For a debut, Netflix India's Sacred Games checks majority of the boxes to be an influential and binge-watch-worthy show, and the writing is fresh and enigmatic thanks to the original source of content, but it still does not blow my mind at the end of the eighth episode of the richly-produced, insanely acted, and well-executed season one. Saif Ali Khan, at his recent best after Akshat Verma's 2018 debacle Kaalakaandi, plays an under-performing yet macho cop currently separated from his partner, who is tipped off by a former notorious gangster (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) about an impending horror that the city of Mumbai will experience in 25 days. Sacred Games's first season takes him to the depths of Mumbai underworld as you are taken back and forth to the origins of this messy world from the perspectives of these two characters. At first look, Varun Grover's product looks like something we have all been waiting for. The raunchy, unadulterated hardcore sequences, capturing the essence of Mumbai lifestyle, involving men and women portraying wicked characters is visible at every episode, and the suspense-pinched dark undertone puts you in a different space as you gasp for more. With unnecessary use of expletives yet essential addition of raw coitus by the bold characters, Sacred Games starts to look like a slap on the face of a certain board that has been inhibiting artists from being creative for close to 70 years. Yet at the end, the freedom to showcase anything, given by the Netflix overlord, does not materialize into anything solid YET as I gaped at Khan gaping at me at the end of season one. I was disappointed to not see any major action here, but I will give Sacred Games the benefit of doubt that I will be the first person to fire up Netflix on my tablet when the second season arrives... Till then, go and live your fantasy but be prepared to be disappointed. TN.