In Canada: Mondays, 8:30pm ET/PT, CityTV
In the rest of the world: Not yet acquired
Well, I was patient. I was tempted to give up after the first episode of Seed, a Canadian comedy in which a Seth Rogen-esque slacker and sperm donor is tracked down by first his his biological son, then his biological daughter then one of his current, pregnant donation recipients (and new potential romantic partner), and has to come to terms with being a dad and offering sage life advice. It suffered from two basic flaws: relentless stereotyping and a lack of actual jokes.
Yet it was somehow so damn likeable that I stuck around for the second episode, which was a marked improvement: funnier, nicer and cleverer, and with fewer stereotypes. Could it be it was improving?
No. Mistake on my part, that. Episode three returned to the same lack of standards as episode 1, with more stereotypes than a Bernard Manning comedy routine and a matching lack of jokes.
Even on its own terms, it makes no sense whatsoever. Here’s a sample plot from the third episode: the lesbian couple with our ‘hero’s’ son have been trying to bring him up without any masculine attributes, such as ambition, assertiveness or aggression (which are just fine in them, mind you). However, ‘dad’ objects to his nine-year old going to ‘scrapbooking’ classes, and it turns out that the son is only going to the classes because of his mothers. So – because dad fancies the teacher – he enrols his son in a rhythmic gymnastics class instead. So what happens? The lesbians, who have been trying for nine years not to bring up their son in a stereotypical way, start to worry that their nine-year old needs to have more male interests or else he’ll turn out ‘super gay’.
What? You can try to make sense of that for the rest of eternity and it won’t.
So despite that strangely likeable quality, the complete lack of internal consistency, the rampant stereotyping and the total lack of jokes means it’s a big no to Seed from The Barrometer, I’m afraid.
Barrometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Will last a season at best
