USA TODAY International Edition
‘ This Is Us’: Savor this one, even if it’s a little too sweet
NBC’s new drama has heart, humor and honest emotion
This is us, with a bit too much sugar added.
Let me hasten to add that NBC’s This Is Us ( Tuesday, 10 ET/ PT, moves to 9 on Oct. 11; eeeE out of four) is also one of the most promising new broadcast dramas. That’s a relatively low bar: Most of the other offerings will leave you feeling you’ve seen them before, and in the case of the many remakes, you have. But even if the season was crowded with great series, This Is Us would stand out as a welcome and increasingly rare addition: a network drama about the lives we share and the ways we connect, without a medical, magical or criminal storytelling hook.
This new series comes from Dan Fogelman, whose writing in movies such as Crazy Stupid Love and Tangled and TV series Galavant, The Neighbors and Fox’s upcoming Pitch is marked by its uncynical embrace of sweetness and emotion. Set in Pittsburgh, the story follows three seemingly unconnected young adults who share a birthday (“The average human being,” we’re told, “shares his or her birthday with over 18 million people”) and a similarly young couple about to give birth.
As the hour cuts back and forth among short scenes, we meet the cast of characters and begin to sense ways their lives could intertwine. Rebecca ( Mandy Moore) is pregnant with triplets, and her incredibly supportive husband, Jack ( Milo Ventimiglia, giving his most appealing performance), is there to assure her everything will be fine. You can tell those kids are going to be born into a great family — unlike 36- year- old birthday boy Randall ( The People v. O. J. Simpson’s Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown), who’s about to reconnect with the father ( Ron Cephas Jones) who abandoned him at birth.
That leaves two more celebrants: Kevin ( Justin Hartley), the hot star of the clearly terrible sitcom The Man- ny, and Kate ( Chrissy Metz). Both have body issues: Kate hates being overweight; Kevin hates being exploited for his good looks.
There’s a great deal of humor and heart on display here, and a sense of empathy that draws you into all of the characters. You also get a wide range of fine performances, from Metz’s humor-tinged refusal to give in to self- pity to Brown’s expertly played conflict over how to deal with his father.
The only real drawback in Tuesday’s premiere is that Us doesn’t yet know when enough is enough. That’s a particular problem when it comes to Gerald McRaney’s ultra- folksy “Doctor K,” who is the candy- coated cherry on top of an already gooey sundae. ( This is Pittsburgh, not Walton’s Mountain.) There are plenty of scenes in Us that provoke tears honestly; there’s no need to dig around for them with a fork.
Still, what stands out in the end is the joy that can be had from Us — much more than you may expect from the promos, as the show ends with an excellent, well- hidden twist that sends it in an intriguing new direction. It’s a secret, and you should do your best to make sure it stays one.
Don’t worry: You won’t find out from us.