Parenthood – First grade social scene foibles, nepotism & chaos in the family room

For the first time since I’ve been watching Parenthood, I was thoroughly irritated with Peter Krause’s character Adam Braverman during the last episode.

He spent nearly the entirety of “No Good Deed” gnashing his teeth when he discovered that he couldn’t control his sister Sarah’s behavior at work (Has he not met the uber-caffeinated Lorelai Sarah?), being annoyed that his wife was helping out a friend — a fellow parent of a child with Asperger’s — whose husband announced that he wanted a divorce, and being put out when that husband showed up at Adam’s workplace to ask if he could confide in him.

Adam proceeded to resent everything and everyone as a gigantic imposition.

The scene where Adam retreated to his car — after walking into his house to find Kristina consoling a crying Haddie, Max playing a loud instrument in one corner of the family room and the child of the estranged couple bouncing on furniture in another room — simply made Adam look selfish.

Sure, Sarah can be pushy and annoying, but he already knew that when he hired her. Trying to tell her what she can and can’t talk about and how long she’s allowed to have lunch with THEIR boss was over the top.

And, hell yes, his house is frequently mind-numbingly chaotic, but he isn’t the one who has to deal with that all day long. His wife is the one who tried to hold the family together and attend to everyone’s needs (all but her own). At least he gets his coffee and an office to himself during the day, that is when his we-have-no-boundaries siblings aren’t visiting. Of all people, Kristina is the one who needed to retreat to the quiet calm of the car and chill while listening to music, more so than Adam.

At least there was one moment of redemption for Adam at the end of the episode, after Kristina, the one who’s trying to maintain calm in the middle of insanity, tried to provide him with some quiet by taking the kids out to dinner so Adam could have the house to himself. When Adam showed up at the restaurant, I took it as a hopeful signal that he recognized that he was being a complete tool and that he wasn’t supporting his wife while she was trying to do something nice for someone else in need. We’ll see.

Then there was the other clueless Braverman brother, Crosby, the man-child, who, for some reason, didn’t get why everyone — from his girlfriend to his mother, to Adam and even the laissez-faire Sarah — would think that, while he’s capable of caring for his son, his boat isn’t the best place in which to do it on a long-term basis, especially when Jabbar’s grandmother’s home is nearby. He wants to be a dad with care taking responsibilities, then he’s got to man-up and stop living like a bachelor, everybody seemed to be telling him without directly uttering those words.

Meanwhile, moments of levity and plain speaking were found in Julia’s ill-fated attempts to wade into the politics of the first grade social world by accepting a play date for her daughter Sydney without first consulting her at-home husband who’s all over the haps  in Sydney’s social scene. Julia made it worse by trying to right her wrong by canceling the play date by daring to be honest with another mom about how some of the girls don’t get along. Apparently, she picked the wrong mother with whom to be honest, the Mussolini of the parent-teacher organization. This led to Julia having to invoke white lies in order to preserve her daughter’s social standing. In the first grade. Seriously.

And may I just say for the record: I’m not liking the one-dimensional Billy Baldwin character nor his super-nutritious, hermetically sealed lunches.

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Sep 22, 2010 @ 11:30 EST5EDT