$100 Taxi Ride

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.

The $100 Taxi Ride is based on a great idea, to let the taxi drivers them self give the recommendation on what to see, including show their own interests.

Unfortunately, $100 value depends on where in the world you are, and should not have been used as a criteria. $100 in Norway is not that much worth, and it would have been a very short trip. So, the criteria for the show, should instead have been like a day trip, or half a day trip.

I am quite sure (but no proof) that it often was paid more than a total of $100, in many/all the episodes. You may correct me...

So, to the show/series: The trips is made by at least two persons (you never see their faces or voices), and is filmed from a eye view. Moving around like tourists normally do, but in a high quality way. Many good shots and scenes.

The presenter makes the whole show work. Good voice, presenting information about the places visited and describing everything during the episodes (including thoughts and funny observations).

Many of the episodes is quite good (like the one from Bangkok, Thailand) and have some original and funny twists. But, some episodes have taxi drivers that are not very interesting (like in Ireland). Many of these parts (episodes) should have been removed from the show.

Overall I like the concept (except for the $100 part), and that there some quite good episodes/parts (each episodes includes two parts from different places/countries).

Verdict: 6/10