What Gen Z is watching—and why

Editor’s Note:

What does Gen Z watch when nobody is assigning the syllabus? Three young writers share six recent favourites—from a relentlessly optimistic football coach and an Iraqi child living under dictatorship to haunted islands, criminal aristocrats, gorilla dynasties and friendship in outer space. Their choices offer a glimpse of what holds this generation’s attention: emotional honesty, absurd humour, a distrust of power, and an almost stubborn belief in empathy.

The contributors:

• Nayantara Assisi recently graduated with a BSc in Zoology from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai.
• Jidnyasa Singasane is an educator at the Centre for Wildlife Studies.
• Shaoni Chowdhury is a final-year BSc Zoology student at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

Ted Lasso on Apple TV

By Nayantara Assisi

I had heard a lot about Ted Lasso over the years, but it never appealed to me. An American college football coach hired to manage a Premier League club, who also seemed like the happiest person on earth? I was neither a huge football fan nor a believer in unwavering positivity (feels so fake!).

Then I had a really great time staying awake to watch all the FIFA matches with my friends. When it was over, I missed the emotional investment you put into a country that isn’t even yours, and all the yelling and screaming at the screen. So I finally gave Ted Lasso a chance.

It quickly became a comfort show. The characters are brilliant and kind and funny—I will defend them as if my life depended on it.

The show isn’t really about football, or even winning. It is about trying to become the best version of yourself: connecting with other human beings, being radically empathetic and moving beyond your failures. It made me want to be a good person and be part of good things.

What surprised me is that the show doesn’t treat Ted’s optimism as an uncomplicated superpower. His relentless positivity brings the team together, but we also see what it costs him.

“There’s a reason the rearview mirror is smaller than the windshield,” he says in season four. It is one of those thoughtful one-liners the series slips in without making them feel like a lecture.

The President’s Cake on Netflix

By Nayantara Assisi

Directed by Hasan Hadi and set in Iraq in the 1990s, The President’s Cake looks at one of the country’s harshest periods under Saddam Hussein through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl.

Lamia is selected in a school lottery to bake a cake for the president’s birthday, one of the regime’s absurd rituals. If she fails, she and her family face punishment. Her family can barely put food on its own table, let alone find eggs, flour and sugar. Trapped in this ridiculous and frightening predicament, Lamia and her friend and neighbour Saeed go into the city to beg, borrow and steal the ingredients.

The film offers a different view of dictatorship because Lamia is too young to fully understand the world around her—or see through the constant indoctrination at school. It shows what happens when freedom of speech is suppressed and people are trained not to question the absurd. It also finds comic relief in Lamia’s grandmother, Bibi, and her pet rooster, Hindi. Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, who plays Lamia, gives an outstanding performance: she lets you see both how frightened Lamia is and how determined she has to become.

I think about this film often, especially when I feel afraid of the direction in which our own country is headed. We have a way of rationalising cruelty when it happens to other people. It becomes much harder when the person in front of you is a child who knows nothing of power or politics and only wants to live a normal life. Forced public loyalty is already obscene; making a child responsible for performing it is almost impossible to comprehend.

My sister and I gripped our blankets throughout the movie, rooting for Lamia. It is a “fun” dark adventure—fun because Lamia and Saeed are resourceful and funny; horrifying because children should never have to be either simply to survive.

Widow’s Bay on Apple TV

By Nayantara Assisi

Katie Dippold’s Widow’s Bay absolutely SWEEPED the Emmys, and I knew I had to watch it. I finished it in one day and, ugh, what a great show!

After watching The Bear win in comedy categories, I was afraid this would be the same kind of “funny”. But Widow’s Bay has actual comedy: sarcastic, awkward exchanges and characters who respond to increasingly bizarre events as though the weirdest thing in the room is everyone else.

Set on a fictional island, the series follows Mayor Tom Loftis, who is determined to bring tourism to his struggling little town. The locals believe the place is haunted and warn him that “the island has woken up”. Tom considers it ridiculous superstition, but he cannot quite escape the feeling that the island’s history may be catching up with it.

I love horror-comedies, and my favourite thing about this one is that the concept doesn’t feel as if it has been done before. Dippold keeps it fresh, occasionally giving clever nods to iconic horror films. The first half makes the show seem predictable, but don’t let that fool you. The latter half keeps getting more absurd.

Kate O’Flynn as Patricia is my favourite; she can make a conversation funny simply by being the most intense person in it (I think about episode four every day). If you love horror and history, you’re in for a treat. Unfortunately for my friends, I am now going to be insufferable and make this show my entire personality.

A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough on Netflix

By Jidnyasa Singasne

I grew up watching David Attenborough’s documentaries, and he is one of the reasons I became interested in wildlife conservation. So every new appearance of his feels important to me. A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough, directed by James Reed, begins on a personal note: scenes from Attenborough’s encounter with a baby gorilla named Pablo decades ago, interspersed with footage of Attenborough reading from his diary.

The film tells the story of Pablo’s descendants in the mountains of Rwanda today.

The opening scenes are heartwarming. Gorillas are such complex and sensitive animals, and I was in complete awe watching them in their own habitat (so freaking cool). The film unfolds almost like a drama series, full of rivalry, hierarchy, conflict and violence: the dominant silverback is ageing, and a younger male is challenging his authority.

The film lets us understand the gorillas’ social world: the power struggle and how the younger gorillas are learning their place.

The footage is insane, but the moment that gave me goosebumps was Attenborough reading from his OWN diary about his earlier encounter in Rwanda. You can feel his genuine affection for the gorillas.

Attenborough recently celebrated his 100th birthday. I still find his curiosity astonishing. This film made me hope that one day I can go on an adventure of my own that is even a little like his.

The Gentlemen on Netflix

By Shaoni Chowdhury

With the recent premiere of season two, Eddie Horniman, played by Theo James, finds himself at the centre of a mess once again, and it is more entertaining than ever.

The premise is this: you’re a hot young aristocrat who has just inherited an entire estate. Wonderful times ahead, right? Unfortunately not for Eddie. He discovers that an underground cannabis network is operating on his land, run by the brilliant and suave Susie Glass. He sets out to remove it, only to discover the absolute mess created by his older brother Freddy, whose debts give Susie exactly the leverage she needs.

The show becomes truly enjoyable when Eddie and Susie start working together. Cool, calm and collected, Eddie proves to be the rational mind Susie needs in her criminal operations, and the dynamic between them becomes too engaging not to binge-watch. Susie may operate at the centre of the action, but she is also trapped inside her father’s rotten ambitions. Watching the two of them negotiate power—with each other and with the people who believe they control them—is much more interesting than simply waiting to see whether Eddie can get the criminals off his land.

Eddie gradually melts into the moulds of power, money and greed. That is what fascinates me: criminal life doesn’t only trap him; some part of him is very good at it. Theo James’s absurdly controlled expressions, set against Freddy’s wild eccentricity, also create the show’s funniest moments.

In a media landscape where every show can feel like a reproduction of the last, The Gentlemen is genuinely stimulating, engaging and hilarious. I keep returning to it. The roguishness of traditional Guy Ritchie elements—guns, leather jackets and thrills—makes for a refreshingly juvenile watch. Sometimes you want an examination of corruption and ambition. Sometimes you also want extremely well-dressed people behaving badly.

Project Hail Mary on Prime Video

By Shaoni Chowdhury

Based on Andy Weir’s 2021 science-fiction novel, Project Hail Mary is one of those films that stays with you. I went into the theatre expecting to be entertained, and that was it. As a biology student, I was sure the science would impress me and make me think differently about the world we live in. I did not expect to leave thinking about geographical borders, the politics of language and what it means to care for someone completely unlike you.

Ryan Gosling plays Dr Ryland Grace, who has to represent the human race while confronting his own loneliness in the seemingly endless vastness of space. He is one of the most phenomenal actors of our time, and this role shows how skilled he is. His isolation gives “no man is an island” an almost literal meaning: through him, you realise how full of exchange, movement and other people an ordinary human life actually is.

But Rocky, brought to life by supremely talented puppeteers, is actually the main character of this film according to me. His charm, wit and naivety are endearing, and his relationship with Grace becomes a metaphor for empathising with someone radically different from you. Their friendship begins without a shared language, history or even biology. They build trust anyway.

That idea feels especially powerful now. In a world of increasing inequality, surveillance, censorship and injustice, it is easy to forget how much kindness, empathy and passion we are capable of. The film asks what might happen if survival depended not on protecting our existing divisions but on learning to communicate across them.

The visual experience is out of this world, but the nicest thing about Project Hail Mary is that it does exactly what good art and good cinema are supposed to do: it makes you a better person by the time the end credits appear on the screen.