The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh

This is great, happy to see this. The film Growing Up Smith (also on Prime with Jason Lee from My Name is Earl and Hilarie Burton) helped open doors for this show (and many like it). Houghton was the original creator of Growing Up Smith after living with four gents from India in a small apartment. OIt's crazy, a Growing Up Smith series was actually shopped around H-wood with Alec Baldwin, the series had even been discussed with Lorne Michaels.

But this is a fun show. Fade the haters who won't/don't get it. They'll say "stereotyping", etc. It's based on a TRUE STORY, for goodness sakes. Uh, duh. And it's a strong story about strong people.

Yes, the characters are over the top. That's because this is a comedy and not a documentary. The Indian characters are stereotypical, but so are the American ones. The Mills Family are every single American stereotype wrapped into one family - it's actually impressive that the writers managed it: overly religious, petty, redneck, hunting, etc. - every American stereotype ever, wrapped up in a bushy beard and a bleach-blonde hairdo.

So two stereotypes - Indian and American - living next-door to each other: it was just funny. The youngest Pradeep was adorable, and not at all realistic for any child his age, no matter what country they came from. But it's a tv show and not reality.

It's not perfect, far off from that. But it's definitely pretty funny and good for a Sunday binge.

Yes the Pradeeps are Indian, they speak with Indian accents, they wear Indian clothes but they are also very Americanized despite living in Pittsburgh for such a short time. There are nods to the Pradeeps' heritage but by and large this is a show for a general American audience. That audience is still not ready for a dignified romantic relationship between a brown person and a white person. What we get instead is the daugher Bhanu lusting after her neighbor Stu but told to slow down because of their religious differences. The son Kamal lusts after his neighbor Janice who is also his school teacher. Its embarassing to see this on screen in 2024 and I was mashing the fast forward ten seconds button on my remote to get through it. The neighbor Jimbo remarks that women would be interested in the father character Mahesh for his understanding of Karma, but of course we will not ever see a woman show interest towards a brown man in this program.

If you're ready and willing to fast foward through the cringe there are some enjoyable dynamics in the show. The friendship between Mahesh and Jimbo was refreshing. The rivalry between Sudha and Janice is over the top but funny at times. I like the two investigator characters who play good cop, bad cop and try to get a confession out of the Pradeeps. The youngest son Vinod is meant to be a precious kid and draws laughs. Heck I like the entire cast and I hope they all get roles after this or if there is a season 2 it simply comes out better. Other television programs like 'Fresh Off the Boat' and 'Never Have I Ever' set a standard for immigrant and South Asian stories and they make 'Pradeeps of Pittsburgh' look feeble by comparison.

Funny, easy to watch series. It's a comedy series, so, spoiler alert, they've exaggerated behaviours for comedy value. It's not real life or a documentary. I enjoyed the dysfunctional family dynamics and I lived for Sudha and little Vinod's characters.

Sudha, the mum, is played by Sindhu Vee who is a hilarious stand-up comedian in the UK (if you don't know her, she's worth looking up)

It's a fun, light hearted series with a few uncomfortable scenes but easy to watch. It's reflective of the 2020s and it's nice to see a non-white family as the lead characters. I've read a few negative reviews about authenticity but I'm fairly sure the producers were trying to create a funny series, not factually accurate. Enjoy!

Entertaining well made series actors had good job. It should be appreciated it's made by indian who does not have any complex of presenting a big percentage of indian immigrants actual character don't understand why indians who are in india find this offending which I am sure indian immigrants won't display because they know that this is not kind of assumption but true and it is maturity that we learn to accept ourselves rather than denying it. This series has a child like simplicity no one is trying to do comedy the script and direction is in a way that daily day to day life of characters their conversation has comedy. No white will ever feel offended that the white characters too are on the same line as the immigrants that is called maturity.