Parenthood: Why So Serious?

I want to start off by saying I really, really love this show.  Parenthood is an NBC dramedy ensemble piece about a large family.  It's categorized as a drama, but I say dramedy because I think if you disregard the comedy than you're missing out on a lot.  This show makes me laugh just as much as it makes me cry (until recently, but we'll get to that later).  Overall, Parenthood is a really realistic portrayal of family life and the way families interact with each other, through the good times and the bad.

This one big family is comprised of five smaller families.  There's the grandparents and their four children, and then each of their children (who are now fully grown adults) have their own families, each with at least one child.  Overall there are a whopping fifteen main characters, which I think might actually beat Grey's Anatomy, and every character has had their own fully developed plot line at points in the show.

Usually the show has a really good balance between comedy and drama.  When Adam was in a fight with his wife Kristina, his boss gave him an "edible", which he thought to be an ordinary lollipop.  An edible is actually a food item containing marijuana.  I learned that from watching Weeds.  Anyway, obviously things got wacky from there.  And they made up, in a hilarious scene.  That's just one example of how every episode of Parenthood has its fair share of drama and comedy.  It doesn't hurt that there are three adorable little children who say the darnedest things.

But lately there's been a shift.  The past three episode have been all drama, and sure, there was some pretty heavy stuff going on.  [If you haven't watched the recent episodes, and plan on it, here is your Spoiler Alert.]  Crosby got into a fight with his fiance Jasmine, and when she wouldn't talk to him his anger and upset escalated until he slept with someone else.  That someone else happened to be Gabby, the behavioral aid of Adam and Kristina's son Max, who has Asperger's.  Gabby has real feelings for Crosby, so she quit.  This lead to Adam screaming at Crosby about how irresponsible he is and how his nephew has Asperger's and he can't just think about himself.  Max overheard this screaming match and the episode ended on confused and quizzical Max, "I have Asperger's?"

The next episode was mostly about how to explain to your son that he has Asperger's and what having Asperger's means.  I kind of understood why these episodes got so heavy, and I found it appropriate.  I thought after that episode, things would start to lighten up again.  But it's only gotten worse.  Julia can't have a baby, Amber only applied to two colleges and didn't get into either of them.  Sarah wrote a play and even though it looks like it might get produced, there's something weirdly heavy about that plotline, too.

And it's not that I don't like the show anymore.  I still find it very interesting, I'm still very attached to the characters.  I just think if it keeps going in this direction, I'm going to get sick of it and it will stop being the show I fell in love with.  The show I watch twice every week because there were so many amazing highs and lows.  It will stop feeling so realistic, and I'm not the only one who won't like it anymore.  Parenthood gets pretty decent ratings, especially for its network and time slot (NBC at 10pm), so why start modifying something that's doing well?

Bring back some of your awesome comedic flair, Parenthood.  Or I'll miss you so much it'll hurt.