You don’t readily associate the concept of risk-taking with a family show like Parenthood. Sure, there’s a sizable amount of drama that gets tackled on a weekly basis and you get to delve pretty deeply into most of the characters, but one of the last things you’ll see characters do is taking a risk. Family shows are more about safety, comfort, and the familiar, so seeing one of the members of our (TV) family doing something out of the ordinary tends to be pretty pronounced when it’s attempted.
“Tales from the Luncheonette” is an episode of Parenthood that’s all about taking the leap and stepping out of what makes you comfortable in order to achieve what you want in life. The entire third season has found the family in this weird gray, transitional area and in “Luncheonette”, we got to see some real steps toward the Braverman family achieving some serious self-actualization. Word to Maslow.
The first chinks in the Mark/Sarah relationship showed tonight, which I pretty much expected to happen, thus beginning the descent until Jason Ritter’s 13th (and final) episode. As much as I love the pairing, the drama the storyline brought tonight was compensation enough for having to see them not be perfect, as Seth’s reappearance last week brought out a lot of insecurity in Mark and protectiveness in Sarah. One of Sarah’s main faults, of which she is well aware, is her tendency to pick the wrong men, so I liked seeing her have to confront that type of anguish and frustration at a time when she should be on cloud 9. Think about it, she has a good man, her children are doing well, and by all accounts, her career is promising, so Sarah Braverman in season three is doing laps around Sarah Braverman of season one. Then her comes her ex-husband to really shake things up and have her revert back to the same tendencies she had once upon a time.
I don’t think she should have ignored his illness (and I was proud of her for standing her ground), but it struck me funny that season three of Parenthood has been so focused on the future, change, and moving on to the next phase of one’s life, and they have arguably the protagonist of the entire show having to battle the demons she thought she slayed long ago. Not funny in an ooh-this-isn’t-good way, funny in an ironic-oh-I-see-what-you’re-doing-and-I-like-it way.
Drew and Joel, two underserved characters that tend to float around the periphery of the Braverman universe, got to make some dramatic moves of their own in “Tales From the Luncheonette” and I could not be happier about this fact. When Drew got in some bonding time with Amber about his relationship with Amy (and lack of kissing experience) and subsequently planted one on his new lady-love while making smoothies in the Braver-kitchen, I was utterly and completely charmed by how innocent the whole thing was. For most of the show’s run, Drew has been a bashful, sensitive soul that very rarely raises his voice, let alone hauls off and kisses a girl, and to see him amp up the confidence a little bit may have made me shed a tear or two. (Maybe. Ahem.) Although I’d like to see more of who Drew is as a person before making a relationship the sole focus of his character this season, I think that his connection with Amy is going to be a good go-to way to lighten up an episode that gets a bit too melodramatic. Joel was in the mood to step up as well; I’ve always enjoyed Sam Jaeger on Parenthood when he was given something to do and while he may not have had a whole lot in “Luncheonette”, he made it count. Too often in the Braverman house, nobody checks Zeek for how rude and judgmental he can be, so to see Joel, of all people, telling him to lay off Sarah and to lay off his adoption plans with Julia was a thing of beauty. He never yelled, he never overreacted, he just matter-of-factly laid down the law and I honestly respect his character more because of it.
I may agree with Zeek that the fact that two intelligent adults are literally buying a child from someone they barely know is silly and ridiculous, but at some point, you have to let people live their lives and support them wherever they choose to go.
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