The ratings are out. Last night’s series premiere of Ron Howard‘s Parenthood won it’s time slot with 8.23 million viewers and, according to TheWrap.com, it “averaged a 3.1 rating/9 share in adults 18-49” and “held on to 94 percent of its lead-in (the 9:30 p.m. half-hour of The Biggest Loser, which averaged a 3.3) and maintained its viewership at the 10:30 p.m. half-hour.” So all in all, pretty good according to the numbers.
But how about the actual watchers?
At the center of Parenthood are four adult siblings, the Braverman siblings, Sarah (Lauren Graham), Adam (Peter Krause), Julia (Erika Christensen) and Crosby (Dax Shepard). And, definitely correct me if I am wrong on this, but it seems like the entire family, including the siblings’ parents (Zeke and Camille, portrayed by Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia), all live either in the same house or pretty damn close to each other.
Well, we know for a fact that Sarah, Graham‘s character, does in fact live with her parents. She is moving back into the family home with her own two children after divorcing her husband, a deadbeat rockstar with an alleged drug addiction, and running out of money. Her kids are not happy. Amber (played by the delectable Mae Whitman) at first refuses to move and plans to move in with her shirtless tattooed boyfriend. (I would watch that spinoff.) Even though Sarah eventually gets her to go, things doesn’t go much better for the troubled teen. She and Adam‘s daughter, her cousin Haddie (Sarah Ramos) get arrested for something involving pot and Sarah is disappointed. However, they do have a somewhat sweet mother-daughter moment as Sarah prepares for a date and Amber coaches her on how to look sluttier.
Of course, there was a corresponding mother-son moment as well, after Drew walks in on Sarah and her date drinking booze after presumably having sex. (Cue the promo’s “I am so dead” moment.) He later runs away to his deadbeat dad’s, and Sarah and he have a cute moment in a gas station parking lot after she goes to get him. She tells him she’ll always be there and that will just have to be enough. They hug. Viewers cry.
You’ve probably picked up by now that Sarah is divorced (or at least in the process of becoming divorced) and is back on the singles market. Her sister Julia (Christensen, who we will get to later) sets her up with a guy she used to do who was apparently a dreamboat at the time. However, she discovers upon meeting him for their date that he isn’t so much the dreamboat anymore. Still, the guy wins her over after revealing that he had kept a ring he had given her that she threw at him while they were breaking up all those years ago. It seems like Sarah is finally on the path to dating good guys who will treat her well, rather than drug addicted ugos. (Her date also reveals that he had a poem published by the New Yorker, so I automatically liked him!)
Sarah was set up with the poet by her sister Julia, and the tension is obvious between the polar opposite siblings. Julia is married with a daughter of her own, but is also a workaholic who is always on the phone with her law firm. She senses that her adorable daughter Sydney (Savannah Paige Ray) likes her husband better than her and she may be right. All throughout the episode, Sydney constantly asks for her father whenever Julia attempts to act motherly towards the child. What’s more, it seems like Julia is resigned to her child’s preference for her husband, at least for now. However, at Sydney‘s recital, Julia tears up and smiles proudly. She will hopefully be able to bridge the gap between being a provider and a caregiver.
Crosby (Shepard) is the only sibling who seemingly has no children and that’s apparently the way he wants it to stay. Crosby‘s girlfriend, however, wants a baby and soon. So soon that she even has a container of frozen sperm in her refrigerator, which Crosby finds at the beginning of the episode. He later confronts her about it and kind of sort of agrees to have a baby with her in three years. He then tells Adam that he is kind of engaged, but asks if it is still okay to go see a stripper ex-girlfriend who is chatting him up on the interwebs? He does, of course, but surprise surprise…his ex Jasmine (played by Joy Bryant) has a son named Jabbar and it’s his! He went from being a reluctant future daddy to someone’s current baby daddy in less than sixty minutes.
I began the recap with info about the three other Braverman siblings, but it seems like the show centers somewhat around Adam (Krause), his wife Kristina (Monica Potter) and their son Max (Max Burkholder). Adam coaches Max‘s little league team and is disappointed to find that Max doesn’t have the passion for baseball that he did as a kid. Max still manages to make a hit at the game, but gets out at first base. Adam determines that is a bad call and gets into an argument with the umpire, foreshadowing the drama that will ensue.
All throughout the episode, the viewers are given hints that Max is different–he wears a pirate costume to school, throws tantrums and doesn’t respond socially to his classmates. After getting in trouble for biting another kid, the school recommends that Adam and Kristina have Max tested. Well they do, and it turns out that Max might has Asperger’s Syndrome. Kristina had accepted throughout the episode that there was likely a problem with their son, but it takes awhile to sink in for Adam. In a touching moment with his own father, Adam reveals Max‘s illness and they all resign to get through it together.
However, the episode ends on a high note for the family. On the day of his next game, Max reveals that he wants to be there, for his team, and the entire Braverman family rushes to watch the boy play, foreshadowing both hope and conflict for this little show about a big family.
So what is Parenthood all about? It’s about three generations of one family: two parents who have four kids who between them have six kids. (If this revival of Parenthood doesn’t work out, Howard should try it again in another twenty years, this time with the six kids having eight kids of their own! Two, four, six, eight, the Bravermans known how to procreate!) Each little family inside the big family has their own conflict, from a child’s mental handicap to an adult’s revelation of paternity. But of course, love and family will get them through, as they seem to be tighter than the Walton’s, just without the annoying goodnight ceremony.
Will I watch again? Yes. Though I felt they packed too much conflict into the first episode (Crosby finding out about an unknown child pushed me over the edge), the previews definitely look promising. However, I am wary of Sarah dating one of her kid’s teachers. Can anyone say Gilmore Girls Season One rip off?
Pilot Grade: B. It was above average, but not above average enough to keep me from clicking over to MTV‘s 16 and Pregnant during the commercials. (An indicator of a really good television show is one that keeps you on that channel even when commercials are on. I dare not click over to anything else during HIMYM). However, the previews did show promise, with future conflict hopefully being handled throughout an arc of episodes, rather than jammed into a value pack of family drama. Also, the cast is surprisingly excellent. I was pleasantly surprised by Graham, who I haven’t seen in anything since The Gilmore Girls, and flabbergasted by Dax Shepard, who usually plays a douchey egomaniac. True, he still seems a bit douchey, but with an pinch of sweetness that makes him surprisingly bearable.
Predictions: I could see it being a minor hit or a major flop.
What did YOU think?
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