Breeders a family matter

 Family..

A little bit crazy.

A little bit loud.

And a whole lot of love.

Welcome to the Worsley clan.

Please enjoy your summer, be safe and happy, and have fun with our favourite London family and lots of other projects of Mr. Freeman to discuss here on the Freemaniac blog.

Breeders is my comfort show, that has several reasons, and one of them is that I had been once again in a health crisis when the show was on, and it was literally like a warm cosy blanket.

Set in London which is always more than a bonus, because London is and always will be my home by heart.

And like most projects of Mr. Freeman, Breeders is refreshingly honest in script and performance.

I'm not sure, if I would label the show being a comedy or a sitcom.

For me it was always a show, without a characterisation or a stamp attached.

Breeders is fun, honest, heartwarming and lovingly , and sometimes an episode definitely needs discussion, but like I said with Miller's Girl art is there to provoke and make us think.

Paul, Ally, Luke and Ava, together with Jim and Jackie are simply likeable, with all their flaws and their big crazy and kind hearts.

And is Leah our dream of a mother in law?

Are we keen on neighbour Carl?

 And do we want a boss like Darren? 

Yes absolutely, we all know our Carls and Darrens, because Breeders is life,and life is no rom- com most of the time.

Breeders is a restoring take on family, and parenthood in times when we are dazzled by guidebooks, advice from people who know it all, but don't have kids on their own, and let's not forget all the super realistic social media stories, which always show us only a flicker of a moment, but it is enough to make us feel bad or inadequate when it comes to parenting.

Breeders never does this, this show will always be honest with you.

We meet Paul, Ally and their children Luke and Ava, in the middle of typical family chaos.

They are loud, stressed and a loving family.

Of course, we quite quickly realise that Paul won't win the father of the year award, but he is trying, and he succeeds more often than not.

When he does not, we witness that this guy has quite a temper.

Paul and his " issues" will get of course a separate post.

What else :) 

Season one is shaped by the bonding between us, and the Worsley clan, and at least I can say, that worked very well.

I immediately liked Paul, for natural and weird reasons.

Paul is the guy, you want to hang out with, he is funny and intelligent, without being annoyingly over confidant, and has a few but striking features, that shape him probably more than he would like to hear.

Paul loses his temper extremely quickly. Fact!

And that is the weird reason why I like him so much, besides the fact , that his heart is in the right place, but his temper and all the problems that comes with such a temper, is why I love Paul Worsley.

I am Paul Worsley.

I have an extreme temper, I explode as quick as a misfired firework.

I am loyal, funny and will be at the top of the mountain with you, but if you are my friend, you will witness me angry, screaming and stressed out, and sometimes all of it.

I like Paul because unlike our new set standards in the social media world, or in the eyes of so called experts, he is far away from perfection, and is aware of it.

He struggles with it, but that doesn't mean he will turn from Paul the busy and stressed Dad into a super hero version of a father.

And being part of the Worsley family won't give him such a chance anyway, because it's hard enough being Paul.

Being married to Ally is surely one of his greatest achievements, but this is not a walk on cloud nine kind of relationship.

Ally is a very strong woman, and has a busy life herself.

Besides juggling motherhood and marriage, Ally has a job where is much more boss than the guy who actually is her boss.

And I got the feeling, that Ally being good at her job, and Paul not really climbing up the corporate ladder is an unspoken issue in the Worsley household.

And let's not forget Liam....the elephant in the room.

Liam is Ally's first husband, no Liam is Ally's only husband.

Because when we meet them for the first time, they are not married, because Ally thinks marriage is not important, and Paul thinks the same, only he does not!

Paul actually wants to be married to Ally, and the fact that Liam had been married to her,and he is " just" her boyfriend is a nagging thought, especially when you have parents like Jim and Jackie.

Jim and Jackie are the secret stars of the show.

They bring an extremely entertainment value, and later on some brilliantly played issues, and some flickers of the actual problems in between.

Because if we start on Paul's issues, and we will, then we must acknowledge that Jim is responsible for some of Paul's flaws, because if we like it or not the story of a family always goes backwards on psychological matters.

So during the first episodes we see a normal family, with crazy neighbours and grandmothers, and love and arguments and temper tantrums, although the tantrums usually coming from Paul.

Besides the fact that Paul is eager to put a ring on Ally's finger, there are two more things I would like to point out, because I find them important, and in case I felt sorry, and one man in particular got my love, and I still miss him.

Michael! 

Ally's let's say absent, and slightly unbalanced father.

But do we not secretly love the sweet and eccentric a bit more, than the go by book type of people ?

Ally would probably disagree, and I could totally understand that, because enjoying a bit of craziness is a completely different thing, than living with it, or in Michael's case living without it and him.

Michael has his own rules, his own rhythm and maybe even an only for him working wisdom.

But I totally loved him, and his car accident hit me hard, which is a very weird thing to say in the circumstances of his sudden death.

I loves the interactions between Michael and Paul, and would love to have kept him, but that would have been too much for poor Ally.

The way Ally griefs is equally sad and hilarious, because you rarely see grieving turns into just being horny all the time, and even Paul is a little bit confused at the beginning, but decides to go along with it.

Attaboy:D

The last person who gets a bit of extra recognition in this little S1 overview is....Luke!

I like this little fella, and later on the conflict with Paul, and their later on bonding are my all time favorite moments of the show!

But very early on, it is very clear that Luke is a bit different , and he is not the only one who struggles with it.

Luke is by far Paul's biggest challenge, but it works the other way around.

Luke needs so much more attention and understanding than little Ava, and Paul is more often than not completely overwhelmed with it.

Luke is a very anxious child, with way too much worries, and it is almost a logical assumption that he will turn into a nervous teenager.

And then the " real fun" begins..

Breeders is one of Mr. Freeman's best works, and undoubtedly one of his most honest pieces, and like he said so himself, Paul is close to home for Mr. Freeman, which makes it even more special and interesting, because I think it's easy to say how close you are to a character, if said person is a kind, sweet, or tough guy.

A hero, or even a villain, but Paul is none of those men.

Paul is a very difficult,with a hot temper, and afflicted with problems.

And to admit that this guy is the closest to the actor who brought him to live, is something I love and respect.

There are many reasons to love this show, the scripts, the acting, and the honesty.

And on top, another brilliant performance coming from the man, who one day dreamt about a show, we now call Breeders.

Stay tuned!