"How to Ruin Diwali: Meet The Parents" Review

[00:00:21] Hey, what's up fam and welcome back again to Recap Kickback. That's right, it's me your host Chappell back again for another television review and this time we are going back to a place that we have gone so fond of. We are going back to Netflix's How to Ruin Christmas and with me my partner in crime talking about how to ruin Christmas but now to talk about a whole different set of holiday shenanigans. It's Gia Worthy. Gia, welcome back.

[00:00:47] Chappelle I am so happy to be back talking about the How to Ruin franchise. I have to admit, since we recorded was it last year it was last December that we did. Yeah, like it was a I think it was a year ago. Around there, but um, I have to be honest, I have been going through severe withdrawals like we are about to get into the holiday season. This is my How to Ruin Christmas.

[00:01:17] Christmas is my favorite Netflix series to this day. So I am so happy that uh, we got remnants of How to Ruin Christmas here and we'll talk a little bit about it as we go forward in it but I'm so happy to be back talking about uh, South Africa's finest. Mm hmm. Exactly. Uh, and uh, I'm so excited too because we're having somebody who a real blast from the past. I don't think we have seen this person since our Beyonce coverage.

[00:01:46] Oh, here on Recap Kickback uh, with us to kind of uh, give her experience about melding cultures in a marriage. Uh, it is my good friend, diva Sasha Joseph. Sasha, welcome back. Oh, so happy to be back. I just, you know, at this point I'm just a fan so anytime I get to podcast with the two of you, I'm here baby.

[00:02:09] Thank you so much for coming back. We're so happy to have you and thank y'all for the listeners for uh, really inspiring us to go and watch How to Ruin Diwali because uh, we did How to Ruin Christmas. We did all three seasons of it and the South Africans showed up. We got tons of views on those videos. I think probably the most videos we've ever, I mean views we've ever gotten to this day.

[00:02:32] Like, I think every week it's still in like our top viewed videos of the week. Um, so I don't know if the people think we're uh, actually we have the movie on YouTube and they're just lost or if they are looking for a review but they love it. And so we have to give the people what they want. Gio, how excited were you to see How to Ruin Diwali coming up on our Netflix coming soon?

[00:02:52] I don't think I screenshot a photo faster than when I saw that Netflix was advertising their How to Ruin franchise again because um, I, I was a little worried that they had just kind of forgotten about it. I know they have one other iteration that is a season called How to Ruin Love um, but we have not reviewed that one yet. Let's see how it goes.

[00:03:17] But I'm really, so Sasha for like a quick kind of like run through the How to Ruin Christmas franchise is a really like another blending of families. Um, it centers around, the first season centers around a wedding from Christmas and one of the families, one of the families is very wealthy and the other side of the family, the bride side is not. So it's a big, it's a, it's a culture clash but in a different way.

[00:03:46] And um, so this is, this is kind of what the, uh, these showrunners do best. Um, I don't know. I, I have not seen the How to Ruin Love series so I don't know if they follow like a similar formula to that but I was very happy to see that they have components of it that stayed true to the How to Ruin Christmas series.

[00:04:07] And the fact that we're getting into another, uh, comedy of errors which is probably the simplest way I could describe How to Ruin Christmas as well. Like this is par for the course. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we have some Zulu traditions to rehash here but also some new traditions as we are combining, uh, this Zulu family with a traditional Indian family and their Hindu beliefs. Uh, so Sasha, uh, tell me what was your experience like watching How to Ruin Diwali?

[00:04:36] Because I don't think you were able, you'd ever watch How to Ruin Christmas, right? No, no. So I have watched Keeping Up with the Kundasamis, which is where the Indian, a lot of these Indian cast, uh, I have seen. So regardless, I was gonna watch this show because, uh, a few of those folks are in here. And then I think I am going to now obviously go and finish up the series because this is so silly and fun.

[00:05:01] But yeah, so funny you say, uh, Gia, about the keeping up, uh, sorry, How to Ruin Christmas, the wedding part because it's basically the same premise for Keeping Up with the Kundasamis. And they also have a, uh, rich family, which Mama Chetty is the rich family. Same thing again. She plays rich very well. Perfect. And then, so she, but she is the mother of the bride.

[00:05:29] And then the, the son is the like quote unquote poorer or less classy, uh, version. And they're the Kundasamis. So they're kind of trying to blend again, these two like cultures, these two classes, even, even though they're neighbors. So they have like similar houses, but still. So it, it's really interesting to like, again, see a different version of that. So I'm, I have seen South African, uh, culture in that way, but yeah, it's still through the Indian lens.

[00:06:00] Mm-hmm. And so when we start this series off, well, you know, we get our typical three episodes. Gia, after three episodes, we, we were used to having two more additional seasons. Uh, now do you think we've, after How to Ruin Diwali, we will be back, uh, to meet with his family again? I think they are invested in this being the new faces of the franchise, because I mean, uh, can we talk a little bit about the, the spoiler at the end?

[00:06:28] I think that they don't really give us a lot of hints that this, from my first watch, that this is happening. But, uh, our, our lead here, uh, announces to her man at the very end that she, uh, is, um, pregnant. And so the first grandchild in the family will be coming soon. Um, and this is kind of what they did with How to Ruin Christmas.

[00:06:54] Not with the same thing with a birth announcement, but each season covers a different event. So, Sasha, the second season is a funeral. Um, it's the best one. It's fantastic. Um, and then the third season is a baby shower was, was like the, the title of it. So this one was Meet the Parents. I'm assuming the next season will either be around the pregnancy or the wedding.

[00:07:20] And then I'm hoping, then, then the third season, I am hoping is whichever one of those they don't do for the second season. So I'm very excited to see where this goes, but with that ending, I feel like we have to, we have to, we have to get another one. I need it back because after three episodes, I'm invested. I am. I thought this was a fun season.

[00:07:42] Uh, it didn't have a lot of the same DNA as we've talked about from How to Ruin Christmas, starting off with the opening shot being this accident, right? Where we're like, Oh God, what happened? How did we get here? Um, pour one out for our girl to me. She's not here to be able to enjoy this series, but, um, my Bato, she, she's in that same role, right? She's like in the, I screwed everything up role. But I went through this entire season thinking, I don't think it was that bad. Like, okay. Granny's being dramatic.

[00:08:11] Mom's being dramatic, but that's, that's it. But as it unfolded, I was like, Oh no, there are other things in here that I didn't even know we were going to have to tackle. And so I love the drama. There's plenty of drama. It's very funny. And I love when we show these two beautiful families. That's one thing about them, Sasha. They, they, they, they cast some very beautiful people for these roles. Seriously. Right. Like watching just, I mean, even the opening shot, right. When she's making sweet meats, uh, or barfies, whatever for the volley.

[00:08:40] And then it's just, it's so funny because you watch her. She's hot. Then the, her man comes in version hot, right? Mama comes in hot. Like it's just easy, crazy guy, but hot. Yes. They brought that stripper in and everything turned up even more. Uh, I'm like, I, he doesn't look Indian.

[00:09:09] Is he what's going on? Then we get there the gag later, but. Yeah, this was incredible. I thought that just the amount of drama involved, like I said, who, who doesn't love to see attractive people doing ridiculous shit. And so, uh, I was enjoying that the entire time, but Gia, um, what do you think about our new, uh, leading lady here in Mabato? I love her. Um, she's like what I want to be when I grow up. Um, being a doctor sounds hard.

[00:09:37] So not that part, but the, like she, she's very much the opposite of to me here. Right? Like to me in our first season was a, uh, was the center of all the chaos. She was perfect to me. She was, she was almost like a, a Davey from, uh, from a never have I ever like she messed up quite a bit.

[00:10:02] It was definitely her fault on the, a lot of times, especially in the first season. Second season was not her fault. Uh, and, but the family gets a big talking to this one. I think it is. Now, listen, there are some shit she should not have been doing. And, you know, I was just like, why would there were a couple of times it's like now, girl, why would you do that? But that's where, that is the beauty of the show is that we get, and this is one of the

[00:10:31] things I really love about this show. We get it with Toomey in How to Ruin Christmas and we get it to, with Mabato in How to Ruin Diwali. It's that the women are the central characters, but they themselves are not perfect. They are going to be making mistakes that are just simple, simply mistakes. Like they, it is, uh, they mess up and it is not something that is easily fixed or that is a misunderstanding.

[00:11:00] It's just like a blanket mistake and they have to work to fix whatever it is that they did wrong. Now, while Toomey was more so on the side of, uh, her big issue in season one is that she did a lot of impulsive, selfish decisions, um, that she had to rectify later on. Then, um, and she wasn't the only one. It was everyone else in her family.

[00:11:24] Mabato was more so kind of dealing with the fallout of her fiance's, uh, poor decisions and then their poor decisions together kind of exploding into everybody else's secrets. Yeah. Uh, we start off lying and I think that always leads to disaster because we do know that the two of them, um, Mabato and Varshan, they're together. They seem very happy, but they're already living a lie because he has not told his family about her.

[00:11:52] And he also has not told his family that, um, he no longer wants to be a doctor. He has decided to beg. Now, Sasha, you have a lot of familiarity with Indian people. How did you think this was going to go over with the family when they found out? Oh my God. Like immediately, why are we lying? Right. And then I say, no, we have to lie because what else do we do as Indian kids but lie?

[00:12:42] Okay. She takes podcasting more serious. Yeah. Like that's where we are. Yeah. Sasha, we got a lot. We have to, I think everybody kind of got that pressure of like, you don't want to let your parents down fine, but you definitely don't want to hear their mouths. And I think that that's Varshan's stance here is like, if we just don't talk about it, we can make it through the weekend. And then the drama can unfold when we are very far away from each other, happily married, you know, after the holidays.

[00:13:11] But I think Mabato's right that you do have to address it. I just, I probably wouldn't have either. You know, I wanted him to have a backbone, but I also know how it is to know that your family's about to make a mountain out of this, no matter what it is. So Sasha, I have to ask, you are married, but you and your husband, y'all are from two different parts of India. Y'all also have two different religious backgrounds. What is it like to kind of meet the parents when you go into a situation like this?

[00:13:41] Yeah, sometimes it does feel like a movie, you know, looking back, I just, I can't believe we made it. But, you know, cause my mom, my parents are also divorced. So that was a big, wow, how can this happen moment? And, and yeah, because we were different religions, speak different languages. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Many, many speed bumps to cross.

[00:14:06] But I think this is where I will say, I feel like sometimes Indian girls, like we have so many rules placed upon us that even as immigrants or not, it doesn't matter. You know, we learned to rebel and, you know, like we step out pretty early. So I think our parents fall in line a little bit faster with us versus I think boys, Indian

[00:14:29] boys, it feels like this around this time is when they start, you know, rebelling and not like, you know, are the, the, in Hindi it's called like the Raja Beta, which is like the, the king child, you know, the main son. And the, the illusion starts falling of the not perfect. Okay. So that's why it's very, to me, normal that like at this point, you know, the kids have to decide, right?

[00:14:58] Are you going to go against your parents or not? And then, yeah, lots of mess where I can joke about it now, but right before my husband's parents were about to meet me for the first time. Literally as we walked in, as they walked into the restaurant, he told them, oh yeah, by the way, her parents are divorced. Now, why? Why? So literally like the restaurant scene, you know what I mean? But like for different reasons, but still.

[00:15:28] So yeah, it's just, I just feel like a lot of, yeah, these young men just need to learn. That's actually so funny that you say that Sasha, because like, even, even with the example of this show, like he's worried about, about telling his family that he's not a doctor anymore in that he's marrying a black girl and his sister has already come out as a lesbian to them and has a whole wife. Like for the entire thing. Which is also funny as gag, but yeah.

[00:15:58] I know. I love them so dearly. I need them to be like a focal point of season two. The season two that we're definitely getting, because I said so. Girl, they don't even say her name. Yvette? Yvette? Yvette? Yvette? Yvette? Yvette? Yvette? Yvette? Yvette? Yvette?

[00:16:30] Lost the very end and I forgot. And I keep trying to find it online, mind you. It's crazy how the running joke is that she's just a vet and somebody keeps calling her Yvette because they refuse to call her a doctor. So to me, I understand, like I said, I understand I have a backbone when it comes to avoiding the drama of your family. Sometimes I can admit to this. Sometimes I'm like, hey, just let it happen. I'll deal with it later on.

[00:16:58] I'm just going to just try to avoid it. But there are times where I'm like, no, let's get into it. I got a little time. You know, that's not directly affecting me. So other people's drama? Oh yeah, let's start the pot a little bit. But mine, no, I want to keep that as bay as long as possible. So I was very shocked when Varshan does a thing, Gia, that I was not expecting. Mabato tells him multiple times, I don't want my family involved. I do not want my family involved. They should not be there. That's what makes me off the most about Varshan here.

[00:17:28] Because why did you invite those crazy people, Gia? To me, this is where he lost me immediately. Out the gate. Now, now, it's what, first of all, sir, you cannot be doing all this while you have not told your own family about the situation. Like you are literally in your glass house throwing stones, okay? Actively setting the other glass house on fire. Now, I love Mabato's family. So I am very happy.

[00:17:58] Like immediately, I was just like, I, divorced parents, messy as hell, a brother that's just there. Nelson, Nelson's just there to make his little parent trap fantasies come true. I, I loved them. I was so happy to have them there. This is kind of, some of the bickering we get from other family members in How to Ruin Christmas too. And it was great to see. I loved them. Um, I was very happy to meet them. But we should not be meeting them here.

[00:18:28] And you certainly shouldn't be surprising them. Uh, uh, surprising your fiance on the way to meet your parents with her parents that she doesn't want there. Because she knows what her parents are like and what they're going to be pulling at this event. And she's so type A, right? Like she literally has a booklet. What do we do? You don't know her at all is what that's giving.

[00:18:55] Sasha, how would you react if you came home and Karthik was like, I invited your cousins. No, I can't. You know what I mean? But the thing is, you know, this is why you're, you have to like show you're crazy early. You say you got to hit them. Don't move crazy. Sasha threw a shoe. You heard it here first. Okay. No, I'm just kidding. I would never. I'm so perfect. But it's, but no, it's, again, just know your partner. And I feel like Loki,

[00:19:25] he was probably trying to distract from his news. So he wanted to be like, look over there. So that I, my stuff is not spotlighted. It, it, to me, it would have, it wouldn't even be as bad. It was just like the mom, right? Cause mom would be a lot. Penelope would be a lot, but then you bring her a separated husband as well. You're asking for a fight. These people don't get along. That's why they're not together. Gia, this was crazy. You know, you and I,

[00:19:55] we grew up in those broken homes. I don't expect to see those people together and things that I didn't invite them to personally. Now, listen, my, my philosophy with my family is you made this crazy. So you can deal with the repercussions of it. You know, like we tell that, I tell them things they don't even want to know. Okay. They are stuck with me. However, however, this is crazy. Like if my, if, uh, if my, if my parents are fighting for an areas at that point, keep them separate.

[00:20:25] That is why they are not together. They are a separate set. They have like other houses they can go to. We do not need to have them coexist in the same vicinity. Separate, but equal works with divorces. I'm sorry. It does. But the, uh, so to bring them both here when they are no longer together. And then the mom is insistent on bringing her much younger boyfriend. This was a mess.

[00:20:52] You guys should have just went back in the car and left at that point. What are we doing here? Yeah. And then when we see the family show up, like I said, Penelope shows up. Uh, we see Mandela as well. Uh, but she shows up with her, her escort. We will find out later on. Uh, this man is a paid servant and, they're acting as if they are having, uh, some passionate time between the two of them. Again, I would have left. I would have left. Uh, I, my mom and dad are not married,

[00:21:22] but my mom better not show up with anybody younger than me to any event ever. Why not? Let her have fun. How dare you? no, no, we don't. And if she dresses like that too, I'm gonna send her probably a jumpsuit. send her somewhat older. Look, you know what I'm saying? I'm not saying she can't date nobody, but she can't, she can't date this stripper. Sasha, we just dealt with a very similar situation in Tyler Perry's, uh, how to, uh, why did I get married? I was about to say how to ruin the wedding. Why did I get married?

[00:21:53] five, three, how to get married. Um, so we, we are a little sensitive to this topic, but, uh, absolutely not. And it, listen, younger, fine. My age, absolutely younger than me. Get the hell. Like, there is no reason. They, this person needs to be here. Even if you are dating them. I loved him. That's crazy. Maybe he was so, no, he as an actor was so funny. Me, I've been like,

[00:22:19] one of my parents coming with a much younger partner. yeah. Yeah. Have y'all parents not date? My parents, I have their parents. But date your age. But date your age. Don't, don't have this, especially this, like I said, this man, although we get the reveal at the end that he's an escort and a stripper, you could have guessed it. You could have guessed it. Yeah. He walking around here like a slut. I mean, just like chest out shorts, booty shorts on, sir, put some clothes on. That's my mother. You're around. I did. I was like, uh,

[00:22:49] shut it down. Like throwing up. Like there was so many little constant gags. I feel like I don't want to forget them. Cause even during the cricket match at one point, I think Nelson goes to throw up. He does. Yeah. I'm definitely going to need to rewatch this again to keep track of all. It took me a few times of watching how to ruin Christmas before I got some of the like recurring guys in there. Oh, so good. Just, I love him. And the fact that he just kept being like, well,

[00:23:18] that Diwali is this. Diwali is Lord Rama. And see, I mean, you're not wrong. Like all of these things aren't true about Diwali, but it's just, eventually we get the right, like the curtain where he goes, well, I was chat GPT. Oh, you're like, Oh, it makes sense because I was wondering why he was spouting off all these facts. Uh, he don't look Indian. So like, I'm confused. How does he know all this?

[00:23:47] Speaking of the Indian family, we do meet Varshan's family, including his parents, Charm and Tarina. Um, I love them. I love them both. I did not expect to love them so much. Charm, what is wrong with you, sir? What is wrong with you? Why, why would you share this story at this, at this function? Why did you, why did you say that? I get you wanted to make her feel comfortable, but to just bring up your ex as if,

[00:24:16] I thought this was weird, but you know, your wife, you like Sasha, that's like we said, you have to know your partner. You know, your wife not going to go for this. If it gets out now, you probably don't think Mabatu is going to immediately go run her mouth about it, which is also a big ass question. And right. Yeah. Why would you say that at the toast? Um, but yeah, Gia, from this moment on, everything that's happening is from the moment, the parents show up, everything that happens is an unavoidable forced error because you shouldn't have told

[00:24:50] your wife. She should not have been revealed that during the toast because it had nothing to do with anything. And then from there, everything goes downhill. Yeah. That was my biggest like, girl, what are you doing? Moment of this series. It was like, there was no reason to bring that up at a toast. Like what are we, we are civilized people, girl. You do not bring up past relationships to the person that they are currently in a relationship with,

[00:25:18] but also why is that the story that you tell her? Oh, you know, I also used to be attracted to black women. I'm like, that's not helpful in this situation at all. Sir, I get what you were trying to do. And this was not helpful. Yeah. And then of course, meaning, but it was, it was not great. It was another instance of like, you know, we didn't need to be doing all this. Sasha Tarina doesn't take this. Well,

[00:25:48] Oh, and she was doing the absolute most. You know what I mean? I was like, Oh, we're not really ruining the volley. We're just like ruining your relationship. You know what I mean? I feel like we could have had other hijinks. This is, this would be my only negative, right? Is that I feel like the cast was way too split up all the time for, for a hijink show. I feel like everyone should kind of be like doing funny gags together. Cause that uncle was right.

[00:26:16] Her brother was just doing anything. And then we would randomly get him here and there. But I just felt like, how insecure are you mama? Stand up. She threw a whole fit. Like this man had been texting his ex the entire time they've been married. And it wasn't that serious. It wasn't. And so that's why at first I was thinking, Oh, this is fine. Like, this is fine. We've told me, told me was ruining lives. Okay. This girl did nothing. But then as it starts to unfold,

[00:26:46] we find out that there are more secrets that are being held. Varshan's brother is in a fake marriage. He's definitely married, but they don't love each other. They, I think they compare him to Melania and Donald Trump. Yeah. And so they're trying to keep appearances together. She's clearly sticking around so that, you know, once they separate, she can get something out of it. But he's found eyes for somebody else,

[00:27:12] and this is where we get our connective tissue between how to ruin the volley, because our first character that we've seen that overlaps in the both of them is Zama. And, uh, how are you feeling to have her back? Our, uh, our influencer here. I am so happy. We got Zama back and that we got her like finding love. I don't know if this is, if we get another season, if it's going to be like, they are also going to be, a side plot for another season, but.

[00:27:41] I loved it. I was so glad to see Zama in love. Um, Zama came to us in season three. So she was kind of like a late, uh, a late star to the franchise. One of our last people that we get like introduced to here, but it was so good to see her. Um, and she fits in perfectly here because she's like the new to me in season three of how to ruin Christmas. And then we get her,

[00:28:11] um, and then here she, we actually get to see her with, uh, she's not the interloper. She, I mean, she kind of is, but she's like, she's here because she's here to support her friend. She's not the, uh, the odd one out here. She is a part of the cast. She's a part of, uh, Mabato's, uh, like life. And she's the first person that she calls to like for help with this situation. So it's similar to like to me and her sister. So I was very happy to see that, um,

[00:28:41] to see, uh, Zama back here and a little more in her element. Girl, she was in a lot of things. She was in it. Okay. And I supported her all the way through. It was so funny. It just hurt little story arc. I couldn't breathe. Mm. And, um, Darshan and his, uh, you know, it's failing marriage. I didn't have a real issue with him stepping out a little bit. No, his whole insecurity being that he is the oldest and he felt like he should have got the business at the end.

[00:29:10] I thought that was interesting because his dad points out, you don't like managing and you don't like people. So why do you want this job? He's like, I just wanted to, I just want the opportunity to be offered the position. I didn't actually want it. I said, all right, this, this whole family is too dramatic for me. Cause I should, if you don't want the job, why are you complaining about it? Oh no, it's, it's, you know, it's an honor to be considered. You, I think older children in a lot of these families. Yeah. I do think there is this like not earned, um,

[00:29:41] deserving of respect without earning it. I feel like happens a lot in these moments. And this, you know, attendees like are cool and, you know, viral, you know, like they, they're in, they know what's going on. But a lot of times like do give regular and you do give very traditional. So I think it makes sense that maybe if you grew up in kind of a traditional family that, you know,

[00:30:08] you like expect at least to be right, like considered or given the, the family business. Yeah. He thought he was going to be considered. He was not. And so that's his big, his big moment. But again, he's lying, right? Because he's thinking, Oh, if I can maintain this illusion that my family is happy and that we're together, then I'll be given this, but we find out that obviously that's not going to happen because him and Zama have a thing. And I, I don't know. I was kind of rooting for it. Gia. I don't know how you feel about this relationship.

[00:30:38] I love it. I was like at the minute, I'm sorry. The minute, the minute we see him being like, like basically if he had a girl as gorgeous as Mabato that he like would not, like he would have like told everybody right away. Like he, you know, like was all about it. I was like this. I see what's happening here. They didn't bring Zama back for no reason. So she's, she's going to be part of this mess and somehow, some way. And I loved it. I thought it was very cute. It's another opposites attract,

[00:31:08] but more of like personality than like a cultural difference here. So I loved it. And honestly, I think the, um, the siblings were my favorite part of this franchise. It's the most we got of like characters interacting with one another and getting a better sense of, uh, family dynamics. So like Varshan and the siblings were great. I really wish we got more of like Nelson and Mabato together, like as siblings. Yeah.

[00:31:37] Those are the dynamics that I liked the most. And it's similar with how to ruin Christmas, all the sibling interactions, like, cause there's different generations of siblings in here. The siblings that the sibling interactions we get throughout those three seasons are some of the best ones. Cause it's just people bickering, like trying to get a rise out of each other, like siblings do. And these two seemed sweet. You know, this is what I mean where I think because Mabato and, uh, mama had to leave,

[00:32:08] you know, in the middle of the episode, what episode two, right. And then episode three, they kind of, yeah, they just spend a part. We don't get a lot of like the crazy. I feel like these two took like the shenanigans with them. Yep. Big agree. Big agree. I think that, yeah, we don't really even get a lot of, uh, Varshan and Darshan together. We don't, um, they barely have any scenes, but we do have some sibling drama here. Uh, uh, Varshan and his sister,

[00:32:35] they have a very interesting relationship where it feels like they're very similar. They both get rashes when they are lying. Uh, but it looks like she wants them to have a closer relationship than they do. She's constantly mad at him because he'd been lying to her. He lied about, uh, you know, fiance. He lied about the baking and, uh, she's finding all of this out, you know, as we are basically, or if not even after us. And she's taking it really hard, but we didn't really dive deep into their relationship. Gia. Um, y'all know,

[00:33:05] I love this woman. The young, come on, stop it. Uh, I understand. She, but not into me, but I love her. Yeah. And we appreciate a baddie on this channel. Um, I'm so, I wish we got more of her. I, I feel like she's probably the sibling we know the most about after these three episodes. Um, but I'm excited.

[00:33:32] And she wasn't really involved as much as like in the inner dynamic family drama. She's been there, done that. She's already come out. She's already told them her quote unquote secret. She's just wanting her brothers to catch up at this point. Um, but I would love to see her more. Cause like, realistically, she is like the most level headed one in here. I don't know if, like, she is, uh, if she should run the business or if that's even a consideration at the, like, if that's something we'll get,

[00:34:02] uh, resolved by the end of this series. But, um, um, I was very excited and like, we've had queer characters on how to ruin Christmas before, but, um, not at, in season one, we had one character that was very prominent, like side, uh, story to the franchise, but then we don't see him again until season three. And very briefly, which is, it was still nice to see him, but this it's like, she is a main character.

[00:34:31] She's not somebody that they can, uh, write off in the show is going to still be, the same afterwards. So it was great to see so many different types of representation here and that they weren't shying away from this idea of like queer members of, uh, families or like traditional families or anything like that. So I was very happy to see it. She was the best character, but we knew that. Okay. Yes. Sasha, did you have a favorite character? Was it, uh, the sister here? Oh my God. No, it wasn't the sister.

[00:35:01] So hard. I think mom, uh, Penelope. How do you say, I don't want to say Penelope. Yeah. Was, I think my favorite. Cause she just like, cause she had a little bit of everything, right? Like she was crazy enough. She was ready to meet the moment. She was gonna, you know, kick her husband's ass as necessary, but then took a step back when needed. Right. When Mandala was like, actually trying to do well. Right. The whole meat gag was so funny.

[00:35:31] And she's like, I don't understand any of these spices, but guess what? My girl was trying. And then, you know, she had her little happiness at the end. So I really enjoyed her story. And, and she gave me easy. Oh my God. So that was my girl and her outfit, bro. The cat suits, every last one of them. Bangers, bangers. Yeah. I love them all. I did. I liked the relationship between her and Mandala as well. This like,

[00:36:01] Oh, we're not together, but we really want to be together. I like the gag that they're just like both hoping that the other one is kind of like jealous. And they're, you know, they're doing this to keep up appearances, but they really can't quit each other. And okay. I can, I can do that. These people have a lot of time and a lot of money between these two families. And that's why they're acting like this is because they, they, they're bored. That's all I could, that's all I could think of. These people are bored because they are making mountains out of molehills here. Gia, we did get some more overlap from our.

[00:36:30] The meat scene reminded me. I'm so excited about it. So Sasha, the guy that I'm just flipping through my notebook so I can find, find his name. But I forgot when I actually wrote about this in here, about how to ruin Christmas in here. But the guy that Zama knows is actually her uncle, who is a reoccurring character and how to ruin Christmas. His brother, I remember his brother's name is Lucy is the,

[00:36:59] the dad of the very wealthy family that's getting married. And he's very, very prim and proper. Should we say a very detached from like, from like, from like any of his roots in like Zulu tradition. Whereas as you can see from here, his brother is the exact opposite. So this, and he was a very funny character to bring back. I was not expecting that at all,

[00:37:27] but I was so happy to see him because he was one of my favorites in the original series as well. Yeah. And they also, we get a quick moment, just speaking of people coming back. There was a quick moment where the uncle goes to get in a firecrackers. Cause for me, my favorite part, cause I'm not Hindu. My favorite part of the volley, of course, besides the religious stuff. Cause I, I don't celebrate that part is the firecrackers. Okay. Like that was like, honey, especially in India.

[00:37:58] Are you kidding me? Like my grandpa and I used to go to every little stall to find the best things. So it's just relatable AF. And the fact that he had to go to this like lady. And then that old grandma that he gets actually the first fireworks from is the grandma in keeping up with kind of the zombies. And yeah. And like, she is iconic. So the fact that they only gave her two seconds, sad, sad. Just, she is so good.

[00:38:28] I can't wait to watch keeping up with the kasamis now. Kanda zombies. Yeah. No, but she's in there. So the, I agree. Like these little, again, these like funny gags that they just didn't have to do, but, oh, shout out fireworks, man, which also, again, big part of the shenanigans. Mm. Yeah. The fireworks were crazy. Um, I think it was, is it C, is it Sia? Siwa? It was his name. Gia, uh, the uncle who showed up.

[00:38:58] Was it Sia? I feel. I can't remember now. Uh, yeah. He pops up for a little bit. Wait, wait, wait, okay. Wait, I have. Okay, wait. I found the baby shower one. Okay. Uh, oh yeah. It's Sia. Sia. I wrote in here, he tried to spiritually connect with his mother in the third season after their family was getting a lot of bad luck. Yeah. Yeah. I was happy to see him back. He's one of the best characters.

[00:39:28] Yeah. He's, he's, he's, uh, yeah, you gotta have to go see it, Sasha. And if you are listening to this and you haven't gone to see it, make sure you go check out our reviews of how to ruin Christmas. like I said, three seasons of that. And it's only three episodes. It's an easy watch, but it's a very fun time. Cause the drama is high stakes at moments, but not really. They figure it out pretty well. And so, um, I know you're a big holiday movie person, holiday TV show person, Sasha, but how do you feel about this as a, uh, Diwali themed, uh, TV show?

[00:39:57] I don't know if they have a lot of these on Netflix. Yeah. Again, we, right. We have episodes. I mean, the project has them. We've watched never am I ever. They had Diwali. And this is definitely a South Indian Diwali. So not something I'm, like I said, very familiar with. We do in North India. Like I'm from Mumbai. We crazy. We outrageous, but the Diwali parties. Yes. Go hard. It's very similar to that. And like a lot of Indian movies, right. We'll have stuff like this.

[00:40:27] As well. So yeah, it's just, it, it, it feels pretty on brand and I just, I enjoyed it a lot. And it's different because I think it had that South, um, South African flavor to it. And it, you know, the way like South African Indians, I'm assuming celebrate is still different, but it, it was gaudy right. At the end of the day, like the whole ending scene was giving, yeah, this is like a Indian cinema, Bollywood movie. Yeah.

[00:40:55] I love the ending dance scene as well. Um, it was so much fun. I thought, Oh, like, okay, we're doing this. Um, now Sasha, you were, you were in South Africa last year. Oh, well, I went to Kenya. So East. Oh, you went to Kenya. Okay, cool. I was like, I knew you went to Africa, but yeah, not South Africa. Yeah. So Gia and I have been planning our trip to South Africa in our minds. Uh, because we have people to talk to obviously survivor players, but then also we need to check down some of these people that,

[00:41:25] these actors. And so we'll be checking out more of their content for sure. But Gia overall, what were your thoughts about this? Uh, what do you rank it? Give me your overall experience with how to, how to ruin Diwali. I loved it. It gave me everything that I looked for in this, that was hoping to see in this franchise and this version of the franchise, because I got to see, um, I got to see some of my favorites from how to ruin Christmas. Come back, which was always good to see a little shout out in there.

[00:41:54] Um, we got an ensemble cast, very comedy of errors, a lot of different hijinks going on. I agree with Sasha that I wish we had gotten to the lot of the characters interacting with each other, but I'm hoping that that will be fixed with our next season that I have decided is definitely happening. But they gave us a lot to hope that there will be another season. So I am very hopeful that we,

[00:42:24] uh, we'll be talking about, uh, how to ruin Diwali season two this time next year. The baby, you know, or something. Cause the thing is like, that's crazy that they're pregnant before marriage. I should be another secret, right? Like, I don't think they're going to, they're not going to come out. I know we just decided that we're going to be transparent. Right. But they're not going to, right. They're not, they're not going to learn their lesson. They're not telling them.

[00:42:52] Cause it's giving like the wedding outfit. It isn't going to fit. It's not going to work. you know, like something. And then it has to come out. Then everyone will be so happy and then we're fine. But my mom would kill me. Yeah. If like, even if I'm getting married. Yeah. And I, imposter. Imposter. And there's room. Like you said, there's room for shenanigans. Um, because we know his sister can't hold water. Maybe he decides I'm going to be transparent with my sister. Finally. And we get to see her be a blabber mouth.

[00:43:22] Cause we didn't get a lot of personality. Moments from her, but I'm excited. We will be back whenever there's time to talk about the next, uh, iteration of this series. But thank you so much, Sasha, for joining us. It's been way too long since you've been here. Um, tell everybody where they can find you. And, when you plan on coming back to visit us again, whenever you call hello, when are we doing Bollywood? But yes. Wait, now we can watch the show that you've been recommending. Oh my God. Oh yeah. All right.

[00:43:52] I'm getting, I'm getting on it. Oh, keeping up. We're all keeping up. Yes. But yes, you can keep up with me over on mess magnets with Kirsten McInnes. And I are talking everything trending pop culture. Sometimes we just talk silly reality shows. And over on our Patreon, we're, we have the comfort zone where we do all of our sweet, cute, girly pop shows. So go on movies. So go check that out. Join our Patreon,

[00:44:22] mess.magnets, uh, and everything on mess magnets.

[00:44:26] And everything on mess magnets.com. on Twitter, Instagram, Instagram,

[00:44:56] and blue sky for all of my reality TV shenanigans. We're on survivor 51 right now. So, uh, I'm doing coverage of that on inside survivor with Christine Palin. We'll have some stuff coming out on bed on black. As we get closer to the end of the year, celebrating some of the great TV shows that we have gotten over this past year. I'm so excited to talk about some of the, my favorite moments in reality TV in 2026. Um,

[00:45:25] and I think that's it for right now. I am so glad we got to talk about this. Um, and I'm, uh, I'm sure we will be having, having some new stuff to talk about in the next couple of weeks. So I can't wait to talk about them soon. Yeah. And, uh, tune in because we have a lot of recap, kickback content coming your way. If you're listening to this, you can definitely catch, uh, me and Mari collaborating with Bryce over on the purple pants podcast to talk about P Valley season three. It's back baby. Uh,

[00:45:55] and so tune in to recap, kickback for all of that and more. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast, youtube.com slash at recap, kickback or recap, kickback.com slash subscribe. Thank you all for listening. Catch us next time here. Uh, until next time. Peace. I've been trapped. I'm sorry.