Zach Galifianakis's 'This Is a Gardening Show' Is a Pure Delight

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Zach Galifianakis’s new Netflix series, This Is a Gardening Show, but I found the whole thing absolutely delightful — and not quite what anyone might have expected from a guy whose work outside of The Hangover movies tends to run either absurd (Baskets) or just plain bad. This Is a Gardening Show, on the other hand, is perfect for the whole family — low-stakes, genuinely warm, and even lightly educational.

It’s not quite as good, but it reminds me a little of John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch: easily accessible to kids, but with enough wit to hold adult attention. I can’t say I’ve ever watched a gardening show before, but I suspect the pitch was something like, “This will be a traditional gardening show, except I’ll talk to a bunch of kids, I’ll just be myself, and we’ll see what happens.”

What happens is a genuinely good time. Galifianakis talks to experts about corn, apples, foraging, and the like, interacts with kids, and tosses off a lot of off-the-cuff jokes. But it’s also clear that he’s passionate about gardening, that he’s genuinely interested in what the experts have to say, and that he’s actually enjoying just being himself — no character to hide behind, no bit to maintain.

There’s not much more to add, except that it’s short (six episodes at 15 minutes apiece), it doesn’t wear out its welcome, and he makes a lot of jokes at the expense of Ryan Reynolds. (I thought you would like that.) You can watch the whole thing in a single sitting, or save episodes as a palate cleanser between stretches of darker fare.