FIRST LOOK! ZOOMING AROUND
WILL ALL THOSE STORY LINES FINALLY MAKE SENSE? WATCH AND WEEP.
GET those tissues ready! After a long hiatus, NBC’s tearjerking, time-jumping saga about the Pearson family, This Is Us is returning for its sixth and final season Jan. 4. Rather than return in the fall, NBC decided to push the drama to midseason in order to air the 18-episode run without interruption. And, series star Milo Ventimiglia has said, the concluding eps will deliver an emotional wallop. “This is probably gonna wreck people in the most heartfelt way,” the actor, who plays beloved patriarch Jack, recently promised. “It’s beautiful.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, sibs Kevin, Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Kate (Chrissy Metz), celebrate their 41st birthday in the season opener. Meanwhile, as mom Rebecca (Mandy Moore) grapples with Alzheimer’s disease in the present, flashbacks will fill in her relationship with Jack’s best friend Miguel (Jon Huertas). As for Kate’s marriage to Toby (Chris Sullivan), season 5 ended with the bombshell that the two had divorced and she planned to wed her music-school coworker Phillip (Chris Geere). “We hinted at, many times in the deeper future, that something was not normal between [Kate] and [Toby],” series creator Dan Fogelman told reporters in May. “And here we are.”
Behind the scenes, the show’s stars are getting the opportunity to stretch themselves, with Susan Kelechi Watson cowriting an episode centered on her character, Beth, called “Our Little Island: Part Two.” Chris and Jon will each direct episodes.
Fans will have to tune in to see how it all ends, but Fogelman insists there won’t be any shockers: “At the end of the day, it’s the story about this kind of regular family.” ★