Finally, the freshman drama Parenthood is coming into its own, blending humor and child rearing angst with a sprinkling of dashed midlife dreams, mixed in with some hopeful aspiration.
Finally, I didn’t feel as though an episode of this show had ended with a moral, and a pat on the head. The latest episode felt authentic.
First, there was that Peter Krause dancing scene which I found pretty awesome, particularly because the actor, Krause, was blushing deeply as he rocked out to Run DMC’s “It’s Tricky.” His character, Adam Braverman, was attempting to assuage his nephew’s fears about failing to impress a girl at a high school dance by showing him some moves Adam used back in the day, to great comedic effect.
This storyline dovetailed nicely with geeky Adam being completely freaked out by the fact that his 15 year-old daughter bought sexy lingerie to impress her boyfriend. On the one hand, Adam was happy to revisit his own youth with his nephew and encourage the boy to ask out a girl. But, as his daughter Haddie pointed out, when it comes to her he’d prefer that she remain locked up in a tower somewhere wearing a chaste frock. When called out on it, at least Adam had the intellectual honestly to admit that this was an obvious double standard, though he didn’t back down from his position.
As for his wife Kristina, she got a taste of life back in the world of politics, a decade-plus since she left it to be an at-home mom. After helping out a friend with her campaign, Kristina — who was a tad out-of-touch with today’s political world (she didn’t know what a “tweet” was) — got the political bug and nabbed an offer for a full-time political job.
Her eyes twinkling, she told Adam how fabulous she felt being at work, and how, after she proved herself, people looked at her differently and she liked it. Though Adam encouraged Kristina to take the job, saying they’d figure out how to get their kids to their games, school, and doctors’ appointments — their son has therapy for Asperger’s — Kristina had second thoughts. She said she could always get another job on another campaign, but their kids would only be young once. Her dream was shelved, for now.
The story for Lauren Graham‘s character, Sarah Braverman, took an unexpected turn when she discovered that her former high school boyfriend and recent one-night-stand (a guy she dumped because he was a barista and was overweight) had become an author. Sarah, by the way, was the bartender serving drinks at an event honoring him.
On top of that twist, as Sarah was trying to convince her underachieving daughter Amber to apply to college, Amber got a course catalog and casually tossed it in front of Sarah. Not because Amber was interested in going to school there, but because she thought it’d be a good fit for her mom.
Overall, I was very pleased with how this episode, “Perchance to Dream,” played out. More so than after any of the previous installments, which seemed to go for neatly tied together endings, and head down rather predictable paths.
Any Parenthood fans out there? Have you noticed an improvement recently?
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Apr 28, 2010 @ 13:30 EST5EDT
I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of the show, though I’ve seen every episode. This episode was markedly better than the slit-your-wrists-depressing outing two weeks back. Half the adults annoy me, along with nearly all the kids, and everyone outside the family, but I hang on for the unrealized potential for greatness engendered by the strong cast.
This week, finally something good happened for Kristina, whose children treat her as a household appliance. And Amber felt like a real daughter for the first time, who has a connection with, in addition to the antipathy toward, her mother. I never get that sense from Haddie. And once again Joel does nothing to guide, help, or heal the situation, but seems content to make snotty remarks to his hapless wife in passing.
My wife and I watch the show. I’m digging it. She likes it enough to continue watching it with me. I too think I’m in it more for the potential I see than it’s current state. Last night was one of the better ones so far. It had some fairly light material, but in an honest way. Jim’s poem and Adam’s dancing seemed very “yeah, this could happen and be hilarious to anyone observing but the people doing it wouldn’t realize or care”.