tv show

If you haven’t watch the Parenthood, the tv show inspired by the movie, then you should. That, or you just shouldn’t read this post because that’s all it will be about. I promise it will be heartfelt (and also completely void of spoilers).

Like many people, I watch my tv in a delayed fashion on Hulu or Netflix. Normally this is no big deal, but on (rare) big occasions I have to shut down my social media accounts to avoid the spoilers. On Thursday, I had to walk away to from all the tweets about crying through the series finale of Parenthood. To be honest, I’ll likely cry through the whole thing, too.

Sure, it’s a good show and it’s a drama so there’s intense family situations that can manipulate your emotions. But I’m about to get real sappy here and tell you why else it’s special.

Parenthood is special because it is a show that at one point or another covered a family situation everyone has experienced. Maybe within a given week it seems like too many situations are happening at once (true) but at the same time, it feels like so many of the moments come from a place of reality. We all have that “discussion” with our spouse, friendship with our sibling, conflict with a parent, chaos at a family dinner and day where we question what is happening in our lives.

I was first introduced to the show during the commercial breaks in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Parenthood was to debut on NBC soon after the games, and something about it pulled me in. We watched the first episode (it might have even been during primetime…Hulu was still a new thing back then). A couple weeks later, we got engaged. From that point on we found ourselves discussing the situations during the commercials and pausing it in the middle of the big moments.

It was our pre-marital counseling in a sense (we did also go to actual pre-marital counseling where we read a book together and talked with a pastor). Potential life situations were unfolding before our eyes right as we were about to commit to sharing a new life together. How would you handle that? Would you allow your daughter to do that? How would you tell your son about that? What would you do if…? Is that a healthy relationship? How do you maintain that? You see his side of the argument? But what about hers?

We could feel the emotion and intensity of some of these experiences, but without the pain of it being our own experiences, we could talk through it logically. We watched this family face trials as well as thrive these past five years. In a small way, we did the same. Our life should hardly be on tv, but we had our share of new experiences, monumental moments, difficult decisions and everyday conversations the past five years as well.

We’ve watched it from the very beginning and simply dread the end. I know it has to end, everything comes to an end at some point. But I will genuinely miss it and hate to say goodbye. I don’t want to overhype its significance, because in truth, it is still merely a tv show. That said, it has had an impact. I can honestly say that it had a part in shaping some of our young marriage.

Farewell Parenthood. Thank you for showing us the dramas or hardships life can bring by forcing us to feel the tension but keeping it light-hearted enough that we kept coming back. This was a story about family learning together how to live together. A good family but never the impossible “one big happy family.” Regardless of critical acclaim, you created a show that many will cherish with their own families. May you stay, forever young.