This Is Us (NBC) (2 Viewers)

[David Weicker]

1.) Kevin is drinking.

2.) Kate had difficulties with her pregnancy and may lose the baby.

3.) Rebecca had difficulties after Jack died.

4.) Suddenly, Deja is brilliant but is having difficulty with the completely non-realistic proposal that she skip 8th grade.

5.) And Randall and Beth are still clueless idiots in their relationship and role as parents and breadwinners.

6.) And that final scene in which Randall & Kevin promise Kate that her baby won't die was simply...sappy. And the promo for next week's episode looks like a nightmare of a cliche melodrama. (Will the baby live/die? Will Kate live/die? Hugs and sad faces all around.)

Unfortunately, that's how I saw tonight's episode. I think its really time for me to give up soon (if not now).

In the musical Chicago, the six merry murderesses sing ‘The Cell Block Tango (He Had It Coming)’.

I think I heard a new verse tonight - “put a pin in it, Beth”

 

[Matt Hough]

I am hating the Kevin scenes because I don't think there is ANYTHING original they can do with a drinking storyline that hasn't been done a million times before in movies and on TV. I am not enjoying the Randall subplots either. Toby and Jack are my favorite characters, but Toby isn't really part of the mainstream most of the time, and Jack was only a minor part of this episode.

 

[Mike Frezon]

In the musical Chicago, the six merry murderesses sing ‘The Cell Block Tango (He Had It Coming)’.

I think I heard a new verse tonight - “put a pin in it, Beth”

And this might actually be interesting, if everything in their storyline wasn't so...wrong and off-putting. Creating conflict through mutual stupidity doesn't really work for me.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

2.) Kate had difficulties with her pregnancy and may lose the baby.

The writeres picked 28 weeks pregnant very specifically, I think; having a baby that early is scarily premature, but the long-term prognosis is actually really good: 96 percent of babies born in hospitals at 28 weeks are still alive after one year. While they need more medical interventions after birth than babies delivered at term, the risk of serious long-term complications -- while elevated compared to full-term babies -- is significantly less than for babies born at 27 weeks or 26 weeks.

It's a way of generating lots of drama, but still leaving themselves plenty of room for a happy, healthy baby on the other side.

3.) Rebecca had difficulties after Jack died.

This obviously isn't at all surprising. But I really like the scenes where it's not about explosive drama, but rather just observing these characters living their lives. The opening scene, with the single dad hitting on Rebecca at the electronics store, I thought was so well-written and acted. It's not just that she wasn't anywhere close to ready to invite another man into her life; it's that, from Jack's death to that moment, the thought of inviting another man into her life hadn't even occurred to her.

4.) Suddenly, Deja is brilliant but is having difficulty with the completely non-realistic proposal that she skip 8th grade.

I've always thought Deja was really, really smart. The way she talks, the way she processes the world around her, the fact that she isn't way more dysfunctional than she is given what she's been through. And the flashbacks we've seen to her years with her mother indicated that schoolwork is something she valued and was invested in, even when nobody else around her was.

That being said, several months in an academically rigorous suburban school aren't going to make up for all of the years in subpar schools, with frequent disruptions to her education as she moved into and out of foster care.

And Deja's point, that she finally had some stability in her life and a routine that grounded her and gave her comfort, is not a small one. Even if she's not being academically challenged, using eighth grade to give her some more time to get her feet under her and reinforce the fundamentals has its own value. What was right for Randall isn't necessarily what's right for Deja.

6.) And that final scene in which Randall & Kevin promise Kate that her baby won't die was simply...sappy.

It's an empty promise, because Randall & Kevin have absolutely no control over whether the baby lives or dies. They can't will its heart to keep beating.

But the scene worked for me because of the intercutting between them in the present and them in the past: All of these years later, they're still there for each other, still apart of each other's lives.

I am hating the Kevin scenes because I don't think there is ANYTHING original they can do with a drinking storyline that hasn't been done a million times before in movies and on TV.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by Kevin's relapse. I figured it would be a retread of his earlier spiral, but it actually wasn't: Before he was in denial, and this time he sees where he's at and what his addiction is doing to him with crystal clarity. And it's making him panic and it's making him lie.

But what gave the story its juice was the twin bond: Kate instantly suspects that he's fallen off the wagon. She's there for Kevin when he needs her, even though he's terribly ashamed to need her. And his priority at that point is keeping anybody else from finding out. But when Kate's water breaks, his own pride goes out the window: He calls Toby and concisely explains that Kate needs to get to the hospital, and he needs to call an ambulance because he's been on a drinking binge all day and is in no condition to drive.

Toby's furious at Kevin, but Kevin did exactly the right thing in that moment. Yes, it took longer to get Kate to the hospital than it would have if Kevin had been able to drive her. But driving drunk to get her there would have been far riskier than waiting for an ambulance.

And this might actually be interesting, if everything in their storyline wasn't so...wrong and off-putting. Creating conflict through mutual stupidity doesn't really work for me.

I agree with the general gist of this statement, but I blame Randall way more than I blame Beth.

Randall's decision to run for office hours away from where he lives -- and the writers' inexplicable decision to have him win that election -- is a real albatross around the show's neck.

Is this the best time for Beth to start teaching dance classes in the evening? No, it's most certainly not. But it's a more reasonable ask than a job that requires 14 hour days, with three or more of those hours spent commuting. And Randall's followed A LOT of his dreams and passions since the start of the series. It's Beth's turn to do something selfish and frivolous.

But Randall's locked himself into a commitment that he had no business taking on. The selfishness of that choice sophisticates everything that happens with Randall's subplot.

Even Randall hopping on a plane last minute to fly cross country to be there for Kate: When he was working a stable, high-paying job in an upper middle class two-income family, that kind of thing was a nice loving gesture. But now, working a flight of fancy, with his city council salary and benefits not yet kicked in, at a time where their savings are getting depleted and they don't have the resources to meet all of their household expenses, last minute round trip airfare feels selfish and indulgent.

I don't see a path for Randall and Beth's story to work while Randall holds that city council seat.

 

[ScottH]

I agree with Mike. The show always had sappy writing. Now it's become sappy and lazy. I feel like there should be a bell in the corner of the screen that rings each time a cliched or overdone story line comes up. Even my wife (who loves the show) commented that they must be running out of ideas to write about.

 

[Mike Frezon]

And this might actually be interesting, if everything in their storyline wasn't so...wrong and off-putting. Creating conflict through mutual stupidity doesn't really work for me.

I agree with the general gist of this statement, but I blame Randall way more than I blame Beth.

Put the blame where it belongs, Adam...at the feet of the writers. None of the decisions these two smart people are making are good for their family. And worse than that...they don't make sense for the characters. So it is impossible for the viewer to believe whatever drama they are trying to create by writing the situations in which these characters are being placed by the writers.

Each time Randall and Beth have a conversation about their individual lives or their greater family, they have been saying/doing things that just aren't realistic. And I am not even being led to believe that there are extenuating circumstances which are driving them to make those decisions.

And all the other stuff that's going on (just in their family) all seems

sappy and lazy.

A young daughter questioning her sexuality, an adopted child craving stability, etc. all seems contrived and cliched. [And I really doubt there is a single teacher anywhere in this world who would actually propose having a kid skip grades from seven to nine. It would really need to be an extreme case and I don't see that with Deja's case. In fact, most teacher's (probably 99.99%) err on the side of social concern rather than academic excellence.]

I really believe the writers have lost their way--that they didn't have their longterm story arcs well-planned out past the inventiveness of season one. And they are now falling back on whatever tropes lend themselves to standard conflict and drama.

Yawn.

And it's such a shame because I REALLY want this show to take me along for the great journey that was promised in season one.

 

[ScottH]

And I really doubt there is a single teacher anywhere in this world who would actually propose having a kid skip grades from seven to nine. It would really need to be an extreme case and I don't see that with Deja's case. In fact, most teacher's (probably 99.99%) err on the side of social concern rather than academic excellence.

I almost forgot about that. And on top of that, that was right after they were actually saying she should repeat 7th grade. So it went from repeating a grade to actually skipping one. How in the world did anyone in the writing room get on board with that?

 

[Matt Hough]

I had read ahead of time that tonight's episode was going to be more like a play with (mostly) one set. Some good character revelations even if I didn't much care for this format (I guess one episode was OK; I'd certainly not like this week in and week out). Kate's sequence at the end was very movingly performed.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I almost forgot about that. And on top of that, that was right after they were actually saying she should repeat 7th grade. So it went from repeating a grade to actually skipping one. How in the world did anyone in the writing room get on board with that?

They weren't saying that she should repeat seventh grade, she is repeating seventh grade. Due to all of the interruptions in schooling and all of the changes in her life, she is repeating seventh grade. They proposed having her skip eighth grade, which would put her back in the same grade with kids her own age.

I had read ahead of time that tonight's episode was going to be more like a play with (mostly) one set. Some good character revelations even if I didn't much care for this format (I guess one episode was OK; I'd certainly not like this week in and week out). Kate's sequence at the end was very movingly performed.

The one thing I'll say in this episode's favor is that it was not what I expected. There is a certain television template for when a main character is in the hospital with a health crisis, and this episode sidestepped most of the hallmarks. It was long and boring, with all of the most important stuff happening behind closed doors. That has always been my experience of hospitals when I'm not the person going under the knife, and I appreciated them not mining Kate's situation for cheap theatrics.

The unfortunate flip side of that we were left with what was essentially a bottle episode. I love a good bottle episode; when you don't have the budget to go anywhere, it forces writers to dig in deep and really explore character. The problem here is that this is a show that's all about character; there isn't a ton of plot, and what plot there is exists to reveal character. So "This Is Us" didn't need a bottle episode to dig in deep and really explore character.

What we were left with instead is stasis: This episode was about Kate, even though she doesn't appear until the final act. So none of the other characters can really move forward. They all come out of this episode more or less where they came into it. And that meant that the drama all felt like a rehash: Rebecca is traumatized by hospitals, because Jack died unexpectedly in a hospital; Miguel feels like the odd man out in the Pearson clan, always on the outside looking in; Randall and Beth are still arguing about their own personal dreams, with no plan whatsoever on how to meet their children's needs; Kevin is still very much off the wagon; Madison is still shallow and deeply insecure; Zoe is still battling her fight-or-flight response.

We spent an hour with these characters in a pressure cooker, and I came out the other side not knowing anything new about them. That, to me, makes this episode a failure.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Haven't watched last night's episode yet, but I thought this was worth sharing.

TVLine asks:
Has This Is Us' Randall Secretly Been the Worst All Along?

 

[Matt Hough]

Haven't watched last night's episode yet, but I thought this was worth sharing.

TVLine asks:
Has This Is Us' Randall Secretly Been the Worst All Along?

He certainly is right now. Intolerable in many ways. In the Kevin storyline, I have been surprised that he's considered having children. He has never impressed me as being someone who could focus on anyone else for any lengthy period of time (and we trace his ability to charm people into doing his bidding all the way back to childhood - good correlations of child-to-adult).

 

[Jason_V]

I've been absent from the convo here for a while...it's taken me a long time to get fully caught up.

In a lot of ways, Nicky set up the Big Three to take certain parts of Jack and make them their own. In trying to actually retrace Jack's footsteps, Kate, Randall and Kevin all understood their father more. Kevin went from someone who is very interested in Zoe and happy in his life to thinking through if he can be with her if she doesn't want kids. That's not the Kevin we started the year with, but I understand it being an outgrowth of seeing Nicky basically waste away without a family. Kevin doesn't want that for himself, so he's pulling any string he can to make sure it doesn't happen. One of those strings is the alcohol; another is the white picket fence and kids with Zoe. He's also the odd man out of the Big Three now. Kate and Randall have spouses and kids; he doesn't. And yes, that's the whole reason he went to see Sophie. I firmly believe he would have dumped Zoe in a heartbeat if Sophie was available.

Kate...she's the part of Jack who puts family first. She left Nicky and basically said "Nope, we accomplished our mission, I'm going home." She's also been the one to pick up Kevin's pieces in the past, but with Toby and now the baby, she is in the position of having to ask for help. She does this with Toby in the hospital in a forceful, no nonsense way. Jack had Rebecca, who was always strong and hasn't really been shown to be wishy-washy in the same way. Yes, Toby has some conditions which Rebecca doesn't, but again, he can't put Kate and the baby first all the time. He wants to even if he needs to take care of himself first and foremost.

And then there's Randall. He got the silver tongue from Jack. Jack could talk a thirsty man out of water. And that's exactly what he's always done, as we saw to explosive effect in "R & B." We all should have seen this coming in the first two seasons. Randall has great intentions and wants to help everyone he can...and then expects Beth to pick up all the pieces, to be the glue, to step in. Is he a bad guy, though? I don't think so. Is he the one who is trying to hard to be everything to everyone that he ends up screwing everything up? Likely.

I'm not finding the show delving into cliches or boring storylines...certainly not as much as any other family drama would do in the same situation. The big story for over a year was how Jack died. That's done and gone, so we will be exploring all these other avenues, like Beth's past or how Beth and Randall got together and how Jack is still influencing all of these people.

The person I'm disliking the most, and I don't think anyone's pointed this out, is Miguel. He hasn't had a lot to do, but in the hospital episode, he came off to me as being wholly uninterested in Rebecca's well being. His first reaction should have been trying to make sure Rebecca was okay: eating, drinking, getting up to walk around, getting fresh air, etc. He didn't care and batted down any of the kids who stepped in. Miguel does have a point, though, when he talked to Madison about always having to stand when he was with them. He's never had an actual seat at the table since he's not "family." That has to weigh on him every single day (we know it does: he said as much with Beth and Toby earlier in the series).

Anyway, this week is apparently the season finale.

 

[Malcolm R]

Haven't watched last night's episode yet, but I thought this was worth sharing.

TVLine asks:
Has This Is Us' Randall Secretly Been the Worst All Along?

I didn't think there was anything "secret" about it. One of the reasons I abandoned the show midway through season one was that adult Randall seemed to be a selfish, insufferable ass (though I didn't find the adult versions of any of the kids to be particularly likeable).

 

[Matt Hough]

The Randall and Beth show this week was somewhat interesting to see their dynamic play out similarly in several different timelines, but as they're usually my least favorite characters, the entire hour devoted to them barely held my attention. The ending of the episode seemed rather inevitable.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I'm trying to refrain from commenting any more in this thread...as I've only got negative things to say about the show these days.

The content has been n the decline for me all season (in terms of being interesting and engaging).

I'm sorely disappointed about that.

 

[Matt Hough]

The season finale episode seemed on much firmer ground. I enjoyed all the plots, and it seemed to get to expected places in a satisfying manner.

 

[mattCR]

Wait, that was season finale tonight? I thought it was fairly good. This season was pretty blah. The entire concept of a guy winning a city council seat who admits he doesn't live there is.. just terrible.

 

[Jason_V]

Okay, completely caught up and I shouldn't have watched at work. I really shouldn't have. When Beth tells Randall they don't work if they're not together...and they could light the world on fire when they are together...I almost lost my mind. If I was at home, I would have very easily been bawling on the couch with one of the pups in my lap.

Kevin and Zoe: she will make someone a great wife. Just not him. And that's a very adult decision to come to. It hurts now, but in the long run, it's the right thing to do. Now, if she's the mother of Kevin's son (in the future), something very clearly changed in her headspace. But with the actress no longer a series regular, I don't think Zoe is coming back in that capacity.

Kate and Rebecca: Rebecca goes from the helicopter mom to the helicopter grandma. I would have lost my temper way before Kate did. But you know what? It's something Rebecca needed to hear and acknowledge. And, to be fair, Kate needed to understand she needs to more assertive with Jack and in her own life.

Deja: she is being more of a female Randall with each episode. She turns the tables on him here to figuratively kick his ass. And she is right: he did win the lottery twice. I'd argue more than that. Deja has the right attitude in relation to life (it comes from her past). She is thankful and doesn't look gift horses in the mouth. Now, an argument can be made she's not old enough to make these connections in her head...but I won't do that.

The reveal at the end not only with Kevin's son, but that Randall and Beth are still together (I assume, based on the kiss and their short conversations) and Nicky being at Rebecca's bed side were kinda expected but kinda not. Nicky is Jack's younger brother and, assuming Jack and Kate were roughly the same age, Nicky isn't that much younger than she is. He looks good in that one shot, considering his hard lifestyle. Just a thought.

 

[Matt Hough]

Nicky had asked them the last time we saw him not to be a part of his life, so something changed in the years between the present and this future timeline. Sometime over the next three seasons (which is what the producers are hoping for with a renewal), his attitude will change.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I just got caught up on this the other night.

I was SO interested in the final few minutes as the writers took us back to that moment when Randall was gathering up Tess for that visit...that I got angry for the rest of the episode which preceded it.

The entire ruse of Deja taking Randall to one of her foster homes and laying on that schmaltzy "you won the lottery--twice" speech was an absolute embarrassment to TV shows everywhere. In fact, Peg and I--since watching that episode--are now using the "ya know, I really won the lottery" line with each other endlessly as a mockingly bad way to express our affection to each other. I hope that wears off soon. But it is pretty funny for now.

And if the audience is supposed to believe that Randall and Beth have found the perfect solution to all their issues---what about their kids' best interests?? I thought it was SOOO important for Deja to have stability in her life and not jump a grade into high school?? Even the idea that Randall and Beth were each oblivious to the fact that their kids hadn't caught on to their tensions is just not a point-of-view that I can swallow. I gotta think that instead of having Deja "pull a Randall" and be the grown-up in the room, it would have been a bit more realistic to see her revert to some prior behaviors and act out like the daughter of a junkie when confronted with the uncertainty that was leaking in through the cracks in Randall and Beth's relationship.

I loved the scene between Tess and Kevin. They each showed off some chops there.

As I said, the fact that the show is able--now apparently only on rare occasions--to evoke that kind of "must see TV" status when going to those scenes in which there is real drama in unveiling what the future will bring to these characters is great. It demonstrates how vested I am in the characters that were created for the show. Who is the mother of Kevin's son? Where was Kate--dead? I actually got the sense that Randall and Beth were likely NOT together from the scene---since they met there and seemed relatively cool in their embrace. I really liked that closing scene a LOT and will revisit it before deleting it from my DVR. But I am unfortunately aggravated by the decline in crisp writing which leads to laughable moments like Deja's speech to Randall or Kevin's obvious dilemma in choosing between Zoe and fatherhood. And the elevation by Kate of Rebecca to "supermom" status is bordering on crazy (and lazy) given how the 'big three" have already elevated their dad to sainthood status.

Just my random thoughts as I continue to be fascinated by this show which has such incredible potential.