Stream It Or Skip It: ‘1670’ On Netflix, A Polish Mockumentary About A 17th Century Landowner Who Wants To Be Famous

Mockumentary-style comedies generally have lots of broad comedy, but they’re built on a foundation of a solid ensemble of characters. Without that ensemble, the writers don’t really have anything to base much of the show’s comedy on for more than episode or two; broad comedy can only take shows like this so far. A new Polish series starts off very broad, much to its detriment.

1670: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A curtain opens, and a man is getting his portrait painted, with a crown on his head. “It is the year 1670,” he tells the audience, “I know what you’re saying? ‘1670? But it was only just 1668.’ Time flies, right?”

The Gist: Jan Pawel Adamczewski (Bartlomiej Topa) is a landowner who wants to become “the most famous John Paul in Polish history” (308 years later, of course, a certain pope would take the top slot). So he does things like pose as the king because he wants to be portrayed “for the job you want, not the job you have.”

He claims that he’s lucky to be born a nobleman, and that he has some pretend empathy for the mud-caked peasants that work for him and on his land. His family gives him the usual agita. Stanislaw (Michal Balicki) is his oldest son and the heir to his fortune, but all he seems to be interested in is jamming with his band buddies in the barn. Younger son Jakub (Michal Sikorski) is more responsible; he’s a priest because the Catholic church has a “strong market presence.” His daughter Aniela (Martyna Byczkowska) is so progressive that she actually speaks to and works alongside the peasants, and Jan loves that about her, enough that he wants to marry her off to a magnate. Then, there’s his wife Zofia (Katarzyna Herman), who brings a refreshing hit of darkness to the household.

When Jan sees his neighbor and rival Andrezj (Andrezj Klak), he’s reminded that there is an assembly of landowners that are there to vote on new taxes. Jan has such bitterness against Andrezj that he vows to vote against whatever he proposes. But first he has to remember the details about the assembly; we see Maciej (Kiryl Pietruczuk), the new blacksmith’s helper from Lithuania, deliver the letter but Jan, but when the nobleman tries to read it, he’s barely more literate than the peasants who work for him.

When he gets to the assembly, he tries to discredit Andrezj and his tax plan, and is very impressed with the grandfather clock he had the peasants load and unload onto his carriage. He’s the only one who votes against the plan, but all it takes it one vote. At this point, he brags to his peasants that he might be the next king of Poland.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? 1670 is in a similar format to What We Do In The Shadows or Our Flag Means Death, but isn’t nearly as funny as either show.

Our Take: The first episode of 1670 is designed to be a laugh-a-minute mockumentary, but it barely elicited a chuckle from us. The reason why isn’t the language barrier, it’s the fact that the satire is over-the-top and unfocused. It’s a show that basically takes the “throw it at the wall and see if it sticks” approach to comedy, and we found ourselves thoroughly bored.

There are some interesting characters that could turn the show into something more of a character-based ensemble comedy if given the chance. Aniela is a nobleperson that doesn’t act like one, and not just because she wants to be an independent person and not be married off. She treats the peasants like people instead of chattel, and even though she loves her family, she’s also very amused and bemused by her father’s antics. Maciej is definitely smarter and more ambitious than the average serf, and it seems that the show is setting up him as a love interest for Aniela.

But the series seems less interested in exploring those characters and more interested in broad, sometimes anachronistic gags that are swings and misses instead of the home runs they think they’re going to be. Jan seems to be the typical lead in these types of shows: narcissistic and clueless with no self-awareness, but that’s about it. Besides the repeated joke that his ambition is to be the most famous John Paul in Polish history, what else is he about? We don’t really know after the first episode.

That would be okay if he were merely the center of an ensemble that had potential to lead to funny material based on their motivations, fears, flaws, etc. But we really don’t see much evidence of that in the first episode.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: The clock, left busted in the middle of the square after Jan returns from the assembly, blows up.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Katarzyna Herman as Zofia, because, even though she has few lines, her dark character is one of the most well-defined.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I often tell my peasants, ‘You don’t vote, so you have no right to complain.'” That’s one of the many tone-deaf lines from Jan that lands completely flat.

Our Call: SKIP IT. 1670 has the potential to be a good ensemble comedy, but the comedy it aims for is way too broad to be sustainable.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.