Indian Matchmaking: Season 1 - all episodes

July 19, 2020 4:15 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

Matchmaker Sima Taparia guides clients in the U.S. and India in the arranged marriage process, offering an inside look at the custom in a modern era. (Netflix, 8-episode reality show)

Hindustan Times - Netflix reality show Indian Matchmaking is making Twitter shake with cringe: ‘Full body mortification’ -- "Lying somewhere in the same universe as Love Is Blind and Too Hot To Handle, Indian Matchmaking is also about men and women finding their romantic partners, minus the sex, the bikinis but plus the nosey, sexist and judgemental aunties. On the show, a bunch of NRI kids rope in matchmaking aunty, Sima Taparia, to find them their perfect matches. Of course, fair girls, rich boys and mummy-pleasing partners are high up on everyone’s list. No one can call out the show for fictionalising the arrange marriage set-up of the desi community as it is quite close to the truth. But we guess no one wanted this dark reality get represented on Netflix and beamed to streaming devices across the world."

The Indian Express - ‘Ugly truth or promoting colourism’: Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking gets mixed reviews

EW Review - Netflix's witty new docuseries about a Mumbai-based matchmaker is a slick and soapy treat.

posted by oh yeah! (10 comments total)

I watched the first 6 episodes in one sitting on Friday night, finished it the next morning. There's some strong "I cannot look away from this train wreck" appeal -- some of the clients (or mothers of clients) are just...yowza. And, yeah, so much colorism. But it didn't feel like a super-exploitative or mean-spirited reality show. And the various 'When Harry Met Sally' style interview snippets with various long-married couples was very sweet.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:26 PM on July 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

As soon as I saw this posted here I knew my wife would be into it. Sure enough, this evening she turned it on (without my mentioning it). It isn't for me, but it is entertaining enough. Some of the people really have to maybe consider their life aims, and I think exploiting that to make riveting TV is kind of cringy, but my wife loooves it, so who am I to judge.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:02 PM on July 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

E7 was my hands-down favorite— “Marriages Are Like Breaking Biscuits: Sima faces a challenge with single mother Rupam. A discovery about her match bothers Ankita. Vyasar frets over revealing his father’s past to Rashi.”

Sima is a much better matchmaker (in terms of really & deeply understanding people) than Gita; I enjoyed watching Ankita’s journey figuring out why Gita’s hot takes on women in marriage plus her lowkey shadiness in failing to disclose, rubbed Ankita so completely wrong, and she went back to working only with Sima.

I will ship Rashi and Vyasar so hard!!
posted by edithkeeler at 3:42 PM on July 21, 2020

I'm not Indian but I am from a country adjacent with similar social values, and I found this show hilarious, but many of my friends (also subcontinental) found it wildly triggering and outrageous to the point of being upset with me for watching it.

The focus on externals like height and weight and complexion (ugh) rings very true to my own experience of growing up, I didn't feel like it was exaggerated at all. Akshay's mom's insistence on making her son's marriage about her, pressuring him into doing something he clearly wasn't ready for, making him feel responsible for her physical and mental health - it was funny but at the same time kind of tragic. I've totally experienced that kind of emotional blackmail in my own life! But at the same time, I couldn't help but find it funny, because it was so outrageous and awful, and no one in the show seemed to have figured that out apart from Akshay's cousin (get her her own show!).

I thought it was no coincidence that the most satisfying arcs were those of people who were still single when the season ended - Aparna (she was very 'love to hate' but she wasn't a quitter!), Rupam (<3), Ankita (<3 <3).
posted by unicorn chaser at 3:46 AM on July 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Akshay's bride seemed so nice/naive/cheerful that I feel like either she's going to end up completely miserable under her mother-in-law's iron rule, or it will be like in the tradition of hazing, where she will eventually take over as the new matriarch and get her way through arranging her children's lives. Or maybe the nice-sweet demeanor is a front, and she'll emerge as a master-manipulator (especially if she has sons before the other sister-in-law) and take over.
posted by oh yeah! at 3:47 AM on July 23, 2020

I liked this article: Vulture - Indian Matchmaking Is Just Telling It Like It Is - by Malika Rao
posted by oh yeah! at 6:27 AM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

I just finished watching this. It went from 'This is so funny' to 'This is kinda sad' to 'This is the depressing reality' real quick. I am so detached from the Indian culture that when I first heard comments about color discrimination, it felt funny in a stupid way. Like a does it still really happen kind of way. Because not a single friend in my social circle would bring someone's color up as a factor for rejection. But then I realized that, that's because I've blocked out such people from my life. But the truth is majority of South Asians and South East Asians are obsessed with skin color. Third episode onwards I just went 'Wow this is so sad that people are choosing to get married this way'. Especially a lot of mother-in-laws shown were so horrible. I would feel bad for someone who married into such a home.
posted by MetaSquid at 3:56 AM on July 28, 2020

I was looking forward to some weddings and we get NONE? Seriously? I guess that's why the show is called Indian Matchmaking and not Indian Matches Made.

I also really want to know what happened to Rupam and her Bumble match.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:56 AM on July 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Where They Are Now

The above link is a follow-up with the people in the show. I'm not sure if I can "spoil" here, but a lot is left up in the air at the end of the season. Click above link after watching the season if you don't want more spoilers.
posted by bearette at 8:18 AM on August 4, 2020

Metafilter FPP - Unfair and Ugly
posted by oh yeah! at 8:40 AM on August 4, 2020