'This is Us' Episode 2, Season 1 Review

Image from TV Line

By Darian Scalamoni

            As I said in my review of last week’s review, This is Us can sustain itself as a solid show because of the twist at the end of episode one. It allows the show to hit different marks and let the audience identify and feel for the characters because you’ve followed them across life from birth. This episode hits the mark on the emotional feel throughout but it’s the twist at the end of this episode that angered me.

            This cannot be a show that constantly is going one way and then within the last five minutes of every episode, it pulls the chair out from under the viewer. The opening episode’s twist in narrative was to improve the show, this twist though was not needed. The audience sees Rebecca (Mandy Moore) in current day with her current husband, Miguel (Jon Heurtas), who we see earlier within the episode was Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) best friend in the 80s. Now, granted, we don’t know yet why Rebecca is with Miguel so in due time this twist could make sense but I don’t know as a viewer if I like that you can’t trust the arc of the show. This is different than a show like Mr. Robot too because with that, there is a level of reliance you can and can’t have with the main character because he’s schizophrenic. This is different entirely.

            The episode’s past-timeline plot focuses on Jack and Rebecca hitting a rough patch in their marriage when their kids are now eight years old. We’re first introduced to Miguel when him and Jack are in a bar around dinner time as he tells his best friend to wise up and realize what he has in front of him. Later, we see Miguel calling Jack to apologize for maybe overstepping which for normalized viewers, would make the final reveal somewhat of a “big” twist when I believe it is just a ploy to have them tune in yet again next week. My issue with this is that the show doesn’t need that. Within two weeks, the show has real moments that feel incredibly authentic to issues families deal with on a day to day and that’s why I’m interested from week to week. They can often distract from the real strengths of the show, the quality of the writing and acting from standouts.

            The character stories are what I’ve quickly bought into, particularly Randall’s. Randall (Sterling K. Brown) is dealing with his birth father William (Ron Cephas Jones) now living in his house but disappearing during the day to what his wife, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) believes is to do drugs. When they discover that he was taking the long trip to Philadelphia every day to feed his cat he left behind due to the fact that he believed it would be an issue for her youngest daughter because of her asthma, they have a revelation that William might be a much better person then they give him credit for. Though there are other performances that are great within the show, Brown, Jones and Watson have been the standouts throughout the first two episodes. This little twist within their subplot is able to have the viewer’s really sympathize with William and it shows he can be there for his last days as a father to his biological son while suffering from stage 4 stomach cancer.

            Present-day Kate (Chrissy Metz) continues to feel stuck within her weight in this week’s episode but again her new boyfriend, Toby (Chris Sullivan) is there to break her out of a funk. Toby is another quickly rising fan favorite for his happy-going personality and true love for Kate. He continues to push her to new heights and experiences without worrying so much about her weight but just thoroughly taking it day by day and enjoying life. It’s great to see that Kate is beginning to realize this as the character is developing to more than just the weight-loss agenda that has been surrounding her and Toby through two episodes.

            Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) plot seems to continue to be the true lull of the show thus far though. Maybe it’s because Hartley seems to be the odd one out when it comes to performance as he’s actually a mirror to his character on the show. The actor was known mostly for his work on soap operas and maybe that’s why he, similar to his character of Kevin, was looking for something different rather than doing the same thing each and every day. The parallels of Hartley and his character are interesting but it’s more so that his character seems to be incredibly self-indulgent. He’s giving up a job in which he’s receiving $3 million a year to find his inner self and do more “personal work” which I don’t buy as a viewer just because, he isn’t very good. He goes head-to-head with his agent (played by Katey Sagal) and the network manager (played by Brad Garrett) to get out of his contract but neither of them care much about his artistic expression, after all it is “show business” as Toby would say. His plot does seem to be taking the right steps later in the episode though as he gives a call to his brother and after the three siblings bring back their “big 3” chant from their childhood, a wave of nostalgia hits and Kevin decides to move to New York.

            All in all, I really thoroughly enjoyed this episode up until the final twist. I will give this week another high score though because the substance was there but the show must continue to invest in their characters rather than have these gimmicky twists week to week. Hopefully, the show learns upon what could be a massive mistake in the long run.

8/10