Parenthood continues to stumble out of the gates

After being bombarded with characters and story lines in last week's premier, I was relieved that the pacing of this week's episode of Parenthood slowed considerably. Unfortunately, the "buzz-kill factor" was still in full effect.

The plot of episode two basically just took the stories presented last week and built upon them, without adding a whole lot of new material, which I appreciated. Adam, who we find out is some kind of shoe industry executive or something, is still, at least partially, in denial about his son's Aspergers. Determined to get a second opinion, he seeks out a specialist, a doctor referred to as "the Bob Dylan of Aspergers" who confirms his fears, Max exhibits the tell-tale symptoms of the syndrome. To make matters worse, Adam discovers a bag a weed in his backyard and spends most of the rest of the episode trying to find its rightful owner.

Meanwhile, Crosby uses Max's Aspergers as an excuse to break a date with his girlfriend. Initially this sounds like a totally dick move, but the reason he doesn't want to hang out with his girlfriend is because he would rather hang out with his new-found son and his ex-girlfriend/baby-mama, who have decided to move back Berkeley (which, as we find out, is where the show takes place).

Sarah's family suffers a series of defeats, starting with her attempt to land a fantasy job as a logo designer (or something like that). Adam uses his connections (who knew a guy in the shoe business had so many hook-ups in unrelated industries) to get her an interview, which goes really well initially. The interview scene was one of the few lighthearted moments and Sarah's chemistry with her would-be boss, a much younger Asian dude, is pretty strong. Unfortunately, I don't think we will be seeing anymore scenes with the two together because after the interview Sarah is informed that the job requires a college degree, which she is lacking. After receiving that tough news, she finds out that her daughter is being held back a year because some of the credits from her former school won't transfer to her new school. By the way, is it just me or does Sarah remind you a whole lot of Nancy from Weeds? I'm just waiting for Sarah to say, "Fuck it," and start selling bud to UC Berkeley students to support her kids.

Speaking of Weeds, or weed in general, the episode ends on a high note, literally, with the adults of the family huddled together outside a school play (or something like that) smoking the bud that Adam found in his backyard (which, as it turns out, belonged to his formerly goody-two-shoes daughter). It was nice to finally have a scene that was lighthearted and showed a family just hanging out being a family, not dealing with super heavy issues. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately (I haven't quite decided) I think this scene may spell disaster for the show having any sort of longevity. Networks, historically, do not look too kindly on TV shows that depict recreational drug use in an honest and non-judgmental fashion.

I caught a little bit a flack last week for being so harsh on the show, but I still contend that Parenthood has some major problems. The biggest and most obvious one is the scenes that are supposed to by funny just aren't. Granted, there were a couple that made me chuckle a little bit, like when Max was listing recording artists with number one records. I can't help comparing Parenthood with Modern Family because the premises of the two or so similar (large extended family dealing with issues of parenting and growing up), but the difference between the shows is that when Modern Family ends I feel good about myself and life in general, and when Parenthood ends I just sort of feel depressed. I'll give it a few more weeks to see if Parenthood is able to find its voice, but I'm starting to think that maybe this just isn't the show for me.

NBC's Parenthood Premiers, Everyone Who Watched Contemplates Suicide

As anyone who watched more than 15 minutes of the Winter Olympics was aware, NBC's new family drama Parenthood premiered last night. The show, which is produced by Ron Howard, depicts the trials and tribulations of a large extended family in California. Like a thousand shows of its kind before it, Parenthood seems to be as much about "issues" as it is about people. This series really interested me because, well, I'm gay for family television shows, plus I don't think Ron Howard has ever been involved with a project I disliked.

Here is a cursory breakdown of the characters and the major plots taking form in the first episode:

Zeke- The patriarch (pronounced with a "ch" sound, wink, wink) of the Braverman clan. He seems to want his grandchildren to be raised the way he raised his own children which causes a bit of friction. He might be a Vietnam vet and has the misfortune of delivering the episode's weakest piece of dialog in which he compares parenthood to war.

Camille- Zeke's wife. She strikes me as kind of a aging flower-child. She didn't receive a whole lot of screen time in the pilot, so there isn't a bunch to be said about her for the moment.

Adam- Zeke and Camille's oldest son. He is sort of the Michael Bluth of the family, the guy the other family members rely on to solve their problems.

Kristina- Adam's wife. She and Adam find out late in the episode that their son Max, who they had always assumed was just a little weird, actually suffers from
Asperger's Syndrome.

Sarah- Zeke and Camille's eldest daughter. She and her two teenage kids are forced to move back in with her parents after her marriage to a drug addicted musician collapses. In the pilot she reconnects with a high school boyfriend, played by Mike O'Malley. Her daughter is a rebellious trouble maker and her son, who appears to suffer from depression, puts his deadbeat father on a pedestal.

Crosby- The Braverman baby brother, played by Dax Shepherd (who is not as annoying in this show as he typically is). He is a slacker who works as some kind of music producer. His girlfriend is baby-crazy (going as far as keeping a canister of donor sperm in her freezer), but Crosby is not ready for children. Eventually he relents, agreeing to have children with her in three years. In the most unexpected twist of the first episode, Crosby discovers that he is already a father when his ex-girlfriend pays him a visit with their son, Jabbar, in tow.

Julia- Zeke and Camille's youngest daughter. Julia is a high-powered lawyer who is jealous of her toddler's preference for her husband.

My initial reaction to Parenthood's inaugural episode, aside from being amazed at shear volume of characters and stories thrown at the audience, was "Goddamn, that was surprisingly serious and borderline depressing". It seemed like the family just took one blow after another. Adam's kid has Aspergers, Sarah's kid ran away from home to try to live with his drug addict father, her other kid gets arrested for weed, Julia's daughter loves her father more than her, Zeke's son doesn't want to raise his boy the way he was raised, etc., etc. There wasn't even much comic relief from all the misery. Don't get me wrong, by no means do I need my t.v. families to all be Cleavers or Cunninghams, but for fuck's sake, can't we lighten the mood up a bit? I know being a white, suburban parent is hard, "Oh no, my kid has autism! What are we going to do now?". Doesn't pretty much everyone have autism these days? It's this generation's ADD. Since when are dressing like a pirate and sucking at baseball symptoms of a mental handicap? Granted, the scenes feature Mike O'Malley provided a bit of levity, but all that was negated when Sarah's son walks in on them during post-coital 'fridge raid and freaks out (sounds funny on paper, not so much on the screen).

That said, I didn't hate the show (my girlfriend, who I was watching it with seemed to, but she pretty much hates everything) and I am not ready to give up on it so soon. I look forward to seeing each of the individual characters fleshed out over the course of the season and I can see myself continuing to watch it. I just wish I felt a little more positive when the episode ended.