Ray Romano and Lauren Graham One of the things I admire about Parenthood writers is their ability to take a storyline I’m not necessarily on board with and take it in a direction that is just so damn good. We’ve talked about it before on the blog, and I think they did it again this week with Sarah and Mark. I wasn’t necessarily into the idea of Hank coming between Sarah and Mark, but all their scenes last night were stellar. I think what the writers did well here was make sure Sarah wasn’t screwing up too badly. She didn’t cheat (I’m not counting that one kiss with Hank, because she didn’t completely engage and made it clear that that behavior wasn’t OK), but the situation Mark found her in was, well, incriminating. Drunk, laughing, leaning on her boss as she walked to her hotel room. I don’t believe that Sarah would have slept with Hank, and she even managed to convince Mark of that. But it was everything else – that Sarah skipped her weekend with Mark to go to L.A., not for professional reasons but to help Hank through a personal crisis, was too much for Mark to accept. Their slow breakup was painful, raw and real in that way that Parenthood always seems to get completely right. The other thing the writers did well was making sure that the breakup didn’t send Sarah right into the arms (or bed) of Hank. That would have been a mistake, and the alternative, Sarah feeling annoyed with Hank for involving her in his problems, hit the right note. Another highlight of the episode for me was Joel’s attempt to help out Amber and give Ryan a job. Ryan was new to construction, and the ribbing from the other guys was hard for him – and having Joel go easy on him just made it worse. He was frustrated and embarrassed with not being good at the gig, and walked out. Joel went to his house, but he didn’t answer the door. The pill problem feels a little cliché, but Matt Lauria is doing such a good job with this character that it doesn’t matter. ERika Christenson and Sam Jaeger I think Julia’s storyline with Victor has really hit its stride now, and helping her son catch up in school gives her something to do now that she’s not working. It’s natural that Victor would be insecure about his bad grades, especially with a gifted younger sister. Sydney has no concept of what it’s like to be in Victor’s shoes, and she’s young, so she didn’t understand that giving him the answers to his homework was the absolute worst thing to do. The scene where Julia sought advice from a baked Kristina was quite hilarious. Mae Whitman being adorable with Glen Hansard The Luncheonette storyline was a bit schmoopy, but I’m glad it’s been resolved –too much is going in Adam’s life for him to also lose his business. I was concerned, when the picture of Crosby peeing in the alley came into play, that we’d reiterate an overused storyline – Crosby messes things up, once again, and Adam has to come to the rescue. But instead, Crosby and Amber pulled things together and got other neighbors to vouch for their business. Like I said, it was schmoopy, but even as the weak link in this episode it wasn’t awful. We have one more episode leftover before the show goes on holiday hiatus. This has been an absolutely stellar first half, and I’m really looking forward to a Christmas episode. If Haddie comes home, Adam and Kristina are going to have to address the lie they told her. I also hope we get to see how Drew reacts to being uprooted once again and having to attend school with his mother’s ex. ...