The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

It’s not typical for us to review an Arabic series, but this one (Confessions When Girls Talk) is going viral and has been popping up in our Facebook feed ten times a day. So, we had to squish our noses in and find out what the hype – and crazy boosting budget – is all about.

This series is taken from a famous Indian show titled “Confessions It’s Complicated”. On March 18th, Confessions When Girls Talk released a Facebook page.

The Facebook page has almost 38,000 likes and 40,500 followers. On March 25th, the first 10-minute video of the series was posted; it received 2.9 million views and a comment feed which saw girls tagging one another.

 Now, let’s get to the review. The series’ intro music really got us going and is perfect for our ears. The song is written by Ayman Seleha and sung by Shahd El Shaarawy. The lyrics attempt to give out somewhat of an empowering message to women, with lines which aim to highlight the importance of listening to women when they speak, and not to merely dismiss their words.

From there, one would assume that the series discusses the problems of young women today in a novel, unique, and meaningful way. This, however, is not true. The first video showcases the names and descriptions of the three protagonists: Amina, Malak, and Farah. They are three best friends who are all starting jobs at the same real estate agency.

Aside from the basic plot line, the girls mainly focus on sponsoring three main products throughout the short series. We have to say here that the product placement is perhaps too obvious. The names of the sponsored products are not at all subtly incorporated into the script, to the extent that the mention of the products completely threw us off the plotline.

Speaking of drama, this is definitely nothing more than a superficial “chick-flick” (a guy cheating on a girl with her best friend, a girl trying to be famous, another girl who has a degree in Pharmaceuticals, yet is passionate about cooking, eliciting anger from her parents). The quality of acting is, generally speaking, quite poor and very fake. As such, this series is worth a watch if you are on the look-out for something very light; if, however, you are looking for something beyond the somewhat stereotypical and archetypal depictions of young women and millennials, then definitely avoid watching this series.

All that being said, we have to applaud the people behind this show for taking two main risks. Firstly, this is the first time Egypt produces a dramatic series exclusively in the form of webisodes. Their Facebook account is also very active as they keep on posting teasers and asking questions to commentators, thereby ensuring a high degree of engagement. Secondly, we love the fact that most, if not all, the actors are new faces to the screen.

All in all, watch this if you are in the mood for something light, not something groundbreaking or memorable!