My thoughts on Netflix’s new show Mismatched
Warning: There will be spoilers in this article so if you haven’t already watched the show refrain from reading!

Image by Netflix

Recently Netflix has been releasing many new shows with Indian representation — Indian Matchmaking, Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, and Never Have I Ever — and I am completely obsessed with all of them. The most recent one that I just had to check out was Mismatched which I started watching without any prior knowledge about the show. It wasn’t until I was halfway through the first episode that I realized that the storyline was almost identical to the book When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon, which also happens to be one of my favourite books.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic and felt like I had stumbled upon a gold mine. In the 6 short episodes I watched in the first season I felt a roller coaster of emotions and I feel the need to desperately unpack all of them. So let’s delve deeper into the differences between the book and the show and my overall thoughts on the series!

Before we do that let me introduce you to the key players in the game. Here is the main cast of the show plus a short description of each character:

Image by Author

Now that we’re acquainted with some of the characters let’s jump into the main differences between the book and series.

Setting

The biggest difference was definitely the fact that instead of taking place in America, both Dimple and Rishi live in India and are taking their course in Aravali Institute of Technology instead of San Francisco State University. This also means that unlike in the original book, all the supporting characters are Indian including the teachers, friends, and classmates.

Pairings

In the book, Rishi and Dimple are paired up for making the app. In the show however, Rishi is paired up with Namarata, his best friend, and Dimple is paired up with Harsh. In the series, Rishi ends up working more on Dimple’s app than his own anyway, but I think the main anomaly here is Harsh who doesn’t choose to contribute to the app at all.

New characters

There were a lot of new additions to the show. Harsh was not in the original book which may be why I’m not too fond of him but in retrospect I do understand why he had to be added. Namarata was also not in the original book but I think that she was definitely a good addition. Some other new characters were Zeenath Karim (the sweet widow who is paired up with Anmol to make the app) and Siddarth Sinnah (who is the hotshot teacher and also Zeenath’s love interest in the show). I initially thought that all the new additions to the show would end up being simple plot devices, however, they’ve proved to be anything but, and without them we probably wouldn’t have the shot at a second season.

Ending

The ending in the show is completely different from the book. I’m fairly certain that we’re expecting another season to decompress whatever the hell happened between Dimple and Harsh at the end but also because we have no idea what happens with each of their apps.

In the book, there was no league of legends tournament. Instead the character equivalent to Anmol ends up winning the whole thing so I’m sure we’ll get an answer to whoever they choose to make the winner in season 2.

Dimple and Rishi end up together…?

Obviously in the book they Dimple and Rishi end up together but I seriously doubt they will in the show. The possibility seems off because of the major fight they had about Namarata who was initially outed by Rishi to Dimple, then Dimple to Celina. Needless to say the whole ordeal was Rishi’s fault but I don’t think he leaked Dimples app as she believes he did. I don’t know if they can backtrack and end up together in season 2 and I almost don’t want them to because their energy with each other seems off. A lot of things were said and done and it seems as if they both don’t necessarily know what they want when it comes to their relationship.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought the show was pretty good. While I’m a firm believer that the book was much better than the series I think that’s simply because the book was so well written and hard to beat. There are definitely some key differences between the book and the show but I would definitely recommend the series to anyone who loves the book (even if they don’t understand hindi!). Can’t wait for season 2!
['Saesha Kukreja']
['Mismatched', 'Entertainment', 'Netflix', 'Shows To Watch', 'Series']