Via: Tuned In
The big challenge for dramas about family life—your thirtysomethings, your Parenthoods—is that mass audiences, generally, don’t find family life dramatic. It’s a reasonable concern: shows like that do tend to do better when the family is also involved in politics, or crimefighting, or the mob. It’s also, when you think about it, kind of ridiculous. Does your family life lack drama? You fall in love, people break your heart, there are wedding and financial crises and, bonus, it all ends with you and everyone you ever loved dying. Of course, a lot of that is what people watch TV to escape, which is why this sort of drama can either be a downer or end up ginning up the stakes unrealistically to keep the plot moving and maintain interest. Parenthood has had to negotiate all these issues, and generate enough ratings to stay on air to boot. It’s always been a good show, but it’s had issues that kept it shy of greatness: a lot of Braverman storylines to juggle, characters getting lost in the shuffle or relegated to comic relief, and a tendency to be emotionally manipulative. Right now, though, Parenthood is the best it’s ever been. It’s mastered its tone, its fantastic cast is getting well-used, and it’s jerking tears (and laughs) honestly. (Parenthood comes from producer Jason Katims of Friday Night Lights—another show about the emotional entanglements of community—and it’s taken that show’s place as what I like to call “Daddy’s Cry Time.”) This isn’t just because of Kristina’s breast-cancer storyline, but I’ll focus on that because so many of the other stories inevitably get pulled into it. Yes, giving a main character cancer is an easy way to boost the stakes, but it’s hardly an unrealistic one: if any family survives long enough, there are going to be health crises. One reason the story has worked so well is that it hasn’t taken over or changed Parenthood but played off its central theme: the way family places you at the nexus of a web of competing
Read full story at: Tuned In
Posted: October 25th, 2012
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