CHAT WITH KELLY
USA TODAY’s Kelly Lawler chats with readers Mondays at 2 p.m. ET at facebook.com/ USATODAY. Read edited excerpts below, email questions to klawler@usatoday.com or tweet them to @klawls and visit her live online.
Q So far for me, ABC has the best new shows. The Good Doctor and Ten
Days in the Valley were extremely well played by the leads and supporting casts. Those pilots were tops for me. And the previews for the upcoming episodes look encouraging. ... I also didn’t mind
Marvel’s Inhumans. More importantly, the promos for the upcoming six episodes look action-packed. ... Kelly, what are your thoughts?
A I’m glad you enjoyed those three series, but for me, they’re on the lower end of the spectrum of both ABC’s fall offerings and the new broadcast series in general. Inhumans was a rough pilot for me that didn’t work on almost any level. But I did like a couple of series from ABC this fall, especially The Mayor, which is about a rapper who is elected mayor of his small town.
Q How was the Saturday Night Live season premiere?
A Aside from some great moments from Kate McKinnon, I thought it was one of the weaker episodes of SNL in the past few seasons. There were a lot of sketches that didn’t work at all and Ryan Gosling was a little uninspired as a host. Sure, he’s good for breaking into laughter in the middle of a sketch, but his La La Land- focused monologue had one joke in it, and it was a yearold joke at that.
Q Did Jack die in a fire on This Is Us?
A The Season 2 premiere episode strongly indicated that the death of Milo Ventimiglia’s character was related to a fire at the Pearson house, which we see in a charred state on the night he died. The exact details surrounding his death, and why Kate (Chrissy Metz) feels responsible, are unclear. But my hope is that This Is Us dispenses with this plot rather quickly. The series is slowly becoming all about Jack’s death, and it’s better than that.