Zach Galifianakis became a household name after “The Hangover,” playing a clueless, baby-carrying member of a guy’s group who find laugh-out-loud trouble during the course of a bachelor’s weekend. Or, as The New York Times described, “a movie-stealing performance as a neurotic man-child set loose in Las Vegas.”

He also hosted his own bizarro Emmy Award-winning talk show on the Funny or Die website called “Between Two Ferns,” where making A-list celebrity guests uncomfortable was goal number one. Among his guests was President Barack Obama.

So he wouldn’t necessarily be anyone’s first guess to be the host of a truly inspiring new Netflix series entitled, “This Is a Gardening Show,” a six-part look at, as Garden and Gun put it, “growing your own grub.”

But Galifianakis is in fact a longtime gardener and grower of food and quite sincere about its personal importance, saying in the show, “people have the potential in them to find beauty and happiness in all of this, because I certainly have.” And he also says, “If I were to offer a remedy to the human condition it would be a garden.”

But Galifianakis being Galifianakis, he can’t help jokingly deadpan, “or acid.”

Over just 15 minutes each, the episodes look deeply at apples first, followed by deep dives on tomatoes, foraging, root vegetables, corn, and compost. Each episode starts innocently and hilariously by talking with kids before spending time with experts who love their jobs and have lots for us to learn.

“Visiting various farms… Galifianakis finds that gardeners seem happier and funnier than most folk,” says a Grist review. “Maybe it’s because they get to be outside all the time, or they’ve got balanced diets, or because they’re reliving their childhoods as they search for earthworms wiggling in compost.”

Galifianakis is from North Carolina, with his own farm in Sparta. The shows take place amidst farms in the region with the host showing sincere appreciation and awe for farmers.

The Guardian calls it “part lesson, part lark, and part warning… (with) such a deliriously light touch that it makes you want to run outside and plunge your hands into the soil.” It also describes it as “a funnier, grumpier Sesame Street.”

Garden and Gun put together the best list of why the show is both entertaining and worth our time:

  1. It’s funny: “Perpetually rumpled Galifianakis leads with his comedic chops, whether that means delivering deadpan lines such as ‘Food, from what I hear, you have to have it,’ or making sophomoric gestures with a garden hose.”

  2. There’s something for fans of “Between Two Ferns”: “As each episode finds Galifianakis querying small farmers about their crops and techniques, one might easily be reminded of the low-budget, faux-talk-show viral videos in which he obtusely posed inappropriate questions to A-list celebrities.”

  3. He’s not afraid to dumb it down: “By the time Galifianakis describes curing his own chicken-droppings manure, it’s clear he’s no clean-fingernails newbie. That said, he’s happy to play the fool to get viewers to follow in his poopsteps.”

  4. There’s a little something for fans of “The Hangover”: “No, Galifianakis doesn’t dose his crew and go on a drug-fueled, blackout Vegas bender. He does mention that the way he prefers to eat mushrooms is at Burning Man… (but) in the end, he’s just under the powerful influence of fresh backyard veggies.”

  5. Sincerity is at the root: “At the end of almost every episode, Galifianakis simply says, ‘The future is agrarian,’ which is contrarian and almost revolutionary rhetoric in a factory-farm era… it’s gratifying to witness the obvious regard that a Hollywood bigshot has for people who spend their days cultivating, nurturing, or harvesting the healthiest and tastiest of produce.”

Maybe we can get Galifianakis to come visit some vineyards.

Photo By: Netflix