To stave off possible boredom while at home, every week Marhaba delves in to the wonderful world of popular culture to find the best new TV series, movies, books and music.
Binge Watch This:
This week we recommend a discovery on Netflix that is gaining a cult following due to the 
current phase of super-binge-watching – Kingdom. The South Korean-series has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.3/10 on IMDb, so what is all the fuss about? Simply: dead king rises and family feuds prevail in a period drama zombie show. But that really doesn’t do this show justice. It has been likened to The Walking Dead with subtitles (don’t let that put you off), featuring the well-used trope of sibling rivalry, power struggles… and zombies. Set in Korea during the late 16th century, the story’s arc revolves around Crown Prince Lee Chang, who is involved in a political conspiracy while facing a mysterious undead plague that has taken the current king victim. Kingdom is a compelling mix of battle scenes, blood and horror, and a closer look at class structure, which come together magnificently to produce a show that is tense and atmospheric, and puts a fresh new spin on the zombie phenomenon. Follow the action as Prince Lee Chang fights for his crown and battles the plague at the same time. The first two series are available right now on Netflix, with 24 episodes to feast on (along with the hordes of undead).
Get the Popcorn for This:
The figures are out for this week’s movie and they’re huge: it is the highest grossing video-on-demand title ever, having beaten the opening weekend digital release of both Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Avengers: Endgame by quite some margin. Obviously we’re talking about DreamWorks Animation’s latest offering, Trolls World Tour! Universal Pictures went all in with its press coverage for this sequel to the 2016 film Trolls and it looks like it’s worked. The movie again features Poppy and Branch, voiced by Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, who discover that the world is much bigger than they thought and is made up of six different troll tribes with six music obsessions: Classical, Country, Funk, Pop, Hard Rock and Techno. But oh no! Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) and her father King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne) want to destroy all other kinds of music in favour of rock! Poppy and Branch, along with their friends, set out to bring the other troll tribes together in order to restore harmony, all voiced by stars such as James Corden, Gwen Stefani and Sam Rockwell. Trolls World Tour is available through platforms such as iTunes and Amazon Prime Video.
Settle in With a Cup of Tea and Read This:
Veronica Roth is the best-selling author of the Divergent series and she is now back with Chosen Ones, her first fiction novel for an adult audience. Fifteen years ago, five teenagers called the Chosen Ones defeat the Dark One, an all-powerful entity holding the world in terror. Ten years later, one of them dies, and as the rest of the group gather at the funeral they realise the evil they had thought was gone is still very much lurking in the shadows. Suffering from PTSD, dealing with public scrutiny and living with secrets, for at least one of the group, fighting back may take more than they can give.
Crank Up the Volume for This:
This week’s release is actually a re-release of Selena Gomez’s album Rare, which first came out
in January 2020. Out now is the Deluxe Edition, featuring four new tracks including the latest single Boyfriend, and a completely rejigged tracklist. Rare is the artist’s third studio album and considered to be her best yet. Gomez tweeted in January that the album is her ‘diary from the past few years’, dealing with such themes as self love, empowerment and acceptance, making it one of her most personal to date. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, her third consecutive number one album in the US, and has been number one around the world. It is primarily a collection of pop and dance tracks with nods to other genres. The first track to be released was Lose You to Love Me, the only ballad on the album and rumoured to be about former love Justin Bieber. Selena Gomez recently announced on Instagram that proceeds from the Deluxe Edition will go to the COVID-19 relief fund along with her personal donation.
