5 best Amazon Prime Video web series released during the lockdown

1. Tales from the Loop

The beautifully shot Tales from the Loop is about a machine housed inside an underground facility that is purported to unlock the secrets of the universe. It apparently makes unlikely stuff — previously thought to be in the realm of science-fiction — possible.

The series has an intriguing premise, and it delivers on it for the most part. If the plot sounds similar to Stranger Things or the more recent Devs, fret not. Tales from the Loop is its own thing despite superficial resemblance.

Read | Tales from the Loop first impression: An intriguing sci-fi TV series

2. Paatal Lok

A crime-thriller, Paatal Lok was probably the most popular Indian series that released in 2020 on Amazon Prime Video. It starred Jaideep Ahlawat, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee, Ishwak Singh, and Abhishek Banerjee. In her review of the web series, The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote, “Paatal Lok is fashioned as a crime thriller-cum-police procedural set mainly in Delhi, spinning off into several threads, some really solid, a few comparatively weak, but managing to keep its hold on us. Weaving in an awareness and recognition of contemporary India makes it political, and elevates it: Paatal Lok is intelligently written, fast-paced, and engrossing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Read | Paatal Lok review: An intelligently written, engrossing series

3. Homecoming Season 2

The sophomore outing of this gripping series based on the eponymous podcast tells a new story set in the same world from the perspective of a new protagonist, Janelle Monáe’s Alex, who finds herself adrift on a boat in the middle of a lake, wholly unaware of her whereabouts, or even who she is. She begins retracing her steps to find out what happened to her.

Homecoming season 2 is as compulsive a watch as the first season.

Read | Homecoming season 2: Amazon Prime Video series remains engrossing and taut

4. Panchayat

In her review of the Jitendra Kumar starrer, The Indian Express’ Ektaa Malik wrote, “Panchayat brings a fresh perspective to the rural narrative and it works for the most part. Their attention to minute details, and ability to capture the verve of a society, which is on a cusp of change, are all there.”

Read | Panchayat review: It takes a village

5. Upload

Also Read | Upload review: A quirky, watchable web series

Upload, an Amazon series from Greg Daniels, otherwise known as the creator of The Office (the US one), may just provide an alternative for viewers of The Good Place. Just like the Kristen Bell starrer, Upload deals with afterlife. A man Nathan (Robbie Amell) crashes his car and gets grievously injured. However, his girlfriend, instead of letting him die, “uploads” his consciousness into a virtual reality world in which he will “live” with other non-dead people forever. The said world has all the facilities the real world has — except it comes with in-app purchases and bugs.