'Bait EL Salayf'; 60 days of pointless wait

CAIRO – 22 December 2018: As autumn started, people were excited to see what series will be shown. And so came "Bait El-Salayf" (House of the in Laws), starring Poussy, Ahmed Salah Hosni, Hazem Sameer, Mina Fadhali, Ahmed Shami, Ahmed Essam, Amro Ramzy, Abeer Sabry, Yasmin Ali, and Jehan Khalil.

Written by Adel Tawfik and directed by Mohamed Abdel Khaleq, the series got off to a promising start and by the 23rd episode the series was trending in Egypt, as people were intrigued by the plot that revolves around the Hindawi family led by their insane mother Farida, played quite convincingly by Poussy, whose main aim was to protect the family's inheritance by all means.

The title of the series is quite misleading, as there are no in laws living in the same house and they are not the focus of the drama plot, unless the title refers to Poussy and her sister in law who is also her number one enemy, but doesn't share the same house with her.

The series revolves around siblings whose problem stems from their mother's controlling nature and favouritism of her eldest son, Khalid, played by Hazem Sameer.

The mystery surrounding the Red Rose who blackmails and threatens the Hindawi family kept people watching to find out who this woman is and why she hates the family, but to wait 60 episodes without being given the answer is quite frustrating and makes us question the writer's intention.

Then again, the series is full of loop holes and questions that remained unanswered. The series ends without discovering any of the plots that kept the audience watching for two months and tolerating some really bad acting.

Although it started off well, by the 35th episode the scenes became ill structured with the plot going in four different directions and characters suddenly disappearing without an explanation.

Sadly, "Bait El-Salayf" failed to meet the audience's expectations and turned out to be a total flop; the only positive aspect came with the exceptional acting of both Ahmed Salah Hosni and Ahmed Essam, who were not only convincing but also made the audience feel connected to their characters in some way. This can't be said about the majority of the cast and one can’t help but wonder how a star like Poussy agreed to be part of such a poor production.