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S06.E13: May God Bless And Keep You Always


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I liked the finale in a general sense, but it still exposed larger issues I had with the show, but in particular this season. I did like the last 10 minutes of where are they now except the glaring omission of Haddie from Max's graduation and any update on her in general when basically the other kids all got something (I guess Nora didn't, but the show forgot about her all the time anyway, Haddie was a major character for most of the series and deserved mention in the final section).

 

My super large problem is acting like Sarah and Hank are some major love affair. They've been buddies most of this season as they were last season and nothing more than that. Yeah, they're together, but do they ever seem like a couple? Joel and Julia were more of a couple when they were apart this season than Sarah and Hank were all this season. At best we've seen them have shared moments and wake up next to each other in bed. Nothing else. The part during the baseball game when they are playful is more than they showed of them all season being that way. I thought Hank's character was great when he first came on and during their initial attraction there was a basis for showing them as a greater love, but the show got so caught up in other stuff with him, that him and Sarah were had no more romance than siblings or best friends at this point, that's how much romance and spark they seemed to generated this season. So, acting like they are celebrating some great love was really a stretch for me. I thought the wedding fit for the sake of the finale, but I was less invested because of this.

 

I'm confused on why they chose an extended wedding dance scene when SO many of the cast is so clearly challenged in this area. Yikes! It was painful to see them dancing.

 

Max creepily taking pictures of a girl I could have done without since it served as a reminder of his harassment of Dylan. Them making Haddie tell Max he's awesome was ridiculous. And the mere suggestion of an idea that Kristina would be pursued by an educational group after I'm sure word of her actions at Snowflake Academy, witnessed by all the parents, is such a joke. But let's all just pretend like Kristina knows what she's doing and is great at running a school.

 

I liked Joel and Julia's adopting Victor's biological sister and then Julia apparently getting pregnant a year or two later.

 

It's terrible to say but I'm glad Zeke finally died. I mean, they have been basically acting like he was going to die all damn season, for it to not happen would have made this season seem even worse. I'm glad it wasn't years and years in the future but seemingly within a few months of Amber moving in.

 

Drew, the saving grace in many ways for this season, did a great job at giving the best man's speech. I'm happy that Natalie wasn't at the final dinner, gives me hope he finally left that her. Loved Amber with Scott Porter at the end and that Ryan is in little Zeke's life but they're not together.

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I, too, was really disgusted that Zeke (refuse the other spelling) told Sarah that she was his favorite.

 

"Was I a good father?"

 

"Yeah, Dad, right up until you told me I was your favorite. All downhill from there."

 

Lots of favorite moments and lots of eyerolls. Of course everything wrapped up nicely, of course everyone was successful, of COURSE we got a PSA on Autism - and I work with kids with Autism every day, and with a child as high-functioning as Max is, there is no WAY any of my speech kids would be discharged with such horrid social skills as ... oh wait, his parents never got him speech therapy, and there are no therapists at Snowflake Academy© chain. Alrighty then.

 

The one moment that really took my breath away was Camille in Paris. Nice touch.

 

I'll miss the Bravermans, surely, but I'll miss the snark here more.

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She is still alive at age 85 and working as an actress as of 2014.  Maybe she had other commitments.  Maybe Grandma didn't go to the wedding because she was off trekking in Katmandu and couldn't get back on short notice.

 

I figure it's two things.  First, there probably wasn't the budget for her, and second, the character wasn't much of a presence within the show, so it probably wasn't considered a priority to bring her back.

 

The scene where Camille finds Zeke was touching and was the only really teary moment for me. 

 

I just rolled my eyes at everything involving Max, Adam and Kristina.  When I saw the preview for that show The Slap, the evil part of me thought, "Oh thank God, Max is finally going to get disciplined for behaving like a spoiled brat."

 

And only on Parenthood are two people with a huge freaking house like Joel and Julia going to act as though "not enough room" is an actual consideration when they take in a new baby.       

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I would hope not.  I think all three are better actors than to allow that to be a point.  I'm not sure what they were going for, but I can see that Sarah had all of these crazy chemistry, but ultimately failed relationships.  With Hank, it wasn't hot, wasn't sizzling, it was just warm, caring folks getting closer and closer.  Sometimes, after you've been through the ups/downs of crazy, calm is quite sexy.

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I guess I am in the minority but I'm not at all a fan of emo Drew in general, and even less of his best man role in the finale. They lost me when they had Hank hand over the wedding rings in the middle of campus (so Drew could stuff them in his jeans or backpack and hopefully not lose them before the weekend?)... and then the speech, while it was touching what he said about Zeek, blew smoke up Sarah's ass for never being able to focus on herself because she had to worry about her kids? When has Sarah ever prioritized anything other than her own whims and desires?

Kristina appearing at Max's elbow after he talks to the girl (someone tell her to RUN AWAY FAST! Please!): "She's cute, isn't she? Isn't she?" ... being chased by nonprofits to replicate the travesty that is Snowflake...Haddie telling Max how wonderful he is... Adam letting Max yell at him to get off the phone... I have come to hate that family so much, even right down to the toddler Nora lisping that she won't drink spring water because she wants soda. Skittles Obsession Drama Part II ahead for the Bravermans?

Zeek looked WAY too hale and hearty at the wedding. It was a real mistake not to portray him as getting weaker and more sickly.

Even though babies do not save marriages (my own parents are a sad example who had another baby when I was 14, trying to revive their marriage but got divorced a few years later) I loved the emotion shared by Joel and Julia so much. Theirs is the one unrealistic ending--puppy and all--that didn't bother me.

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There is an interview that Ray Romano recently did with the Hollywood Reporter in which he expressed surprise at how Hank and Sarah's relationship unfolded this season. He thought that the two would agree that although they loved one another they were better off as friends; Hank proposing to Sarah was an unexpected but not unwelcome twist. This could explain the seeming lack of chemistry between them this season. I suppose that up until he received that script, Ray was playing Hank as more platonic in his feelings towards Sarah. Just a guess.

I thought that Hank and Sarah's initial relationship had spark and passion, and he was a good sounding board for the issues she was dealing with at that time. It seemed that he and she were on the same page in life while Mr. Cyr was in a different chapter altogether. So, I actually preferred him to Mark back then. Hank was also far less behaviorally impaired back then than he is now (or maybe his awkwardness wasn't quite so glaring.)

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When Zeek told Sarah that she was his favorite, I was waiting for him to tell his other children the same thing. That is something I told all my children with the caveat that they would not tell their siblings.

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I think I just have a problem with Lorelei doing Raymond. No. Just no.

 

Ray Romano may actually have greater acting range than Lauren Graham.  While shades of Lorelei GIlmore often crept into Graham's portrayal of Sarah, I never saw Romano as anything other than Hank Rizzoli, a fully-formed character who had little if anything in common with Ray Barone.

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I have enjoyed every moment of this series, but it was easy to do because I am a huge Peter Krause fan ... I come from a big family that have all had big families, so I totally get the whole dynamic of the Braverman clan. 

 

I thought some of the snark is definitely justified, just like my family could be snarked and it be justified too.  I have come to realize we all have snarky moments and if you can't laugh at them, well then, it makes for a boring life.

 

I have had just about every single thing that has happened in the Braverman family happen to my family ... from drugs, to abortion, to death, to mental illness, to sexual orientation, to separations and divorce, to adoptions, to weddings late in life, to new business that fail and some that survive ... so every single moment that the Braverman's lived through and still stay involved, it was nice to watch, cause that is the kind of modeling we need for the next generation. 

 

Anyway ... I ugly cried in more than a few places ... never watched FNL to get the Amber husband cameo ... but now that I know it is the same showrunnner, it's on my list!

 

I was pleased with the montage ... I wasn't too invested in Haddie so didn't really notice her not being there until I see it mentioned throughout this thread ... I saw her at the wedding and game, so it wasn't glaring that she wasn't in the future stuff.

 

Anyway ... it was television worth watching, and I don't regret a minute of it.

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POPCProfessor, thanks for reminding me about the stupidity of Hank handing the rings to Drew on campus. Residence halls are pretty lousy places to keep easily lifted valuables, in my experience.

In other news, I've never been able to figure out the words to "Forever Young", so it sounds like something about a "banana juice box" to me.

You are kidding me. Every single week I have sung along, mimicking Dylan's sketchy diction, and every single week my song has included the phrase "juice box."
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Well, it's all over, so I'm just going to put it out there:  I preferred Hank to Mr. Cyr.

 

Sara needed an ANCHOR.

 

I didn't originally care for Hank or Sarah/Hank. Mainly I was just tired of Sarah falling into one professional triumph after another and having one man after another fall for her, only for her to sabotage/leave/quit the men and the jobs alike.

 

But the last few episodes were, I thought, very well done as far as Sarah/Hank went and brought me around to the point of view that he is just what she needs. I really liked her open concern that she had made terrible decisions in the past and didn't trust her desire to marry Hank until she saw him taking the initiative to show up at Amber's apartment and build her baby gear, which was not Amber's natural father's way.

 

The way Hank became more and more awkward over his time on the show worked for me; he was dealing with revelations and situations that took him out of his comfort zone and also showing more of himself to Sarah's family and by extension the audience. In the end, seeing him a bit more awkward than he was at first glance also helped drive home that Sarah was going for substance over style.

 

I was quite happy for Sarah at the end-- and also for Amber and Drew getting a reliable stepfather who is fond of them. Of course Amber and Drew are basically grown, but practically the whole premise of the show is that adults continue to benefit from their parents/families of origin. :)

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The way Hank became more and more awkward over his time on the show worked for me; he was dealing with revelations and situations that took him out of his comfort zone and also showing more of himself to Sarah's family and by extension the audience.

 

I just figured Hank saw that Max was allowed  do whatever the heck he wanted (including terrorizing a girl) without any real consequences, so he used his self-diagnosis of Aspergers to behave accordingly. 

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...Haddie telling Max how wonderful he is...

 

I thought that might have been a clip pasted in from some previous season until I started reading this thread. I could swear haddie has done the you're-so-wonderful speech before.

 

It seemed that he and she were on the same page in life while Mr. Cyr was in a different chapter altogether.

Didn't Mark want a baby, and Sarah was actually going to go through the hell of trying to have a baby at her age? Because Hank is a way, way better option than forcing yourself to have a baby you don't really want in order to hang on to your way-younger boyfriend.  

 

... never watched FNL to get the Amber husband cameo ... but now that I know it is the same showrunnner, it's on my list!

I'm sure you'll love it. I was astonished that this show was by the same person since I consider FNL to be about a hundred thousand times better in every way.

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In the future, Drew gets invited to dinner at his mother's AND his cousin's graduation!  Whoo-hoo."

Are you saying he wan't at the dinner party or Max's graduation? If so, he was in both scenes.

 

Who was the baby girl at the dinner party? She didn't look older than Amber's son. Perhaps her new partner's child? (That guy is not as handsome as he once was.)

 

I liked the final rendition of "Forever Young" and showing it being recorded in Crosby's studio.

 

I thought the finale was fitting from Zeek's death (where did this spelling come from, anyway, and why would anyone spell it this way?) until the end. I'm not sure I ever saw Max smile before. I guess in real life, Haddie would've made it to Zeek's funeral, but not necessarily stuck around for the spreading of the ashes.

 

As for the spreading of the ashes, as far as I know, it's the kind of thing you don't ask permission for because TPTB will say "no", so you just do it anyway and no one cares. I'm sure everyone on this board knows of it being done all over America.

 

For me, this series was improved by Ray Romano's character. For those who haven't seen him in "Men of a Certain Age", you can sort of see him morph from Ray to Frank to Hank through those three characters. (I still miss "Men of a Certain Age". I've a feeling that that show gave me insight to the way guys really talk to each other.) I wonder if, when he was first introduced, the writers had already thought of the borderline Asperger's angle. I think watching him recognize traits and work on them was perhaps the most educational and interesting part of this show. I would have enjoyed a 30-minute drama series (nobody does that these days) featuring Hank adjusting to his semi-diagnosis. Maybe an 8-show series.

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Who was the baby girl at the dinner party? She didn't look older than Amber's son. Perhaps her new partner's child? (That guy is not as handsome as he once was.)

 

Yes, that is Amber's husband's (you can see their wedding rings) daughter from a previous relationship. The only deleted scene from the finale that hasn't been released is the one where they first meet at a kids gym. 

Edited by ShortyMac
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For me, this series was improved by Ray Romano's character. For those who haven't seen him in "Men of a Certain Age", you can sort of see him morph from Ray to Joe to Hank through those three characters. (I still miss "Men of a Certain Age". I've a feeling that that show gave me insight to the way guys really talk to each other.)

 

THIS!  I will always be bitter at TNT for cancelling MOACA for crap like Rizzoli and Isles and the godawful Franklin and Bash (thankfully they were recently cancelled).  On MOACA Ray's Joe Tranelli was very sexy, something I never pictured RR as.....but that awkwardness was a definite turn on.

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Anyway ... I ugly cried in more than a few places

Bizbuzz- I'm with you.  I am really good at suspending belief and just going with a basically good show.  I sobbed like I didn't have good sense.

They did drop the ball for a couple of seasons with the whole Max-centric crap. 

 

My take on the finale:

I snarked a lot about Bonnie Bedelia and her plastic surgery frozen face.  However... when from a distance , she realizes Zeke is dead, her emotions did overrule the Botox.  I thought the quick scene with her dragging the suitcase across the cobblestones in Paris was sweet and showed that she would pursue a good life on her own.

 

I like baseball, so that little tie in was okey dokey.

I

thought the slow version of the theme song was beautiful and worked really well for the finale.  They are nice words to try to live by.

 

Lorlei's wedding dress was gorgeous, she should have married Luke in it. LOL.

 

Can't Hate on the Ray Romano, I became such a fan with "Men of a Certain Age" that I am always ready to see him try drama.  I thought he did a fine job.

 

The piss me off points:

Why not keep the show going and give us the steps where Max blossomed?  OR do that in the 2 seasons when we were all ready to slap the snot out of him and his parents?  How did he get to become that kind of likeable person?  Katims could have really endorsed his austism agenda by showing us the transformation, bit by bit, rather than just tell us it automagically happened.

 

Snowflake Academy , "Don't Take  a Real Job, just play into one of another of Cristina's whims..... just STFU.

 

Can't hate on Dax.  He's a man-boy, and cute as a button.  He played the same tyoe of character in "This is Where I Leave You" and was also enjoyable there.

 

Babies, babies, not a fan, but WTF.  We weren't watching Shakephere, were we?

 

I think they could have drawn the series out about 10 years, ala Waltons, and I would have been good to go.

That said, when it goes in to sydication, I will re-watch the first few seasons.

 

How about the teasers for "The Slap"  are we all moving there to check it out?

Edited by zillabreeze
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Much as I've hated some of the story lines this season, I'm sad about the show ending, and have been watching some old episodes on Netflix as a way of mourning/celebrating the show. Do any of you have suggestions for favorite episodes to re-watch? I Googled to find some lists, but it seems like most of the lists tend to favor episodes that had emotional Max-centric moments. That is not what I want.

I just watched the episode where Zoe changes her mind about giving her baby to Joel and Julia. Wow, Erika Christenson just rocked my world. Such amazing acting. 

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I guess in real life, Haddie would've made it to Zeek's funeral, but not necessarily stuck around for the spreading of the ashes.

Various people have mentioned Haddie not being at the baseball/ashes thing... Guys, she was there. She may not have gotten her own "happily ever after" montage, but she was there. She was literally the first person shown in the scene.

See also: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8lEcrpCIAAuML2.jpg

and

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--08wdWjzk--/1101346213484261038.png

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In the future, Drew gets invited to dinner at his mother's AND his cousin's graduation! Whoo-hoo."

Are you saying he wan't at the dinner party or Max's graduation? If so, he was in both scenes.

No, the person was pointing out that is the only things we know about Drew's future.

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In other news, I've never been able to figure out the words to "Forever Young", so it sounds like something about a "banana juice box" to me.

 

This has been one of my favorite songs since the 70's, when Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it.  (I also have a Joan Baez version - it's a folk classic, as are many Dylan songs.)  Can't believe you managed to make it through all 6 seasons without Googling the words! ;)  

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Do any of you have suggestions for favorite episodes to re-watch?

You already mentioned my favorite episode (when Julia realizes that Zoe won't give up the baby), but I also like the episode where Adam and Kristina find out that Haddie is having sex with Alex, the episode where Adam accidentally gets high on his boss's edibles (during Jasmine's bridal shower) and the episode where Julia has a panic attack in the kitchen... Ok, that last one might just be that scene in that episode - Erika Christensen is severely underrated because that moment rang so true it made me viscerally feel anxious with her.

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The scene with John Corbett should have been left in, IMO. Seeing him choke up was the only thing about the finale that made me choke up, and I'm a Parenthood lifer! Too bad NBC couldn't have ponied up 30 more minutes ala FX and Sons of Anarchy to finish this's story.

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On a purely shallow note, Ryan looked absolutely smoking hot in the 2.5 seconds we saw him.

 

Eyerolls galore at 1) smiley Max and 2) hugging-his-baby-sister Max - seriously WTF?

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The scene with John Corbett should have been left in, IMO. Seeing him choke up was the only thing about the finale that made me choke up, and I'm a Parenthood lifer! Too bad NBC couldn't have ponied up 30 more minutes ala FX and Sons of Anarchy to finish this's story.

Or too bad they couldn't edited either of the montages to squeeze in that scene (they couldn't have shortened some of the wedding or softball scenes?). I also would have been fine with cutting all the Max business (Haddie tells Max how awesome he is, Max gets creepy taking pictures of Ruby's friend and then asks her to dance, Max graduates in the slowest fashion possible) in order to get the John Corbett scene included.
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Do any of you have suggestions for favorite episodes to re-watch?

 

When Julia goes to Sydney's swim class (early season) is the first episode I watched and loved. The entire arc with Hattie and Alex is when the show got me hooked until the finale. Oh, and that Christmas-time episode when Kristina was very ill. So many tears. 

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Agree, I would skip last season in a rewatch, but overall, this was a terrific series. 

 

One observation is tho I live in the Bay Area, I had to keep reminding myself all these years it was supposed to be taking place here because there was nothing that even had a whiff of this part of the country. Very very nowhere--sort of the way Friends and Seinfeld were in "NYC" and "Cheers" was in Boston and "The Good Wife" is in Chicago--all salient features and speech and ways of being evaporated in favor of some universal American way of being. 

 

That was probably the least important aspect of Parenthood, so no harm done. But it's sad that tv producers demand our regional differences have to be disappear into some sort of 2% reality-free half-gallon carton to be accepted nationwide. Maybe actual regional or even state differentiations could be put forward in 2015?

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I agree and it's not just this show that's guilty. I don't understand why certain shows go out of their way to establish that they take place in a particular city and then don't actually depict what life there is like.

 

If the writers or the network executives are afraid that being true to a specific city won't appeal enough to the rest of the country, then why bother making such a big deal of setting the show in a certain city? Why not just let the show take place in a generic American city? Aside from a few location shoots for the pilot and a few here and there over six seasons, there is no real indication that these people live and work in Berkeley/San Francisco. I'm not saying it has to be a documentary or anything, but when you compare this to, say Friday Night Lights, which definitely had a very specific feel to the town, it's perplexing that Parenthood had the characters make so many verbal references to being in Berkeley without the feel of it at all.

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I just started re watching Season 1. It's so great & made me start watching because I was over Brothers & Sisters by that point.

Speaking of the swim episode, Max jumps off the high diving board and then is smiling & laughing when he's in the pool.

Edited by jb0495
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I'm glad that Sarah got her "happily ever after", I'm just not happy that it was with Hank. I don't know why, but Hank was my least favorite of Sarah's romantic partners. The teacher (sorry I'm forgetting his name) she almost married was great. Even the guy who lived in her building (the one who went off to Africa without her because she kept waffling about Hank) had more of a spark with her, and they weren't even together that long. Hank just seems like someone that she'll always have to "manage". He has the emotional maturity of a child. Despite the great love story I'm supposed to buy into, all I can seem to remember are the passive-aggressive ways that he would try to undercut Sarah anytime she started to grow away from him personally and professionally. And during all that weirdness with his ex-wife and daughter, Hank was 200% useless. And every single time, Sarah responded as if she was the one with the problem and cleaned up the mess, so to speak. 

Come to think of it, maybe those two will be perfect together. Two codependent hot messes in love.

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