The sophomore season of Masameer County continues to see stories of social change amid morality tales and absurd hijinks that the residents of the titular county entertain on a daily basis.
Story
Episode 1 sees Trad taking it too far when he seeks to become a service dog, only so he can enter and compete in a cosplay competition. Meanwhile, Adel’s overwhelmed by worries at work.
Episode 2 sees a group of most diabolical characters getting stuck in an elevator, leading to all of them asking for God’s forgiveness before they all perish.
In the end, all of them survive and forget all that they were repenting moments ago, while one person delivers himself to the afterlife following the hopelessness in humanity that all other folks inspired in him within minutes.
In episode 3, a bookstore owner goes up against a brute and the taboos that hold people from the joys and knowledge that books have to offer. The story ends with him defeating the enemies with lessons he learned from the books.
In episode 4, a wealthy man’s loose motions deprive an astronaut of his life-long dreams. The fifth episode sees Trad and company performing a play to teach the orphan kids the lessons of social media platforms and their evils.
Their play is constantly sabotaged by Adel’s unhelpful inputs and demands, forcing Saltooh to finally stand up and blurt out a genuinely good social message.
The final episode of Masameer County season 2 follows Muneea and Juffer competing against each other to prove who’s more woke and hence, worthy of a late billionaire’s daughter’s hand in marriage, and the wealth of 10 billion British pounds.
The episode ends with the two learning they’ve been duped the whole time, while all this spiel has been part of a reality show, targeted to Japanese audiences.
Performances
Masameer County benefits from its characters a lot, and the eccentricities that each character exhibits are sometimes portrayed with immense hilarity, made possible often by not some display of tremendous effort, but minor infections and quirk expressions.
One performance of major noteworthiness is that of the actor lending his voice to the cable-cutter-wielding brute in episode 3, with even the smallest gestures of the character feeling authentic and just as imposing as his stature.
Positives
Quirky, eccentric, absurd, and hilarious as the show can be at times, it’s also really poignant at others. Even in episodes that aren’t standalone stories bereft of comical elements entirely, the show manages to be socially resonant.
There’s certainly a lot of hope that the show inspires for the Saudi people looking to greener, more progressive pastures of society, while acknowledging and commenting on the regressive system that the country runs on, with all the societal, religious, and cultural hypocrisy that comes with it.
The show isn’t scared to the dark places, and while adult animation can be grim as anything, most often than not, it’s just chalked up to a gore-filled, graphic affair. That’s not the case with Masameer County, where stories are enough to make things bleak and dark.
Negatives
The show comments on the capitalistic goals that the characters strive for and are influenced by, but there isn’t enough here to address the extremely glaring issues of the Saudi capitalist dystopia, and the many human rights violations that are perpetually eclipsed by its towering skyscrapers.
Verdict
Masameer County season 2 is a commendable effort at addressing the socially and culturally resonant issues while rarely letting go of the leash on its idiosyncratic humor, all of which combine to make for a truly entertaining watch.
Masameer County season 2
Director: Malik Nejer
Date Created: 2023-03-02 13:30
3.5