Tosiek and Wanda – a perfect couple on the outside, and on the inside they seem to be, but something is slowly dying inside them. They are almost 30 years old and in this situation, the length of the relationship reaching 13 years begins to weigh heavily. Especially Wanda, who states that nothing really bothers her, and actually she lives well with Tośek, aaaaaleee… So they break up.
The next seven episodes are a light story about what happens to (still) young people after such a breakup, who suddenly find themselves on the so-called “free market”. They are still young, but they are no longer in good health for parties. They don’t have “30” on their ID yet, but their priorities are already closer to stabilization than to exploration. Starring Maria Dębska and Eryk Kulm JR.
“When is the wedding?” – it could have been a movie, but we got a series
It’s a story as old as time and predictable from the very first episode, like any other production of this type. Canal+ decided to rediscover what is important in a relationship through the main characters’ involvement in other relationships. To appreciate what they had and see what life outside their comfort zone is like. We get all this in a shiny, beautiful and Warsaw-style package – there is something for fans of glass and chrome corpus, but also for those in love with the boho atmosphere. There is a tenement house in Mokotów with a slightly neglected exterior, but also artistic and Ikea interiors. The obligatory element – a terrier-type dog (a super fashionable breed nowadays, French bulldogs are passe) – is de facto the third hero of the series (he easily received half of the screen time).
There will be plenty of looks full of mutual regret, trembling lips and tears wiped away with sleeves as the characters intensely prove to each other that they are doing great after the breakup. We all know how it ends, but we watch it anyway. Because “When is the wedding?” can, to some extent, compete for the viewer’s attention – mainly due to all the side plots played out by a slightly twisted best friend, a gay friend like a lumberjack, and a shy, slightly withdrawn colleague from work, but it’s a spectrum (seriously). This obligatory modern puzzle titled “contemporary series for young people” is even turned into a quite neat and sweet-and-sour picture that can make your evenings more pleasant, but from which we shouldn’t expect anything extraordinary.
“When is the wedding?” the image of 30-year-olds? If so, we’re embarrassing
But “When is the wedding?” this is also full-blown stereotyping. Once again we will see a corporate boss mobbing her colleagues, a director suffering from artistry who repeats all the behaviors we read about in the media just two years ago. Everything was sprinkled with a slightly comedic sauce (but is it really appropriate to laugh at a mobbing boss when an employee’s suicide was in the background?…).
Don’t get me wrong. Stereotyping is the bread and butter of every comedy and can be a lot of fun. Maybe we need this corpo-psychologist and pseudo-actor who have a lot of sex with different people in beautiful interiors, have conversations at Coelho’s level (yes, we’ve all read it, there’s no point denying this sad period in our lives) and achieve such wonderful results. failures at work, that our minor mishaps are nothing. Even the obligatory Warsaw element, i.e. improv, was checked off. And full pubs where you can go for breakfast, although money comes from thin air (Tosiek mainly deals with unemployment). As if during a brainstorming session before the series, a check-list of things that a stereotypical Warsaw resident does was made. It’s just that it all creaks terribly. On the one hand, the series tends to be a “hop forward” – only a person of a different skin color has not been added to the full range of mandatory characters (although there is the Scandinavian Sven). On the other hand, these characters are so exaggerated that it is laughable and embarrassing – can an unemployed person afford such an apartment? Do Warsaw residents really just sit in pubs and enjoy cold-brew coffees? The series advertises itself not as a pastiche of 30-year-olds, but as the truth about them. Is this how you see us? This is our image? Looking at Wandzia and Toś, it’s no wonder they make fun of us… Our lives are clearly a joke.
Strong point – certainly not the concept
The weakest thing is, of course, the damn predictability that the series suffers from from the very first minutes. There was a lack of courage in going against convention and bringing the characters to a place where they can really cope on their own. And not necessarily because of getting into new relationships (which is theoretically the worst option after a breakup and the so-called wedge) or professional problems.
The original sin lies in the reason for Wanda and Toś’s separation. They have stopped intellectually at the high school level, and this is also how Wanda looks at her partner – as a provider of entertainment who stopped providing her with it – it didn’t happen suddenly, but Wanda discovers it painfully from day to day, for no particular reason. The lack of a reason is so absurd, so lacking in realism, that with each subsequent episode you can only think “come back together again, why are you practicing this sick circus”. Or “finally be consistent and ADULT and break up forever.”
The advantage is certainly the not too exaggerated acting of the main characters. It was possible to make Tośek a terrible idiot, but Eryk Kulm JR gives him both lightness and a certain terror by the fact that adulthood has just caught up with him and there is no mercy for him. Maria Dębska, as a fresh corporate woman, weighed down by her boss, is every one of us – starting her career and being run over by the roller of someone more experienced and ruthless. And although the reasons for their characters’ breakup are completely nonsense, both Kulm and Dębska gave them as much credibility as possible.
Their friends are also very good, especially crazy Gosia – unobtrusive, funny, reckless Masza Wągrocka. Maciej Musiał shines episodically, but is so important to the plot. Patryk, i.e. Kamil Szeptycki, seems to be the weakest, but it is rather a matter of the features he is assigned to show. At the same time, he is supposed to be a stereotypical lumberjack man, a completely non-stereotypical gay in this stereotypical series, a gym lover, a barista… These traits seem to have been drawn entirely by chance, which is not the actor’s fault, as he made as much of them as possible. The dramatically exaggerated Matylda Damięcka as the blasé boss is also weak. Too much, too much.
‘When’s the wedding?’, Eryk Kulm JR Photo Canal+
“When is the wedding?” it could easily be a movie and then it would probably be much better. However, we got the film content spread out into eight almost hour-long episodes – and that’s a lot of time to digest the fact of the breakup together with the characters (the viewer copes with it better than Wanda and Tosiek). This is quite a lot for a series where you immediately know how it will end. That’s also a lot of time spent abusing my childish generation.
It’s a light, if somewhat frustrating, series. However, among 30-year-olds, there will be few couples with as much experience as Wanda and Toś. To some extent, “When’s the wedding?” nevertheless, it will allow all couples to look at their relationship from the outside and ask some uncomfortable questions. However, before you make rash decisions, watch the series until the end.
It’s a ‘lonely evening with a box of ice cream’ style production and no doubt many will find both solace and entertainment here. You may smile a few times, or you may shed a tear discreetly. Would this have been better in the film version? Without a doubt. However, we have a series that is quite nice to look at if you stop thinking. And there aren’t many other new Polish romantic-comedy series… Check out “When’s the wedding?” suits you – after two episodes you will know whether this series is for you.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
