On a weekly basis, Parenthood has to juggle so many characters and stories that individual episodes can feel less like cohesive story units and more like a selection of scenes required to advance each storyline, without regard to how well the scenes fit together. There are so many characters to serve that, even when some are benched for the week (as Sarah and Hank are this week), episodes are juggling four or five storylines simultaneously. It’s nice, then, when an episode like “The Scale of Affection is Fluid” comes along where all of the disparate stories fall under the same thematic umbrella.
The centerpiece of the episode is Max’s story—fitting, as it also provides the episode’s perfect title. What’s really great about this particular story is the way it uses Max’s Asperger’s not just to highlight Max’s own difficulties with typical teenage tribulations, but also to shed some light on more normative expressions of romance and desire. Adam and Kristina try to teach him that attraction must be mutual, that Max can’t force Dylan to like him the way he likes her. That’s a great lesson, but Adam blows it by allowing for the caveat that, hey, Kristina didn’t like him that much at first, either. Monica Potter is always great, but she’s amazing in this scene, as Kristina becomes more and more frustrated with Adam, until her annoyance gives way to exasperation. Max, of course, runs with Adam’s made-up scale, happy for a way to quantify attraction in a way that makes sense to him.
What Max stories also do almost always on this show is challenge the ways in which we raise kids with disabilities. Adam and Kristina both care for Max and do an excellent job as parents, but they also both tend to jump overboard in their desire to protect him. That Kristina is so certain Dylan will not reciprocate Max’s feelings says far more about Kristina than it does about Max, but this is a complicated issue, and the show treats it as such. Consistently, Parenthood presents Max as just like any of the other Bravermans, with his own unique quirks that just happen to be related to his condition. (This also means we get some really excellent Max-isms tonight, including: “This picture of a horse tells me that she likes picture and she also likes horses.”)
Max’s story is the most explicit rumination this week on the mutability of attraction, but all of this week’s stories suggest that theme to some extent. Julia has officially and completely moved on from Joel, as her relationship with Chris gets more serious by the week. I still wonder how balanced the show’s presentation of this separation is, as Joel has done such a 180 turn this season, but I continue to dig the way that Parenthood, unlike other shows (ahem, Scandal) makes Julia the most interesting thing about this love triangle. There is no sense of Joel and Chris competing for her affection; instead, Julia has her own agency, and reserves the right to do whatever she pleases and make her own decision, in her own time. She also reserves the right to plain not know what she’ll do next.
Chris ends up spending time with the kids, and while it truly is an accident, it’s also obviously good for them. Julia does apologize to Joel for the way it happens, but she doesn’t apologize for the thing itself, and that’s good for her. The separation story is quickly becoming my favorite Julia story of the series, and it continues to build outward in complicated ways that don’t create unnecessary or unrealistic drama. Is it perhaps a little too convenient that Joel just happens to arrive at the barbecue to see Chris still there? Probably, especially since you wonder why he’d go to things like this at all at this point in the separation. But Parenthood is a crowded show; you more or less have to forgive them the occasional narrative expedient.
Amber returns this week, where she meets cute with a bland tech start-up dude who we’ll simply call Captain Exposition. He is boring and tells complete strangers entirely too much about his boring life. But he’s cute and seems safe and Amber decides to go out on a date with him anyway. Drew (rightly) tells her that she’ll need to tell Captain Exposition about the pregnancy sooner rather than later, but of course, he changes his tune the moment she does. (You could say Amber goes from a 5 to a 1 in a split-second.) “I’ll call you,” is a pretty empty promise, although I do half wonder if he’ll be back in an attempt to subvert expectations here. I’m all for whatever gets Amber and Drew on screen together, as their sibling relationship is one of the best to watch on the show, but this story feels more like going through the motions than anything else, owing at least in part to how bland Captain Exposition is.
Crosby gives me trouble this week, too, as his mid-life crisis continues to resemble nothing more than a temper-tantrum. His minivan joyride with Zeek is a sweet moment between the two, as is their conversation after physical therapy in the bar. Crosby’s admission that he’s feeling overwhelmed by and perhaps even resentful toward married life and parenthood is darker and more direct than I’d expect from this show and especially from this character, but it certainly starts to flesh out his behavior this season beyond “typical Crosby man-child shenanigans.” Jasmine continues to get the shrew treatment with this story, though, as does Camille, and even Zeek’s admonition to Crosby about marriage, “You gotta try to enjoy it, son,” isn’t enough to erase that fact.
Still, this is a well-constructed episode, and even the weaker storylines have some impact due to the thematic consonance throughout. I’m hopeful that as the stories begin to approach resolution, we’ll see more episodes where the content is this unified. That this show is even still around is a small miracle; that it’s still holding at this consistent level of quality is nothing short of amazing.
Stray Observations:
- Of course Crosby and Zeek feel compelled to override Adam’s advice to Max to “pursue common interests” with Dylan. “What base are you on?” “She doesn’t like sports, I don’t understand.” Exchanges like this are why we like Max episodes, guys.
- While I love Crosby and Zeek’s relationship, I have to chuckle at the way the show equates Crosby not riding his motorcycle anymore to Zeek getting open heart surgery. That’s something Crosby would do.
- Did Drew Holt get a haircut? He did! There’s still a mop on top there but at least he went in for a trim around the sides.
- Chris is so perfect that I feel like he is secretly Patrick Bateman or something.
- When Sydney and Victor go on about awesome Chris is (they’re not wrong), Joel goes off about “the subtle beauty that is baseball” and how “with the exception of your mother most lawyers have questionable morals.” Be more passive aggressive, Joel.
Michael Wampler is a graduate of The College of New Jersey, where he completed both B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature. He currently lives and works in Princeton, NJ while he shops around his debut novel and slowly picks away at his second. Favorite shows include Weeds, Lost, Hannibal and Mad Men (among many more). When not watching or writing about television, he enjoys reading, going for runs, and building his record collection.