In this week's installment of NBC's Parenthood, "Forced Family Fun," Kristina (Monica Potter), saddened by the way her family seems to be growing apart, makes the whole clan plan to spend an evening together. But stressed out by their complaining, she leaves them standing on the side of the road. Also, Krosby (Dax Shepard) is uncomfortable when Jabbar
(Tyree Brown) spends time with Dr. Joe (DB Woodside), Julia (Erika Christensen) worries over Zoe's (Rosa Salazar) diet, and Sarah (Lauren Graham) helps Seth (John Corbett) through rehab.
Kristina is right that a family needs to make time to spend together, and from her perspective, as of "Forced Family Fun," they aren't. Adam (Peter Krause) has the new business he's trying to get off the ground with Crosby, Haddie (Sarah Ramos) is a senior preparing for college, and Max (Max Burkholder) is still adjusting to being in a mainstream class in a public school, so they are justifiably busy. While at home with the new baby by herself all day, Kristina's not being too selfish to ask for a little time with the others. She isn't even trying to get them to help out with the infant, something she probably needs, as being with someone who can't talk all of the time is driving her a little crazy. Who can blame her?
It's also understandable that Kristina has the reaction that she does, stranding Adam, Haddie, and Max on the side of the road, albeit, not far from where they live. The chastised relations do their best to make it up to their mother and wife, while Kristina apologizes for her rash actions. No one is really in the wrong more than the others, as Kristina does over react, and the others are trying to please her. Just normal, realistic family problems, with a little bit of early empty nest syndrome thrown in for good measure. They will work themselves out in time, per Parenthood's typical trend, and this is not a situation that bears worrying about.
Unlike, say, Julia's baby issues. Having to watch someone like Zoe carry an unborn child that Julia is adopting is hard for the resident control freak of Parenthood. Joel (Sam Jaeger) tries to calm Julia, but both realize that they can't let Zoe go on eating raw sushi all the time, as she does in "Forced Family Fun." It's just not good for the baby. Julia tries to appeal to Zoe's sense,
promising that she isn't just speaking up because she is getting the baby. And she's probably not. Julia is a warm-hearted individual, who cares for Zoe. But that doesn't mean that Zoe isn't offended when confronted.
Article comments
1 - darci
Wow, the whole sushi thing really blew up in Julia's face, but I can't really fault Zoe at all. That was kind of ridiculous to bring that up, especially at the time she did. Just bad taste, but a really well-acted scene - you can see Julia's shock almost at how her comments were received, and it just felt like a 'real' awkward/uncomfortable exchange, much more so than typical scenes like that in TV shows/movies (you can watch it here). Last but not least, I loved that they used Junip's "Official" that's such a good haunting mood-setting song.