NBC
I was eager for NBC’s Parenthood when it debuted last season, but I found that it settled into a temperate zone: good and well-performed enough to be unobjectionable, but not absorbing enough that I felt compelled to keep up with it. Critic-triage took hold and I lost the thread of the show going into the second season. On the recommendation of some fellow viewers, though, I checked back into it, and indeed this season has gone on a tear, giving the Braverman family’s stories some real drive without falling into melodrama. (It’s even managed to get me into subplots, like Crosby and Jasmine’s, that felt weakest last year.) And with the gradual infusion of various cast members from Jason Katims’ Friday Night Lights, the show is becoming something like methadone for this recovering FNL addict.
I’m still a couple of episodes behind as of last night, though—TV critic triage again—so this is a job for The Morning After, so I put it to you: has Parenthood become must-watch?