It’s sometimes difficult to watch Braverman parents fight with one another because of what their children have done. You can usually see the logic behind the hurt feelings on each side and understand the emotional overreactions, but, inevitably, it’s clear who’s in the wrong.
And it’s usually Adam and Kristina. But luckily for them, they can be sympathetic so viewers don’t wind up hating them for their inappropriate, tunnel-visioned responses to their family members, especially when Adam and Kristina’s children are at fault.
Adam and Kristina are extremely sensitive when it comes to their son Max, who has Asperger’s. While they may pay lip service to the notion that they understand that his behavior may be challenging for other children, they don’t often seem to care about what it’s like for other kids to be on the receiving end of Max’s outbursts or demands. (Remember the mom whose son didn’t want to invite Max to his birthday party and Kristina harassed the mother until Max got an invite?)
Clearly in this episode, Max was bullying his younger cousin Jabbar, refusing to allow him to have lunch with anyone other than him (why they didn’t make room for Jabbar’s friends to join them is an open question), and insisting that Jabbar just sit there and quiz Max on his multiplication tables until Max was satisfied. What Jabbar wanted was irrelevant. “Bullying” may seem like a strong word in this context, but that’s exactly what Max was doing, even though he may not have intended it that way because of his inability to read social cues. The bullying inevitably resulted in Jabbar — a very young boy who was unfairly held responsible for providing Max with his only social interaction — being physically assaulted by Max.
Did Adam and Kristina apologize to Jabbar, Jasmine, and Crosby and acknowledge that a small child shouldn’t have to capitulate to all of his older cousin’s demands? Of course not. It was just like when Haddie assaulted Amber on the soccer field in Parenthood‘s first season and Haddie stood by while her friends harassed Amber after Amber had hooked up with Haddie’s ex-boyfriend (emphasis on the EX). In that case, Kristina transformed into an ice queen and Adam was sanctimoniously angry at both Amber and her mother Sarah, even though Amber had done nothing wrong and Haddie was the one whose behavior was out-of-line.
In this case, the chief problem Adam and Kristina had with the lunchtime hullabaloo was that Jabbar had parroted Crosby’s awkward explanation about Max’s Asperger’s by saying that there was something “wrong” with Max. To defend Crosby, which I never do, his explanation was his way of trying to do the right thing by his nephew and brother, and help Max adjust to his new school without making Jabbar feel as though his desires didn’t matter. Crosby was earnestly trying to balance the needs of his son with those of his brother and nephew, and no one gave him credit for that. I’m looking forward to the moment when someone calls Kristina and Adam into account for their refusal to admit that their kids make mistakes — like everyone else’s — and that their children are not blameless.
Meanwhile, Haddie got her heart broken by a crushed Alex, who felt ashamed that the Bravermans now know about his past. To Alex, Haddie is a reminder of his failures, and in order to come to terms with his arrest and background he had to let her go. It was touching to watch Alex — who had bonded with Kristina and Adam seeing that he has no other family — say goodbye when he obviously didn’t want to. Michael B. Jordan did an excellent job with his character. I hope we haven’t seen the last of him.
And, for a change, I didn’t find myself hating on Sarah Braverman. The storyline about the photo of her kissing Mark going viral among the students — and Drew learning about it from the girl on whom he has a crush — was actually kind of amusing, although it did remind me too strongly of Lorelai Gilmore’s kiss with her daughter Rory’s English teacher, Max Medina, and that information causing a stir throughout Rory’s school.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Oct 05, 2011 @ 10:56 EST5EDT
