Monsters of Television

“Why is nobody wearing shoes?”

After watching LUX all day, capping off the evening with an episode of Parenthood threatened to send me into a family-drama sugar coma, leaving me to ponder how affected I am from my childhood and why I have no paternal desire. But, instead, the season premiere left me less sentimental and more glad to see these characters again.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about this episode since it was mostly lighter fare and set-up for drama later on down the road but there were some interesting additions and wrinkles to this season that make me look forward to future episodes.

The first thing that needs to be discussed is the structure of dialogue. Typically, each episode had what we referred to as “Robert Altman scenes” during which characters would talk over each other, have multiple conversations at once, and give the viewer a much more natural experience of what a family sounds like when conversing. It’s messy and what is said is not always eloquent. In this episode, it feels like they expanded that format across the entire show, leaning on all their characters (even Max) to compete for attention. It sets the show apart and provides for a lot of comedy (the cast often resorts to comical reactions). Basically, they took the most striking and organic part of each episode and spread it across the entire 45 minutes. It doesn’t get tiresome and it never demands so much attention that it becomes obvious that this is what they’re doing. Everything feels looser. Even characters that usually don’t get to participate very much in these kinds of scenes (or at all) like Joel and Gabi flex their acting chops in this format.

One person that doesn’t get to flex her chops very much: Erika Christensen. I still suspect the writers secretly hate her for some reason. This may be one of her best storylines to date (having to explain to Scout Sydney where babies come from) and, yet, she has a total of three scenes, all very brief. Joel even overshadows her here as he works with Zeek to fix the shed roof. And, let’s just say, Joel is awesome. I love how his go-to in order to avoid talking about sex in front of his six-year old is “let’s get ice cream” and how subtle he is with Zeek in the beginning (Z: “I know you’ve dabbled in home repair.” J: “I’m a licensed contractor but — okay.”). Joel is a meek man but has good delivery. His role seems to only get larger as the season continues, too, as Julia wants to have another child (impulsively even). Eventually, I think Joel is just going to become a scene regular and replace Julia entirely in the series. Apparently, the writers have no use for her.

The writers do seem to like using Max as a reason for a character to redefine their perspective. It seems like anytime someone needs an attitude adjustment, they just need to be present in a room where Max flips out. Crosby and Haddie are subject to it this time around, just as Zeek was last season. Patience is a virtue, my friends, and Max displays a biological lack of it as he escalates into panic mode and Gabi has it in spades. Also, I love Haddie’s relationship with her brother. Kristina mentions if something happens to her and Adam that Max would be left to her and there are times I think that should be the case. It might make a good spin-off in a few years. Like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius but with autism.

Speaking of kid brothers, how about Billy Baldwin is playing Adam’s boss and playing is like a lesser Jack Donaghy? I don’t know if I like the idea of Gordon trying to date Sarah [unless there’s a scene where he’s spying on her on a video monitor while listening to UB40’s cover of “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love with You”] but at least the guy is closer to her age than Amber’s teacher. I just love that, if this aired on Thursday night, an audience might feel like 30 Rock was running for 90 minutes and dipped into a Fringe-like alternate universe. “Is the shoe store under Sheinhardt Wig Company’s umbrella?”

And some quick hits:

• What about Skype sex? Great scene with Crosby. Believe me, buddy. We were all just as frustrated.
• I think I love the word “catastrophization” since I do, on occasion (maybe we all do), imagine the worst and carry out the thought process to a ridiculous end. Not just the car accident but having to identify the body, smelling the carnage, dealing with the funeral, who will deliver the eulogy, what are her last wishes, how will this affect the marriage, isn’t there some research indicating that couples that lose a child don’t stay together, will we stay together, who will take care of Max, will we keep her room the same, hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey monkey underpants.
• Adam offers Sarah an internship in the design department of his work. Where the heck was this internship a season ago before she had to take a job bar tending again?
• I like that Crosby brought up that Gabi is a good-looking woman. It insinuates that Crosby might go after her but I still feel like she’ll be more of a test to Adam’s fidelity.
• I would point out that Drew was MIA for the entire episode (except for the part where he wasn’t wearing shoes because he couldn’t find them) but Amber had just as much screen time and we know they love her. Bonnie Bedelia, however, continues to be the most underused actor on the show.
• The beeper for shoes — as a man that loses his shoes all the time, I feel that’s a phenomenal idea. Get Lauren Graham to deliver me one immediately.