What I’m Watching: Parenthood

Parenthood: Season 2, Episode 8 “If This Boat Is a Rockin’” (B+)

We’ve seen him get overwhelmed and agitated before, and now Adam finally lets it get the best of him and punches a guy in a supermarket. It’s fascinating to see a character who usually has to be the one to keep it together struggle with not being able to do that anymore, and Peter Krause does a great job of showing how Adam tries to handle that. Every time he said “I’m angry all the time and I don’t know why,” my mind kept flashing to some unknown cinematic character who uttered the same line, and upon some quick post-episode research, I discovered it was none other than Sandra Bullock in the 2005 Best Picture winner “Crash” (definitely done a bit more lightly here). Crosby’s desire to say a proper goodbye to his boat was entertaining, and it’s nice that Jasmine recognized his uncertainty about getting rid of it and helped him commemorate its last usage memorably. Sarah not making it home until the crack of dawn is yet another sign that her relationship with Gordon is a bad idea, and I’m still wondering where good old Mike went. The momentary bonding of non-Bravermans Joel and Jasmine was entertaining, and it’s unexpected personal interactions like that which I would like to see more of on this show since they’re so enlightening and amusing. Good news for fans of this show – the ratings recently have been very good, and so more of this series could be in order, especially considering how the other series on NBC these days are performing.