During the Winter Olympics of 2010, the heavily promoted plugs for Parenthood were debuted. Parenthood, an hour long series aired on NBC on March 2nd at 10 pm (PST). This new multi- generational drama series takes over the timeslot of Jay Leno on NBC and is produced and created by entertainment heavyweights Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Jason Katims. The television series is a “rip-off” of Ron Howards 1989 feature film similarly titled which starred Steve Martin. Simon During defines a rip off as marketing efforts which are made to entice audiences to consume low- quality work or in this case, concepts that are not original. Parenthood may not be an original storyline, however how it addresses the current exigencies of what the nuclear family struggles with today are what makes the show worth analyzing.
The balancing act of raising a white upper-middle class American family in a Berkley suburb that spans across three generations is the main setting for Parenthood. The storyline revolves mostly on the four middle-aged children of Zeek( Craig T. Nelson) , the opinionated patriarch of the Braverman clan. His son Adam ( Peter Krause) and his wife Kristina (Monica Potter) initially portray a perfect family until the couple struggles with the discovery that their son, Max (Max Burkholder) has a mild variation of autism called aspergers syndrome. With the recent fixation of autism in current society, this conflict addresses an issue through pop culture that is significant in present times. Adam’s sister Sarah( Lauren Graham) portrays the single mom that encounters financial difficulties and is forced to move back in to her parents’ home, together with what she describes in the show as her two “degenerate” teenage children, a son who runs away and a pot smoking daughter. With the current economic slump of the economy in America, Sarah’s conflicts provide single moms dealing with teenage angst a character they can identify within the show. Then there is Julia (Erika Christensen), the hardworking, cell phone dependent lawyer in the family that is overcome with guilt after realizing her daughter prefers her stay at home father over her. Lastly, there is Crosby( Dan Shepard) , the commitment fearing character that provides comic relief. Crosby is forced into promising his current girlfriend a child in three years all the while discovering he is a father to a child of an ex-girlfriend. This first episode is jam packed with trying to establish all the characters with their specific value laden dilemmas and relies heavily on “the narrative, as a frame upon experience, which functions as an argument to view and understand the world in a particular way” (Foss). Parenthood provides a glimpse into the American family culture in 2010 through the exigencies that the characters face.
It is significant to analyze this artifact because of the following three components. First, The television medium in which it is viewed has an audience share of several million and stages the way in which an audience can perceive the realities of their family life. According to the Nielson reports, the premiere episode pulled in a “modest” 8.1 million viewers on March 2nd. Second, The conflicts tackled in Parenthood provide a historic glimpse of the issues that permeate the family structure in the 21st century. And lastly, Parenthoods uniqueness is derived from the how an hour long television series is able to consubstantialize audiences through their narrative.
In this essay, I analyze the pilot episode of Parenthood using a narrative criticism to investigate how the complexities of American family structure is depicted in the year 2010. This critical analysis focuses on the specific narrative elements of the events, characters and audiences of Parenthood and how the rhetorical functions embedded within the narrative of the television show induces the general public to perceive family life. The narrative strategies within the one-hour series of Parenthood convey the message to the audience that family life contains many exigencies that make a family more united.
CHARACTERS, CONFLICTS & EVENTS
The character of Adam portrays the golden boy of the siblings. Zeek tries to enforce the kind of tough love that he used in raising Adam on Max yet Adam takes a different approach with his son. In order to get Max to participate in a baseball game that he coaches, Adam bribes his son by promising a triple scoop of ice-cream and even gets into an altercation with the umpire when Max is called out. In a scene where Kristina reveals to Adam that their son may not just need a tutor to get over school difficulties, Adam struggles with accepting that he will never have the kind of relationship he has hoped for with Max. The transformation in his character from a pushy father wanting his child to excel in sports to becoming a sensitive and accepting father upon learning of his child’s condition makes for a very well rounded character. His character signifies the pillar of strength that becomes vulnerable upon the revelation that his son has aspergers.
The character of Sarah portrays the middle aged daughter that needs to move back to her parents house because of financial difficulties as a single parent. Her two troubled teenagers that have behavioral problems that indicate is a cause of the effect of the divorce of their parents. Sarah’s son Drew runs away back to his Father in Fresno after seeing his mother in an intimate moment with Sarah’s highschool ex-boyfriend. Sarah picks him up that same evening because he is turned away by his druggie father and in a heart touching moment between mother and son, Sarah reiterates to Drew that he deserves a good father and that he always has her to depend on in hopes that she will be enough. Sarah’s character signifies the strength that a mother endures for their children in the midst of trying financial times.
Julias character portrays the switched gender role in where the woman is the one pursuing a career instead of the man in a relationship. She is a lawyer that is good at what she does and makes no excuses for her professional attainments despite her lack of presence in her daughter’s life. Her conflict arises when her five year old daughter overtly prefers her husband over her in two specific sequences. At a family gathering over the dinner table, Julia tries to cut her daughters meat on her plate and her daughter insists in front of everyone that her daddy do it instead. Another scene is when Julia rushes home to tuck her daughter into bed and tries singing her a lullaby but is asked if her daddy can put her to sleep instead. Her analytical reasoning is made evident in a scene when all the four siblings get together and she discloses that her daughter does not like her. Julia’s character signifies the plight of hardworking women that also have children that they need to attend to and the dilemmas that a mother encounters because of their professional careers.
Crosby’s character is the commitment fearing single male of the bunch. After finding a canister of frozen sperm in his on again off again girlfriends’ freezer, He is forced to appease his partner who feels her biological clock ticking. With or without him, she is going to have a baby and just spent a large sum of money purchasing sperm from an Olympic athlete. In one of the funniest lines of the episode, Crosby “googles her sperm” and finds out that the sperm is actually not as top quality as his girlfriend made it seem. The twist for Crosby’s character happens towards the end when he find out that he has a child with his ex girlfriend who he hasn’t heard of in five years. By including Crosby’s character for comic relief, audiences who actually don’t have a family are able to relate to the show amidst the drama of the other characters.
All these characters serve a representation of how one is able to surpass their exigencies. All the current the topics that people are grappling with today in society are squeezed into an hour of television airtime . Special needs children, financial woes, troubled teenagers, reversed gender roles and commitment phobic men are all presented in the lives of one multi-generational family through the use of the narrative elements such as character, plot lines and themes. The current themes that are interwoven within the narrative persuades the audience that family life is tough and challenging. More so than just being a parent, the show reiterates the responsibilities that come with being a parent and how despite the trials, it is the family that will stand by you in the end.
Parenthood on NBC, through the use of it’s character’s, their themes and events, create a clear depiction of the American family life in the year 2010.As seen with the four lead characters, each family has their own set of problems that they deal with that tackle issues of contemporary society. Adam in the final scenes of the episode seeks help from his father when he opens up with tears brimming in his eyes and says “there’s something wrong with my son”. In this kernel, Adam’s willingness to share his problems with his father,is a concise indication that he accepts his fate that Max has aspergers and seeks support from his overbearing father, Zeek. In the last scene, the entire Braverman clan is complete around the table in the backyard having lunch al fresco. Max excitedly runs out, asks everyone why he isn’t at the baseball game that day, and reaffirms his importance to his team. There is a moment of hesitation seen on Adams face as he ponders how to react to the situation knowing very well that he will not continue to bribe his child to play sports because of his condition. The moment is suspended as close-ups of the characters have an uncomfortable look on their face. Within a split second, the entire family is up on their feet scrambling to get to the game to all root for Max. The show ends on a close up of Adam’s face as Max hits a homerun. The look on Adam’s face is full of pride, emotion and hope that his family is going to be all right.
In conclusion, the message of Parenthood is simple and straightforward: No matter what the ups and downs one encounters in their daily existence, in the end it is your family that will stand by you, support you and back you up. Parenthood, given the findings of this narrative analysis should be renamed “The Quintessential Family of 2010” instead since it showcases the joys, hardships and humor that a family encounters and how despite these obstacles they embody the structure of strength because they are able to rely on each other when the going gets tough.
The analysis of Parenthood proposes the ways in which television uses particular strategies to create a worldview that seems natural: the American family band together in times of peril. Television stages the world for an audience as the themes and issues that are used within the narrative becomes the way we think our life should be. By deconstructing the narrative elements within Parenthood, we are able to identify with certain characters, their specific individual exigencies and the ways in which they surpass their predicament. This creates a rhetorical artifact that makes for great television because is hard to resist not following their stories. Despite its title, which can make a non-viewer assume it is only a television show about parenting; it is really the family demographic that will be tuned in every week. The narrative of Parenthood explores the current relevant topics of society which explicitly suggests that the American family is a solid and withstanding entity.
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