My Review of Mismatched: The When Dimple Met Rishi Adaptation

Hello, today I’ll be reviewing the much anticipated adaptation of When Dimple Met Rishi, called Mismatched! But I feel like I must warn you that you’re in for a long bumpy ride here. My reviews are rarely structured and this one might just be a mess of thoughts or emotions, okay?

Woman sniffing and saying “I just have a lot of feelings”

But at least everything will be absolutely honest. Oh and if you haven’t watched the show yet, don’t worry, most of this review is spoiler free and I will have warnings whenever I dwell into the details.

Anyway, I’m gonna be blabbering a lot today so let’s just save time and move onto what I thought about Mismatched.

Even before I started watching Mismatched I knew it would be quite different from the book and I was okay with that. I went into the show anticipating that it would be different from the book but would still make a fun and interesting watch.

Now that I’m done, I can say that was…. half true?

Here’s what happened.

Even though the show was quite different from the book, it managed to have those same vibes of the fun enemies/friends/lover theme between Dimple and Rishi. The whole atmosphere was cute and intriguing and basically very reminiscent of the book.

All the actors were brilliant. They played out their parts very well, especially the actors for Rishi, Dimple and Namrata- I stan!!! For the most part, I also enjoyed the new and diverging plot-lines that this show brought out.

And now for everything that bothered me…

Honestly, some of these are spoilery but I’ll do my best to talk about them in a neutral way.

For starters, I really disliked the teacher/mentor, Sid in general. He was very in your space and intervening sort of guy who didn’t care for anyone’s personal space. And yes, this is more of a personal peeve but what made it worse how he invaded the privacy of Anmol, who was a wheelchair user.

Now I don’t know how much of wheelchair etiquette is general knowledge but I was very uncomfortable every time that teacher fiddled with the wheelchair’s controls without permission from Anmol, it was so rude and unnecessary! It just really got under my skin because if you’re including a representation for disabled people then please do your research.

Very mild spoilers in this para ~

There was a part in maybe the fourth episode where Rishi kept apologizing to Dimple for a certain family related matter that I really didn’t understand. At this point these two had barely known each other for a month and I don’t get why Dimple needed to make such an issue of Rishi lying to her about such a private piece of information.

~ spoilers over

Also, Dimple’s character was kind of all over the place, especially the last episode. Oh my god, what was that episode? Deep breaths….

Any resemblance to the book could have been thrown out in that last episode. Almost every character was acting extremely strange and there were some major incidents that took place which highly pissed me off because they were so out of character. Seriously, if it weren’t for that last episode I probably would have given this show a good 4.5 star rating. And the worst part is, I can clearly see that this was done in order to leave us at a complete cliffhanger so that the viewers would beg for a season 2. If you’re really gonna do that at least be subtle and maybe abide by the characters?

So those were all my problems with the plot.

Other than that, I was slightly annoyed by how they left a subplot regarding one of the side characters hanging. They just kept hinting that something was going on with him but never resolved it, again proving how badly they want to shoot another season and leave us hanging until then.

There is also another major thing that really got to me. I’ve been trying to think how to talk about this without giving any spoilers but it’s really not possible. So hear we go, please be warned that this will be mildly spoilery. I won’t be taking any names but I will be talking about a sub-plot that enraged me. I do believe it’s an important thing to know before watching the show, especially if you’re queer since you may get triggered.

Mild spoilers in this para ~

The show features a character who is gay, or at least queer since there weren’t any labels. The character is outed by their best friend to their friend who then outs this queer person to their crush. This queer person’s crush then outs them to a huge crowd in the hostel and shows no empathy. The queer character is said to be obsessed with them and a creep, indirectly if not directly. The queer character is heavily affected and this then turns a major plot point in the last episode.

I’m so freaking tired of queer representation existing just for the characters to be outed and that being used as a plot point. There was no need for this subplot, I absolutely don’t get why they would include it. There were multiple scenes in the show where I saw the crush who outed the character looking least bit bothered, let alone guilty that they had ruined this person’s life. In fact, they gave off the oh-you’re-gay-so-now-I-see-you-as-a-creep vibe and I just can’t stand this character now. They’re definitely homophobic even though it isn’t explicitly portrayed and if in the next season their behaviour gets waved off I will definitely throw a fit. Honestly, the next season will definitely be able to make the best or worse of this situation so I hope this homophobia and outing doesn’t get looked past.

~ spoilers over

It’s just disheartening because I was looking forward to this sweet and casual queer rep but this just took a turn for the worse.

So what do I think of the show?

I’m not really sure. It did give me major When Dimple Met Rishi vibes but at the same time I just cannot look past that last episode. I would probably give this a 3 star rating. It’s a quick binge so you can watch it for the fun and cute vibes but I’ve already warned you about what all I found a bit problematic.

So it’s up to you , I guess!

Have you watched Mismatched yet or are you planning on watching it? If yes please let me know your thoughts!

What are some of your favourite book to movie or show adaptations?

What are you currently binge watching?