First of all, if you have not started watching NBC's newest show "This is Us", you are totally out of your mind. Because it is mind-blowingly good. Yes, I just made up a word for this show. THAT'S HOW GOOD IT IS! This show is a mash-up of flashbacks and present time, where it will break to the past to prove an important message to what is relating to something in the present time to convey the lesson of that episode.This not only adds a sense of history but keeps you wanting to keep watching to put the pieces together as to why the characters are the way they are today.
First of all the cast is absolutely AMAZING!
You cannot go wrong with this cast. The leading actors and actresses are just something cannot be beat! Milo Ventimiglia, who plays Jack Pearson the dad, is one of the main characters that the show follows. He's not only a person who has flaws but shows us what a loving and caring father and husband can be. The show also follows his wife Rebecca Pearson played by Mandy Moore, who shows the struggles of raising three kids and being a loving caring wife. Although she has made some mistakes along the way that eventually come back to haunt her, her character is literally someone any person could relate to, especially a parent.
The next three character are the primary focus of the show, "The Big Three", Jack and Rebecca's three kids. The first is Kevin, played by actor Justin Hartley, who truly does this struggling actor justice through his everlasting attempts to turn his passion into something he can be proud of other than being the "Manny". He tries to pursue a direction of stage acting that seems to twist and turn with his romantic life, that is until this week in the show (but I won't spoil it!).
The next is Kate played by Chrissy Metz who is introduced to us in a very odd way in the beginning of the show, but makes more sense as she grows into her character. Struggling with trying to lose weight and "get skinny", Kate is a character who just is searching for herself and place in this world. We see her struggle to face the fact that she is really in love with Toby (her now fiance), played by Chris Sullivan, who is head over heels in love with Kate.
The next is Randall, played by Sterling K. Brown, who does this character justice and more. Now Randall is a very special character because he was adopted by Jack and Rebecca and he was raised as if he was Kevin and Kate's biological triplet. Randall is married to Beth, played by Susan Kelichi Watson. He is also a very successful business man, they joke on the show that they really do not know what his job is exactly. The next character is Randall's biological father William played by Ron Cephas Jones, who Randall finds in the first episode and discovers that William is dying of cancer and decides to take William in and care for him.
Let's talk about all the love stories on this show.
The writers did a phenomenal job of portraying varying types of love stories on the show. By far my favorite is Jack and Rebecca, who were just two youngsters in love who ended up getting pregnant with triplets and made lemonade out of the lemons they were given. Jack I believe is the true heart wrenching romantic in this relationship because time and time again you see him sacrifice for his wife and family. Their relationship shows the ups and downs of life, and learning how to love and support one another throughout them is something everyone can take from.
The next relationship which is just absolutely adorable is Randall and his wife Beth. They are the definition of a "cute" couple, their little quirks they have and the way they are raising their two beautiful daughters is something anyone who is in a healthy and loving marriage can relate to.
The third relationship which I find to be a pivotal one in the show is Kate and Toby. First of all, if a man is willing to go through that much for you, don't be a fool and run away from him, Kate! She finally got her act together, but unfortunately it took Toby flying across the country and suffering from a major heart attack for Kate to realize she loves him just as much as he loves her. They seem like they will last, and give us hope for those of us who think our relationships hinder us from ourselves because they do not, especially if they are someone who supports and loves you.
Now, let's talk about Kevin. Holy cow is he a curve ball! Throughout the show he has had three relationships that we know of to the current episode. He starts the season off with being with Olivia a wild actress who is truly insecure in who she is and takes that out on Kevin and they eventually break up. Then he ends up with Sloan who is good for him. She shows him a more stable person to be with, however Kevin struggles between choosing between Sloan and Olivia and ends up with neither. He throws us for a curve ball when he knocks on Sophie's door, who apparently is his ex-wife that he has known since grade school, who he asks for a second chance, but the question is will she give it to him?
William has been a character full of love and compassion so when they revealed to us that he not only was madly in love with Randall's mother, but also Jesse, we fell even more for him. Not only surprising us but Randall as well, revealing that his father was gay, he somehow did not know how to cope with this, but eventually overcame it and supported his father.
The message of mental health.
The show does a lot of justice in proving that openly discussing mental health is an okay thing. In the past two episodes, we saw Randall suffer from an anxiety attack, or as they called it, a nervous breakdown. This is an important issue to be addressed because on average according to Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 18% of Americans 18 years and older are affected by a form of anxiety disorder. That is not a very high percentage, however you would be surprised how many people that actually is. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America that is roughly 40 million adults 18 years and older who suffer from some form of anxiety disorder. This is a significant amount of our population, and there has been such stigma around mental health issues in our society, and Randall does such an amazing job acting out the symptoms of this disorder. Just because he has a form of an anxiety disorder does not make him any less of a father, husband, son, or brother. It is from the support of his family and his strong will to persevere that he was able to pick himself up after his attack.
Another important issue addressed on the show is that of body image. Kate, who is obese struggles with getting grips on her weight. She contemplates gastric by-pass surgery for a good stint of the show, hoping this quick fix surgery would lead to a thinner path. However, she nixes the idea after Toby has open heart surgery. She then decides to go to a total immersive weight loss camp where she was able to wrestle with her inner self and figure out what was really eating at her this whole time. This is an important message because many people struggle with weight issues, and to truly address it you need to understand what lies beneath it, and how it got there in the first place. Kate had to somewhat figure out who she was under her weight. Those she ends up leaving the camp (more like kicked out, after chewing out the owners' son) she has a sense of who she wants to become.
We also see an open discussion of substance abuse present in the show with alcoholism, which Jack struggles with. And at one point Rebecca gives him an ultimatum to either choose his drinking or his family, and we see his struggle with this throughout the show. This is an important thing that the show brings up because many families in America deal with this particular issue, and some may not know how to approach it. They do show that Jack's father has a history of being an abusive alcoholic to his wife and Jack when Jack was a child. However, the difference between Jack and his father is Jack sacrifices for his family and is the better man for it.
Teaching us that is okay to make a mistake every now and again.
This show is a blend of showing how a true American family functions, and how it deals with mistakes that have been made, and bridges that they thought were burnt. You see this time and time again in the show, when Rebecca lied to Randall his entire life about knowing who William was and where he was. This is a big deal because Randall decides he needs some space from his mother, who he cannot believe hid this from him his entire life. This was a huge mistake on Rebecca's part but she has hope that her son will one day forgive her. She hid it because she was scared of losing Randall, which I think any adoptive parent can understand completely. This show not only shows that is okay to make mistakes but teach us how to cope with them, or how to keep moving forward when we do.
Watch this show, you will not regret it.
I do not know how much more I can say about this show other than it will have you grabbing your tissues, or laughing. This show not only pulls at the heart strings but also shows us life in all its true glory. NBC's "This is Us" is a must watch! It is aired weekly on Tuesday on NBC at 9/8 c. Or, catch up on Hulu or at http://www.nbc.com/this-is-us?nbc=1 SO, WATCH IT! Seriously, you will not regret binge watching this one! Let me know what you think of the show in the comment section below! Tell me how much you loved it!
