In addition to my long-standing love/ hate relationship with Saturday Night Live, I have several other tv shows that I'm thinking of quitting. Let's discuss.
Has anyone been watching the new season of Parenthood? I got hooked on this show last year after reading some good reviews and hearing good things from people whose opinions I trust, but now I find that after watching it I’m totally exhausted, and I’ve been trying to figure out why.
I think the reason, if I can be reductive, is that now this show has gone too far into the chaos of regular home life: the matriarch and patriarch (Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia, in case you’re keeping track) broke up last season, then got back together and are now in counseling, Adam (Peter Krause) is struggling with work and his autistic son and his crazy family, so much so that he walks into his house, then walks right back out and sits in the car listening to music, Julia (Erika Christenson) wants to have another baby but her stay at home dad husband has lost himself and doesn’t want to, Crosby (Dax Shepard) finally decides to grow up, then is faced with a bunch of obstacles from his kid’s mom’s family, and so on.
Here’s my point: there is too much struggling going on with these families—so much that it’s hard to watch week after week. This show was good last season because it interspersed the totally frustrating parts of family life with really beautiful moments (remember the grandparents and Crosby teaching Jabbar to ride Crosby’s old bike last season? So sweet. I’m not even a parent, and I cried over that one). Where are those moments this season? Television is still supposed to be an escape from real life, right? I hope the writers and producers of this show bring the sparkle back soon, because I am starting to feel like a beleaguered part of the Braverman family myself.
Thoughts? I know, everybody likes this show and was rooting for it to get picked up for a second season. That doesn't mean we can't have an honest discussion about some of the sophomore season pitfalls that it seems to be encountering.