Parenthood: Daddy Drama

Well, the fathers of Parenthood sure had their hands full in Tuesday night’s episode. Adam’s nearing his breaking point with work and family commitments, Joel’s nearing his breaking point with his child-centric life, and Crosby’s at the point where he’s got to really step up and be a dad. Full time. Oh, and Sarah’s single, which presents its own set of problems.

Adam’s work life has not gotten any easier, what with budget reports and long hours. And it didn’t help that this week Kristina found out that 80% of couples with an autistic child end up getting divorced. I had trouble believing that Kristina hadn’t heard that stat before. First of all, I don’t even have kids let alone an autistic one, and I knew it. Second of all, Kristina is crazy intense and seems like the kind of person who would have memorized every book, article and Jenny McCarthy interview about autism. But maybe she was too busy looking at her insanely overcrowded calender to read stuff like that. She decided that she and Adam needed to make more time for themselves, and they scheduled a date night. Which obviously, was doomed from the beginning. Haddie couldn’t babysit, they ended up at a much more casual restaurant than expected (and poor Kristina did look really good) and then ran into Sarah on a date and awkwardly had to sit with them. Oh, how I would have liked to see a bit more of that evening. 

In the end, Adam and Kristina finally made time for themselves, but I didn’t love the way it happened. Haddie won the junior class president election, and when they went to grab the cake for her celebration they just didn’t come back to the party. I get needed some personal time, but didn’t anyone wonder where they went? And they ate her cake! It seemed selfish. After all, they were so intensely excited about Haddie even running in the election. How could they just bail on the party?

Adam and Kristina ran into Sarah on their date because she was on a date with warehouse guy. Yay! He’s very cute. I hope they have stuff in common. But what about Billy Baldwin? I hope she doesn’t try and date them both at the same time, that could get messy. And then Adam will get all judgmental.

This week we got to see more of Drew, which was great because his character wasn’t really fully developed last season. I didn’t realize how shy he was. He had a crush on his lab partner, who was played by the same actress that played Luke’s long lost daughter on Gilmore Girls. I’m trying not to hold the fact that her character RUINED my favorite show, but it’s hard. Because she ruined my favorite show. Anyway, Sarah thought it looked like Little Miss Lab Partner was into Drew (she did touch him an awful lot) and convinced him to make a move. It backfired. Rather painfully. Poor Drew tried to leave, realized they were at his house, and had to ask her to leave.

Drew took it out on his mom and blamed her for giving him bad advice and for screwing things up with his dad. Ouch. Lauren Graham plays the hurt mom very well, the look on her face when Drew said that he needed his dad really said it all. He later apologized, but you’ve got to wonder – is he taking it out on her because he’s actually angry at his dad, or does he really miss his dad? Because someone should probably let him know that his dad sounds like a dirtbag. Just sayin’. 

I love Joel! I love how simple his and Julia’s storyline is compared to some of the heavier stuff, like how hard it is to have an autistic kid. This week he had to come up with a hobby to show Sydney’s class, and took it VERY seriously. It wasn’t that he wanted to impress the kids so badly, it was that not having a hobby revealed how much of his life is dedicated to his family. I think it’s time Joel started some sort of at-home carpentry business. His wife is a lawyer, that can hire a maid to handle the laundry. 

Joel was so good with the kids though, when he finally decided to bring wood in as his hobby, that maybe he’ll find fulfillment volunteering at the school or something instead. Not if he and Julia have a second baby, though. 

OK, here’s my big gripe with Parenthood – Jasmine and her family are insufferable! Including Jasmine! Jabbar is the only one who’s likable. They are all incredibly judgmental, have chips on their shoulders, and refuse to give Crosby a chance. Case in point, the drunk Crosby incident. Is it great to be drunk in the middle of the day? No, not really. But it’s not like Crosby left Jabbar at home while he went out to a bar by himself, or like he picked Jabbar up at a scheduled time after having a few. Crosby was at a wrap party at work, he drank too much, and then Jabbar’s grandmother needed him to pick Crosby up. Did he drive drunk? No. He called Adam, and Gabby the behavioral coach came and got him. 

Let’s talk about all the things that went wrong here. If Rene thought Crosby sounded drunk, she shouldn’t have let him show up to pick up Jabbar. She should have told him “You know what? It’s OK, Jasmine’s brother will get him”. Then Jasmine’s brother was a huge jerk to Crosby, which only escalated the situation. And his little comment about how if Crosby really wanted to be a dad, he should know that you’re never “off duty”? That’s crap. Just because you have a kid doesn’t mean you can NEVER drink alcohol. Jabbar was with his grandmother. Crosby was not supposed to be seeing him that day. It really was not that irresponsible or half-assed. 

The good news is, the whole ordeal did wake Crosby up to the fact that he needs to step up. The drunk incident aside, Crosby should have moved into a place where Jabbar can have his own bedroom a long time ago. He needs to make his home into Jabbar’s home. Hopefully that happens – especially now that Jasmine’s home. I was glad Jasmine decided to leave the dance tour and come home to her family, but I’m not sure I want it to work out between her and Crosby. She’s just so…self-righteous. I kind of wanted Crosby to rock the whole parenthood thing on his own for a while, just to prove that he could. I’m interested to see what will happen here.

I was glad this episode of Parenthood was somewhat lighthearted since I’d only watched Glee an hour beforehand, and I thought it was a good episode. What did you think?

I’ll leave you with this, the best conversation of the episode:

Sarah: Do you need anything? Do you want some lemonade or cookies?
Drew: Yeah, if this were 1950, thanks.
Sarah: Well, perhaps I’ll bring you a martini and some pot…I’m just kidding, you should not do drugs or drink. Stay in school…don’t cut your own bangs. These are a few of my mottos.

(Parenthood, S02E04, Aired 10/05/10)