Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives Season 3 review: New faces but not enough drama

Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives Season 3 review: Delhi vs Mumbai? The new season is more like dull vs monotonous with a bunch of new faces but nothing to add.

The new season of Fabulous Wives of Bollywood Wives, now retitled Fabulous Wives vs. Bollywood Wives, desperately wants some drama. It is a whole lot of change this season for fans of the (guilty pleasure) show that is presented by Dharmatic Entertainment. The Bollywood wives are now joined by three new faces --Riddhima Kapoor Sahni (Ranbir Kapoor's sister), Shalini Passi and Kalyani Saha. This time, the drama is centered around Delhi vs Mumbai, as if we haven't had that same old conversation already a thousand times over. (Also read: Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives Season 3: It's Riddhima Kapoor Sahni vs Maheep Kapoor's gang in quirky teaser)

Fabulous Wives vs Bollywood Wives is available to watch on Netflix.

Delhi vs Mumbai falls flat

To cut the chase short, the show feels like it has run its course with frivolous gossip and drama so now this silly production has added new faces just to sprinkle some tadka into the same old template of the show. But instead of tadka, the new additions feel like annoying elaichis that can ruin any dish.

We have Ranbir Kapoor echoing some of his doubts that his sister will be on the show and being the opinionated person that she is, it might cause trouble. But why are Neetu Kapoor and Riddhima watching Ranbir's reaction together? How does that tell us anything new? Why does Saif Ali Khan appear all of a sudden to ask whether any of these women read? ‘Why’ is perhaps the last word that I should use in context of a show so needlessly boring and illogical.

Season 3 takes its own sweet time to settle as we are introduced to the new faces and all the women are invited to this lavish Delhi ball by Shalini. The new host makes a grand entrance, much to the shock of the other eyebrow-raising women around her. Shalini is certainly the one who makes the most by being at the centre of attention. “I am the gossip,” is how she proudly proclaims herself, and remains true to that image till the end. So much so that she even makes Karan Johar choke on his drink when they all meet together for a lunch on another occasion, with Shalini saying she was approached to play Mother India (for a play)!

Too safe, too boring

The show needlessly eschews in the Delhi vs Mumbai equation into its premise. Surely none of the women are in the mood to add anything new to the conversation except for the cliché of one city being too loud and brash over the another. Maheep and Bhavana also play too safe this time to make any memorable impact. The entire Karwa Chauth bit is perhaps the most tiresome and boring episode of the season where nothing memorable happens and everyone is busy smiling through the weight of their heavy diamond necklaces. Even Orry's cameo appearance feels a little too forced to elicit any reaction.

Vague and needlessly overlong, Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives will prove to be a test of the patience for even the most ardent fans of the show. The engineered high-drama interactions are not dramatic enough no matter what these women are saying to each other in-person and then behind their backs. This season feels like it arrived after a rough draft over a casual lunch between Maheep and Riddhima, which was quickly greenlit after a meeting. It is all very joyless and dull.