If you’re a parent, you’ve undoubtedly experienced your child screaming, “I HATE you!” at you at full volume. You’ve probably sent that kid to his or her room and cringed when you heard the child stomping, carrying on and shrieking that Voldemort would be a better parent than you.
And it’s very likely that, as you listened to the tantrum and pediatric shouting, that you’ve felt like a pretty cruddy parent and couldn’t, frankly, believe that you were in this situation, on the receiving end of such raw rage.
That’s why I admired Parenthood’s handling of the Sydney-is-a-sore-loser storyline. It wasn’t sugar-coated. At all. It wasn’t prettied up. It was as raw as Sydney’s wrath.
After 7-year-old Sydney started yelling and angrily knocked over popcorn upon being chastised for not playing charades according to Braverman family rules, her grandfather Zeek confronted her parents Joel and Julia. “You two are coddling my granddaughter, you know that?” he asked. “Sydney is a sore loser.” He added: “She doesn’t learn how to lose then she’s not going to learn about real life … She thinks that it’s her birthright to win. You coddle, coddle, coddle, coddle!”
This chestnut of wisdom nestled down in Joel’s brain and, after he mulled it over, he realized that he and Julia had indeed never allowed Sydney to lose because they were trying to bolster her confidence. Parenthood deserve kudos for, after Joel bested Sydney at Candy Land, portraying Sydney’s meltdown in the realistic, ugly way in which these things generally transpire in households across the country. There was backtalk, the hurling of stuff and even Sydney kicking her father and slapping him in the face. You had to admire Joel for maintaining his emotional equilibrium as he carried the girl to her room, shut the door and remained on guard outside — we have no idea for how long — until the child calmed down and would listen to reason. Equally admirable was depicting Sydney as freaking out for so long that a parental shift change was required at her door, where Julia took over, a bottle of red wine at the ready. This was a storyline done right.
Likewise, it was illustrative to witness Sarah struggle with what to do after she learned that Drew had gotten a D in math, a subject he loves, during his pivotal junior year. Grappling for an immediate solution, Sarah latched onto the most recent change in Drew’s life as the source of the problem: The time the 16-year-old had been spending with his first girlfriend Amy. Thus Sarah forbade Drew from seeing Amy during the week.
This is a powerful subject in which Parenthood has been dabbling during its three seasons: When it comes to trying to address or correct what parents see as problematic teen behavior, there’s no one, right solution and no way to force their will upon the teen because, if something’s really important to him or her, the kid’s just going to find a way around the parental directives because their parents can’t be everywhere and see everything. It’s what teens do. The fact that the show is demonstrating that there are no easy, Ozzie and Harriet or Ward Cleaver answers is refreshing.
On the Max Asperger’s front, how fabulous was it to watch Kristina go all Mama Grizzly on the boy from her son’s math team — whom Max considered a friend — after she could not longer tolerate witnessing the kid mock Max? “You think you can get by with your Justin Bieber hairdo and your Invisaline braces,” she said. “Guess what? Puberty’s going to set in and set in ugly … Be a friend, not a bully!”
As for the sexy administrative assistant Rachel, it was unfortunate that they went there. It was uncomfortable enough to watch Crosby revert back to his man-boy antics by repeatedly and openly flirting with Rachel who’s way too young for him, never mind that he’s her boss. But they threw Adam under the bus. Adam was totally, paternally clueless about Rachel’s flirtation with him even as he tiptoed around his discomfort with her dressing like she’d just come back from clubbing. He was naively protective over her, like a good dad … and then she kissed him. Sure, it was something we all saw coming and that Adam should have seen coming too, but he was blinded. The question is, was he blinded because he perceived their relationship in a father-daughter/mentor way, or because he was too busy trying to avoid looking at and admiring Rachel’s body and youthful allure?
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Nov 16, 2011 @ 12:53 EST5EDT
I really like the last sentence of this review. Any older male who regularly works with or around younger females, particularly younger females flaunting their sexuality, will tell you that it’s a tightrope. You are attracted to them – that’s biology – but your mind and ethics allow you to not act on any attraction. But it’s still there. I definitely read this as Adam (I still want to call him Nate) trying so hard not to be attracted (remember that he and Christina are not as intimate as he’d like these days) that he’s not able to read the situation as clearly as he normally would.
Adam worked at an athletic shoe company – he had to be used to working around younger women, interns at least. But this is a completely different set of circumstances that have thrown him for a loop. I wish that they hadn’t gone there either, but I do trust this show to deal with this issue honestly, or at least as honestly as network TV allows.