*First of all, a disclaimer is in order, if I at any moment in the piece start to sound like I’m just praising the show of its greatness then I forgive you. Here it goes…*
NBC’s Parenthood came to a close after its six season long run last on January 29, 2014.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a connection to any TV show as much as I’ve had a connection to Parenthood, and now our journey with the Bravermans comes to an end.
This season has had a lot of big things happening, we found out about Zeek’s failing heart, Joel and Julia get back together, Hank proposes to Sara, The Luncheonette gets robbed which caused Adam and Crosby to consider taking the insurance check and close the studio.
The finale aptly entitled “May God Bless and Keep You Always” which borrows its name from Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” which the show also used as the opening theme.
This episode consoled us after what happened in the previous episode, which had the birth of Amber’s child whom she named Zeek after her grandfather, Zeek’s emotional moment holding his grandchild for the first time, the duet/jam session by mother and daughter Sarah and Amber. That was a painful episode to watch, but somehow you get the feeling that it was sort of necessary, somehow even appropriate in a sense. One Zeek is born and another Zeek is shown presented as almost at the end of the road. The wedding was just the thing to bring cheer us up again.
The setting for the finale is was mostly centered around Hank and Sara’s wedding, a generally joyous event. Many little things kind of occurred because of the wedding, obviously Hank needed a best man. And he found that in Drew. They also needed a photographer for the wedding and that naturally fell into the hands of Max. After careful consideration and a few changes in decision Crosby decides to keep the Luncheonette open and operate it with Amber while Adam takes over things at Chambers Academy. And after a few couple of seasons not being in the cast at all Hallie (Adam and Kristina’s eldest) returns for the wedding and completes the family picture.
Though the real center in this episode is Zeek, once again acting as the father of the family, as he is. Just about everything all comes back around to Zeek giving his advice and his wisdom to anyone who sits with him. In the beginning he gives Hank his blessing to marry Sara. He encourages Crosby that he can run the studio by himself. He and Millie invites Amber to move in with them in order to help her with her child.
The largest bomb though was Zeek’s inevitable passing that was somehow appropriate. He had done what he could for the Braverman family, he had been the Captain until the end. And as Millie said this was the third act of their lives. If he did one last thing it was to bring in Amber, to their home, to help raise the next generation of Bravermans. Zeek’s passing was not highlighted around the end the show (as with any show) falls into a montage. We see the not so distant future. We see the whole Braverman clan happy together, we see the Luncheonette taking off, we see that Julia and Joel having four kids, we see Amber with a husband and another child. We see Millie finally taking that trip the Zeek had planned to that little place in Italy that Zeek once had a great time in. Everyone in that family ended up fine. They assured us that everything was better.
Thinking back, we got a lot of laughs from the show, a lot tears, we had warm feelings and hard feelings made realized to us seeing a family on TV that was perhaps not so different from our own. It reignited some feelings, it buried some hatches. The show always had the theme of leaving and coming back home. Showing the family playing baseball in the end was symbolic, a show about leaving home and coming back, is paired with baseball; a sport about leaving home and coming back. And I could not imagine a better finale for this show.
Steam (Mac, PC and Linux), PS3, PS VITA (reviewed on PS Vita)
Rating - M
Duke Nukem 3D does a lot of things right, It’s relatively simple, yet relatively complex, It’s brash, it’s crude, its loud and it’s proud but most importantly it’s a ‘whole lotta fun’.
