Snakes and Ladders review: When you have a series starring five school kids, then one thinks it’s going to be an adventurous fun ride for teens a la Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. However, in the web series Snakes and Ladders, which has well-known Tamil director Karthik Subbaraj as its creative producer, the similarity ends with the five teens. The series, which dropped on Amazon Prime Video on October 18, sees three directors – Bharath Muralidharan, Ashok Veerapan and Kamala Alchemis – make their directorial debut with these nine episodes. (Also read: Vettaiyan movie review: TJ Gnanavel’s lackluster follow-up to Jai Bhim squanders Rajinikanth’s star power)

What is Snakes and Ladders about

Snakes and Ladders is set in the Tamil Nadu hill station of Rettamugadu where five kids – Gilbert aka Gilli, Bala, Santosh aka Sandy, Iraiyan aka Irai, and Raagitha aka Raagi – are in school together and are best buddies. But each one has their own set of issues at home. Gili hasn’t seen his parents in years, Sandy’s father is hardly ever at home, and Raagi has a health condition. One day things take a dark turn for the group when some burglars – Blade and Paari – break into Gili’s house and when he spots the burglar get into a kitchen cupboard, he locks it to protect himself and his grandmother. The thief, Blade, who is asthmatic dies due to asphyxiation and Gili ends up becoming a murderer. Subsequently, a series of unfortunate and dangerous events unfold for Gili and his friends thanks to the gangsters who are searching for their friend Blade. The rest of the series is about how they navigate the thugs and so on.

Given that Snakes and Ladders was produced under Karthik Subbaraj’s banner A Stone Bench Production, one expected a much tighter, well-written dark comedy starring teenagers that would elicit laughs and yet be a gripping ride. Sadly, the writer is below par, especially after the first few episodes and the series seems unnecessarily stretched for nine episodes. The episodes directed by Bharath Muralidharan are quite engaging, but the others that follow – Ashok Veerapan and Kamala Alchemis – dilute his good work.

While kids are the protagonists, the series is more adult-like as they behave like adults in this crime thriller. Then you have the cop, Irai’s father, Sub Inspector Chezian (Nandaa Dorairaj) and the crooked IT guy, Naveen Chandra, added to the mix in the story, and one hopes there’ll be more thrills, but no. And that’s one of the main issues here since the added twists and turns just don’t seamlessly fit into the storyline.

One also finds shades of Stranger Things, Godfather and other films in some of the scenes in this cat-and-mouse game between adults and kids. Though Snakes and Ladders is not a bad watch, it squanders a good opportunity by not infusing enough dark humour which Karthik Subbaraj is known for.

When it comes to performances, the five teens – MS Samrith, S Surya Ragaveshwar, S Surya Kumar, Tarun Yuvraaj and Sasha Bharen – have all done an excellent job in portraying their characters. Each one’s personality is different, and the teens have managed to bring those differences out efficiently on screen. The bond they share as friends on screen also looks real, and that’s one of the highlights of Snakes and Ladders. Nandaa Dorairaj, Manoj Bharathiraja, and Naveen Chandra deliver what is required of them in their respective roles.

Snakes and Ladders hinges entirely on the five teens, and they come out on top in this series. The series seems poised for a season 2, and one hopes the teens slither their way through another adventure successfully, this time with some tight writing and plenty of laughs thrown in.