Parenthood- The Talk

By Greg Hernandez [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What happened: Zeek becomes obsessed with a weird sound coming from his sprinkler system, so Camille suggests he fill his time by volunteering at the local veteran's center. He befriends Ryan, a guy who just came back from Afganistan. Hank has trouble bonding with his daughter, Ruby, but Sarah helps. Joel and Julia force Victor to do an after-school activity, and he picks baseball. At first, it's rough, but he comes around at the end. Jasmine gives Jabbar a talk about racism. Christina tries to push back her surgery so that she can help Max run for president, but Adam makes her take the earlier date.

What we thought: At first we were with Crosby in thinking that Jabbar hearing that word shouldn't have been made into a big deal. We thought, "Don't tell Jabbar about racism yet. Let him keep his innocence. He heard the word in a rap song. From a black guy. That's not racism, so why make it about racism?" But something about Jasmine's speech to Jabbar made us tear up. She did it well. Maybe it IS better to talk to your kid about racism before they inevitably experience it.

If someone is ever racist toward Jabbar, Crosby is going to kill him. That might be the best we've ever seen the topic handled on TV. We're glad Crosby and Jasmine didn't use the term "the n word." We agree with Louis CK. Using that phrase plants the word in people's head so it's the same thing, and it's just a way white people can get away with saying that word. Great Harry Potter reference, by the way.

Reading The Hunger Games is always better than reading Twilight. That IS a smart kid. Well, she was. It's not cool anymore? If Hunger Games is uncool, we don't want to be cool. How can you be Team Gale though? HOW? We weren't crazy about the Justin Bieber lie. Ruby will be even more uncool if they find out that she's lying. Can't you find out where Bieber was on any given day using the internet?

Ray Romano's daughter looked way older than 11. And isn't 11 too young to start hating your parents? Maybe that's what happens when you give them a cell phone that young. Our kids won't get one until he or she drives. Man, our kids are going to hate us. Also, we can't believe we're starting to ship Sarah and Hank now. But we do. Ugh. We like his stupid art too. Hank, why do we care about you now? Did you guys know that the actors playing Adam and Sarah (Peter Krause and Lauren Graham) are dating right now? Is it weird that we find that gross, since they play siblings?

This episode had the Joel/Victor bonding we've been wanting. But it seems like Julia is better with this kid. Her moment was sweeter. Still, now they've both grown closer to him. It's only episode four though...isn't it unrealistic that it should be this easy? Team Christina. Adam is wrong. Max should be allowed to run. A kid should always be allowed to try something, even if it's likely he will fail. Failure is a test and learning experience, just like success is.

Also, he got the 25 signatures. We can't believe that! Plenty of "normal" kids would find that a daunting task. This might be the first episode in a while where we liked and respected Max.
This is one of Zeek's best episodes in that he wasn't as annoying and selfish as usual. Talking with veterans and bonding with them might be a calling. He should spend more time around there.
Episode grade: A-

Also, we've made changes to the weekly schedule page.