Zach Galifianakis has a new Netflix series called This Is a Gardening Show. It arrived on April 22, Earth Day, with six episodes about growing food and a host whose most famous interviewing environment already contained plants.
There is something pleasing about a title that tells you what you are getting. No ominous colon. No promise that the carrots conceal a shocking family secret. Just a gardening show, with a comedian asking questions.
Curiosity Is the Format
Netflix’s introduction describes visits to growers, foragers, and food experts, alongside conversations with elementary-school children. Brook Linder directs the series and Chris Kim produces it.
The premise gives Galifianakis room to be interested and ridiculous at the same time. He can play the person with the awkward question while somebody else knows what they are doing. That is a promising arrangement for a show about learning: expertise does not have to belong to the person with the most recognizable face.
It also makes the children an appealing part of the setup. A celebrity interview often comes wrapped in an invisible agreement about who is important. Put the same host opposite a child and there is no guarantee the child has signed it.
Food Comes from Somewhere
This is not a series without a wider concern. In Netflix’s account, Galifianakis wants people to think about food production and reconnect with how things grow. The subjects include orchards, tomatoes, foraging, and corn. He describes himself as a gardener of around 25 years, though he is there to learn rather than present himself as the final authority.
That gives the silliness somewhere to go. A tomato can be funny television without becoming a joke at the grower’s expense. Asking an apparently basic question can open a useful conversation, especially when the alternative is nodding confidently at a plant you could not identify in a police lineup.
The appeal of this format, to me, is the permission to pay attention to something small. Food can arrive in our lives as a purchase, a photo, or a decision made while standing in front of the fridge. A program about growing it invites a different set of questions: who did the work, what did they learn, and why did this particular thing end up on the plate?
Short Episodes, No Required Homework
In her April 21 AP review, gardening writer Jessica Damiano describes episodes of roughly 15 to 20 minutes, including apple grafting and composting. She highlights how the humor leaves room for the experts rather than taking over their subject.
That sounds like a manageable invitation for an evening. You do not need to promise six seasons of your life to see whether a program about soil is your thing. Nor should enjoying it require suddenly owning a garden. Sometimes learning how someone else’s work happens is enough.
Our Film & TV section has room for this kind of small-scale curiosity alongside more elaborate dramas. There is no reason a thoughtful subject must arrive with a crushing runtime and a soundtrack announcing the collapse of civilization.
A Different Kind of Streaming Invitation
One gardening series cannot prove that Netflix has changed its strategy or that audiences have collectively rejected intense television. It can offer another mood. Some evenings you want a mystery. Some evenings you would like the central mystery to be why your basil has given up.
The attraction here is a host willing to be curious about ordinary things. A useful lesson, a strange question, a person who knows their patch of ground: that is enough of a premise to deserve a place in the queue.
This Is a Gardening Show is streaming on Netflix. Plant something this weekend if you fancy it. Or simply watch people who know more about plants than you do. The cat will supervise either activity, despite having an extremely questionable relationship with houseplants.
🐾 Curiosity looks good on you. Explore the Goodies, or find our illustrated books on Amazon.
