On Demand Weekly

Media savant T Tara Turk goes deep inside cable TV to reveal Video On Demand's Hidden Gems so even the busiest of our readers can get the most out of On Demand TV. Tell Tara what VOD shows you think deserves her attention.

PARENTHOOD (VOD Hidden Gem)

By T. Tara Turk

I have a thing for ensemble movies about life. THe BIG CHILL. THE BEST MAN (eagerly awaiting THE BEST MAN 2just announced!).THE BREAKFAST CLUB (I know all of the lines - ask my mom). Some of you youngins have no idea what movies I’m talking about but you must know "Parenthood" if only for the simple fact that it has been made into an entertaining television now on NBC.

PARENTHOOD (NBC)

I admit I’m kind of late in the game because, well, I was vehemently against remaking something that was so great before (I mean who couldn’t love a movie with a toddler named Kool, a half head shaved couple played by Keanu Reeves and the great Martha Plimpton, an overachieving mom who stashes candy in her closet and announces her divorce to her crazy husband via cue cards, and...okay the list could go on and I’d be telling you the movie and you’d be mad at me).

So I waited but then I realized Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are the executive producers and they had a little something to do with the movie. At the same time I realized that, there was that opening of time when all the new shows had been viewed and I was wishing some would be cancelled (goodbye, "Playboy Club," we hardly knew ye) and some would hurry up and make more pronto (Zooey Deschanel, what ARE you doing?). So "Parenthood" called out to me.

PARENTHOOD (NBC)

At first glance, it could be considered a Gilmore Girls continuation with Lauren Graham (Sarah Braverman) as mom having trouble letting her teenage daughter (Mae Whitman who rocked in WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN) go. But then there are the siblings - Peter Krause as Adam Braverman (the Steve Martin character), Erika Christensen as Julia Braverman Graham (not nearly neurotic as shoving stored candy down her throat but her baby issues make up for it) and Dax Shepard as Crosby Braverman. With them come a slew of other family members including Craig T. Nelson as the patriarch of the clan and Bonnie Bedelia is the matriarch.