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Mismatch Season 3 Review: Tech has always been at the center of this coming-of-age show. It only makes poetic sense that version 3.0 is of the digital age. Artificial Intelligence, the Metaverse (here referred to as the ‘Betterverse’), and leading tech institutions take over in the third instalment, with the action moving from baby steps in Jaipur to giant leaps in Hyderabad. Dimple (Prajakta Koli) and Rishi (Rohit Saraf) are now in a long distance relationship – which adds even more mismatch to their elusive stable equation.
(Also Read – Bandish Bandits Season 2 Review: New characters add interesting twists to this slow chapter)
Better verse for good or for bad?
Rishi and some other major characters relocate to Nandini Nahta’s (Dipanita Sharma) institute, where they are innovating to design Betterverse, an alternate virtual reality. Given the distance from Ambala to Hyderabad, Dimple’s conversations and meetings with Rishi have also become virtual. They meet in a heavenly haven and a dream house, but have little desire to see and feel each other. Rishi suggests Dimple to follow in his footsteps geographically, but she is very disappointed by Nandini’s rejection in the previous season.
This dissonance or mismatch between the real and the virtual, reality and expectation, is a thematic motif of this season. A long distance couple having sex for the first time is skeptical of the process – why doesn’t it feel as satisfying as their virtual quickie? A character brings his deceased father back to life through an AI chatbot to mourn his loss. Anmol (Taruk Raina) is struggling to regain feeling in his legs, even though he can see himself scoring soccer goals in the Betterverse.
The most gratifying subplot related to this centerpiece comes with a new character, Rhett (Lauren Robinson), a quirky hacker who wants access to the Betterverse only so she can see herself as a man, not a woman. As the world perceives them. Happen. The desperation feels alive and the desire doesn’t feel artificial, given that Ghazal Dhaliwal is the lead writer. Ghazal is a trans writer, known for queer stories like Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga and the Konkona Sen Sharma-starrer short film, A Monsoon Date.
old age without adulthood
In fact, the entire writers’ room of Mismatched – Ghazal, Arsh Vora, Sunayana Kumari, Nandini Gupta, and Akash Jhunjhunwala – is the show’s prized asset. In Season 2, they never hesitated to break the traditional, crystallized format of the old show or discuss uncomfortable topics. In Season 3, they kicked it up several notches, bringing in more relevant issues and well-rounded side characters within the series’ new structure and setting. They rely on some clichés – using a new character’s voiceover to reflect a larger emotion with every episode – but are restrained where it fits and try a new approach – mysterious episodes where We are the only ones who can’t figure out what went wrong with Dimple.
Gender dysphoria, the loss of loved ones, body positivity, childhood trauma – these aren’t topics you can only look at on the surface. The authors choose breadth over depth, yet inclusivity does not seem indicative. Sure, they may be checking the boxes, but those tracks aren’t forgotten or taken out of convenience. Every sub-plot or character arc leads somewhere. He also calls for a woke culture through Anmol – one that rejects the intellectual jargon peddled by college students for catchy slogans that can and will hit home. When he is canceled due to his history as a professional troll, his remorseful eyes plead for a new life. Like every season, Taruk Raina is performing brilliantly this time too.
All of these diverse and abundant themes and issues can be hard to digest or keep up with, but they make narrative sense because of how they affect the characters’ love lives – their personal insecurities and inadequacies combined with their willpower and desire to fix each other. Are getting better than their capacity. Other. Personal crises such as work-life balance, miscommunication and blame are exacerbated by these social conflicts, underscoring the fact that relationship issues are often more layered and diverse than is minimized. Add to these, the technological ecosystem – and young adult life becomes a headier cocktail than the diluted sherbet of mismatched ingenuity that was the inaugural season.
But what doesn’t work for Mismatched is that its actors and treatment don’t really capture the rich and heavy material they’re tasked with conveying. Rohit, Prajakta, Muskaan Jaffrey, Abhinav Sharma and Ahsaas Channa show potential and barely seem out of place, but they lack the skill and nuance to be able to give importance to their struggles. Even when they do, especially in the case of the two leads, their strengths are rarely consolidated by a strong directorial voice. Akarsh Khurana served as director in the first two seasons, but this season is missing a unique direction. This feeling of displacement is further intensified by the sudden change in setting.
The romantic track featuring Rannvijay Singh’s Siddharth and Vidya Malvade’s Zeenat gets a new lease of life. The distance from being constantly surrounded by students allows them to access their own issues – what they want from relationships and life in general. Their love story is a mature love story, not only because of the stage of life their characters are at, but also because of the years of life experiences that have impacted these actors. Same is the case with Kshiti Jog, who after her brilliant role as Ranveer Singh’s mother in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, once again plays a part-comic, part-maternal role as Dimple’s mother.
Without supporting tracks and actors, Mismatched feels like it’s growing old without growing up in the first place. As if its characters have grown old without becoming adults in the first place. For example, the show still hesitates in showing sex acts in all their casualness. But maybe that’s what it feels like to be in your mid-20s – to be hit by a truck, feeling displacement and existential crisis at every corner. In the end Dimple says – “Love is when what you want is what you want.” This mismatch is exactly what the show needs to get rid of – what it wants is to mature, but it needs a management that facilitates a more solid and reliable, if not an easy, smooth transition.
Mismatched Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix India.
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