Tag: Netflix Original

  • Princess Diana makes a dramatic debut in the latest season of ‘The Crown’

    More than two decades after her death, Princess Diana’s ill-fated entry into the British royal family is the main storyline in the long-awaited fourth season of the hit Netflix drama The Crown.

    https://twitter.com/TheCrownNetflix/status/1321814107943772162

    Emma Corrin, a 24-year-old actress little known until now, immerses herself in the role of the young Diana, capturing her soft voice and timid gaze from under a heavy fringe.

    But the actress admitted in an interview with The Sunday Times that she felt a “huge amount of pressure” to pull off the role in the new season, which starts on Sunday.

    Diana is shown as a naive teenager who quickly becomes lonely in the role of Prince Charles’ fiancee and rollerskates around Buckingham Palace to pass the time. Even before their unhappy marriage, she begins cycles of bulimia: binge-eating and then purging herself of food.

    Diana Spencer had just turned 20 when the couple married in 1981, while Charles was 32. As heir to the throne, since reaching his 30s, he had faced pressure to marry to ensure succession.

    Despite having doubts, he agreed to propose to Diana but did not sever ties with his long-time lover, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 and Charles subsequently married Parker-Bowles in 2005.

    While the previous series depicted Charles as a sensitive and misunderstood boy, as Diana’s husband he is seen as cold and unfaithful, complaining to Camilla that she is “so weak, so fragile”.

    The breakup of their marriage due to infidelities and Diana’s confessional television interview was scandalous at the time and is making headlines even today.

    The BBC has pledged to hold an independent investigation into how its journalist Martin Bashir persuaded Diana to take part in the sensational interview in 1995. Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, claims Bashir showed faked documents to persuade Diana to take part in the interview, where she famously complained “there were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded.”

    The love triangle is one of the main storylines in the fourth season, which covers the late 1970s and the 1980s.

    The scriptwriters also dramatise a notorious incident that year in which a 33-year-old man, Michael Hagan — frustrated at being unemployed and separated from his wife — broke into Buckingham Palace and entered the queen’s bedroom.

    The queen, who kept her legendary sang-froid, is again played by Olivia Colman, the British actress who won an Oscar for The Favourite in 2019. In the fifth series, she will hand over the role of the older queen to 64-year-old Imelda Staunton, known for playing the cruel Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films.

    The US actress Gillian Anderson plays Margaret Thatcher, the imperious first woman to head the British government, in a season dominated by strong female roles.

    Read more – Netflix Originals you can watch with your parents

    A critical and popular success, The Crown was first broadcast in 2016 and has won numerous awards, including three Golden Globes and 10 Emmy Awards.

    A total of 73 million people have watched at least one episode of the series, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s joint chief executive and chief content officer, said in January.

  • Netflix renews the trending ‘Emily in Paris’ for a second season

    Netflix renews the trending ‘Emily in Paris’ for a second season

    Time to pop the champagne and bring out the bowler hats. Emily is staying in Paris for another season.

    Read more – Every Pakistani girl wants to be ‘Emily in Paris’

    Netflix has announced that it has renewed the trending Emily in Paris for a second season. The announcement came via a fictional memo sent from Emily’s place of work, Savoir, by her dry boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu).

    “Despite her overconfident manner and lack of prior experience in luxury goods marketing, she has nonetheless managed to charm some of our hard-to-impress clients during her short time at Savoir,” reads the note. “Call it Bonne chance, or American ingenuity —I’m leaning towards the former— her results are impressive.”

    “We love having Emily in Paris! But please don’t let her know that.”

    The series, despite its problematic and stereotypical portrayal of French people and culture, dominated the Netflix Top 10 list for weeks and continues to trend at number six on Netflix Pakistan.

    Emily in Paris follows Emily (Lily Collins), a bright, vivacious and a tad bit annoying marketing executive from Chicago, who unexpectedly finds herself in Paris for a new job. She is tasked with revamping the company’s social media strategy. Emily’s life in Paris is filled with intoxicating adventures and surprising challenges as she juggles winning over her work colleagues, making friends and navigating new romances.

    Season one of the series ended on a cliffhanger, as Emily finally got together with her dreamy neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) after he almost left town with his girlfriend.

  • French movie trends on Netflix Pakistan

    French movie trends on Netflix Pakistan

    French action film, Rogue City is trending at number seven in movies on Netflix Pakistan.

    Read more – Netflix is raising streaming prices…do Pakistanis have to worry?

    Written and directed by Olivier Marchal, the film starres Lannick Gautry and Stanislas Merhar. It is set in Marseille and follows a complex case of rivalry between gangs and a group of cops.

    Considering that Pakistan is boycotting all French products, it is surprising to see a French film in the top ten list.

    Rogue City released on Netflix on October 20. On its debut weekend, it was reportedly the second most-streamed film on the site.

    Watch the trailer below:

  • Every Pakistani girl wants to be ‘Emily in Paris’

    Every Pakistani girl wants to be ‘Emily in Paris’

    Meet Emily – a bright, vivacious and a tad bit annoying American who suddenly finds herself in Paris for a new job. She lands in Paris, makes an Instagram account to document her year in the city, posts a picture of a croissant on Instagram and boom she’s hit 20,000 followers. And you’re just like, where, what, when, HOW? But that’s what Emily in Paris is about. It requires you to leave all sense and sensibility aside and just immerse yourself into Emily’s world.

    Created by Darren Star of the Sex and the City fame, Emily in Paris has been produced by the show’s star Lily Collins and follows Emily as she navigates her life in Paris and tries to add an “American touch” to the firm she works at. She breezes through life with the mantra ‘fake it till you make it’ and still manages to get everything right and save the day while running around the city in her cutesy clothes and heels (Again, HOW?). She makes friends on the street, has a hot neighbour, gets invited to all cool parties and events in town and eats all the butter and chocolate croissants she wants without gaining a pound. With all this, who wouldn’t want to be Emily? Or live in her world – where everything can be solved via Instagram engagement?

    As a 20-something girl living in Pakistan, I can say with full conviction that every girl in the country wants to be Emily in Paris. She wants to be able to live her own life in a charming city like Paris, away from the prying and judgmental eyes of the society and relatives, do a job she loves, post pictures on social media without a care in the world, and eat and drink as many croissants and Starbucks as she likes without putting on a pound. She wants to be able to walk free on the streets without worrying what awaits around the corner or if she’ll make it home safe. She wants to be able to date and hang out with whoever she wants without being labelled a s***. She just wants to be free to live her life the way she wants. And the way Emily does.

    It is rare for a show like Emily in Paris to trend at number one on Netflix Pakistan, given the show and movies that nab the top spot are either all-time favourites (Diriliş: Ertuğrul, Friends), Bollywood films, action/crime (Money Heist/Sherlock) or soft porn (365 Days). For Emily to make such an impact proves my earlier stated point and shows that Pakistanis love an absurd rom-com just like any other. They are done with love triangles and saas-bahu stuff that are shown regularly on television, most of it which is also not relatable.

    Emily in Paris is far from reality but the beauty of it is that it doesn’t even pretend to be real. Even the French have accused the show of stereotyping French people and culture and presenting an image of Paris that even they don’t recognise. But the creators of the show knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted to transport their viewers to the charming, cobbled streets of Paris and give them a stress-free vacation right in their living rooms. The episodes are short and crisp – less than half an hour each – and easy. They don’t demand you to use any of your brain cells. That with lots of eye candy including good-looking people (Sigh Gabriel), dreamy locales, beautiful clothes (though I have to add Emily’s wardrobe did not impress me) and some witty one-liners (courtesy Julien), Emily in Paris is trash television at its finest.

    “Don’t you want to go to the movies to escape life”, Emily asks her colleague in one of the episodes. That one dialogue is the gist of the whole series and the reason why you should also be watching it.

    Meanwhile, latest reports have suggested that Emily in Paris will be renewed for another season. In an interview, the show’s creator Darren revealed that he has plenty of ideas for season 2 in which “Emily is going to be more of a part of the fabric of the world she’s living in. She’ll be more of a resident of the city.”

  • ‘Cuties’: Netflix slammed for ‘sexualizing’ young girls

    ‘Cuties’: Netflix slammed for ‘sexualizing’ young girls

    Netflix has received immense backlash from outraged audiences who have accused the streaming platform of ‘sexualising’ young girls in an upcoming film titled Cuties.

    According to details, the film, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is about Amy a Senegalese Muslim girl who lives in a poor neighbourhood in France. After she develops a fascination with dance, she joins a dance group called the ‘Cuties’.

    Meanwhile, the film’s official synopsis states: “Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.”

    The film is originally a French-language film titled Mignonnes. It was written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré, who is also Senegalese. The director, in an interview, had shared that the inspiration for the film came from seeing an amateur talent show in Paris.

    “There were these girls on stage dressed in a really sexy fashion in short, transparent clothes. They danced in a very sexually suggestive manner,” said Doucouré. “There also happened to be a number of African mothers in the audience. I was transfixed, watching with a mixture of shock and admiration. I asked myself if these young girls understood what they were doing.”

    However, parents and audiences say that the film exploits and sexualises children and have signed a petition asking Netflix to remove the film from the streaming platform. The petition reportedly has more than 250,000 signatures till now.

    “The movie Cuties shows children dressed provocatively, dancing sexually and is rated only for adult viewers,” reads the petition. “It was created for the entertainment of adults who are paedophiles. Please sign the petition to protect our children from exploitation in movies.”

    Following the backlash, Netflix apologised for the “inappropriate” artwork used for the film. However, it did not clarify whether the film will be cancelled or not.

    The film’s original poster showed the film’s cast – all children – in midriff-baring uniforms and short shorts striking various dance poses.

    Read more – ‘Family-friendly’ movies you should NOT be watching with your family

    Cuties is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on September 9.

  • Trending on Netflix: ‘Raat Akeli Hai’, ‘The Kissing Booth 2’ are nothing out of the ordinary

    Trending on Netflix: ‘Raat Akeli Hai’, ‘The Kissing Booth 2’ are nothing out of the ordinary

    Diriliş: Ertuğrul is a hard one to top but Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Raat Akeli Hai managed to do that and has been trending at number one on Netflix Pakistan since the past ten days. Hollywood’s recent teenage rom-com The Kissing Booth 2 has also proven to be popular among the Pakistani audiences and has been trending since it released on July 24. To be honest, The Kissing Booth 2 was a welcome addition to the top 10 list which apart from Diriliş: Ertuğrul usually features dark or erotic (read: 365 Days) movies.

    Read more – R-rated ‘Fifty Shades Freed’ number 1 on Netflix Pakistan

    Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte, Raat Akeli Hai is a murder mystery which revolves around the murder of a rich landlord on the night of his wedding. It appears that post the success of Sacred Games, Bollywood has found a new genre to explore – crime and the corrupt police system of India. Many recent films and series have centred on this theme, for example, Malang, Pataal Lok, The Family Man.

    While Radhika plays the dead man’s newlywed wife Radha and the prime suspect, Siddiqui plays the police officer who is investigating the case. The plot and story of the film are unoriginal and something we’ve seen many times before in Hollywood and Bollywood films (Most movie critics and some members of the audience have also compared it to Knives Out). All through the film, I found several references to Amazon Prime’s Pataal Lok and Sonakshi Sinha-Sidharth Malhotra’s Ittefaq.

    However, what makes the film worth a watch is the brilliant execution, performances and cinematography. Nawazuddin, as always, delivered a stellar performance as the cop investigating the case. Apte also gave a good performance as did the supporting cast of the film including Shweta Tripathi as Karuna Singh, Nishant Dahiya as Vikram Singh and Aditya Srivastava as Munna Raja. The chemistry between Nawazuddin and Radhika was crackling but it was let down by the weak development of the script and was not explored properly.

    • Radha
    • Vikram Singh

    Moreso, given that the film can be classified as a whodunnit (a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus), it makes a fun one-time watch as you keep trying to figure out who the killer is. Be prepared for a slow first-half and a confusing but relatively fast-paced second half – the last 20 minutes of the movie are the most engaging and hold your attention.

    Teen rom-com The Kissing Booth 2 is the exact opposite of Raat Akeli Hai. It is a light-hearted film which doesn’t demand much, though I do wish it demanded less time. While the film was a big hit and the makers have already announced that the film has a third part which has already been filmed and is currently in the post-processing stage, the film is nothing out of the ordinary. It is a typical rom-com featuring two teenagers who are trying to figure out a long-distance relationship and the deal with the baggage that comes with it. It can test your patience at a few instances especially when Elle tries to avoid being a clingy girlfriend but mostly it’ll have you rolling your eyes at the cliches. The makers have also weaved in several subplots, creating a bit of a jumble.

    The performances were also not something to speak off. Joey King who plays Elle and Jacob Elordi who plays Noah were dull and had limited expressions. Noah, in particular, seemed to have a poker face throughout the film. The only person who truly demonstrated his acting abilities was Taylor Zakhar Perez who plays Marco.

    Marco

    If you’re a fan of sappy, teenage rom-coms, give this a watch. Else feel free to skip it and leave it for the teens.

  • ‘Indian Matchmaking’: Who is Sima Taparia from Mumbai?

    ‘Indian Matchmaking’: Who is Sima Taparia from Mumbai?

    Throwing light on the highly controversial Indian (and Pakistani) wedding and matchmaking culture, a new Netflix original reality series has stirred a debate online and received mixed reviews about the toxicity ingrained in the country’s age-old process of finding a life partner. The show is currently trending at number four on Netflix Pakistan.

    The eight-part series Indian Matchmaking premiered on Netflix on Thursday and is currently among its top-ranked India shows. It features Sima Taparia, a real-life matchmaker from Mumbai, who offers her services to families within India and abroad. As the show gains traction, the one question which is crossing everyone’s mind is ‘Who really in Sima Taparia’?

    In a recent interview, Taparia, who hails from a small town of Gulbarga in Karnataka, opened up about herself and revealed that she always wanted to be famous.

    “I always had great ambition and wanted to make something of myself so people far and wide would know my name,” she says.

    However, her marriage was arranged when she was just 19 and because her in-laws were from an orthodox family of Marwaris, she never really got a chance to work on her dreams.

    But as fate would have had it, the small-town girl has become a sensation ever since her series streamed on Netflix.

    On how she ended up in this business, Taparia said that she considers herself a natural born matchmaker.

    “I am an extrovert and so I am very social and I love meeting new people, talking to them and finding out little details that I lock away in my brain,” says the 57-year-old.

    “When people come to me saying they have a son, daughter, nephew, niece or a grandchild who is looking to get married, I immediately start thinking of all the people I know of who could be a good match,” she explains, adding that she is always mentally matching people. “I have found matches for people when I was on vacation in Zermatt and in Interlaken and even when we were in the Canadian Rockies, I was on duty matching people up. Hell, I have even matched people up while waiting at the luggage carousel at Mumbai airport.”

    Ever since Taparia set up her matchmaking bureau ‘Suitable Rishta’, based out of her apartment in the midtown Mumbai neighbourhood of Worli, she has brought hundreds of couples together in India as well as in diaspora communities around the world.

    Taparia follows a tried and tested approach that she has found success with. “I go and meet the boy and the family, see what their home is like, where they work, where they have been to school,” she explains. It’s not just the information the family provides but unsaid details she has learned to pick up over the years.

    “This helps me assess their lifestyles so I can recommend a match that is on an even keel. This is where Tinder, Bumble and Shaadi.com can’t compete. I get to the bottom of things, finding out all the inside stories, the family’s values and other such details you would never get from looking at a person’s online profile,” says Taparia.

    She further shared that she only works with “high-profile clients”.

    “In India when I meet clients they usually have a working wedding budget in mind. So based on that golden number, I quote my price that I charge as a lump sum,” said the match-maker.

    Following the series’ success, Taparia’s phone has not stopped ringing.

    “Now young people who have seen the series have been getting in touch with me from all around the world and people in India are asking their parents to get in touch with me to find them partners like Nadia and Aparna,” she says.

    Netflix’s ‘Indian Matchmaking’ divides the internet

    Meanwhile, the show has the internet divided. The show has become a subject of memes and jokes, and criticism, on how individuals and their parents are picky and have a long list of demands that centre around factors like caste, height or skin colour.

    The show “makes very clear how regressive Indian communities can be. Where sexism, casteism, and classism are a prevalent part of the process of finding a life partner,” wrote Twitter user Maunika Gowardhan.

    Thousands of Twitter and Instagram posts echo that view. “The show is simply holding a mirror to the ugly society we are a part of,” Vishaka George, another Twitter user, wrote.

    Created by Oscar-nominated director Smriti Mundhra, the show focuses on matchmaker Taparia’s visits to the homes of families who need her assistance. After hearing their demands, she presents résumés of prospective matches and then arranges meetings between them.

    “The two families have their reputation and many millions of dollars at stake. So the parents guide their children,” Taparia says at one point in the show, referring to some of her wealthier clients.

    In the first episode titled Slim, Trim and Educated, an Indian mother tells Taparia her son is getting a lot of marriage proposals but in most cases, the prospective bride’s education or height was not ideal.

    Just as Taparia says: “So you want a smart, outgoing, height …” the mother interjects, “I won’t even consider (a girl) below 5 feet 3 inches.”

    Some have praised the show for its honesty and treating its subjects respectfully.

    “The hate against it is, frankly, baffling … Indian Matchmaking is well on its way to becoming a cultural phenomenon,” a column in the Mint newspaper said.

    Watch trailer:

  • Netflix reveals its biggest hits for the first time

    Netflix reveals its biggest hits for the first time

    Despite having close to 183 million subscribers, Netflix never revealed how many people are watching their original series and movies. However, the streaming giant recently decided to release a list of its 10 most-watched original movies.

    Chris Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda’s action thriller Extraction topped the list with 99 million views. It received the biggest audience of any Netflix original movie in its first four weeks. The film shows Hemsworth play a mercenary who must rescue an Indian drug lord’s kidnapped son.

    Read more – ‘Extraction’ & ‘Love Aaj Kal’ are trending on Netflix Pakistan but not worth the watch

    It is followed by the horror, sci-fi thriller Bird Box (89 million) about a mother and her two children who make a desperate attempt to reach safety after a threatening unseen presence makes most of society commit suicide.

    Spenser Confidential, an action-comedy is number three on the list with 85 million views. The film which has a rating of 6.2 on IMDb, is about a former cop Spenser who teams up with his roommate to take down the murderers of two Boston police officers.

    6 Underground is number four followed by Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler’s Murder Mystery at number five. Murder Mystery is about a New York cop and his wife who go on a vacation to revive the spark in their marriage, but end up getting framed for the death of an elderly billionaire.

    It is interesting to note that the top four most-watched films are action or thrillers with top movie stars including Hemsworth, Bullock, Mark Wahlberg, and Ryan Reynolds. The list also includes three comedies.

    Read More – Netflix censors images of meat for Indian audiences

    Martin Scorsese’s lavish crime epicThe Irishman starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, was the sixth most-watched film, attracting 64 million views.

    All 10 of the movies were released in the last three years, most of them in the past 12 months. 

    Meanwhile, as coronavirus continues to paralyse the world, Netflix, in a letter to shareholders, said that while its slate of original shows for this year is on track, it is focused on safely getting production back up and running.

    “As the world slowly re-opens, our main business priority is to restart our productions safely and in a manner consistent with local health and safety standards to ensure that our members can enjoy a diverse range of high-quality new content,” executives said in the letter.

    “There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and we’re adapting to local circumstances. Today, we’re slowly resuming productions in many parts of the world.”

    Netflix is facing increased competition from tech giants such as Apple and Amazon, along with entertainment titans including Disney, NBCUniversal, and WarnerMedia.

  • How Netflix revolutionalised the way we watch TV

    How Netflix revolutionalised the way we watch TV

    In the not-so-distant past, TV viewers were forced to wait a week for the next installment of their favorite shows, parceled out by networks in half-hour or hour-long increments.

    To understand how we got here, look at Netflix (NFLX.O).

    At the start of the decade, binge watching involved VHS tapes, DVD box sets or long nights glued to a DVR. TV cable hits included Homeland and The Wire – hour-long dramas with complicated plot lines that needed to be watched sequentially.

    Watching Saturday Night Live on a Sunday became normal, and viewers started to lose track of the broadcast schedule.

    In November 2010, Hulu, which debuted in 2008 as an ad-supported streaming video site, launched its subscription service, including full seasons of certain shows.

    Around the same time that the broadcast TV schedule was losing its hold on viewers, Netflix was beginning to invest in original content.

    In 2011, it struck a deal for its first original show, the political thriller House of Cards. It released all 13 episodes of the show’s first season on Feb. 1, 2013. That July it followed with the entire first season of Orange is the New Black.

    Viewers were hooked, and the cultural shift accelerated. “Binge-watch” was a runner-up to “selfie” for the Oxford Dictionary’s 2013 word of the year.

    Netflix championed this new kind of consumption, commissioning a survey to determine how many people binge-watch, and why.

    “Our viewing data shows that the majority of streamers would actually prefer to have a whole season of a show available to watch at their own pace,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos at the time.

    While some say the decade technically ends a year from now, the end of this year will be marked by many as the conclusion of the second decade of the 21st century. And as the new decade begins, the trend may start to reverse.

    AT&T’s (T.N) forthcoming HBO Max streaming service will debut one new episode of its original series per week. Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) Disney+ is releasing episodes weekly for new series including the Star Wars-related The Mandalorian. Apple (AAPL.O) released three episodes at the same time for dramas The Morning Show and See – and is doing so for most other Apple series – followed by one episode per week.

    Media companies are hoping a longer release schedule will generate buzz and create more of a shared experience among viewers.

    Just like the old days.