What I’m Watching: Parenthood

Parenthood: Season 5, Episode 15 “Just Like Home” (B+)

It feels like forever since this show aired a new episode, but it’s really only been a month or so. It’s wonderful to have this show back, which manages to set itself in the aftermath of some uncomfortable situations as they’re starting to put themselves back together. The biggest example of that is the Graham family, as Sydney and Victor go to spend the weekend at Joel’s for the first time. It was compelling to see Sydney being resistant towards being there and Victor waking up in the middle of the night to find Sydney asleep next to Joel in his bed and calling Julia to talk about his bad dream, but the real winning plot of the episode was the arrival of all three of Julia’s siblings to her home to cheer her up and make sure she’s doing okay. Crosby bringing cheaper wine than Sarah was funny, as was his choice of Thai and hers of Chinese, and it was comforting to hear Crosby and Sarah talk about how they’re both much better candidates for being the black sheep of the family than Julia. Crosby and Zeek had a nice heart-to-heart about selling the house, and it was good to see Adam and Kristina enjoying themselves and actually having the opportunity to relax. Hank calling his doctor and claiming that it was an emergency led to a truly productive session that, most of all, managed to wow Sarah since it got Hank to make eye contact and apologize. Kudos to Drew for pushing Amy to talk to her parents and come clean about what’s going on in her life.