Wedding Band (TBS) - Series Premiere: Synopsis and Review

‘Wedding Band’ is a new comedy series on TBS that revolves around four men that are in a band together. They play at weddings, and they’re waiting for their big breakthrough. The lead singer’s name is Tommy (Brian Austin Green, ‘Desperate Housewives’). He’s a notorious bachelor, and it’s no surprise he usually finds a hookup at the weddings. The other members of the band are Eddie (Peter Cambor, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’), a father of two whose wife does not like it when he focuses too much of his attention on the band, Barry (Derek Miller), the drummer and pyrotechnics guy, and Stevie (Harold Perrineau, ‘Lost’), the new guy.

The men do more than just play songs, they make the wedding the best event ever for everyone. And I mean everyone. From the recently dumped woman, and the man who is never going to get any action, to the cousin from far away who flew in just to catch the bouquet: the band makes their nights memorable.

On his day to day job Tommy encounters his old love interest Sarah, the only girl who ever broke up with him, who informs him she’s getting married and she would like for him to play at her wedding. At first he is reluctant, but when he learns that her wedding planner is Rutherford Events, the same Rutherford Events the band would like to work for, he gladly accepts. When he runs it by his band members, it turns out they’re not all as excited as he is. But when he tells them that if they don’t play, Sarah will book their rival band, ‘Armageddon’, they accept.

Over at Rutherford Events, Sarah’s wedding is being assigned to Rachel, a young employee who hasn’t done an entire event on her own yet. Sarah’s wedding will be her first, and Rachel isn’t sure about Sarah’s choice for the band because she fears they might ruin the wedding by playing inappropriate songs or acting out. As Rachel meets the band and tells them what she expects of them, her boss Roxie Rutherford storms in and takes over the meeting. When Tommy hears the setup for the wedding he is visibly troubled by the songs the soon-to-be newlyweds chose, they hold memories with Sarah for him. Tommy’s friends make him realize that he has no chance to be with Sarah, but she doesn’t make it easy on him by coming on to him during his tuxedo fitting.

At the wedding, Rachel is highly stressed out, fearing something will go wrong. Sarah’s cold feet make her freak out over some flowers Tommy sent her. He calms her down, and opens up a bottle of champagne. The cork from the champagne bottle shoots away and hits one of Sarah’s fake breasts, which starts to deflate. Tommy tries to help, but Eddie, who came to warn him that Roxie Rutherford was at the wedding, sees it through the window and reads all sorts of things into it. Rachel, who came to see if Sarah was alright, retrieves Sarah’s soon to be father-in-law, the man who gave her her implants, to fix her breasts. At first he misunderstands the situation, not helped by Eddie who misunderstood the situation in the same way, and he punches Tommy in the face. Rachel explains what is really going on, and with some creative work Sarah’s to be father-in-law temporarily fixes her breasts. After this, the wedding can go on without any problems. The next day, Rutherford offers the band another wedding, and it seems they’re well on their way to get a steady employer.

I liked ‘Wedding Band’ very much. Within the first five minutes I had had three laughing moments and my first gasp. The story was a little superficial, but that is to be expected from a first episode. After all, we need to get to know the characters first. Of course, I’m not expecting amazingly deep storylines in the future. This is one of those comedy series that just makes you laugh, period. The main difference between this series and other series like it are the songs. The covers the band plays make you dance on your seat. I for one definitely enjoyed that. The setup of the band also has everything you need to make for a diverse line of stories. Has it been done before? Millions of times. Does it bring us something new? It sure does, the songs. Is it worth watching? Absolutely.

Wedding Band airs Saturdays at 10/9c on TBS.