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Breeders is one of those sitcoms that probably seemed like a great idea on paper, but was even straining at the leash in the ’90s with dull, family-based affairs like 2 Point 4 Children.
This one has the same setting, with a Mum, Dad, two kids, here living in a big, open-plan house, which isn’t advised as you’ll just hear the noise form the kids all the time, but then we know it’s been done this way for filming purposes.
Parents Paul (Martin Freeman – Cargo, A Confession) and Ally (Daisy Haggard) joke how they want to kill them, posing, “It’s a conundrum, isn’t it – which duvet to suffocate them with(!)”
Oh, hilarious, love.
Along the way, Paul dreams of their life before they had kids. Plus, he swears an awful lot in the presence of said offsprining because he loses his cool… so, basically, he’s no different from how Martin Freeman normally is.
Add in the pair of them getting a lack of sleep all night, the binmen being concered about Paul’s drinking, and the fact that not even Michael McKean can save it in episode 2 as Ally’s father; and there’s a lot in Breeders which doesn’t break any sort of new ground whatsoever, to the point where it makes me bother why it was made – I mean, wrestling with a smoke alarm?
Breeders begins on Sky 1 Thursday March 12th at 10pm, with two episodes being broadcast each week. The series is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Episodes 1 and 2 Score: 1/10
Series Directors: Chris Addison, Ben Palmer
Writers: Chris Addison, Simon Blackwell, Martin Freeman
Music: Oli Julian
Cast:
Paul: Martin Freeman
Ally: Daisy Haggard
Ava Worsley: Jayda Eyles
Luke Worsley: George Wakeman
Nadia: Shvorne Marks
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.