Four More Shots Please season 3 review: Of messy relationships, messier women and narratives

If you ask me ‘Will Four More Shots Please , season 3 win the The Bechdel test?’ My answer would be, hell no! Does it have to though? Considering that the four women — Siddhi, Anjana, Umang and Damini — call their own shots in the show, and do no shy away from showcasing all shades of being a women, I would discount the question. I am sure that many have criticised this show for being shallow, but that is only because the series places women’s pleasure under the spotlight. A woman seeking pleasure out, a widow who is “unconventional” because she has decided to step out for a Holi party despite her husband’s death all of six months ago, or a woman who begins to seriously consider giving her ex-husband, now a husband of another woman, another chance at fixing things — Four More Shots Please addresses the different lives that women live today.

Mind you, these are women in urban cities. They wear power suits to meetings, swear when needed and discuss sex openly. The show in itself centers a lot around sex. Each character in the show is sexually active and at different stages of being single, so it is only that there is a lot of sex. It is great that show stays true to the messy sides of women. Be it their toxicity in a relationship, the privilege that is unchecked, bratty selfish behaviour at times when one feels lost, or the urge to run away from anything in life that could spell a problem. There are different kinds of women in this show. There are also the kind of women who make digs at other women, ones that disrespect out of insecurity, but the show balances it all out with a bond that continues to be authentic.

This girl gang of four reminds many a time of my friendship with my girlfriends as we do our best to match schedules on different time zones. We speak of men, we speak of the world, and we share “goss”. All of this, while we keep each other motivated, support each other’s decision and be sure to call out each other’s bullshit always. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we do not argue, or that we do not disagree with each other. It only means that the bond helps us give each other space when required, or serve an intervention. The only thing that Four More Shots Please really nails is this bond, and that is from the start till the end.

There is a lot that continues to work for the show, but the larger picture is just not seamless. In fact, one tough tug would tear apart this tapestry of narration at its very seams. The messier the women’s decisions gets, the shakier the show’s conviction gets as well. It is unfortunate really, because not many Indian shows have come this close to capturing the lives of single, flawed women. However, where Four More Shots Please really failed in the current season is that it doesn’t really investigate the root cause of these women’s feelings. Their triggers for anxiety, their reasons behind their decisions that leaves them in a huge pile of mess — none of that is really explored at depth.

If anything about this show is shallow, it is the show’s disinterest in exploring more about Damini’s discomfort with sex after a miscarriage. It also misses an opportunity when it comes to exploring Siddhi’s reaction to grief over the loss of her father. One would have thought that the scope to  build in wonderful layers in a show such as this would have been plenty. Yet, that is just what we don’t get. Instead, the audience is left hanging with a hint of more. When Anjana realizes that the situationship with her ex-husband would not become a relationship, where is her regret? Rather, there is more thought put into how and why she reconsiders him at the beginning, then there is when she bids a goodbye to him. This imbalance somehow ruins whatever the earlier part of the season builds upto.

Women are messy, they are nice. Sometimes they have clarity sometimes they don’t. The sexual interest is real, and the buildup of chemistry more so. We are living breathing human beings, not dough cut out with cookie cutters. Shapes, sizes and our minds are all unique. Four More Shots Please may be messy, but it doesn’t paint a picture of women fitting into men’s expectation of them at least. Too much sex? It is time that women open up about what they enjoy, and what they do not.

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with special focus on identity and gender politics.

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