Four More Shots Please Season 2 review: Sayani Gupta, Kirti Kulhari’s show is a frothy drink for easy lockdown entertainment

Four More Shots Please Season 2
Director: Nupur Asthana
Cast: Sayani Gupta, Kirti Kulhari, Bani J, Maanvi Gagroo

Somewhere down A few episodes into the new season of Four More Shots Please, a heartbroken man tells the heartbreaker woman, ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.’ Fits my assessment of this series quite well. This Amazon Prime Original has horrible performances, cringey dialogues, aimless plot of privileged people with made-up problems and yet, you keep clicking to the ‘next episode’. There is something about Four More Shots Please that even hate-watching it becomes an enjoyable experience. Throwing a thought out there: Is this why millions of people tune into soap operas everyday?

I remember leaving the first season with a similar feeling. Such a show, so low on quality should not be as binge-able as it was. Yet, there I was, having munched through the entire season in a night, sitting soaked in the guilt of having done something nasty and…liked it?

Watch the trailer for Four More Shots Please:

The four millennial Mumbai women have kissed and made up after the fallout last season. How could they have not? A second season was one of the most highly demanded of Amazon’s not-very-thick desi roster. But as far as the plot goes, the girls make up to save Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo) from leaping off a bridge in Istanbul. They come together, parade the streets in their brightest, not very funeral-friendly outfits considering how they were all expecting to meet their suicidal friend floating in the Bosphorus.

Once the apologies are over, tall claims of undying friendships are made over bottomless glasses of champagne and an original song that is most reminiscent of soulless music that plays in Pantaloons and Westside stores. Soon, the girls return home in Mumbai to more champagne and shots, more fabulous outfits from a never-ending closet that might very well be a portal between Narnia and their less-than-perfect lives.

Anjana (Kirti Kulhari) is unsure what to do with her baby boyfriend who is already dreaming of giving each other foot massages as an octogenarian couple. Damini (Sayani Gupta) has put all that boy trouble behind her and wants to write a book on a murdered court judge. Umang (Bani J) is still in love with her superstar girlfriend who turns out to be bipolar and is played, rather horribly still, by Lisa Ray. Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo), meanwhile, is tired of taking foreign trips on her mum’s money and wants to find her calling.

However, be informed that this short summary of their lives’ troubles this season is valid only until the first three episodes out of a total of 10. The show never really finds a direction and rambles purposelessly. One moment Anjana is looking for closure with her ex-husband, next she is crying for her boyfriend, then she is getting seduced by a married man into his bed. At the end, people are killed and medical emergencies strike to give a semblance of trauma and tragedy to the characters, all totally needlessly.

And yet, you gulp it down. Episode after episode, they make easily avoidable errors and suffer one great lapse in judgement after another, eventually falling into in a web of confusion. Four More Shots Please is the kind of froth you need to water down the panic that is the real world right now. Sure, people are dying of a deadly virus but seeing these women is a good reminder of how simple life and troubles once used to be.

There are still endearing moments to cherish on the show. While Bani’s Punjabi side were greatly missed, she is still the most easy to love. She moves around like a bored kid, swinging her arms, dancing behind her grown up girlfriend, silently expressing the frustration at being the suppressed one in their relationship. Kirti, shined whenever a moment needed more sensitivity and less boozing. With a quiver of her mouth or the shocked embarrassment of being branded someone’s mistress, Kirti proves that she is the best actor of the lot.

Sayani, who recently delivered impressively in Article 15, sometimes just does not know where to stop, mostly when it involves crying. I don’t know if anyone told her it’s comedy gold to cry like a five year old or if it wasn’t even supposed to be funny but it was miserable any which way. But I save the worst for the last, without a concrete and relatable angle to her, Maanvi’s performance shows more holes than before. She lacks charisma in her scenes as the stand-up comic and there is nothing exciting, energised or even remotely funny about her or the lines written for her.

Also read: Alia Bhatt-Ranbir Kapoor also hosting her sister Shaheen at his home? Mom Soni Razdan says the sisters are living apart

As for other actors, Neil Bhoopalam, Prateik Babbar and Siddhi’s dad, whom I didn’t even notice in the last season, are a torture to watch on screen. I have no clue whose idea it was to have Neil play the doofus ex but it’s quite an unappetising transition. Lisa Ray, as previously mentioned, ruins almost every scene she is in with her lagging voice-overs. Milind Soman and his grey hair, however, still bring some respite to thirsty eyes.

Not just the actors, the dialogue writers also need to stop taking inspiration from WhatsApp forwards to come up with feminist quotes. Things sometimes got so pretentious, it made my eyes roll back to the back of my head. A scene with Kirti and her new flame in a degree-measuring contest made for an unbearable watch as they fought over whose law school was better, for a good (horrid) minute.

Four More Shots Please is not a good show and it ranks nowhere among the best in the country. But for some reason, even with its aimless plot and cringeworthy dialogues, it still makes for a good watch during quarantine. Your expectations are low, much like your spirits. This won’t hurt anybody.

Follow @htshowbiz for more