Parents In the 'Hood

I don't know if this means that NBC is finally regaining its relevance, but its comedy-drama "Parenthood" is easily one of the best series of the 2009-10 season, and one that we can expect to stick around for awhile. Although it's co-produced by Ron Howard and is reported to be based on his 1989 movie of the same name, and although there's a slight similarity in some of the characters and ongoing story lines, the only thing "Parenthood" the TV series really has in common with Parenthood the film, apart from Ron Howard's association, is its title.

Instead of following the Buckmans of Kirkwood, Missouri, the extended family featured in the movie, "Parenthood" follows the Bravermans of Berkeley, California. The family is headed by patriarch Zeek Braverman (played by veteran actor Craig T. Nelson), a free spirit who has tried his hand at many careers and professions and distinguished himself at none of them, his wife Camille (played by the always wonderful Bonnie Bedelia) and their grown children, all of whom have their own immediate families.

The sons, Adam (Peter Krause) and Crosby (Dax Shepard) are as alike as night and day. Adam is a corporate professional who strives to keep his family happy but has to deal with his rebellious teenage daughter, and he and his wife Kristina (Monica Potter) find their lives becoming more complicated when their son is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. "Parenthood" has already gotten plaudits for this step by bringing to light a condition not normally talked about or depicted in any way. Crosby, a recording engineer with a Peter Pan complex, suddenly has to grow up and be responsible when his former lover, a dancer named Jasmine, returns to Berkeley and informs him that their fling from five years earlier produced a son, whom he now races (gladly, it turns out) to catch up with and be a father to.

Oh yeah, Jasmine is black - she's played by Joy Bryant - and of course Crosby is white, and so NBC has brought to prime time a subplot involving a child who's both biracial and illegitimate. More reently, Crosby and Jasmine have renewed interest in each other and ended up in bed together, breaking another TV taboo - that of depicting interracial sex.

Zeek and Camille's daughters are no less interesting. Julia (Erika Christensen) is a successful lawyer and her husband Joel (Sam Jaeger) plays "househusband" by raising their precocious daughter. Sarah (played by the always wonderful Lauren Graham) can only dream of having her sister's success. A single mom, divorced from a man who pays no attention to their children (leaving their son withdrawn), Sarah has to move in with her parents and work at bartending jobs to keep her family going even as she deals with a daughter who has trouble with school as well as her bitter son. Sarah's economic plight is displayed best by her car - a Chevrolet Chevette, which she drives in the first couple of episodes. The Chevette, for the record, hasn't been produced since 1986; when I started watching the show, I thought it was set at an earlier time than the present. But, given that an old Chevette is all Sarah can afford, it seems appropriate that her car soon dies on her completely and she suddenly has to worry about how she's going to replace it.

NBC has already announced the renewal of "Parenthood" for a second season. That's good news, not only because it marks the return of Lauren Graham to series television, and this time on a real network. (A low-rated, emaciated, directionless, humiliated NBC is still preferable to a CW at the height of its broadcasting abilities.) It's good news because it deals with touchy subjects and personal issues- career choices, race, and, as noted, Asperger syndrome - and deals with them in an intelligent, touching way. "Parenthood" is able to explore these issues more deeply as an ongoing TV series than the movie could have, and the movie, released in 1989, only glossed over less controversial topics while only acknowledging more controversial subjects in passing. (In the movie, Tom Hulce plays an irresponsible dad with a biracial son, but his black girlfriend is never depicted.) There was an earlier attempt at making a TV series out of the movie in the early nineties, but that didn't go anywhere. Now co-producing a series anyone can relate to, because the issues dealt with are as diverse as this extended family, Ron Howard can count on this "Parenthood" being around in the long term, unlike Sarah's Chevette.