The newest show on NBC caught my attention originally for two reasons – it’s television spots (commercials) were pretty amusing and Lauren Graham was playing in the words of Entertainment Weekly yet another too young looking mother to a teenage daughter. Parenthood though is no carbon copy of Gilmore Girls, actually Parenthood is an interesting combination of ABC’s Modern Family and Brothers & Sisters.
8 episodes into the show and I have a completely formulated opinion, which really shouldn’t come to surprise anyone in particular I love the show. Any story that involves a dynamic family and quirky issues is my piece of cake. It followed the same adult sibling complexity of Brothers & Sisters, but it isn’t all drama because there are moments that are filled with a quirky humor that you can’t help but laugh at. The pilot episode sucked me in with a 45 minute storyline that made me laugh and cry all at once, possibly both several times back to back. Unlike Brothers & Sisters this isn’t a show solely focused on adult siblings and their dramatic and intertwined lives quite fittingly Parenthood is a narrative about being parents first, siblings second and individuals third.
The world of Parenthood begins with second oldest adult sibling moving herself and her two children back to her hometown and into her parents house. Somewhere in the bay area is where the entire Braverman clan lives. The Grandparents, Camille and Zeek, thus far Camille comes off as a free spirit artsy type, while Zeek comes off as an over opinionated hard-ass. There are four Braverman adult siblings, Adam the perfect older brother, Sarah the screw up middle sister, Crosby the slacker middle brother, and Julia the overachieving youngest sister. The siblings each have their own families, each a very different set of parents and children giving the audience a buffet variety of parenting styles and issues.
Adam and his wife Kristina have two children, a teenage girl named Haddie and an elementary school aged boy named Max. Though this begins as the perfect white picket fence family, with the perfect older brother transitioned to the perfect husband and father it’s not all it seems. Even though at first I watched these characters and expected a dog to come running out into any scene, it’s anything but the family of Father Knows Best.
The centerpiece of the series is Sarah’s family, a single mother with a rebellious teenage daughter, Amber and an emotionally broken teenage son, Drew. Sarah is in her late thirties trying to piece her life back together and give her almost grown children a better future. Amber is almost like an antithesis to her cousin Haddie (at least it seems it) with her darker clothing, poorer performance in school and direct rebellion to authority. While Drew breaks my heart every time he has a scene, the young Miles Heizer really brings his character to life even if he doesn’t get as much screen time as the equally talented Mae Whitman (Amber). Lauren Graham (Sarah) brings a whole different type of mother daughter relationship to life than she did with Gilmore Girls. Graham does turmoil and not all together just as well as she did on top of it fun mom.
Next would be Crosby, the carefree spirit and only sibling that never been married. But he suddenly discovers that he has a five-year-old son named Jabbar. Crosby’s parenting experience is him finally growing up with each moment he spends with his son. Also it brings to the screen a very different type of parenting relationship, as Jasmine the mother of Jabbar is unsure about how much she wants Crosby to be involved.
The last family is Julia, Joel and Sydney. Julia is an over working successful lawyer and Joel is a stay-at-home dad. Sydney is a younger school aged that is clearly more attached to her father than her mother. Joel is a super-dad and Julia, the overachiever is having trouble bonding with her young daughter.
I have yet to decide which is my favorite though I might be leaning towards Crosby and Drew. Another great creation from Ron Howard who hasn’t let me down since Happy Days and Jason Katims one of the producers of Friday Night Lights (which if you scroll down to a few months ago you might remember I also adored). As if the subtle humor, the witty dialogue and the charisma of the characters and the talent that depicts each of them doesn’t draw you in the theme song should. It’s a rendition of Bob Dylan’s Stay Forever Young which is really just absurdly catchy. Don’t have time to watch yet something else on Tuesday Nights? Don’t worry it’s on Hulu and OnDemand, so go catch up on a great new television family.
