2025’s been overwhelming — political unrest, personal stress, illness, grief... and just when you think it can’t get worse, the news proves you wrong. In this episode, I share the shows, movies, and one very special book that got me through it all. From British countryside comfort to chaotic MTV nostalgia and a K-drama that made me cry into my chai — this is my survival list. If you're barely holding it together, you're not alone.

In this second episode of The Bitter Bongs Season 2, we continue talking about cozy murder mysteries.

Join us as we dive into the world of cozy murder mysteries! We'll discuss the unique charm of these gentle crimes, exploring why we love them so much. From quaint English villages to charming small towns, we'll uncover the secrets behind these timeless tales.

But the fun doesn't stop there! We'll share our top picks for long-running cozy mystery shows that have captivated audiences for decades. Get ready to revisit old favorites and discover new gems. So grab a cup of tea, cozy up, and let's unravel the mysteries together!

We are back after a break of 2 weeks and we have a lot of TV shows and movies to talk about. So this week's watchlist will be in 2 parts.

In this 2nd part, we start with the horror comedy Bhoot Police available on Hotstar which stars Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Yami Gautam and Jacqueline Fernandez. It is a story about 2 brothers who normally con people on the pretext of getting rid of ghosts. Yami Gautam finds them to save them from a ghost (Kichkandi) that is haunting her tea estate and during the process they come across actual ghosts. 

Next we talk about Helmet available on Zee5 and starring Aparshakti Khurana, Pranutan Behl, Abhishek Banerjee and others. The movie centres about the social cause of using contraceptives and how people have a stigma and prejudice against buying condoms in public for the fear of public humiliation. 

Next we move on to English movies, the first of which is Cinderella available on Amazon Prime and starring Camilla Cabello and others. It is a modern retelling on Cinderella in the form of a musical and deviates from the original story by Cinderella an independent and enterprising woman rather than a damsel in distress 

Finally we talk about Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour and others and is available on Hotstar. It follows the story of Natasha Romanov in the timeframe between Captain America : Civil War and Avengers : Infinity War where she traces her origins and searches for her pretend parents and sister. 

We are back after a break of 2 weeks and we have a lot of TV shows and movies to talk about. So this week's watchlist will be in 2 parts. 

In the 1st part, we talk about the Hoichoi webseries Boyfriends and Girlfriends starring Rwitobroto Mukherjee, Riddhi Sen, Ishaa Saha, Ujan Chatterjee, Adrija Roy and Madhurima Ghosh. It is a story about three friends and their respective partners and what happens when 2 of them are involved with the same girl which initially leads to fights but eventually friendship prevails. 

We next talk about the historical fiction called The Empire available on Hotstar starring Shabana Azmi, Kunal Kapoor, Dhrasti Dhami, Dino Morea, Aditya Seal, Imad Shah, Rahul Dev and others. It is based on the novel series Empire of the Moghul by Alex Rutherford and traces the life of Mughal Emperors starting with Babur. The first season sees the rise of Babur from when he was 14 years old to the time when he defeats Ibrahim Lodi and takes control of Hindustan and subsequently dies. 

In this week's watchlist, we talk about 2 shows and a movie, all of them English (unfortunately) :-) !

We start with the satirical comedy The White Lotus, available on Hotstar. White Lotus is set in an exclusive Hawaiian resort and follows the stories of various guests and their interactions with the resort staff. As darker dynamics emerge with each passing day, this biting six-episode series gradually reveals the complex truths of the seemingly picture-perfect travellers, cheerful hotel employees, and idyllic locale itself.​

Next is a show called The Chair, available on Netflix. It stars Sandra Oh who is the newly appointed chair of the English department at Pembroke University. The first woman hired into the position, she attempts to ensure the tenure of a young black colleague, negotiate her relationship with her crush, friend, and well-known colleague Bill Dobson, and parent her strong-willed adopted daughter.

Last we talk about Disney's modern adaptation of 101 Dalmatians, Cruella. Cruella stars Emma Stone, Emma Thomson, Mark Strong and others and provides the back story of Cruella de Vil.

In this week's watchlist, we talk about 1 web series and 3 movies that we saw this week.

We start with the Bengali web-series Rabindranath Ekhane Kokhono Khete Ashenni or REKKA. This web-series is based on a book of the same name by Bangladeshi author Mohammed Nazim Uddin and is directed by Srijit Mukherjee. It stars Azmeri Haque Badhon, Rahul Bose, Anirban Bhattacharya, Anjun Dutt, Anirban Chakraborty and others. It is about a restaurant called REKKA and it's mysterious owner Mushkan Zaveri and how a journalist tries to trace the origins of the owner and uncover a deadly secret about her.

We then talk about the movie Shershaah, available on Amazon Prime, and stars Siddharth Malhotra. It tells the story of Captain Vikram Batra who died during the Kargill War in 1999.

Next we briefly talk about Bhuj, available on Hotstar, and stars Ajay Devgn. It tells the story about a few people defending and reconstructing the Bhuj airbase during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. In a sharp contrast to Shershaan, Bhuj is an extremely over the top, hyper-nationalistic movie which is not enjoyable

Finally, we talk about The Suicide Squad directed by James Gunn. It is about another mission where Amanda Waller sends the Task Force X (official name of Suicide Squad) to Corto Maltese to destroy a project run by the dictator of the small island nation.

In this new segment called Decade of Decay, we talk about Bengali movies from the 80's and 90's that were so bad that they are good.

In this week's episode we talk about the 1988 movie called Choto Bou starring Kali Banerjee, Meenakshi Goswami, Ranjit Mullick, Sandhya Roy, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Debika Mukherjee and others. The movie is directed by Anjan Choudhury and this is his first movie in the Bou series.