What I’m Watching: Parenthood

Parenthood: Season 5, Episode 5 “Let’s Be Mad Together” (B+)

If this season’s third episode was all about parenthood, this one was all about relationships. From the start, it’s looked like this will be the toughest year on Joel and Julia, with him being pulled in one direction by work and Pete and her in another by her school parent responsibilities and Ed. Joel getting drunk after going out for a martini-laced discussion about boundaries with Pete was an unexpected and deceptively entertaining look at someone who doesn’t usually get the chance not to be serious, and it made his subsequent fight with Julia all the more alarming. It’s no longer about Victor or her job, but now it’s about her asserting herself and her opinions in their marriage too much. That makes Julia’s attempt to intervene on her mom’s behalf with Zeek all the more impactful, as that’s another marriage being strained by staunchly different worldviews. Adam and Crosby are having business partnership problems, and it’s good to see Crosby come in there no holds barred and say what he really thinks to get everything back on track and repair the damage he had done by walking out in the middle of a recording session. Kristina got to take a break from her campaign to be a truly supportive mother for Max, and though it’s an awkward situation with the yearbook, I look forward to seeing how she deals with it going forward. Ryan explaining his situation to Sarah was sweet, and it’s nice to know that he really cares what his future mother-in-law thinks about him.