DHAHRAN: Zach Galifianakis is just an adult kid who wants to spend all day gardening. So, he made a show about it. The 56-year-old comedian and actor has been a gardening fan for the last 25 years (look up his old guerrilla gardening efforts in Los Angeles).
In his six-part Netflix docuseries “This is a Gardening Show,” aptly released on Earth Day, Galifianakis channels the signature deadpan style of his wildly popular chat show “Between Two Ferns.” But, this time, the tone is sincere rather than arch. It’s full of dad jokes that don’t always land—but that’s all part of the charm. As is the fact that none of the episodes exceeds 15 minutes — a perfect bite-sized visual package, condensed enough even for the busiest of bees.
In “Apples” he goes apple bobbing with reluctant kids; in “Tomatoes” he sinks his teeth into the juicy fruit; in “Foraging” he, well, forages; “Root Vegetables” is self-explanatory; in “Corn” he spreads kernels of truth; and, finally, in “Compost,” he digs into the art of breaking it all down.
Filmed in Canada by RadicalMedia in association with Billios Productions, the series features Galifianakis — who primarily resides in Canada with his wife and two sons — as he rummages around independent farms, earnestly repeating phrases such as “The future is agrarian.”
It might be short, but it’s densely packed. Pretty much every line could be turned into a meme. There are time-lapse videos of plants growing and “Sesame Street”-style interludes on the history of Mother Nature’s greatest buried treasures — rooted vegetables and other edible delights — in which we learn, for example, that phloem is “blood of the tree,” and xylem “the skeleton of the tree.”
There are also plenty of running jokes and callbacks. Galifianakis awkwardly exchanges knock-knock jokes with tweens and learns from experts in the actual field — all while utilizing his own brand of messy-haired goofiness and wearing Mr. Rogers-inspired cozy cardigans. The aesthetic and tone lean heavily into cottagecore — embracing a simple, rural, sustainable lifestyle.
This sweet, bingeworthy series might even inspire you to stop doomscrolling long enough to go out and touch grass.
