Tag Archives: Amazon prime

My TV Shows of 2023

I thought I would do a yearly version of this article. Below are the TV shows I started watching in 2023, TV shows I stopped watching in 2023 and TV shows I tried to watch but couldn’t. Also TV shows I continued to watch this year.

TV Shows I stopped watching

  1. Servant (Apple TV+) – Didn’t find interesting anymore
  2. Invasion (Apple TV+) – Didn’t like Season 1, really
  3. Futurama (Hulu) – Not available in Thailand
  4. Loki (Disney+) – Too much work to follow MCU now.
  5. Aspirants (Prime) – Not available in Thailand
  6. Fargo (FX) – Not available in Thailand

Shows I tried but couldn’t get into

  1. The Last of Us (HBO) – Didn’t like it
  2. The Bear (FX) – Too busy and stressful
  3. Made in heaven (Amazon Prime) – Too much drama
  4. Platonic (Apple TV+) – Didn’t like it
  5. Extrapolations (Apple TV+) – Quite average
  6. Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+) – Couldn’t get into
  7. Scam 2003 (Sony Liv) – Didn’t want to pay again for the second half of the series
  8. Grey’s Anatomy (Disney+)

TV Shows I started watching

  1. Rana Naidu (Netflix) – Average
  2. Silo (Apple TV+) – Really good
  3. Hijack (Apple TV+) – Average
  4. Gen V (Amazon Prime) – Surprisingly good

Shows I continued to watch

  1. Young Sheldon (Amazon Prime/CBS)
  2. Tulsa King (Paramount+)
  3. Little America (Apple TV+)
  4. The Mandalorian (Disney+)
  5. Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
  6. Black Mirror (Netflix)
  7. Hostel Daze (Amazon Prime)
  8. Sex Education (Netflix)
  9. For all Mankind (Apple TV+)

TV Shows I re-watched

  1. Raja, Rasoi aur Anya Kahaniya (EpicOn) – Really really good

PS: I use trakt to track my TV show viewings.

Suchitra Iyer is the Indian Skyler White

Suchitra Iyer is a character from the Amazon Prime show The Family Man. I started watching the show last week. Although the show itself is decidedly brilliant, it’s this character that struck me most.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Suchitra Iyer, played by the brilliant actress Priyamani is the wife of protagonist Srikant Tiwari, played by the brilliant actor Manoj Bajpayee.

She is a college psychology teacher & a mother of 2 children. She starts off as a good wife, a devoted mother, but soon, little things about her start bothering the viewer.

Priyamani as Suchitra Iyer
Priyamani as Suchitra Iyer, PC:News18

She starts soft-flirting with her colleague Arvind & leaves her well-established college job to join a startup with him. They are exchanging messages late at night which themselves are harmless, but border on inappropriate. Soon, she takes things further by going on a soft-date with him at a cafe, then at a 5 star restaurant, eventually ending up at his home to tend for his sick daughter. Nothing inappropriate happens, but the viewer can easily notice the sexual tension between them. When Arvind invites her for a “bootcamp” at Lonavala, it is quite evident that something is going to happen.

It does, when they casually share the same hotel room, get dressed at the same time in the bathroom and eventually decide not to drive home at night and sleep over. By the time she messages Arvind (who’s on the couch) that she cannot sleep and then gets up to go to him (and presumably have sex), one cannot stop themselves from hating her. All the while their unattended daughter is almost drugged by a guy and their son almost shoots himself.

Sure, Srikant is a workaholic, doesn’t spend time with his family and provides a very middle-class existence. But the onus of hate is on Suchitra for cheating on him. Srikant get excellent opportunities to ball his boss (Gul Panang no less) but doesn’t even consider it.

The Skyler White Connection

All of the above makes me draw parallels between Suchitra’s character and the character of Skyler White from Breaking bad.

  1. Both characters start off as devoted wives and mothers
  2. They both lead a very middle class existence
  3. Both are pleasantly buxom
  4. Their husbands are considered failures by family and friends
  5. They have no idea what their husbands really do on their jobs
  6. Both eventually cheat on their husbands
  7. Both become quite hate-worthy

At least Skyler had the decency to confess to her husband about her cheating unlike the cowardly Suchitra.

Surprisingly, its Suchitra’s character that I look forward to and enjoy (hating on) the most, in the show.

If you haven’t seen the show, I suggest you watch it, as it is brilliant.

My Worst Purchases-Airtel Internet TV

Continuing with my series, the next entry in the list is Airtel Internet TV DTH set top box.

Airtel Internet TV Set Top Box
Airtel Internet TV Set Top Box

I used to have a regular Airtel DTH connection at my place; the non-smart ones where the Set Top Box connects to an external satellite dish antenna and you watch TV. One day the set top box straight up and died so I contacted Airtel for a replacement. They told me that they have an offer where if I pay a years’ worth of subscription fee at once, they will upgrade me to the new Airtel Internet TV set top box. The set top box was supposed to combine the best of DTH TV viewing and App based streaming along with:

  • 1G Ethernet and WiFi connectivity
  • 4K output with 4K Netflix capability (Along with Prime, Hotstar etc.)
  • Voice activated remote with touch sensitive surface
  • Internet enabled programme guide
  • DVR capabilities with storage on external USB devices

I bought it mostly for 4K Netflix capabilities. I was sceptical about getting it because it ran Android TV (Fagdroid), but decided to keep an open mind and give it a try.

It would be safe to say that this was the worst product (across all categories) I ever bought in my life & realised it the same day. Android TV (Fagdroid) is the worst OS ever to power any gadget in the world, period. Some of the complaints that I faced (On day 1) were:

  • Slow as fuck interface (Even with things like quad-core Qualcomm processor etc.). I blame this part entirely on the Android TV (Fagdroid) OS. Even changing channels took 2-3 seconds.
  • Apps crashing all the time. Even the TV app which showed content from satellite crashed regularly with no apparent triggers.
  • The smart Bluetooth remote control froze from time-to-time. The only way to recover it was to remove the batteries and insert them back again.
  • Doing a factory reset was not a straight forward job. After the reset, half of the channels would disappear and would require going into settings and entering some satellite related parameters manually.
  • Advertisements showing up randomly on the UI & also a perpetual, huge Airtel Logo on the corner of the screen
  • Software updates would fix some issues and introduce others.

After tolerating this for a few months, I had had enough & even with 8/9 months of subscription remaining, I threw it in the trash. When I asked Airtel to move me back to the old (non-smart) set top box, they told me that was no longer possible. Eventually, this brought to an end the era of DTH in my house forever & I moved to streaming services permanently; also cementing my resolve to never buy anything Android (Fagdroid) powered ever again.