It boggles the mind that Netflix has so much money at its disposal and unimpeded access to pretty much any high-profile creative figure in the industry that isn’t named Christopher Nolan, Tom Cruise, or Quentin Tarantino to craft original projects, but the majority of the ones emerging from Hollywood more often than not turn out mediocre at best. For the latest example, look no further than Old Dads.
Premiering today, the comedy marks the directorial debut of Bill Burr, who also co-wrote the script and plays one of the three titular roles alongside Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine. As you can no doubt gather from the title, three longtime friends who all became fathers later in life find themselves struggling to get to grips with parenthood, as well as pretty much anything that happened after the mid-80s.
Burr is one of the best at what he does when it comes to biting acerbic takedowns, but based on the initial wave of reviews – never mind the fact Old Dads is still searching for its first positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing – it’s already facing an uphill battle to find anything even approaching middling acclaim.
As a Netflix exclusive featuring recognizable names and an easily-marketable premise that’s debuting on a Friday, you can bet your house on Old Dads being one of the most popular titles available to subscribers the world over by this time tomorrow, but that’s not really the point. It’s baffling that Netflix keeps on recruiting top talent with its bottomless pit of cash, only for the end results to consistently disappoint.
