Zach Galifianakis' charming 'This Is a Gardening Show' gives you food for thought

“This Is a Gardening Show” is simply a gardening amusement hosted by Zach Galifianakis, who is not kidding erstwhile helium says (and says again) that “the aboriginal is agrarian.” (Or, much critically, “the lone aboriginal is agrarian.”) Premiering Wednesday, which not coincidentally is Earth Day, connected Netflix, the six-part bid spotlights the cultivation oregon gathering of plants 1 eats, alternatively than which conscionable look pretty, with episodes connected apples, tomatoes, basal vegetables, corn, foraging and compost. “Food,” says the host. “From what I hear, you person to person it.”

Galifianakis, who lives remotely successful British Columbia and has been gardening “off and on” for 25 years, is nary Monty Don. He’s present arsenic a pupil himself; gathering with growers of an autarkic benignant — the bid was changeable connected Vancouver Island — connected their charmingly rustic farms, seeking their guidance, tasting their wares. He’s genuinely sincere astir the subject, adjacent if he’ll apical a remark like, “I privation to dice successful a garden,” with “The Olive Garden — I privation to overdose connected breadsticks,” arsenic if helium can’t defy specified low-hanging fruit. Each occurrence includes time-lapse photography of things growing, abbreviated animated interludes connected the past of the designated fruit, rootlike oregon fungus, a small subject and immoderate applicable advice.(“Did you cognize that?” I repeatedly asked my gardening woman and mostly she did, but sometimes she did not.)

I admit that it’s a dereliction of taste work ne'er to person seen immoderate of the “Hangover” movies, the enactment that volition apt pb Galifianakis’ obituary, whitethorn it beryllium agelong successful coming. But I person often had origin to observe his tv appearances: his triple enactment with Jason Schwartzman and Ted Danson successful the hangout enigma “Bored to Death”; his duplicate roles successful the sad-clown communicative “Baskets”; arsenic an acerbic mentation of himself successful “Only Murders successful the Building.” His disaffected tech titan successful “The Audacity,” present connected AMC, is 1 of that series’ much enjoyable aspects. The brilliantly passive-aggressive faux speech amusement “Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis” was web-based, but that’s defined arsenic TV successful my dictionary. In its idiosyncratic way, “This Is a Gardening Show” ranks among them.

The characters Galifianakis plays whitethorn beryllium disappointed, bitter, contemptuous, jealous oregon self-disgusted (he describes himself present arsenic aged and decrepit, with a yellowish liver), though often with an constituent of sweetness — a moody teddy carnivore connected Red Bull. In the consciousness that he’ll gaffe successful and retired of antithetic attitudes depending connected the context, oregon wherever a gag mightiness contiguous itself, this is simply a performance, too, but each successful the work of thing genuine, a mission: “As pessimistic arsenic 1 tin get these days, the gardens are hope. The Earth is our hope. Nature is our hope…. If radical proceed to gravitate toward learning astir sustainability, I deliberation we tin spot it turn. But everybody’s got to transportation in.”

Much of the clip is spent interacting with young schoolchildren, with whom Galifianakis exhibits a deadpan playfulness — investigating them connected names of pome varieties (McIntosh? Sausage fingers? Diarrhea town?) oregon asking what a murphy resembles. (Galifianakis: “Does this look similar anyone to you? Ryan Reynolds? ... Kind of bland and plain. Nothing going on.” Of course, this is not however Galifianakis really feels astir potatoes.) For the payment of the adults astatine home, helium lobs remarks implicit the kids’ heads, with references to Ukrainian person Yulia Tymoshenko, Benjamin Netanyahu (as a knock-knock joke), Burning Man and “The Aristocrats.”

But mostly, helium meets them wherever they are.

Galifianakis to Lucas, a child: “My kids emotion mushrooms. Do you person children?”

Lucas: “Mmm-hmm.”

Galifianakis: “You do? You person children?”

Lucas: “Yes.”

Galifianakis: “How galore kids bash you have?”

Lucas: “I don’t know. Eleven.”

Galifianakis: “Well, I guess. You look bully for your age. How aged are you?”

Lucas: “Five and a half. I’m astir turning 6.”

Galifianakis: “Oh, you’re astir turning 6. OK. Then that makes sense.… What are the names of your 11 children?”

Lucas: “I hide each their names.”

Galifianakis (ruefully, looking away): “Yeah, conscionable similar my mom.”

It’s enlightening, it’s heartfelt. Episodes tally astir 15 minutes, and portion YouTube is afloat of videos of comparable magnitude wherever you tin larn each astir maize and apples and tomatoes, sojourn with farmers, perceive jokes oregon find children being adorable, you’ll ne'er find it each successful specified a delightful azygous package.