Mismatched S2 Review: No Time To Breathe In Between Subplots

The second season of Mismatched was released yesterday and the show seems to have too many subplots to offer. The novel-based series has Dimple and Rishi's love story at the forefront but the ensemble characters around them also have complicated stories themselves now which makes it difficult to catch up.

Youtuber Prajakta Koli and Vikram Vedha actor Rohit Saraf play the main roles in the series and their love story has shown to be going through a roller coaster. The frivolous actions, immature sentiments and dialogue do look like a story of a bunch of 18-year-olds but none of the cast actually look like one. The actors lack the innocence of being young adults and seem to be struggling between their ever-so-complicated individual lives and college life.

Mismatched S2 Review

The first season of Mismatched already had almost 10 characters whose individual lives were shown in bits and pieces throughout the show in between the ongoing love story of the protagonists. Dimple's mother was obsessed with her marriage and she fought with her parents to be here in this college to learn to make apps. They talk about Dimple's roommate Celine's money problems and her bi-curious self was hinted at along with Namrata's character who was open about her homosexuality but only with her best friend Rishi. Rishi has a complicated family and is a hopeless romantic who wants an arranged-love marriage with Dimple. Other characters like Krish, Simran and Anmol have their dual sides and play the mean girl sort of trio. Zeenat, the oldest in the class has just learnt to be by herself and in a soon-to-be falling in love with their professor Siddharth. Harsh is an NRI guy who becomes Dimple's partner in class but ends up in a romantic bond with her by the end of the season. If all of this sounds too much, imagine the progression of complications in each of their lives in the second season.

There are fresh new faces ">introduced in the new season for taking the subplots forward. Dimple and Harsh grow closer and the audience who were rooting for Dimple and Rishi to end up together keep waiting till the end of the season for that moment. Life throws too many obstacles at them and just like frivolous teenagers, these characters change their minds and feeling almost every other day which might make the 25-year-old you very uncomfortable.

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What Does The Show Talk About?

The show talks about mental health, homophobia, the bane of social media and how the characters deal with them. Anmol who was one of the most violent and aggressive characters goes to therapy, Namrata and Celine find themselves in a love triangle and Namrata finds herself in a lot of trouble when her sexuality gets exposed. The relationship between Krish and Simran strains when uncomfortable truths surface. The issues addressed were quite relatable and the character arcs were good but the timeline was too short for such huge transformations.

Rishi's speech on love changes every episode till he somewhat summarises how love means different things to different people. It made sense as he referred to the relationship shared by his own parents and his mother's new life update. Namrata takes a big step in life which is polarly opposite to the character she portrayed so far. It gives a lot of women encouragement to stand up for themselves and parents to love their children irrespective of their gender identities or sexual orientations.

This season just like the previous one seems to try to provide the audience with a lot of stories but at the end of the day, it misses out on making time for feeling any of it. There is no time to breathe in between as the series rushes through too many subplots.