What I'm Watching: Parenthood

Parenthood: Season 2, Episode 6 “Orange Alert” (B+)

While it may seem a bit early to have a Halloween episode, it's clearly an important holiday for the Bravermans, so it's worthwhile to celebrate twelve days before the actual date of the festivity. In the same way that Haddie has in the past accused her parents of focusing only on Max, this show sometimes does that as well, but it manages to also incorporate the rest of the family and give them something to do as Max prepares to go trick-or-treating for the first time. My favorite costumes of the episode were definitely Joel as Abraham Lincoln and Amber as a banana, and it was very fun to see the whole family dressed up and participating in the holiday together. Julia dressing up as Amelia Earhart after giving her daughter a speech about empowered women was less than subtle but effective, and Crosby proposing with the candy ring to Jasmine was something that could only have happened on Halloween (and isn't a huge deal for the show but should still serve as a positive step forward for the couple, no matter what she says). Gordon started out in this episode as completely irritating and gradually became less annoying, especially as he helped Sarah out and Amber admitted that she liked them. It saddens me to think of what became of scorned Mike, but perhaps Sarah can have a decent few episodes with her boss as her boyfriend. It's great that Max was able to survive trick-or-treating at that house, because I definitely would have been terrified.