Prime Video's The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh" is hilariously funny

October 17, 2024

Courtesy: Prime Video

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh is the hilarious laugh-out-loud comedy that follows the Pradeeps, an Indian family who attempt to prove their innocence to a pair of investigating government agents by recounting their initial life in America. The series premiers today on Prime Video, with all eight episodes available for streaming.

Inspired by the personal experiences of creator and executive producer Vijal Patel (Black-ish, The Middle), the series is also executive produced by Sara Gilbert, Mandy Summers, Tom Werner, and Jordana Mollick. Production companies are Sony Pictures Television, Amazon MGM Studios, and Sem-Formal Productions.

The series stars:

Naveen Andrews as Mahesh

Sindhu Vee as Sudha

Sahana Srinivasan as Bhanu

Arjun Siriam as Kamal

Ashwin Sakthivel as Vinod

Ethan Suplee as Jimbo

Megan Hilty as Janice

Nicholas Hamilton as Stu

Pete Holmes as Dark Suit

Romy Rosemont as Light Suit

Courtesy: Prime Video

When we first see the Pradeeps, they are being interrogated for a crime that they may or may not have committed by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers, and that's just the start as the family led by Sudha (Sindhu Vee), who is absolutely fantastic as the brash matriarch, begins telling their often conflicting flashbacks from the interrogation room as each family member has a different perspective starting with the first minutes they arrived in Pittsburgh two years ago. The Pradeeps are over the top, bold, unapologetically in your face, and dysfunctional.

The series does not take itself seriously, and in a genre where we have dramedies and dramas masquerading as comedies, it does not pretend to be anything it's not. It's reminiscent of ABC's hit comedy "Fresh Off the Boat," another comedy centered around an Asian family trying to achieve their American dream as they assimilate into America. The Pradeeps are light-hearted from start to finish, and some laughs are so hilariously funny that you feel it from the gut. The culture clash is on the nose, so when Kamal, the middle son (who grows increasingly frustrated at his name being pronounced "camel") orders an MM milkshake and Sudha asks for a chickpeas one instead as if she expects chickpeas to be on standby, you cannot help but laugh. Sudha is the engine that makes the series run. She is a brain surgeon who is excessively paranoid and thinks that the reason her license has not been approved to practice in America is because she's an immigrant. The show touches on the typical setbacks that immigrants face and follows the same racial punchlines that are legitimately funny.

The heartbeat of the series is the comical dysfunction among the family as Sudha has to be repeatedly corrected with her version of events much to the frustration of her eldest daughter, Bhanu, who has become smitten with her neighbors' son, Stu. The overtly sweet Christian neighbors, Jimbo and Janice, play a pivotal role in the series, amping up the hijinks for the Pradeeps. Patriarch Manesh, an engineer who landed a contract with Space X and moved his family to Pittsburgh, is still trying to get the business off the ground. There's Kamal, who is so overwhelmed by anxiety he has gone mute, and the youngest son, Vinod, the eternal optimist who sees optimism in everything, including aspirations of being a garbage collector.

Everything about The Pradeeps in Pittsburgh works. The series is legitimately hilarious and entertaining. The series ended on a cliffhanger, and it would be incredibly disappointing if we did not get another season.

____________________________________________________

The Pradeeps in Pittsburg is currently streaming on Prime Video.

____________________________________________________