5 Edgy Family Situations Tackled in Last Night's Parenthood

Just when viewers were beginning to believe that the Bravermans weren't just another upper middle class family who thinks that their problems are the end of the suburban world they know, NBC's Parenthood unloaded a luxury sedan full of standard parenting issues onto America. After the jump, Movieline weeds through the Facebook boyfriends named Yo-Yo, sisterly squabbles and found bongs for the edgiest issues dealt with in the show's latest episode, "Whassup."

1. Your Asperger-Diagnosed Nephew Finds Your Bong While You Are Child-Proofing the House For the Biracial Son You Just Found Out You Had

Who hasn't this happened to? Fortunately for everyone involved, Crosby (Dax Shepard) came up with a perfect on-the-fly explanation, "That's my mixing beaker." It's called quick thinking.

2. Your Sister Puts You On The Spot By Suggesting You Hire Her Goth, Pot-Smoking Daughter as a Babysitter

This is tricky one, but you can learn from Julia (Erika Christensen), who faced this difficult scenario last night. Julia hired her niece (Mae Whitman), as not to hurt her feelings, and then canceled the next day. When the cancellation backfired because Julia's super-sensitive sister Sarah (Lauren Graham) found out, she re-hired the pot-smoking niece, scheduled a date night with her husband and hoped for the best. Fingers crossed!

3. You Find Out That Your 15-Year-Old Daughter Is "Facebook Official" With a Boyfriend Whom You've Never Met And Who Identifies Himself as "Yo-Yo" on His Voicemail Message

Adam (Peter Krause) and Kristina (Monica Potter) Braverman dealt with this last night when they realized that their daughter Haddie (Sarah Ramos) had spent over 1,000 minutes on her cell phone with a boyfriend they never knew she had. Do they resort to crazy extremes to track down her boyfriend so that the viewers of their primetime program are remotely entertained? No. They call the number listed on the cell phone bill, hack into Haddie's Facebook page and ground her. Boom. Problem solved. (Even if Haddie spends the rest of the episode calling them "Homeland Security.")

4. Your Adolescent Teenage Son Spends Hours in the Bathroom Masturbating and Your Entire Extended Family Knows About It Because You Were Forced To Move Back In With Them After Running Out of Money

Again, a run-of-the-mill issue that many parents deal with just as plainly as the Bravermans. When Sarah (Lauren Graham) starts to worry about Drew (Miles Heizer), who would rather lock himself in the bathroom than take part in those obnoxious Braverman family dinners, she enlists her brother Adam (Peter Krause) to misquote Woody Allen and and completely weird Drew out.

5. The Son You Just Found Out You Had Gets A Finger Stuck in a Soda Can and You Can't Figure Out How to Get It Out

This was by far the most challenging situation in last night's Parenthood, and of course the least-equipped Braverman, Crosby (Dax Shepard), was forced to deal with it. A panicked Crosby rushed Jabbar (Tyree Brown) to the hospital and -- waited for his competent sister Julia (Erika Christensen) to arrive. After Julia met her nephew for the first time (awkward!), she released Jabbar's finger from the soda can with a mystery lubricant and then offered Crosby legal advice about his fatherly obligations.



Comments

  • Cindy says:

    This show was great on so many levels from paper turtles, long showers to mixing beakers that smell funny!

  • Michelle says:

    I hate TV, but I LOVE this show!

  • Lauren says:

    To be fair, both the preppy/trendy daughter (the one with the cell phone and boyfriend, above) and her goth cousin were busted for pot - something never shown beyond them picked up by parents in a police station, but after spending time with the preppy/trendy daughter's friends. You make it sound as if all black-clad teenagers are doing drugs and shouldn't be trusted. Not the case at all.

  • Jennifer says:

    this show totally rocks! I love how they have everyday problems on and they hit the issues head on. The fact that nobody is perfect on this show is so refreshing!! I hope they don't cancel it, 'cause they always cancel the good stuff.

  • Badfish says:

    Why do I get the feeling that Cindy, Michelle and Jennifer are all the same person, and that this person may or not be an employee of NBC or a PR firm on NBC's payroll?
    What's that? Because they are? Oh, okay.

  • robin says:

    Lauren Graham is a hot mom.

  • Skylar says:

    Cindy you forgot the barbecue Bon Fires