El hombre de los 1000 hijos

This is the story of a man that is obsessed with being a father to as many babies as possible. Either by donor and in some cases actual sex. Not only was he registered to 11 clinics in his country, but he travelled all over the world donating. Not only that, but he also donates privately through a website. There are so many siblings in his home country it will be a miracle that some wouldn't meet and fall in love with each other. The documentary follows several parents that were duped by this man who by clinic rules should only donate to 5 different families. What makes it even scarier is the whole community of men that are doing this as well. There's no strict rules in place so these families are trying to change things in an industry that needs way more legislation. It kept my interest and frankly I felt scared for these children, especially the ones that live so close to each other. Things are definitely going to be interesting in the future and not in a good way.

Every time I watch a Netflix docuseries with my mouth slack-jawed and eyes widened, I think it has to be the most outrageous thing I've seen, and then a few months later, it's a whole other story of people being awful. This time around, it's a Dutch man who is a serial sperm donor and has anywhere from 600 to 3,000 kids (!). The series is only three episodes, insane from beginning to end, and also kind of icky, with women seeking him out because he had long blond hair, blue eyes, and is (supposedly) Nordic and handsome. I thought he was gross with a serious god-complex, and completely dismissive of the possibility of consanguinity with so many offspring running around. I blame all this hyper-natalism on Elon Musk and other white fanboys, one of whom said they were donating in Kenya so they could "bleach Africa white". Aaargh.

This man must be permanently stopped, anywhere in the world. And the donor system must be better regulated since he isn't, and won't be, the only one.

At the risk of sounding like victim blaming, however, sometimes some people can be a little shallow with looks - the most cliché form of beauty propagated endlessly by media - and they can be easily duped by cheap compliments. You could hear them talking how they might feel it's wrong or even disgusting at times, yet they went through with it because they're charmed. After learning what's transpired and that there could be intentional mixed-ups, two of the parents were even relieved that both their children got their DNAs from Mr. B&B whom they've selected from an online menu. I'm sure for them the decision to have a baby was made with utmost gravity, but the way some of them went about it - similar to that of marketplace online shopping - suggests otherwise.

The irony is that we might repeatedly teach our kids "it's the inside that counts," yet when we want to conceive, we might be obsessed with a certain type of beauty. This has to stop. After all, this is NOT the first time that our obsession with blond hair and blue eyes has brought us horrible chaos in the world - one very notable, terrible event that happened in the 20th century needs no reminder...

This documentary features interviews from a variety of parents who used the services of the same sperm donor without knowing it at first.

The man, Jonathan Meijer, donated sperm through a variety of clinics--signing declarations of exclusivity, but those were not enforced.

He also donated through facebook groups, freeform and without those same contractual restrictions.

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The problem comes in both that he intentionally and willfully breaches the women's trust and that the industry itself did not enforce their own standards.

By not enforcing the restrictions, a statistically unacceptable probability of children of the same donor interacting and perhaps even marrying may take place.

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After a lawsuit, the court issued a groundbreaking decree that restricted Meijer's bodily autonomy and right to donate further sperm, rather than just giving more teeth and punishments based on contract violations with the clinics.

Meijer, whose narcissism created a thousand children, is now precluded from having more.

Meanwhile, as the final title cards note, the industry itself still has the same flaws and cannot seem to accurately promise or enforce any limit on the number of children a donor has.

Since it's a huge industry, this ending left viewers with a feeling that while this one obviously extreme case is solved others (such as those mentioned in passing) are still out there.

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While the tale is cautionary and that's fine, I'd call this mini series "second screen" at most because it could have said the same thing in one segment.

The court case, while ground breaking, also doesn't solve the central issue of the industry's problem.

And as for the serial dad? He's incredibly dull as portrayed in this film. (Not to say that the film should be a hype machine, but if his solo punishment is the focus at the end, perhaps give us more insights on his background and reasoning than a few weak guesses.)

How can Netflix make this dull? Not sure, but they did. Would not recommend.

A group of Dutch mums to be are delighted to have found the perfect sperm donor, YouTuber Jonathan Meijer, a handsome Dutchman, with perfect hair and teeth, and a bizarre ambition, to father as many babies as possible.

It's like a plot from a sci fi series, it really is insane, its such a bizarre and twisted storyline.

It held my attention, possibly morbid curiosity, I had to keep watching.

Jonathan's story is such a bizarre one, I would have loved to know what he wanted out of it, was it simply to fill the world with his offspring, or was there something else to it? I was also puzzled to see if any of his actions were criminal or not.

A three part series, I'm glad they kept it at that, it would have been overlong, they just about get away with three. It is a little slow in parts, and why Netflix insist on these recreation scenes with real people, they are so pointless.

Will there be a follow up in twenty years or so, as his offspring move into adulthood, I wouldn't get against it.

7/10.