To tell you the truth, I had no idea what this series was about. I also had my doubts if I would sustain till the final episode of season 1 of LIVIN’.

The series has a feel-good vibe throughout all its 13 episodes. It starts on a very funny, casual yet ambitious and jolly note and slowly turns towards realistic and hard reality kind of ending.

The city of Chennai and its culture is a silent character in this series. Chennai is constant witness to its citizens who are beginning to live in together, who are living as freeloaders, who have fallen in love with AI based app, who have grown old yet refuse to mature with time, who prefer walking home rather than a ride after dinner, who smoke-up bong in their balconies, who do fake poses for their pre-wedding photo-shoot, who want to explore true freedom but are bound by traditions and societal pressure.

Chennai accepts all of them with open heart.

Credit goes to the director-writer-creator – Prabhuram Vyas for choosing such a lovely premise and cast. There is a healthy mix of pride and satire on almost all topics. Take caste and racist feelings for instance. High IQ gyan on movies, books keeps flowing every now and then too!

Kanna Ravi initially seems like a boy next door with wooden looks but his acting skills get highlighted when things get realistic towards final episodes. Talented yet confused kinda look.

Amrutha Srinivasan is pretty comfortable doing her role. When she looks straight at the camera, you cant help but notice her mild squint eyes, cute! Beauty with brains kinda look.

Naveen George Thomas provides comic relief effortlessly. He evokes thoughtful laughter more like ‘Big bang theory’ and not like ‘Lollu sabha’. He is super comfortable in any scenario, be it funny scenes or emotional. I don’t give a f*** about anything kinda look!

Most of the series’ (including the NETFLIX ones), have unnecessary fillers which occupy a considerable amount of time in an episode  but wind up doing nothing in the end. This series has those too, however those fillers gel with the plot so well that the audience cannot name them a filler. Again the credit goes to the writer. The locations chosen for the series are all classy too.

This series is so subtle yet complicated that it invokes a sense of restlessness in the viewer. You would want to wake up and start pursuing something you like. Could be a person who you want to move in with, could be your passion, could be new love after break-up!

Watch all 13 episodes on YouTube in one go. While the first 12 episodes last for around 10 mins each, the final episode lasts for 23 mins. Its less than 3 hour watch.

–Varun Mannava