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Four More Shots Please! Season 4 review: A tame goodbye to a once-unhinged favourite
Four More Shots Please! Season review: The show feels restrained and forgettable, sidelining its female leads.
Four More Shots Please! review
Cast: Sayani Gupta, Kriti Kulhari, Bani J, Manavi Gagroo, Dino Morea, Prateik Smita Patil, Rajeev Siddharth, Kunal Roy Kapoor
Director: Arunima Sharma
Rating: ★★
Four More Shots Please! returns for its fourth season, but instead of the bold, messy, unapologetic energy that once defined it, the show now feels oddly restrained and disappointingly forgettable. What was once celebrated for its zing, chutzpah and unabashedly unhinged behaviour from its four female leads now seems watered down, as if the characters grew up and, in doing so, lost everything that made them fun to watch.
The character arcs of the main leads
Season 4 of Four More Shots Please! jumps four years ahead and opens with Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo) on the brink of marrying Mihir (Rajeev Siddhartha). Her cold feet and growing anxiety about her choice of partner set the tone for the season. Unfortunately, the narrative soon becomes overwhelmingly Siddhi-centric. Siddhi is shown thriving in her career as a stand-up comic, but her success largely stems from jokes about her husband and their sex life. When this becomes a point of contention in her marriage, the conflict is introduced without depth or emotional weight.
Damini's character dilutes, Sayani lacks the punch
Damini’s (Sayani Gupta) journey this season feels particularly diluted. Once the most emotionally complex of the four, she is now shown venturing into podcasting, a promising arc that never quite takes off. Instead of centring Damini’s voice, ambition or inner conflict, the storyline is quickly overshadowed by her brother Ash (Kunal Roy Kapoor), who ends up being the most engaging presence in her track.
The gravitas, confidence and emotional authority that defined Damini in earlier seasons are largely missing. Her longing for Jeh (Prateik Smita Patil) is conveyed through blank stares and sighs rather than introspection, making her emotional detachment feel underwritten rather than intentional. In a telling moment in the final episode, news of Jeh’s breakup barely elicits a reaction, something unthinkable for the Damini audiences once knew.
Kirti Kulhari gets the least screen time, and no story?
Anjana (Kirti Kulhari) remains the most underwritten. While the narrative insists that she has evolved into a successful, liberated woman, the show never earns that transformation. We are neither shown her professional growth nor her emotional journey. Instead, Anjana largely exists in fragments, appearing briefly, often in scenes of physical intimacy with Dino Morea, with little context or emotional build-up.
Their affair begins abruptly, without any real conversation or connection that allows the audience to invest in it. In a particularly jarring turn, Anjana suddenly decides to take a sabbatical and embark on a bike road expedition with him, a life-altering choice that comes without reflection or conflict, considering she is a single mother.
Umang (Bani J), the show’s only queer protagonist, is once again placed at the crossroads of emotional turmoil, but Season 4 treats her struggles with frustrating ease.
An interesting turn arrives with the re-entry of Samara (played by Lisa Ray), whose presence immediately stirs unresolved feelings in Umang. The tension peaks when Umang suffers a panic attack just before attending Samara’s wedding, finally acknowledging her suppressed emotions. However, what could have been a deeply introspective moment is brushed aside. At the wedding, Umang merely nods, dances, and moves on, leaving the audience with no insight into how she processed or reconciled those feelings.
Final verdict
Directed by Arunima Sharma, Season 4 marks a noticeable shift in tone and storytelling. While cameo appearances by Milind Soman and Neeraj Kabi add star value, they too remain underutilised. Visually, the show continues to impress, thanks largely to Aastha Sharma’s styling, but aesthetics can only go so far. Ironically, despite its title, the iconic “four more shots” moment appears only at the very end, as the friends frolic on a Goan beach in what is meant to feel like closure, but lands without impact.
