Parenthood- Left Field

By Thomas Attila Lewis at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomdog (Monica Potter) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

With an episode title like that, you know there's either going to be a shocker or someone is going to be playing baseball. This isn't really a sports show. 

Crosby and Jasmine are having sex on the kitchen floor, so Crosby pities Adam for having to schedule sex. But when things get disorganized between Crosby and Jasmine, he realizes that he needs more structure. Kristina and Max want a dog, but Adam is hesitant. Sarah’s son, WHOSE NAME WE CAN NEVER REMEMBER, even though we’ve been watching this show for three years, is starting his senior year of high school. But then his girlfriend, Amy, breaks up with him and calls him “Drew,” so we’re going with that. Poor Drew. Ray Romano’s Hank manages to comfort him.

Victor doesn’t want to go to school, so he plays sick. On the third day, Julia promises to sit in the car outside the school, all day, in case he needs her. She does. It’s incredibly sweet and earns her a kiss from Joel. The shocker at the end was Kristina’s apparent breast cancer diagnosis. We don’t know what stage she’s at or how bad it is, but she was crying. Which means almost nothing because Kristina is always crying.

We loved when Crosby played “Funkytown” and when Sarah said, “Gross, Dad. Why does knowledge have boobs?” We guess we know how the show is going to handle the Haddie situation. When she’s at college, she will stay mostly offscreen. Maybe there will be a scene or two if her parents call her, but she was completely absent in this episode. We’re sure she’ll fly down a few times to be with her mom and we will see her over winter break and possibly the summer.

Drew and Amy were too perfect. It was time for them to split up. Drew always seems to have this wet blanket, boring, bad attitude, so we were glad when he joked with Sarah. Of course, it was jokes about suicide, but we’ll take whatever personality we can get with this kid. The only person on this show that we dislike more than Drew is Zeke. Crosby comes in at third for our wrath. Max needs to learn not to throw fits and shout over people. We know he has Asperger’s, but we don’t ever see his parents trying to discipline him into just basic obedience. Asperger’s affects social skills. Not obedience, punishment, and reward.

This episode changed the game plan for the season. Kristina’s cancer is no doubt going to be handled well by the show, but we’re expecting lots of rough scenes. It’s going to be super awkward when Max tries to comfort his mom, and watching Adam go through this is going to be tear jerking. This show can get REAL real. Hey, at least their new puppy is cute. Maybe this episode should have been the premiere with an added scene of  Haddie leaving for college. It was more eventful and gave us a sense of what's going to happen on the show this year. 

Episode grade: B+