Four Weddings and a Funeral Review: Not Quite a Romance, Not Quite a Comedy (Season 1 Episodes 1-4)

Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episodes 1-4 dropped this week. Rom-com aficionado that I am, I revisited the original movie that inspired the series to prepare for the premiere.

A few things stood out about the 1994 film: it’s charming and easy with a depiction of friendship that felt real, and it also had a rather progressive approach towards same sex relationships. Its leads, Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell, make the most of every joke and look. 

It’s easy to understand why the original film helped usher in a golden era of romantic comedy. Nothing about it felt forced. 

Fast forward to 2019’s version, helmed by Mindy Kaling and updated to reflect a modern, millennial approach to love. While it has its merits, its first four episodes do not quite rise to the occasion or feel like a worthy successor to the legacy of the original. 

It’s trying so hard and struggles to gain much momentum.

Before we get to its weaknesses, let’s first discuss what does work.

Like other Mindy Kaling projects, Four Weddings and a Funeral makes several nods to other great romantic comedies. This can work against it at times, drawing comparisons to stronger, more cohesive projects, but it can also make for some surprisingly fun moments.

Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episode 1, “Kash with a K” essentially doubles as a “spot-the-reference” game, complete with a romantic comedy themed costume party.  It’s fun to catch glimpses of recognizable costumes from Princess Bride, Clueless, Crazy Rich Asians, and Legally Blonde.

There is also a fantastic Love Actually inspired moment when Ainsley (Rebecca Rittenhouse) greets best friend Maya (Nathalie Emmanuel) at the airport with a series of cards affirming her love and simultaneously dissing the guy who broke Maya’s heart.

This actually works much better than the original Love Actually scene. No creepiness detected!

The diversity of the cast is also impressive. With a few exceptions, the casts of romantic comedies often skew heavily Caucasian but love is a universal experience, and the show wisely includes a multicultural cast more representative of the real world.

The central protagonists are biracial Maya and Pakistani-British Kash (Nikesh Patel) and while it shouldn’t feel unique and refreshing that the main couple of a romantic comedy are people of color, it nevertheless is. There are also numerous other people of color in the cast in supporting and lead roles.

The production values are quite high and visually, the show is beautiful with lush sets and gorgeous costuming. There’s an element of fantasy necessary for all romantic comedies, and in that regard, the show strongly delivers.

With all of that said, the show stumbles in these first four episodes far more than it shines.

On Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episode 3, “We Broke” Duffy (John Reynolds), a teacher and wannabe author gets feedback from colleague/crush, Tabby, on a draft of his novel. She replies that it felt “far too long, oddly plotted, and very self indulgent.” The same could be said for this reboot.

Each episode runs an hour and while this theoretically could allow for more character or plot development, that isn’t the case here. Each entry feels bloated and save for a few great one liners, the show is light on laughs. That’s somewhat problematic for a romantic comedy.

Vapid Zara (Sophia La Porta), the ex-girlfriend of Craig (Brandon Mychal Smith), runs away with the funniest moments of the show so far, going broad and chewing major scenery. The Love Island spoof she stars in is one of the most clever plot points of the show thus far.

What’s even more troublesome and problematic about the show though is the characters and their lack of chemistry. It is a major problem throughout.

Let’s first consider the connection between Maya and Kash. When Maya meets Kash while searching for her luggage in Heathrow Airport in Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episode 1, “Kash with a K,”  their chemistry is supposed to be palpable, their attraction to one another undeniable.

After all, this meet-cute is supposed to be the impetus for much of what’s to come: Maya cannot focus when she’s in Kash’s presence, which is all the more complicated by the fact that he’s with her best friend Ainsley.

Kash, on the other hand, is supposedly so awakened by his brief conversation with Maya that he reevaluates his entire career trajectory and life choices.

It’s a tough sell.

There is no heat in their exchanges, and to put it bluntly, love is not forged on a foundation of Mamma Mia and dead parents.

Overall, the characters are poorly drawn. Craig, Duffy, Ainsley, and Gemma (Zoe Boyle) are all fairly one-note. On Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episode 3, “We Broke”, Craig breaks down crying over his breakup with Zara but other than that moment, we’re not given much to flesh him out.

Duffy is lovelorn, selfish, and sensitive to criticism; Ainsley is privileged and focused on appearances.

Rich, posh Gemma is thoroughly unlikable (her biggest challenges are finding ways to busy herself during the day and facing teasing from her shallow peers about having “new money”) until the events of Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episode 4, “The Winner Takes It All” humanize her a bit.

Maya, the stand-in for Hugh Grant in the film, falls victim to bad character development and writing. While it’s laudable that she’s not a typical, picture-perfect, clumsy rom-com heroine, she can be destructive, and she’s first introduced in the series as “The Other Woman,” having slept with her married boss for at least two years.

Heroines can be flawed, and in fact, they should be, but the show makes it somewhat hard to root for Maya or this group of people. Even the core friendship of Ainsley, Duffy, Craig, and Maya feels inauthentic. What do they have in common? They don’t feel like lifelong friends.

Even an appearance from Andie McDowell, star of the original film, lacks some overall warmth. (How the show manages to waste McDowell and have her come off as somewhat cold is beyond me, but by george, that’s what they’ve done.)

Things start to potentially turn a corner on the fourth episode that dropped this week, Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episode 4, “The Winner Takes It All.”

Gemma softens in the face of her husband’s death, and his funeral has a surprising impact.

Maya works to push through her own trauma and attend a funeral for the first time since her mother died (as someone who faced a similar experience, this resonated with me deeply). Gemma’s eulogy, reflecting on her husband and the joy he brought to her life, is deeply moving. 

Her speech also prompts Duffy to confess his true feelings for Maya.

This kind of vulnerability is what rom-coms should feed off of. Here’s hoping things pick up when the show returns and builds on these developments.

For a show based on such a beloved property, I desperately want this to succeed, but it’s not quite there yet.

What did you think of this episode of Four Weddings and a Funeral? Are you going to RSVP for more episodes or did you get enough of a taste from this initial sampling? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Four Weddings and a Funeral airs Wednesdays on Hulu.

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