Breeders′ unromantic title is an initial announcement of its tone:there’s nothing warm and cuddly about this view of domestic life. The baldly biological perspective on reproduction is a telling signal that the rose-coloured glasses have been trashed. A further indication comes with the episode titles,which skew to the negative,each one starting with the word “No”,which is quietly hilarious,just like the show. Another early clue is a line from Paul in the pilot episode,when he and Ally,frazzled and sleep-deprived,are at their wits’ ends and he declares:“I would die for these kids. But often I also want to kill them.”
Breeders is a distinguished member of a cohort of contemporary comedies (Please Like Me,Love&Anarchy,Hacks) that are honest,often uncomfortable and not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny. They aren’t built on gags,bits of schtick or boom-boom punchlines. Instead,they elicit a quiet chuckle and a light-bulb flash of recognition at their ruthlessly insightful dissections of human behaviour. And they take in real-world issues – mental-health challenges,career crises,the pressures on family life when both parents work outside the home – that can’t be easily and reassuringly resolved.
TV’s early days gave us domestic sitcoms featuring sensible and mostly unrufflable adults. Mums might get into a tizz about an over-cooked roast,Dads might stumble on handyman challenges,but nothing too serious was at stake. These parents were solid and smart,and children learned important life lessons from them. Back then,such comedies,unironically,had titles likeFather Knows Best.
However,there’s nothing kindly and wise about the deeply relatable adults inBreeders. Paul does not necessarily know best;in fact,in large part he’s the cause of the problems. His simmering anger triggers the kind of anxiety in Luke that can’t be fixed with a few contrite words and a goodnight kiss. Paul’s well aware of that,but he just can’t control it. TV’s early days would also never have imagined a situation where a mother like Ally wails,in the final episode of the most recent season,that she feels as if she’s lost control – and she isn’t talking about burned biscuits. She’s dismayed about her life:her job,her health,her children and her marriage.
OnBreeders,everyone is struggling and everyone is stuffing up some of the time. While it’s clear that these characters love and care about each other,they can also behave badly,say horrible things,and even,in one shocking scene,strike out. The show brings to mind the famed line by English poet Philip Larkin about parents f---ing up their children without meaning to. Paul’s anger creates such distress that Luke eventually insists that he can’t live in the same house as his father. The events that follow have unhappy consequences for Ally and Ava. There’s damage all around.
Freeman has said that the idea for the show came when he was preparing to discipline his own kids,cautioning himself not to lose his temper and immediately failing to do so. Early meetings between Freeman,Blackwell and Addison have been likened to a men’s therapy group,with the participants sharing their fears of inadequacy and failure. When they pitched the show,they apparently explained:“It’s a comedy,but only just.”