How to go viral for all the wrong reasons.
Episode 1:
Starting with the honest, constructive criticism
Not only were we beyond confused about the plot, the lack of relatability really made you want to switch it off. Where most consider this the biggest flaw of the series. Mustafa Babar, playing Harris in the series, felt otherwise:
Hmmm, then it really shouldn’t have been marketed as a professional production by Images at Dawn👀
Episode 2:
So here we were. Episode 2. Hoping that the first just had to be the worst. I was wrong. Terribly terribly wrong.
The break-up scene was definitely uncomfortable. You feel pitiful for Harris begging Alayna to stay while completely understanding her viewpoint because Harris is just so sadly desperate. There are attempts at social commentary which fail miserably because the society they describe neatly fits the bubble of the upper class only.
This last comment exactly sums up everyone’s motivation to continue. As cringe as Midsummer Chaos was, there’s no denying it was entertaining because of how bad it was. I’m not ashamed to admit I liked it too.
Episode 3:
Brace yourselves.
This was painstakingly sugarcoated but agreed. However, there was also this:
In my opinion, episode 3 was only bad for its plot. At this point, the acting had already been established as awful, so the audience was desensitised to it on some level. Had they not included this scene where a woman had to be submissive towards her cheating husband, they may have retained some dignity on the part of their plot.
Episode 4:
By this time, you’re entirely invested, waiting for every new episode to be uploaded.
The plot thickens to the consistency of mashed potatoes.
Is this the Islamic Republic of Pakistan?
Bas itna confidence chahiyay; not to the level where you can say that to your father’s lover but to romanticise infidelity. That’s the real low to reach.
Episode 5:
Alhamdulillah, but it comes with the end of an era of memes :*)
Closure like ordinary people, ending on a mundane note. This rollercoaster of emotions deserved to plummet to its demise. Alas, the only realistic episodes had to be the ones you looked most forward to. Perhaps that was the real plot twist all along.
Undoubtedly.
Never again.
Indeed, I’ll be too :)
Mid-summer chaos went viral for all the wrong reasons, from having a horrible plot to having characters that were not only full of themselves but also portrayed a great sense of entitlement to characters that hardly had any development in their role/character throughout the series. I fully agree with one of the screenshots attached to your blog post. Given the resources and awareness that one would expect these influencers, i.e., the show's producers, to possess, a far better series could have been produced. These influencers are often seen to be jumping onto the bandwagon when certain debates flare up within the country. Keeping that in mind, one would expect them to step outside the parameters of the privilege that they…
Mid summer chaos was one of those shows that I stopped watching after the third episode because I couldn’t stand the misrepresentation. There is misrepresnetation of Pakistani teenage kids in the show. The college life they have portrayed in the show is I believe a inspiration from the American based teen drama which in my opinion is not applicable in Pakistan. The drug culture and lenient parents is unlike the reality we have in Pakistan and only represents a minute population of our society.
another thing not talked about is the time the directors put a song in one of the episodes without the permission of the artist and the episode had to then be taken off. this shows how unprofessional the team of midsummer chaos was and how they didn’t follow proper procedures
Amna this was a very informative read on the Pakistani media consumer's psyche. I think it also displays this shift of who is producing certain media products with the advent of YouTube we see that there are more independent film producers and often restrictions like gender, race, caste and age are disproportionately affecting these independent producers then in the classic media power houses or the elite media oligarchy. I think midsummer chaos transition as a series in the YouTube realm may not be excellent watch but it does start a conversation for YouTube or any media streaming site serving to outsource talent and narratives which are unorthodox and underrepresented.
I think midsummer chaos helps open that door for a lot…
I want to ignore the production, acting, and dialogue for a while and only focus on the storyline of the series. Mostly because we all know it's the product of the efforts of a group of teenagers and people in their 20s so no one should expect perfection from them. However, the portrayal of a certain section of our elite class and their lifestyle hints towards a very problematic issue with our media. We are only good at showing the audience 2 extreme versions of our society.
We are either obsessed with stereotypical versions of our own values and culture that restrict women protagonists to cooking, cleaning and dealing with an abusive husband or lover and male characters portraying toxic…