Poorly written and badly directed, Shaque – Trust No One doesn't just test your patience — it leaves you with even more shaque about how this one got approved in the first place.
We often hear how difficult it is to get a show or a film approved by Netflix. There are so many projects being developed, evaluated and discussed, and only a few eventually make the cut. Which is why a show like Shaque – Trust No One makes you wonder: what exactly does it take to get a project through, and how did this one make the cut?
Poorly written and badly directed by Rensil D'Silva, Shaque doesn't just test your patience as a viewer — it leaves me with even more shaque about how this one got approved in the first place.
The story begins with a nightmare no parent should have to experience. Parineeti Chopra plays a new mother whose baby is kidnapped from a hospital. The first episode actually creates some intrigue. There are enough breadcrumbs to make you suspicious of almost everyone, and for a while, you genuinely want to know who is behind the kidnapping and why.
Unfortunately, that's where much of the interest ends.
One year later, the baby is still missing, but the family decides to celebrate the child's birthday. Then, out of nowhere, the kidnapper sends them a photograph of the baby. We learn that there is a pattern to these kidnappings and that there may be more to the case than meets the eye.
This should have been the point where the police investigation became gripping.
Instead, the police are so poorly written that you keep questioning their decisions rather than trying to solve the mystery along with them. They don't seem interested in following the most obvious leads and spend more time creating their own theories.
And then comes one of the most ridiculous sequences in the show.
The police receive information that a Mumbai-based couple may have illegally taken the baby. So the cops and the family travel to Mumbai and land up at the couple's home. One police officer simply slaps the father and the baby is taken away. That's it. No proper legal procedure. No convincing investigation. No sense of law or due process. Just a slap and the police take the child.
It is the kind of scene that makes you stop thinking about the mystery and start thinking about the writing.
And Shaque keeps adding more and more twists to the mix. Cheating, betrayal, tarot cards, black magic, secrets, lies — the show seems determined to throw everything into the story in the hope that something will stick. It doesn't.
The seven episodes, each roughly 30 to 40 minutes, should have made for a quick and gripping watch. Instead, the narrative feels stretched because the writing doesn't create enough momentum. There are twists, but twists alone don't make a thriller. You need characters you care about, a world you believe in and a mystery that makes you want to keep watching.
The casting, interestingly, is actually good. There are some very capable actors here, and that's perhaps what makes the disappointment bigger. The actors are not the problem. The material is. None of them manages to leave a real impact because the writing doesn't give them enough to work with.
The conversations are another problem. They often feel disconnected, with very little natural flow from one scene to the next. The result is that the performances start looking like performances. You can see the actors acting instead of feeling that you're watching real people living through an extraordinary situation.
Even the production design doesn't help. Whether it's a house or a police station, too often the set looks like a set. You never completely enter this world. For a thriller built around a missing child, fear, suspicion and secrets, that lack of atmosphere is a serious problem.
There are a few things I will give the show. The casting is strong, the actors turn up and the dialogues occasionally work. But good actors and a few good lines cannot rescue a story that doesn't hold together.
By the time you reach the end, you're left wondering why a potentially gripping story about a missing child became such a messy collection of twists and theories.
I think by now you get the point. Anything more would just take more of your time — and mine. This show has already taken enough time from my life.
One star for the cast and the actors who showed up and tried to make something of the material.
And remember: just because you have a Netflix subscription doesn't mean you have to watch everything on Netflix. Shaque – Trust No One is the one you can safely skip.