Breeders - Sky

[sadgirl45]

Is there a thread on this?
Love it and the characters. Martin and Daisy are such good actors

What did people think s2 episode 9/10?

I don’t like the programme title.

Yes @HagenDaz doesn't really fit the subject either does it

I'm loving it. Makes a nice change from things like Motherland, where parenthood is depicted from almost an entirely female perspective.

But yes, I agree the name doesn't really do the programme justice.

Nope. Seems a bit lazy. Maybe “This is it” or “FML” would be better.

I like it as well, it's more realistic for me than Motherland, not sure what that says about my parenting haha! Only half way through series 2 but enjoying it still. Wonder if Martin Freeman is playing himself haha!

Liked the trailer and was looking forward to it but the amount of times they said fuck around their primary school age kid made it unrealistic i thought

I've just watched the whole lot. I really liked it but there was just too much swearing for me. I don't mind a bit but it was almost every other word. It did spoil the enjoyment a bit for me.

I also found the swearing a bit much and to be honest, unrealistic. I'm a terrible swearer and so are a lot of my friends but we regulate our language around our children.

I loved the first series and I was so looking forward to S2. I binged the whole lot. There were some great moments but some things in the plot did not make sense and it seemed to have lost something and has become a little too cynical and depressing. I found it hard going.

I assume we can't do spoilers so I won't say what it was that didn't make sense to me.

Can we do spoilers ? @dayswithaY do you mean episodes 9-10? Didn't ring true to me. Wasn't sure why that way was endorsed ?

I agree 9-10 didn’t ring true. It captured his struggle to pivot his parenting to teens but what I couldn’t get was if he was so awful why she stay with him. That level of consistent anger would have driven someone like her away long ago

@merrygoround88 agree

Thing is what was wrong really with why he was angry with Luke. Agree argument blow up was totally wrong. But Luke lies, is hard work, is inconsistent and appreciate may be a feature of being a teenager but personally myself or DH would struggle with ongoing stress of managing Luke

Why should a 13yr old have so much power really - I don't have teens am I out of touch??

Those episodes didn't ring true at all - it lost its way in the middle of the second series really.

I felt sorry for Luke just having a curtained off area in the living room instead of a bedroom due to lack of space.

I really liked Ally's dad's character and it was a shame he wasn't in it longer.

*SPOILER ALERT!
*
They lost me when they started the weirdly disconnected IVF storyline. The whole point of the series is that Paul and Ally struggle with parenting but now they are finally moving forward into teenage years. Luke is having problems and needs a lot of time and attention, Ava is not getting the same attention. Ally finds out she is peri menopausal so the answer is - have IVF treatment and bring a baby into the mix.

Honestly, this was so at odds with the characters and previous plot I just couldn't believe any of it and I lost interest. IVF is gruelling and expensive, why would they put themselves through it just to make Ally feel better about ageing? In a house that's already too small? No childcare and ageing parents. No way.

Ally's best friend turns up for a couple of episodes then disappears. She wasn't even at the family party. Ditto Paul's friend from the past, who he had no chemistry with whatsoever.

Luke refusing to move back home so Paul leaves? Not likely.

Ally and her mum had a very dysfunctional and distant relationship in the last series, now they are loving and close.

Full marks for Granny Leah's new husband though - he is wonderful.

If it wasn't for Paul's parents I would have stopped watching.

Apparently there's going to be a third series. They better pull their socks up, I found this series dreary and depressing.

Spoiler

@dayswithaY agree
Something else i thought was unbelievable was Alex. Lovely as he is I have lots of exp with steps and step in laws. None would cause a potential family row / conflict with a future son in law just before wedding by seeming to side with a grandson? ESP age 13. Just seemed too fast

I wonder if in the third series it will turn out that they actually froze the embryos and we will get the disconnected third baby dilemma again.

Yes it was weird that the friends didn't turn up for the anniversary party, or any other family or friends at all for that matter.

I can't work out if Martin Freeman is a really good actor or just a nasty sod in real life who is playing himself.

I loved S1 and enjoyed S2 a lot too. I swear I'm not anywhere near as bad as Paul irl (I hope) but I actually related a little bit too much to his anger issues. Although this part thankfully wasn't personal, but when he was in the hospital and the other mother said how it made her think of the good times and Paul could only think of getting angry with Luke, I gasped because it seemed so honest. I know why everybody's saying he's so horrible so I would like to stress I am not like him all the time!

But...

*They lost me when they started the weirdly disconnected IVF storyline. The whole point of the series is that Paul and Ally struggle with parenting but now they are finally moving forward into teenage years. Luke is having problems and needs a lot of time and attention, Ava is not getting the same attention. Ally finds out she is peri menopausal so the answer is - have IVF treatment and bring a baby into the mix.

Honestly, this was so at odds with the characters and previous plot I just couldn't believe any of it and I lost interest. IVF is gruelling and expensive, why would they put themselves through it just to make Ally feel better about ageing? In a house that's already too small? No childcare and ageing parents. No way.*

ITA! I couldn't get over that. I persevered through it and I'm ultimately glad I did but that was a huge hole in it for me. Who would respond to having a wobble over the menopause by even deciding to have another baby, let alone go through IVF to have another?!

I was surprised by the big time jump and I'm still trying to figure out how I felt about it. Loved seeing Paul and Ally deal with Luke's mental health problems as that actually felt quite real to me. I also thought that Paul had moments of being a really good dad (in between moments of being VERY bad -- or maybe I'm just trying to delude myself because of relating to him). No disrespect to the actress, I think she's very good, but some of Ava's parts feel way too "cute little kids from Outnumbered" for me!

Interesting points @AngryMuppet

I have an 11yr DD and to me Ava dresses like a 7y old and acts like a mature 14y old.

Regular girls her age wear sparkles unicorns or street wear and aren't into religion and pious statements. They might say a few profound things like 'err I dunno just leave him alone dad' then walk off. But they wouldn't behave as Ava does.

I think a real Ava would have been angry with the brother as well and asked the mother lots of questions and been more emotional generally. Felt quite an unnatural response like the character is just viewing the situation but not really in it.

I think the time jump meant that we didn’t see the years of Paul’s anger and the family trying to deal with it. I agree that the son moving out was a extreme but I can see how a parent like Paul paints themselves into that corner with a teen. He didn’t seem to be able to give Luke (or anyone) an inch.
I didn’t think Paul was a good dad at all. He was only interested in Luke when Luke was interested in his own interests - music etc.
I agree the ivf storyline was ridiculous - why would ally want another baby with such a total arse

I thought it was only me bothered with the swearing especially from Paul. And both grandparents are active in the raising and it's really good. I knew there'd be a thread about this TV show.

I have an 11yr DD and to me Ava dresses like a 7y old and acts like a mature 14y old.

Regular girls her age wear sparkles unicorns or street wear and aren't into religion and pious statements. They might say a few profound things like 'err I dunno just leave him alone dad' then walk off. But they wouldn't behave as Ava does.

The way Ava dresses had me thinking 'nah, not tacky enough'

And yep exactly! It's weird how Ava is both supposed to be so profound () yet takes all the conflict in her stride. She seems both way too old and too young at the same time? I understand that they didn't want two neurotic children to prevent it from getting too bleak but the writing for her is very unbelievable IMO. Although I did burst out laughing when she and Ally were up on the bunk bed with the curtains drawn and somebody tried to open the curtains and Ally YANKED them closed.

I kinda had a different take on Alex. I agree it was unbelievable, and I'm not sure about Leah's personality transplant. From what I remember she was such a cow in S1 that she was constantly 2 minutes from the stately homes thread. BUT I took Alex and Leah taking in Luke as a kind of 'to keep the peace (and to show Ally and Paul it's not that hard) we'll take him in' gesture.

I think Alex sort of changed and softened Leah and he was himself a good dad (his daughter made a point of this) and he was clearly good at dealing with difficult people

I did, like other posters , struggle to see how you could let your teen dictate the family in that way but wasn’t the whole point that Luke just couldn’t emotionally deal with Paul and Paul wasn’t going to change. The police said they would need to call social to house him ……

I’m watching the first series, the son is intensely irritating for his age ... no wonder the parents drink and swear

Only started this series so I've tried to skim read the posts above! I don't like Paul or his anger one bit, Luke hasn't done much so far this series bar not show up to collect Ava, not explained, but I'm surprised at people giving out about him when he's had to grow up with an angry father shouting and swearing at him