Parenthood - Season 2 thread (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

I've often wondered how the resume builders in elementary school turn out as adults, once their parents' 30-year plan for them has been accomplished. It's a quantifiable fact that they're more successful by the traditional measures. Are they more happy though? I dunno. My parents stressed academic achievement until around sixth grade. They figured that if I wasn't self-motivated to achieve by then, I wasn't ever going to be. As a family, we've never been joiners, so I was never loaded up with extracurriculars like my more high-achieving classmates. I had a much better immune system, though, because after I was done with my homework I was free to go out and play in the dirt and run around in the woods. No sterile environments for this kid. If I ever have kids, I'll probably be too terrified of abductors or molesters to give them the same opportunity, and that's a shame.



Loved last night's episode:

"I'm in hell."
"I beat a monkey!"
"I'm in freakin' hell."

Adam has plenty of reasons to be terrified about his new boss: lighting up the bong with his aimless entourage in the top office doesn't exactly inspire confidence. But after many years of cleaning up Gordon's messes, what terrifies him the most is the prospect getting what he's always claimed he wanted: a voice in the big picture. It would be easier for him to find another job more suited to his conservative style of doing business, and in better times he undoubtedly would have. But instead he's faced with a unique opportunity for a 41-year-old executive vice president of a mid-sized company: the prospect of a total transformation of his thinking. Whatever happens, whether he ultimately keeps his job or doesn't, the experience will be a positive one for his character.

I loved Amber's reaction to Haddie rattling off Alex's baggage. Coming from a household with a father in and out of rehab, she sees the potential danger signs coming just like Adam and Kristina did. The advantage of being a cousin is that you can stand aside and say best of luck. At the same time, the look on Amber's face as she drove away said it all: drinkers drink, and in her very bad experience they never stop drinking for good.

Sarah critiquing Amber's song was fascinating, because it gives us a little window in her dynamic with the ex-husband Seth. The tension between being a mother and being a constructive critic was played out through the whole storyline, and Sarah was only too aware of it. At the same time, Amber's musical talent -- and musical training -- comes from her father. Amber and Sarah are so much alike in so many ways, it was neat to see a side of Amber that we don't see in Sarah. In the funny way she plays a chord, we see the shadow of her father and realize that not everything about her relationship with him was bad. Indeed, what the special times they shared must have made his failings all the more painful.

This is encapsulated in Zeek's remark to Camille as Amber plays: "You know who she reminds me of? Seth," and it's not said with scorn. Camille clearly sees it too. That's one of the things we hope for from our children, that they'll inherit the things we like about ourselves while missing out on the parts of ourselves we're not proud of. Amber, singing what amounts to her father's story as she would like him to feel, redeems the part of Seth that people admire but free of the addiction and abuse that torments him.

(Interesting fact: Mae Whitman wrote the song Amber performs over the end of the episode herself.)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It was nice to see Crosby finally stand up to Jasmine for a change, and see her have to acknowledge that he just might be right every once in a while. It was nice to see Amber be a great cousin to Haddie after everything that went down last season. After Haddie's rantings and ravings had no effect on Adam, a polite conversation with Alex in his office made him feel lower than dirt. And the perfect daughter finally drew a line in the sand and said, if you're making me choose between you and him, I'm going to choose him because he didn't make me choose. To Alex's credit, he refused to get involved in something that wasn't on the up and up. At the same time, carrying the hopes and expectations of a 16/17-year-old girl on his shoulders is weighing on him, and the prospect of having to choose between Haddie and sobriety is potentially looming on the horizon for him, and it terrifies him.


Camille has a habit of thinking she knows better than everyone, and insinuating her opinion through off-hand remarks. Now she's bitten off more than she planned for with Haddie. It's not a coincidence that the writers put her and Amber in the doorway for that final beat, because they are the two architects that have escalated the situation to this point. Camille's only too aware of what she's done, and how this is going to affect her granddaughter and her relationships with her son and daughter-in-law. Amber's shell-shocked, seeing the perfect nuclear family imploding and it absolutely terrifies her.


I really liked how Zeek handled things with Drew and Sarah tonight, saying all of the things a hard ass parent would say while chastising Sarah for how hard she's being on Drew and reminding her that she'd be on the streets if he himself weren't such a soft touch.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I liked the little parallel between Jabar and Drew. Crosby wants to teach Jabar to stand on his own two feet. As Sarah poignantly pointed out, Drew's been standing on his own every day of his life. It's okay for him to be a kid every now and again and laze out on a fundraiser. He's going to be alright. And, maybe Jabar will be, too, now that he has a parent who won't just give in and let him take the path of least resistance (and, mindblowingly, that parent is Crosby).


I don't think Haddie really heard Alex. He said, "Make things right with your parents," not, "Run away, get out of their sphere of influence, and we'll be good." I think he sees that through patience and trustbuilding, he might just win his way into her parents' favor. I don't think he's going to go along with her idea of making things right by getting them out of her life. He's going to see that as her choosing the path he wishes he hadn't had to take.


Just realized how much I hate Haddie's hairstyle. I actually watched the opening sequence this week instead of vegging out, and she looked much better with long, straight hair. The newer look isn't flattering at all.


I didn't really see Camille as the bad guy. She found Haddie at the center without expecting to and immediately took her to school. She made it clear to Haddie that she would not side with her against her parents. It was perhaps a lapse in judgment or misplaced trust to expect that her parents would know about the car ride without a phone call, but I think Kristina treated her pretty unfairly by making assumptions and not talking to her rationally and without anger.

 

[Citizen87645]

Great point. I think this will be a major bone of contention between them, as Alex totally understood where Adam was coming from with his desire to keep Haddie 16 as long as possible and his own wish that he'd had parents like her's. Haddie's reasons for moving out seem downright laughable compared to what forced Alex to become independent. If she ever attempts to compare the two situations she'll reveal how much of a kid she still is.

I don't think he's going to go along with her idea of making things right by getting them out of her life. He's going to see that as her choosing the path he wishes he hadn't had to take.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Great post, Greg. I agree on all points -- especially about Haddie's unfortunate hairstyle. While I think Kristina was being an unfair, freaked out parent, Camille bears some responsibility for this turn of events. She voiced her approval of Haddie dating Alex, and that allowed Haddie to feel vindicated in her position. I'm not even saying Camille's in the wrong, just that she drove the course of events.


Especially great points about Alex, guys. He would have killed to have the kind of upbringing that Haddie has had. He's probably not going to be too impressed with her casting that aside because she's having a fight with her parents. It sort of trivializes what he went through, in a living situation that really was bad news.

 

[DaveF]

We watched the past three episodes this week; whew. And I've caught up on the comments. As always, fascinating observations and insights. Special thanks, as always, to Adam for his particular care in thinking through the episodes.


I have only scattered thoughts, with the three episodes blurred together (partially in a haze of being sick this week)


I was amused, if a bit annoyed, at Jasmine's hypocrisy with Crosby. First, he's got to man up, be a dad, and make sure their son is responsible so that he doesn't become a burnout -- not cleaning one's room at a young age has profound consequences! Then, she's Mrs. Soft Touch, and can't risk scarring Jabar in public and won't hear any of Crosby's talk about Jabar sticking to his committments. (And I wonder if Jasmine, despite her dance career, had a very negative experience as a kid in a school performance.) And it was done so well. I could see both sides. I've had and seen those scarring moments. I've dodged committments for fear of the embarrassment, and later regreted it. And I've taken the risk to success. I was with Crosby, but I feared for Jabar.


I'm glad I'm not a father of a 16-yr old girl! I watch Adam and Kristina completely fail to make themselves understood to Haddie, and in protecting her, possibly do lifelong damage to their relationship with her. I would probably make the same choice. Alex is such a great guy for Haddie to date. Except he's 19 and she's 16. And he's living alone in his own apartment with no family structure. And he's only 6 months sober. And she's so wide-eyed, completely taken by this image of a man overcoming every obstacle and doing something "real" that serves people almost selflessly. She looks at her high school courses, her A's, her student-council, everything a teen does in preparation for college, for life, in suburbia and now thinks it's all garbage. It's all so trite and meaningless compared to the good work Alex is doing. She's so deeply infatuated, she can't see anything else. And Alex knows, he *knows*, how important all teenage stuff, how much he'd give to get that childhood for himself, but even he can't get Haddie to understand that she's on a great path and all this "small" stuff adds up over the years to becoming an adult who can take of themselves and do good or great things in the world.


Adam: My wife predicts we'll learn that 1999, the year that the shoes got "weird", is the year that he started working there. And watching Kristina play the iPhone game was like watching my wife play Angry Birds. So true!


On Joel and Julia and bird heaven: What I liked most was seeing again how the writers leave themselves gaps in the stories, and judiciously add constraints as needed. So now, halfway through season 2, we learn that Joel's mom has passed away some time ago. The show always has the bit of TV artificiality that all the inlaws don't have any family of their own; everything revolves around the Braverman clan. The writers did a little thing there, and made the show a bit richer, a bit more coherent, with that little nuance. It's like it was saved for that very moment, that very episode. It probably wasn't; but they saw a void they could exploit and it was perfect.





I don't understand people who categorically denounce TV as dreck. Human history, and culture, is built around telling stories. And for 20 years now, we've had some amazing stories being told on the small screen. Even now, as the TV industry seems ready to implode on itself, we still get these amazing works like Parenthood.

 

[Citizen87645]

Thanks for that reminder Dave. I forgot to mention how I much I misjudged Joel's reaction to Julia telling Sydney about heaven. I thought he was upset with her for going against his wishes, and when he finally talked to her I thought it was going to be something about her undermining his wishes. It turned out to be so much better than that, giving that previous scene an added emotional depth and complexity.

 

[Greg_S_H]

There's no easy way out. There's no shortcut home. I was sure Kristina would give in to get Haddie back, and I still think she will, but not yet. I was really glad to hear that Alex refuses to reward Haddie for her behavior, but is waiting until she makes thngs right like he said before he sees her again. Zeek joins the club in seeing what it's really like with Max, and did you notice Crosby with a lollipop at the end? I think we're all waiting for Cory to stand revealed as a brilliant boss, but he may just be an idiot after all.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I had a long day of shoveling today, and it's looking like I'm going to have a long day of shoveling tomorrow, so I'm going to keep it to a few brief points:


Standout moment of the night: Camille joining Kristina on Julia's front step. It encapsulated everything that makes this show a cut above. It would have been easy for the rift between the two of them to continue to develop for many episodes to come. But that would have shortchanged both of their characters. After an episode full of Camille's little comments, the mom in her saw through Kristina's anger at her to the need for a shoulder to cry on. Instead of saying anything, she just listened and gave Kristina the outlet she desperately needed. It didn't solve all of the issues that divided them, but it gave them the means to be alright with one another.


God, Adam's a great father. He's as close as this show comes to an authoritarian, but when it comes between standing his ground and keeping her daughter in his life, he's going to choose his daughter. At the same time, when Kristina decides she can't back down, he doesn't throw her under the bus. He presents a united front with her, and takes Haddie's arrows even though his inclination is to be on his side. When Max wants to come home, he knows he can't make Max tough it out. But he also knows that the experience of camping out is important to his own father, and will be a positive experience for Max if Max can make it through. So he finds a way to persuade Max that he's the one who wants to stay.


And Haddie's a good daughter. Coming to the door like that showed a well-developed moral compass; even though she's still furious at her parents and in full tamper tantrum mode, it was important to her that she clear the air. Lots of 16-year-olds would not have the perspective to understand the need for such a gesture, nor the impact it would have on their own emotional well-being.


Peter Krause did a great job playing Adam stoned, too. He was still definitively Adam, even while he was definitively baked.

I was SO happy the show didn't give Sarah the raise. I can understand why she needs the raise, but it's incredibly ballsy to demand one after the company's just had to fire so many people. Adam was right to shoot her down, and so was the new boss. His way of getting her to talk herself into quitting was actually kind of genius. They do a good job of demonstrating his intelligence and tactical abilities through the spaced out, hipster fog.


Learning about Kristina's parents went a long way toward explaining her position. It's a bit of a ret-con, to be sure, but it works. She looks at Alex, and sees only her father. He is manifestly not her father, and has lots of great qualities that point to him being an Adam instead. But Haddie's infatuation scares the hell out of her, and Alex's substance abuse history means that a potential incarnation of her father lingers behind every moment of stress.


Cute moment: As Greg mentioned, Crosby sucking on the tangerine edible he confiscated from Adam at his bachelor party.


EDIT: Well, shit. It looks like my few brief points aren't so brief after all.

 

[ScottH]

I don't get the whole thing with Camille - why is she letting Haddie stay there? Adam and Kristina should be absolutely furious at her for not insisting (or even forcing) she go home to her parents where she belongs.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by ScottH

I don't get the whole thing with Camille - why is she letting Haddie stay there? Adam and Kristina should be absolutely furious at her for not insisting (or even forcing) she go home to her parents where she belongs.

I think that was explained by Zeek's monologue to Max on the camping trip. When Camille found Zeek, he was essentially every bit as messed up as Alex is -- probably more so. But she fell in love, and found a way to make it work despite all of the bumps along the way. She's on Haddie's side.


And what happens if Camille kicks Haddie out? Haddie won't go back home. Maybe she ends up at a friend's house and everything's fine, or maybe she ends up some place much worse. I think Adam's just happy to know his daughter is some place safe, and Kristina doesn't have much leverage given those facts.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The scene in the bedroom between Drew and Amber, later expanding to include Sarah and Zeek, captured the fracture points of this family in one moment. Amber remembers how bad things were when her father was around; he did a lot of damage to her, really deep damage, that she's only started recovering from over the time we've been following this family. The thought of letting that poison back into her life absolutely terrifies her. It risks all of her hard-won self-esteem, her efforts at self-improvement and her ability to leave the past in the past. Her father coming back turns the past into the present, and that past was something that no young child should endure. Drew was very young when the worst stuff was going down, and like all young children he was able to isolate himself from the worst of it. He is the only guy in their current family unit, and that feels very lonely for him. Amber is strengthened by their father's absence; Drew is wounded by it. Sarah is both terrified of what Seth will inflict on her children and jealous that he was interested in Drew and Amber but not her. She had framed her post-divorce relationship in a specific way to avoid those feelings, to avoid being the battered woman that comes back for more. By approaching Drew directly, Seth disturbed the fragile status quo.


And that takes Sarah into very dangerous waters. In the pilot, Darin Heames played Seth. In this episode, Seth was recast as John Corbett. Heames's iteration of Seth is a broken shell of a man, who has nothing left in the tank to offer his children, and nothing but regret and guilt to offer his ex-wife. He looked like a junkie, carried himself like a junkie, and felt like the man that's been described to us. But while Heames was perfect casting for Seth the ex, Corbett is the right casting for Seth the once and potential future. All of the dark qualities are still there, but they're under the surface, more dangerous. Corbett can seduce a woman who knows better. He can convince his family and even himself that he's better, when he really isn't. His Seth is friendly, chatty, enthusiastic. Already you can see the limits his lifestyle has placed on his worldview; he isn't familiar with things like his own band's website that he should be familiar with. He examines his son like a distant aunt examining her nephew: "My how you've grown!" But he's got a charming smile, and he promises this time will be different.


Amber knows that, which is one of the reasons she volunteers to drive Drew: as much as Seth scares her, Sarah with Seth scares her even more. Amber driving is a way to keep her parents apart. But I suspect that's not the only reason. Even though she hates and fears her father, he's still her father. Part of her had to see him, even if all the other parts were telling her not to. Her reaction shots as Seth performs the song he wrote with Sarah about her alone should earn Mae Whitman the Emmy. In some ways, it's easier to believe that your dad doesn't give a shit about you and never has. Being forced to understand that he did care, but his love for her wasn't more powerful than his dependency on drugs and alcohol is far more painful; it's not that he didn't notice her, it's that he did notice and that wasn't enough to pull him out of it. It's in that moment that you really get the sense that there was a time in which Seth, Sarah and Amber were a unit -- a real, bona fide nuclear family, in a way that Seth, Sarah, Amber and Drew never really were. For Amber, there's a "before", and that's part of what makes it so much worse for her. The longing for that before, to go back to the time of the song, makes her hate him even more for making her love him. Seth used that song to lure her affections, and she knows that's what he's doing, but it's working a little anyway. What a cruel thing to do to your daughter, and what a perfect snapshot of the pathology of an addict's mind.


Zeek's got the clearest picture of anyone, because all of the pain Seth has caused has hurt him secondhand. He watched this man ruin his daughter's life, and very nearly ruin his granddaughter's too. He is caught between knowing the importance of a father in a boy's life and his fury at Seth for the damage he's already caused. Up there in the bedroom, when Sarah and Drew are exploding at each other, he locks eyes with Amber and sees the scared little girl that Seth turned his smart, confident, sassy granddaughter into and it both breaks his heart and re-stokes his fury. And then he sees his daughter, who he indulges probably to a fault, poised to walk down that same dark road. And he's angry at her, because that makes her complicit in what is sure to happen next. But when she need's daddy's arm to hold the bad dark world away, he gives it to her. She's going to need everything she can get to walk this tightrope, and Zeek knows it.


The fight between Crosby and Jasmine was something we all expected, and even hoped for. It was raw, and painful, and piercing -- and unrelenting. You didn't want to watch, and that's how it had to be. Crosby and Jasmine had no business getting married without having that fight. If they don't get married as a result of that fight, then they should never have gotten married in the first place. Jasmine's used to being a single mother, and dictating the needs of her child. She has six years of experience that grants her that authority. But the reason she has those years of experience and Crosby doesn't is because she deprived him of the single most important thing a man can have in his life. When Crosby accused Jasmine of "dropping" Jabar on him, Jasmine thought he was saying that she inconvenienced him with Jabar, probably justifying her original decision not to tell Crosby in the first place. But that's not what Crosby was saying. The resentment wasn't over being introduced to Jabar, the resentment was having Jasmine bring his son that he never knew about introduced into his life out of the blue. He deserved to be part of that conversation from the moment that Jasmine learned that she was pregnant. It's yet another thing decided on Jasmine's terms.


At the same time, Jasmine's absolutely right to say that Crosby just floats through life and you can't do that as a father. He still had one foot in single life and one foot in coupledom, and that's not the basis for any sort of real marriage. Even if the marriage doesn't go through, Crosby can't go back to living the lifestyle he led before meeting Jabar. He can't be Jabar's buddy on the houseboat any more. The last shot, of the empty boat with the beer bottles and empty Chinese food cartons really drove that home. If he wants a seat at the decision making table, he needs to invest as much thought into his positions as Jasmine does hers. If he doesn't want four kids and a house with a garden, he needs to present an alternate vision. Jasmine is a control freak, but in Crosby's case she's filling a vacuum.


By contrast Adam's family shows us how family's reunite. Everything there is built on a rock solid foundation, so that even the big things that divide them can be bridged with enough time, compromise and patience. I liked that Camille was the one who convinced Haddie to move home.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I really liked this episode and the show has replaced Brother's and Sisters for me.

I could really could identify with the Crosby/Jasmine fight because I have been through similar arguments with a bossy spouse.

Also enjoyed the scenes with Set, the Father. Great job by John Corbett and everyone involved.

 

[Citizen87645]

The Crosby - Jasmine fight was definitely hard to watch, but definitely got stuff out that needed to be. Felt bad for Crosby stepping in it not once but twice. Hopefully his choice of words about Jabar won't be turned against him.


I have to say Mae Whitman is getting prettier and prettier, but then I've always been partial to the hip, alterna-girls.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by Cameron Yee
I have to say Mae Whitman is getting prettier and prettier, but then I've always been partial to the hip, alterna-girls.

What I particularly love about her casting is that it stands in vivid contrast to the six-foot-tall sticks so nearly universal of teenage girl characters on today's television. She was an adorable child actress who put in some really underrated work on "State of Grace", an excellent show of the type Fox Family was known for before ABC took it over and turned it into a low-budget CW knock-off.

But like most former child actresses, she's short, which was useful for playing younger characters. She's nowhere near fat, but she's way too naturally curvy to ever fit Hollywood's Size 0 ideal. I've known far more pretty girls over the years that are built like her than the body shape I normally see on television.

Originally Posted by Derek Miner
Something I really like about the show that this scene reminds me of is how the characters' lives are plotted organically and interconnectedly. I'm sure we're all used to shows that compartmentalize storylines and either wrap them up or put them in hibernation while moving on to something else. In this storyline with Amber, Drew and Seth, however, it's especially poigniant that we just went through a journey with Amber that allowed her to have some clarity about her father's addiction, the damage that it caused and how it will likely always affect her relationship with her mother. This really hit me a few weeks ago when she was in the car with Haddie and she described coping with an addict or alcoholic with insight beyond her years.
Likewise, the preview for next week's episode implied a difficult time with Max, and it seems they have been subtly layering in Max being more difficult while we as viewers have been more focused on the conflict between Haddie and her parents. We can also tell from the preview of next week's episode (and the title of the one following it) things that were set up even further back in the season are about to be paid off.

This is an excellent point, one that I think is crucial to the show's success. The structure of television writing isn't geared to capture the nature of real life; most episodes are "broken" by the A plot and B plot, with really sophisticated shows having a C plot and even a D plot. Part of this is a logistical necessity; you can't possibly meet the intense shooting schedule of television if you have all of the actors in every scene. Part of this is balancing the expectations of your first-run audience with the needs of syndication, where episodes will frequently be aired out of order and on bizarre schedules. Only in recent years, has truly serialized storytelling taken hold on network television, made possible by the shrinking but more loyal audiences that the modern business model attracts.

On television right now, there are only two shows I can think of where nothing happens in a void, and they both air Tuesdays at 10 PM Eastern. The other show, The Good Wife, cheats a bit because everything is directly connected to the protagonist, Alicia Florrick. By contrast, no one storyline dominates "Parenthood"; on a given week Adam's nuclear family might come to the fore, the next week Sarah and one of her kids will come to the fore, the week after that it will be Julia and Joel, and the week after that it might be Crosby and Jabar. But as you say, even when storylines are in the background, they don't freeze until the show has time for them. Everything's progressing all of the time, and the show trusts its audience enough to move things forward with a couple lines of seemingly throw-away dialog. And every storyline impacts every other storyline in ways big and small. There's a cohesion to this universe that is extremely rare. And the writing and characterization remains remarkably consistent for such a large writers' room.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Again, this is all familiar to Friday Night Lights fans. The so-realistic-they're-uncomfortable fights here reminded me of the knock-down-drag-outs between Tami and Julie Taylor. I think at this point I like Parenthood better, but that's mainly because I've recorded this season of FNL and have yet to really get into it. They're pretty much the same show with different settings/characters, which I suppose means it's the Katims touch.

 

[ScottH]

Originally Posted by Greg_S_H

They're pretty much the same show with different settings/characters, which I suppose means it's the Katims touch.

I never knew those two shows had that link (Katims), but it totally makes sense.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I didn't get to this show until really late tonight, but my feelings in a nutshell:

Michael Emerson was completely fascinating as Amazing Andy. His limitations more or less track with Max's; he has some traits that Max doesn't, and Max has some traits that he doesn't, but generally speaking, we're looking at Max 30 years or so into the future. It was neat seeing the coping mechanisms that Andy'd evolved to successfully bring off his show. I thought the show thing was a little over the top for someone who's running his own business, but I liked the way he could hold his own with "regular" adults while still being very symptomatic of Asperger's. When Adam asked him at the end if he's happy, I liked that he responded "Yeah, sometimes." It's a pretty condescending and presumptuous question, as if any of us are all one thing or the other. His response was socially awkward but pointed; would anyone walk up to Adam and ask that question? The thing I liked most about his performance was the way he retreated into himself at the flash points, where Max would throw a tantrum. The guy I worked with who had Asperger's would do the same thing. Instead of lashing out, he'd freeze up until the situation smoothed out and he felt confident enough to reengage. During his performances, Andy is magical, because he knows the social variables. He knows what the audience needs, and he knows how to provide it. Seeing that was magical.


The thing that struck me about Crosby and Gaby is what a difference a kid makes. If there was no kid, Crosby wouldn't have hesitated about jumping in with Gaby. The relationship with Jasmine would have been over, and he'd be on to the next thing. But Jabar means that Crosby will never be rid of Jasmine, and the consequences of hopping into bed with Gaby will rain fire down on his head. To his credit, he didn't mislead Gaby. He tried to fix things with Jasmine. The odds of them getting married anytime soon were already pretty much shot. But he doesn't have the luxury of just doing what's good for him any more. He has a responsibility to telegraph things very carefully with Jasmine, so that however their relationship turns out, they can present a united front for Jabar and help him come to terms with it. And that's not even to mention the consequences that losing Gaby will have on his nephew.


John Corbett's Seth is a piece of shit who's spent most of his life being told he's a piece of shit. I believe he's genuinely trying to do right by Drew here. I also believe that he doesn't have what it takes to be the man that Drew needs him to be. And I think his flirting with being a father to Drew is tearing Amber to pieces. He's the shatter point of this family, and every time he pops up, he raises the possibility of again shattering his family.

 

[Derek Miner]

I guess I got faked out by NBC's promo department on Max's blowup this week (anyone familiar with the apocalyptic "next week" promos for ER over the last few years of its run should not be surprised). Still, it seems like he is being more difficult and it could be going somewhere.


A handful of little moments caught my attention this week. I cracked up at Max's reaction to Andy's comment, "Seems like a bad idea having an outlet so close to a hose."

"That's what I said!"


When Andy was back measuring the light in the backyard, the way Kristina was holding the stuffed cricket looked so much like she was holding a baby and patting its back lovingly, which seemed at once like a character touch and an absurd visual joke. I also laughed at her attempt to say "anthropomorphising."


I loved how Zeek took some initiative when he learned Andy had Asperger's and helped keep Joel out of the area. His firsthand experience with Max has really broadened his understanding and empathy with the condition.


Loved the long shot of Crosby alone in the houseboat - so tiny in the shot to represent just how he felt at that moment. It was almost like being back at square one with Jasmine dictating what Jabbar would do, regardless of Crosby's status as a parent. We know that Jabbar and Max have a bond, so even though Jasmine's reason for taking him out of town has legitimacy, she screwed up royally skipping the birthday party. Did she do it intentionally? Maybe. People do hurtful things when they are hurting. Crosby's not doing himself any favors, though. Instead of acting out against others, he's acting out self-destructively with Max's therapist. Even though it rings true, I can't put myself in Crosby's shoes there. I have a heightened sense of the emotional stakes of sex matched with an over-analytical mind. I don't really know what it's like to give in to that kind of situation. It would be the absolute last thing I would do.


Picking up with the Seth storyline, it seems as if Amber's fears (brought out so effectively by Adam here last week) are coming true. This week's episode was about everything that is wrong with Seth. It was heartbreaking to see Drew take on violence as a solution to his problems, but even more distressing was Sarah's approval of it. She's either falling back into her old feelings for Seth, or seriously mistaking inappropriate aggression as the positive male influence that Drew has been needing. And Amber appeared right at Sarah's weakest moment, probably uncertain what to do except to just be present and be loving.

 

[Derek Miner]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt

The thing that struck me about Crosby and Gaby is what a difference a kid makes. ... But he doesn't have the luxury of just doing what's good for him any more. He has a responsibility to telegraph things very carefully with Jasmine, so that however their relationship turns out, they can present a united front for Jabar and help him come to terms with it. And that's not even to mention the consequences that losing Gaby will have on his nephew.


John Corbett's Seth is a piece of shit who's spent most of his life being told he's a piece of shit. I believe he's genuinely trying to do right by Drew here. I also believe that he doesn't have what it takes to be the man that Drew needs him to be. And I think his flirting with being a father to Drew is tearing Amber to pieces. He's the shatter point of this family, and every time he pops up, he raises the possibility of again shattering his family.

Your comments on Crosby here are moving my "self-destructive" observation into more of a "selfish" territory. He knows the consequences for not only himself but Jabbar, Jasmine and Max, yet he gave in.


You brought out another thing about Seth that I found interesting this week. I actually do sympathize with the idea trying to climb out of a hole when you think people always want to knock you back down. But instead of looking inward and making changes there, he's decided to fight against those who he perceives as wrong. That trap, I can certainly understand. I think it's hard for anyone to deal with the fact they can't control what other people are going to do, think or believe, but when you start to fight over these things, I personally believe you're giving up too much of your own energy to a futile pursuit. In Seth's case, he really does want to do right by Drew, but he's not absorbing the lessons sobriety should be teaching him, and until he does, he is going to keep earning the "piece of shit" label and feel persecuted.