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Juice: Season 2 (UK Series)

A comedy about a gay British-Pakistani man navigating commitment issues in a world that frequently lapses into the cartoonish colors of his imagination is back with the second season. Focusing yet again on its lead Mawaan Rizwan, as the fun-loving commitment-phobe Jamma, he channels the archetypal man-child vlogger from his real life personality. Puppyish and relatable, he wears his insecurities on his sleeve, and his attempts to conform to the expectations of adulthood. Total slapstick!

Continuing from season 1, having been fed from his job and breaking up with therapist boyfriend Guy, Jamma is living with friend Winnie and working as a clown in a care home, who is also best friends with his brother Isaac, a budding artist. Jamma is more interested in sleeping around than patching things up with lovelorn Guy. But after their paths cross again, he becomes determined to win him back. In the second episode, which focuses on Guy's new home and Jamma needing to care of it, it is done as if it is an American sitcom complete with recorded laughters. The whole family alongwith Jamma's absent father and now insurance ad famous mother also join to create chaos. But the central theme of this Eason is Guy and Jamma 'will they - won't they'. Jamma realizes that he must change (grow up) for Guy and he tries to do that with the help of a cloaked magician who wants to buy his soul. Jamma now becomes almost a bank like boringly dressed person who is not fun anymore and talks mostly sense. The next three episodes focus on this new Jamma, Guy writing and publishing his new book. Together they also visit Guy's family home to find his childhood diary for writing inspiration, but ghost appearance from his father makes things dreary. The last episode does a miss mash of the book launch alongwith wedding and how every character (most importantly Jamma) tries to save both.

From the enchantingly crafted model town in the opening titles and exterior shots to the makeshift house where Jamma’s dad lives (everything from the walls to the sofa cushions is made from cardboard and parcel paper), the set design is extraordinary. Colors and visuals were the highlight of first season as well. In this series, anything can happen and stories are told via the grammar of cheesy 1980s sitcoms, shadow-puppet-inspired animation and in fully fledged horror movie mode. The actors are all great and fun and do their parts perfect, including Marwaan's real life brother and mother. Actor playing Guy is also perfect. But somehow, overall I found the charm and the fun of first season missing here. This time it feels that the show has gone more into the psychological insight. Stuff like Jamma’s attempt to suffocate his inner clown; the part of him that conflates love and attention and craves them at any cost, or Jamma/Isaac having daddy's issues (an episode tells us the history through vivid puppetry) or Guy's tendency to take over father figure role in relationships. In any case, the ending felt very wholesome, almost like this was the final season. Not as good as the first season and not everything works wholesome; a lot of folks Amy not be able to connect with the story telling ways here, but the show is still one of the most innovative ways of story telling with strong visual mediums, which you could never think of. (6/10)

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