"Parenthood" is easily my favorite show. It encompasses everything I love about my own family and so much more. Sometimes I even get jealous of their crazy family. Be prepared, though, because you will cry. You will cry a lot. This is a listing of the best episodes of "Parenthood" by season to get you psyched for your next Netflix binge session. The semester will soon be coming to an end, so I wanted to get you all started early on your first summer show. All seasons are on Netflix by the way!
Season 1: “Pilot”
It is not that this is the best episode of the series or even season. It is the fact that this is the episode that introduces us to the insane, lovable, dysfunctional yet functional and enmeshed family that you wish you had. Add in some teenage rebellion, a family home, little kids, four siblings who love dance parties, helicopter parenting, the lovely California scenery and the best grandparent in the whole fictional television world, and you have my favorite show. By the way if you loved "Gilmore Girls" and "Friday Night Lights," this show is for you.
Season 2: Episode 16, “Amazing Andy and His Wonderful World of Bugs”
Okay "Friday Night Lights" fans, Lyla Garrity is back with the wrong guy once again. Come on, Jason Street was an amazing guy! Crosby is just as much at fault, though, don’t get me wrong. Anyways, the star of the show here is Autism Spectrum Disorder. Most of us at least know someone that is autistic, and some of us, including myself, have a family member that is autistic as well as being one of the more interesting people in our lives. Max is obsessed with lizards, which later turns into photography. Amazing Andy is obsessed with bugs. It’s not that I love bugs or lizards or children’s birthday parties. It is the fact that Amazing Andy was able to take what he loves and is passionate about and turn it into a career. Through the tantrums and the pirate costume, this episode really gives us, as well as Adam and Kristina, a lot of hope for Max’s future … and then Gabby and Crosby go and screw things up — literally.
Season 3: Episode 12, “Road Trip”
This episode reminded me why I love "Parenthood" and why I connect to it so much even though I don’t have kids and am not married. As a kid, we went on road trips about twice a year, which were led by my grandpa, Everett. Everett and Zeek are basically the same person, which to me is half of the appeal of the show. It is a simple concept, a road trip, but wrangling a clan as big as the Bravermans was quite the sight just so Zeek can make it for his mama’s birthday, which is another parallel to my life. Every July, we piled up in the van for my great grandma’s birthday. Although my grandpa was her son-in-law, he loved her like his actual mom. All I have to say is, “Are we there yet?”
Season 4: Episode 8, “One More Weekend with You”
Season 4 has been a tear-filled journey through Kristina’s cancer diagnosis and Victor’s acclimation to the Graham family. The show perfectly balances the drama with some lighthearted humor, though. Kristina has been in pain and a lot of it. The woman who has been in control of her entire life down to the second has been victim to cancer, and even if you sometimes hated her, you want to pick up the pieces and make her better. After all, the entire family has benefited at one time or another from Kristina’s assistance. It is when Adam — kids in tow — crashes his brother, Crosby, and wife’s dinner party that you realize Team Adam and Kristina is drowning. Adam is always saving Crosby from himself, but here, Crosby comes out the hero by providing some “alternative medicine,” which is why he is the hero. Watching Kristina smoke weed has to be one of the best moments of "Parenthood" history, but seeing her have some relief makes it that much better.
Season 5: Episode 18, “The Offer”
Season 5 makes me mad for most of the entire season. Adam and Julia have always been the levelheaded Bravermans in my opinion, but my view of Julia mostly comes crashing down during Season 5. This stems mostly because I adore her husband, Joel, with my whole heart. Sometimes the fact that he is fictional sends me down this dark hole where I sit saddened by the fact that Joel simply isn’t real. This episode, though, is amazing and actually made me not want to throw my laptop out of the window. Another Braverman woman that I go back and forth from loving her to wanting to throw her out the window after my laptop is Kristina Braverman. Sometimes, I think she is a crazy helicopter mom, which she most definitely is, but she has reason to be. After the emotional toll of her battle with cancer, I started to appreciate her so much more, as well as her love of her children. In this episode, Max, who is on the Autism spectrum, gets bullied at a camp. He doesn’t just get bullied — one kid actually pees in his canteen. Despicable, disgusting and I want to now throw that kid out of the window after the laptop. Just when you, the viewer, wish you are Adam Braverman and can spin that car right back toward camp to throw that kid out of the window, Kristina gets in the backseat and calms and loves on Max. Tears for days.
Season 6: Episode 13, “May God Bless and Keep You Always” — Series Finale
To sum up this episode, Zeek asks his first and probably favorite child, Sarah, “Have I been a good father?” He asks her this right before her wedding while talking about some of the big changes in the last season, which are Sarah’s wedding and Amber’s baby, Zeek Jr. In a way, this brings the show full circle from when Sarah was escaping her old life and old ways away from her ex-husband, Seth, while dragging Amber by her hair from her loser boyfriend’s apartment, to now, when Sarah is with the perfect man that her father approves of and Amber has settled down, though unconventionally, yet so Amber. This moment, more than any other moment on the last episode, is the ultimate cry moment. Zeek has secretly always been my favorite Braverman, and it is here that I realize he really is dying. So as not to divulge any spoilers, all I will comment for the show’s end is that there is a montage featuring each of the Braverman clan’s families a few years down the line. Though a little unrealistic, there were lots of happy tears shed.
If this hasn’t made you want to binge watch "Parenthood," frankly, you just are a cold-hearted robot. Someday you will realize where you went wrong with your life. Although I am joking, you should really watch it. I could probably teach a class on "Parenthood" if that were offered. After all, there are lots of life lessons to be learned from the show.
