Getting to “I do” has never been more adventurous. Or rife with murder. It’s the clever spin the producers of Broad City, Difficult People, Younger, and Search Party bring to Wedding Season, Hulu’s ambitious new rom-com outing. The creators have dubbed the show a “genre-busting” series and for the most part it is. Although these days, so many shows intend to be “genre-busting,” that maybe the most innovative way to “bust” any premise is to just go back to basics.


That said, here we find star-crossed lovers Katie and Stefan (Rosa Salazar and Gavin Drea), who endure a swirl of misadventures that draw from, whether intentionally or not, shows like The End of the F***ing World (Netflix) and Afterparty (AppleTV+) and films like Bonnie and Clyde — and, to a degree, 2022’s The Lost City. The couple falls for each other at a wedding — tis the season, after all — and head right into an affair. Unfortunately, Katie has a fiancé, which is a major buzzkill. Flashforward, it’s two months later and Katie’s getting married. Fun day, right? Except her new husband and his entire family are murdered. The cops think Stefan did it. Stefan thinks Katie did it. So, where’s the truth? Come along for the ride and find out.

Unwrapping The Madcap Series

As far as new series go, Wedding Season is worthy of an investment. It’s sharp, clever, and maintains a level of intrigue, especially in the front half of the season. Its fiercely madcap feel is fueled by Salazar and Drea’s antics on screen. They’re coupling, or uncoupling tends to be thoroughly cat-and-mouse, with Salazar morphing into a suspicious trickster with Drea always trying to keep up.

It’s very Streisand and O’Neal à la What’s Up, Doc? at times.

Drea’s Stefan is a charming young doctor with trust issues. He’s got a deep burning need for love, which, we’re told — albeit all too briefly — stems from being in the foster system as a child. He’s surrounded himself with a great posse of pals, all of whom seem to be going to a gaggle of weddings together. What a summer it is. Meanwhile, Katie seemingly has it all together — she’s confident and smart. What could go wrong for her?

As the show flashes back and forth through time to give the audience context on Katie and Stefan’s initial bond, naturally, we want the two to wind up together. After Katie’s special day ends with the groom and eight members of his family poisoned, things quickly take off. Stefan is questioned by the police (Jamie Richie and Jade Harrison) and a moment later is secretly whisked off by Katie. My, she’s intrepid. Suddenly on the run across the UK — and completely out of his comfort zone — Stefan wants to know what the heck is going on. If only Katie knew. Or does she? For now, they must keep running from the cops.

The show’s writers are quick on their creative toes throughout the first six episodes or so. The couple’s adventures eventually take them to the U.S., to prove their innocence. The cops want to solve the crime, and Katie keeps dropping hints that her fiancé’s family was shady. Can Stefan believe her?

Subplots abound. In Metts and Donahue, Harrison and Richie deliver delicious amusement initially in their cop pairing. Their flirtatiousness would send alarms to the HR department but hey—fun to watch it play out.

There’s also Suji (Ioanna Kimbrook), love-hungry and waiting to feast, but always ending at empty buffets. And Anil (Bhav Joshi) and Leila (Callie Cooke) are nuptials. Their festive wedding is set up to be the grand opus of the summer’s wedding season, and this show’s climax for that matter. Surely, all the hijinks that we’ve been witnessing with Katie and Stefan come to a major reveal or twist by the time the final credits roll?

That’s the hope because for all its great intentions, Wedding Season seems heavily front-loaded and a bit lacking with consistent inertia in its second half. We’ve seen this happen in other series, especially in the latter seasons of Killing Eve, where the writers tend to surprise by the season’s end. My sense is that things creatively rebound by the final episode. There’s a lot to tie up.

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The Acting in Wedding Season

Surely, Salazar commands the screen in Wedding Season. Drea is embraceable as Stefan, but Salazar’s Katie packs a punch, and when she’s onscreen, you want to know what she’s going to say and do next. Having demonstrated her bold acting style in The Undone and Brand New Cherry Flavor, this may not be a huge surprise. The actress tends to anchor the mania any script offers her, even if it’s coming from her character. Convincible and alluring, her Katie keeps the audience, and Stefan, forever guessing. Is she dangerous? Can she be trusted? Is she working as a secret op? Or just plain bonkers? Either way, Salazar is a joy to watch.

Drea is effective with the material given to him, but the character wore thin on me. There’s only so much over-reacting a writer can give an actor, and Drea — bless him — handles it with aplomb, but viewers, ironically, may lean more toward rooting for Katie than Stefan. Genre-busting indeed. It’s no fault of Drea’s, of course. Handsome, pitch-perfect, he’s a solid leading man. It would have been great to learn more about his character.

The rest of the cast fills the bill quite nicely. They’re in step with the material the writers give them. Collectively, the ensemble evokes a sense of curiosity and self-reflection about weddings, in general, and the lavish extent people go to solidify their unions. That social commentary could have been played out a bit further here, but what we’re offered tends to suffice. It’s not like we don’t already know how ostentatious weddings can be.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of absurdity to keep viewers interested in Wedding Season. I wound up scratching my head trying to fully understand what’s really happening in some of the latter episodes. The writers, perhaps writing themselves into a corner, scramble to solve the mystery that began this caper. It doesn’t mar the overall show, but, if there’s anything we’ve learned in the 2020s, today’s viewers often treat their shows like relationships they’re going to invest in—or not. Till series end or cancelation do them part. They want their perfect union, too. Wedding Season promises to deliver one, however long it takes.

Wedding Season debuts on Hulu on Sept. 8.