DVD Reviews: 2010 Rookie TV Seasons Including ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘NCIS: Los Angeles,’ More

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“Parenthood: Season One”

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

“Parenthood” suffered the most bad timing of any new program on the year. First, the show had to be recast after star Maura Tierney was diagnosed with cancer. (She’s recovered and will star on ABC’s “The Whole Truth” this fall.) Being delayed from its fall premiere to March may have actually been a good thing for the show as the program that suffered through “The Jay Leno Show” debacle in its stead, “Mercy,” did not get renewed for a second season.

Parenthood: Season One was released on DVD on August 31st, 2010. Photo credit: Universal Home Video

But “Parenthood” still had to come in and try and find an audience atop the rubble of its network’s incredible failure of programming. Is it any wonder audiences couldn’t connect with the show? NBC’s had trouble connecting with anything. But it’s a new year at the Peacock Network and “Parenthood” could easily develop a following as this channel attempts to rise from the ashes.

“Parenthood” is far from a perfect program and I think it was unjustly compared to the much-better “Modern Family” when the more apt comparison is ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters”. This is a family soap opera of the kind that they used to make much more often in the days when the genre ruled the dial and no one was attempting anything like “Lost.” But not everything needs to be groundbreaking. There’s something comforting about family drama done well and “Parenthood” is exactly that. The writing still needs some tweaking but the cast is uniformly great, especially Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, and Craig T. Nelson.

“Parenthood: Season One” is presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and with a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Track.

Special Features:
o Audio Commentary
o Deleted Scenes
o Behind-the-Scenes Featurette