Parenthood Wrap Up and Modern Family's Visit From the Godfather

This was a busy week in television with the return of American Idol and the beginning of the new Kevin Bacon series The Following on Fox. I have already written about The Following and while we watched Idol it is kind of a big yawn.

Not boring this week were a couple of our regular favorites. Parenthood, the much loved but low rated NBC series, ended it's season with a show that wrapped all of the bows of the season up in a nice package. If you were looking for there to be any loose strings you did not find many. The Ron Howard produced show is consistently one of the best shows on the air, people joke about crying each week, but folks only cry when a scene hits home.

NBC finished the series off quickly as they want to make room for their rebooted show SMASH, which coincidentally is another cult favorite that the network would like to see build a broader base. As to Parenthood the worry each spring is NBC will pull the plug but it seems unlikely that they will throw such a well regarded show over the side. If that decision is made certainly it's viewers will have to be happy with the season end.

Over on ABC Wednesday night Modern Family had a smart episode. The plot line was typical sitcom stuff but what made this show standout was the ending sequence which out of the blue put together a spin on the culminating scene in the Godfather when the baby is being baptized and at the same time a wide variety of hits is going down all over Gangster world, even with the " Do you renounce Satan" line. The short clip at the end of the series even had Phil and his son closing the door to the den in Claire's face telling her " not to ask him about his business." This is pretty clever stuff and while silly this is culturally aware silly as opposed to the foolishness that typically goes on HIMYM that I wrote about last week.

Both of these shows are standouts this week.

Parenthood

We watched a couple episodes of this new series on NBC last week. Our local cable company on demand has all the episodes available and m wife and I watched a couple last week. I was very impressed. This series best known for being the first new series in the post Jay Leno ten pm time slot is a show that we have to hope catches on. A wonderful cast filled with faces you know and names you might not but for me the highlight is Craig Nelson as the family patriarch. An aging hippy who still expects his grandson to straighten up and fly right but once he is brought into the understanding that the child has a real issue he steps up and does all he can. Perhaps we as men identify as being gruff on the outside and mellow on the inside. We plan to watch the rest of the episodes and I hope we are not disappointed with the longevity of the series.

For me I have made the decision that with all the options we have I no longer will watch shows that do not bring me some kind of value in return. I have no need to see Jack Bauer kill or the narcissistic doctors on Nip Tuck. I sometimes think I am turning into my parents and wish to watch the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. Those shows are not coming back, and Parenthood certainly would not be that show, my parents would not have approved of the joke of the four grown siblings smoking a joint in the school on a parent night.

The show however is worth watching. We will continue