Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
The gangster crime drama is quite the popular subgenre in the Caribbean. And it makes sense, as these films are cheap to make, do not require professional actors (the lack of acting ability actually adds to the authentic feel for better or worse) and have generally popular appeal. It is very rare to find an actual good one quality-wise, and the most one can hope for is moderately entertaining. And I can definitely say that Episode 1 of Barbadian webseries Badness by 1LifeMedia&Design is entertaining, though for me in an unintentionally hilarious manner.
The Badness pilot is very simple. When a gangster puts the moves on a young woman in a ghetto community her boyfriend hears about it and accosts him. After a heated exchange the gangster shoots and wounds the boyfriend, and this leads to threats of retaliation. You can tell Badness Episode 1 was made on a micro-budget and none of the actors here were in danger of being nominated for an award. Heck, I can’t even remember any of the characters’ names and the heavy Bajan accents and lack of captions makes it difficult to find them any how. And there is not a lot of action in the eight-minute runtime, but what they did show is decent enough.
So, what did I like? I found the escalation of the scenarios and the over-the-top acting hilarious in a “so-bad-it’s-good” manner. It’s like junk food—I know it’s not good nor good for me, but it is just kind of addictive. It is so addictive in fact it makes me want to check out more. And good for me, there are 11 more episodes of Badness with episode times ranging from 18 minutes to over an hour and 20 minutes, the latter almost the average movie length. I have to find out what happens and see how crazy things get.
Badness Episode 1 Score: 5 out of 10
You can watch Badness Episode 1 for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more Caribbean gangster content below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.