To be disturbed by Netflix 'Breeders'

Late to this but I searched for it because it’s made me so uncomfortable! He’s such a horrible character. At the same time though he’s haunted by how he shouts at the kids. I think that shows how it’s not saying it’s ok at all. I’m only watching now really hoping for something to make it better but it’s really depressing.

Yes to this, I couldn’t understand why people were telling me to watch it, and being billed as comedy. It wasn’t ‘real’ it was vile - although clearly real (and justified behaviour) for some people!

I just watched the first and second episode of this. It’s horrible - misjudged, legitimising emotional abuse of kids, and just … really not funny. Aside from the horrible Martin character (if you don’t shut up I’ll leave your mum and you can watch her cry!) and the frigging drip of a mum, the scripting is crap and the cliches are everywhere. Awful.

I really enjoyed it. Although enjoyed is not quite the right word. I thought bits of it were very funny, but his behavioiur is awful and definitely isn't meant to be funny. I think we're supposed to be shocked and appalled at it. Same as Ally's wet response. She loves her kids and is usually nicer to them (although she gets worse later on) but doesn't really stand up for them as she should. It showed Paul trying to justify his rage, telling himself and asking for reassurance that it wasn't abusive - that's what people do, when they don't want to admit that maybe they really are damaging their kids. This does go on. Later he went to therapy but wouldn't properly engage and eventually gave up on it because I don't think he could actually bring himself to really take responsibility and admit that he really does have a problem. I think Comedy Drama is right for this because it is funny (in my opinion) but it's also tragic and scary and awful in parts. I don't think we are supposed to admire, or even relate to a lot of their behaviour, and certainly not applaud, condone or excuse it. I found a lot of it difficult to watch, especially when you saw how it damaged the kids. There are issues with it, of course, but I like it.

Further into the later series now.

Ally is utterly useless. Luke is annoying, and Paul's parents are excruciating.

I'm still laughing because there are some very funny bits, but it's also a stark reminder that raising kids is fucking exhausting and frustrating, and sometimes the kids are little shits. That doesn't give any parent an excuse to be monstrous, but my gods being a parent is exhausting, and it's not the bundle of absolute joy that you see through rose tinted glasses.

It's a pretty good example of portraying folks who should sort their shit out before having kids, but in the real world that is unrealistic.

I thought the trailer was awful and it gave me enough of a glimpse into what to expect.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be the kind of comedy I would laugh at as I do with some of the other parent shows.

If I have time I might still watch it to make up my own mind …

What I'm seeing so far is people being very imperfect parents with particularly creative swearing abilities. They're saying terrible things out loud around and to children, which should have stayed in their heads, in an attempt to portray a dark comedy about what being a parent is actually like for some people (these are my observations, people's mileage may vary).

People are extremely emotionally messy. People have kids and realise they weren't ready, or regret having them at all. Some people want kids with their whole heart and then find out it's not what they wanted at all. Or people have kids and love every second of it even when they're on their last nerve, and some of them swear inside their heads, or outside their heads, and sadly, some of them are not very nice to their kids.

So we get to see how gobby and nasty he is. Then we get to see her being completely blasé and oblivious to the fact that her boss wants to shag her, even though he's wearing an entire bottle of fake tan and is incredibly annoying. We see flashbacks of her suffering with PND, majorly in denial about it. You get to the end of series one, and he's in therapy (THANKFULLY) because he bloody needs it.

It's holding up a mirror to the realities a lot of people don't want to admit or face up to. We have kids with other imperfect people. We have kids with abusive people. Sometimes they're unintentional instances of parenthood, and sometimes imperfect and abusive people have kids on purpose.

It's funny as fuck, but also incredibly fucking real and tragic. Parenthood is fucking HARD.

Never have watched it, don't like Martin Freeman.

Spoiler alert

I’ve just watched seasons 1-3 on Netflix (4 is in Sky I think) and I thought similarly to you. I preferred the later episodes when the children were older as he does try to redeem himself a bit/get therapy, but the swearing really jarred in the first series (and I am a big swearer but didn’t swear at young DCs).

There were moments of humour and moment of real heart (especially with his parents) but both the parents are abusive and it was hard to watch. Him because of his total rage and her because she is unable to protect the children from him. If my husband ever spoke to our child like that, I'd have thrown him out.
And there's not much reflection on the programme about how awful and damaging the parenting is.

There are a lot of funny parts and I laughed at a lot of it. He really is abusive though, he's not just a parent who sometimes gets frustrated at the things life with children throws at you, it goes beyond that which sort of ruined it overall for me. He actually damaged his children.

I loved it! It’s clearly an exaggeration of the extreme but I liked it a lot. Watched it twice through now. Although the kids were pretty drippy if anything!

"Sorry, I tried to tire them out but I think I just made them stronger..."

💀

On first episode. Been laughing a lot.

Sorry OP.

I did find it distressing to watch and triggering at times. (Although I loved the grandparents).

My teen daughter loved it and encouraged me to finish watching the series. I could see why by the end. Things kind of came around.

I've watched the first 3 series, I think there's a 4th?

MF character made no sense. Parents that are abusive like him don't really have the more caring side that he showed sometimes. At times it went too far and was just uncomfortable to watch. If it is based on his own experiences of parenting, then I feel really sorry for his children.

The mum wasn't great either. she allowed him to abuse the children and called the police when he and the kids were missing, so she believed him capable of something terrible.

It was very watchable but on reflection, it was very 'off'. Abuse made lighthearted. Very fucked up.

Quick Google tells me different!

MF is a bit of a prick if that’s how he parents.

I agree op, I couldn't even finish the first episode. I've never really like Martin Freeman anyway, but this really made me uncomfortable.

I watch horrors, thrillers, grisly mysteries, various stand up comedy etc so I'm not usually a pearl clutcher, but honestly I couldn't stand Breeders. It wasn't funny, the characters were intensely dislikeable and it was basically abused dressed up as "lol isn't being a parent shite".

Completely agree. Had to stop watching, a shame because some parts were really funny. I didn’t find it relatable at all.

Going to have to watch this before I can make further comment. Monday night viewing sorted I guess.

We really enjoyed it as a programme, but absolutely agree that his character was a bullying twat to his kids, and Ally was a wet rag most of the time.

I didn't think for a second that it was autobiographical for Martin Freeman! He's an actor ffs.

I took the whole thing as a comment on where the line should be drawn on parenting, and how being middle class and "loving" most of the time (debatable in his character's case) shouldn't be seen as a mitigating factor. We did find a lot of it funny but were horrified at his outbursts at his kids. I don't see that we were being invited to laugh at that, so didn't have a problem with it. Plenty of comedies have other darker threads in them and people don't get offended by their inclusion.

Tetchy much lol I'm not offended at all just pointing out my own view on a discussion forum like everyone else 🤷🏻‍♀️