TV is warning me of the perils of being a parent

A bit preemptively too I might add. NBC's Parenthood has recently joined the ranks of dramedys Modern Family and Cougar Town, or as I like to call them "birth control."  As if reality wasn't enough of a humbling experience as far as my inability to be an adult, these shows illustrate scenarios that I could never imagine tackling as a parent. The important thing is that along with all the drama and touching family moments, they can bring the laughs.

Cougar Town began airing in the fall of 2009 and stars Courtney Cox as a single mother and realty agent, and the show really plays on the idea of needing a village to raise a child, the child is 18 but the point still stands.This show has the most laughs for me because Courtney Cox gets away with being "Jules," the slightly-crazy single mother who is trying to relive the 20's she never had. The supporting characters are pretty well written and believable (if just a bit shallow, though that seems to be filling in with time) and the actors have great chemistry together. The interesting thing is that while the families in Modern Family and Parenthood are huge and have each other to fall back on, you really get the sense that Jules and her son have an intimate relationship and are emblematic of the single-parent families that are becoming more and more prevalent.

Modern Family began airing alongside Cougar Town and features a generic sitcom family, two married gay men and their adopted daughter, and an older man who married younger. Oh and I did I forget to mention that they're all one big family? Cause there's that too. The show gets to feature a few different styles of comedy thanks to the huge cast so there seems to be something for everyone, my favorite is the gay couple. It's not as funny as Cougar Town, but excels in its on way, and unlike CT its multiple perspectives allow it to provide insight and perspective on larger philosophies that parents might deal with. "Fears" was the most recent episode and did this best, If you're questioning this show I definitely recommend this episode and have embedded it at the bottom of this post.

Parenthood just started airing recently and so far has proven itself to be the most like a traditional drama. Like Modern Family, Parenthood is a large ensemble drama that follows one large family with each smaller nuclear family providing a different example of stereotypical families. But while Modern Family focuses on types of family by varying the age and gender of the parents, Parenthood focuses more on the different stages of parenthood. The main story seems to follow Lauren Graham as a single mother who has just moved back home with her adolescent son and daughter. Craig T. Nelson plays her father, who with his wife is seeing his children go through their own parenting experiences, the "end" of being a parent (if it ever really ends). The rest of the families present different times in parenthood but each with their own unique plots, which may be a little melodramatic but allows for some great acting in the more emotional scenes.While it's easy to compare Modern Family and Parenthood, the latter seems to be very different once you get past the size of the cast and similar premise and definitely has been added to my queue of shows to watch. (Also, crazily enough Dax Shepard is kind of good.)

Like I said, my favorite episode of Modern Family so far:


And here's the pilot to Parenthood, or as I like to call it "my new favorite thing with Lauren Graham."