Bland mix of several underwhelming ideas

Beyond the world of genres and subgenres, lies stories which are powerful enough to become popular tropes of their own. A group of kids going on adventures, and solving mysteries, is one such trope. We have seen iterations of this in popular media like The Famous Five, The Goonies, and Stranger Things. While trying to follow a popular story structure is nothing to be frowned upon, Prime Video's Snakes and Ladders goes above and beyond to remove even the inherent joys of the stories it aims to emulate.

- PRASHANTH VALLAVAN

Snakes and Ladders follows a group of school kids who inadvertently find themselves entangled in a murder mystery that connects them to an organised crime network. Even the stereotypical characterisation of making every kid in the gang designed to have their own unique personality traits is absent. Except for the studious nerd (who obviously wears glasses and stutters), every kid is a vague amalgamation of an adult's perception of a pre pubescent. There is no change in rhythm or tone in the dialogues, which makes everyone sound the same, kid or adult. The series is also undecided about its tone. In one scene, you witness a convincing, violent home invasion and in the other you see kids knocking out fully grown adults with a shovel to the head, like cartoon characters. However, if you think the tonal shift is justified for scenes involving the kids, then the dialogues