‘This Is Us’ gave us 6 seasons of heart, tears and Pittsburgh stories
Confession: “This Is Us” lost me for a third of its run.
After being totally hooked for the first two years of the partially Pittsburgh-set NBC drama, the cracks in its veneer began to show for me early in its third season. In my mind, the heartfelt, generationspanning family story at the show’s center had given way to saccharine melodrama that just wasn’t working anymore. An episode that involved Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) arguing over Toby’s action-figure collection proved to be my last straw.
After checking out of seasons four and five, I decided to dive back in for its sixth and final season that concluded Tuesday night. I figured that as a Pittsburgh entertainment reporter, I needed to know what the Pearson clan was up to as “This Is Us” wound down one of the more impressive TV life cycles.
Lo and behold, I was sucked back in. At a certain point, I had to admit I was watching just as much for pleasure as I was for work.
Now that the series finale is officially behind us, it’s worth reflecting on how “This Is Us” not only sent us on a weekly emotional roller coaster for six years, but also just how unabashedly Pittsburgh it could be at times.
Remember, this was a show whose first episode featured a nearly naked Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) covering himself up using nothing but a Terrible Towel. That was one heck of a way to kick off the portion of the show set in the Steel City’s not too distant past, where Jack and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) fall in love, start a family and go through unfathomable heartbreak.
I had the pleasure of catching up with Ventimiglia prior to the show’s sixth-season premiere. The man who strived to play the quintessential Pittsburgh dad said he did his best to “understand what it feels like to be from Pittsburgh,” and to his credit, Jack certainly seemed like a Rust Belt guy just trying to do right by his family.
I still can’t get over Ventimiglia telling me that he toyed with the idea of giving Jack a yinzer accent but ultimately deciding against it because “I wasn’t sure the country
could handle it.” Let me just get this in writing: If an actor isn’t 100% sure they can nail a Western Pennsylvania dialect, they shouldn’t bother trying. Kudos to Ventimiglia and just about every other actor who appeared in the Pittsburgh parts for making the right call.
As the series progressed, “This Is Us” continued to show its staying power while solidifying its Pittsburgh bona fides. This was a show so popular it forced Crock-Pot to respond after its product turned out to be responsible for the house fire that killed Jack. Along the way, it paid homage to local staples like Froggy’s, the Immaculate Reception and even Mister Rogers.
The final season continued to honor Pittsburgh by dropping Eat’n Park Smiley cookie references (in an episode written by University of Pittsburgh graduate Kay Oyegun), tying Pirates legend Roberto Clemente to Miguel’s (Jon Huertas) origin story and packing a number of Steel City Easter eggs into the penultimate episode as Rebecca began to accept that her own death was imminent.
It didn’t always get the Pittsburgh elements correct, including in the final season when Miguel’s father implied that East Liberty was right outside the city. But considering how often Hollywood pretends that the United States is only made up of the East Coast, West Coast and Chicago, it was refreshing to have a show that at least tried its bestto get Pittsburgh right.
Admittedly, it doesn’t take much for movies or TV shows to make me cry. But the final “This Is Us” season got me on multiple occasions, like when Kate and Toby’s blind son got hurt after
walking to the park alone and even when adult Deja (La Trice Harper) told Randall (Sterling K. Brown) that he was going to be a grandfather. When that show gets you, it really gets you.
We all have creator Dan Fogelman to thank for giving our tear ducts a workout over the last six years. Fogelman spent some of his formative
years in Bethel Park, which imbued him with a cursory knowledge of this area and what makes it tick. More important to him than the region in which each storyline took place, though, was making sure all the pieces fit together.
“There’s something about telling the stories of a lot of different people who are connected ... that has always really turned me on,” Fogelman said on a Tuesday conference call with reporters. “I think the human experience can be so insulated, especially the world right now. You can live inyour own little bubble.
“There’s something big about the human condition that has always turned me on when it comes to writing, finding the sprawl in the entire thing.”
Well, that sprawl has now come to an end. Rebecca, Miguel and Jack have all passed on; Kevin (Justin Hartley) is with Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and has finally found some stability; Kate is married to Phillip (Chris Geere) and is trying to expand her curriculum for blind aspiring musicians; and Randall is preparing to be a grandfather while also apparently being courted by the Democratic National Committee for a potential presidential run.
Fogelman said he wanted the series finale “to be a simple reflection on family and time.” While nothing on “This Is Us” was ever simple, the show always managed to elicit a strong reaction. That’s not always a positive thing, but there’s definitely virtue in a television experience that makes you feel something.
And don’t get it twisted: Tuesday’s episode was truly the conclusion of the Pearson family saga. Or at least that’s what Fogelman expressed, along with the desire to go on a beach vacation with his wife now that the last episode has aired.
“I feel we’ve hit the right end point,” he said. “I really feel we’ve put these stories to bed now.”