Parenthood – The Black Talk

Did you guys know that there’s a “the talk” for being black? Because according to last night’s episode of Parenthood, there is one. And it made for one of the best storylines Jasmine and Crosby have ever had.

Crosby and Jasmine

It was a simple enough concept. While sitting in at the studio, Jabbar accidentally overheard some inappropriate language, including the racial term I don’t want to type in a blog post for obvious reasons but you know what I’m talking about. Crosby got flustered and didn’t offer up the best explanation to Jabbar because, hey, that’s a really hard concept to explain even to other adults. That word means different things to different people. For most people, it’s an awful word that should never be said. But the fact is, many black rappers, comedians and other people do use it, and that would understandably confuse kids.

I liked seeing Jasmine handle the topic in a way that reflected her own beliefs and acknowledged that Crosby could never understand the experience of being a black person in America, but was also sensitive to Crosby and his feeling irrelevant. There’s this whole thing that his wife and son have to deal with that he’ll never be able to relate to, and that’s not an easy thing. I thought it was great to dig a little deeper into what it means to be an interracial family, and the show did a great job with the material.

Sarah

Sarah continued to bond with Hank this week, as she helped him connect with his tween daughter when she came for her monthly visit. We’re slowly but surely getting to know this character better, and I really like him. He reads the Hunger Games books so he’ll be able to talk to his kid, and gave up photojournalism when he had a family. He’s been around the block, and I think that makes him able to relate with Sarah in a way that young, optimistic Mark can’t necessarily do.

Julia and Joel

Leave it to Joel Graham to really bring the genuine emotion to their new adoption storyline. I loved the moment Julia had with Victor when he had to go to school, but Sam Jaeger has always been one of my favorites on the show and I thought he rocked all of his scenes this week. He was such a proud dad, and so excited to introduce Victor to something he loves. And when Victor didn’t respond in the best way, Joel handled it really well. He didn’t punish Victor for his bad behavior because he was able to recognize where it was coming from. Victor was way out of his comfort zone at baseball practice, and he’s just a kid. I think if we keep seeing moments like Joel and Victor throwing a ball around, and the look on Julia’s face when she saw them, we’ll all be completely sold on Victor in no time.

(I do think we’ll need a storyline on how Sydney is adjusting to having a brother at some point, but there’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to adopting an older child. For now, I think they’ve been moving at the right pace.)

Adam and Kristina

Adam and Kristina’s storyline this week focused on Kristina’s cancer, of course, and Max. I’m really interested in seeing how things develop with Max’s student council campaign, because I honestly don’t know what the right decision was there. He deserved to run, but kids can be so mean. So should they have allowed him to run? I think so, but my heart breaks at the thought of all the kids publicly mocking Max at a debate or something.

Kristina postponing her surgery disappointed me, even though it was very much within the realm of her character to do so. I just felt like after she made the decision to go with the tough, good doctor that she’d take her care more seriously. Max’s election was important, and of course she’s scared, but postponing cancer surgery just doesn’t seem like something a reasonable person would do. I mean, it’s cancer. You have to deal with that quickly.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Couchtime/~3/DVPxdTLx5WI/