Parenthood - "Road Trip"

Season 3, Episode 12

Parenthood is one of those shows that I don’t really write about, both because it airs in a timeslot where I’m already covering another show, and because while I enjoy it every time I sit down to watch it, it rarely stirs up enough of a response in me that I can feel as if I can work up a suitable review. Granted, I took a stab at doing so once, but that was  in the early days of the blog, when I seemed to want to write about every show I watch, which is a lot, and something that I don’t really have time for. And while I’ve been open to the idea of writing about this season, nothing has really grabbed my like the arc kicked off by “Do Not Sleep With Your Autistic Nephew’s Therapist” (which, incidentally, was one of my favorite television episodes of last year).

However, since I’ve got the next couple of weeks off from school, and Justified won’t come into this slot until the 17^th, I thought I would take a stab at writing about it, as an writing exercise sure, but also so I can finally get my comments down on record, and so that I may possibly (possibly) write a post for the show’s finale come the end of February.

Writing of the arc mentioned above, Alan Sepinwall summed up Parenthood better than I think any other critic ever has, by comparing it to the Hulk: “the madder it gets, the stronger it gets”. I haven’t really felt that anger this season, and while I still enjoy the storylines that this season is telling, and I am in some ways moved by them, it just hasn’t been as gripping as I’m used to. (The closest was probably Crosby’s arc where he’s forced to face the fact that Jasmine’s dating again, and I’ll give props to the fight between Max and Jabbar in “Clear Skies from Here on Out”, but the former wasn’t angry enough, and the latter only lasted one episode.)

Now, changing tone and storytelling approach isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially as it keeps shows from getting stale and/or producing diminishing returns by hitting the same beats over and over again. However, given the subject matter at hand, Parenthood is a show that seems to chug along at a certain pace and tone for a while until it can give a proper shakeup to that order in to give the audience proper drama. I realize this sound like a knock against the show, but I don’t mean it as such. As a family dramaedy, Parenthood has to be “nice” more often than not so that we would believe that these people would want to hang out with each other, and in turn so we want to hang out with them. It’s a formula that the show makes work, and I think that  what this season has been missing is such a proper shakeup, which is weird considering how, at various times, the show seems to have a varied amount of groundwork laid out for one.

So giving us an episode like “Road Trip” which, in the grand tradition of road trip stories, splits the larger group off into smaller subgroups while also keeping an eye on the connective tissue of the umbrella story, would seem to be like another step away from that grand shakeup that I’m still convinced might happen this season (there are six more episodes after this one, after all). However, in spite of once again moving away from the winning formula, I would argue that this was still a pretty great episode of the show, and perhaps the best of the season.

Episodes in this vein tend to work best when we already have ongoing tension, as, much like with bottle episodes, putting people in a confined space tends to work best when there are established emotions that can create some natural drama. But yet again, Parenthood subvert this expectation by giving us a lot of stories that are easily solved within the hour (except maybe one, but will get to that.) What’s so innately wonderful about the Bravermans is that even though we’ve only been privy to their lives for two and a half seasons, there’s a wonderful amount of backstory to their lives that can be more easily summoned here than in most seasons, if only because the size of this clan can bring about something of a consensus, and thus legitimacy, to whatever previously unheard of thing they’re suddenly discussing.

And that’s a good thing, because the impetus for all of these actions is Zeek’s apparently fragile relationship with his mother. While having all of the Bravermans telling their horror stories of Grandma Blanche while driving up to her place lays some great ground work (as well as getting some hilarious reaction lines from Joel), what really sells it is the fantastic work of Craig T. Nelson, especially in that later scenes with his mother, but who was generally good all around. (It’s times like these that it becomes easy to forget this was the guy who also starred in Coach.) In fact, it’s telling that so little of the episode features Blanche on screen, and yet her presence still works. All the buildup to the family arriving at her house does all the heaving lifting by allowing the other characters reactions to her fill in her characterization, to the point where when we finally see her, we feel as if we already know as well as they, and their perceptions of her turn out to not be that far off.

Now, Zeek’s storyline introduces a theme that the show has dealt with many times across a few variations – that of parents being disappointed in their kids, and vice-versa – but never perhaps to as full of an extent as it did here. Now, as with just all the other creative decisions in this episode, it’s quite possible that all the storytelling weight – Zeek’s disappointment in his kids for not wanting to go on the trip, Camille’s disappoint in Zeek for not being able to control his anger, Adam being disappointed in Haddie for her not communicating with him, Drew being generally weirded out at having seen his mom having sex with Mr. Cyr – could have made the episode collapse. But, if Parenthood is at strongest when it’s angry, in antithetically does the small stuff really well too, and by keeping the small scale of these stories in check, none threatened to overshadow the other. Instead, all the interweaving plots made the episode stronger overall, by doing what is does best: presenting the Bravermans as a patchwork quilt of a family, where all of their various want and needs sometimes run at odds with each other.

For whatever reason, three Bravermans couldn’t really take part in this storyline (at least not till the end), as Christina, Max and Nora had to stay home in order to punish Max for his acting out. (It’s quite possible there was some narrative logic for this, but I like to pretend it’s because Monica Potter had other commitment, and needed a lighter load this week. I don’t know why I think this, but it makes me happy to do so.) Now, Max’s struggle with his autism has been perhaps the only arc that has encompassed the entire series (no surprise, considering that Jason Katims has an autistic son of his own), but what I think makes it work and keeps it from getting stale is that the show’s not afraid to add new layers, to keep showing not only how Max is changing, but how is family is changing as well. This season we saw Jabbar’s reaction in “Clear Skies”, and Haddie’s in “Missing”, but the strongest is always going to be from Christina, mostly because Monica Potter’s so good at emoting. Playing up this struggle here felt different from all the other times because of the severity of Max’s actions and Christina’s punishment, but also because the extra layer it added to the titular road trip.

Next Week: Babies? BABIES!

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Seriously, the show used Joel well for what feels like the first time in forever, and all he did was make a bunch of sarcastic quips, which may be my favorite mode for the character. It of course helps that the current arc that he and Julia are in, where she’s attempting to adopt her office’s barista’s baby, is just the stupidest thing ever, to the extent that I was thankful for the reprieve that this episode brought us from that storyline.

Admit it: When you saw the motorcycle gang passing the Braverman caravan on the highway, you were suddenly itching for a Parenthood/Sons of Anarchy crossover. (Of course, I’m still waiting on a Community/Parenthood crossover, but that’s just my own white whale.)

“This is Nightwing, over and out.”

“Yeah, we don’t think what you two think, and were all smashing successes.”

“An intimate union of bodies…”

“You know, he’s here grandma, he can hear you.”