Oh boy, time to start a new series! I finished Mentalhood, which was just perfect (frothy silly bright colored light weight fun with just the right amount of drama). I am still watching Little Things, which has taken an enormous leap forward in quality in season 2. But what should be my replacement one-episode-review-a-day show for Mentalhood????
Option 1:
Romil and Jugal, a Romeo and Juliet college romance story between two guys.
Pros: Swoony romance and kisses and balcony scenes between two guys, also only 10 episodes
Cons: It’s on ALTBalaji, so you all have to pay for a new service beyond Prime and Netflix
Option 2:
Heer, a feminist Pakistani TV series about a village girl who is too outspoken for her village
Pros: a feminist romance with an outspoken village girl, and I checked the last episode and it is happy ending. And it’s on Prime
Cons: 22 episodes!!!!!
Option 3:
Yeh Meri Family, a family sitcom set in 1998 from the point of view of a 12 year old
Pros: Only 7 episodes, on Netflix, nice and light nostalgic tone
Cons: Sitcoms are hard to review, not much to talk about.
Option 4:
Something you suggest! But light, because I refuse to watch/review something dark right now.
dontcallitbollywood 
Romil and Jugal because I’m curious how it is.
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Only if you promise to comment on the reviews!
On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 2:57 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I can’t promise because I don’t have AltBalaji
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You should have ALTBalaji! there are gay love stories!
But yeah, that’s my big “con” for that show, which otherwise would be my top choice.
On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 4:12 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Heer, because it would get me to watch something from Pakistan.
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Excellent reasoning! And Heer does look good.
If you just want to see a Pakistani show though, Humsafar and/or Zindagi Gulzar Hai are definitely the best ones. Both very very slow moving but super romantic and featuring the hero from Khoobsurat. Humsafar is an arranged marriage love story, slowly slowly fall in love, then misunderstandings and so on. And Zindagi Gulzar Hai is more or less Pride and Prejudice, including some post-marriage complications.
On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 4:13 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I saw three episodes of Humsafar, and it was SUCH A BUMMER I stopped watching.
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Oh dear, not gonna promise anything else will be better! Pakistani TV shows are almost all based on novels, not like romance novels but like big deep thought provoking novels (Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, that kind of stuff). So they tend to have these kind of dark and light balanced tones. Nothing is totally completely happy until the very last episode, and even there it is a struggle.
On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 6:05 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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They tend to get off to a sloooow start, like eight episodes before the male and female protagonists even meet, and then things pick up, and usually about halfway through the drama gets cranked up to ten and totally hooks you through to the end.
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But again, 22 episodes! So it’s about 5-7 hours before you reach the “totally hooked” point.
Also, I completely agree with you. Took me about 4 tries to get into Humsafar, and then a mere 5 hours later I was addicted and staying up all night to finish.
On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 10:53 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes! I was watching Humsafar after one of the most boring family dinners ever (half of the people were sleeping on the couch, the other half playing boring cards) and still I realized we had much more fun there than people on the screen and that it would be better to stare at the wall than continuing watching the show.
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You wound me! Humsafar is the greatest! It’s like watching beautiful paint dry.
On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 4:00 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Completely agree with Margaret! Humsafar is amazing, but even having said that, I recognize how slow it is. So, if you ever decide to watch it again, my recommendation would be to watch it from Episode 4-11, and then again from the end of Episode 14 (just watch the last 5 minutes) to Episode 23.
Yes, I realize how ridiculous this sounds, especially given that I started with the premise that thought this show was amazing. 🙂
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I like this suggestion! And once you are fully embedded in the Humsafar world, you can go back and catch up on the other slow episodes.
On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 10:10 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Having watched Yeh Meri Family, I feel it is not worth it. It manipulates you into liking it using nostalgia if you grew up in India in the time period it is set in.
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Thank you! Very helpful. Especially since about 50% of my readers didn’t grow up in India.
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What about Taj Mahal 1989? Didn’t a few people comment that they liked that one?
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Too serious! I think it’s mostly a college relationship drama thing, but it revolves around campus politics, blech!
On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 10:56 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ah, got it.
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I would recommend Heer since more people have access to it. I have been wanting to watch it for a while. Although, I want to watch Romil and Jugal too. So maybe Heer first, and then Romil and Jugal. I also think with Heer, you may be able to combine multiple episodes into a review like you did with Humsafar. While I love Pakistani serials, as many have mentioned, they are too slow, so it takes a few episodes to get into it and understand what is happening.
I was going to start Little Things next because of your recent reviews. I am actually pretty excited about it now.
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Little Things is SO GOOD! The first season is really light until the final episode, so just binge that whole thing to get to the finale (it’s only an hour and 15 minutes). But every episode of season 2 is really deep and thought provoking and interesting.
Huh, might end up being Heer! I wish I had a break down available to me telling me which episodes to watch in a cluster, but then I am the person who would write that break down! so I guess I have to start from scratch.
On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 10:14 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My guess from just havign read the 1 sentence plot summaries in Prime, 1-7, 8-13/14, and then till the end. But again, just a guess. Also, the episodes are approximately 36 minutes long, which is nice. I was expecting them to be a lot longer.
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Hmm. I could do 2 36 minute episodes around work I think.
On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 10:40 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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