“Breeders” is a slang term, probably born in homosexual circles, to indicate with a derogatory note those who reproduce, or couples with children (in the Italian title the clarifier “parents at the limit” is added). The initial idea comes from Martin Freeman, who plays the protagonist Paul, and could be summed up with a phrase that Paul himself addresses to his wife Ally in the first few minutes of the pilot: «I would die for these children. But often I would also like to kill them ».
London
Set in London but co-produced by the US FX and the English Sky, the series arrives in Italy from 2 July on Disney +, with a baggage of two seasons already aired abroad and a third in production.
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Don’t think, however, of one sitcom light in which at the end of each episode everything falls into place: the series is a portrait that wants to be as honest as possible about how draining it can be to be parents today. Breeders gladly use i cliché of the sitcom familiar – the too perfect rival couple, the inadequate grandparents, and so on – but it also easily veers towards rather somber tones: Paul, first of all, has to deal with his own inability to manage anger, which his children manage to bring out. like no one else had been able before. In a conversation with his father, Freeman / Paul plays with his public persona by saying that he believed he was a kind person, and by becoming a father in turn he realized how much pent-up anger he was hiding.
What makes it interesting Breeders, however, is the ability to bring the characters to life and extend the discourse: if at the center of everything there is the sense of inadequacy and the fear of not being the fathers and mothers we thought we were, the series just as often talks about disappointed ambitions, of being children of aging parents, in general of how to be an adult. Paul perhaps occupies the scene a little more, but to the character of companion Ally (played by Daisy Haggard, already seen in Back To Life) is given ample space to grow and be known by the spectators.
Breeders, Martin Freeman, Chris Addison, Simon Blackwell, Disney + from 2nd July