Parenthood Show Review

Cheesy. Unrealistic. Dramatic. Family. Count Me In!

Plot Summary

Parenthood follows the ins and outs of the extended Braverman family.

What I Thought

I tried to watch Parenthood back in high school a couple times, but always quit after a few episodes. A few months ago, it popped up on my “Picks For You” on Hulu and I decided to give it one more shot. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a grown-up or a parent now, but I couldn’t quit watching this time around.

This is not a binge-worthy show, but it is so classic 2010s that I ate it up. I think the major draw to Parenthood for me was how cohesive the family was despite their dysfunction. The siblings got along, fought, and reconciled. The parents dealt with real issues of growing old. The grandchildren ranged in ages, sizes, and personalities. Not every storyline was a good one, but the ones that were, really were!

One of my only complaints was how obnoxious and whiny and entitled the grandchildren were. Especially, Sydney. Another one of my issues was how they seemed to be made of money. Every time the show produced a money issue it was magically resolved with no realistic resolution. It was extremely irritating, because majority of the viewers are not rich and can’t just resolve their issues in a couple days.

I was pleasantly pleased with the ending – yes, it does get an ending – and I am not ashamed to admit that it actually made me cry. I’m kind of a mushy gushy human when it comes to family.

My Rating: 5 Stars

I am giving Parenthood 5 stars and I would recommend to those that enjoy ridiculous, mostly unrealistic family dramas. But this is not a show that I would ever watch a second time.

Have you seen Parenthood?

Make It or Break It Show Review

Gymnastics + Drama = Me on my couch binging for a week straight.

Plot Summary

Make It or Break It centers around four main female leads – Payson, Emily, Lauren, and Kaylie. All four girls are training as elite gymnasts hoping to eventually compete in the olympics. While training, the girls deal with typical teenage and family stuff such as boyfriends, divorce, breaking the rules as well as training drama such as coaches, gym parents, and politics. The show follows their journey all the way up to olympic team tryouts.

What I Thought

I love all things competitive gymnastics and honestly there isn’t enough entertainment with gymnastics as the plot, so I pretty much enjoy anything that takes a stab at it (Stick It anyone?). I actually watched the first season of this show when it was on tv back when I was in high school. Not sure why I stopped watching, because this time around I absolutely adored it. Most of the plotlines are cheesy, but it is exactly the kind of show I fall for. There is surprisingly a lot of gymnastics involved and just enough ridiculous drama to keep it interesting.

The girls all come from different backgrounds and deal with different issues all while fighting for the same goal. There is the new poor girl with a single mom and handicapped brother, the rich snobby girl raised by a single dad, the extremely talented girl with a strong family that keep her grounded, and the other rich girl with two famous parents who treat her like money machine. Not all the characters are likable, but once you pick your favorite, it is fun to root for that one through all of the drama.

For those who have watched the show…

My favorite character is without a doubt Payson! She is the sweetest, cutest, most-relatable character for me. I liked all of her plotlines and she made me feel the most especially when she hurt her back and had to change the type of gymnast she was and when she had to prove she wasn’t just a sacrificial lamb for the olympic team to throw away. She had a heart of gold, a good head on her shoulders, and more courage and perseverance than any of the other girls. Oh, and her and Rigo were sooooo adorable!

I wish the show had gotten it’s last three episodes to show what happened at the 2012 olympics, but at least they gave it an ending by showing who made it onto the olympic team, so I’ll give them some credit for a decent wrap-up and not just leaving us hanging.

I was so happy with the Kelly Parker redemption story. She was so annoying in the beginning of the show, but getting to see a bit more of her character and what has shaped her in the second season to the person she was at the end of season three was so great! I think Kelly might be my second favorite shockingly enough.

Lauren and Emily both got on my nerves so much. Lauren because gosh can someone be so horrible and snotty and annoying? And Emily because she just didn’t respect any rules or laws… like I get it you were dealt a bad hand, but you can’t just act like the rules don’t apply to you. Besides Rigo, I thought Damon was the best boy character; although I didn’t like how they wrote off Emily’s character, but I get why they did it because the actress got pregnant in real life.

My Rating: 5 Stars

I really enjoyed this show and finished the entire three seasons in one week! I would definitely recommend it for anyone who likes gymnastics or typical drama-filled shows about teenagers.

Have you seen Make It or Break It?

Good Trouble Show Review

Well Callie and Mariana are back, but maybe not quite better than ever…

Plot Summary

Good Trouble picks up where The Fosters left off – approximately 4 years after the kids graduated high school and went their separate ways – Callie is now a law school graduate working as a clerk and Mariana is an MIT graduate working at a tech startup company. Both girls move to Los Angeles to begin their adult lives and together they face new trials and endless drama.

What I Thought

The show is enticing to say the least, but I feel like some of the storylines could have handled with more class. Both girls are quite reckless and very promiscuous. Much of the show centers around steamy love scenes which I feel like takes away from the very serious issues they are trying to bring light to. I hoped they would show the girls as mature young women, but they act like crazy college students.

I do like the issues the show addresses: gender pay inequality, police brutality, and treatment of the transgender. Showcasing the issues brings a bit of depth to the show despite all the unnecessary relationship drama.

Lastly, the show is shot very artistically, which makes it look cool, but the excessive use of jump cuts and dream sequences gets very confusing and takes away from the main storyline. It takes a couple of episodes to get used to and I hope they stop doing it in season two.

My Rating: 3 Stars

Did you watch the original show The Fosters?

Conviction Show Review

You are gorgeous, absolutely, unequivocally, unrelentingly, gorgeous. With a perfect, I repeat perfect, body. -Brian Peluso

Conviction is a Law and Order spin-off. That’s basically all you need to know to know if you want to give it a watch…

Plot Summary

ADA Alex Cabot from Law and Order: SVU comes back to the small screen as the Bureau Chief for a group of new, young, and ambitious lawyers as they learn the ins and outs of practicing law.

What I Thought

Being a law buff and an unashamed Law and Order fan, I absolutely enjoyed the heck out of this show. I was only disappointed when I realized it only received thirteen episodes. What a shame!

Conviction follows the lives of six lawyers – majority who are new to the field and a few who are seasoned – as they navigate the courtroom and their personal lives. Truthfully, the characters are forgettable. I didn’t really have a favorite; although, I did have a relationship that I was rooting for the whole time. One thing I liked about the characters is that they all had strong and weak traits that made them seem more human and relatable.

This show is for the fan of Law and Order that wishes all the “order” could be cut out and the courtroom scenes could be extended. You get the other side of the action which is really interesting. I liked that the cases vary in content instead of all being sexual assaults, you get a little bit of insight on other types of cases as well; some of which really made you think – one that stuck out ot me was about rehabilitation.

One of my only complaints about Conviction is that they never clarify when exactly it takes place. Ale was my favorite attorney on SVU and if you keep up with her story *spoiler* she goes into Witness Protection and then comes back to law years later, and then years after that works with an underground railroad for domestically abused women… so when was she the Bureau Chief for these spry lawyers? Because they always refer to her as ADA Cabot in SVU, but I’m not entirely sure if that is still her title if she is the Bureau Chief. So you have to wonder whether she became chief after working SVU or if she was chief before working SVU. I wish that had been clarified for fans of both shows.

I love these kinds of shows and would have watched many more seasons of Conviction, but if this does sound like your kind of show, don’t be discouraged by the fact it only got one season… the show gets a decent ending and it won’t leave you wondering.

My Rating: 4 Stars

Are you a Law and Order fan that wishes for more law and less order?

Twenty-Eighteen Review

At the beginning of this year instead of creating resolutions, I wrote out six goals that I wanted to work towards. These goals were simple with no explanations. Now that this year is coming to a close, I want to look back on these goals and see where I stand.

Exercise Daily

Exercising daily happened about four weeks out of this whole year. The first week and a few weeks in April. Exercise is just not my thing and doing it daily was quite a stretch. I always feel good after I work out, but I need to figure out what type of exercise I enjoy and can keep up with. This is especially important now that I am pregnant.

Journal Weekly

I started out pretty strong with journaling, but – per usual – completely forgot about it as life went on. So when I flip through my journal, there are weeks and months that go by between entries. I’m beginning to think that pen to paper journaling might not be for me.

Read More

Reading was a favorite pastime of mine that had fallen by the wayside and I wanted to use this year to get back into falling into my love of literary goodness. I use Goodreads to keep up with my reading endeavours and challenged myself to read 12 books. One book for every month. I reached this goal back in May and have read a total of 17 books this year!

Book Reviews:

• Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
• The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
• Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
• The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
• When We Collided by Emery Lord
• Among the Imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau
• The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord
• Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
• All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover

Save Money, Budget Better

I think this is the goal that I focused on the most this year and it P A I D off! Jeremiah and I opened up a joint bank account and began to build our family savings. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t have too many bills, so we were able to put at least a third of each of our paychecks into savings – which felt great! Overtime, we gradually took over all of Jeremiah’s bills – moving him from his parent’s policy to our family policy. Being completely on our own felt fantastic, but it came with a new responsibility: budgeting. With some trial and error + some real world math, we figured out a budget that worked for us in making sure bills were paid on time and our savings was still growing. I am so excited and proud to say that Jeremiah and I reached our savings goal for the year!!!

Weekly Family Devotionals

Family devotionals did not happen this year – not daily, weekly, or monthly. Besides going to church off and on, faith kind of took a backseat. We tried, but as we dealt with some hard things in life, I had some reservations about my faith. Just in the last month have we made the decision to wade back in slowly.

Make Every Day Count

I think this goal might have been a bit too vague. Twelve months later and I can’t remember what I meant or hoped to achieve with this goal. During the first few months of this year, I set up challenges for myself such as fasting from soda and television in order to accomplish more during the day, but after March, I don’t think I made any obvious changes to my typical routine.

Overall, I feel like accomplishing two out of six goals is pretty decent! I’m proud of what I was able to achieve this year. Reaching our savings goal and reading seventeen books were not easy tasks and knowing I reached those goals gives me hope for what I can accomplish in the new year!!