(TV SERIES) Nightmares and Daydreams (Season 1) - An Interestingly Done Anthology Series of Various Genre

I noticed this series few weeks ago on Netflix which immediately intrigued me, especially with the name Joko Anwar attached to the title. When it was finally released few days ago, I was completing other series and only started to watch during the weekend & finished it in two days time. All right then, I'll get on with it now. Since it was an anthology series, I would not be putting any Brief Story Line like in my usual posts but instead a brief explanation from IMBD as follows:

"Ordinary people encountering strange phenomenons that may be keys to the answer about the origin of our world and the imminent threat we will soon face"

I said above that the name Joko Anwar was what made me curious to give this a try as he had directed, written or produced some good quality movies in the past like Janji Joni, Impetigore, A Copy of My Mind and few others that won or nominated for various local and international Awards. I guess with such portfolio, it was no brainer for Netflix to cooperate with him in creating Original Indonesian programming. Anyway this series consisted of 7 episodes with two of them directed by himself while few others were written by him but directed by other people such as Tommy Dewo, Ray Pakpahan and Randolph Zaini.  

When I watched the first episode titled Old House, I could see Joko's distinct style of combining drama with horror that was pretty disturbing. The thing that quite impressed me was the special effects which I thought was not bad. I think Joko got more than sufficient budget to produce the series to his vision. The second episode (The Orphan) had a quite interesting story though it was not that impressive for me. Then I reached the third episode titled Poems and Pain which I thought was brilliant and after completing the whole season, it was the best to my personal opinion. I continued watching the subsequent episodes titled Encounter, The Other Side, Hypnotized and P.O.Box. Aside from the fifth episode that was mind bending as well as dramatic, I thought the rest were just so so.

What amazed me when watching the series was how natural the actors and actresses were in their roles. I talked about this with my wife (who has not watched it yet), and she commented that it was definitely because Joko Anwar only wanted to work with the good ones. And I think it's true since I saw some of his frequent collaborators such as Ario Bayu (Gundala etc), Asmara Abigail (Perempuan Tanah Jahanam etc), Ayu Laksmi (Pengabdi Setan etc), Fachri Albar (Dead Time: Kala etc) and many others. And because it was an anthology series with different story and setting, obviously there were plenty of stars who played in the series. Aside from those I just mentioned, there were also some experienced actors like Lukman Sardi (Kamu Tidak Sendiri etc), Nirina Zubir (Mendadak Kaya etc), Yoga Pratama (Berbalas Kejam etc), Sita Nuranti (A Man Called Ahok etc), Sal Priadi (24 Jam Bersama Gaspar etc) and so on, totalling to staggering 65 names.

This series for me felt like combination of several genre from mystery, thriller, drama to science fiction and action. At first I thought this was like Indonesian version of Twilight Zone, but I kept on wondering as each episode progressed whether there was going to be something that connected them. Then once I reached a certain episode, I realized, OK that was the connection. Although it showed the intelligence of interconnecting all the stories, I was rather disappointed of how it was done. The connection to me felt over simplistic (if not a bit forced) and not satisfying especially if you watched the climax of the final episode. I thought Joko might be influenced by Marvel Cinematic Universe (or his own version of BumiLangit Cinematic Universe that he executive produced). I think I would have liked it better if Joko became the host of the Anthology series, but that's just my personal opinion. Oh btw, he also appeared briefly in one of the episodes.

Overall this was still an amazing attempt of creating something unique in Indonesia. I like the story telling, the acting and the various different settings of each episode. The special effects were OK while the musical score were awesome. Got to be grateful for Netflix that helped Indonesian film makers to produce and make other genre apart from supernatural horror/teenager romantic drama. From the way the series ended, I think Joko was planning to have a second season which at the time I wrote this post, there was no clear indication yet. Let's see if it is well received by Netflix subscribers and could justify renewing the series. So if you are interested in watching an Indonesian anthology series with genre as above, then you could certainly give it a try. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars