About 1670
1670 is a Polish mockumentary comedy that premiered on Netflix on 13 December 2023 and quickly became one of the platform's breakout international hits of the year. Set in the year 1670 in the fictional village of Adamczycha, it follows Jan Pawel Adamczewski, a self-important minor Sarmatian nobleman who is convinced he is destined for greatness even as he steadily runs his estate, his village, and his long-suffering family into the ground. Shot in the deadpan, talking-head style of The Office, the series treats 17th-century Polish life as a workplace sitcom, with characters breaking the fourth wall to confide their grievances and delusions directly to the camera.
Jan Pawel, played by Bartlomiej Topa, presides over a household full of people who quietly see through him. His devoutly religious wife Zofia channels her energy into the Church, his progressive daughter Aniela chafes against the era's limits on women, and his sons pursue their own schemes while their father chases noble titles, settles petty feuds with his neighbor, and obsesses over his family legacy. The comedy mines the gap between Jan Pawel's grandiose self-image and the shabby reality of his crumbling manor and dwindling fortunes.
Beyond the laughs, 1670 works as a pointed satire of Polish national myth, the szlachta nobility, and the romanticized self-image of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The show skewers golden-age nostalgia, class hierarchy, the treatment of serfs, and the contradictions of a society that prized 'golden liberty' for nobles while everyone else paid the price. It was widely acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, became a domestic phenomenon in Poland, and was renewed for a second season.