???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

(all times CLT)

League of Legends fans are all over Arcane — a Netflix animated series based on the game. Even if you’re not a gamer, you’ve probably heard of League of Legends, the wildly popular multiplayer battle game whose tournaments attract some of the biggest viewerships in e-sports (more than 100 mn tuned in to its 2019 iteration). In Arcane, LoL’s narrative arcs are fleshed out as both playable and non-playable characters are given intricate backstories. The story follows two young, orphaned sisters, pink-haired Vi and blue-haired Powder, who grow up to fight on rival sides in a world divided by magic and technology. The visuals (which combine 2D and 3D animation) thread a fantasy-meets-steampunk vibe through the story.

You don’t have to be a LoL fan to enjoy Arcane: The show doesn’t expect you to know who the characters are, instead introducing their origin stories as the plot unravels. Overall, it’s a great show that’s proving popular, finally dethroning Squid Game from its number one spot in the Netflix rankings last week. Check out this review by The Verge — don’t worry, we checked for spoilers.

FYI- Netflix has changed the way it ranks viewership by looking at total hours viewed, leaving behind its much-criticized model of measuring viewership by the number of viewers who watched two minutes of a program, according to a statement. This comes as the streamer has launched a standalone website that features a global top 10 of both TV shows and films — and incorporates the new measurement technique.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

(all times CLT)

Zawya Cinema’s Panorama of the European Film kicks off today and runs through next Friday, 26 November. We have a rundown of our top picks to watch at the film festival in the Cinema section, below.

To celebrate World Philosophy Day 2021 tomorrow, bring your ‘falsafet el masreyeen’ and head to Consoleya: Beyt El 7ayah, Falsafa Bel Balady, and Consoleya have teamed up to create a philosophy-focused event that explores Egyptian history in philosophy and how it compares to the modern day through a series of lectures, discussions, and talks. The theme is “What brought us here?” and the event will take place from 6pm to 11:30pm at Downtown’s Consoleya co-working space.

The Saint Petersburg Ballet Company is performing Swan Lake in Cairo and Alexandria: The first performance will take place today at 8pm at The Cairo Opera House. The ballet company will also spend tomorrow and Friday in the capital before heading to Alexandria for a final performance on Saturday.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Law professors Anthea Roberts and Nicolas Lamp set out to explore varying perspectives on globalization in their book Six Faces of Globalization. The writers delve into each face of globalization — the establishment, left-wing populist, right-wing populist, corporate power, geoeconomic, and global threats — and their impact on trade, politics, and the global economy,climate change and the pandemic. Each narrative has its own set of victors and losers and is riddled with fundamental value conflicts, such as growth versus sustainability, or efficiency versus social stability. Critics say the conclusion Roberts and Lamp reach is too broad and abstract to be useful. In this book, “there is not one truth, but rather many partial truths,” according to Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf. Nonetheless, the book has made it on the FT’s roundup of Best books of 2021: Economics.