1670 Review 2023 Tv Show Series Season Cast Crew Online

Comedy is one of the hardest genres to write for. Perhaps more so now than in any other era, writers need to be super careful not to write themselves into a corner, or alienate people with jokes that either offend or don’t land. It’s certainly not an easy job and for a global platform like Netflix, which tailors for people across the globe, that job is made all the harder.

1670 then is perhaps a casualty of its own self-awareness in that respect. The anachronistic comedy is quite good but it’s never to the level of something like What We Do In The Shadows, nor does it fully embrace its own premise and characters like something akin to Plebs. Instead, what we get is a show that feels like a one-note joke repeated across 8 episodes. At times, it lands quite well and subverts expectations. Other times, it really doesn’t and those episodes do become somewhat of a mission to get through.

The story is set in 1670 where we follow fourth-wall breaking Jan Adamczewski, who’s joined by his eccentric family as they eke out a living in a small village. Living as a nobleman, Jan’s job is made all the more difficult by arch-nemesis Andrzej. The two butt heads constantly across the season, before a very important twist sees the pair join for the finale in dramatic fashion.

Along the way, we also learn more about Jan’s family members too. There’s outspoken activist Aniela who campaigns for climate change, equality and everything in between. She also finds herself in the middle of her family feud. You see, Jan and his wife Zofia don’t exactly see eye to eye. On anything.

Finally, rounding out the family is Jakub, who feuds with his sister and, in one such episode, sets out to sabotage his sister to get all the inheritance plot for himself. Each episode essentially serves as a bottle plot, while also progressing the family feud and the issue between Andrjez and Jan.

It’s all rather simple stuff but the show does go some way to mix things up. There’s a pretty funny scene in episode 2 involving the village drunk Jedrula, which has a nice little pay-off at the end. Similarly, the blending of old and new ideals together, anachronistically blending them together into one comedy is probably the highlight of this show, although as mentioned before there’s not enough variation to really feel like it pulls it off as effectively as it could have done.

Early on, there’s a joke that looks like the show is really going to lean into dark, sadistic humour and commentate and poke fun of the ideas prevalent in 1670. Instead, that earlier quip about the show being self-aware rears its head time and again, with jokes that aren’t strong enough to make this memorable or stand out. It’s like the show doesn’t quite want to pull the trigger and really shock audiences, but the stand-alone plots aren’t unique or strong enough to carry the show on its own.

Like a good joke that’s told too often, 1670 soon loses its charm and allure. We’ve seen comedies like this before but 1670 doesn’t match up to many of them and stand out. It’s a fun ride while it lasts, but it’s definitely not a good binge-watch. The jokes do feel a bit one-note at times and there’s not quite enough here to make for an outstanding comedy. It’s worth checking out a few eps but if you’re not sold, you’re unlikely to stick it out until the end.