My wife
watches the TV show Parenthood, which means I generally get to watch it too.
This is great, because Parenthood is the worst drama on TV (even worse than
Downton Abbey). Other shows may be more formulaic (e.g. CSI: Pension Plan,
NCIS: GPS, and pretty much the whole CBS prime time schedule), but those shows
are superior because they don't raise expectations by pretending to be more
than the glossy B-movies that they are. Parenthood unfortunately seems to
believe that it has something to say. This in itself isn't a bad thing, but the
devil's in the details - one particular detail, as it happens. Because
Parenthood has something to say, every single character seems to have something
to say, and they do so with a complete lack of subtext. Everyone says exactly
what's on their mind all the time. Putting aside that this isn't how real life
works, it isn't how drama works either. Drama - at least good drama - lives in
the space between the characters' words and their intentions. When done well,
the exploration of that tension yields a marvelous imitation of life and its
constant parade of ambiguity. The only ambiguity the writers of Parenthood
offer is the question of whether they even know how the word is spelled.
