Relationships, Television, and NBC’s Parenthood

Our culture has never had so much television. Seriously. TV is everywhere. We can watch it on the actual television set, the computer, or even our phones. We can watch it in real time, or later on DVR. Or, we can binge watch on Netflix, Hulu, or with DVDs.

And isn’t it terrible? Isn’t it frying our brains and causing us to lose touch with the outside world?

I don’t think so.

In fact, I think television can be great for relationships. When my husband and I first started dating, we shared our favorite television shows with one another. The shared experience was a way to get to know each other, and gave us something fun to talk about—including a pretty serious debate about the series finale of Lost.

Since then, we’ve watched a *lot* of television together. We’ve binge-watched, anticipated premieres, and celebrated finales with pizza. We’ve praised new shows, bashed others, and disagreed altogether about the merits of the newest series to hit the screen.

We’ve also pressed the pause button on several shows to have discussions that we may not have had otherwise. The best example of this is NBC’s Parenthood, which will air its sixth and final season this Fall. The show has had a great run, and has given us more to talk about with one another than I can even begin to list here. The show premiered before we were parents, and we quickly learned that this show, with its large cast and real issues, would give us a lot to discuss—not only about our future parenting styles, but also about our own relationship.

We’ve paused the show, outraged at Zeek, empathizing with Camille or Sarah, or expressing our complete disagreement with the way Adam or Kristina reacted to one of their children. We’ve had lengthy discussions about cancer and illness, adoption, respect for careers, and discipline. These characters have dealt with various marital problems, role reversals, everyday parenting concerns, and even Asperger’s. In the most recent season, we identified with the typical struggles that Crosby and Jasmine faced as they cared for a brand new baby. And don’t even get me started on Joel and Julia!

One of the main arguments against television is that it’s a passive activity that doesn’t challenge our minds. But there is also a lot of *good* television available. Heading into its final season, Parenthood has yet to offer an episode to be viewed passively. Instead, this is a television series that raises questions.