When I was a sophomore in college, I dropped whatever I was doing when thirtysomething came on. Sounds odd, I know, but there was something about that show that touched me like no show has done since. I wanted to be like Hope Steadman and live in a big house with an adoring husband and a great group of friends for support. However, I was also realistic, and perhaps that is why the show has stuck with me ever since, for this was not a neat and tidy show where everything is solved in an episode, or one in which the protagonists got everything they wanted. It was a brutally honest picture of life- the happy and the sad, the exciting and the mundane, the good and the bad. Because it was so real, I could easily identify with the characters as if they were actual people I knew leading the kind of life I wanted and would one day have.

The second season of thirtysomething continues the story of Hope and Michael Steadman (Mel Harris and Ken Olin), and their friends Nancy and Elliot Weston (Patricia Wettig and Timothy Busfield), Ellyn Warren (Polly Draper), Gary Hart (Peter Horton), and Michael’s cousin Melissa (Melanie Mayron). Michael wants another child, but he has to convince Hope the time is right, in addition to handling a failing business and his role as the main provider for the family. Elliot works on himself as a father and tries to earn a second chance with soon-to-be ex-wife Nancy. Nancy delves further in to the world of work and dating while continuing the writing of her children’s book. Ellyn deals with her parent’s divorce, her relationship with Woodman (Terry Kinney), and an ulcer. Gary meets Susannah (Patricia Kalember), an opinionated director of a social service agency who changes his life in many significant ways. Melissa begins to experience growing success, including photographing Carly Simon (who makes an appearance in the episode “Trust Me”). Equally important to the cast is antagonist David Clennon, playing Miles Drentell, the owner of an ad agency that plays heavily in to the second half of the season.

In season one, the creators and writers of thirtysomething were able to accurately capture what it is like to be in your thirties dealing with the life you have, versus the life you think you want. Season two does an equally good job of this with stand out episodes mainly coming in the beginning of the season, including “The Mike Van Dyke Show”, “In Re: The Marriage of the Westons”, “No Promises”, and “First Day/Last Day”. A noticeable improvement of this season is in the actual storytelling itself. The stories of each episode seem more complete, and not just snippets of “everyday life”. The use of fantasy elements (usually in the form of the character’s imaginations), works much better this season. In season one, those elements often felt artificial and gimmicky, whereas in season two they help tell the story of the episode without detracting from it.

Season 2 of thirtysomething is, overall, a very solid and satisfying collection of episodes. However, the beginning of the season is stronger than the second half. Twenty something years later, all of the episodes I remember the best are the ones in the beginning of the season. Much of the second half feels as if it is setting the storyline for the next few seasons to follow. The latter episodes of
this season may not be as memorable, but they are important to the whole story, and they are better than most of what has come since on TV dramas.