Parenthood Season 1 Finale Thoughts

While the rest of the world is interested in the Lost series finale, Kim & I were waiting for last night's season finale of NBC's Parenthood. (*we're interested in Lost, too, we're just behind so avoiding any information or spoilers).

We've some how got ourselves wrapped into the story of the Braverman siblings and their four families. After it's mid-season introduction post this past February, we've enjoyed watching every episode, despite what sometimes is dramatized stories that tie-up into fuzzy little bows like episodes of Full House.

But maybe that's what we like. My wife, Kim, cries on average 3 times per episode, with touching or dramatic displays of familial love and commitment.

The season finale was no exception.

My wife, likens herself to the Julia Braverman-Graham's character (Erika Christensen), the high power working Mom, who's sometimes wants to care, but has a hard time showing too much compassion for the stay at home with breast enhancement surgery...oops, receipt in the soup. Kim loves the situations and scenes that play up these traits, and Julia's scenes were a little less involved in the finale so she left the season finale a little disappointed.

Otherwise, there was still plenty to cry about with a warm fuzzy feeling at the end, with a full family baseball event just like the show began. This time though, displaced Drew (Miles Heizer) is playing ball instead of Aspergers Max (Max Burkholder).

I thought about making a list of my favorite and least characters, but I'd hate for studio execs to think that I wanted Monica Potter's character to get killed off or anything because she'd be at the bottom of the list...because, it's not that type of show, and even the weaker characters have their endearing place. (Including Joel, Julia's husband who really only has on average 1 line per episode, or Drew who disappeared for 3 episodes).

Of course, Lauren Graham is always entertaining, as is her daughter Amber played by Mae Whitman.

And in many ways, this is Lauren Graham and Peter Krause's show. They play a great sibling pair, and Julia & Crosby (Christensen and Dax Shephard) do a great job mixing it up providing comedy usually more than sentimentalism, while Craig T. Nelson brings his own brand of grumpy old man humor.

Hooray, for a second season of the show. We're excited that Ron Howard's second attempt at a show called "Parenthood" has outlast his 1990 attempt...because we enjoy watching this show every week.