This Is Us (NBC) (1 Viewer)

[ScottH]

Just watched the pilot. A bit networky (as to be expected), but seems like a show you can watch with your kids and not be bored out of your mind like most "family" shows. The twist was neat, but I'm not sure I like the direction it will force the show to take. We'll see.

I did find it amusing how the Randall character can afford to pay for a $140k car with cash, but felt the need to bring up/justify his $1,500 credit card splurge on an investigator to find his father.

 

[NeilO]

I am also thinking widow. I had been wondering why we hadn't heard or seen anything from them in the present day.

I was surprised that the past storyline jumped so far forward in time. It looks it will be showing scenes that are relevant to the present day storyline and move around in the timeline (as seen in the preview for the next ep).

Regarding Kevin's story, I also agree he should honor his commitment and make the most of the situation.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This is fast becoming a show that transcends its conceit and is strengthened by it: The circumstances that created this family, and the fault lines that run through it, are so heightened that the show doesn't have to artificially create drama. It can just watch them live their lives, and the drama flows naturally.

It's also proving to be my favorite kind of show: a cast of characters that are all good people, under imperfect circumstances, sometimes falling short but always trying to do their best.

Mandy Moore is incredible on this. What a complex, fierce and incredibly altruistic woman Rebecca is. Even in her one moment of understandable selfishness, when she wouldn't allow William to be a part of Randall's life, she listened to him and found a way to weave him into Randall's life by re-naming Randall after the poet who brought Randall's biological parents together. And, damn, the moment she saw the irritation on the back of Randall's neck, swallowed her pride and asked the black mother for help, that is a championship mother moment right there. And bless her, the other knew what it took for her to walk over and make herself vulnerable like that, and made it as easy for Rebecca as she could.

And then the kids, each with his or her own private misery: Kate, being made to feel insecure by her peers; Randall, constantly feeling Other in very white suburb and trying to connect with this piece of his life that's unavailable to him, while knowing that every tentative step towards that mysterious other life is like a knife in the heart of the only parents he has ever known, parents he loves unreservedly; and then Kevin, who feels lost in the shuffle because he doesn't have a significant struggle that demands his parents' time like his siblings do.

Milo Ventimiglia has great chemistry with Mandy Moore, and he has even better chemistry with the eight-year-old versions of the three kids. He knows exactly how to tackle each problem, not to make it go away, but to make it bearable for a while longer.

I loved that we got to see Kate sing, and that her world is broadening beyond propping her brother up and wallowing in self-pity. I'm torn on Toby. On one hand, he adores Kate and they're often wonderful together. On the other hand, he's like many extroverts that think introverts need to be more like them. I hope he tones down the whole thing of throwing Kate into the deep end without getting her permission first. I did love his rant, though, when Kate got inadvertently hired by his ex-wife. It made him human, and it was incredibly vulnerable and achingly real.

For his part, I appreciated that when Kevin found out she'd broken off her date to rush to his side, he immediately recognized that being his personal assistant was costing Kate too much of herself. He's like many people for whom life has come so easily for so long than he doesn't realize just how easy he's had it. But he's also been struggle-adjacent his whole life, and that gives him a degree of empathy that occasionally allows him to glimpse past his own self-absorption. I think moving him to New York was the smartest move the show could have made, both because the world of the New York stage is as perfect of a foil as you could conceive for his character, and because it puts him in close proximity to Randall, and that is the most fraught relationship on the entire show. The more the various separate storylines intertwine, the more invested I become.

Sterling K. Brown remains my emotional anchor for the present day scenes, even though Kate and Kevin are growing on me. His entire existence is rooted in being a black man in a white man's world. And some incredible things have come out of that, but it also takes an enormous toll on him. The moment at the school play was particularly telling, as his dark-complexioned daughter unironically recites decades-old dialog about how fair she is. The kids of all colors on stage don't think anything of it, but some old white men in the back have a laugh at the incongruity of it. William and Beth are just caught up in the joy of how well their love and joy is doing on that stage, but all Randall can hear is the old men laughing. And when those feelings of persecution and alienation come to the fore, William wisely doesn't trying to invalidate Randall's experience or filter it through the lens of his own experience. He tells him the truth: nothing that he's had to deal with, good or bad, is his fault. He took the cards he was dealt, and played them into an extraordinary life that he should be proud of. In fact, any time there's a scene between, Brown and Ron Cephas Jones, I brace myself to get hit right in the feels.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm really enjoying this show, and Mandy Moore continues to be the MVP. The parents' storyline is consistently the best one on the show -- the best acted, and the best written. Randall's storyline is a close second, and the show's benefited from bringing Kevin into Randall's orbit.

I continue to be torn by Toby. Chris Sullivan is very endearing and charming in the role, but I increasingly resent his inability to accept it when Kate says "no" to something. And the stunt with the card at their obesity support group was manipulative; by forcing her to make a decision with a big audience like that, he was making it difficult for her to turn him down.

That's exactly what we were thinking...

We called it with Milo Ventimiglia's character! The when and the how will probably be revealed at some point in the future. I am glad that the storyline with Milo and Mandy is likely to be a true love story with a sad ending, and not a slow march toward a War of the Roses-style bitter divorce.

 

[ScottH]

This is fast becoming a show that transcends its conceit and is strengthened by it: The circumstances that created this family, and the fault lines that run through it, are so heightened that the show doesn't have to artificially create drama. It can just watch them live their lives, and the drama flows naturally.

It's also proving to be my favorite kind of show: a cast of characters that are all good people, under imperfect circumstances, sometimes falling short but always trying to do their best.

Mandy Moore is incredible on this. What a complex, fierce and incredibly altruistic woman Rebecca is. Even in her one moment of understandable selfishness, when she wouldn't allow William to be a part of Randall's life, she listened to him and found a way to weave him into Randall's life by re-naming Randall after the poet who brought Randall's biological parents together. And, damn, the moment she saw the irritation on the back of Randall's neck, swallowed her pride and asked the black mother for help, that is a championship mother moment right there. And bless her, the other knew what it took for her to walk over and make herself vulnerable like that, and made it as easy for Rebecca as she could.

And then the kids, each with his or her own private misery: Kate, being made to feel insecure by her peers; Randall, constantly feeling Other in very white suburb and trying to connect with this piece of his life that's unavailable to him, while knowing that every tentative step towards that mysterious other life is like a knife in the heart of the only parents he has ever known, parents he loves unreservedly; and then Kevin, who feels lost in the shuffle because he doesn't have a significant struggle that demands his parents' time like his siblings do.

Milo Ventimiglia has great chemistry with Mandy Moore, and he has even better chemistry with the eight-year-old versions of the three kids. He knows exactly how to tackle each problem, not to make it go away, but to make it bearable for a while longer.

I loved that we got to see Kate sing, and that her world is broadening beyond propping her brother up and wallowing in self-pity. I'm torn on Toby. On one hand, he adores Kate and they're often wonderful together. On the other hand, he's like many extroverts that think introverts need to be more like them. I hope he tones down the whole thing of throwing Kate into the deep end without getting her permission first. I did love his rant, though, when Kate got inadvertently hired by his ex-wife. It made him human, and it was incredibly vulnerable and achingly real.

For his part, I appreciated that when Kevin found out she'd broken off her date to rush to his side, he immediately recognized that being his personal assistant was costing Kate too much of herself. He's like many people for whom life has come so easily for so long than he doesn't realize just how easy he's had it. But he's also been struggle-adjacent his whole life, and that gives him a degree of empathy that occasionally allows him to glimpse past his own self-absorption. I think moving him to New York was the smartest move the show could have made, both because the world of the New York stage is as perfect of a foil as you could conceive for his character, and because it puts him in close proximity to Randall, and that is the most fraught relationship on the entire show. The more the various separate storylines intertwine, the more invested I become.

Sterling K. Brown remains my emotional anchor for the present day scenes, even though Kate and Kevin are growing on me. His entire existence is rooted in being a black man in a white man's world. And some incredible things have come out of that, but it also takes an enormous toll on him. The moment at the school play was particularly telling, as his dark-complexioned daughter unironically recites decades-old dialog about how fair she is. The kids of all colors on stage don't think anything of it, but some old white men in the back have a laugh at the incongruity of it. William and Beth are just caught up in the joy of how well their love and joy is doing on that stage, but all Randall can hear is the old men laughing. And when those feelings of persecution and alienation come to the fore, William wisely doesn't trying to invalidate Randall's experience or filter it through the lens of his own experience. He tells him the truth: nothing that he's had to deal with, good or bad, is his fault. He took the cards he was dealt, and played them into an extraordinary life that he should be proud of. In fact, any time there's a scene between, Brown and Ron Cephas Jones, I brace myself to get hit right in the feels.

Man Adam, I would love to see the commentary you would come up with on an actual well written show like 'Rectify'.

 

[Mike Frezon]

But I'm not with ya on the Mandy Moore adulation. Moore comes off as wooden to both Peg and myself. Her acting seems stiff and forced.

I like Toby. Peg doesn't.

And I'm still confused about the financial situation of Randall and his wife. As we've already noted, he went off about how he could afford to pay cash for his kick-ass car but then had to explain himself to his wife about the expense of hiring the PI who found his father. It seems, obviously, that they've got the biggest house in the world...yet they were besides themselves with the idea that they could take Kevin's apartment while he was crashing at their house. I suppose it might've been motivated by he fact that they could be alone. I get that. But they also didn't have good babysitters with whom to leave their children. That whole situation didn't play "real" for me. Randall's reaction upon getting to the apartment was just as much about room service as it was about constant sex with his wife.

And, frankly, I don't dig the idea of Kate being that attached to Dad's ashes. Well, it's okay to be attached to her dad and his mortal remains, I guess. But to be "watching football" with him and introducing him to her boyfriend is a little "off"...wouldn't ya say?

Overall, though, liking the show. LOVE the relationship between Milo's character and the three kids.

The time-shifting was weird at the end of the episode when we saw Randall grieving the death of William. I would suspect that we will see more of William when next week's episode airs and that it was just a brief glimpse into the future to relate Randall's reaction to the loss? I hope I'm not going to be suffering whiplash with the time-shifting...

 

[ScottH]

Yeah Mandy Moore is not a good actress...never has been, and this show is no exception.

I get why they do the flashbacks to when they were kids, but I have to admit I'm least interested in that story line. I'm much more interested in what's going on in the present time. The scenes between Kevin and William were nicely done. And I'm glad Randall's wife is not pregnant. That would have been a tired story line.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I rolled my eyes when it looked like they were going down the road of having Kevin's embittered co-star moved by his moment of humanity and swept into bed with him. I felt very gratified when it turned out she just slept with him the once as a calculated move to get him to where she needed him to be as her co-star.

The AT&T girl is fun as the increasingly exasperated playwright.

Randall's song in front of the entire auditorium about weather commodities left me feeling humiliated by proxy.

Were the computers in Jack's office an anachronism? The casing seemed about right for 1989, what little I could see of the OS looked too new, almost like Windows 95.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I continue to adore this show.

But after Randall had his moment with Mom, I hope they continued up the Thruway to Albany so that AT&T Girl could meet her new niece.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

What a wonderful Christmas episode. It's amazing, ten episodes in, how emotionally invested I am in this family. They are flawed, but they are decent and trying so hard to move past their flaws.

I was so glad that the show didn't just drop Sloan's storyline with the actress and her hipster ex stealing her rental car. The scene with the Hanukkah dinner was wonderful, as we get a glimpse of this whole other family with its fault lines and sore spots but also so much love. And then we see Sloan tell her nieces the story of Hanukkah and we see what a natural storyteller she is, how she makes what she's telling come alive. And Kevin sees that too, and celebrates it. Financing the play when he is facing breach of contract problems and has basically been blacklisted from Hollywood is probably a seismically bad decision. But I loved him in that moment for the earnestness with which he did it.

I also loved William's Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and the glimpse it gave us into his life before Randall knocked on his door. It would have beggared belief that following the death of Randall's biological mother that he would have holed up monk-like in the same apartment for the intervening decades. The face of Jesse is not neat or tidy, but it's real. Jesse is angry and hurt and self-destructive. They say that it's not generally healthy for addicts to be with addicts. And yet, William and Jesse share a real love, and that may be messy when you're trying to build a relationship with your son on death's door, but it is what it is. And the wonder of the Pearson family is that William and Jesse can show up unannounced at that late hour and just be absorbed effortlessly into the festivities.

This was a great Kate episode. Finally, finally, finally she was real with her mother. I don't have a weight problem, but damn that scene in the doctor's office rang true to me, when mom had one answer and her adult child had a completely different one -- this great distance between mom's image of her child and the real person that child had become. And afterward, in the car, Rebecca owns up to her inadequacy when dealing with Kate's weight struggle and asks plaintively if she's the cause of Kate's current struggles. And Kate answers honestly, without judgment or anger, that she doesn't know.

There were three things that felt a bit artificial and "TV", but I was willing to forgive all of them:

1. When young Kate is rushed into emergency surgery on Christmas Eve to have her appendix removed, the obstetrician played by Gerald McRaney who delivered Kate and Kevin and gave Jack the big pep talk that led to Randall's adoption happens to be in the hospital on death's door as a patient. He got into a bad car accident and suffered significant internal injuries that come with a grim prognosis. The coincidence is too large to wholly accept, and it's obvious that -- given how great McRaney is in the role -- they needed a mechanism to bring him back into the show. I forgave it because all of the scenes with his character tonight were wonderful. And what a lovely thing that the Pearsons would rally around him since his own family is on the other side of the country. While there would have been power in keeping McRaney's character as a one-and-done, I don't blame the show for bringing him back. Since they did it for the episode that flashed back to Rebecca's postpartum depression, they might as well keep doing it.
   
   
2. Randall walking onto the roof just as his co-worker Andy is about to commit suicide. Yes, it was overly dramatic, and yes the odds of him walking onto that rooftop deck at that moment were nearly as long as running into Dr. K at the hospital. But I give shows a little more slack when it comes to magical realism on Christmas episodes, and it was almost like a little one-act play, with the subtext that Andy is a stand-in for Rebecca right after Randall found the letter. And Sterling K. Brown and Jimmi Simpson acted the crap out of that scene.
   
   
3. Toby having a massive heart attack just as the girls are being carried off to bed and the night is winding down. When Toby appeared at the front door wearing a red jacket and a Santa hat, I was ready to throw something at the TV. Yet another grand gesture to bully Kate into doing what he wanted, I thought. But no; Kate finally standing up for herself and breaking up with him had the right effect. He flew across the country to win her back, yes, but he was offering it on her terms and not his. And then they were lovely together, and the rest of the family got to see someone make take this big swing for Kate, to see her be adored and wanted in that way. Yes, the heart attack is a suitably big cliffhanger to go into the winter hiatus on -- which clashes with the fact that the show is at its best with the small moments, where the characters drive the episodes instead of the plot and the show is just focused on observing them. But flying can cause venous thrombosis, the stress of relationship problems can increase heart attack risks, deadly heart attacks are statistically more prevalent during the holidays, Toby exerted himself more in this episode than any others. He really stacked the risk factors one on top of the other, and he was already almost certainly at an elevated risk.

 

[DaveF]

Hi, we're back. Everyone still watching?
I admit, I was concerned they would kill Toby. That doesn't fit the essentially happy nature of the show, but still.

NPR's Pop Culture Happy House podcast has a nice little bit on the show in their 2016 roundup. They characterized it as a cliche machine that works and makes us cry every week. And, pretty much every episode, I hear my wife getting snifffly about halfway through.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Still watching.

I laughed when the three siblings were sitting in the hospital waiting room and recapped all that was going on in their lives. It became a rather ironic display of purposefully pointing out to the audience ALL the dramatic stuff that was going on with these characters.

 

[Malcolm R]

I bailed. I deleted the last two eps before the fall break unwatched and cancelled my DVR pass.

I enjoyed the scenes of the young family, but the grown up kids are insufferable, with all their drama.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm still watching this too and enjoying it.

Hi, we're back. Everyone still watching?
I admit, I was concerned they would kill Toby. That doesn't fit the essentially happy nature of the show, but still.

I was a bit confused by the medical terminology being thrown around in this episode. Toby's collapse in the midseason finale certainly didn't look like it was just an arrhythmia, and as far as I know you don't usually insert a stent unless there was a blockage. So it seemed very strange to me that Toby was insistent that he hadn't had a heart attack.

NPR's Pop Culture Happy House podcast has a nice little bit on the show in their 2016 roundup. They characterized it as a cliche machine that works and makes us cry every week. And, pretty much every episode, I hear my wife getting snifffly about halfway through.

I'm not sure cliche is the right word to describe it. What it does is take these universal events and moments that are experienced by the majority of people at one point or another, and mines them for drama very personal to these specific characters. As audience members, we find ourselves involved because we're emotionally invested in the characters and because these beats stir memories and feelings from our own experiences.

I laughed when the three siblings were sitting in the hospital waiting room and recapped all that was going on in their lives. It became a rather ironic display of purposefully pointing out to the audience ALL the dramatic stuff that was going on with these characters.

That was definitely the show owning its melodrama. But I also like that it showed the three of them interacting with each other in a functional way, when they've been so fractured for so long.

And man, the scene at the end where Randall accepts that William is going to die, and gives him permission to cease the chemo treatment. A beautiful, small, intensely human moment between two of the show's strongest actors.

 

[DaveF]

Cliches in terms of the characters and their basic dramas: fat woman with heart of gold, self-involved actor seeking "authenticity", orphan seeking parent, etc. I'm not complaining, though This is Us makes Parenthood look subtle in comparison to its emotional manipulations. But I agree wholly with you that they're mining basic human experiences and wants and difficulties, with wonderful actors and good dialog and it all works.



I don't know anything, so I googled:

“When arrhythmias last long enough to affect how well the heart works, more serious symptoms may develop:

Fatigue
Dizziness
Lightheadedness
Fainting (syncope) or near-fainting spells
Rapid heartbeat or pounding
Shortness of breath
Chest pain
In extreme cases, collapse and sudden cardiac arrest”

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Condi...rrhythmia_UCM_002025_Article.jsp#.WHrOv8s8Kf0

 

[Stan]

Tried this for a while, but had to give up. Maybe it will show up with a repeat season and I can do a "binge" watch."

It just required me to "think" to much. I want mindless fluff with action and things blowing up, like "The Last Ship" which is being re-run now. Light, easy viewing that doesn't require a brain. Although I do enjoy "Life in Pieces", which is somewhat similar.

I'll give this another shot, but only when I can see it from episode #1 and onward.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

January 18, 2017
THIS IS A TWO-SEASON PICK-UP


Fall’s Best Reviewed and #1-Rated New Series “This Is Us” Receives Renewal for Two Additional Seasons

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Jan. 18, 2017 — To the delight of a massive and passionate fan base, NBC has ordered two minimum 18-episode seasons of its Tuesday night drama sensation “This Is Us.” The Pearson family will be spending a few more birthdays with NBC.

“We all got our wish that this is a hit show,” said Jennifer Salke, President, NBC Entertainment. “‘This Is Us’ is as good as anything we’ve ever had, we’re thrilled to renew it for two seasons and there’s no doubt it will have a long life on NBC. On behalf of everyone at NBC, we’re grateful for the artistry of the cast, crew, and producers assembled by our gifted creator, Dan Fogelman. In a world where there are literally hundreds of television dramas, we’re proud to have one of the very best that is also one of the highest-rated.”

So far this season, “This Is Us” originals are averaging a 4.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 14.6 million viewers overall in “live plus seven day” results from Nielsen Media Research, making it the #1 new show of the season in 18-49 and television’s #4 entertainment series in that key demographic.

It returned to the schedule this last week after a five-week break and set a new “live plus same day” series record in adults 18-49 (3.0 rating). This episode also set a new series record in L+3 (18-49) with a 4.6 rating, delivering NBC’s top rating in the timeslot with scripted programming since April 2008.

To date, 72 million total viewers have viewed the first 10 episodes in some fashion on all platforms. Linear viewership plus views on all devices of the pilot episode since Sept. 20 stands at an estimated 10.0 rating in the 18-49 demo. The show to date is averaging an estimated 8.3 rating in 18-49 most current data (includes long-tail viewing through various number of days available per episode, i.e. 114 days for the pilot, 107 days for episode 2, etc.).

On digital platforms, “This Is Us” is NBC’s most-viewed series premiere on record, more than doubling the network’s previous record for most one-day views of a debuting series across NBC digital platforms.

“This Is Us” was also the most anticipated new series heading into fall with its trailer viewed more than 105 million times following the show’s announcement at the May upfronts.

Critics have raved about “This Is Us,” with Entertainment Weekly saying the show is “a bear hug for a culture desperate for a little bit of that human touch” and that the series is “an epic family love story that you can’t help but root for.” The New York Times called it “heartwarming” and TV Guide said, “‘This Is Us’ is the most creative and well-made new show of the fall.”

“This Is Us” is a refreshingly honest and provocative series that follows a unique ensemble whose paths cross and their life stories intertwine in curious ways. We find several of them share the same birthday, and so much more than anyone would expect. “This Is Us” is a smart, modern series that will challenge your everyday presumptions about the people you think you know.

The cast includes Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, Sterling K. Brown, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan and Ron Cephas Jones.

Dan Fogelman serves as writer and executive producer with Don Todd. Jess Rosenthal, Charlie Gogolak and directors Ken Olin, John Requa and Glenn Ficarra also executive produce. “This Is Us” is produced by 20th Century Fox Television.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Rebecca Marks, [email protected], 818-777-3030
Natalia Desrosiers, [email protected], 818-777-2248

 

[DaveF]

This week's was a beautiful essay on resiliency to life's difficulties. I might have taken some notes for my own life.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I was frustrated by the previous episode, where Randall's long-brewing nervous breakdown hits just as Kevin's about to walk on stage. I felt the writer's hand at work, which is never a good thing.

But last week's episode was a beautiful thing, a showcase of all the things the show does best. I love the tapestry of this family, and how through them we get to touch upon a surprisingly wide array of the American experience. I love the dignity and sensitivity of the characterizations, and the way the nonlinear structure allows the show to peel back layers of these people like the layers of an onion. I loved spending an entire hour with the show's two best actors, Ron Cephas Jones and Sterling K. Brown. What a wonderful telling of a chapter that we all knew was coming.

And the casting of Jermel Nakia was absolutely inspired. One of the very few times cutting back and forth between two actors playing the same role where I have to remind myself that I'm not looking at the same person.

 

[NeilO]

I was frustrated by the previous episode, where Randall's long-brewing nervous breakdown hits just as Kevin's about to walk on stage. I felt the writer's hand at work, which is never a good thing.

Kevin just completely bailing on the play without any explanation just didn't feel right. I think if he came on stage and explained what was going on, the audience would have understood. I've no idea what the writers have planned to clean up this plotline.

I agree about the road trip and the casting there. Just brilliant.