Monday, January 21, 2013

What I’m Watching: Parenthood


Parenthood: Season 4, Episode 14 “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” (B+)

There were definitely some major developments in this episode, most of them positive. Perhaps the most inspiring one was Amber’s motivation of Ryan not to give up and his successful attainment of his job back from Joel, thanks to some honesty, apologizing, and donuts. Kristina fighting the PTA on Max’s behalf to bring back the vending felt like a lost cause from the start, but a stirring speech and some compelling points did the trick, which resulted in that euphoric scene at the end of the episode in which Max discovered its return. Julia sharing her feeling about not feeling loved with Crosby was a rare moment of bonding for the two very different siblings, and it was welcome both for its endearing value and for the effect it had on Julia and her perspective on the adoption. Crosby’s difficulties with Renee just continue to increase, and it’s a shame that her feeling cast out by him is going to reflect poorly on Crosby going forward and will certainly put a strain on his relationship with Jasmine. For anyone who didn’t respect Mark before, which may be most viewers, he kicked things into gear in a major way in this episode by asking Sarah to coffee and then going to tell Hank that he’s going to take Sarah back. That seemed to have worried Hank enough to tell Sarah she had to choose, and, while Hank is a better fit in many ways, I have a feeling that she’s going to choose the man who’s more outwardly passionate about her.

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