Tried to watch Parenthood.

One of those shows my wife has watched a couple of times through that I can’t stand. Everyone on that show sucks - the parents, the kids, the grandparents, their friends. Just everyone constantly making bad, self centered decisions and either having it excused or forgiven. Maybe the only character who actually grows over the seasons is the mom who gets cancer and… it’s because she fights and survives cancer. Whole show is a collection of pretentious, good looking couples living otherwise good lives in Northern California and still finding reasons to fight with their spouses and lament how hard parenting their kids are (in large part because they do little if any parenting at all)

To be fair, Parenthood is showing to be very of its time with regard to autism. It’s clinically off base and doesn’t do a good job of conveying life while raising a child on the spectrum, but it at least was one of the first to try to call attention to it - both autism and Asperger’s in general as well as parenting challenges. Overall, I don’t blame Max for being autistic; I blame the parents for catastrophizing his diagnosis and behavior and collapsing at every turn as if he has a developmental disability when he is just neurodivergent and (pretty clearly) develops into a perfectly intelligent and able person as the show progresses.

But the. that’s what the show does across the board that drives me nuts - EVERYTHING is an emotional, dramatic soap opera. Nobody regulates their emotions on that show, it’s just blow ups and bad decisions with little in between.

Young Sheldon I think benefits from actually developing the family dynamic in a way that is a lot more toned down and even keel with respect to the parents and the child involved. There are stressors and challenges conveyed but not everything is a five alarm fire all the time.

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If her hotness couldn't save the show, the writing is REALLY bad.

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She can be off putting and annoying as Lorelei Gilmore but at least the show seems to recognize that and pushes back against her when she makes mistakes.

She’s the same character in Parenthood but without the benefit of HS Rory as her kid, with the benefit of a pretty supportive extended family structure, and a constant defensiveness about every bad choice she (or her kids) make. Her character more than most is kind of the hallmark of lack of personal accountability that plagues every character on the show.

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- know what I forgot?

That Joker was in Parenthood (1989)

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And he was even heavily troubled in this movie too.

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Till John Wick set him straight.

Never saw the show, but the movie is so good. It really captures the trials and tribulations of raising kids, and then even having to take care of your parents. The movie is severely underrated. Someone is always cutting onions any time I watch this

Movie is a must see for any parent. It really hits on a ton of tough, realistic situations when raising kids.