"Sabrina, you cannot lose hope -- whoever did this to you, wanted to break your confidence," says Dr Sabrina to her patient.

A burn victim was left to die at midnight on the roads of an urban area, when two young men rushed her to a hospital's emergency room. The police reported it as an attempt to murder.

The victim was Sabrina, the wife of a crime reporter, who went missing right from the time of the incident.

The medical professional who treated her was also named Sabrina, a burn unit specialist. After the treatment began, Sabrina learned some shocking facts about her namesake. Thus began an ambitious attempt at telling a story, a series of events that can affect any one of us.

Ashfaque Nipun's second web series "Sabrina", recently released on Hoichoi, is a slow-burn thriller containing eight episodes.

The director is best known for highlighting contemporary social issues in each of his works, and this thriller is no different. In this series, he built the characters who represent socio-political issues of Bangladesh.   

 "Sabrina", besides being a woman-centric plot, contains layers of politics and power struggles, easily accessible to anyone with context. From corruption, political bias, and a perfect showcase of how a woman is treated in society, conflicts in giving freedom for press -- the show brilliantly portrayed them.

Mehazabien Chowdhury as Dr Sabrina is subtle, calm and reactive where necessary. Mehazabien played her role with full conviction. That being said, certain aspects of her character may remind one of Azmeri Haque Badhon's Rehana from "Rehana Maryam Noor".

While the first three episodes of the series are perfectly paced, the latter portions seem to move too slowly. The final episode of the season tries to show too much with too little airtime, while not making any major reveals – which was personally, a letdown.

This seems to be a trend for projects on Hoichoi, where they reserve major plot-points for the next season.

The colour-grading and cinematography continually impressed. The background score was outstanding. Some shots—for instance, Orsha standing on the line of the cornice, a master shot of the politician's house and Mehazabien drinking six glasses of water in one take were commendable.

Ashfaque Nipun successfully portrays the distress of women through his works, particularly in this show. A scene powerfully reflects the development of the country and insecure lives of victims like Sabrina, in a parallel way.

Runa Khan as Baby, a homemaker, justified her screen time, however, the character seemed redundant at one point.

Orsha was adept at making her character's suffering emanate through the screen. Her on-screen collaboration with Intekhab Dinar was life-like. Yash Rohan was brilliant in his multi-layered role.

The supporting roles, compared to the strong main cast, were weak in dialogue delivery, and unconvincing.

Ashfaque Nipun rarely disappoints as a director, and while "Sabrina" is not perfect, it stands as an intriguing personification of many social issues that we face. For that, it does warrant a subscription to Hoichoi.