Parenthood - I don't want to do this without you

We’re caught up on Parenthood! What’s so great about this show is the cast’s chemistry and the characters’ believable interactions. The four grown siblings seem to genuinely love each other and their parenting problems are doubtlessly relatable to anyone who has older children.

When we first see the Braverman family this season, we see Kristina is still pregnant, and she’s further along. Adam is still looking for a job. Haddie is still with her boyfriend, Alex (yay!). Max still has Asperger’s, something that becomes more interesting as he ages and we see the effect of Asperger's on his family life and personality. Julia and Joel still plan to adopt and are making an adoption video about how much Lady Gaga they have playing in their house.

Sarah receives a cane from Zeek as a joke about her age (40). Lauren Graham is 44 in real life, and she’s looking it in this premiere. She’s still beautiful, obviously, but what would really help is some lipstick and blush. Crosby, the only character on this show that we couldn’t care less about, is hitting on his elderly neighbor and claiming he has her same sweater. But he is still having Jabbar over, so that’s nice. Jasmine did not take him back, which that’s even nicer.

Amber and Sarah go to visit Amber’s new apartment, which is eclectic, old, creepy, and bare looking. It scares Sarah, who says, “Honey, this is like a scene from Shutter Island.” Amber, however, loves it. We’re with Sarah on this one. We’re usually with Sarah, actually.

Haddie, we know bangs are in style, but curly bangs? Yuck. Amber's hair change is much better. While Haddie goes to school, her father is at home living what we think of as a perfect day. He watches TV, eats, juggles proficiently, shows himself to be quite the paperclip sculptor, and scores a job interview over the phone. Meanwhile, Julia is at her office and notices that the slick-mouthed girl peddling coffee is pregnant. We are pretty sure that Julia is going to want to adopt that baby. We hope so, because we could do with more Snarky Coffee Girl in our TV lives.

Amber puts a deposit down on the apartment, because she needs some immediate space and feels like she disappointed everyone. She just needs a new start. We get that. Sarah needs to let go, but after last season's image of her in the hospital, we can imagine that will be hard. Adam’s job interview is depressing, because the job is not creative or fun or anything Adam can be passionate about, but he is nearly begging to have it. This economy…sheesh.

Sarah goes to Amber’s school to try to get her diploma, which they are holding because of unreturned library books. After hollering at the librarian, Sarah gets invited to coffee by that cute younger teacher from episodes past (Mr. Cyr!!). He assures Sarah that Amber will go to college someday, when she is ready. He’s right that some kids go too early. Then she randomly kisses him and it is awkward, but cute.

Adam eats pancakes with Crosby at a diner, and it turns out that Crosby boned the waitress and didn’t call her back. She’s still into him though. Why? We don't think he's cute. Crosby wants to go into business with Adam, and start their own music studio. The next day, Julia finds out that YES, coffee girl is not keeping her baby. Oh, this is ON.

Max warns Alex not to go to a high school party with Haddie, because there will be alcohol there, and Alex is an alcoholic. Alex loves Max’s honesty, and we really do too. Alex decided not to go to the party and just meet up with Haddie afterwards. Cut to Crosby playing football with his adorable spawn. The waitress shows up, clearly stalking him. Sandy the Waitress loves that Crosby has a son and introduces herself as “Your Daddy’s Special Friend.”

Nearly the whole clan comes over to the Braverman home for Sarah’s birthday barbeque. Amber drives up in the most adorable car ever. Believable family bonding and conversations ensue. Especially sweet is the short conversation between Drew and Amber about Amber's move. Haddie is at one of those high school parties that only seems to happen on TV, complete with people making out on the staircase. Thank God she’s straightened her bangs. She is peer-pressured into doing shots. We know where this is going…

Alex comes to the party to pick Haddie up and she is drunk. No, wasted. Alex punches a kid for trying to stop him from taking Haddie home. Alex is arrested and Haddie runs after him and the cops, crying. Ok, we did NOT know that this was going to go THERE. We thought there would just be a fight between Alex and Haddie, not an arrest.

Crosby drops Jabbar off and Jasmine reveals that she has started to date. Julia gets a call from Haddie and Julia has to go bail Alex out. (Does anyone else wonder why Julia's husband doesn't get many story lines or much screen time?) Alex tells Julia that this is not his first offense and asks her not to tell Haddie. Back at the Braverman’s, Cute Teacher shows up with Amber’s high school diploma, which he stole for Sarah. They eat birthday cake together. Kristina is offered a full-time job. Crosby shows Alex the music studio. It’s pretty cool, but Adam tells Crosby that he was offered the boring job. Crosby tells Adam that he “wants to do this” but he doesn’t want to do it without Adam. Awww.

Sweet premiere. This continues to be a realistic, character-driven show that's so much better than Brothers and Sisters that it isn't even funny.

Episode Grade: B+