In a wrinkle from my own parenthood, I’ve found myself the only completely health person in a household that’s been hit by the flu, so even though I promised a more full-length “Parenthood” review this week, looks like we’re gonna have to be quick again. My thoughts coming up just as soon as I admire German engineering…
Most of this week’s stories dealt with the siblings wanting something that may not be reasonable to ask for: Adam wants Max to show any interest in his family, Julia wants to have another baby that she expects Joel to be primary parent of, and Sarah wants Amber to think that she’s as cool as her new best friend Kelsey’s parents.
For Max, socializing that comes easily to typical kids can be an ordeal (just see how much of a strain it is for him to maintain eye contact long enough to ask Gaby for a sticker). As the breadwinner with the busy job, Julia doesn’t have to worry as much about sleepless nights, challenging days and everything else that comes with a baby (especially a baby when you already have a kid). And while I can sympathize with Sarah, nobody’s parents are as cool as other people’s parents. Rule of life. Some nice work all around by the various siblings, spouses and kids here.
Crosby’s desire to spend more time with Jabar, and to introduce him to the traditions of his own family, isn’t all that unreasonable – if anything, Jasmine and her family are the ones who have been presented as stubborn and unfair in this storyline – but it does feel like the writers have taken Crosb awfully far, awfully fast as a dad. In a very short period of time, he’s gone from carefree slacker who’s clueless around kids to very invested and fairly capable parent, and it seems as if the deck has been stacked too much and too quickly against Jasmine and her mom. I want to see Crosby screw up – not necessarily in a big way, but just something to occasionally remind us that (because of Jasmine) he wasn’t around for the first several years of this boy’s life, and he’s only been on this particular job for a few months.
Still, a good episode, and I’m wondering if each week we’re going to be introduced to some new person at the sneaker factory who has the hots for Sarah, or if it’s just going to be her choosing between the rich but d-baggy boss or the kind and suave but poor forklift operator.
What did everybody else think?