode where he proposes to her is a hoot ...so very original), every single thing is so very ...real, for want of better word and easily relatable. Infact every single character is so realistic and likeable that you are bound to fall for them. I read that most of the episodes are based on real life incidents of the cast and crew. No wonder. A genuinely gentle and funny comedy. Would recommend this alongside with FRIENDS.

Third one in the list is an animation series - Avatar. Sometime back a mokka movie came "The last airbender" by Shyamalan of Sixth sense fame. Seems, he got inspiration to make the movie when his daughter asked him to dress her like "Katara" for her school costume party. This one is nothing like the usual cartoons that you get to watch on Nikkelodeon. The storyline is gripping and rivetting and is an edge of the seat thriller. The balance of earthly nations of Fire, Water, Earth and Air and how it gets disrupted with the hegemonic intentions of the Fire lord and how the avatar, the sole person to have mastery over all 4 element bendings resist and finally bring balance back to the world forms the crux of the story. The concept of bending is quite interesting. The way they hook up civilisations from across the continents is also pretty clever. Right from Artic to anatartic to the marshlands to mountains and volcanoes and windy places, the artists who have drawn the animations bring a sense of authenticity to the setup, right from the costumes to the locations and even the fight steps that they perform differ according to the place where they are from. There has been so much research that had gone into the making that its evident on each episode. A real treat for mythology lovers. The story also has lot of depth and like any kids tales there is lot of morals and hidden meanings in each episode which leads to a thrilling climax. Never felt like watching animation at all. The humour is also amazing and the imagination of the artists and especially the voice overs are awesome. An amazing series which anyone from any age group can enjoy. Wish the movie was made better. It could've been a thrilling franchise rivalling the Potter series.

Book and Movie review in next post :)