First Impressions: Parenthood

There may not be a more likeable cast in the history of television than that of Parenthood. On the show you have Peter Krause (Sports Night), Monica Potter (Head Over Heels), Lauren Graham (The Pacifier), Erica Christiansen (The Upside of Anger), Craig T. Nelson (Coach), Sarah Ramos (American Dreams), Sam Jaeger (Eli Stone), and Mae Whitman (Her?). That is as close to a Murderers Row of likeability you are going to get on the small screen. Oh, yeah, and Dax Sheppard (Idiocracy) is also in the cast.

Of course as Potter found out with her last foray into television Trust Me (with the ever Tom Cavanaugh and Eric McCormick), likeability doesn’t necessarily makes for great television if the stories and characters are not well conceived. Luckily for Potter, this time around the behind the camera personal is just impressive including Ron Howard, Executive Producer of Arrested Development, Jason Katims, Executive Producer of Friday Night Lights, and Brian Glazer who was also an Executive Producer on those two shows. Keep in mind those two shows both landed in the top six of The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s so color me excited for Parenthood.

Parenthood, of course, is a remake of the movie (that was already turned into a television show in 1990) but I have a hard time remembering much about either besides the cast and I think there was some storyline about dumpster diving after a retainer accidentally got thrown away at some Chuck E. Cheese type restaurant. And even then I am not entirely sure if that was the movie or the television show. I really couldn’t even tell you about the similarities between the new version to the old ones aside from the extended family and a nice mix of humor and family drama.

As the new story goes, Nelson, along with Bonnie Bedelia (Die Hard 2) are the parents of four very different children. Graham is moving back with her children to the family abode after running out of money. Krause (married to Potter) is the closest to being a nuclear family of the bunch, or at least that it what it looks like from the outside until his son is diagnosed with autism. Christiansen is the overachiever who leaves her husband (Jaeger) to play Mr. Mom. Oh, yeah, and Dax Sheppard is also a sibling.

After all the advertisings during the Olympics, the show did live up to the hype if not for a few flaws. With a cast this large (fourteen regulars), some characters are going to get lost in the shuffle as the first episode that seemed to focus heavily on Krause and Graham and maybe a line of less to Jaeger and Bedelia. And maybe they were trying to fit too much into the pilot, but storylines seemed to be rush like with the cousins being caught with pot which seemed to go away as fast as it was introduced. Oh, yeah, and Dax Sheppard is loitering on the show somewhere. On the brightside, unless my eyes were failing me, I swear I saw Lyla Garrity somewhere in the season promo.

Parenthood airs Wednesdays at 10:00 on NBC. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes or Amazon on Demand (see below):