'Local Times' Series Review: Basic Pleasures In This Workplace Comedy

There’s not a lot that goes on in each of the seven 30-minute episodes of Amazon Prime Video’s Local Times. It’s a workplace comedy about a hyper-local newspaper named Namma Sedhi that survives on hopes and prayers alone. It’s being run by the grandson of a media Moghul who had big dreams for this weekly. But in the digital age, his grandson Veera (Rishikanth) struggles to keep it afloat as they try to play every dirty game on the media survival handbook to ensure it lives on for another week. With broad plotlines for each episode and reasonably likeable ensemble, the show is best enjoyed as a second screen experience as you go life’s duties which may appear slightly less mundane with this show playing in the background.

This appears to have been done as part of its design; at the start of each episode is a cold open which sets up a new conflict, introduces a new character and creates the space for both to be tied together. As long as the viewer pays close attention to these bits, chances are that you can get a fair idea of what’s going on, even if you’re simply passing by the television screen. This approach is then fortified with the performances… they’re easy and light and the dialogues too have been written with so much exposition that you have a minimum of two chances to grab hold of what’s happening.

This format works most obviously in the show’s second episode. In this, we’re introduced to a character that appears to be modelled around Rangannan from Aavesham with a silly plot that revolves around a QR code. Not much is said about this character either before or after this episode, but the show ties it all up into a complete episode that’s watchable as a single standalone entity.

It’s the larger narrative arcs, though, that add little to the series. At one point, we’re introduced to a sub-plot which involves a media house that wants to take over Namma Seidhi. The episodes which follow add a few key points to this plot, but what’s at stake feels so lightweight that we’d rather focus on what’s happening in each episode. This too, one may argue, is clever writing when you think of it as passive viewing. You may take a day or a week between episodes and you’ll still feel like you’ve not missed much.

What works, meanwhile, is how we begin to take a liking to most characters. For the highly principled Veera (Rishikanth), there’s always a running gag of just how little needs to be said for him to compromise on his journalist ethics. As for Azhagu (Abdool Lee), despite the issues he ends up creating, you still sorta understand why people want to be around him. It’s not that these performances are so on point that you end up laughing out loud but there’s a warmth in each of them and the pleasure of seeing a group of well-meaning-but-useless people trying their best.

So, we learn to forgive when the show speaks about the newspaper going digital as though it’s something shockingly clever. You also forgive the show when it spends far too much time critiquing the flaws of the media business and new-age journalists in the most obvious manner. It might not add much to your day(s), but like the humble local newspaper, it represents a time when life was a lot simpler, with the most innocent of people.