'Decoupled' from the times?

Certain shows automatically go to my "To-Watch-List" the first time you see it's promotional. One of those shows was 'Decoupled', a new Netflix series written by Manu Joesph. The promotional content was very intriguing as it went from one-truth bomb to the next, bam-bam-bam and I was hooked. There is a distinct appeal to Madhavan's delivery, kind of reminds me of 'Anbe Sivam' don't know why. 

But before watching it, like any self-respecting consumer of content, I went and checked the reviews, and boy was it bad! The reviews slammed this series shut, mentioning the jokes don't land and have "politically incorrect" segments. This was quite disheartening, as I really wanted to watch the show!

 Guess I am not as self-respecting as I presume :(.  So, when I got the time to just chill after a couple of days of hard work I got onto watching the entire series. Then I learned my lesson, don't believe reviews completely. The entire show was just hilarious(In a good way)! The opening credits in every episode were beautifully done (Kudos to the person doing the graphics)! I would pause sometimes to that frame and admire the creativity. The show documents an unhappily married couple leading up to their 'decoupling' party.  Madhavan plays the character of Aarya who is all too observant of day-to-day hypocrisies and is ultra-blunt about it, which as you might have guessed would not be all too good for his relationships. Surveen plays Shruti who is a VC who very much to my intrigue doesn't have any major flaws. 

Punchlines are fairly sprayed across the series, which makes you stop and go "Uffff". Their performances were beautiful and the writing is very "To-your-face" kind, which I read in other reviews is Manu-Joseph-esque. 

I could see certain obvious flaws in the portrayal of certain characters, being particularly touchy for certain people. But I am with the content creators on certain issues. The script on therapists and NDTV-types was a good satirical take on the holier-than-thou status that these roles take in the high culture of society. I am comfortable with this take since I have been following Manu Joseph on Twitter for some time and he is a liberal and not the nationalistic-conservative type, so I know the creators were not pushing propaganda. The portrayal of the driver in the art gallery was an interesting one, which showed the liberal hypocrisy to its core. Most reviews saw it as a poor guy being humiliated in front of rich people, and not getting high culture. But I see it differently, the fact that he stood his ground and slapped the pro-poor economist showed considerable signified the confidence "Bharat" has in front of "India".

One issue that I feel for is the episode where Aarya wants to show off his ex-gf to his wife but realizes that she has a huge butt, which is unappealing, and thus wants to hide it from Shruti. These scenes have been widely talked about in reviews where they point this out as promoting body-shaming. Kim K would be very disappointed lol.

Overall, it was a good watch. Please don't watch it if you can't stomach some of the politically incorrect messaging that the show has. Watch it for the satirical humor, writing, and good performances by both Madhavan and Surveen.