I Finally Watched The Four Weddings And A Funeral Series, And Now I'm Sad There Weren't More Seasons, Here's Why

Four Weddings and a Funeral is one of my favorite Hugh Grant romantic comedies. It also may be one of the greatest rom-coms of all time. Therefore, I was always excited to watch the Mindy Kaling and Matt Warburton TV version. Around its premiere, I watched the first few episodes and wasn’t quite hooked, so I stopped watching with plans to return to it eventually. Eventually finally came. I found myself enthralled with it this time.

It’s a show that became more confident, charming, and captivating with each episode. Finally giving it the attention it deserved made me a little somber because I knew it wouldn’t continue. I am a fan of miniseries staying that way. However, I think Four Weddings and a Funeral had a lot of potential to continue.

Let’s talk about what I thought made the TV series work and how it could work if it continued.

Warning: Four Weddings and a Funeral TV series spoilers are ahead. Proceed with caution.

I Like How Four Weddings And A Funeral Paid Homage To The Movie Without Being A Carbon Copy

Hugh Grant’s character makes some divisive decisions, but that’s one of the reasons Four Weddings and A Funeral works. It’s not about easy love stories. Though the TV series and the movie are very different, the show captures the essence of the film. It’s a modern take, but they feel cut from a similar cloth.

Some may have wanted the TV show to just mimic the movie. However, one of my strongest beliefs is that adaptations should not always just copy the source material, especially depending on the audience. The film is a quintessential British rom-com.

Americans and the British are not the same when it comes to things like humor and romance. Some things American rom-coms do, British rom-coms may avoid because an audience that's not similar to the characters wouldn't relate to or connect with them.

I prefer it when international adaptations don’t copy and paste the source material. Instead, they find out the essential reasons why the story works and alter it to fit the demographic, even if that involves major plot changes. Now, I think there is an argument to make that if something is claiming to be an adaption, it should be very similar. If it’s completely different, it shouldn’t use the name to draw in viewers. That seems like false advertisement. That’s a fine argument, and I respect that argument, but I don’t mind that these versions of Four Weddings and a Funeral are so different.

It just makes me like and appreciate both. They have the same concept and many important things in common, including a complicated lead and a not-perfect love story.

It Showcased Complicated Female Characters Who Are Likable

Maya (Nathalie Emmanuel) has an affair with her married boss. She then falls in love with her best friend’s fiancé. Maya makes so many questionable choices. Ainsley (Rebecca Rittenhouse) is the victim in this situation. Her fiancé dumps her on her wedding day. Then her best friend secretly falls in love with him. You can sympathize with Ainsley, but she isn’t always the most agreeable person.

She falls in love with her older, former boss, but she treats falling for him like she’s compromising. She’s also a bit spoiled. Ainsley continues to do some questionable things. Then we have Zara (Sophia La Porta), who seems a bit narcissistic and dumb at points. Gemma (Zoe Boyle) comes off as snobby, mean, and jealous. Each of these female characters has moments where they are unlikable.

And, that’s a good thing, because it makes them more fully formed. Humans have bad and good sides. The male characters are also messy and complicated, but male characters are often allowed those layers. People still like them even when they’re jerks sometimes. Occasionally female characters aren’t allowed to have messy layers and still be seen as likable. Four Weddings and a Funeral embraces the mess and allows these women to have flaws.

I will admit that some of the characters were not my favorites to watch at first, but all of them won me over by the end because I understood why they had these layers, including as a result of complicated parental relationships (one played by a familiar face). Even if they had no excuse for their flaws, humans are flawed. Therefore, I appreciated that Mindy Kaling and Matt Warburton didn’t try to soften these characters to make them more likable. They worked better when they were complicated.

I Was Invested In Each Love Story

Maya and Kash’s (Nikesh Patel) romance was the big draw here. Craig (Brandon Mychal Smith) and Zara’s romance was the least appealing, but by the end of the series, I understood their relationship a lot more and grew to like it. Based on some early hints, I knew Duffy (John Reynolds) and Gemma would end up together but I wasn’t invested in them because it seemed so boring. However, they became one of my favorite pairings on the show. It just worked.

Four Weddings and a Funeral also got me invested in the minor characters’ romances. I really liked Basheer (Guz Khan) and Fatima’s (Rakhee Thakrar) romance and Tony 2 (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and Andrew’s (Alex Jennings) stories. I ended up becoming very invested in all of these romantic adventures. I rarely grow to care about every single romance in a TV show or movie, but this one sold me with all of them.

Four Weddings And A Funeral Had So Many Twists That Surprised Me

I gasped when Quentin (Tom Mison) died. Four Weddings and a Funeral did a really good job of convincing you that Kash’s father was the one likely to die. This makes it even more shocking when Quentin suddenly dies, especially when it becomes apparent how much he and Gemma love each other. This made it heartbreaking and started to turn the tides in Gemma's favor as someone to really like.

The miniseries has multiple surprises that you don’t see coming. That makes a show that could be very predictable seem much more layered and complicated. I love that we get so many surprises in a romantic comedy.

The Series Could Have Continued As An Anthology Show

There are many great anthology series so one more wouldn’t hurt the world. I like that Four Weddings and a Funeral is a miniseries, but I think it could have also worked as an anthology series with the same concept: four couples getting married and a funeral. You just don’t know who will have the funeral and what couples will get married.

It could mimic other great romantic comedy anthologies like Modern Love and Love Life. It should have had a new cast each season, but maybe a loose connection to one of the last season’s characters, like a friend of a friend or relative. However, only make the connection appear on the season premiere or only as a guest star occasionally. There were so many unique ways this could have worked as an anthology. We could have met plenty of endearing couples.

Four Weddings and a Funeral may not be as well received as the movie, but it’s definitely one of Mindy Kaling’s best projects. It needed more episodes.

Stream Four Weddings and a Funeral on Hulu.