Parenthood Will Break Your Heart In The Best Ways
Under other circumstances, this week's news that a tiny treasure of a movie like About A Boy is being adapted as a sitcom would be sad and alarming. But since it's being developed by Jason Katims, we can afford not just to remain calm but to be excited. Katims has one of the best track records in TV: as though starting out as a writer on My So-Called Life wasn't enough to give him lifelong cred, he also adapted both Friday Night Lights and Parenthood into modest yet basically perfect TV dramas. Friday Night Lights was low-rated but critically beloved, and when it ended its run last summer, it was justly fêted and eulogized. But Parenthood lives on, and I feel like I barely know anyone who watches it. WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE.
I admit that I was dubious of Parenthood at first; I found the first few episodes stiff and self-conscious, particularly putative star Peter Krause as Adam Braverman; he's just going to have a hard time shaking off the prickishness of Nate Fisher, unfortunately (for him). But with Friday Night Lights off the air, I felt like I could give another shot to a show that might share some of the elements that made FNL great: carefully drawn characters, realistically messy portrayals of family dynamics, that distinctive documentary shooting style. Parenthood does boast all those attributes, and more.
It covers complex issues without being didactic
Parenthood has been (rightly) praised for its dramatization of Max (Max Burkholder), whose diagnosis of Asperger's has shaken up his parents and his extended family. But this season the focus has shifted from Max to his mother, Kristina (Monica Potter), who's just learned that she has breast cancer, and the show's producers are taking us slowly through the aftermath of her diagnosis: what makes a good oncologist; how her husband Adam can best support her; what it means when a woman who's used to putting herself last, behind her family, has to concentrate on herself for a change. Last night's episode also featured a storyline in which Jabbar (Tyree Brown), visiting his dad Crosby (Dax Shepard) at his recording studio, hears the word "n----" for the first time and, naturally, has questions. Though Crosby complains that his wife, Jasmine (Joy Bryant), is pulling rank with regard to how to handle the situation because she's black, he comes to see that she knows exactly the right way to deal with it during this beautiful, understated, thoughtful scene that I hope someone sent to Tucker Carlson this morning.
It's beautifully cast
Speaking of Shepard: look, I was as dubious as you that a former Punk'd cast member had any business playing a dramatic role. And I also turned against Craig T. Nelson after this baloney. But what's great about the style of the show -- and the care that was obviously taken in casting all the members of the Braverman family -- is how much everyone either is or seems to be acting pretty natural: Shepard's drawly rhythms suit lifelong underachiever Crosby; Nelson's gruffness suits Zeek, a domineering dad learning to calm down now that he's a grandfather; Lauren Graham's motormouth suits flighty Sarah. No one seems to be acting at all, in fact; it really does feel like we're peeking in on an American family.
No one is dispensable
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the bigger the cast of a TV show, the more likely it is that at least one -- and probably two or three or nine (True Blood) -- could just lift right out without damaging the series. Parenthood has one of the longest lists of series regulars on network television, and each one of them is a pleasure to watch; there's no branch of the family that, when the action turns to it, you wish would fall into a volcano. Even the kids are interesting, which is more than one can say for The Good Wife or Homeland.
It is a worthy heir to Friday Night Lights
I know that there can be no drama without conflict. I was an English major! But Friday Night Lights (and shows like it -- My So-Called Life, Felicity, Freaks & Geeks) also proved that the viewer can have a satisfying dramatic experience watching characters who aren't only having fights contrived for TV plot purposes; there can be just as much drama in watching characters as they try -- and sometimes fail -- to do their best.