Based on true events, the Kuwaiti series The Exchange tells the story of two women who became successful in the male-dominated world of Kuwati finance in the late 1980s. Yes, finance is a pretty bro-ish profession no matter where you are, but in the Arab world, their accomplishments are truly remarkable. Will the fictionalized story be able to bring that out?
THE EXCHANGE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Water from sprinklers rains down on the floor of the Kuwait Stock Exchange. As the alarm rings and people run. Two women find each other in the middle of the chaos, and one puts her head in her hands.
The Gist: Seven months earlier — in Kuwait, 1987 — Farida (Rawan Mahdi) is outside a courtroom, watching her husband Omar (Abdullah Bahman) and her lawyer sign their divorce papers.
She goes to pick up her daughter Jood (Ryan Dashti) at her private school; as the two of them go over her homework, she sees an envelope in Jood’s folder. It’s a bill for past due tuition, something that Omar was responsible for. Despite Omar’s wealth, though, Farida was left with almost nothing in the divorce.
When she shops for a dress for Jood, she runs into her friend Yara (Shabnam Khan), who encourages her to go to a fundraiser she’s throwing that day and to buy a gorgeous gold dress to wear there. She gives in, despite having to buy the dress on credit.
Farida and Jood are currently living with Farida’s parents, and she chafes around them just as she did before she married Omar. With the family’s driver off for the night, Farida’s dad drives her to the event, and encourages her to get a job if she wants to be independent of them and everyone else.
At the auction, she sees her cousin Munira (Mona Hussain), who drives herself — a rarity in Kuwait in that era — in a red convertible. She works as a clerk for the Bank of Tomorrow at the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange, and is the only woman there. The two of them have a friendly rivalry, and they goad each other into a bidding war on a statue during the auction. When Munira wins, though, a second statue comes out and Farida guiltily pledges to buy it, even though she can’t afford it.
Munira is really good at her job, and not afraid to throw elbows on the male-dominated trading floor. Her boss, Saud Salim (Hussain Almahdi), sees this and tells her that to get ahead, she’ll want to provide him information that no one else has.
Farida goes to Omar for the money for Jood’s tuition bill; he chooses to humiliate her, because she’s the one who left him, and tell her that their daughter can go to public school, like he did. She then meets with Munira, who tells her that if she can get her information on the shipping company Omar works for, she’ll pay off the tuition bill.
When Omar isn’t home, Farida finds plenty of information, and gives what she has to Munira… but not all of it. She also gives it to Yara’s husband, who is an executive at the bank. Her hope isn’t that she just gets a payoff, but a job.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Exchange has a similar vibe with other period shows where women start to make inroads in a previously-male-dominated world, like Minx or Mrs. America. A show that’s somewhat related is Black Monday.
Our Take: The Exchange, created and written by Nadia Ahmad, is a show that sets up an intriguing premise, given its time period and location. Stocks and finance was a bro-ish field back in 1987, no matter where in the world it was being practiced. But in Kuwait, where women didn’t even drive, for the most part? That certainly ups the ante as far as the drama is concerned.
Such an intriguing story could carry itself, but the chemistry between the series’ leads, Mahdi and Hussain, certainly brings the show’s energy to a higher level. Hussain immediately projects Munira’s fierceness, busting her way into the stock world and pretty much ignoring the men around her who likely wonder why she’s there, wearing stiletto heels and designer outfits. She certainly projects Munira’s confidence in any setting.
But Mahdi is equally as strong as Farida, though she shows more vulnerability. She certainly projects the fact that Farida left her husband, figuring she’d be better off being miserable without him than miserable with him. It’s a sense of empowerment she’s trying to convey to her daughter. And when she pulls off her power move at the end of the first episode, it seems that the vulnerability won’t get in her way. That move also sets up the fact that the rivalry between Farida and Munira is going to have a lot more at stake than a few thousand dollars for a sculpture.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: After successfully buying the shipping company stock based on Farida’s information, Munira looks up at her cousin, in the executive’s office overlooking the floor, and looks at her, both impressed with her and wary of her at the same time.
Sleeper Star: The makeup artists and costume designers should take a bow here. They show how the world of Kuwati fashion in the 1980s combined dowdy with bold, ’50s chic with ’80s geometrics and colors.
Most Pilot-y Line: For some reason, Omar decides to take out a lighter and light the overdue tuition bill on fire, as if the debit will cease to exist if he burns the invoice. The man may be wealthy, but logic isn’t his strong suit.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Exchange is an intriguing trip to a different place and time, with two leads who work well together.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
