What I’m Watching: Parenthood

Parenthood: Season 6, Episode 6 “Too Big to Fail” (B+)

It took me until the start of the preview for next week’s episode – which I swiftly turned off – to realize that Julia didn’t appear in this hour at all, and then it hit me that Zeek and Camille weren’t present either. Their absence wasn’t felt, which shows that these contract negotiations actually produced some truly solid and in-depth storylines. Even someone like Drew is getting the chance to speak and have thoughts and desires of his own, and Jabar too. It’s good to see Drew turn into a real person as he receives completely contradictory advice from his two uncles, who also had to clean up the mess after Amber overheard them saying that they didn’t fire her a few months earlier because she was pregnant. Amber also demonstrated that she is committed to hard work and success, and she managed to be there at just the right moment to set Ruby straight and tell her that she should be appreciating her dad, whose only crimes were not knowing about her peanut allergy and not demonstrating the same freaky game brainwaves that Sarah and Amber shared. Crosby not being able to afford to make his kids happy is hitting him hard, and it’s a good thing that he has a creative partner who got him choked up when she talked about how she signed up to spend the rest of her life with him. Max’s relationship with Dylan is actually progressing quite well, and it’s entertaining to see them together. Let’s hope that her spending so much time at the Braverman house continues to be a good thing, and that Kristina is able to step back from the situation and appreciate the good she can do for Max.