Monsters of Television

“I think that deserves a consequence.”

Joel does his best Angelus impression.

This is the story of boy meets girl. The boy, Mike, a forklift operator in the shoe warehouse, is tightly integrated with the “scene” in the Bay Area despite his blue collar appearance. By day, he hauls pallets of shoes but by night he is the person who makes sure to walk the velvet rope and show people stuck outside that he’s getting in easily. The girl, Sarah Braverman, a single mother trying to connect with her daughter, has a checkered past when it comes to men and suffers a bipolar sense of confidence, brimming with it at times and then watching it needlessly empty out of her at others.

This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front: this will probably end in some sort of horrible disaster.

While non-Braverman men deal with the Lorelai Effect, Julia actually has an honest-to-space-baby storyline (that paints her like a thick-headed jackass) while Crosby has his baby-daddy issues and Adam has adult onset impatience when it comes to his autistic son comes to a head.

Let me explain the Lorelai Effect. I’ve stated before that Lauren Graham’s characters will always be compared to Lorelai Gilmore, not just because she was on a hit series for seven years but also because of her ability to bring to a character a certain kind of charisma that seems to pop up in just about any character she plays. Lorelai Gilmore, for those not familiar, is, in her small town, like the most popular girl in school. Everyone loves her and reveres her despite her many, many slip-ups. She’s the kind of woman every female wants to be friends with and every male wants to date. Men literally had fist-fights over her without her even being around to see it. She made people crazy. The only person in Stars Hollow that didn’t see birds suddenly appear when Lorelai was near was Taylor Doose (DOH-see) and even he conceded to her whim 90% of the time. She had a grip on anyone that was into girls.

There’s not telling if Maura Tierney would have had the same storylines Lauren Graham has been given, where any man she is introduced to is suddenly smitten, but Sarah Braverman certainly has driven the men wild on this series, be they teacher, company president, or forklift operator.

There’s also another Gilmore Girls inversion in this episode (like the date-my-daughter’s-teacher storyline): in an effort to reconnect with Amber, Sarah finds a cool concert for them to attend (with Mike the Forklift Operator’s help) with Amber’s new rich bestie. This is analogous to Lorelai offering Rory and the, at the time, antagonistic Paris Gang tickets to see The Bangles. In the latter, it was an effort to help the daughter make some friends. The former is trying to help the mother make friends with the daughter. There are times when I think I might like Sarah and Amber’s relationship more than Lorelai and Rory’s simply because of the complexity. Later in Gilmore Girls, they start to demonstrate what Parenthood is doing early in the series: two alpha females butting heads.

Speaking of alpha females, Julia, usually hidden behind D-stories on this show, actually has something going on this week. But, let’s face it: Joel steals this show. This season has made strides to establish the disparity between his forgotten strength and his perceived weakness. He has a trade that was forgotten, his contracting skills drowning in “preschool politics.” His father-in-law thinks he’s a pansy that used to dabble in construction. His head for putting things together has been clouded by knowledge of things like the color of a doll’s pants. Being a contractor-turned-house-husband during the housing crisis while Julia follows her dream has taken a toll, the “yes man” has finally had enough, and he won’t let Julia railroad him into another child. They’ve done a good job this season featuring Joel as being emasculated but bearing it, a great example coming in this episode when Adam says he’s better than all the other moms because he has his own tools.

Joel might be one of my favorite characters on the show but, unlike Amber, Sarah, or Max, they haven’t explored the issues he might have with being a saint. Issuing all the complaints you would think he would have with bringing another child in the world (Julia won’t be the one taking care of the baby, Joel is losing his identity, etc), it was good to see him get unleashed. And then to complete the writers’ and actor’s dedication to the character, he eventually concedes after asking for vague terms from Julia, that there has to be a place for him. What does that mean exactly? But it makes sense for Joel that, in order to put the confrontation aside, he would be the one to bring terms to the table, terms that Julia would feel good about accepting and not necessarily terms that she mean compromise on her part. Though Joel is obviously intelligent and strong, he doesn’t like to be at odds with his wife (or anyone) so a quick resolution is expected from him.

What’s also interesting about Joel’s relationship with his kid: Adam seems to look at him and want what he has. Does Adam really want Joel’s relationship, where his only friends are mothers and children? After being blown off by Max earlier, Adam has a “grass is always greener” mentality toward Joel and Sydney’s bond and is the catalyst for Adam to bring out the Nate Fisher in himself. His patience, ever long, has been stretched thin by Max’s seeming lack of progress in social situations. Basically, he wants Max to want to know him. I can understand that he wants to have a two-sided conversation with his son but (a) he’s young and (b) HE’S AUTISTIC. After months of education on the subject, he should know what’s up. But any excuse to bring Minka Kelly around is good enough for me. Along those same lines: what I thought would be a definite for last season (Adam having an affair with Gaby) doesn’t look like it’s as assured for this season either. Although they are pushing this “marriage strained by autistic children” thread (especially next episode from the look of the preview) and Adam doing it with Gaby would be just enough of a disaster to really shake things up. Maybe too much of a disaster for a show like this.

Crosby and Renee butt heads just like you thought they would. They come to an understanding like you thought they would. But even if everything goes as expected, the charm of both actors make it worth watching, even if it’s a lesser storyline in this episode.

Other things:

• Hey! It’s Drew! He was actually in this episode for a line or two. I hope they do an episode on him featuring where he goes when everyone else is too self-involved in their own dramas.
• Just like Matt said on Twitter earlier last week, “Whoever had the idea to keep putting Mae Whitman in thick black glasses on Parenthood this season should get a f—ing raise immediately.”
• Because I feel guilty about hinting at the beginning to a movie nobody saw and no organization bestowed awards upon, you should probably check out the trailer and a featurette explaining the background of the Summer Effect sequence.