Honest Series Review : Salem (2014-17)

Salem is a three-season 36-episode TV series based on the witch trials of Salem, Massachusettes between 1692-93. The most interesting piece of information about the series is that every single name uttered in the series is real, including the protagonists. But while the characters are real, the story weaved around them is completely fictional (unless one believes that devil exists and walks the Earth). The story revolves around the mass hysteria on witch-craft, religious extremism by Puritans and also, the American Frontier Wars by European settlers.

Witchcraft History

Witchcraft is the use of rituals, incantations and chants to wield magical powers. Medieval Christianity denied that such a thing can exist (canon Episcopi), and practitioners of witchcraft are only deluded superstitious pagans. But theologians like Thomas Aquinas’s elaborate descriptions on magic, its practice and “deals with the devil” in his book Summa theologicae, changed this stance. In fact, a detailed witch-hunter’s manual Malleus Maleficarum was issued by the Dominican order (referenced several times in the series).

The witch trials first started in 15th century Paris, in what came to be known as Valais witch trials, led by the Dominicans. It peaked between 1560-1630 in Germany, where roughly 30,000 people, 80% of them women were burnt at stakes. The Protestants joined the Catholics with equal fanaticism in these stake-burnings, even though it started with Dominicans (Catholics). It also spread geographically to Nordic countries (Torsaker witch trials of Sweden), fringes of Europe (Salzburg witch trials of Austria) and European colonies (Salem witch trials). In fact, Salem co-incided with the mass protests against and decline in witch-trials in mainland Europe.

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Plot

The crux of the plot is that witches existed and were in fact using the trials to their own advantage. They had installed themselves at key positions of Magistrate and Countess, and the innocents who died in the trials were, in fact, human sacrifices for the re-birth of devil. Since Salem was an important port city, which is at the forefront of American Frontier Wars against Indian tribes & refugee influx due to King William’s war with France, it was an easy target for the witch covens.

The first season focuses on Mary Walcott (later Mary Sibley) trying to complete the Grand Rite, an event where malum (lit apple or evil) will spread. Her main detractors are Cotton Mather & his father, Increase Mather, two reputed witch-hunters. Mary also faces troubles with her old flame Cap. John Alden, senior witches of her coven and her lustful suitors who can’t deal with a powerful woman amidst them.

The second season starts after Isaac releases the malum and pox has started spreading like wildfire in Salem. The focus is on the arrival of the “Dark Lord” which requires two parallel events – appearance of the “Starry Messenger” comet, & pool of blood from adequate number of dead bodies. New characters like the Marburg family, Dr Samuel Wainwright and Increase Mather make the plot interesting. Anne Hale, the orphaned daughter of Magistrate Hale, starts on her way from innocence to femme fatale. The Dark Lord arrives, as Mary & Sr John’s son, John Jr.

(Fun Fact : The Starry Messenger is actually an astronomical treatise written by Galileo that was sold for an astronomical price, and later turned out to be a forgery)

The third season starts after the arrival of the Dark Lord and attempts to establish the reign of hell on Earth. The focus is on the event of Black Sunday, a day of reckoning where all Salem will burn, and humanity will see its demise. Only Mary can stop that, but unfortunately she dies. Fortunately, she is brought back by the witches, who feel betrayed by the Dark Lord, who instead of bringing the New World Order free of Puritans, has instead indulged in his nefarious plans to ashame his Father, the God. Well, it all turns out quite well at the end

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  Old Flames

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  Grand Rite, as releasing of Malum

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  Human Sacrifices for arrival of Dark Lord

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  John Sr with father and uncle, before the dawn of evil

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  Dark Lord planning his Black Sunday

Should I watch this? You may skip this, unless you really are into supernatural series. After the first season, it is a downhill. By the third season, it feels like it will never end.

Honest Series Review : The Night Of (2016)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I love “Who-dunnit” TV series. When I watch them, I try to play detective myself and take a guess who is the killer. A correct deduction makes the watch more rewarding. The makers of the series also understand this and make this interesting by a double twist. Firstly, they drop in all the hints that you would need to solve the mystery yourself, and if you miss them, it is entirely your fault. Secondly, they try to divert your suspicion to someone else. So when you find out who did it and the clues were very subtly strewn through the series, it gives you the “Ahaaa” moment.

And it was with these expectations that I picked up this series. (Hint : I didn’t get my “Ahaaa” )

Plot Summary

A Pakistani-origin US citizen Nasir “Naz” Khan (Riz Ahmed) is a college student in New York. One fine evening, Naz gets invited to a party in the other side of the town. But his friend, who was supposed to bring a car, ditches him at the last moment. So, our guy Naz takes his father’s taxi and tries to get to the venue himself, getting lost en route. He is hitched by Andrea Cornish (Sofia Black-D’Elia), a pretty but disturbed girl from Upper West Side. Now, aloof in the ways of the world, Naz sacrifices his own party to be with the girl.

They play stabscotch (Please don’t play this game ever), do the deed and he wakes up to find her dead with 22 knife wounds. Fully panicked, he tries to escape with the stabscotch knife. But gets tagged by the traffic police for a wrong turn, and this is where his life takes a wrong turn. Detective Dennis Box tries to extract a confession out of him. While John Stone (John Turturro) tries to help him as his attorney, even though all his previous clients were tramps, thieves and prostitutes. Then, Alison, a better attorney and Chandra Kapoor (Amara Karan), her novice sidekick take up the case probono. But Naz still gets sent to the Rikers Island prison.

This is where the story takes a wide turn, from “Who-dunnit” to “Call of the Wild”. It’s all about survival for Naz, who gets from being a Mama’s boy to a convict-proper in the Rikers. It is about the transformation, drug-dealing, aggression, forming criminal connections, and waking up to the realities of the prison world. Here, he is helped by Freddie Knight (Michael Williams), an ex-boxer turned prison-kingpin, who sees the innocence in Naz.

Meanwhile the Dennis Box (Bill Camp), Stone, Kapoor all believe in Naz’s innocence and try to figure out who might have done it (Box only subtly believes this). A lot of circumstantial evidence surfaces, but all of it can equally be pointing out to other suspects. For example, Andrea is killed by knife-stabs, an MO of Duane Reede, the criminal-background black guy who chides Naz. Don Taylor, Andrea’s step-father has both the motive and a desire to kill her for her multi-million. Mr Day, a morgue-worker who has the male-chauvinist violent streak, who met them at the gas station. These speculations are conveyed to the jury, who has a 6-6 split verdict, thus, ultimately freeing Naz. But he has already heard and responded to the “Call of the Wild”.

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  The Beach

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  Subtle Beast

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  The Art of War

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  The Season of the Witch

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  Call of the Wild

Story in short

Plot Quirks

It is otherwise a very tightly knit story, but there are certain lingering questions :

1. Was it really Ray, the financial advisor? They are supposed to be sleeping together and he advises her on financial matters. It is hard to digest that he will kill with so much malice, with 22 stabs no less, only to hide his fudging the accounts.
2. Who was financing Kapoor? After Alison ends the pro-bono and the Khans unable to pay for the costly trial, Kapoor still agreed to pay Stone. Did she do it out of her own pocket?
3. Why did Calvin seem to be friendly with Naz in the first place? Naz had already gained the infamy as being a rapist-killer. Victor, a murderer of a rapist-killer, initially acts as Naz’s friend, philosopher & guide but later turns on Naz. Why not just harm him in first instance?

There are some aspects of the plot that you know are not really related to the main story, but nevertheless give a very personal touch to the story. For example, Stone’s Eczema and its treatment by the Chinese doctor. In fact, all of Stone’s personal troubles seem kind of endearing – like his troubled relation with his son, his hooker client, the cat he adopts. Petey’s tragedy in prison, his death and the revenge of his death are excellently shot. Another excellent perspective given is the vulnerability of migrant worker community of US, and how the criminal justice system fails even the undertrials.

However, the side stories of other characters have been kept to a minimum and only referenced in hints and stories. We know of Chandra’s parents and boyfriend only in passing reference, even though she had been a bigger help to Naz compared to Stone. Even, Naz’s mentor Freddie seems to have an interesting back-story, of a college-educated national-boxing campion longueuring in the prison. But the overall portrayal of side characters seems adequate and engaging.

Do I recommend you to watch it? Absolutely, it is a mini-series and very intriguing. At no point, will you feel bored.

If you are in US, you can watch this on Amazon Prime. If you are not, you know where to watch this 😉

Click here to join amazon prime

Honest Series Review : Mr. Robot

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

First things first, my favourite part is how they name their episodes as file names, like the first was named as eps1.0_hellofriend.mov. For first three seasons, they have used file extensions like .avi, .p7z and there are so many which I never even heard of before. For the fourth and final season, they have used HTTP Status Codes like 404:Not Found, and I absolutely loved it. As an amateur coder, I got a sense of thrill seeing how the pro hackers “own everybody”. That’s why they call it “cyberpunk”

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  E (Evil) Corp

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  Whiterose aka Minister Zhang

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  The Deus Group, founded by Young Zhang

All the main villains in the series. The person in the second image is the same as the third one, albeit in a different getup

Plot Summary

The plot revolves around Elliot Anderson, a super-hacker nerd, with clinical depression and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). His alter-ego is named Mr Robot, who is casted in his father’s image, since Elliot has daddy-issues. Through all four seasons, he seeks to recast the unjust social order where top 1% of 1% enjoy all the privileges of the world at the cost of others. His nemesis is firstly E Corp, , a conglomerate giant with deep roots and shady activities. But later, he turns his attention to Dark Army, cyber-terrorists from China led by Whiterose. The other main characters are Darlene Anderson, his sister; Angela, his childhood bestie; Dom DiPierro, FBI agent and Tyrell Wellick, ex- E Corp Acting CTO.

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  fsociety vs Dark Army

fsociety literally stands for “fuck society”. Reportedly, wannabe hackers around the globe are using it’s symbol now to look cool.

In Season 1, Mr Robot aka Elliot creates fsociety and hacks E Corp to fry digital records of all its financial transactions on 5/9. In Season 2, Elliot is jailed for hacking his therapist’s boyfriend and creates an alter-reality as a coping mechanism. There are talks of Stage 2, in which the physical database at E Corp HQ will be blown as the last straw in the hat. In Season 3, Stage 2 happens despite Elliot’s attempts to stop it. It is revealed that E Corp is actually a front for Dark Army /Deus Group & they supported 5/9 to popularize E-Coin. Whiterose or Minister Zhang has a secret project where he plans to bring back dead. In Season 4, Elliot attempts to hack Deus Group members’ bank accounts in Cyprus National Bank. He not only succeeds, but also leaks all the info on misdeeds of the Deus group in a public data leak.

That’s correct ! Our favorite hacker is only another personality of the main guy, who is locked in a happy world.

Plotwise, Season 2 is the weakest and has some completely senseless arcs, like the dark-web-portal hack arc. But Seasons 3 and 4 are able to use some of its material to show relevance. Knowles beating Joanna, Tyrell’s slightly deranged wife also seems an exaggeration. After a certain point, twists and turns stop making you jump, which is what happened when I found out in the Season finale that hacker-Elliot himself is a DID personality. For this, it has been compared to Fight Club, where the same happens for Tyler Durden. It’s a good part that Sam Ishmail magnified the scope of Elliot’s conflicts -first against small fishes and then bigger and biggest.

Do you recommend it? Yes, You gotta watch this before you die !!