I’m Already In Love With Mindy Kaling’s ‘Four Weddings And A Funeral’ Reboot

Hulu announced this week that they have indeed ordered Mindy Kaling‘s Four Weddings and a Funeral reboot to series. Last fall, it was reported that the project was in development, and Kaling “crashed” the end of Hulu’s Upfront presentation yesterday to deliver the good news.

And it is good news! Even though the entertainment landscape is littered with paint-by-numbers revivals and depressingly dour reboots, translating Richard Curtis’s classic romantic comedy for the 21st century is a very good idea. The original film was fresh for its time: a wry snapshot at how friendship, heartache, sex, and tradition shape us as people. The film might have been soaked in ’90s style, but its emotional appeal remains universal.

What makes me excited for this reboot was hearing from Kaling herself how she plans to update the story. Kaling is not moving the story to the United States. Instead, she and her co-EP Matt Warburton are setting it in post-Brexit London. Kaling proudly declared that the cast would be diverse: “I’m talking Pakastani people! I’m talking Black people!” She also added that there would be older people, too, but then quipped not too many, before joking for the advertisers in the room that white people would show up, too. To wit, the early key art shown for the film was a fun, peppy, pastel illustration of couples coming together — and I caught two, if not three, figures who were clearly not intended to be represented by white actors. What Kaling is proposing is a romantic look at real-life London, where, yes, the culture is diverse.

What’s gotten me even more hopeful is that this new Four Weddings and a Funeral is intended to be a limited series. It’s only going to be 10 episodes long. Many American critics have noted that the romantic comedy genre has found new life on the small screen, but what they’re also loathe to say is that a long-term episodic show structure can sometimes zap the proverbial zing out of an onscreen romance. The great rom-coms were built around a three act structure. These stories ratchet up the tension to a moment of consummation, sexual or emotional. By giving this new series an end point, I’m optimistic that Kaling and Warburton will be able to mirror that kind of emotional arc for the viewers in a way that’s often lost in meandering TV seasons.

But the best news? It feels like Hulu is giving us a real, passionate, hilarious, devastating romantic comedy. Not a subversive rom-com, nor a dramedy focused on relationship politics. This is a rom-com, in its purest form. We haven’t honestly had too many of those in recent years, and the ones we’ve gotten have been swept away to low tier networks and straight-to-DVD catalogues. Hulu is investing in a high-quality romantic comedy reboot with an accomplished comedian at the helm, meaning Hulu is intending for this show to be good. It’s not going to be billed as a guilty pleasure, but a flagship series.

I know it might sound crazy, and I know I only just met the “idea” of Mindy Kaling rebooting Four Weddings of a Funeral for the 21st century, but I have to say I’m already head over heels in love.