Bench Life Review: Preachy and Dramatic But With Humorous Moments

In this Telugu comedy-drama series, three IT professionals try to get out of their professional and personal hurdles by trying to get benched, i.e., not be assigned to any project (thus having no work) while still working for the company. While Meenakshi and Ravi try to overcome the difficulties of their personal lives while on the bench, Balu tries to get himself benched in order to join the project of Isha, the girl he has a crush on. However, things, as usual, don’t work out as you’d expect.

The series has 5 episodes, each with a runtime of around 35 minutes.

Bench Life Review

It is not often that we watch stories surrounding benched employees in the IT industry – it’s mostly about how overworked they are and the rat race that they find themselves in when they join these MNCs. Bench Life, thus, comes as a breath of fresh air and the concept is quite humorous because getting paid while having nothing to do seems like a dream come true in this difficult job market. However, the uniqueness of the series starts and ends there, with the personal and professional issues of the characters that we follow turning out to be one stale retelling after another, taking away any interest that you had in the screenplay after a while.

The bench concept is good, funny even. However, throughout the runtime, the female characters in the series are treated terribly throughout the runtime, with most of the men giving them condescending advice and behaving as if they know better. Ravi treats his wife Gayatri terribly and is almost on the verge of leaving her when an ever-present old man tells him that his own wife has Alzheimer’s but only remembers her husband – somehow that invokes a sense of fear and love for his wife. Because unless women are dead or on the verge of dying do we give them any sort of respect, right?

The series goes from the fun, light-hearted moments of being out of work but somehow in the workforce to an over-dramatic crusade for the female cause, which neither fits into the storyline that we started with nor feels genuine. It’s overdramatic and soulless and feels extremely condescending and preachy. At the end of the 5 episodes, the series felt like a showcase of women helping the men in their lives to grow up and out of their bachelor phase while the lone woman on the bench is forced to go through with a marriage, regardless of whether the man is good enough or not.

I think the topics would’ve been great for a drama film; in fact, I think it would’ve been more impactful that way. The ways in which the problems are solved in the series seem too convenient considering the stink it kicked up before the last episode. The will-they won’t-they romance between Isha and Balu also feels a little half-baked when we learn the truth in episode 5. There were also a few editing issues, especially with the lip-syncing of the dialogues.

However, the series is enjoyable when it doesn’t get into the preachiness of trying to be a social drama and is instead a light-hearted showcase of life being benched. I enjoyed the interactions between Rajendra Prasad and Vaibhav Reddy as they constantly butt heads and Prasad’s interactions with Charan Peri’s Ravi and Ritika Singh’s Meenakshi are sweet and relatable. There are quite a few relatable moments that make you laugh and some warm moments that make your heart soar as well.

Final Thoughts

Bench Life could’ve benefitted from being a funny and relatable series on the lighter side of the IT industry with its focus on benched employees. However, it takes an odd detour somewhere along the way and never really comes back from it. Although it has some funny and relatable moments, the series is far too preachy for it to be enjoyable and the overdramatic moments really take a toll on the viewing experience as well.

Also Read: Rebel Ridge Review: Action with a Soul is Thoroughly Engaging