I started watching Parenthood last Spring. I knew that Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls was in it, and I decided to give it a chance. Luckily for me, all of the seasons were on Netflix (except for the one season that was currently on air, obviously). From the very first episode of Season One, I was hooked.
For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it isn’t about babies (although, SPOILER ALERT: there are several throughout the six seasons!). It’s about relationships and family dynamics. It’s about the ups and the downs, the rights and the wrongs of life. It can be a tear-jerker one moment and the next you’re laughing out loud. Best of all, it appeals to an audience of all walks of life. (And, if you’re a fan of Friday Night Lights, there are tons of actor overlaps!). I quickly became addicted to it, and caught up completely over the summer.
The final episode will air on Thursday (10pm EST on NBC), and I am completely distraught. This family is so real. I feel as though I have grown with them, stayed up late at night with them. All of the comments on the Parenthood Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts are from fans begging NBC to not cancel the show. The cast and crew have been posting similar sentiments about the having to say goodbye to the show.
Lauren Graham said recently in an interview (http://time.com/3676639/lauren-graham-gilmore-girls-parenthood/) that from the production side, the ending of the series is “really difficult but also really nice to be able to say goodbye…I’ve mainly been on shows where they just yank it and you find out later,” such as Gilmore Girls.
So, on Thursday night, I’ll have to say goodbye to my beloved Parenthood. Although I have had warning of the series ending now, I’m not sure how long it will take me to accept. It isn’t the many plotlines that are winding down or the uncertainty of one character’s health, it’s the fact that I’ve leaned on and learned with this show. But thanks to Netflix, as we’ve seen recently with Gilmore Girls, shows can live on. Perhaps in the future I’ll re-watch these episodes and they’ll mean something different, as I’ll be identifying with different characters. Thank you, Netflix, for allowing me to relive my obsession with shows, but most of all, thank you, cast and crew of Parenthood, for allowing me into your family.