Breathe: Don’t. Don’t Breathe.

In Kenny Sebastian’s new stand-up special on Netflix, there’s a bit on how writers present characters’ traumatic childhood as a justification for their present unlawful behaviour. I couldn’t help but think of that while watching the new season of Breathe. Heck, the show made me think of a stand-up comedy. That’s how laughable the 12 episodes are.

OTT has evolved a lot in India in the past four years. While there are many more shows/movies that are coming up, the problem with most of these content remains constant. The writing. Yes, yet another show and yet again, the writing fails.

Breathe: Into the Shadows, is about a couple whose daughter gets kidnapped and how they fulfil the kidnapper's ransom. In the second episode of the series, the couple – Abhishek Bachchan and Nithya Menen – have to make a choice between two options. The option they were going to choose sets the premise for the rest of the season. I don’t know whether to call their choice an extreme action or an act of stupidity. Nonetheless, I lost hope on the remaining ten episodes because of the option they picked.

I don’t know where to begin. There were many problems with the writing. Character inconsistency, unnecessary characters, unnecessary subplots and forced humour to name a few. Looks like the series director, Mayank Sharma, thought that adding music could help the writing. Well, music can only heighten the sense of emotions, it can’t heighten the standard of writing. I don’t know how much I can criticise the poor writing without revealing the spoilers.

The sad part is that the makers knew how unconvincing the writing is. They make the characters speak out loud to justify the actions. It clearly didn’t work. The makers, however, seemed very ambitious. They tried to do the damage control by including everything that we have seen on OTT content. Including references to Hindu mythology. It doesn’t work if one just spills all these elements throughout the show. They have to be carefully stitched.

Abhishek Bachchan’s performance starts off convincingly. But it just goes downhill. Nithya Menen was not bad with the shallow character that she has been given. And yes, can someone explain to me why Nizhalgal Ravi was cast as a school principal in Nainital? Why? His South Indian Hindi was an added distraction to the existing problems of the series.

If you want 12 episodes of a dreadful experience, then Breathe: Into the Shadows is what you’re looking for.

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