Little Things is an Indian web television series by Pocket Aces. It features Mithila Palkar and Dhruv Sehgal in the lead roles. It first premiered on Pocket Aces' channel Dice Media in October 2016 with five episodes. Netflix later purchased the franchise and its second season, with eight additional episodes, premiered on Netflix on 5 October 2018. A third season was released on 9 November 2019 by Netflix.
Premise
The story revolves around Kavya Kulkarni and Dhruv Vats, a couple in a live-in relationship in Mumbai. The series progresses with everyday life explored through conversation between the couple. The language used is English, with a few sentences in Hindi.
The first season was directed by Ajay Bhuyan and had an episode runtime of 15 minutes each. The series is produced by Aditi Shrivastava, Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh. The second season was directed by Ruchir Arun, who is a National Award winner. The series features background music composed by Prateek Kuhad specially for it. In October 2019, Netflix announced that the show would be renewed for a third season, with a release date of 9 November 2019.
Development and writing
The series is written by Sehgal. Sehgal and Palkar have previously acted in short videos by Dice Media and Filter Copy, and have known each other since Palkar's time working at Thespo. Sehgal had asked her to audition for Filter Copy's new satire show on YouTube called News Darshan. The series explores multiple themes, related to everyday life and the problems and challenges faced in it. Season 1 explored themes like a fear of missing out caused by social media and late-night cravings for food. Season 2 explored more serious themes like personal and professional crises. Dhruv is seen reconnecting with an old friend and realising that they have grown apart. He is later seen quitting his job due to a loss of interest. Dhruv is then seen as being "aimless" while Kavya has received a promotion and a pay hike, which leads to fights as they realise the differences between them. Other themes explored in the second season include Kavya getting attracted to a biker on an office trip, homophobia and the possibility of considering one's parents as friends. Season 3 further explores Dhruv and Kavya's relationship with them venturing into a long-distance relationship. They thus begin to face loneliness and learn to deal with it. They eventually realize that they can also be happy with other people. The two of them also have additional responsibilities and pity themselves. They reconnect with childhood friends and Kavya faces the fear of losing a loved one, her neighbour's dog, Kaju. They both discuss the possibility of marriage and their views on the topic are explored through an episode consisting of flashbacks. While visiting their parents, they realize that they are growing old. Additionally, the season explores the social structures of the big cities, commenting on how the urbanisation results in a loss of humanity.
Rohan Naahar of Hindustan Times gave it a rating of 4/5 and went on to write " relies more heavily on performances than most others". Soumya Rao, writing for Scroll.in, called the show "frequently charming, often relatable and never boring". Prakhya Nair of The Red Sparrow rated it 3.5 stars and recommended it to "anyone who wants to delve in a real relationship for a while". Anvita Singh, writing for The Indian Express, opines that " would have worked better if it had four episodes of 15 minutes each, instead of the eight episodes, each over 22 minutes long" and also critiqued that the second season lacked the show's "sweet-natured relatability".
Awards
Best Youth Show at MTV-IWMBuzz Digital Awards 2019
