This Is Us: Histórias de Família

"This Is US" is by far the best new series on network TV as NBC has found a family drama that's a winner as this is filled with emotion and drama love, loss, regret, and search for happiness. This series is told a lot thru flashback to show how it made the present anyway it involves a couple Jack(Milo Ventimiglia)and Rebecca(Mandy Moore)who have triplets all on the same day with only two of them to survive and that's Kevin(Justin Hartley)and Kate(Chrissy Metz)who then become a sibling to the adopted son Randall(Sterling Brown). Now all of the kids are grown searching and trying to find their own way of life as Kevin is a want to be actor and Kate is an overweight mess and unhappy yet, she starts a "Mike and Molly" type relationship with Toby(Chris Sullivan). Now with Randall(Sterling Brown) he's successful and he finally finds his real life father who's dying with terminal cancer and this brings plenty of drama and conflict with his hard loving wife(Susan Kelechi Watson)as she feels Randall has to much of a big heart. Thru it all this family shares emotion and love thru the struggles of life and time as the viewer can see it's all connected to the bonding they had at birth and the flashbacks show how the trio was molded by Jack and Rebecca. Really this series is warm and touching it shows how change and life develops and it proves that love and connections last.

I just finished watching the series finale last night. This is a show about the human condition. Not every decision they made on this show jived with me. In my opinion there is too much Randall (not enough Kate and Kevin) and the Toby fiasco in season 6 made me so mad... but life is full of its ups and downs too.

The cast in this show is very good, definitely deserving of their nominations. The story itself is heartwarming. I cried more watching this show than most! From the births of children (some with disabilities), to an Alzheimer's decline and the deaths of parents, these struggles are all things people deal with.

This is a show about all of us. A gem.

Let me just begin and geek out by saying how I started the first season and binged it till the 3rd and now I am writing this review at 4:57 am, in my country and only because I could not 'not' share my review about this.

"This Is Us," is built around four characters who share the same birthday & it is a heartwarming and emotional story about the struggles and life of unique set of triplets and their wonderful parents.

This show celebrates the ordinary rhythms of family life, the unflashy joys of loving and being frustrated by your parents, or wanting to shoot the breeze with your siblings. It's also beautifully acted, most notably by Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown & Milo Ventimiglia. It validates it's characters' flaws and does not bow to hysterical dramatics, which the viewer's feel is something that makes it even more authentic!

In the age of Netflix and their cringy shows, I chose to watch This Is Us because it offers so much in so little, It talks about birth, death, career crisis, self-doubts, heart-to-hearts, reconciliations and never fails to make viewers feel something.

Possibly one of the best things in this show, is the ability of an American family to reach the hearts of audiences across the globe in a way that it manages to speak across cultures, resonate with audiences simply because of their characters and well thought storyline, being an Indian and having grown up in a completely different culture I can still feel the warmth of this show and appreciate it.

The first 4 seasons have just seemed perfect to me, 5th is where things really started going downhill.

Possibly the only reason I didn't give this a 10 and would have liked to give a 8.5, is that the buildup is so great but at times we don't get the adequate time to deal with the sudden buildup bursting within seconds. What I mean is, sometimes their buildup is so devastating that we would need a minute to react (and feel that the characters have reacted adequately) and the next second the scene has completely changed.

This is what turned out to be wrong with the beginning of the latest season(Season 5), even though it shows the transition to the almost apocalyptic pandemic society we seem to live in now, it throws at us emotions, situations and current happenings for the audiences to digest within a few scenes.

An amazingly executed drama, whose pilot should be enough to get you hooked because of it's own unique voice.

Edit: I have reviewed the beginning of Season 5 as well in this edit (first 5-6 episodes).

I think we can all admit that it's hard to create a show that stands out, As we are at a time where television is at it's pinnacle point. So when I started this show I was expecting a mildly entertaining series. What I got, is, a show that is real. So much so, that it brought tears to my eyes. That should tell you all you need to know about this beautiful tale about life. The story revolves around a few characters that seem to be unrelated. Just like the facts that were stated in the beginning of the show. However they have more in common than you realize. What sets this show apart from most, isn't the ending, But the journey you take in-between. As someone who's seen many new shows this year, both comedy and drama, I can say with absolute certainty, this is the most memorable. Not only because of it's outstanding story telling but because of it's cast, who bring life to the story.

SPOILER ALERT

First I am a hard person to fool. The Village. Figured it out. Many others. The Sixth Sense and Fight club got me and that's why I love them. I love to be taken down a path and then realize everything wasn't as it seems.

When the fireman lit the cigarette I realized it was 1980. But I still didn't get that those three would be raised together until the nursery with the knit onesies. I'm good at this stuff and the acting and characters blew me away that I wasn't looking for it.

Best Pilot ever. IMHO.

Then I thought. Well they can't do that every episode because if you are looking for twists you find them. If I was told there was a twist at the end, I would have figured it out (everyone's birthday on the same day, etc). But the fact one was black and the other two were twins threw me. PLUS the fact one was "Ryan Gosling" body and the other was overweight threw me that they were twins. Both played on stereotypes which I Loved they made us look into ourselves a little.

So where does the show go from here? It has a great premise. Dual time lines. You can do a lot with that. Have stories play out with flashbacks to tell a larger story (ala Lost). The casting was nailed with exceptional talent. I was interested in every character. They even nailed it by casting Simon and Simon vet Gerald McRaney. He was the glue that MADE that story line click. He speech on the chair was Emmy worthy. I hope he is a regular cast member and explore his wife's death and the death of his one child.

I'm hooked for at least season one. No need for twists. The dual time lines and great characters is enough for me. They can bounce all around in the 80s when the "triplets" are 4 or 10 or 15. triple time lines or more. Milo and Mandy can be made to look older and cast kids to play the parts at different ages. So much room to explore. I predict a good 4-7 year run.