Exposed - Ridiculous Staging

'Exposed' is streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar. In this section, we are going to review the first five episodes of the latest Telugu-language web series, which comprises 80 episodes in total. Five episodes are going to stream every Thursday.

Title: Exposed Streaming Partner: Disney Plus Hotstar Season: 1 Episodes: 5 of 80 Language: Telugu Genre: Newsroom Drama Run-Time: NA

Story:

Akash (Chennamaneni Vasudev Rao) and Greeshma (Harshitha) are a married couple who are noted journalists working for a TV channel named Exposed. Greeshma's popularity surges like anything after she does a sting operation exposing a corrupt deal clinched by a Minister.

Around the same time, a budding journalist named Varsha (Sireesha Nulu) applies for a job at the TV channel. She wants to break into the channel with the sole aim of pulling off sabotage. Her father died by suicide recently, purportedly in the aftermath of the big expose by Greeshma.

Analysis:

The premise of the mega series, presented by K Raghavendra Rao, suggests that it's a thriller or drama or both. But the narration is notoriously strange, so much so, even the most charitable reviewer won't be able to defend it by deploying academic mumbo-jumbo like 'subversive' and 'self-aware'.

The TV channel office feels like a pub in the disguise of a workplace. The backdrop has been sexualized to impossible levels. Every other journalist is into ogling, sexual harassment, flings, affairs, seducing, or simply simping. Depravity or promiscuity is always lurking around the corner. The characters are high on testosterone and low on news sense. The atmosphere is so sexy and permissive that, very soon, 'Exposed' could be turned into a general entertainment channel that specializes in Dr. Samaram-esque bulletins.

Two female journos go to a hospital. You think there won't be anything sexual for a while. This is when things get cute. One of them is declared pregnant. What is spicier is that the father is unknown. The other journo has a good laugh at the pregnant colleague's expense. In the same hospital, in another room, a female sports journalist (who behaves like she walked straight out of a Happy Ending massage centre) who is sportive abt deadly sexual affairs is having fun with her second boyfriend, lying down in a seductive pose. Then, a woman who purportedly killed her hubby and children so she can live with her boyfriend is being discussed.

You think that a recruitment drive is happening and there won't be any sexual thing for a while. Until you learn that the hiring is being done to fill a vacancy that came about because a female journalist was caught red-handed by her hubby while having an extramarital affair with a muscular male journo with a DJ-esque hairdo.

By the end of the fifth episode, you will figure out one thing without any struggle: that nobody is going to come out with less than two affairs by the end of the 80-episode epic. And the character who gets caught the maximum number of times by the HR department will walk away with the Best Exposed Employee Award.

Our suspicion is that the original backdrop of the series was Goa. They later changed the backdrop to a TV channel office. Subsequently, drug addict characters were called journalists.

It's not like the series makes sense when matters concerning lust are not around. But that's not the case. Three journalists get stuck inside a lift. Do you know who they shout for? For the Editor-in-Chief herself. "Kiran, please help...". Thankfully, the Editor-in-Chief is just around.

Verdict:

'Exposed' begins on an atrociously silly note. It's shocking that someone of K Raghavendra Rao's stature is its presenter.