How dark of a show do you want Parenthood to be? I realize that this seems like a silly question, given the central conceit of the show is about a big, caring family who all love one another, but I believe it is an important question to ask, given how Jason Katims commitment to portraying a realistic family hinges on delving into the darker sides of family life. It's not Mad Men or Breaking Bad levels of darkness, but relatively, it can seem as if the show is losing that lovin' feelin'.
I bring this up because of perhaps the biggest plot line of the night, that of Alex and Haddie. I wish I was into this plotline more. Yes, it is good that the show is trying to give Haddie something to do other than be the good girl. And yes, it is good that the show is finally giving Christina something more legitimate to fret over. And yes, I do like that it is creating some realistic tension that spans several episodes. But here's the problem: I don't buy it. I don't buy that a recovering alcoholic, no matter how pure his intention, could be this good of a guy ALL THE TIME. And, perhaps because I was never has a relationship during my high school years (and also I was never a teenage girl), I don't see how Haddie could fall for this guy this hard this quickly. And if the relationship doesn't make sense, then neither does Haddie “moving out” (and seriously, into your grandparent's house? What the hell does that accomplish?). But I do like the turmoil this cause Adam and Christina, as they don't know quite what to do with their daughter, and they are torn between preventing their daughter from dating a legitimately good guy (buy the shows logic) and trying to save her from mature issues that she's not ready for. (And here I commend Parenthood for giving us a conflict where both parties have legitimate complaints.)
But this is problem with this level of darkness, at least when it comes to the episode as a whole. Because this plot line is SO SERIOUS, I feel that at times it threatens to take over the episode, especially when we consider that in any given episode of Parenthood, there is at least one (thought usually more like two or three) lighter plot lines that are very easy to bury underneath a darker plot line. And when it is taken into account that this show, as a whole, deals in making small plot lines feel larger and more important than they actually are (and I mean this in a good way), you can see how overly dark plot lines can threaten the show's whole formula (though I believe we are still a far ways away from this happening)
This darkness extends somewhat into the other major plot of the night, that of Jabar's role in the play. Now, I am not going to say to much of this, except for two things. One, I like how they drew out the disagreement between Crosby and Jasmine, as each of them was trying to do best buy their son. Second was whether or not Jabar would actually perform. Because of the darker nature of this episode, I was actually worried for a little bit that Jabar would actually chicken out and leave the rest of the kindergarten performers hanging. This is where, I believe, the show turned it's darkness into an asset, by wringing far much more drama out of this than it should have been able to (again, that's a compliment).
There's not much to say about the Drew and Sarah try to selling wrapping paper plot line, other than is was funny and warm, and it was exactly the amount of lightness the show needed to counterbalance the darkness.
Feel free to share your opinions on “Opening Night” below.
Additional Thoughts:
- I think it's telling that the title was "Opening Night," yet the actual play was the second tier story, getting pushed aside for that of Alex and Haddie
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