Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Kourtney and Travis’ on Hulu, An Intimate, Emotional Kardashian Wedding Special

The Season 2 finale of The Kardashians left some fans disappointed for one huge reason: We had watched Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker spend much of the season planning an extravagant Italian wedding, and then we never even got to see it. Well, Hulu knows how much audiences invested in the couple, which is why we’re now getting a supersized wedding special, ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Kourtney and Travis, in which we finally get to see not just the Italian wedding, but the two more modest weddings the couple had stateside. The lavish, often over-the-top special delivers, depicting the event as both a cherished family affair and a meticulously-planned spectacle that spared no expense.

‘TIL DEATH DO US PART: KOURTNEY AND TRAVIS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A car travels down the Las Vegas strip. It’s April 4, 2022, Grammy Awards night, at 2 AM. Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are sitting in the back seat, and he asks her, “What are we about to do?”

“You say it,” she responds.

“We’re about to get married,” he says to the camera.

The Gist: The footage that opens this wedding special is a little grainy, not the glossy, polished look of a typical episode of The Kardashians, this is real behind-the-scenes stuff. As Travis and Kourtney drive to the Vegas chapel where they plan to get married, they’re clearly a little buzzed, and they joke about how this is just the first of many – 3? 4? 12? – weddings they’re about to have. (Ultimately they felt that economizing and simply having three was enough, though at the end of the episode, Kourtney hints that there might be others.)

In the Vegas chapel, the Elvis impersonator officiating only has a vague idea of who these two are, so when he begins asking them to recite their vows, he says, “I, Travis, take you Khloé to be my wife,” and Kourtney falls to the floor laughing and telling the crew to call her sister Khloé on Facetime, because of all the times for someone to mix up their names, this is maybe the worst. Finally, Kourtney stands up from the floor, and she and Travis giggle and hug as they exchange their vows, which are flecked with Elvis references, an then they are declared husband and wife.

“That was like, our wild, Vegas rock-star wedding,” Travis says later as they reflect on each of the three ceremonies that we, the Kardashians-viewing audience, now get to see up close. From bed, the pair continue to reminisce about their next vow exchange, their Santa Barbara wedding on May 15, 2022 which was really just the one where they filed all their paperwork to make things legal. The main event the following week would serve as the real party, their Italian wedding where both of their families would unite to witness their commitment to becoming Mr. and Mrs. Barker.

This Italian wedding, which took place on May 22, 2022 is the focus of the special which offers great detail about the couple’s big(gest) day. Kourtney explains that the estate where she and her family are staying in Portofino belongs to Dolce and Gabbana, and both the home and her wardrobe are being gifted to her by the designers to use on her big day. (At times, the whole thing feels like an ad for D&G given their omnipresence throughout.) The couple initially wanted to be married in a Catholic church because they wanted to honor the original inspiration for their wedding aesthetic – Guns ‘n Roses’ “November Rain” video – but due to Catholic rules (I’m guessing rules having to do with divorce? Unless there are Kardashian-specific rules in Catholicism?), they couldn’t. We learn that no detail was spared in arranging this wedding: pianos were dropped onto the estate by helicopters, celebrity pastor Chad Veach officiated, Andrea Boccelli sang at the reception. I am desperate to know if they tried to get Slash to perform his guitar solo from “November Rain,” given their attempt to recreate the video.

As the days, hours, and minutes draw near, the couple and their famous family prep for the ceremony. Kourtney gets classic bride-to-be jitters as she gets her hair and makeup done. Travis, meanwhile, decides the best way to spend the morning of his wedding day jumping off the highest level of a yacht. (“If you slip and hit a handrail, it’s a wrap,” he says. The mind can’t help but conjure images of poor Tanya McQuoid. Travis and Mike White’s minds work in the same way, apparently.)

And then there’s the wedding itself. There are some hitches, as when Kourtney’s veil repeatedly gets stuck on passing branches and bushes on her way to the aisle, but nothing can prevent these two lovebirds from enjoying their day, and the sense all around is that they really do love being Mr. and Mrs. Barker.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? This special is 98% The Kardashians and 2% White Lotus thanks to the gorgeous Italian backdrops and yacht-based drama.

Our Take: ‘Til Death Do Us Part is a celebration. It’s a celebration of excess and wealth and a spectacle that only the most privileged among us will ever experience. But that’s a cynic’s point of view, and I’m not purely cynical all the time. It is also a celebration of a couple who seem to genuinely love each other, and a family who, love ’em or hate ’em, will ride or die for one another. The thing that makes the Kardashians so successful and appealing is the way they embrace their superficiality and excess just as much as they embrace what it means to be a family. They are proof that many things can be true at once and we all contain multitudes. This TV special shows off all the ways that us normies will never be like this family: having your event photographed by celebrity photographers and attended by Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox, fighting off paparazzi, having supplies air-dropped in. But it’s also an exhibition of love. Most the the extended Kardashian family is there, and those family members who couldn’t be there, like Travis’s father who is unable to fly, and Kourtney’s deceased father Robert, are all lovingly honored. (But not you, brother Rob.)

And of all the Kardashian sisters, Kourtney’s relationship with Travis feels like the most stable partnership, and it’s nice to see her family rally around them and witness the way he’s welcomed into the fold. As we witness all of this love and support, that is what becomes the predominant theme of the wedding, surpassing even the D&G product placement.

Sex and Skin: No sex but so. much. tongue. Kourtney and Travis don’t kiss any other way than to deeply lick one another’s uvulas.

Parting Shot: The final scene is a montage of dancing at the wedding reception set to Travis’s band Blink 182’s “All The Small Things.”

Sleeper Star: Megan Fox. As all the wedding guests party at the reception munching on made-to-order plates of pasta that look incredible, the camera pans to Fox who says, “I don’t eat gluten.” Maybe this is more of a shout out to the editors, but it was an excellent way to make her brief cameo memorable.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Can you believe we got married three times?” Kourtney asks Travis as they sip matcha in bed. What must it be like to film a reality show version of your life where you actually have to provide exposition for the things you lived through?

Our Call: If you’re a Kardashian fan or a lover of a good wedding show, STREAM IT. While parts of the special feel a bit long, the actual wedding ceremony and reception look like they were a blast, the toasts from Kravis’s family members are heartfelt, and the whole thing feels like a genuine celebration.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.