‘ This Is Us’ moves fans to a degree unforeseen
If Dan Fogelman had been told that his family drama would inspire the kind of fanaticism usually reserved for genre storytelling — rife with conspiracy theories and connect-the-dots analysis — he wouldn’t have believed it.
Even now, the level of interest in “This Is Us” doesn’t quite register.
Fogelman, creator of the breakout drama on NBC, was in the throes of production on the feature film “Life Itself” in April when one question, he said, kept emerging: “People are making a beeline for me as soon as I get to work to ask about how Jack died,” he said sheepishly by phone.
“This Is Us” tracks the stories of a family at various life stages.
Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore star as the central parents, Jack and Rebecca Pearson, with twins played by Justin Hartley and Chrissy Metz, and an adopted son played by Sterling K. Brown.
Early in the series, which jumps back and forth in time from the couple’s early days with young children to the children’s lives now as adults, it is revealed that Jack has died — but when and exactly how haven’t been explained — creating a howdunit element of intrigue amid the exploration of the pleasures and twists of everyday life. So how did Jack die? “On a slow day, I get asked that question a couple of times a day,” Ventimiglia said weeks after the show aired its season finale in March.
“It’s really mindboggling all these theories that are popping up,” Moore added. “It’s funny because I never expected that side. Yeah, there are twists and stuff … but it’s not a movie of the week; it’s not for the sake of shock value.”
But even before making its TV premiere, the ensemble drama had people talking. When a 2 ½ - minute trailer for the series dropped in May 2016, it racked up nearly 15 million views in just more than 48 hours after its release — this despite a vague title and concept and a lessthan-megastar cast.
The trailer now stands as a home-movie flashback in the “This Is Us” biography.
The series, which is produced by 20th Century Fox TV, emerged as a rare beacon of hope in an increasingly fractured TV landscape by demonstrating that a big-network success remains possible. Its freshman season averaged 15.3 million viewers and a 4.8 rating in the advertiser- coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic when live- plus-delayed viewing over seven days was factored in, according to Nielsen — helping NBC claim the No. 1 spot in the key demographic.
Impressive numbers and data are nice, but cast members feel the show’s reach every time they step outside.
“It’s not just handshakes and selfies,” said Hartley, who plays Kevin Pearson. “It’s four to seven minutes of talking to strangers. People are compelled to share really personal stories — their life stories — with me and, really, I’m a complete stranger. But that tells me the show has touched them in such a profound way.”
Metz, who plays Kevin’s twin sister, Kate, echoed the sentiment: “I find myself meeting people from every walk of life, and they are emotional and we’re crying in the bathrooms together. ... Yeah, I thought the show was great, but it hits people in the gut.”
The gut-punch stems largely from the way the show’s narrative passes back and forth through time, scooping out those passing moments from one episode and revealing the obscured hurt or pain or joy there in another.
“The only way to describe what we wanted to capture,” Fogelman said, “is when you’re feeling sad because you lost somebody and you look at old family videos — there’s nostalgia and melancholy and optimism, yet sadness.”
Fogelman is trying to keep his head down in a bid to stay true to his original mission, even as the chorus of people wanting to know how Jack dies grows.
He’s fully aware of the expectations surrounding that and now finds himself in a place where keeping scripts under wraps is something he has to consider — a safeguard usually taken on such plotheavy shows as “Lost” and “Game of Thrones” rather than characterdriven stories.
“I think next season we’re going to have to put some scripts on lock-down,” he said. “There’s going to be big stuff happening. We did it once this year with the ‘Memphis’ episode — we changed names of characters in the event something got around. ... We’re a bunch of dramedy writers. We’re not used to this.”