Series & Movies to Help With Your Social Distancing

We all must take responsibility to do our bit to halt the march of the COVID-19 virus across the world and stay at home. Even as we make this sacrifice we must acknowledge that there has been no better time to be homebound. Today we have mindboggling number of TV channels to turn to, social media to keep us connected and of course streaming services to keep us entertained. Here are some movies and series that I plan to catch up on or have watched recently:

Starring Al Pacino, Christian Oliver, Logan Lerman, Lena Olin and others, this series is set in 70s New York. Inspired by true events, this ten-part Amazon Prime Video series follows the stories of Nazi-hunters over the decades. This diverse bunch of people come together to track down Nazi war criminals planning to create a Fourth Reich in the United States.

This one received as many as ten nominations for the 2020 Oscars. If you missed it then, this one is available on Amazon Prime now.  Directed and written by Quentin Tarantino, the movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Emile Hirsch is nominated for best actor, best director, best picture and more.

This one is particularly apposite for the times we are currently experiencing. The 2011 film has recently become the most-watched film online since the coronavirus outbreak. The movie (on Prime Video) stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Jude Law and is about a terrible contagion sweeping the earth. Avoid this one is you panic easily though.

One of the finest medical dramas ever, this is a series I have already watched but don’t mind watching again. Every complex new case that Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) gets, unfolds like a detective story. He is immoral but brilliant, funny but nasty and quite addictively watchable. All eight seasons of the series are available on Amazon Prime.

This Oscar-nominated film is another one to catch if you missed it then. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta, this one is about the breakdown of a marriage while the family struggles to stay together. If not for anything else, watch the film to see Black Widow and Kylo Ren on the screen together. It’s currently streaming on Netflix.

You can always watch classics like The Office, The Crown, Peaky Blinders on Netflix if you haven’t already. Or you could make the investment of requisite emotion and time into something new. I am planning to dive into Sex Education a British comedy series that charts the story of the son of a sex therapist who teams up with another student to offer therapy to fellow students.

This dystopian series has eerie echoes of today's realities. It makes for difficult and depressing viewing and in some ways it is similar to The Handmaid’s Tale. Starring Huma Qureshi, Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, Sanjay Suri and Arif Zakaria this six part Netflix original series is about a repressive government that brutally regulates and segregates people living in a fictional place. It is about a mother's struggle to reunite with the daughter who was snatched away from her.

I recently finished watching this series of loosely connected stories based on the novels and short stories of Tagore. Featuring some of his best known works, the series by Anurag Basu beautifully recreates the Bengal of a hundred years ago for this Netflix series. And with 26 episodes, this one will keep you engaged for a while.