The series Apple Cider Vinegar wastes no time in telling viewers that it is a true story based on a lie. Set in Australia, the limited series is based on the wellness culture that emerged in the 2010s, with pretty young women leading the charge and telling people how to eat and shape their lives. Created by writer Samantha Strauss, the drama looks beyond pretty pictures and nice fonts on social media to look at the real story of what these women were going through. The limited series follows two women, Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever) and Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), both of whom had crafted an inspirational image as survivors who had overcome ill health. The only difference was that one woman was lying about her cancer diagnosis. Apple Cider Vinegar, which is set at the rise of blogging and social media, especially Instagram, is also a time capsule about wellness culture, which rejected science and heralded the benefits of nature. Based on the book The Woman Who Fooled the World by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, creator Strauss has written the series with Anya Beyersdorf and Angela Betzien. Apple Cider Vinegar goes pretty deep into the backstories of Belle and Milla and shows why, while their intentions were well-meaning at first, it all snowballed out by the end.

Written and directed by Adam J Graves, Anuja is one of five shorts nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Short Film category. Backed by producers Guneet Monga, Mindy Kaling, and Priyanka Chopra, it gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of two young girls trying to survive in the city without much support. There is hope for the younger girl Anuja, and the film highlights the hard choice the little one must face: choosing herself or supporting her beloved sister Palak. In just 22 minutes, the short film takes us on an emotional journey. The short film focuses on two orphaned sisters, Anuja (Sajda Pathan) and Palak (Ananya Shanbhag), who work in a garment factory in Delhi. Child labour is illegal, but the owner, Mr Verma (Nagesh Bhonsle), flaunts the rules by lying about the ages of the younger children. An educator, Mr Mishra (Gulshan Walia), comes to the factory with the opportunity of a lifetime for the bright Anuja. If she can take and pass an admission test for a boarding school, she’ll receive a scholarship. But the fee for the test is Rs 400, which is a large sum for the sisters. Writer-director Graves straddles both the fictional and real worlds in this story. Made in conjunction with the Salaam Baalak Trust, which supports the street children of Delhi, Anuja turns a spotlight on the still-persistent issue of child labour. Poverty and a lack of education give rise to the problem that has been prevalent in India for decades. Still, Graves gives us a touching story about the unbreakable bond between the two sisters. The film begins with a fable about a farmer’s family and a pet mongoose, highlighting the virtues of bravery and sacrifice.

Noah Centineo returns as the bumbling but charming CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks in the new season of The Recruit. We left him in Season 1, kidnapped in the Czech Republic, and miraculously, Owen survives. Although he lands himself in an entirely new scrap that could have international implications. Alexi Hawley’s series is two episodes shorter than the first, but the South Korea-set story remains entertaining in round two. Initially benched, Owen can’t sit still and do nothing at the CIA, so he finds himself pulled into a new threat that takes him to Seoul, where he meets NIS agent Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo). Jang blackmails him to get something personal of his in return. Battling past demons with his late father’s memory and his own time in Seoul as a child, Owen must use his quick-thinking skills to get what Jang wants. Additionally, Owen is also laying low against an internal investigation that could have him disbarred. Hawley makes good use of the baby-faced but earnest Noah as the protagonist Owen in The Recruit. This season, with new and old characters, the series has a good mix of the pending storyline and a new mystery to take the story further. The show continues to lean into the lawyer jokes, and there were several scenes that made me laugh out loud more than once.

Created by Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenney, Mythic Quest returns after a long gap. Its last season premiered in November 2022. But for all intents and purposes, the show has never wavered. The executives and creatives working at Mythic Quest Studios have their own quests to overcome this season. Creatives Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney) and Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao) work on an expansion to their game that just might drive them apart, while the rest of the gang faces some professional setbacks as well. Studio boss David Brittlesbee (David Hornsby) tries to push the company towards more profits, while the creative gang of Ian, Poppy, and Dana (Imani Hakim) face a breaking point of their own in their careers. This fourth season explores the dynamics of the employee versus company, with each side facing some wins and losses. Creative and personal partnerships also go through a change as Poppy and Ian find themselves unable to work with each other and girlfriends Dana and Rachel (Ashly Burch) learn boundaries. The best thing about Mythic Quest is the actors are also creatively involved behind the scenes, which adds to the collaborative effect of the series. Hornsby and Burch have worked on the scripts, while Nicdao, Hakim, Danny Pudi, and Burch again have sat in the director’s chair this season. The fourth episode directed by creator Ganz is the standout as it cleverly employs each character in a murder mystery party scenario while moving the story forward. Another plotline where Ian and Poppy use AI models of themselves to argue with one another was hilarious.

Sterling K Brown reunites with This is Us creator Dan Fogelman on a new series, Paradise, that follows a Secret Service agent looking into the murder of someone he was assigned to protect. But like Fogelman’s previous works, the narrative is more layered than it seems. Paradise mixes a few genres to give viewers a thriller with an intriguing twist. Xavier Collins (Brown) is one of President Cal Bradford’s (James Marsden) lead agents. So when the unthinkable occurs, the level-headed man approaches with a clear focus as someone who would always do the right thing. Amidst high-level government officials and a few billionaires lies a conspiracy that continues to astonish the deeper we fall into it. The eight-episode series has a massive reveal at the end of the first episode, forcing viewers to rethink everything about what has been shown to them so far. That is usually the modus operandi of Fogelman and his usual collaborators, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. In Paradise, the show slowly unveils each character and scenario in a leisurely manner.

As a fan of the 2004-2010 sci-fi island drama Lost, I thought I’d never find a show that would be weirder or more out there. I was wrong. The Apple TV+ series Severance is a fascinating thriller set in the corporate world that might just be one of the most intriguing streaming series right now. Exploring the premise of having an ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ self at work and home, the show created by Dan Erickson returns for a second season that continues to examine what it means to be human in a world that is out to exploit you constantly. The second season picks up after the uprising from the innies at the Macrodata Refinement team at Lumon Industries, where Mark (Adam Scott), Helly R (Britt Lower), and Irving (John Turturro) are able to explore the outside world. Management is not happy as the gang is put through their paces initially and pushed even further as they come to terms with the added knowledge of their outie selves. Audiences get to explore more of the Lumon offices with new expanded departments and co-workers like Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), the new deputy manager who is just a child.

In 2023, The Night Agent became Netflix’s most-watched series, and it’s easy to see why. Gabriel Basso plays the earnest young government official Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent in this case, who accidentally uncovers a conspiracy to kill the president. The action drama mixed all the right ingredients, and now as it returns for Season 2, it continues where it left off, and adds more urgency. The new season takes place 10 months after the first season, with Peter on assignment as a Night Action agent. Within the first 15 minutes, there’s immediate danger, putting him in the same position as he was in Season 1, not knowing who to trust. However, the smart-thinking agent follows his own leads to find out who amongst the agency is leaking information on the outside. He is reunited with his former girlfriend Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), who proves to be a great asset to him, even as another plotline on the side involves suspicious goings on at the Iranian mission to the United Nations.

Co-created by Vikramaditya Motwane and Satyanshu Singh, the Netflix series Black Warrant is adapted from Sunil Gupta and Sunetra Choudhury’s non-fiction. Set in the 1980s, it follows a young man who signs up to be a jailer in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, as it is the only job available, and finds himself in the process. With compelling performances and an engrossing narrative, the prison drama unfolds just like a page-turner you can’t put down. At the end of the seven episodes, Black Warrant will leave you wanting more. Zahan Kapoor plays the straitlaced Sunil Gupta, who moulds himself and his beliefs according to the job. His co-workers, played by Paramvir Cheema and Anurag Thakur, seem better suited for the position. His boss, Rajesh Tomar (Rahul Bhat), and family don’t think he can last long. But he proves them all wrong as he keeps at it, despite facing the wrath of his superiors every other episode. Sunil must prove himself over and over again. With Sunil’s growth, audiences learn the stories of the prisoners, from the most notorious murderers to the petty criminals. Some of these are taken from the famous inmates who were housed at Tihar, some awaiting execution.

After Law & Order, NCIS, and Chicago TV universes, veteran producer Dick Wolf makes his first streaming show with On Call. The new series is situated in Long Beach, California, where a seasoned police officer trains a newbie after one of her former trainees is murdered on the job. Starring Troian Bellisario and Brandon Larracuente in the leads, Amazon Prime Video’s On Call flies right out of the gate but circles around the same few issues over and over again. Troian Bellisario is by-the-books officer Traci Harmon, who never fired a weapon in 12 years. Meanwhile, Alex Diaz is an overeager rookie who wants to do it again. Following the death of officer Delgado (Monica Raymund) for a routine traffic stop, the Long Beach police force is on the hunt for a cop killer. However, it is Harmon who takes the search to heart while maintaining the on-the-job lessons for the new guy on the beat.

It’s been 20 years since the last Wallace & Gromit feature film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And this follow-up does not disappoint, largely due to the reappearance of the greatest villain in the franchise, Feather McGraw. Yes, that dastardly silent penguin is back, and he wants revenge on the duo that sent him to jail all those years ago. Will he succeed? Not if Gromit has his way. With Nick Park back as co-director, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a funny, delightful romp in the neighbourhood. Wallace’s newest invention in the film is a Norbot, a smart gnome robot ready to help poor Gromit around the house. Even when he doesn’t need any help. What the pair don’t realise that someone’s got their eye on them, all the way from jail, as the quick-witted penguin has been biding his time, waiting to get back at Wallace for turning him into the authorities in the 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers for attempting to steal the Blue Diamond. Soon, Wallace and his trusty dog Gromit are evading the police, who believe he might be the recent spate of neighbourhood robberies.