【Friend's Mother 4 (2025)】

At the beginning of Dads,Friend's Mother 4 (2025) the new Apple TV+ documentary debuting right before Father's Day, actress Bryce Dallas Howard (in her feature directorial debut) puts a group of comedic celebrity fathers in front of a brightly colored background. From off-screen, she asks them to define what a dad is.

“A hero,” says Jimmy Fallon when it’s his turn on-camera, thinking back to his own childhood. If Dadswants any description to come to mind when you think about the modern father, it's this.

While there are plenty of dads in real life who have failed to live up to the difficult but rewarding job of being a parent, Dadsglosses over this and instead focuses on a group of fathers who have — at least on-screen — been present and active in their children's lives.

The first segment focuses on a stay-at-home dad in California who vlogs the most hectic moments in his household. The next shows a dad who brings his son with a congenital heart defect to doctor's appointments while balancing work and school. The other main stories include ones about a man from Brazil who steps into the role of fatherhood despite not having a dad in his own life,aJapanese father who decides to become a house husband after recovering from an autoimmune disease, and a gay couple who teams up to care for their four foster children.

Dads' diverse group of fathers is its strength. Their various backgrounds, experiences, and cultures show how fatherhood presents its own unique challenges to everyone, and it's great to see these men step up to the plate. However, the celebratory tone of the documentary elevates "the good dad" in a way that "the good mom" rarely is. Maybe Howard wanted to make the case that fathers should be more involved, but in the end, the documentary feels more like a standing ovation for dads rather than a suggestion that they should strive to be better. Dads, through its sheer existence, reasserts the parenting double standards that run through society, in which it's cool and unique for a dad to be an involved parent, but simply expected that a mom will be.

With this considered, I was left asking why the documentary was made and who it was made for. Is it supposed to encourage fathers to give themselves a pat on the back? Is it supposed to make moms go, "aww, I wish I had that?" Is it meant to make adult children appreciate what their fathers had to put up with? It seems that Howard created it for her family and herself — in appreciation of what her father (director Ron Howard) and grandfather have done and what her brother Reed will do.

The emphasis on the Howard family is heavy. There are multiple clips of Reed anticipating the birth of his first child and caring for her after she's born. There's also a closer look at Ron Howard's relationship with his father while he acted as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show. Heck, the entire thing opens with home videos of Bryce Dallas Howard's own birth.

While it's sweet that Howard is close to her father and wants to "celebrate all the great dads out there," Dads'rosy view of fatherhood made me wonder if it could win over an audience beyond those who feel close to their own dads. Probably not.

Had Dadsnot debuted right before Father's Day, it might have never found its place. It doesn't really present any new information about parenting and is riddled with cliches in the vein of "fatherhood changes you," "there's no way to prepare," and "it's hard." It makes the infant years look cute, the toddler years appear hectic, and the teen years seem terrible, failing to explore the nuances and complexities of these time periods. I kept looking for something I didn't know — some piece of advice that I could learn — but I never found it.

Dadsis heartwarming most of the time and sentimental at others, but ultimately, it establishes the same message: Parenthood is hard, but it’s great that there are good dads around. And while it iswonderful that there are good dads in this world, this message isn't communicated in a way that provides deeper insight.

Dads is now streaming on AppleTV+.