After their bumpy ride in London, Malcolm and Stomil are back, this time messing around in Warsaw. Maybe Edukacja XD isn’t as good as its predecessor, Emigracja XD, but it is still something fresh. 

It’s been three years since their post-high school escapade to the UK. Yet, it seems that Malcolm XD (Tomasz Włosok) and Stomil (the superb Michał Balicki, always acting in an active state, like a cat on the hot tin roof) didn’t really learn anything from visiting London. Both of them live now in Warsaw with Malcolm’s parents. Sleeping together in a one tiny room in your twenties doesn’t sound like a dream, but they don’t seem to care. As long as you have a roof over your head, everything will be fine, as the old proverb used to say.

The former is suffering from an existential crisis, something between depression and panic attacks. To keep his student placement at his university, Malcolm will have to sacrifice a lot of his free time by completing some additional (but unusual) internships. The latter doesn’t really know what to do with his life. Furthermore, he is also chased by some Warsaw gangsters for not paying off his debts (suffice to say, Stomil doesn’t have a job).

On their new, Polish path, they will meet a bunch of extraordinary characters (one of them is played by the legendary Jan Frycz, another by a prominent Sebastian Stankiewicz), who will encourage them to break the law, exploit the poor, sacrifice their lives and even go abroad, to Antwerp. Malcolm and Stomil will always say yes – well, they don’t have anything better to do. 

From time to time, Edukacja goes beyond the so-called mark by adapting the most extravagant and overblown sequences. For some viewers, it will be too much; however, fans of the literary version will honestly appreciate the producers’ efforts to make the entire experience so immersive.

Ultimately, chaotic cameos from the most iconic Polish actors (apart of Frycz and Stankiewicz, we can spot Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Paweł Wilczak and many more) and a rather coherent plotline convinces us to stay in this mad, mad, mad world for a little longer. Sometimes the show is meandering, but it’s never uninvolving. 

We just care about these heroes, we want all the best for them even if they escape from their problems and make their everyday life somewhat insufferable. Malcolm and Stomil are Edukacja’s biggest draw – they’re the spirit, the soul and the body of the latest sequel from Canal+. 

Photo: press, Canal+

3,5/5 stars

Author: Jan Tracz