There are some people who angrily exclaim that there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. If you like it, then there should be no reason to be ashamed, they cry. There is no such thing as high brow, low brow, it's an idea invented by ignorant snobs. I disagree. There are just some things that I enjoy that I just can't stand behind.
Parenthood is one of them.
It's melodramatic, the situations are contrived, they use the same old gimmicks of unexpected pregnancies, affairs, cancer. Besides basic personality traits, each season the characters respond differently from how you would expect them to the previous year, Jekyll and Hyde fashion. Assholes become angels, and vice versa.
The revolving door of serious love interests for the unmarried mother daughter duo-- it's not the number of boyfriends that is the issue, but the feeling that the writers have a Taylor Swift-ian addiction to falling in love---but they don't know where to go after that.
Whenever the four siblings get together to discuss their parents, the camraderie and teasing and cross-talking feels forced, a too-obvious display of look-how-dysfunctional-we-are-but-we're-awesome.
What saves the show, however, is how they react beautifully to their situations. once you get over the the soap opera-y circumstances, you appreciate that dialogue is mostly honest and realistic. The mother that would rather be working in the office than be present for every dance class and baseball practice. The marriage that seems to be on rocky ground after several decades. The father that doesn't love his new baby yet. The daughter that feels overshadowed by her autistic brother. Despite the sappy moments, it's the only dramedy that explores family life without veering into Afterschool special or Anti-Hero (A la Tony Soprano or Don Draper) territory.
I don't know anyone else who watches this show, and definitely not anyone my age. Unless they knit. or have 3 cats. Or listen to Contemporary Country Music. Watching it makes me feel like some stay-at-home mom. I don't watch it on TV and I never see it mentioned on websites, but somebody's gotta be watching it if it squeezed its way into a 4th season.
I think I'd miss it when it ends.
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