The short episode of perhaps a longer series begins with a peak, provocative moment. A woman finds out that she is pregnant, and it is not
a desirable circumstance for her to be in. Her prayer, which was more like a bait, a transaction she
offered to god, is rejected. With an opening like that, the viewer is already pulled in. We want to know
what happens next.
But what soon unfolds is something that the usual viewer is not used to - none of the routine, boring, or sad responses take place here. It is an urgent, peak, moment and the narrative cannot waste its precious screen time on something pointless and drag. So, neither does the woman break into a meltdown into the washroom cursing all her life’s decisions which brought her to this point. Nor does she get dramatic with a monologue of her looking into the mirror, bellowing, her eyeliner washed down. It doesn’t happen in this story because this is not how women in the position that the character represents, react. There is no air of shame in the narrative.
It would really be tempting for a show that begins with such a thumping to go down the lane of melodramatic elements to want to keep up with the high pace it sets for itself, but it’s refreshing that the show transcends that trap.
So, the woman does what anyone in her position would do, she calls up her girlfriends for advice. The perspectives that emerge from that video conference are all reasonable and sensible, and rational - as opposed to the over-the-top, excitable, or sloganeering dialogues that are given to women characters on screen today. The women in this show talk the way ‘normal people’ talk with no one trying to outsmart the other, but each one responding to the situation as is. This restraint in the narrative is more interesting than what the characters say.
In a scene, the woman who is pregnant, in the middle of all the chiding by her friends, breaks into reminiscing the sexual memory of the act – all believable and funny! There are several such moments in the episode.
Read LessBut what soon unfolds is something that the usual viewer is not used to - none of the routine, boring, or sad responses take place here. It is an urgent, peak, moment and the narrative cannot waste its precious screen time on something pointless and drag. So, neither does the woman break into a meltdown into the washroom cursing all her life’s decisions which brought her to this point. Nor does she get dramatic with a monologue of her looking into the mirror, bellowing, her eyeliner washed down. It doesn’t happen in this story because this is not how women in the position that the character represents, react. There is no air of shame in the narrative.
It would really be tempting for a show that begins with such a thumping to go down the lane of melodramatic elements to want to keep up with the high pace it sets for itself, but it’s refreshing that the show transcends that trap.
So, the woman does what anyone in her position would do, she calls up her girlfriends for advice. The perspectives that emerge from that video conference are all reasonable and sensible, and rational - as opposed to the over-the-top, excitable, or sloganeering dialogues that are given to women characters on screen today. The women in this show talk the way ‘normal people’ talk with no one trying to outsmart the other, but each one responding to the situation as is. This restraint in the narrative is more interesting than what the characters say.
In a scene, the woman who is pregnant, in the middle of all the chiding by her friends, breaks into reminiscing the sexual memory of the act – all believable and funny! There are several such moments in the episode.
