Father Material

The final installment of Hall’s London Calling series (after Boyfriend Material and Husband Material) delivers diminishing returns as, this time out, Luc and Oliver consider the next step in their relationship: caring for something more than each other. The couple gets a dog, Spud, to “take the first step towards building the life and the family that [Luc] sort of never quite dared to hope for.” The pet training, however, leads to disagreements, as Oliver is all about discipline and boundaries whereas Luc is characteristically more lax. Their different parenting styles become a source of even greater contention when the couple become foster dads to “porcupinish” 14-year-old Jasmine, aka Jaz. As Jaz gets in trouble with the neighbors, suspended from school, and implicated in car theft, Oliver fears he’s a bad dad, while Luc is more open to the “learning process” of raising a sullen teenager. Adding to Luc’s stresses, however, is that he may lose his job unless he can convince an obnoxious benefactor to support his dung beetle charity by staging a rock music festival. Hall crams in a few too many subplots and running gags that drag on far too long. There are some heartfelt messages about love and parenting along the way, but as a whole it’s overlong and underwhelming. (June)