Weekend watchlist: 10 TV shows and movies to check out

‘Wedding Season’ (Netflix): Kick off the weekend with a bit of romance. This movie follows the story of Asha (Pallavi Sharda), who breaks off her engagement and leaves behind a successful banking career to move to New Jersey for a fresh start. Asha’s mother then creates an online dating profile to set Asha up with her “perfect” match. Enter Ravi (Suraj Sharma) — or rather Ravi’s parents — who have the same idea for their son. Asha and Ravi’s reluctantly go on a first date and decide to pretend to date each other to get through the upcoming wedding season.

‘The Sandman’ (Netflix): The TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel is here and it’s been getting rave reviews already. ‘The Sandman’ is about Morpheus/Dream, a cosmic being who controls all dreams. After he is captured and held prisoner for 106 years, he has to journey across different worlds and timelines to fix the chaos his absence has caused.

‘Paappan’ (UAE cinemas): Veteran Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi and Dubai-based star Nyla Usha feature in this murder mystery. It’s set in the terrains of central Travancore and is about ex-cop Abraham Mathew Mathan aka Paappan who dives deeper into solving a case that touches upon his past.

‘Easter Sunday’ (UAE cinemas): Filipino-American funnyman Jo Koy makes his feature film debut with this heartwarming story about family. It’s about Joe Valencia, a comic and aspiring actor, who goes back home to celebrate the holiday. He tries to bond with his teenage son and is also dealing with his quirky relatives.

‘Bullet Train’ (UAE cinemas): Hollywood star Brad Pitt has sped into a new role in this colourful action movie. He plays Ladybug, an unlucky assassin who’s determined to do his job peacefully after a lot of his gigs have gone south. He ends up on a train with other lethal adversaries with similar objectives.

‘Paper Girls’ (Amazon Prime Video): This exciting new sci-fi show is based on Brian K Vaughan’s comic book series and follows four girls who are out delivering papers during the dark morning hours after Halloween in 1988, and become caught in a conflict between warring factions of time-travellers and end up in the year 2019. The girls meet their future adult versions and have to learn to work together to save the world.

‘Y: The Last Man’ (Disney+): Here’s another great show based on a post-apocalyptic science fiction comic book series by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. It’s all about Y, who is the only remaining male in a post-apocalyptic world where all living mammals with a Y chromosome simultaneously die. The series follows the survivors as they struggle to cope with a new reality.

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (Disney+): Curl up on the couch with some popcorn and dig into one of Marvel’s most popular movies. In it, The Avengers must stop Thanos, an intergalactic warlord, from getting his hands on all the infinity stones. However, Thanos is prepared to go to any lengths to carry out his plan.

‘Soul’ (Disney+): Break out the tissue boxes for this Disney-Pixar masterpiece that is more than just an animated movie. A jazz musician is stuck in an unfulfilling job, before getting his big break. However, a wrong step sees him end up in the ‘Great Before’. He teams up with an infant soul to get back to reality and realises things about his life along the way.

‘Carter’ (Netflix): Joo Won stars in this Korean movie as Carter, who wakes up without any memories. He is then told by a mysterious voice in his ear that a lethal bomb is installed in his mouth and will detonate if he disobeys its command to embark on a special mission. To top it off, this is all happening two months into a deadly pandemic that has broken out from the Korean Demilitarised Zone. Thus begins the deadly chase.