Monday, February 2, 2015

What I’m Watching: Parenthood (Series Finale)

Parenthood: Season 6, Episode 13 “May God Bless and Keep You Always”

I’ve always felt that this show is realistic and honest without being too utterly devastating, and this finale spoke perfectly to that by providing happy endings that still showed the effort that went into making them possible. Hank and Sarah’s wedding is a fitting occasion for the finale since it’s not the epitome of romance but it does accurately define relationships as they’ve been portrayed on this show. Hank gets to smile and be overjoyed for once, engaging in a deep and gratifying conversation with Zeek in which he talked about his Asperger’s syndrome and honored his father-in-law. Max got to be the wedding photographer and even danced with a girl he snapped in plenty of pictures. Haddie’s return was brief but worthwhile, and I greatly enjoyed her moment of bonding with Max. Crosby deciding to keep the Luncheonette operational by himself with the assistance of a very eager Amber was great, and I love that Kristina found a way to get Adam to be fully on board with what he truly loved instead of just a plum water gig. Julia and Joel deserved some good news, and finding out that there wasn’t a problem with Victor’s adoption but that their family had a new member was truly wonderful. I respect the fact that Zeek’s death was handled in an inspiring fashion, one that jumped immediately to scattering his ashes in a baseball field with smiles on everyone’s faces followed by a heartwarming baseball game full of laughter in his honor, set to a remix of the show's theme song. This show was one of a kind, and it’s a shame that Emmy voters could never recognize it for what it was. A retrospective piece feels like the right thing to do, and I hope to get to that this spring.

Series finale: A-
Series grade: A-
Season MVP: Erika Christensen as Julia
Season grade: A-
Series MVP: Mae Whitman as Amber
Best Season: TBD
Best Episode: TBD

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