‘Mismatched’ Season 2 Review: Still Has A Lot Of Bugs In Its Code, The Biggest Being Rishi And Dimple’s Relationship
What does it say about a romance when you just can’t get yourself to ship the lead pair? Is this some meta hint that the makers of Mismatched are sending? Pata nahi, bro, but Mismatched Season 2 is really aiming for the jugular by pitching Rishi and Dimple, played by Rohit Saraf and Prajakta Koli, as some kind of meant-to-be lovers, always destined to be together. The problem is that it’s a hard sell, which I am not buying, and it’s stunting not just the growth of their characters, but also that of others around them by association. The Netflix series still manages to make you smile in its best moments, and give your romance-loving hearts aflutter or two. It has a fairly decent music album that I found myself enjoying in the show’s context. And the chemistry between a few unexpected characters did make me wish more time was devoted to their stories. But you soon get tired of Mismatched’s rosy-eyed view of looking at things, trying to force fit redemption arcs and redundant arcs for its main characters instead of just letting these young kids make irresponsible, questionable choices.
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Mismatched Season 2 picks up right after the Season 1 cliffhanger. To give you quick context, Dimple (No Damsel) wins the League Of Legends championship bet against Anmol. She then finds out someone has stolen her app, AntiSosh, and sold it to a tech company that’s launching their version soon. Meanwhile, Rishi’s friendship with BFF Namrata is on the rocks after Celina outs her in front of the entire college. Namrata blames Rishi for breaking her trust by telling Dimple, who told Celina in the first place. So now, Rishi and Dimple are fighting, and he leaves the hostel to return home. Dimple, in a moment of vulnerability, kisses Harsh, the NRI dude that everyone mockingly calls Naughty America, but is now a nice guy and a shoulder to cry on.
In Season 2, we deal with the fallout from this one night that royally effed things up for everyone. While Rishi and Namrata do return to the course, the friction between the entire batch is rather pronounced. Especially because of Dimple’s efforts to uncover which of her classmates leaked her app. Both Dimple and Rishi get new potential romantic interests—Harsh and a new entry—but you know this rubber band of a relationship springs back even if it hurts like a bitch when it snaps back, right? The season also deals with Namrata owning her sexuality with a little help from an openly queer new character that has entered the chat. This influences Celina’s story too, as we do get multiple hints that she is bisexual in the first season. But her arc is mainly focused on coming to terms with another aspect of her life, her job as a food delivery girl, which then unlocks other truths she is avoiding.
The Mean Girls trio of this course are on their own journey of self-introspection as their façades are close to crumbling. Anmol gets sent to therapy for anger issues. Simran and Krish must confront their insecurities and body / personal image issues as their relationship starts showing cracks. And finally, there’s Zeenat who is a sideline observer of all this drama, still trying to get with the Gen Z programme, and crushing on her teacher, Sid, whose interesting ex-girlfriend we shall meet this season.
I feel like I am forgetting something. Oh wait, there’s also some stuff on Rishi’s family front, which serves as a catalyst for those typical life-changing realisations and decisions that will influence Rishi and Dimple’s decisions.
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Mismatched is clearly trying to do a lot, with a lot of characters. And that should be okay. Only, it remains a tad superficial and one-dimensional in its exploration of these characters. And some truly interesting ones it cannot do justice to. For example, Zeenat is someone who deserves a stronger arc, because she is such an outlier. Even the dynamic she has with her professor, as an older woman but still his student and falling for him, is an interesting bit to explore. I like the chemistry between Vidya Malavade and Ranvijay Singh, and I want to see more of that.
Similarly Harsh is a character that has intrigued me ever since he first played Dimple’s ridiculous song request at the party at Zeenat’s in Season 1. The way he goes from being this NRI dude obsessed with WiFi to stream porn, to this absolutely caring and understanding rebound for Dimple is an arc that feels rushed. We see him fall in love with Dimple like a typical Bollywood romance unfolds, and while it felt cute when Rishi did it because he is shown to be a filmy dude, with Harsh, it feels synthetic. Mostly, I am unable to understand why Dimple is someone whom both Rishi and Harsh would make career-altering decisions to be with. She has the personality of cardboard, with nothing other than her obsession with making apps and a girl boss taking up all the space.
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Both these couples get some cute romantic moments. In fact, here’s my confession. Even though it was difficult to get past the unbelievability of Harsh falling for Dimple, I warmed up and started shipping them. But then, Rishi and Dimple had to get back somehow, and Harsh had to be shipped away for that to happen. I was annoyed because I genuinely don’t think the lead pair of this show is a match. They have nothing in common and that there is what I believe to be the meta-joke that the show is cracking. There’s more chemistry between Anmol and a girl he just met, than between Rishi and Dimple. If that’s not enough, the show’s questionable decision to add destiny to the mix really pissed me off.
Mismatched Season 2 should’ve ended on its ‘Channa Mereya’ moment where couples break up and couples get together. But It extends itself for one last episode, because cliffhanger. But to get to this cliffhanger, you have people erasing all of the personal development they’ve made so far to fall back into old patterns. Why? I get these are not bugs that can be easily fixed but give these characters the freedom to be a little more prone to follow and make newer mistakes, no? Why must every story be a straight path to redemption? Kitna boring video game hoga yeh!
The only interesting arcs this season belonged to the cousins Anmol and Simran. Anmol’s journey towards resolving his anger with his past self is so well-drawn out, and Taaruk Raina does justice to it. I liked where Simran’s character, with her body image issues, was headed, but I still feel her relationship troubles and how all her issues amplify her as a bully could’ve been handled better.
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Verdict
Mismatched Season 2, if it irons out its kinks and really commits to understanding its characters, has a lot of potential. This season does exhibit the range it can have because its characters are interesting, to begin with, even if the show has commitment issues about exploring them beyond the surface. Maybe it is time to shelve some of them (now that the course is over) and focus on the few main ones. A lot goes on this season and you do feel the weight of the binge, especially during its last lap.
I am a sucker for romances that allow their characters to make mistakes, date other people, and make questionable life choices before coming back to The One. I am a romantic and super filmy too, much like Rishi. But yaar, there has to be a solid reason for The One to be The One. Rishi and Dimple don’t feel like it.
These characters are young, and for them to be this invested in people they’ve only just met during a college course that spans three-four months feels very synthetic. Basically, the show while cute and nice to look at, is way too comfortable exploring things on the surface without getting down to the deep stuff that could actually make these relationships feel real. Maybe recheck the code and fix these bugs for the next season? I’ll always be an enthusiastic beta tester for this genre.
Mismatched Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.
