Mirzapur Season 3 review: Gore up, fizz down

I missed Bauji's (Kulbhushan Karbhanda) creepy Nat-Geo obsession; the quiet menace of Kaleen bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi) and the casual flick-hair cruelty of Munna (Divyenndu). I even missed the sleazy JP Yadav (Pramod Pathak) and his black humour. Worryingly, Robin (Priyanshu Painyuli), of the 'ye bhi thik hain' fame, seems to have abandoned his deadpan acceptance of life. In short, I spent watching the much-awaited 'Mirzapur Season 3' missing Mirzapur.

Is the four-year wait worth it? Yes and no. Considered to be one of the best OTT series to come out of India, and rightly so, the first two seasons of this hinterland version of A Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011) garnered fame, fans and a whole sub-culture of memes.

So, naturally, Mirzapur is in the dangerous 'season three territory' — a quicksand pit of high expectations many great series have tumbled into and never emerged. The carnage factor has been upped several notches, and the production's slicker (making us fans miss its rawness) but the screenplay is all over the place and the storyline weak. Also, there appear to be several forced nods — to women power in Goonda land, for instance, despite which it has its moments. 

With so many characters and plot points, what it misses is a kahani-ab-tak narration — the hurried recap at the beginning is simply not enough. To add to the confusion, the first three episodes are crammed with incidents, new characters, and old characters in new avatars — all a bit much to take in. It takes a good four episodes to get back some of its fizz, from which point we hurtle bloodily towards the end to find out who is the better 'daavedar' for Mirzapur's 'gaddi'.  

The performances continue to be solid and Ali Fazal as Guddu is especially impressive. Watch if you are invested in this tale of violence and retribution but do keep your patience about you.