The Reality Of Family

The Reality Of Family
Dane La Born

Dane La Born

In the history of television, there hasn’t been a show that so accurately captures the dynamics of a large family as “Parenthood” does. For the last six years, we have watched the Braverman clan grow and live, which all came to a fitting end last week.

I started watching “Parenthood” on a whim, because I liked a few of the actors in it (Coach’s Craig T. Nelson, Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause, Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham) and was in need of something new to watch. I quickly became hooked because it was such a wonderful character piece. I’ve never seen the chaos of family captured so well on the screen, from the way big gatherings happen to the dynamics of smaller family dinners with everyone talking over each other and somehow being heard all the same.

One of the big attractors for me was the character of Max Braverman, who started the show at roughly ten years old and who we watched grow as the show went on. When the show began, Max was freshly diagnosed with Asperger’s, an autism spectrum disorder which I myself had recently been diagnosed with. Watching his character, and the actor Mac Burkholder bringing him to life, hit very close to home for me, as many of the things he struggled with were struggles I had gone through as a child.

The Braverman clan consists of Zeek and Camille, the two oldest, and their four children; Sarah, Julia, Adam, and Crosby, who each have spouses and children of their own. As the series begins, the eldest daughter Sarah has moved back home from across the country, and the entire family is reunited for the first time in years. As the series progresses, nothing grand happens. This isn’t a show full of convoluted dramatic story lines. Instead, you simply watch this family exist.

I think part of the appeal of a show like “Parenthood” is how ideal things are. Though there are a fair share of dramatic bits, and watching the show without a box of tissues handy is a mistake (one I have made many times), it was sort of refreshing to be able to check in with the Braverman clan once a week. Especially as more and more, programming is becoming centered on superheroes, sci-fi, or legal/government drama. It’s all action on the networks, and “Parenthood” was a return to normalcy.

As they say with all good things, “Parenthood” recently came to an end. Not since “Six Feet Under” has a finale been so emotionally satisfying and true to life. This show was, at its core, about the love between family, and death is an inevitability when there are four generations living alongside one another. Even so, it never cheapens that moment, instead preparing us the way we might be prepared for the death of a parent in our actual lives. Once again, “Parenthood” aimed to hit as close to home as it could. It will be missed, but like one of the many lessons learned from the show itself, life goes on.

The entire series is available streaming on Netflix, with the latest season on Hulu and Hulu plus.

Categories: Commentary