Shows End, Shows Begin: Dusri Biwi, Zidd, Dil Nahi Manta, Aik Pal, Shert, Maryam, Jugnu and Karb.....

I'm having a hard time keeping up with writing these days, so I've just accepted defeat and will relegate myself to the fact that I can probably only write one blog post a week.  Haha.  So due to that, here comes one large conjoined blog post!

Several shows ended over the past week.  While I felt "Goya" deserved its own post, these other shows did not.  Therefore, I'm just going to chit-chat about these shows in general and what went wrong - because believe me, they ALL went wrong.

Let's start with the most hyped up dud, Dusri Biwi.

What a show.  What. A. Show.  Oh and by the way, if you didn't pick up on my written sarcasm, I don't blame you - but please realize that it is sarcasm.

This show started off on such an interesting note.  A man who unintentionally puts himself into an unwanted situation - two wives.  But wait.....his actions were not so unintentional.  Why was he so involved in Farah's life from the get-go?  Why did he start lying to his wife so early on?  Why was he talking to Farah so late into the night.  What?  The entire premise of the show washed away right there.  Then the show went for a wash-out.

If this show actually showed anything, it proved that having two wives is not an ideal situation.  It's hard work, it's emotionally frustrating for both wives and the children get caught in the middle.  It's also a financial burden.  Good - the show worked there.  Unfortunately, I'm not really sure that's what they wanted us to be left with thinking about.

The show was wrapped up so ridiculously.  "HEY!  Let's just....be happy!"  The end!  What on earth?  Why did Aashi suddenly acknowledge that she was in the wrong?  Why was she wrong?  She wasn't.  Why couldn't we have seen a more realistic ending, as we saw in Shukk, with Aashi getting her self-respect and leaving as a sane woman on her own terms?  What was this ending that we were spoon fed?  Hassan lives happily with his two wives and two kids, yay!  No.

That's all.  This was a terrible show.

Next, we come to another great show gone horribly demented.  Yup, you guessed it:  Zid.

A Momina Duraid production.  A good cast.  A very promising storyline.  A very strong 5-6 initial episodes.  And suddenly......what happened?  Everything went wrong.

The entire Zee character was incredibly annoying.  The loss of Rukhi and Uncle's characters was haunting and left a void in the show, because hey, let's face it - they were really the only good part of the show.  Ahsan Khan was given the short end of the stick - when he was actually given scenes (which wasn't too often), he was simply required to play the "nice and patient husband."  He wasn't given much to work with.  Instead, we were forced to endure scene after scene filled with Zee and Saman's irritating banter and "Friendship" (dost ho to aisay).

Not only was Saman the most irritating lead character to come on screen in recent years (something hard to achieve), she didn't make any sense.  The show is called "Zid."  Saman says she lost everything to her "zid" in the end - kis baat ki zid?  Zid for WHAT?  Who knows - the audience never found out.  Omer never found out.  Hell, even Saman probably didn't know in the end.  ABSOLUTE NONSENSE.

Don't even get me started on the writer's (Be Gull, did you really write this??) concept of divorce.  Signing papers does NOT make you divorced.  Why on earth did this show end the way it did?  It wasn't even logical.  Saman could've easily opened her MOUTH and said "Hey, I don't want this" and it would've been a "problem solved" sort of situation.  Instead, we see her shocked and miserable over her life.

Anyways, moral of the story:  Zid was a terrible show.  I'm erasing it from memory right.....NOW.

Here's another prize:  Dil Nahi Manta

What I have learned from the two-wives storyline in dramas recently is this:  The only way to wrap-up a drama with two wives is to either have them randomly accept happiness in living all together OR......kill one of them off.

Dil Nahi Manta chose to go with the latter choice.  But who should we kill off?  Maybe the wife that Huzaifa doesn't love, Suhaina?  No.  That would be too logical.  Let's kill off the love of his life, Shanzay.  Shanzay spent the last days of her life totally neglected by her good-for-nothing, head-up-his-own-butt husband and died only right after giving birth to his child.  #winningattruelove.

So what could possibly happen?  Suhaina steps in and cares for Huzaifa & Shanzay's child and gradually wins a place back in Huzaifa's heart.  Awwww.  No, not really.

What I was actually hoping to see from this show, something which would've actually made this show different, was to see Suhaina find happiness elsewhere.  We saw Suhaina at her worst. We then saw Suhaina repent for her actions and realize that her behavior with Huzaifa and Shanzay was wrong.  So WHY couldn't we have seen a strong woman realize that Huzaifa was poison for her personality?  Why couldn't we see her say "Hey, I don't NEED this marriage?"  Why couldn't we see her ask Huzaifa for a divorce?  Why couldn't we see Huzaifa WILLINGLY giving her that divorce?  Why couldn't we see Suhaina end up with her boss, caring for his child and seeing them happy together?  Why?  WHY?  WHYYYYY?!?!?!?!

Why do Pakistani shows have to run this treaded path of nonsense?  Pakistan is a country where women are (very) slowly shedding these cultural norms that hold them back - like staying in a marriage where you've done wrong and are not respected.  Why can't we show that in dramas?

Nope.  This show was complete garbage.

And last but not least, ahhhhhh.....Aik Pal......

Get ready for another hit serial.  High words coming from such a terrible show.

I think I ranted on this show enough in my "Shows I'm currently watching" blog post, so I'll keep this short and sweet.

I don't like when situations are forced.  Mussab and Bareera were meant to be because Mussab "loved" her in college (after only seeing her and speaking to her a few times), so let's make her husband a total douche and let's kill off his incredible wife.  OKAY!

No.  I would've preferred this show if Bareera and Mussab had very little interaction in the initial episodes, Mussab did NOT like her in any way other than a classmate and they were both living their lives without thinking about each other.  It would've made for a more natural show if Bareera, after her marital problems, came to Noor Fatima (as she did) and learned under her (as she did) and THEN got to know her, after which Noor Fatima decided she would be good for Mussab (after she became religious).  This would've made the story much better, more believable and more digestable.

Not every show needs to be a fairytale - oh poor Mussab finally got his love, despite the fact that he had such a great wife.  I didn't like that.  The show would've been MORE realistic had they shown that Bareera and Mussab came together through circumstances and grew to like each other then.

Anyway, surprise surprise - I did not like this show either.  Hahaha.  I'm slowly coming to realize that any show with Sumbal Iqbal in it is generally not very good.  Roag was probably one of the few.

MOVING ON, let's discuss some new shows.

Let's begin with one show that has me on the fence currently - Shert.

My initial reaction:  Why is SHART misspelled?

My next reaction?  Why are Ayesha and Jibran's characters both so equally annoying?

Next?  How funny that Ayesha once played Nida Khan's mother and now they're playing peers.

After watching two episodes, I felt the show was trying too hard.  Jibran and Ayesha as a young couple without children......it became hard to digest, especially in the flashbacks showing them in college!  The casting is very odd, as Danish and Nida look young, while Jibran and Ayesha look more like "Bhaiyya-Bhabi" to them rather than classmates.

Throw the "shart" waali storyline into the mix and the show becomes even more awkward.  Ayesha and Nida's characters happily trying to one-up each other in the task of trying to seduce Danish (who is Nida's husband).  The ew factor is really high.

The saving grace for this show came in episode 3 where Danish's character actually comes to know of the bet.  Where the storyline will go from here, I don't know, but it's an interesting twist knowing the pawn is in on the game.  The show is not impressive as yet, but I think it's too early to judge.

Moving on to a show I had high expectations from....Maryam.

Welcome to the world of Ekta Kapoor.  A world where stepmothers play nice to their stepson's face and plot evilishly behind their back.  A place where stepsons are doting sons to said evil stepmother.  A world where stepbrothers have evil intentions and brood wearing gold chains and black silk robes (what the hell?) in dark rooms.  A world where girls fall for a guy and don't care one bit about the crazy family the guy lives with.  A world where fathers give their daughters into a family that accuse said daughter of stealing the first time they meet her.

UM.  

Yeah, that's all.  Faisal Qureshi, Mawra Hoccane and Uzma Gilani were definitely all smoking something when they signed this show.

I declare that I am no longer watching this show, because if I wanted to watch an Indian drama, I'd watch......an Indian drama.  So you will no longer see any posts about Maryam from me.

Let's talk about our next show:  Jugnu.

Yumna Zaidi is an actress that Hum TV loves to push on their viewers, despite her lacking lead-actress appeal.  Hence she is generally given side-roles.  This time, Yumna is in the lead.  Interesting.  I am not a fan personally, though she's given good performances in Ullu Baraaye and Mausam.  On the other end, we have Zahid Hamid who, despite being a newcomer, has signed very good roles so far (Mehram, Alvida) and despite being only two shows old simply screams "quality."  So from the get-go, I had mixed feelings about the show.

SURPRISE.  Yumna is refreshing, comical and very cute in her lead role as Jugnu.  The entire behind-the-scenes team deserves props for visually making this show "cutesy" from the get-go.  Jugnu's world is adorable, crazy and the viewer actually has no idea where the show is headed in the long-run.

What I do know is that so far, I'm a fan.  This one is worth watching, if only because it's so different from everything else on TV right now.

And last, but NOT least, Karb.

When Armeena Rana Khan debuted in Shab-E-Arzoo Ka Aalam, I thought she was a pretty face with less-than-average acting talent.  But as her career progresses, she's improving more and more as an actress and has become more than just a pretty face.  Now I actually look forward to shows with her in them.

Coming to the show itself, it's only been one episode, but I'm already really enjoying the show.  It has a very simple story (so far) and natural acting from the cast.  Armeena and Adnan are doing a good, cute job in their roles.

One complaint:  After seeing Adnan Siddiqui in mature roles, are we really back to seeing him as a "young" guy?  It seems like he's just graduated college and is job hunting after the death of his father.....strange casting and it almost makes it hard to take him seriously.  It's a small complaint though.

So far, the show gets a thumbs up from my end!

That's all for now!  Happy watching!