Unhappy birthdays
30-somethings face midlife crisis on ‘This Is Us’
Apparently, 36 is the new 50.
How did I not know this?
Anyway, the dreaded “3-6” sets off midlife crises galore in the premiere of the new dramedy “This Is Us” — a show that once again proves a stellar cast can do wonders with a mediocre script.
A group of seemingly random strangers share little more than their birthday.
Jack (Milo Ventimiglia, “Heroes,” and the past and future “Gilmore Girls”) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore, “A Walk to Remember”) are the perfectly adorable couple celebrating his birthday with a cupcake, a risque dance and some smoochy time when her water breaks. Rebecca is expecting triplets and the couple has planned for everything — except for one heartbreaking complication.
Kate (Chrissy Metz, “American Horror Story: Freak Show”) finds her birthday a sad reminder that once again she hasn’t managed to lose any weight. In an overeaters support group, she meets an equally plus-sized guy named Toby (Chris Sullivan, “The Knick”), who wants to date — but Kate isn’t sure she’s ready for that, given her insecurities about her body.
Her twin, Kevin (Justin Hartley, most recently seen on “The Young & the Restless”), is the star of a insanely popular, insanely stupid sitcom called “The Man-ny,” in which he plays a nanny to an infant and is invariably shirtless. (Such a Freeform show, the cable network will probably rush one into production.)
He’s so distracted by his personal milestone that he can’t even enjoy a threesome with a couple of groupies. And on the set of his show, with a live audience, he has the kind of meltdown that ends careers. And in front of “Growing Pains” star Alan Thicke, too (playing himself).
Finally, the last mourning a birthday is Randall (Sterling K. Brown, “The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”), a successful businessman with a beautiful, supportive wife, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson, “Louie”), and two adorable girls, but he can’t stop thinking about the father who abandoned him on the day he was born. He’s tracked down the man, but does he have the nerve to confront him?
“This Is Us” brims with some mighty acting. Ventimiglia and Hartley, in particular, will wreck viewers in key moments. Hartley and Metz create an affecting, endearing sibling relationship. Gerald McRaney (“Simon & Simon,” “Deadwood”) guests as a doctor and just proves again someone needs to snap him up a series role, stat!
Creator Dan Fogelman’s (“Galavant”) script, however, takes the sting out of some major moments with some minor humor. There’s a huge twist in the final moments tonight that might have you rethinking everything you’ve watched, or might have you feeling like you’ve been played.
Get beyond that and “This Is Us” just might speak to you.