<p>Bummer! Would have loved seeing her. I know a lot of people on here don’t like her or think she is whiny, but I think she does a marvelous job portraying her character.</p>
<p>It was the weirdest interview. Awkward. At one point, she told a story about being someplace with her dh and being mistaken for Chelsea Handler. It appeared she was at a strip club or a brothel, the way she kept hinting about it, but she would never just say what it was. False coyness. It just fell flat.</p>
<p>I can’t believe no one has posted about last night’s show. I had a conflict and just watched it. What a tear-jerker ending.</p>
<p>Overall, I liked the episode. I loved that Joel is showing some backbone and that Julia apologized. I liked that Max finally did something for someone else and thought the dancing was touching. I also liked the moment between Zeke and Amber. But, I have a hard time with the Sarah and Mark relationship. The relationship is not believable and the whole moving your senior son into your bf’s apt is so awkward even if the bf was not a teacher at the school. The previews for next week made me cringe. I may skip the Sarah trainwreck and pick up again after that episode. Poor Drew, it looks like it’ll be back to living above the grandparents’ garage! I like the Hank character; here’s hoping for more of him. And, the music studio neighbor was a bit over the top. I hope that story line stays minor.</p>
<p>The Max/Mom dance scene was beautiful, and the look on the dad’s face as he watched them was priceless.</p>
<p>I saw Ray Romano on The Ellen Show a few days ago and he said he would be with the show through the end of the season. I hope we are done with Sarah/Mark after next week. I can’t stand Sarah, but she is less annoying with Hank.<br>
Vitrac, I’m with you - loved the dance scene.</p>
<p>I just watched and agree the dance scene was priceless. Tears in my eyes…</p>
<p>Parenthood continues to have what I call “the Sarah problem.” They really haven’t been able to figure out what to do with this character and I disappointed as Lauren Graham can do wonderful work.</p>
<p>Just caught up on the last two weeks.
Loved the Max dance scene - glad they finally showed him doing something for someone else.<br>
Hated the previous episode and their treatment of her chemo effects. (added to the fact that the husband character needed to grow a pair). I had 6 months on FAC. Zofran managed the nausea. She needs weed for the pain? Chemo doesn’t cause pain( ok, sores from mouth to the other end, but not knock-you-on-the-floor pain). Maybe for the nausea, but I’ve never met anyone on typical BC chemo who wasn’t helped by traditional meds. I have two friEnds currently in treatment. Both are still teaching with some extra sick days to rest after treatment days. The medical marijuana angle is annoying .</p>
<p>I love Pamela Adlon - the crazy neighbor. She was Louie CK’s wife in Lucky Louie and I think she was great there too. I can’t wait for the Sarah/Mark relationship to end. I keep expecting him to slip up and call her mom. She is just not believable as someone he would ever be with. She is just pathetic all around. Mae Whitman - great as usual.</p>
<p>I totally disagree with all the negative reviews of Lauren Graham’s portrayal of Sarah. I DO agree, however, that the character herself is annoying and see THAT as a reason to say Graham is doing a fine job portraying her. That is the point, after all. Who wants a mom that moves in with her boyfriend who happens to be her son’s HS teacher?? The character of Sarah is MEANT to be flawed—she was from the beginning of the show. I think we are supposed to be watching her character grow up and find herself, and the contrast between herself and her daughter, for example, is very interesting to me. I love pulling for the character of Sarah to wake up to her mistakes in moving in with Mark, and grow up and realize the possibilities of a relationship with Hank. </p>
<p>I do NOT see the show as having a “Sarah problem”. On the contrary, I think Lauren Graham is doing a great job with a flawed and complex character portrayal. The fact that I want to yell at her onscreen is proof of that, IMO!</p>
<p>I liked the episode, LOVED the dancing scene. Very sweet. </p>
<p>I agree, Sarah is totally annoying, but she is supposed to be. And sometimes I feel like we get too caught up in the details not being completely accurate. It is a story. It is fiction. Should Max act the way he does? Is the portrayal of chemotherapy accurate? Why was Amy’s college boyfriend wearing a orange and blue Berkeley shirt when clearly their colors are blue and yellow? So I have decided not to question the little things and just enjoy the show.</p>
<p>Sarah/Lauren – I don’t think it’s a mistake that Lauren Graham keeps getting essentially the same part written for her. Anyway, Sarah’s flirtatiousness, as always, is over the top. In real life, she would be shunned.</p>
<p>I am not certain, however, why Frank’s behavior this episode – complete self-involvement, out-of-control drinking, inability to deal with problems in an adult manner, complete disregard for Sarah’s needs (and no discussion of why his ex-wife might need to move half way across the country), unrealistic fantasies about his relationship with his daughter – makes him such a great catch.</p>
<p>Also, what the heck happened to Sarah-The-Playwright?</p>
<p>In any event, this week had the rare episode in which Sarah was not the Braverman family’s worst child-abuser. That honor has to go to Kristina. Touching as the dancing scene at the end was – yes, I cried, too – I was having an awfully hard time stomaching the notion that it was OK for a mother to push a reluctant, awkward middle schooler into sexualized courtship activity he clearly isn’t ready for and does not feel comfortable with. Her utterly unrealistic fantasies about her son, coupled with her not-quite-rational fear of dying before the next opportunity, were very hard to take.</p>
<p>I found the dancing scene touching, it showed Kristina’s vulnerable sense of her health, and her own personal need to begin to prepare her son to deal with his emerging adolescence. otoh, I agree I’ve never coached any of my kids, two sons, one daughter, on this kind of activity, but then I don’t have a child with Aspergers. </p>
<p>I would add that having a health condition myself, there have been moments where upon receiving a difficult diagnosis/change I “felt” very vulnerable, and was aware of my mortality, while it might have seemed to others to be irrational.</p>
<p>The dancing was sweet. What I don’t get is the part before the dancing when Kristina said something along the lines of “if he doesn’t go to this dance I may never get to see him go to a dance and have that experience with him” or something like that.</p>
<p>I don’t get the big deal about the dance especially when Max really didn’t want to go. So after thesweet mother/son dance in the living room, Max would still had to go to the dreaded m.s. (when kids are the meanest to “different” kids) dance alone and be miserable. You would think Kristina would be more empathetic toward his insecurities since she is facing a lot of fear/insecurity herself now.
One of my S’s didn’t go to either of his h.s. proms or any kind of dance for that matter. I felt a little let down and worried that he was missing a h.s. experience that he could never replace but I would never have pressured him to go since he he clearly didn’t want to.</p>
<p>It’s not like she was going to the dance with him or taking the awful “couple together in the foyer with wrist corsage” pictures. After the little dance lesson, she could have told him to take off the shirt and stay home. Same result.</p>
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<p>As I was watching, I fully expected that that was what was going to happen. It was disappointing that it didn’t.</p>
<p>How refreshing that the kid did something for someone else for a change. He had to go through with going to the dance to make the sacrifice complete. I really loved that part of the story.</p>
<p>Bets on when the affair starts between Crosby and the Pamela Adlon/neighbor character?</p>
<p>Could have easily watched Glen Hansard sing for an hour.</p>