To be disturbed by Netflix 'Breeders'

[Overhype]

With Martin Freeman. Is this bordering on abuse dressed up as acceptable parent burn out? It is supposed to be loosely based on Martin Freeman's own experiences? I'm sure it is exaggerated, but I an finding parts of it not funny at all. It just gets good, than an extreme "joke" is thrown in which is to me far too aggressive. I find Ally such a pathetic wet rag of a character, smiling and excusing her husband for his vile swearing rants at their children?
No parents is perfect, but there are certain parts of this that make me question how it even passed as a comedy. I'd imagine some parts of this would be triggering for some people who won't have a clue that they'll take it so far, and are expecting to see a comedic representation of "normal" patenting. It all seems to be excused by Paul saying he loves the kids, as if that cancels out his aggressive nature. When social services get involved it is passed off as being somehow over the top, when in actuality it isn't imo.

What do you think?

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

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.

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 …

Yep, there are definately some people that shouldn't have kids, yet they selfishly go on to have more.

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 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.

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.

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!

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.