One for Sorrow

That's actually one of my least favorite TV cliches (and I did grow up in a two-parent suburban household). I never understood why these characters should suddenly start longing for a total stranger! Or, for that matter, why they should forgive every awful thing their parents did just because they shared genes and maybe lived together for a while. Like in Battlestar Galactica: okay, Starbuck, your mother did love you in her twisted way... and still abused you, so why do you need to go back in your imagination and make up? Or in Bones: her dad is a career criminal and charming but chronic liar, his crimes led to him having to abandon her, and everyone keeps saying she should really want to get closer to him because he's her dad? She's doing fine, thanks. For once, I think Glee actually did this sort of thing well: Rachel and her mom have spent years wondering what it would be like to know each other, and when they finally meet, they don't feel any magic spark at all, and can't make it appear.