Rewinding ‘Parenthood’: “Perchance to Dream”

Parenthood has been renewed for a second season by NBC. This means that viewers won’t have to worry that they’ll get involved in plots that will never be finished and the show’s writers can make those plots drag on for as long as possible. While I don’t mind this about some of the show’s story lines, I just wish other parts of the show would move on already.

I’m mostly sick of seeing the continuing saga of bratty Haddie’s love life. At the beginning, we seen her as a decent teen trying to deal with a complicated home life, but now we just see her parents worry about her possibly becoming pregnant while she acts shocked and entitled. This week, she ordered a lacy bra from Victoria’s Secret (a show sponsor?) and thought her parents were completely unreasonable for being concerned about it. While Kristina saved the bra from the trashcan and kept saying, “I trust you!”, Haddie scowled and later wore this same bra under her shirt, Flashdance-style. When Adam saw that this was how she planned to dress for a visit to her boyfriend’s house, he made up the excuse that he had to drive Drew to the school dance, leaving her to baby-sit Max. This caused Haddie to leave the house, bra-less, after Adam told her she couldn’t go out later on that night. Needless to say, he dragged her out of Steve’s house after spotting the two kissing alone upstairs. Haddie dodged her father’s questions by calling him a hypocrite for encouraging Drew to have a love life. That just made him state cliches like “There is a double standard” and “That’s the way the world is”, instead of pointing out that there is a big difference between driving a boy to a dance and letting your daughter show everyone her bra strap.

This was a week of Adam acting silly. While Drew was trying to get somebody to teach him how to slow-dance, he kept busting out some awkward hip-hop moves which made the rest of the family join in. Drew just can’t catch a break. When the show last left him, he came home early from the dance because the girl he liked turned him down.

However, it was nice to see Sarah and Amber getting along so well. Sarah tried to get her daughter interested in going to college by bringing her along to help cater a fancy poetry reading at a local college. Sarah tried socializing with the snobs that they were serving hors d’oeuvres to, but she became distracted when her ex-boyfriend, Jim, arrived as the guest of honor. He read poems from his book, “The One That Got Away…Twice”, that seemed to be about her. Later on, during the drive home, Sarah tried to use Jim as an example that “you just can’t give up on yourself”. Amber took her advice in a different way, suggesting that Sarah should apply for Berkeley College instead.

Also interesting was Julia’s concern over the fact that Sydney lied about accidentally breaking a vase. (Who would keep a porcelain vase around small children anyways?) Sydney repeated that Racquel said, “All lawyers are liars”, which amusingly made Julia teach her daughter about our nation’s forefathers, who were also lawyers. Eventually, Sydney admitted what happened, but said, “You win”, before she went to clean up the mess. Joel, who really acted disinterested a lot this week, hinted that she acted just like her mother.

Crosby and Jasmine started spending more time together with Jabbar. This made Crosby ask her out on a date, but judging from her response of “Yeah. I guess.” she doesn’t seem too interested in him. They left Jabbar at Julia’s house while the two ate at an Italian restaurant, but the conversation quickly turned to their son. Before they could argue, Julia called them to say that Jabbar was begging to go back home. It turns out that he was afraid to use a strange bathroom. In a too-much-information moment, Crosby and Jasmine sang “The Wheels On The Bus” in order to get him to use the toilet. This strangely led to Crosby flirting and the two sharing a very long goodnight kiss that led to something more.

Last but not least, was Kristina’s decision to go on a trip out of town in order to help a friend run for Lieutenant Governor. Not only did she regret leaving her family, but then she felt inadequate around the young, Twitter-obsessed political workers who shunned her. However, she used her knowledge of past events in order to win over a political bigwig that could help their campaign. When she came home, she told Adam about how she was going back to help some more next week and that she was offered a full-time job. When Adam said he would take on more responsibility and hire someone to help out, Kristina said she didn’t want the job. I’m guessing that this isn’t the last we’ve heard of it, though.

Next week, though, will focus on Crosby and Jasmine’s new relationship and whether or not Amber will get a new boyfriend.