review
“Bridesman”
Clearly ambiguous: This is the first series produced by dating app Grindr
First Grindr Miniseries: “Bridesman”
© picture alliance / photothek | Thomas Trutschel/photothek
The “Bridesman” series is the first Grindr original: The dating app has now ventured into the streaming market. We took a look and were surprised.
The dating app Grindr has produced its first series: “Bridesman”. On April 1st she started on Grindr. The six episodes are now also available on YouTube, each lasting between seven and eleven minutes. The main character is Terry (Jimmy Fowlie), who is invited as a male bridesmaid (English: “Bridesman”) to the wedding of his childhood best friend. But Terry doesn’t believe in the concept of marriage, it’s stuffy and outdated and above all it excludes queer people like him. So he wants to prevent the wedding and has come up with a bizarre plan: Terry wants to seduce the groom because he has heard that he is bisexual.
First series from dating app Grindr: “Bridesman”
In Episode 1 you find yourself in an Uber. Terry is dressed all in yellow (even his two suitcases match), almost the color of his heavily bleached hair. He tells the driver about the wedding, calling it “a terrible accident.” At the end there is a sex scene between the two and for a moment you think you accidentally clicked on a porn. But “Bridesman” doesn’t make it that easy for its viewers. Of course, as you would expect from a dating app, there are salacious scenes in every episode: here a photo shoot of the bride in her underwear, there a sex scene with a secret bystander or a stripper at a bachelor party. This becomes particularly clear in episode 5, which can only be viewed on YouTube if you register and are of legal age.
But: The series also contains some pop culture references: Renée Zellweger’s Oscar speech, Meghan Markle in the British royal family, the Queer Eye series or the horror film “The Human Centipede”.
The social construct of marriage and sexuality is also questioned in some scenes. Terry says: “Why can’t society recognize extramarital relationships as fulfilling and meaningful?” It’s sentences like this that really make you think. “Bridesman” thus serves several levels: the visual, sometimes ironic depiction, typical clichés about queer people and finally the almost big social issues. You can certainly watch the episodes several times and will always discover something new.
And last but not least, the cast is also diverse: the lesbian comedian Sydnee Washington plays the bride. Guest appearances include the German transsexual singer Kim Petras. A character is in a wheelchair in Bridesman. You won’t find that much diversity in every series for a long time.
The viewers also comment on it on YouTube. One writes: “Can we make this an ongoing series?” and another: “You deserve the Gay Oscars.”