In the episode, Sarah feels Adam has stolen one of her ideas, Julia and Joel try to talk to their daughter about sex, and Crosby tries to cope with missing Jasmine and Jabbar.

The episode was written by Jason Katims and directed by Lawrence Trilling, and featured the first of several appearances by William Baldwin as Adam's boss, Gordon Flint.

Adam (Peter Krause) is stressed about work because his boss Gordon (William Baldwin) feels he is too distracted by family issues.

Crosby is trying to cope with missing his son Jabbar (Tyree Brown) and girlfriend Jasmine (Joy Bryant), who is in New York City pursuing her dancing career.

Zeek is in therapy with his wife, Camille (Bonnie Bedelia), and whenever he starts to speak disrespectfully, he stops himself and tells her, "I hear you and I see you."

Trilling said the characters will serve not only as Adam's boss, but also an eventual love interest for Sarah, so they wanted an actor with both stature and comedic talent.

[5] Crosby and Jasmine communicate long distance via Skype, a software application that allows users to make voice calls and video chat over the Internet.

[7] Several songs were featured in "I Hear You, I See You", including "Smile" by Evil Twins, "Well Runs Dry" by Peter Case, "Quick Canal" by Atlas Sound, "Older Guys" by The Flying Burrito Brothers, "It Takes a Muscle" by M.I.A.

Entertainment Weekly television writer Ken Tucker praised Jason Katims' script and felt the episode gave all the actors adequate screen-time while contributing to the overall shape of the series.

Mandi Bierly, also of Entertainment Weekly, also praised the premiere and drew particular attention to the scene with Sarah confronting Adam about stealing her idea.

[13] HitFix television columnist Alan Sepinwall felt the first half of the episode was too uneven in its mix of comedy and drama, but that it was later redeemed mainly by the scenes featuring Max, who he said "is the one character on the show who never feels inauthentic, and he kind of pulls everyone toward him".

Movieline writer Julie Miller felt most of the episode's subplots were unoriginal and uninteresting, including Sydney's inquiries about where babies come from and Zeek making the roof worse by trying to repair it.

Miller sarcastically wrote, "The show proved that it is not screwing around in its sophomore year by immediately tackling completely original family issues.