If you enjoyed "Expedition Happiness", you'll also like this one.
The general theme is: Privileged people who crave being in the spotlight film themselves for a few months. Last time they were on an (admittedly pretty sweet) vacation, this time they're reaching their thirties, so the themes are: house, vegetable garden, family, baby. Main focus is vegetable garden.
As the main couple is embarking on an experiment with an unknown outcome (will or won't the plants grow?), they again rely on being able to come up with the purpose of the film towards the end. In their pondering on this matter in the final interviews, we learn it might actually be less about "vegetable garden" and more about "family"? Maybe it's because the family flew in to stay for a few weeks and gather around the newborn baby?
The purpose of the film just seems to follow what in any particular moment happens to be right under the main couple's noses. In the beginning and especially in the trailer, the expectation was set that it'll be about raising a kid in the countryside rather than the big city. Turns out, those were just the momentary thoughts of the pregnant couple while moving from the big city to the countryside. This thought is completely forgotten the moment we arrive at the new house. Now there's the task of setting up the vegetable garden, so that's the only thing being discussed for the next hour or so.
But why make a film about a vegetable garden? Well, we learn that the point of that part is that if a "guy next door" can do it, everyone can do it. But hold on, you also just acknowledged that your generation can not afford to live in houses anymore like your parents' generation did. How will your average 3rd floor apartment-dweller Joe with a full time job get access to land and come up with the spare time to service it? How do the filmmakers actually pay for the rent of the house, utilities and everything else while being busy gardening full-time? Not a word on that. I guess we could all just be making deals with Netflix to fund our gardening ambitions, because that seems to be the easiest way to do it. And we should do it, because we learn that "if everyone watching this film starts eating vegetables from their own garden rather than buying from supermarkets, it has already made a difference". So regional, organic food is somewhat better than imported and plastic-wrapped? Groundbreaking stuff.
These films are like flipping through someone's family photo album. If you like the people, you like the film. Personally, after "young people vacation" and "starting a family, planting a garden", I'm looking forward to "dealing with pubescent teenager", "mid-life crisis, buying a Porsche" and "finding joy in retirement".
