Created, directed, and starring Joel Stewart, $100 Taxi Ride follows Joel via his first person camera lens as he tours multiple cities of the world from his taxi cab, which he supposedly pays $100 dollars for. With the premise of landing in a random city, walking up to a "random" taxi driver, and then asking them to show them about the place for $100, the series is very scripted, its obvious you would never get these types of experiences for $100 in most places, and sometimes the experiences they do show feel quite non-representative of an actual trip to that location. Also with two locations per 30 minute episode, we only end up spending less than 15 minutes in each city, which feels unnecessarily rushed and gives zero time to get a sense of what any of these places are actually like. Not to mention Stewart himself never appears on camera or speaks to people directly, instead only addressing everyone via a first person camera he holds, and all his talking coming from a voice over done in post. With little charisma or excitement, he sort of just drones on sarcastically about each place in a way that feels very detached, especially compared to the likes of the later No Reservations, or other more raw / unfiltered looks into travel destinations. It's experimental, and definitely feels early 2000s, but ultimately ends up seeming more as an excuse for a studio to pay for a bunch of Stewart's personal vacations that a real travel show, I wouldn't likely recommend.
Review of $100 Taxi Ride
