Goya - The Final Episode

It's strange how things work sometimes - how is it possible that a show with incredible writing, direction and a great cast somehow withered down to a completely dismal show with loose ends all over the place?

Goya is a show that I fell in love with from the moment it started.  My love affair with the show continued for the majority of its run......and then Mohini got sick.  Omer got a 2nd wife.  Mohini got an attitude.  Omer got a case of annoying.  And the show lost the plot completely.

Coming straight to the last episode, I can't even bother to review it.  Why?  Well, really, it was essentially about Mohini's final goodbyes.  She shared emotional scene after emotional scene with almost every character on the show, including an emotional conversation with Zara and Nomi.  That was the final episode.  Everything about this episode left me as an audience member screaming just one thing:  WHY?

It did not make sense.  A show that had a world of promise and, for the most part, delivered on that promise did NOT need to resort to this storyline at all.  It made me wonder whether the show was only half-shot and after looking at the ratings, the director decided to throw the entire script out the window and add the formula for a dusri biwi and a dying love just to garner ratings - which clearly worked against the show anyway!

The show had so much to offer and I was left completely dismayed at how many loose ends the viewers were left with:

• Why was Senior Hashmi completely missing from the scene?  Did he resolve his issues with Omer?  Did he resolve his issues with his wife and accept his upcoming child?  Did his daughter decide to stay and find acceptance from him in his life?  WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!?
• Coming to Zebunissa and whether Senior Hashmi accepted her, we didn't get any sort of fullfilment here at all.  Not only was Senior Hashmi not shown, the most we got from that household was a sweet scene between Zara & Zebunissa with Zebunissa finally confiding in Zara and telling her what had unfolded while packing.  That's all.
• What happened with the mystery of Adnan?  Or was that never supposed to be a mystery?  Then what was the point of that entire story arc exactly?  He was just supposed to be a friend who helped Omer temporarily and then overdosed and died?  That didn't make any sense whatsoever and it's ludicrous that a talented actor like Gohar Rasheed would be wasted in a role that essentially had no meaning at all.  It's made all the worse when the viewer expected that details about his death would come to light to clear the misunderstanding between Senior & Junior Hashmi.  Ridiculous!
• Adnan & Zara were in a relationship?  This was one detail that was revealed in an earlier episode that actually struck me as a random add-in.  If that had been the case, why was Adnan so infatuated with Aasma?  Or did the writers think we forgot that little detail?  Again, it seems like the show wasn't completely shot when it went on air and the show was being completed by an ENTIRELY different writer!
• Do Zara and Omer eventually live happily as husband and wife?  Omer technically ignored Zara and didn't care about her.  In the end, even she accepted her "zarbardasti" into his and Mohini's lives.......but with Mohini out of the picture, now what?  

These questions and more left a bitter taste in my mouth.  I have rarely seen a show that refuses to acknowledge all the story arcs it has left unfinished and proceeds to end with a dying lead character closing her eyes and BAM!  The end.  What on earth?  I have yet to understand WHY Mohini had to get cancer.  I don't understand WHY she had to die.  I don't understand the point of it.  If it had added to the story by somehow bringing Junior & Senior Hashmi together, I would've understood slightly - but no!  Mohini's character did not ask Omer to forgive, she did not reunite him with loved ones.....she didn't really do anything in the end other than thank him for making her life happy.  HMMMMM.

Needless to say, I am unable to rate this drama the way I would've liked.  For 2/3 of the show, Goya was a beautiful, well-written, intriguing story with complex characters and relationships.  The relationship with Senior Hashmi and Omer, the beautiful love story between Omer and Mohini, the hilarious relationship with all of Omer's friends, their girlfriends, you name it.....these were realistic characters with shades of grey.  Not one character was written as a black or white character.  Each had depth.  This is what made it hard for me to fathom how this show went so wrong.

Kudos to all the actors involved.  Regardless of how haywire the show went in the end, they all gave incredible performances, especially Osmaan Khalid Butt, Sana Javed, Usmaan Peerzada, Farah Shah, Gohar Rasheed and Hira Tareen.  

Rating-wise, I would give this show a rating of 9/10 for the first 2/3 of its episode bank.  For the last 1/3, I'd give it a rating of 5/10.  I would be inclined to give it lower than 5/10, but the brilliant performances brought it up to a 5.  

On an average, I'd say the show deserves a final rating of 7/10.  It is disappointing that a brilliant show faltered so badly, but I would still include it on the list of great shows for 2015, because it had an outstanding start and middle.