I refer to 2020 as the sovereign year: A pandemic (if you will), a ‘monumental shifting’ Black Lives Matter movement reverberating globally in various manifestations, worldwide attention on the American presidential campaign and the expected ‘farcity’ of it all. What else happened in 2020?………

…….Oh yeah, the usual suspects of wildfires, earthquakes, floods, protests and wars. Unfortunately, the list of world tragedies goes on as it always does each year.

For those of us who have had to stay indoors on ‘lock-up’ or lockdown for their/your/our own safety, we certainly found a way to endure the monotony of it by indulging in what became the foremost pastime activity of the sovereign period, which is viewing online video and streaming content, [or arguably baking banana bread, zooming, face-timing, WhatsApping or maybe even s*x].

Anyway, the point is……..actually there is no point, so here are my favorite viewing content that I enjoyed most during 2020:…….

………On second thought, yes, there actually is a point:

……..Globally, the year 2020 has brought us face to face with how fragile our existence on this planet is, and how the control we think we have or pretend to have has never been ours to begin with. Maybe we are all just puppets on a string dangling from the wrists of maladies and tragedies, and on the other hand we dangle in joie de vivre.

The point is we are here in this sometimes sh*t, sometimes joy of an existence together, and 2020 epitomizes that on a global, somewhat unified, scale. Thankfully, there are those online cast of content characters, fictional or real, who entertained and kept our company in the middle of washing the pigment from thy hands.

Thank you denizens of YouTube, Hulu, Acorn TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar etc., who enabled us, just a bit, to maintain our sanity amidst our preconceived illusions of safety. You all helped us stay together ‘safe’ inside and online.

What would we do without online content in a year and time like this.

That’s it. That’s my point. Not much of a point but a point of view just the same….. And here, again, are my favorite online viewing content that I enjoyed most during the year:

AFSOS- A dark comedy series from India depicting a cat and mouse-like interplay between assassin and target, life and death. This series was wild and pure fun, with really good actors, not stars, actors. Great actors! Which is possibly why there wasn’t much hype and hoopla in the star-fair press about this one, but the critical reception is overwhelming positive.

This show was very well written with great direction (Anubhuti Kashyap). Of all the content I’ve viewed this year, Afsos is the series I’m most looking forward to for new episodes. Lets hope Amazon and the creators (Anirban Dasgupta, Dibya Chatterjee) deliver a second season.

RAS KITCHEN- Where do I begin with this one. It’s the best thing on YouTube. A mix of Jamaican cuisine and day to day life served up by a fantastic host family in the Jamaican countryside. Great friendships, conversations and banter between the show’s Canadian creator Mathew ( really fun and chilled persona), and Ras Mokko, a Rastafarian chef with endless culinary skills, wisdom, and chillum-chalice blazing technique.

THE WITCHER- Based on a series of books by Andrzej Sapkowski, this is possibly the best new show on Netflix for 2020. For those of you who haven’t yet gotten over the come-down of missing Game of Thrones (and you should have by now, so snap out of it), the Witcher is a great picker-upper.

YEH BALLET- A victory despite the odds true story out of India about two young ballet dancers fatefully forging forward to have their dreams realized. Very rarely do I ever watch the same program more than once, but this film I watched again the minute the end credits began scrolling. Partly because it was an engaging and uplifting artistic endeavor, but also the discovery that one of the true life characters actually played himself in the film. #CinepicksTME