“Parenthood” (9 p.m. Central Tuesdays, NBC) starts Season 4 with a combination of a pitch-perfect life threshold yarn (Haddie goes off to college), a funny family-dynamic oddity (Crosby finds his son praying) and a believable issue that you don’t see explored too often on TV (Julia is finding it hard to love her adopted son).
I’m not sure if Haddie (the outstanding Sarah Ramos) is leaving the show or if we’ll get to follow her adventures at Cornell. I’m guessing the former based on the fact that we’ve only followed San Francisco-based Bravermans so far. If it’s the latter, I certainly won’t complain.
As is often the case, Max is the most irritating character in the season premiere. Asperger’s or not, the way he yells in the restaurant is insufferable. But following a trend that started last season, Adam and Kristina just don’t sweat it anymore, with Adam even telling the next table over “What’re you lookin’ at?” But I got a sense that Haddie was thinking “Get me outta here.” Of course, that only made the final airport hug all the more tissue-worthy. I bet Kleenex has seen sales numbers during “Parenthood’s” run that are comparable to when “Once and Again” was on the air.
TV usually ignores religion rather than taking a stance on it; as such, there are few religious characters on TV, but there are also few atheists. Without using the name of any specific religion or the term “atheist,” we basically find out that Jasmine’s mom believes in God and church, Jasmine believes in God but not church, and Crosby is an atheist. Under the stars, he gives a nice talk to Jabbar about how he believes in family, an ideal that no doubt rubbed off on him from Zeek and Camille. It was by no means a statement episode about religion, but it was neat to see a TV drama tackle the issue at all.
Julia’s (and Joel’s, although he’s more of a sounding board for his wife) troubles with Victor — who is aloof, has a troublesome interest in violent TV, and steals Max’s lizard — is the type of realistic-but-shocking storyline that “Parenthood” hits us with now and then. It could be a good one going forward.
I fully expected that Drew and Amy would break up at some point this season, allowing Miles Heizer to sink his teeth into a thread about Drew’s first heartbreak. I was a bit disappointed to see Amy come back from summer camp obviously not into him anymore; it seems like we’re already done with them being cute together.
Ray Romano looks like he’ll be a featured guest star, at least early in the season. He plays a talented but socially challenged photographer who hires Sarah for her people skills. I like how he immediately likes Max’s weirdness; I don’t know if Hank also has Asperger’s, but it’ll be interesting to see an awkward adult to compare and contrast with the awkward youngster. In previews, though, it looks like Hank will become a father figure to Drew as the season goes forward.
I’ve heard buzz about a tragedy occurring at some point this season. I’m going to predict the death of Amber and Drew’s former-druggie father, Seth, which would further underscore Mark’s inability to connect with Sarah’s kids (despite his and Sarah’s obvious love) and Drew’s need for a male role model.
Regardless of the stories the writers choose to pursue, “Parenthood’s” storytelling is almost always spot-on. During the summer, I mentally moved “Bunheads” and “The L.A. Complex” to the top of my list of favorite shows, but that’s only because I had forgotten how good “Parenthood” is.
What did you think of the Season 4 premiere? What storylines are you most looking forward to this season?