Within the realm of Ramadan dramas, there’s a mostly-unspoken rule about how only gritty, dark-ish TV shows have what it takes to be serious crowd-pleasers. No one truly gives comedies or dramedies the time of day…but with the success Khaly Balak Min Zizi has been having, well, it’s safe to say that’s about to change.
A show that has been widely debated and surprisingly controversial since it aired, Khaly Balak Min Zizi has given us A LOT to talk about. And, yes, that’s what we’re doing right now.
What Happened So Far
Meet Zizi (Amina Khalil). Zizi is what many would call a ‘hot mess’…but that’s on the surface. We meet her when she’s spinning and spiraling as she runs through the store with an arm-full of candy, trying to charge her phone and call her husband at the same time. Stress? Well, it compounds the minute Zizi terrorizes the road as she drives to a fertility clinic. And now, everything makes sense.
See, Zizi is not pregnant. In fact, that was her fourth failed IVF try and, yes, it gets worse from here. Zizi storms the university her husband Hesham (Aly Kassem) teaches at to tell him the bad news. And then she tries to tell him she wants to try again but he drops the bomb — Hesham wants a divorce.
As you can imagine, things escalate and Zizi hits Hesham and smashes his car in the middle of campus. This key moment leads Hesham to go to his brother Yasser (Tamer Nabil), who immediately calls a sleazy lawyer to file a case against Zizi. When Zizi is notified, she seeks her cousin Nelly’s (Noha Abdeen) help in getting her a hotshot lawyer, Murad (Mohamed Mamdouh) to represent her.
Prepping for the case, Murad orders Zizi to channel her anger and her nerves through therapy, martial arts, and acting. Meanwhile, Hesham has a lot on his plate. See, he’s dealing with his domineering brother as well as Yasmine (Jala Hesham) from HR and her feelings for him, all while befriending and tutoring well-known flunker Serag (Hassan Malek).
Embroiled in his own drama, Murad is surprised by his visiting sister Huda (Asmaa Galal) and his niece Tito (Reem Abdelkader), as their visit turns into them uprooting their lives in El-Mansoura to Cairo, due to Huda’s unsteady life and marriage with her husband Waleed (Aly El-Tayeb) and his family.
And this isn’t where the story ends for any of the characters. In fact, it’s literally only the beginning as Zizi and Hesham butt heads, Tito deals with her new school life, and everyone else tries not to fall apart.
Characters
Constantly on the move (even when sitting), Zizi has been through a lot and it’s obvious. Other than having four failed IVF procedures and the emotional toll that come with them, Zizi also has to deal with her husband breaking up with her, suing her, and possibly cheating on her at the same time. And yet, Zizi is never let off the hook once.
In fact, even her own mother condemns her bad actions when she does them, and that’s refreshingly interesting, especially for a show’s lead. Zizi doesn’t get away with things — instead, she gets a redemption arc and has to find ways to turn her life around, which is clear when she goes to therapy and learns that she needs to take accountability for her own actions.
A touch too timid, Hesham is stoic, silent, and meek and it all makes sense when we meet his brother. See, Yasser oversees everything in his life to the point where he basically treats Hesham like one of his kids rather than a grown adult. Sick between dealing with Zizi and living under his brother’s shadow, Hesham experiments with letting himself try new things and being more open with others.
Something of a workaholic, Murad is a precise person that likes everything done a certain way. He hates anything that disrupts his order and his peace. And that’s why it’s incredibly interesting seeing him interact with Zizi at the office and with Tito and Huda at home. We get to see more and more layers peeled off Murad and so far, these layers speak of a complex history that led the character to where he is now.
Speaking of family, Tito, Murad’s hyperactive niece, deals with a lot of sudden changes all at once. In a flash, she’s moving to Cairo, to a new school, is knocked down a grade, and has to deal with her parents’ marital troubles. At first glance, her story might seem all too independent from the rest of the show…but looking deeper, it’s easy to see that Tito and Zizi’s stories are connected.
We need to talk about the acting
The heart of every show is its cast and in that case, Khaly Balak Min Zizi is in good hands. The show has some of the best performances this Ramadan and we mean every part of these words. See, Amina Khalil is a perfect Zizi and we’re not just saying that.
Everything about her expressions to her little quirks to the way she talks all builds up a realistic, flawed character who has a lot on her plate. With Zizi, we go from feeling sympathetic to feeling intrigued and that’s largely because of Amina’s acting.
Naturally, we can’t forget Aly Kassem either and how he perfectly embodies Hesham in a way that makes you feel greatly sympathetic and annoyed with him. With every nuanced expression, we get to see more and more of Hesham’s personality peek through.
But, of course, the good acting doesn’t stop here. We have a talented range of actors from Noha Abdeen and her relaxed, anti-Zizi Nelly, to Bayoumi Fouad and Safaa El-Toukhy as Zizi’s tired parents, to everyone’s favorite aunt Salwa Mohamed Aly, to Mohamed Mamdouh’s perfectionist Murad, to Asmaa Galal’s overwhelmed Huda.
Even the recurring characters, like Sabry Fawaz’s Dr. Samy and Mohamed Farag’s acting instructor Ahmed, are played with a natural charm and effortlessness that simply showcase the two talented actors’ range.
And, naturally, we can’t forget Reem Abdelkader, who plays Tito with just the right amount of childish precociousness and sincerity that makes her character so infinitely real to everyone watching.
The best part about the show? It truly doesn’t leave a topic unturned
No, seriously. From the get-go, Khaly Balak Min Zizi tells you it’s going to be a different show and it’s because of more than Zizi and Hesham’s rocky marriage. It’s because of Zizi — there’s more to her restlessness and impulsive side and if you’re wondering…then, the answer lies with Tito.
See, both Tito and Zizi are on the ADHD spectrum, though only Tito (as of episode 11) is diagnosed. Through both characters, we get two important questions — one is “what happens when you get diagnosed with ADHD at a young age?” and the second is “what happens if you don’t get diagnosed?”, making for two equally important narratives.
But Khaly Balak Min Zizi does more than just become the first Egyptian show that tackles ADHD in adults and/or children; it also highlights every character’s pent-up issues and how all of these issues beget consequences that become harsher the more they’re ignored, whether the issue is an unstable family dynamic or a fear of flying.
With topics like these getting discussed on the regular, as well as the much-needed normalization of therapy, the show also does what it has to do and shows us what school bullying is really like and how it can negatively affect kids, especially neuro-divergent kids who already face struggles within the school system.
