'This Is Us' Episode 5, Season 1 Review

Image from TV Line

By Darian Scalamoni

            As I’ve said within past reviews of this show, This Is Us is a rare example of a network drama that I thoroughly have enjoyed since its premiere. This week’s episode titled ‘The Game Plan’ provided a look at the family’s aesthetic and why Steelers football means so much to their family. Though the episodes have been furthering the story in tremendous ways (including last week’s best episode of the season, ‘The Pool’) it’s hard to say that this week’s episode was the best installment of the season.

            The storyline that follows Rebecca and Jack this week shows how football brought them together as a couple and even more so, meant more to both then the audience could’ve ever imagined. When they were both children, they were forced to be quiet during the football game because their fathers thought of that as their relaxation time. This leads to Rebecca asking Jack to teach her all about the gridiron game which eventually leads to a passionate love for the game herself. Within this storyline, we also see that she does not want to have children; for Jack, this is almost a deal breaker as he eventually wanted to be able to do a better job than his father had done with him. He wanted to watch football with his kids and have an experience with them so what did Rebecca and Jack do after fighting about having children? Conceive them. Right in the bathroom in which they watched the Super Bowl. This is a cute little information blast for the viewers and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing their storyline this week.

            On the other hand, two of my favorite stars of the show, Sterling K. Brown’s Randall and Chrissy Metz’s Kate face boring storylines. Randall heads to Kevin’s master suite in the city with his wife Beth, for an amazing night out without the kids before finding out that Beth is late on her period. This leads to them getting a pregnancy test and him revealing a plan for them to have an early retirement in Charleston but another baby would throw a wrench in that. Luckily, they discover that she’s not pregnant and that’s the end of Randall’s story for this week. By far, the weakest of the entire episode and it’s a shame because Brown is by far the best actor on the show.

            Metz, another contender for a real MVP on the show this season, faced another relatively tedious storyline this week that was also predictable. Kate tells her new boyfriend Toby that she was going to watch the Steelers game, but without him. This leads to the lovable boyfriend to invite her to the house in another sweet way (similar to what he’s done all season thus far) and she comes over but quickly decides to leave. We then discover that Kate used to watch football all the time with her father before his passing. He then makes a comment about how he’d love to meet him and then we finally see the urn in which Jack’s ashes are kept that Kate has and watches the Steelers games with. Totally expected and was used to get tears out of the audience but I thought it was lazy so I don’t empathize as much as most.

            It was surprisingly, Kevin, who stole the spotlight of this episode in my eyes. Though many other outlets have said that Justin Hartley’s performance has been great, I tend to disagree but he is beginning to prove me wrong because this week, he was genuine. His humor worked throughout, his immature manner with his nieces worked perfectly but it was the final monologue in which he revealed his biggest secret to his brother’s children that made me actually feel for his character for the first time this season. He reveals to them something simple he does when reading over scripts to help him determine what each one means: he paints. He reveals a painting to his nieces that is a smorgasbord of an art piece looking similar to a Pollock painting but discloses that this new painting is an eclectic mess but shows how everyone in his life fits together in this painting as he fits in and blends within the rest of the world. It’s an incredibly positive message and this show continues to mold these kinds of moments week by week.

            Having said that, as I said earlier, this was one of the weaker episodes this season in my opinion. Two of the stories completely lacked and it led to a slower burn of an episode. The pacing was problematic as well. But standout performances from Justin Hartley and Milo Ventimiglia keep the show afloat until next week.

7.3/10