Here's a series that starts with a promise of being a comedy classic. The first two or three episodes of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh are so amusing that they make you giddy with joy, with excitement. It's hard, nowadays, to come across a good comedy. The jokes are mainly juvenile, and you feel embarrassed for the actors on the screen. The situation is so worse that I find myself willing to settle for a few chuckles - just give me 2–3 jokes that will have me rolling in the aisles. How about one? They say comedy is more challenging than drama, and they are right. A film with desperate music and desperate acting might end up making you cry, but the same trick, when applied to comedy, leaves you bored out of your mind. What all this actually means is that I was pleasantly surprised by the consistent explosion of humor in this series. The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh tickles your funny bone effortlessly - you open your arms to something both delightful and funny.
The sharp, witty lines grab your attention almost immediately. The show plays with words and uses them as a source for generating most of the comedy because of the framing device: The Pradeeps are interrogated by the police. They sometimes exaggerate certain incidents because Indians love adding masala to their stories. Hence, we see an accident giving rise to a fiery explosion. Sudha (Sindhu Vee) mentions that her neighbor, Janice (Megan Hilty), tells her to return to her country - with her eyes. Sudha gets some of the best scenes in the series. She calls her younger son an "optimistic doofus" and tells her husband, Mahesh (Naveen William Sidney Andrews), to ask their kids to pick up the luggage (that's why they had them in the first place). Sindhu Vee is a force to be reckoned with. She takes hold of her scenes with authority as if they were her natural right. The other characters in front of Sudha look like minions. She has an imposing presence that's imbued with comic touches. Mahesh is a softie because Sudha cuts down authoritative voices with her self-assurance. It seems as if he cannot be a strict dad because she doesn't want anyone to undermine her position or her influence.
Still, Sudha and Mahesh manage to exist on the same wavelength. He simply needs to utter her name, and she will figure out what he wants to convey to her. Ashwin Sakthivel, as Vinod, is thankfully portrayed with innocence and not like one of those precocious child characters. He gets a twinkle in his eyes when he sees the garbage man for the first time - it's love at first sight. Vinod is an adorable extrovert who doesn't think twice before saying anything. He tells a police officer that something in his wallet - obviously money - could help jog his memory. Bhanu (Sahana Srinivasan) and Kamal (Arjun Sriram), with their horny teen hormones, bring a sexual spark into the story. Stu (Nicholas Hamilton), the boy next door, "grinds" Bhanu while an English teacher excites Kamal's erotic fantasies. The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh doesn't elevate these sensual sensations to great comedic heights. There is an amusing dick-rub practice scene, and Kamal wishes he could take the place of the cross on his English teacher's neck to dance around her bosoms, but the sexual humor, overall, looks tame as if the show is holding itself back from being something truly smutty. What a pity.
Kamal's crush on his English teacher gives rise to unremarkable moments like him getting caught masturbating and zooming in on her breasts while seeing one of her pictures. It's all pretty standard. Bhanu's sex quest gradually loses its erotic flavor. It's turned into a love-finding quest. The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh could have used more indecency. We need good sex comedies. The show contains the cliché Indian music often found in American shows dealing with Indian characters/settings. The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh sometimes displays a tendency to be a guidebook for American audiences, which is why you get those touristy descriptions of Raksha Bandhan and Pani Puri (who the hell wears a rakhi for more than a few days or weeks? Vinod does, and this is enough to tell you that the Pradeeps are crazy). The show is undoubtedly made with American audiences in mind, which is why Sudha remembers an accident as something out of a Michael Bay movie, not, say, a Rohit Shetty film. Not all the elements of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh are executed satisfyingly. Nothing significant comes out of those drug deals. There is so much suspense built around an incident, but we don't find it engaging. The comedy deflates this thriller-like quality. The framing device - the interrogation scenes - becomes an irritating inconvenience after a while. They kill the mood as well as the momentum of this series.
This first season of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh ultimately feels like a setup for something big. I hope the payoff, the next season, turns out to be consistently uproarious, wild, and energetic.
Final Score- [6/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 8 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: Oct 17, 2024, on Prime Video