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(S01E06) "Wow, Crosby, you're a dad." - Zeek, after hearing about Crosby's son for the first time

I'll admit it. 'Parenthood' has been a hard show to read. It tries very hard to connect the audience with the human drama of the American family, but at the same time, it expects you to understand and appreciate every problem they come across.

It drags you through their cornfield of sadness and expects you to come out feeling as happy and reserved as the characters do in the end. It makes me wish life actually worked this way. Then it just makes me angrier.

(S01E03) "You know Crosby, however hard you think it is having a kid, just double it." - Adam to Crosby as Crosby cleans kid puke out of his car

This week, things have slowed down a bit, compared to the land speed record that last week's episode achieved. And the show has started to grow on me a little bit.

It scored some great moments of sentiment and honest drama that were endearing and drew me a little closer to the characters, but it's still lacking in that other, all important area of the dramedy: the comedy.

Sure the wall-to-wall Winter Olympics left a lot of people wondering why they should give half-a-crap about ice dancing, but NBC has bounced back with its post-Olympic lineup.

NBC's two new prime time series, 'Parenthood' and 'The Marriage Ref,' won the ratings game against their competitors, and even Jay Leno's triumphant return to 'The Tonight Show' beat David Letterman's 'Late Show.'

Of course, this is just the premiere week for these shows and it's not known if they can retain the numbers that have helped them back into first place for the first time in a good long while. At least the executives can breathe a little easier and Jeff Zucker can rest assured that he won't be losing his job anytime soon as opposed to maybe losing his job by some kind of divine intervention.