Parenthood – Is Seth Sarah’s Christopher Hayden?

Maybe I’ve spent too much time in Stars Hollow, but when I watch Lauren Graham‘s Sarah Braverman on Parenthood, I continue to draw comparisons between her latest TV character Sarah, and Graham’s most famous character, Lorelai Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls.

And watching Sarah wax poetic about the possibility of reuniting her family with Seth, the fresh-from-rehab father of her two children, and seeing her daughter Amber later plead with Seth not to mess up her mother’s happiness, I was reminded of Lorelai, Christopher, and their daughter Rory.

I’ve seriously been trying to blot out my memories of Lorelai, and give Graham’s Sarah some time to evolve as a distinct character with a different back story and different traits. And in the past few episodes, as Parenthood writers have given Sarah a meatier story line, Lorelai has not immediately leapt to my mind … until this past episode when the writers pulled me back to there … not that “there” is necessarily a bad place to be.

Amber’s appeal to Seth to stop screwing around with her mother’s emotions and muddying up her love life reminded me of Rory’s appeal to Christopher not interfere with Lorelai’s budding relationship with Luke Danes (even though Lorelai and Luke broke up twice because of Christopher). It doesn’t help matters that Parenthood‘s Sarah is currently dating her daughter’s former high school English teacher, just like the Gilmore Girls‘ Lorelai dated her daughter Rory’s high school English teacher and was even engaged to him.

But putting all that Stars Hollow business aside, the writers gave Seth a full-hearted story line, which I appreciated, particularly the scene where he was stopped in his tracks upon learning that Amber had saved the card he’d sent her for her eighth birthday. The fact that he left town when Amber asked him to, and that he left two packages of birthday cards for his children for all the years he’d missed, point to the possibility that he, like Christopher Hayden, may be back to haunt Sarah. I guess that all depends on John Corbett‘s schedule.

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this warm, resonant episode, even the moments with Zeek — who normally annoys me — when he realized that the 60s are indeed over and that he’s no longer hip, something driven through his thick skull by the blank looks on the faces of the twentysomethings at the recording studio who’d never heard of Jefferson Airplane. Ouch.

There was also a tenderness to Adam and Kristina’s exchanges, especially when it came to the subject of the attractive assistant Adam and Crosby hired. Kristina rocking that red dress and then being horrified that breast milk leaked out onto it was so genuine, as was the conversation in Adam’s office when he professed to find her truly beautiful. What a wonderful portrait of a marriage.

I even liked watching Crosby defend his paternal turf against the infringement of the suave Dr. Joe, who not only (accidentally) sullied Crosby and Jabbar’s Harry Potter experience, but who also wanted to be the one to take Jabbar to his first football game. It was hard not to feel for Crosby AND Dr. Joe, who was just trying to show affection for the cute-as-a-button little boy.

Overall, this was a rich episode that rang true throughout.

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Nov 09, 2011 @ 14:00 EST5EDT