Bad Trip is a 2023 drama TV series directed by Krishna Kanth Mamidala, produced by Mahi Illindra and stars Ravi Varma, Vajja Venkata Giridhar, Chaitanya Krishna, Adrika Sharma and Archana Shastry, alongside other cast members.
Three unlikely passengers in a cab ride become embroiled in a horrible situation after an illegal but rewarding situation presents itself. Faced with the decision of whether or not to do something terrible, the three men decide to embark down a road from where there is no coming back.
– Bad Trip Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
With a concept as simple as this, Bad Trip, the creators packed its 8-episode runtime with unnecessary details and extremely extended scenes that are boring to watch. The series’s first episode or two sets up the story, and you know from then on, through the little humorous quips and whatnot, the direction in which it is about to go.
The problem, however, isn’t entirely the fact that the storyline is sluggish and stale. It’s the fact that these people who are doing the kidnapping are absolutely annoying and don’t feel like real people with real problems. I think it’s only very entitled people like them who think that kidnapping is the way to get out of their ‘difficult’ situation. I say ‘difficult’ because all of these people, barring one or two, aren’t like dying of poverty.
It’s almost annoying watching them because they are, in fact, annoying. I don’t know whether it’s the horrible dubbing or the dialogues that are just so cheesy, or if it’s the fact that they stretch out each and every scene for far too long, but Bad Trip has some of the worst characters I have seen in a TV show. They are just entitled and oddly sexist – Ved and Abhi will just give you the ick.
As I mentioned previously, the story isn’t new, nor is it exciting, but there still was an opportunity to make this funny. Instead, we have a group of idiots who are neither humorous nor smart, and thus you are left with an odd story that is just confusing about its intent. It also tries to be a wacky story that introduces an LGBTQ angle in the worst way possible. It doesn’t add to the story and just feels forced. Plus, the way they go about it feels very uncouth.
Bad Trip pads its runtime with these scenes and moments that don’t really add anything to the story in any way. We watch people slowly running towards a sex room for minutes on end and then get shamed for having a sex room in their own house. It’s less of a funny and wacky story but a shameful showcase of bias at most.
Lastly, I laughed at loud at the dramatic fight sequence sounds because they are so unnecessary and don’t match up with what is happening on screen. It’s just so over the top.
Summing Up: Bad Trip
Bad Trip is a boring watch that is strangely homophobic and uses being gay as a joke of some kind and to be vulgar. There are better shows out there, honestly. Probably gives those a watch.
Bad Trip is streaming on SonyLIV.