One Room with My Fiancée’s Mother review

The setup

He walks into his hotel room and finds Holly, the mother of his bride, already settled in. The wedding has packed every hotel across the island, and the staff decided family could double up. He insists it is fine, then notices the single bed. Holly promises to take excellent care of her roommates. His fiancee calls to say she lands midday tomorrow and apologizes for the arrangement; he promises to look after her mother. He offers to take the floor. Holly will not hear of it, and the episode ends with her sighing about how tense she feels.

Episode 2

The massage arrives in episode 2, right on cue. Holly asks him to work on her sore hips, then steers his hands lower one instruction at a time, and wonders aloud whether her daughter has ever praised his technique. He asks himself what on earth he is doing and reminds himself exactly who she is. Holly reminds him of something else: the bride arrives tomorrow, and tonight is his last night as a single man.

Who's who

• The groom: on the eve of his wedding, agreeable to a fault, and badly outmatched
• Holly: the bride's mother, warm, unhurried, and very clear about what she wants
• The fiancee: a voice on the phone, apologetic and entirely unaware of the arrangement

Verdict: 6.0 out of 10

Here is the one-bed trope with a wedding ring on it, and it does not pretend otherwise. Holly is the draw: relaxed, amused, and always a step ahead of the man she is supposed to welcome into the family. The fiancee's phone call adds a nice jolt of guilt to episode 1. After that the path is a straight line, from shared bed to sore hips to the last-night speech, with very little resistance along the way. Comfortable, competent and completely predictable.

Episode guide