I love Parenthood and everything, but I don't think this show is strong enough to handle something as heavy-handed as breast cancer. There's too much drama going on everywhere else for there to be enough balance -- just look at Max and the vending machine. When you can't even have a storyline about Skittles be lighthearted, maybe it's time to dial it back just a bit. Then there was Zeek and his heart condition (and Camille telling her adult children how terrible they were because their father is not "an invalid"), Sarah and this obvious sexual tension with Hank (it's Lorelai and Luke all over again!) and Adam taking out all of his emotions on Amber. There was more eye-rolling from me than cringing, chuckling or crying, but let's take a look at the salvageable parts of the episode for the sake of... Max and his Skittles.

Chuckle
In general, I just kind of like Rose Abdoo (forever known to me as Gypsy from Gilmore Girls), so I enjoyed cancer-and-awesome-attitude-having Gwen. There was nothing in particular she said that made me laugh or anything, but I did like that she quashed the whole "Kristina's going to a nice doctor now" cliché of a storyline immediately.

I also liked Zeek cursing and then getting handcuffed in front of the grandkids, as it was just plain entertaining. The stuff in between him getting put in a cop car and having that nice pre-test talk with Camille wasn't exactly fun (except "Max was calling it a 'low-speed chase,' which I think probably offended your dad."), but I thought it was cute that he wanted to pull the car onto a side street to make out with his wife.

While I didn't love the wedding photography storyline, I think the only time I laughed out loud was when Sarah thought Hank was about to apologize, but he instead opted to ask if she had anything to eat in her house.

Also, Crosby making fun of Adam to Amber was great, because who doesn't like it when Crosby makes fun of Adam?

Cry
I didn't cry last night... crazy, I know. I realized it's because I've already seen the whole "I have cancer and I need you to stop pretending everything is going to be okay" storyline before on TV, most notably in Sex and the City when Samantha first got diagnosed. I really don't want to go through this whole thing again if every episode is just going to be Kristina crying at herself in the mirror. I'm sorry. I can't. Don't hate me.

I did tear up a tiny bit when we got that uncharacteristically beautiful shot of Adam and Zeek silently standing outside of the garage after briefly talking about Zeek's heart condition. Much to my surprise and delight, this episode was actually directed by Sam Jaeger, who you may know as Joel Graham(!). Just in case he wasn't perfect enough...

Cringe
Obviously this wasn't my favorite episode for a lot of reasons, but I'll stop harping on everyone else to just say this: Max and the freaking Skittles. And now he's going to run for class president? Here's hoping there's some kind of sweet pro-Asperger's movement from the student body and they elect him, instead of next week's episode just being about Max getting teased and making everyone around him really uncomfortable while we all feel bad about everything in life.

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