Escaype Live is a dystopian thriller about a Hunger Games-style online competition that unfolds between users of this weird app, Escaype Live. The show tries to be a satire on inequality and class disparity in India. But the problem with this show is that it has no idea who its audience is. The show’s creator is Siddharth Kumar Tewary, and the cast includes Siddharth, Jaaved Jaaferi, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Sumedh Mudgalkar, Swastika Mukherjee, Plabita Borthakur, Waluscha D’Souza and many more.
– Escaype Live Review doesn’t contain any spoilers –
Escaype Live is Filled with Unnatural and Ridiculous Sequences
Though the premise of Escaype Live is interesting, it’s not enough to redeem this woefully uninvolving show. There’s an inherent problem with this setup: the idea of people being forced to watch for entertainment is morally reprehensible and extremely difficult to dramatise on screen.
The premise of Escaype Live is as ridiculous as it is controversial. The show is set in an alternate reality where all of humanity is hooked on an online game called Escaype Live. The game is so addictive that users are willing to do anything for it.
Escaype Live is an out-of-the-blue entry into the crowded web series space, but it doesn’t have anything going. The premise is far from intriguing, the cast unimpressive, and the writer didn’t get enough scope to let their creative energy flow. But this show is also a poorly edited mess that feels as if it was thrown together in haste.
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Shoddy Scenes and Underwhelming Acting Rule the Premise in Escaype Live
The show is essentially a social commentary on how we are increasingly becoming addicted to our phones and technology in general — so much so that we don’t even realise that our lives are being manipulated by people who have a vested interest in keeping us hooked on their product (in this case, the app).
But what makes Escaype Live such a bad watch is not just the lack of good writing or direction — it’s also because it assumes its audience is too dumb to follow its (fundamental) plot. It’s like watching someone who doesn’t know how to drive try and teach you how to swerve into a one-way road.
It’s hard to believe that Escaype Live is Hotstar’s original series, and the streaming platform has already managed to drop the ball when it comes to its production quality. For most of its runtime, the show looks like an amateur Youtube video, but without any of the fun. The colours are too saturated, and there’s a lot more grain than a cheap phone cam can handle. There are rapid camera cuts every second, a horrible choice for a show trying to capture the experience of real-time events. It ruins the perspective and makes everything look sloppy, but it also gets annoying quickly.
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Escaype Live is an Adequate Showcase of a Talented Cast of Actors
Escaype Live, a web series on Hotstar, doesn’t bother with the typical contrivances in reality shows and game shows. The characters are all over the place, ranging from irritating to despicable. A remarkable feat considering these are the exact roles you find being played by actors in actual reality shows—a feat so impressive because Escaype Live specialises in making what would otherwise be incredibly toxic people despicable instead of entertaining.
Web series are meant to have engaging plots, essential dialogue, and stunning visuals. It’s a filmmaker’s job to make the story logical, not confusing. The plot should be easy to follow. And that’s where Escaype Live fails miserably.
Despite its reliance on the same old tropes deployed by other shows and movies, Escaype Live still had the potential for success. If not stellar, the cast is competent, and viewers wouldn’t be distracted from lousy writing or technical fluffs. With a few tweaks and better character development, the story had the potential to develop into an exciting and thrilling thriller that could keep audiences at the edge of their seats, but alas, that didn’t happen.
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Stream it or Skip it?
Escaype Live is not a great series. It’s bland, generic and predictable, with no clear focus and an unrelentingly weak plot. The show is less of a stream and more of a sluggish trickle. If you are still struggling to choose whether to watch Escaype Live or not, I’d say give it a miss.
Escaype Live is streaming on Disney+Hotstar.