The Office PL's Darek and Matrix: a knight, a squire and a father-son bond

In season 6 of The Office PL, Darek Wasiak takes the office IT guy Matrix under his wing. The two actors behind them have now explained what that odd friendship is really about.

What happened?

Darek is the company's logistics man. He is known for missing communist-era Poland (the PRL), loving brawn (salceson, a Polish cold cut) and talking about Polish history. Matrix is the kind-hearted IT specialist he now mentors.

Their bond looks a bit like a wandering knight and his loyal squire, who knows his knight is wrong but stays faithful anyway. Adam Woronowicz, who plays Darek, called that comparison "very beautiful". Sancho Panza and Don Quixote works, he said, but so does father and son.

In that father-son version, the father always knows best and imposes almost everything on the son. "A wonderful relationship," Woronowicz said.

Karol Dziuba, who plays Matrix, liked the comparison too. For Darek, he said, the friendship fills a gap. Matrix feels he matters to someone. Without that, Dziuba said, he would simply be transparent.

Why is everyone talking about it?

According to Woronowicz, the show's secret is that it laughs at nobody else. "We mostly go after ourselves," he said. If you have no one to laugh at, he added in a rather Gogol-like spirit, laugh at us.

Darek is also a fan favourite and the hero of plenty of memes. Season 6 has been with viewers for a while now.

What's new in season 6?

The Polish version of The Office premiered on Canal+ in November 2021. It is set in a company in Siedlce. Season 6 is available on Canal+ and, as the series puts it, brings growing personal crises: of masculinity, relationships and ambition.

A new character arrives in Siedlce: Robert, an eccentric employee from Warsaw, played by Michał Sikorski. He quickly gets into the office politics and becomes an object of fascination for Michał.

Most of the cast returns, including Piotr Polak, Vanessa Aleksander, Kornelia Strzelecka and Rafał Kowalski. Maciej Bochniak directs. The writers work under the lead of Łukasz Sychowicz.