Parenthood (The Show)

(Spoiler alert): I will try to not give the show away, but I might say something you didn't know so if you haven't watched the whole thing, STOP, and do so before you go any further.

Six years ago I started on a journey with the fictional Braverman family of Berkeley, California. We had little in common. They were liberal agnostics and I...well, I am decidedly neither.

There were times in the past years when I wanted to smack the writers (or characters) upside the head and I might have yelled at the screen a few times. But, for the most part, I loved this crazy family, a mom and pop, their four grown up (theoretically) children, and all of the offspring's offspring. The acting was superb, and the writing, true-to-life, right down to nailing birth order traits with a few anomalies (really, Julia is the youngest?).

Along the way we covered marriage, adultery, divorce, birth, adoption, abortion, homosexuality, charter schools, homeschooling, Asperger's, business failures, health issues, and a host of other issues. And were pretty true to the issues. Abortion and all its ugly consequences....Nothing pretty about that story. Adoption, its challenges and its heart. Divorce and its massive affects on kids and their future relationships. Nothing gets prettified to make you feel better about life failure.

The oldest, working so hard to keep it all together and do the right thing. The middle children, muddled and unable to make good relational choices for much of the show, finally growing up and taking big steps. The perfect child who had it all together, falling apart and left to pick herself up out of the mess she helped create. 

But through it all....LOVE. Real conflicts, real pain, and still this family keeps loving each other. They model forgiveness in fantastic ways at times, leaving me teary and convicted to be different.

In a brutally honest way we watch a marriage virtually fall apart in front of us as we are screaming, NOOO!!! And then, little glimmers of hope, little rays of promise as two people decide to open up to love, to forgiveness, as they decide to be steadfast. The writers were true to the pain, to the time, to the issues.

In the series finale, the last fifteen minutes ended with a death and then flashes of the family in the future, going on with life, birthing and adopting more babies, affirming life and love. 

I grew a little with the Bravermans. I hope I love a little better, forgive a little faster.