Inside Edge 2 Review: Substandard Narration Accompanied by a Perplexing Storyline!
Inside Edge 2 Review: When the first season of Inside Edge debuted back in July of 2017, it was one of the very first original shows released by Amazon Prime in India with familiar faces from Bollywood and a sky-high budget. Thanks to its appealing storyline, and commendable performances it received fairly positive reviews from the audience and generated enough buzz for the studio to greenlight the second season.
Furthermore, the Indian viewers are no strangers when it comes to watching IPL dominated by flair, Bollywood, and betting scandals. So, it ain’t a monumental task to intrigue the viewers by pitching in the general summary and getting them hooked with all the commercial elements it had to offer. As far as Season 2 goes, notoriously, sequels tend to disappoint most of the time for a wide variety of reasons, and Inside Edge 2 is no different.
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The storyline of Inside Edge 2 kicks off with the primary characters of the show overcoming the consequences of their actions from Season 1. As the main antagonist from the first season – Vikrant Dhawan (Vivek Oberoi) seemingly wiped away from existence. A new King emerges in the front line as Bhaisaab, who dictates everything inside and out while the entire nation gears up for the upcoming season of PPL.
Now, to give credit where credit’s due, this season did a decent job in showcasing the aftermath from the first season. The characters who were involved in major plot points got elevated to the fullest and had a more significant role to play in S2. The trauma, the continuity, and their attempt to wriggle out of this deep, dark place meant something, even though I had multiple problems concerning the writing department.
Much like every other television show, Inside Edge 2 took every plotline which was left open from Season 1 and linked them with another thread that sowed the narrative. And with multiple characters involved, there is a good deal of storylines and subplots for the writers to explore. The power struggle between Aamir Bashir’s character and his contestants. Characters who are sort of playing the kingmaker and the puppet-master roles. People dealing with their own mental issues and trying to recover from their haunting past. The romantic and emotional angles, to put in simple words, there is plenty of stuff to deal with for a 6-7 hour show.
As a result, when you overwhelm the viewer with quite a few plot points in a compact episode (while they stretch and include needless scenes in the other episodes), the main crux of the narrative will indeed get lost in the shuffle. And that’s exactly what transpired with Inside Edge 2, The random pacing issues, the patchy narration made me lose interest, and after a point I stopped, making sense out of it.
On the technical side of things, the production design of Inside Edge 2 was elegant and extravagant to look at from the beginning till the end. Shot for the most part in the aesthetically appealing country of Georgia, the contemporary interior and the breathtaking exterior shots elevated the visual appeal of the show through and through. And the chic editing techniques utilized to match the visual style resulted in a perfect little combination required for this kind of show.
Despite the half-baked and hit-and-miss characters in the show, the performances from the entire cast were, by and large, satisfactory. Richa Chadda and Aamir Bashir shine in their respective roles as the lead antagonists of the show. Angad Bedi, Tanuj Virwani, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Sayani Gupta continue to impress as the supporting characters. The newcomers Sapna Pabbi and Elli Avram added some much-needed glamour to the show, and their characters had some extra input to the overall narrative.
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Overall, Inside Edge 2 is at least entertaining if you’re in a casual mood to watch something close to the present Indian culture. However, the glaring plot holes, perplexing storyline, and the impairment of not telling a compelling storyline make this show more of a chore to get through. It falls in the same category of every other Indian original from Amazon Prime and justifies the term ‘It is what it is!’ Watch ‘Inside Edge 2’ on Amazon Prime here.
Rating – 2.75/5 | Grade – C+
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I was enthralled to watch Inside edge season 2. No wonder the ending is yet another crazy, unexpected twists of all time and we can’t wait for another season.
If not for the plot twists, the season did disappoint me at some level as the first season set a standard and season 2 couldn’t beat it’s own level.