Bonnie Bedelia

Parenthood has had an uneven season. After starting the year out promisingly, odd and unexamined character choices started to take over the show, leaving the audience to connect the dots to understand the extreme reactions (or lack of reactions) demonstrated by several characters. Joel, swamped at work (except when he isn’t), reacts poorly to Julia’s indiscretion and leaves. Hank’s back, but he’s not with Sarah, and no one knows why. Kristina runs for mayor, because remission? , and Adam, inspired by her, convinces Crosby to start their own label. Several of these storylines overstayed their welcome, stretched too thinly over the 22-episode season, but fortunately the finale draws more heavily from the narratively energetic start of the season than the slog that was much of its second half.

Katims’ choice not to end the year with the plot-heavy “Election Night” makes sense; “All That’s Left is the Hugging” is far more introspective and cathartic, seemingly tying up several of the year’s early arcs tidily while setting up the continuing storylines for what’s undoubtedly going to be a tough second half of the season.

Communication is once again the name of the game as Parenthood continues its strong fifth season. Whereas “Nipple Confusion” focused on the varying forms of communication, from direct confrontation to frank conversations to long-simmering musings, “Let’s Be Mad Together” instead approaches this topic by looking at dysfunctional partnerships, from Joel’s work to Max’s Yearbook woes. A show far more interested in the painful small-scale struggles of day-to-day life than almost any other series on television, Parenthood is no less powerful for embracing this seemingly low-stakes approach. Rather, by eschewing the heightened hysterics of shows like time-slot competitor Scandal (as entertaining as that series continues to be), Parenthood plumbs greater emotional depths, providing far more recognizable and resonant drama week in and week out.

Parenthood, Season 5, Episode 3: “Nipple Confusion” Written by Sarah Watson Directed by Patrick Norris Airs Thursdays at 10pm (EST) on NBC This week, on Parenthood: Drew has a terrible roommate, Sarah graduates to people, and Aida finally stops crying (temporarily) One of the greatest obstacles in relationships, according to popular wisdom, is lack of …

Over four seasons, one show that initially flew under the radar but has been steadily gaining critical and commercial acclaim is the NBC show Parenthood. With the 1989 Ron Howard film namesake serving as a loose inspiration, the story of the numerous members of the Braverman family has quietly become one of the more critically …