This is us: all the feels
The NBC drama returns with more joy and pain
Game of Thrones, we have to talk. We’re seeing another show. And it’s serious. It’s called This Is Us, and it’s hands down the best show on network TV.
What makes it so insanely satisfying is twofold. First you’ve got some of the best writing and directing we’ve seen on television in thirty years. Which just happens to be when a little family drama debuted called Thirtysomething. Not so coincidentally, Ken Olin, who starred in and sometimes directed episodes of that hugely popular 80s show, is producing and sometimes directing This Is Us, along with the talented creator, Dan Fogelman. And second are the actors. Each character is so perfectly cast as the extended members of the Pearson family.
If you’re not familiar with the show yet, we’re jealous. We’d love to begin this beautiful story again, meeting the young, inexperienced parents, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) as they prepare for the arrival of their triplets. Things don’t go according to plan, just like real life, and when one of their children dies during childbirth, the couple ends up adopting an abandoned black baby boy and the “The Big Three” is created.
As adults, the kids have remained close, reviewing chapters of their childhoods over the course of each fascinating episode. We have Kate (Chrissy Metz), dealing with her weight and falling in love with Toby (Chris Sullivan), Kevin (Justin Hartley), a famous TV sitcom actor hoping to branch out into more serious work, and Randall (Emmy-winner, Sterling K. Brown), the adopted son who searches for and finds his biological father (Ron Cephas Jones).
There are so many big moments in the series—pregnancy scares, first loves, death—but what makes This Is Us so powerful are the small, intimate moments. Everyone is so human, we can’t help but feel everything they feel, making the title of the show so pertinent and the ultimate mission statement. This Is Us. Yes, it is us. True and honest.
The second season promises to be just as dramatic and real as the first. Here are few clips to absorb as we wait for the series to begin on September 26th on NBC. The second trailer, below, ranks the most bittersweet, heartfelt moments from Season One. Get the tissues before you hit play.
