Stream It Or Skip It?

We didn’t like the first season of the Polish mockumentary satire series 1670 because it sacrificed any sort of character development — which always leads to the funniest material — in favor of broad, anachronistic gags that fell flat. The second season isn’t a whole lot better, mainly because it concentrates too much of Jan Pawel’s affable egoism and ineptitude and not the more interesting personalities of everyone around him.

1670 SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see groups of peasants starting to sing and dance. Then Jan Pawel Adamczewski (Bartlomiej Topa) steps on a peasant and starts singing about how wonderful it’s been without his neighbor and rival Andrezj (Andrezj Klak) around.

The Gist: Jan Pawel and his family — wife Sofia (Katarzyna Herman), daughter Aniela (Martyna Byczkowska) and sons Jakob (Michał Sikorski) and Stanislaw (Filip Zaręba) are on their way to the Turkish resort “The Al-Inklusiv” for a vacation. He has ulterior motives, though; he was invited by Leszek (Krzysztof Bochenek), who is the head of the community of nobles in Poland, and Jan Pawel wants to get to know him better as a way to move up in status. When Leszek sees the family, though, he tries to avoid them.

Given that Poland and Turkey ae on the verge of war, Jan Pawel points out that Al-Inklusiv is a “little cheaper,” and with a chance that you’ll get shot for drinking the free booze, since drinking is punishable by death in the country. Unfortunately, the person who was shot was Leszek’s interpreter, as he’s there to try to negotiate peace with the Grand Vizier. Jan Powel, who has tagged along, volunteers to be the interpreter, though his grasp of Turkish is sketchy at best.

Aniela seeks out “normal” people to hang out with, but the worker that’s assigned to help the family calls her “annoying”, because she doesn’t know what she loses if she decides to have a commoner’s life. Meanwhile, back on the Adamczewski’s land, Maciej (Kirył Pietruczuk) goes to great lengths to get someone to read a letter sent to him by Aniela, including throwing an impromptu surprise party for Sofia’s brother Bogdan (Dobromir Dymecki).

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we said for Season 1,  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: Just like in the first season, Jan Pawel constantly tries to kiss up to people that he thinks can help him, and by the end of the first episode, he takes a name that Leszek chokes out as he inexplicably eats himself to death and interprets that he should take over as the head nobleman. This is going to lead him to planning a massive harvest festival that will inevitably go south because it’s 1670 Poland and nothing is easy.

The better story has always involved Aniela and Maciej, and Aniela’s interaction with the Al-Inklusiv social director may give her pause when it comes to their relationship. Both of them are actual real characters, and most of what makes their story funny is how they deal with their hopes, dreams, and personality flaws.

But because the story is mostly about Jan Pawel, who is basically a well-meaning dope, the humor remains broad and unfunny.

Sex and Skin: A brief glimpse as Zofia eyes sculptures depicting adultery.

Parting Shot: Jan Pawel watches Leszek die from eating a too-rich mutton wrap and vows to take the leadership mantle from him.

Sleeper Star: Michał Sikorski has his moments as Jakob, who wants to take over the estate from his father, even though he’s not the oldest son.

Most Pilot-y Line: Stanislaw tells his father that he has an issue with a song lyric that says “his face looks different,” a not-so-subtle nod to the fact that a different actor plays him in Season 2.

Our Call: SKIP IT. 1670 continues to be an unfunny slog because it’s too addicted to broad and silly gags that get tiresome in short order.

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.