What I’m Watching: Parenthood

Parenthood: Season 5, Episode 12 “Stay a Little Longer” (B+)

I’m sad to say that the two most effective plotlines in this hour had to do with breakups, one which is set in stone and the other which looks all but inevitable at this point. Ryan stopping by to see Amber was predictably awkward, and it’s a good thing that Zeek intervened to try to help them achieve some sort of closure before he shipped out and they didn’t have the opportunity to say what they needed to each other. Julia confessing her kiss with Ed to Joel, while the right thing to do, came much too late, and learning that he doesn’t want to see a marriage counselor because the problem is Julia is devastating. Pete telling Joel that she doesn’t care what’s going on in his personal life is much worse than the initial threat of her being a romantic interest for Joel, and it’s going to make things infinitely harder. Max losing his friend at school is sad, and it’s nice to see his parents try to pump him up for the big basketball game and help fix things. Sarah getting the gig that Hank went for was relatively entertaining, mainly because Hank had no interest in concealing his feelings of contempt for the outcome and Sarah realized that she was in way over her head. I was least impressed with the storyline of Oliver coming to stay with Crosby and Jasmine. While it produced a few entertaining moments, it was far too simplistic and not worthy of this show, which usually has such high-caliber plotting.