What’s the name of this show? This Is Us  When does it premiere? Tuesday 20 September, at 10pm EST  Who is this “us” they speak of? The show’s opening claims that Wikipedia says that 18 million people have the same exact birthday. These are stories of four people who share the same birthday and how their lives intersect. Because they are very different types of people I think we’re supposed to conclude that their stories are the stories of all humankind.  Is this the first television series on record to rely on Wikipedia as a credible source? Yes.  Who are these people with the same birthday? Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) is a very handsome young father with a great ass (we see it in the first frames). His wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) goes into labor with their triplets and is in medical danger. Other than that, we know little about him.  Kevin (Justin Hartley) is a hunky actor who was doing “three episode arcs on Nashville” before his big break on The Manny, a crappy multi-cam sitcom where he plays an oft-shirtless caregiver to a young child. Alan Thicke, in a cameo, plays his dad so at least that is pretty cool. He quits his job Jerry Maguire-style because he’s tired of taking his shirt off and wants to make art.  Kate (Chrissy Metz) is Kevin’s overweight twin sister and personal assistant who is determined to get thin and try to stop feeling sorry for herself. At a support group for overweight people she meets Toby (Chris Sullivan) and the two start dating.  Randall (Emmy winner Sterling K Brown) is a high-powered, wealthy executive (of what we aren’t really told) with a wife and two daughters. When he was born, his crack-addict mother died and his father (Ron Cephas Jones) left him at a firehouse. With the help of a private investigator he tracks him down.  Other than Kevin and Kate, how are these interrelated? Dan Fogelman, who wrote the movie Crazy Stupid Love, created this show. Just like in his movie there is a big twist at the end that pulls all of these disparate strands together. NBC asked that we not reveal it, but I’m going to tell you it’s that a meteor hits the world and they’re the only people to survive. Just kidding. That’s not it.  Is it any good? Like Parenthood or Brothers and Sisters, this is one of those shows that tries to show the small dramas – the diets, career decisions, medical emergencies and family squabbles – that make up a life. You know what you’re in for when a twee acoustic indie rock song underscores the first few scenes. This Is Us wants us to feel all of the feels and think that they are incredibly authentic and somehow put us in touch with our inner peace. They don’t quite do that, but, like the aforementioned dramas, in a few episodes this should be a well-honed emotional manipulation machine that can make you cry easier than a combination of Old Yeller and a long-distance commercial from the mid-90s.  But it’s hard to judge this by the pilot, the only episode NBC made available to critics. The conflict here isn’t very exemplary or exciting, even by modest drama standards. How many times have we sat through a guy dramatically quitting his job, finding his long lost parents, or waiting for his wife to come out of a medically traumatic birth. Lots. So other than the fine performances there is nothing to really recommend the show.  However the final twist is intriguing indeed and suggests that the rest of the series might be very inventive and worth investing in. But twists don’t work as well in television as they do in the movies, where it is enough to rest a project’s success on. On a TV show, after the big reveal a network show still has the slog of 22 episodes a year without the added impact of a twist. That is where a show will really prove its mettle.  Should I watch this show? Give it five episodes. If you still like it then, I bet it will be your favorite show and you’ll watch it with a glass of wine and two boxes of Kleenex. If not, there are still plenty of things on television to make you cry.
Emotions are high – but not high enough – in this new show about seemingly disparate characters. But wait there’s a twist ...