Our Best Friend's Wedding
Our Best Friend's Wedding is a 2017 RedTV, and TCN Africa original Nigerian Drama web series, created by Olawale Adetula, and executively produced by Olawale Adetula, and Bola Atta, for the first season, with Obinna Okerekeocha joining the second season as an executive producer, starring Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi, Adebola Olowu, Oreka Godis, Chris Attoh, Timi Charles-Fadipe, Marycolette Unamka, Wendy Lawal, Sarah Boulos, and Theo Lawson in the first season, with Maurice Sam, Martha Ehinome, Oshuwa Imoyo Tunde, Marycolette Unamka, Eso Dike, and Adekanla Desalu, joining the main cast for the second season.
Plot
Our Best Friend's Wedding tells the story of a young man who panics and buys an engagement ring on a whim. He recruits his two female best friends to help him go through a list of potential candidates and sets off a series of events that leads to a wedding. In the second season, three best friends, Charles, Jade, and Kemi navigate life and adulthood and the emotional rollercoaster that comes from unrequited love, betrayal, and true friendship.Production
Casting
On 7 November 2016, the cast was reported when the trailer was released, with a line-up of Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi, Oreka Godis, Adebola "IllRymz" Olowu, Chris Attoh, Timi Charles-Fadipe, Marycolette Unamka, Yewande Lawal, Sarah Boulos, and Theo Lawson. On 9 September 2021, TNC Africa replaced its main-cast with the following: Maurice Sam as Charles, Martha Ehinome as Jade, and it recruited Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi, who played Kemi in the first season for the second season as her main-character - Kemi, with a lot of other changes, including the production team changed by TNC.Premiere and release
On 27 January 2017, OBFW began streaming on REDTV. On 29 January 2017, RedTV and The Naked Convos held an exclusive screening of Our Best Friend's Wedding, with the crew, including the Nigerian Minister of information Lai Mohammed, chairman at United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu, Group Managing Director UBA, Kennedy Uzoka, Group MD/CEO at Filmhouse Cinemas, Kene Mkparu, media personalities Toke Makinwa, Adebola Williams, Tosyn Bucknor amongst other notable influencers were present at the event.On 26 June 2023, the second season of Our Best Friend's Wedding was released in over 35 African countries through Showmax, as the first season of the web series, re-released as a television series in 2023, through Africa Magic as the distributor. On 2 July 2023, Our Best Friend's Wedding second season began airing on Africa Magic Showcase, with its first season released internationally through Prime Video.
Reception
Critical reception
Reviewing for Pulse Nigeria, the movie critics Chibumga Izuzu said: “Beyond lackluster performances, "Our Best Friend's Wedding" is watchable, and the most beautiful part of "Our Best Friend's Wedding" is the soundtrack. It is uniquely beautiful and put together that it hits hard enough to leave a mark. It lightens up the show, skewing across familiar tones. At the end of every episode, you would have new songs for a new playlist. The romance and acting in the series aren't convincing, but while "Our Best Friend's Wedding" doesn't break the mold, it's a fun watch, perfect for a Thursday evening”.Reviewing for The Native, the magazine credited Oreka Godis as the best actress on the first season of the TV show, and wrote in its review of season one, which is made up of eleven episodes: “I’ve been saying it since episode 2 that the show was going to end up a clusterfuck. With every successive episode, instead of resolving subplots and glaring omissions, the showrunners and writers chose instead to focus on IllRhymz who basically spent the entire season acting like he’s a jock in a high school movie instead of a smart adult. So I came into this finale with zero expectations, after all, if you have none, you cannot experience disappointment, or so they say. Well, it turns out, you fucking can.” Ending the review pointing our its 3 major facts, which include: SPOILER ALERT, SHIT THAT MADE NO SENSE, and Ignored Sub Plots.