Twin Brothers and Teddy Bear Criminals

BAD COP | Cast: Gulshan Devaiah, Anurag Kashyap, Harleen Sethi Director: Aditya Datt | Hindi | Disney+Hotstar

ADAPTED FROM A German show of the same name, Bad Cop, this Hindi series is a riff on twin brothers and the idea of swapping places. So the thief becomes a police officer. So far so good. He insinuates himself into his twin’s life for reasons too complex to be told. It so happens that his wife is his boss, and a very suspicious one. The thief is accused of murder and the brother he replaces seems to be involved in a battle with Mumbai’s biggest gangster, who in a meta reference is played by Anurag Kashyap. Kashyap even has a scene straight out of Gangs of Wasseypur, chopping mutton legs. Naturally the twins are named Karan and Arjun who were separated by adoption agencies because of one brother being particularly prone to trouble. Gulshan Devaiah is an actor who is finally getting his due and here he performs action and drama scenes with some flair. Harleen Sethi, as the police station’s SHO, is all aggression and fire, and seems quite capable of taking on a powerful goon.

Why watch it? It’s easy viewing, well acted, and tightly paced. Kashyap is a hoot as a criminal mastermind operating from jail, even if it sits quite queasily with his teddy bear vibe

Chic Misdeeds in Suburban Chicago

PRESUMED INNOCENT | Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga Writer: David E Kelley English | Apple TV+

IT’S THE BACKYARD of a suburban American home, the father is playing baseball with his son, his wife and daughter are watching, the sun shining on their curls. It’s a David E Kelley show, so you know something terrible is going to disturb the idyllic calm. It does, as it did in Big Little Lies (2017) and The Undoing (2020). The husband, an attorney on the fast track, is accused of murder. The wife, chilled by an adulterous betrayal, grieves in designer despair. The children, beautiful, ethnically ambiguous, are united in their pain. Gorgeously shot, Chicago at nighttime looks splendid, but the crime is heinous. Our hero, the attorney, is accused of murdering his colleague, with the affair established in flashbacks which suggest an obsessive relationship. The series is a remix of the 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford, based on Scott Turow’s 1987 legal thriller novel Presumed Innocent. This is Jake Gyllenhaal’s first streaming series and it couldn’t be more perfect, with his puppy dog eyes just begging forgiveness at every step. If it feels a little mechanical it is only because we have seen too many of these series, with posh people doing vile things of late, usually starring Nicole Kidman. But there is an urgency to the proceedings, with reveals happening at just the right moments.

Why watch it? Shot in available light, with a mix of claustrophobic courtroom scenes and airy suburban villa, it is as much a family drama as it is a mystery

About The Author

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai is an author and a contributing writer with Open

•