Much streaming content gives me the same feeling as desultory swiping on dating apps. Masaba Masaba dispelled my swiping ennui. Let's say, it was the perfect date. I went in with no expectations. I stayed up all night. I laughed a lot. I saw it, but I also felt seen by it. If it's in town again, I'd definitely make plans.

Designed as fiction, the show is based on the real lives of mother and daughter, actor Neena and designer Masaba Gupta, playing themselves. Masaba Masaba begins with a blind item, and one could describe the series as one big blind-item, put out by the subjects of the blind-item themselves. In episode one, Masaba counters the blind-item (about her divorce) by, at first denying it, then owning it. This motif recurs through the show and is also linked to its denouement, where the business of "owning it" is critiqued, unexpectedly, by a deliriously comical Pooja Bedi, who points out that it is a defensive mask, more about avoiding mess, than surviving it.