Screenings And Streamings

Films and OTT shows that linger on with us, long after the credits have rolled

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Blue Lights

Blue Lights is a police drama that doesn’t fall into the trope of a moral binary. Set in contemporary Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, the series follows three rookie response officers whose initiation into the force becomes the prism through which viewers see a society that’s riven by history and politics. Policing here isn’t just about chasing criminals, but navigating a fragile truce that has held the community together since The Troubles—violent conflicts between the sectarians and the loyalists for a few decades since the 1960s—till it doesn’t. Every routine call here carries the weight of inherited distrust, where, say, sympathies may shape allegiance towards an emerging drug lord. How does civil society come together? Or does it?.

-Kathakali Chanda

Adolescence

Netflix’s four-part drama on a teen accused of killing his classmate is as gripping as it’s unsettling. The series tracks Jamie Miller’s unravelling triggered by the dark undercurrents on social media, giving viewers a peek into the parallel universe that young adults inhabit online. Each of the episodes showcases technical brilliance, having been shot in a single take, complementing the acting performances. But it is its third part—set inside a juvenile detention facility, where Miller is being evaluated by a psychologist—that lingers long after the credits roll, and perhaps stands alone as reason enough to justify its eight Emmy wins.

-Kathakali Chanda

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