Netflix ‘The Exchange’ Season 2 Review - Watch It Strictly for Rawan Mahdi and Mona Hussain

"We have come far." - Farida
"We will go far." - Munira
The cousins have indeed come a long way since we first saw them almost two years back in the first season of The Exchange. Their workplace - the Kuwait Stock Exchange - has undergone some change. The men no longer stare at Farida (Rawan Mahdi) and Munira (Mona Hussain) like they are aliens from another planet, and a women's washroom has also been built inside the premises. What's more, Farida and Munira now work on the top floor - the executive floor - and when Season 2 opens, we find them in charge of a big client who also happens to be a woman. Girl power, yay! This new character is Sabiha (Asmahan Tawfiq), the CEO of Alpha, and she wants her company's valuation. At first, Sabiha - like an inspirational figure, a mentor - encourages Farida and Munira to be bold, unapologetic, and confident. It's, after all, a man's world, and women need to stick together. However, she doesn't take much time to remove the mask of feminism to reveal her opportunistic, business-minded face. The people you idolize don't necessarily turn out to be great when you meet them face-to-face.

Like the first season, The Exchange Season 2 derives most of its strength from the presence and the performances of the two lead actresses. Mahdi and Hussain continue to be the best thing about The Exchange. I almost thought they must be cousins in real life. Their onscreen relationship is finely written, yielding more pleasure than all the other elements. Farida and Munira can be competitive - they never miss an opportunity to rub their achievements in each other's faces. Yet, when one finds another sad, heartbroken, or downbeat, they display genuine care, concern, and affection. When Munira notices Farida crying inside a telephone booth, she asks if something's wrong. When Farida finds Munira in a gloomy mood, she pushes her to talk about her troubles. In the last episode, when Farida is offered a job, she makes a deal with her employer to take Munira for the same position. This on-off relationship keeps The Exchange watchable and interesting. Without the cousins and, by extension, the actors playing them, The Exchange would have come across as sorely unexciting.

Apart from Hussain and Mahdi, what else is good in this series? The chintzy TV serial aesthetic renders every image flat, dull, and static. The scenes don't have a tone or a style. Sure, we are repulsed by the rules of patriarchy. When Munira's parents force her to marry an old man, when the women are constantly told that they need a husband to live in society, the audience gets a strong urge to scream at the screen. But these things would have filled you with frustration, with rage, if you had read about them in an article or a magazine. The Exchange doesn't give these moments a dramatic shape or a visual energy. It merely depicts them plainly, relying on just the content to trigger emotions in the viewers watching the series. It's important for Farida and Munira to make their client, Sabiha, happy. This task, however, lacks a sense of importance and urgency. A business meeting at Laith's (Sulayman Albassam) residence doesn't make you uneasy or happy, despite Saud's (Hussain Almahdi) demands and what the cousins end up achieving.

This is an impersonal show - it's created without much feeling. Farida's daughter (Rayan Dashti) initially doesn't like the idea of working at a music store but then becomes an expert salesperson in the blink of an eye. A scene (or scenes) showing the development of the daughter's interest in this business is missing. Sabiha's project involves the redevelopment of an island, which means the locals are asked/forced to vacate their houses, but The Exchange fails to sharply criticize the practice of such deals. This thread is something that simply exists. An event in Cairo turns into a disaster, and a newspaper article threatens to destroy Sabiha's dream. Both these obstacles, however, are solved offscreen. How? The Exchange doesn't explain; it merely tells us that the problem has been handled through a casually-delivered line. Even after underperforming, The Exchange ends with the promise of returning with a Season 3. What's funny is that even after being disappointed by both seasons, I might end up tuning in — but only because of Mona Hussain and Rawan Mahdi, especially Rawan Mahdi.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times