Erika Christensen

After months of stalling, last week’s “Cold Feet” jumpstarted all of the series’ stagnating season-long arcs, finally giving the show a bit of momentum. Thankfully that continues this week, with each of the threads not only progressed, but examined in a way they haven’t been for much of the season. Yes it’s easy to infer that Kristina’s impulsiveness this year stems from her cancer scare and exposure to the harsh impartiality and unpredictability of death, and we’ve seen a handful of scenes on this topic over the course of the season. But while there’s plenty to be said for letting the audience read between the lines, at a certain point a character deciding to run for mayor and then open up a new school becomes a difficult pill to swallow (for this reviewer, that point was almost immediately). Showing us Kristina’s anger and frustration over Gwen’s fate gives us the emotional background we needed for these choices and, thanks to Monica Potter’s fantastic performance throughout the episode, builds up substantial reservoirs of empathy for a character whose Mama Bear instincts toward the people and projects she cares about can quickly become aggravating.

Parenthood, after starting out strongly, has fallen into a familiar pattern this season, with certain of its storylines absolutely succeeding and others consistently falling flat. The two most recent episodes exemplify this, giving viewers profoundly affecting moments with Max, Sydney and Victor, and Zeek and Camille while also returning to the same frustrating well with both Joel and Julia and Sarah and Hank. At this point, it seems unlikely that either of these two problem storylines are going anywhere before the finale, leaving viewers to hope that the expected turnarounds with both happen more subtly than currently expected.

Parenthood has had a solid fifth season so far, but despite several interesting, entertaining moments and scenes, this week’s episode leaves a sour taste in the mouth due to the handling of the most problematic of the season-long arcs, Joel and Julia’s disintegrating marriage.

Parenthood is back this week, opting for only a couple weeks off rather than a more standard month-plus hiatus. With Kristina’s mayoral bid over and done with, the Luncheonette label storyline seemingly forgotten, and Amber taking the week off, “Promises” is able to focus on a couple of the under-represented arcs of the season, as well as the continuing saga of Julia and Joel.

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.

Much continues to be in flux for the Braverman clan this week, as Parenthood moves forward its central plots, to varying success. Kristina as mayor remains a rather sizeable stretch, as she demonstrates yet again that she lacks the killer instinct necessary for a career in politics. It’s looking instead like this arc exists mostly as a way to put new stresses on an already physically-tested character. Her choice this week, though, says more about just how unsuited she is to the world of politics than it does about her character. She’s willing to exploit her son’s condition for sympathy, however honest she’s being, but she’s not willing to tell voters exactly why she’s running in the first place, her Amber-inspired distaste for Little? Given Amber’s thoughts on the issue, this should be a no-brainer.

This season of Parenthood has been an incredibly consistent one, with interesting arcs for most of its characters and great moments for everyone. With so much going on, however, a few arcs have floundered, coming perilously close to cliché due to under-examination and familiar character beats. “Speaking of Baggage” focuses on two of these, giving them overdue attention and emphasizing their lingering, underlying causes: Julia’s struggles at home and Amber and Ryan’s engagement.

With so much going on this season on Parenthood, several of the arcs the writers have introduced have been allowed to simmer on the back burner for a few weeks while we focused on the continuing saga of Amber’s wedding, Max’s photographic exploits, and Victor’s reading comprehension. This week, these elements return in a big way, with Kristina in full debate-prep mode and the whole family canvasing for her, Ed popping up to tease problems at home with Julia and Joel, and Crosby struggling to hold on to a shred of his pre-baby life. These threads are balanced with the continuing Amber/Sarah conflict and Camille’s dissatisfaction at her apparent Act III.

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.

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 …