With all the grand spiritual narratives and cutting comedies on my television line-up, I often overlook the heartfelt slice-of-life drama Parenthood. Yet no series moves me so deeply and sincerely on such a regular basis. Last week’s episode “Road Trip” is a paradigm example of what the series does best, by setting our Bravermans adrift across the California landscape and strictly focusing on the intricate relationships amongst them.
As always, I have to start with how fantastic the visuals were in this episode. This episode was directed by the steady hand of Jessica Yu, director of two of my favorite West Wing episodes, “Somebody’s Going to Emergency, Somebody’s Going to Jail” and “The Supremes.” In this episode, our epicurean desires for visual splendor were sated, with both sweeping crane shots of the countryside…
… and intimate shots of our characters and their emotional states. Just look at Jabbar (Tyree Brown)! That innocent excitement on his face is simply contagious. And poor Drew (Miles Heizer). Scarred for life.
Yet beyond that, Yu took advantage of the setting by stripping away the distractions in our characters’ lives and force them to confront each other. Throughout the episode, Yu continued to squeeze our characters into each others’ personal space physically and emotionally, and it helped the audience feel the tension between these characters in an episode rather light on plot.
Of course, it isn’t a Jason Katims series if the writing and acting isn’t equally as engaging and rich. This episode, penned by Katims and fellow Friday Night Lights scribe David Hudgins, was able to find that impossible balance of comedy and drama, lighthearted ephemera and more substantial conflicts.
I loved the tension brewing in Sarah’s car with her brood Drew and Amber (Mae Whitman). It isn’t all that revolutionary of a storyline, in which Drew walked in on Sarah (Lauren Graham) and Mark (Jason Ritter) making the beast with two backs and hours later gets stuck with Sarah and Amber in the car for the day. However, the dialogue and reveals were written so beautifully, or in this case, for maximal embarrassment and awkwardness, that it felt natural and fresh. I cringed as Sarah giggled with Mark on the phone about being “familiar with that position… in congress” and Drew looked as though he wanted to vomit. I laughed as Sarah leaned her seat back onto Drew and complained about her sore back and Drew glanced out of the window with an infinitely pained look on his face. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Lauren Graham has brilliant comedic timing and improves on any line she’s given.
Of course, this week was all about Zeek (Craig T. Nelson) and his mommy issues. Again, the plot was not overly complex or unique: Zeek’s mother, who recently fell and hurt her hip, was turning eighty-six, and Zeek wanted to gather up his family to go visit her. Yet we learned that Zeek has a troubled relationship with her, as she never supported his career choices or showed much affection to him. Yet why this worked so well was because we could see it written into every choice Zeek made throughout the trip and all over Craig T. Nelson’s face. This desire for approval and to be worthy of it infected his insistence on the safety of that chair, the timeliness of their travel, and the attendance of every family member. Craig T. Nelson poured this insecurity out through every tense muscle in his body.
All in all, this episode wasn’t groundbreaking, but there isn’t really a groundbreaking episode of Parenthood to be had. This episode shows us that what is so special that this series has to offer is flawed, caring, complex characters in an equally rich and very real world. And that is exactly what I look forward to each Tuesday night.
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