Parenthood: Season 6 (1 Viewer)

[Elizabeth S]

I missed the Joel and Julia storyline this past episode as that is where my primary interest lies right now. I know tomorrow's show looks to focus on them. I remember the early seasons when Joel was SO supportive of Julia. It might be too "fairy tale", but I still want them together at series end.

 

[Citizen87645]

Amber's love interests turn to MMA and tattoos:

 

[mattCR]

Sorry guys, I've been forced away from a lot of formats until the election cycle ended.

Anyway, now that's over.. Max storyline is continuing to go off the rails. This is a show that had such a clearly defined autism case in the first few years, and we have now removed the strings and turned Max a bit into.. I'm not exactly sure.

Max is going through girl interest, which isn't impossible for those with his level of autism, but the fact that this girl with seemingly no ASD is in his special needs school seems a bit to cute by half. I'm betting we later find out she is homeless, and that should be an 'ahhh' moment, except it still doesn't justify her placement in his school or the makeup of that relationship.

Max had his recent meltdown - something we haven't seen on the show in a while (remember a few seasons ago when he got violent aggressive?) Max displays seemingly different traits depending on what the writers want, not what is realistic for a diagnosis such as his, and as a result his character is coming close to being a prop, which I'm not so keen on.

I understand the desire of many to see Julia & Joel, but I admit, if I were Joel I don't know if I wouldn't feel just a teeny bit relieved to not be under that roof.

There are storylines I really like, though - I quite enjoy Amber's struggle to figure out what to do next, and the difficulty of being a single mother potentially. I'm enjoying the story of the luncheonette turning into a business that may not be able to pay the bills. I think these storylines help round out their characters and build on some of the things we have from earlier seasons.

Last moment: Max reading through all of the pickup artists literature is despicable. Where would he find these books? Not in a school library. Having them on a tablet or kindle means he had to buy them or something similar. Outside of my general rejection of this way to deal with others, the reaction in their household of seemingly "let's let him read through them." Was wrong. Autism, as we've seen from Max often has a high component of OCD. Putting literature in front of Max that already obsesses on using a pattern to reach a conclusion is the kind of thing no therapist at all would ever allow to happen, and if we ever see the therapist in this show again, it is the kind of moment he would knock their heads together.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Since Cameron didn't post it. This past week's snarky recap.

I liked the first part about Joel/Julia.

But my favorite section was this:

Speaking of people I'd rather not ever see again: Why are we wasting so much of our final moments with the Bravermans on Ray Romano and his stupid annoying family? Who cares. You guys like yogurt? Good. Go eat yogurt for the rest of the season, we'll see you on your spinoff The Family From "Parenthood" That Nobody Even Cared About At All Because They All Seemed Fucking Impossible, They Deserve Each Other.

 

[Mike Frezon]

There have been some seriously horrible episodes of Parenthood over the years.

Tonight's, however, was the horriblest.



Who among us gives two figs about Ray Romano's wife and daughter? Amber has Braxton-Hicks contractions. Jasmine and her equally-unlikeable mother cut off Crosby's balls--again. And Max is intolerable.

More than half the cast is nowhere to be found. What is going on? What a disappointment.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Couldn't sleep last night, so I watched this episode in the middle of the night, should have just tried to go to sleep harder...

The Max stuff was too painful. The house party segment was just beyond stupid. Glad the bouncer snagged Crosby's dimebag. Haha.

 

[Mike Frezon]

This week's snarky re-cap (she should name her weekly column that!).

My favorite line this week came in one of the replies to the post:

Last night's episode reminded me of that time I lied to my parents when they left me home alone for one night when I was 15, and I had a massive party with kegs and bongs and heroin and bazookas, and the neighbors never complained and none of the drunk teenage guests got killed or killed anybody else in a drunken car accident and my parents came home in the middle of the party and offered to help me clean up and they only stayed mad at me for about 30 minutes and then they were friendly and nice to me and taught me how to play poker. That's what I like about this show: it's realistic.

Most everyone else wants to know where they can get a $30/hour filing job.

Her column is more entertaining than the show this week:

Speaking of boring stuff and things that are bad, NO MORE RAY ROMANO PLEASE, THANK YOU. We see Ray Romano and his shitty family every single episode! We don't even see members of the actual Braverman family—THE FAMILY WE CAME HERE TO WATCH, PARDON MY YELLING—every single week. We haven't seen Haddie since the beginning of the season! Is she dead? Is she lost in Europe? Can't we Skype her instead of watching two characters we don't care about drink on a porch for 100 hours?

Worst...episode...ever.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Damn, it sounds like I bailed out of this one just when it mounted a massive creative turnaround to become television's most universally acclaimed drama.

 

[mattCR]

We're trending into the unforgivable sins of how to portray autism on TV here.. I just finished watching this weeks episode. I'm going to have to think about this.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Matt: One of the things that bugs me the most about how Adam & Kristina deal with Max is that they never correct him when he breaks into a conversation with his own agenda. And then they stop whatever they were doing (or talking about) to cater to his demands.

I get that an autistic child is probably bound to act like that...but shouldn't his parents try to get him to learn to wait until there's a break in the conversation?

Although, come to think of it, all the characters in the show just talk over each other anyway--all the time.

 

[mattCR]

Yes, you try and work with autistic children so that the understand natural breaks in conversation.. they work harder to identify it, but it isn't some thing that isn't done.
My greater problem at this point is the school. This is a school that was setup for special needs students. But at a lunch hour, Max walks up to the girls in a truly hide your head moment and tries to convince the girl he has targeted that she loves him and he loves her.
There are significant, significant problems with this. It gets worse when Kristina talks to him about how 'brave' and 'good' that moment was for him. No.
First, if this is a school for special needs students, what are those girls doing there, how did they apply under the charter?

Second, it is NOT a good thing. Max basically stalks this girl and goes way beyond what is OK. The moment she asks him to stop, autistic or not, there is a compelling interest of a school employee (Kristina) to make him stop. The fact that she just verbally tells him to stop and lets it go on is both agonizing and very, very wrong. We've seen Max in the show have rage and control issues.. he's obviously become fixated on the outcome with this girl.. and this is not at all how this situation would and/or should be handled. A staff member would immediately remove Max from this situation with great haste rather than let this go on. And the moment that poster came out with the photos etc., no, Max would be removed from almost all times that he would be around this girl for both their safety.

They are playing Max's disability for cheap and petty sympathy, and as a result we aren't ending up with a frank debate about autism, what we are really seeing is parents who are just giving their kid all the wrong lessons to deal with his impulse control issues. If any parent of any autistic children in a school we attended would have in any way done some of the things that have happened here.. or if I found out in our son's school (which is all special needs) that they knew a situation like this was occurring and nothing happened - that they just sat back and let it implode.. yeah, there would be some discussions going on.
I was OK with the Braxton HIcks bit.. been there, done that. but Crosby arguing about carrying pot into a club seemed stupid... especially if he's desperate to land business.

 

[Citizen87645]

So I'm assuming the show has lost much of its credibility among parents and community groups who once praised it?

 

[mattCR]

So I'm assuming the show has lost much of its credibility among parents and community groups who once praised it?

Pretty much. In the autism community forums I'm in, the first three years of this show got a lot of praise, though some of us had a few issues. The last two years not so much, but still people hung into it.

At this point, there are a lot of people very concerned that we are now making autism into a punching bag and the way it is being handled is not the way in which we want autism related issues to be discussed in public.

So yeah, a lot of the good will that was going away last year in being burned fast this year. The moment they let him have those pickup artist type books started huge debates in most of the groups I participate in.

 

[mattCR]

We've now moved into completely, wildly inappropriate handling of the situation with Max. From her keeping the situation together when Max was stalking and harassing, to taking it to the next level and going to the girls house and pushing an apology.

Yeah, none of that would have happened, and none of that was appropriate.

 

[David Weicker]

I'm a bit curious about the workings of the school. Where are the other teachers? A major plot point last year was hiring Max's teacher to be at their school, but he seems to have turned invisible this season.And last night's episode seems to have been edited strangely. I had no idea that Adam was at the Open House (or even in the episode) until he magically appeared for the fight.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I had no idea that Adam was at the Open House (or even in the episode) until he magically appeared for the fight.

+1

Another really bad episode.

Take all the plot lines covered: Max/Dylan, Joel/Julia, Zeek/Camille, Lorelai and the Romano family. None of them are any further ahead then they were after the episode before (especially the Sarah/Hank/Sandy/Ruby mess).

The conflict between Max & Dylan escalated and then there was the big apology. Are we supposed to believe all is well there now?

(Note to MattCR: For the last couple of episodes my wife has been screaming at the TV, "A headmaster has to take care of such a serious issue in her school! She can't just stand there.")

Joel & Julia: She signed the divorce papers and they kissed. That's pretty much where they were last episode (and most of the season).

Zeek/Camille: Zeek's got major health concerns. That handwriting's been on the wall since the first episode of the season.

Sarah/Hank: Just a lot of yelling. Same as before. Don't see it changing.

Nothing new. Nothing got advanced. And it was the fifth-to-the-end episode of the entire freakin' series.

This isn't going to end well...especially for Zeek.

 

[mattCR]

Your wife is right. There is no school where this would be allowed to happen with a regular student, let alone a student with obsessive compulsive and violent tendencies. It. Would. Not. Happen.

The fact that they pushed for a semi-apology so quickly after, and the girl so quickly forgave being harassed and made to feel serious pressure is also wrong. It makes out stalking and harassment, things Max was absolutely doing as something that can just easily be brushed aside.

Nope, in the real world if this got this far, Max would be removed from the school and placed at least temporarily in a PRTF/CRTF for at least a med eval.

At minimum. And having the girl accept the apology with absolutely no blowback for 'the headmaster' is just wrong.

 

[DaveF]

I've been a fan from the start, and enjoyed its implausible twists and random discarding of story lines.But this has been an especially odd season. Worst of all traits, it's becoming boring.Joel and Julia: I don't care anymore. It's a season of moping and handwringing. I prefer spending time watching Hank figure out his teenage daughter.Max and Kristina: Max is an aggressive, violent stalker. Kristina tells him he has a beautiful love and to be proud of his expressiveness. Adam flatly tells him he's not harassing anyone. I'm sure this will work out well later in life for Max and the objects of his desire.I want to see the other perspective. The story of a charter school established solely to cater to the founders' son. Where everyone has to tiptoe around a frightening and violent individual prone to outburst, because the headmaster is his mother and she blindly protects him above all else. And because the other students are also special needs or have histories of multiple transfers, they can't or don't communicate to their parents how horrible the school is.This storyline is making Kristina into a terrible person.Drew: His mopey dodgy personality was cute in small doses as a bashful teen. It's tedious as an adult with significant screen time. His anxieties and decisions are real, but the show is doing the absolutely worst job and turning it into a story.Zeek: Zeek's again an asshole who bullies those weaker than him. I don't like his commandeering of Drews time, and then making it Drews fault when Drew is the only acting with any sense.Crosby: actually, this is the best storyline for me. Except for the marijuana. That was dumb. But the interplay of him and Jasmine is interesting. I'm getting both sides of a tough emotional situation. She was right to boot his motorcycle. I liked seeing that strength in her, and that foil to Crosbys emotional narcissism. I like that Crosby hates having his MIL offer job suggestions.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Crosby should've traded in the booted motorcycle for a truck and then used it to run over Jasmine.

 

[DaveF]

Crosby should've traded in the booted motorcycle for a truck and then used it to run over Jasmine.