Daddies on Request

Bright and playful but also over-the-top and emotionally shallow, this Mexican show featuring a pre-teen and her three adoptive fathers will feel too juvenile to most pre-teen and teen viewers. Reminiscent of My Two Dads and Three Men and a Little Lady from the late 1980s and early 1990s, the unfortunately titled Daddies on Request centers on a group of charming young men bumbling their way through raising a surprise daughter named California. Shortly into the series the makeshift family embarks on a road trip across Mexico to find California's mother (who's been missing for nine years). Along the way they meet lots of interesting characters and requisite misadventures ensue.

The relationships are largely sweet and there are some notable silly moments. Flashbacks to the three men's glory days in a boy band are especially funny in a cringe-worthy way, though it's not entirely clear whether they're meant to be so. Beyond these elements, though, there's just not much to dig into here as the characters only relate to each other in an overly simple manner. It's particularly annoying that the girlfriend of one of the fathers is openly mean to California but no one acknowledges it. Additionally, the group is being followed by a pair of mysterious men who are more buffoons than goons, adding little drama to the storyline. Though the imagery of Mexico is beautiful, it can't overcome the show's fatal flaw -- a somewhat mature plot filled with markedly immature characters. Ultimately, older kids will find the show boring while the storyline of a mother abandoning her child, possibly because bad people are after her, just isn't suitable for younger viewers.