Review of This Is Us

This Is Us (2016–2022)
9/10
Best Pilot in ages. (Spoilers)
21 September 2016
SPOILER ALERT

First I am a hard person to fool. The Village. Figured it out. Many others. The Sixth Sense and Fight club got me and that's why I love them. I love to be taken down a path and then realize everything wasn't as it seems.

When the fireman lit the cigarette I realized it was 1980. But I still didn't get that those three would be raised together until the nursery with the knit onesies. I'm good at this stuff and the acting and characters blew me away that I wasn't looking for it.

Best Pilot ever. IMHO.

Then I thought. Well they can't do that every episode because if you are looking for twists you find them. If I was told there was a twist at the end, I would have figured it out (everyone's birthday on the same day, etc). But the fact one was black and the other two were twins threw me. PLUS the fact one was "Ryan Gosling" body and the other was overweight threw me that they were twins. Both played on stereotypes which I Loved they made us look into ourselves a little.

So where does the show go from here? It has a great premise. Dual time lines. You can do a lot with that. Have stories play out with flashbacks to tell a larger story (ala Lost). The casting was nailed with exceptional talent. I was interested in every character. They even nailed it by casting Simon and Simon vet Gerald McRaney. He was the glue that MADE that story line click. He speech on the chair was Emmy worthy. I hope he is a regular cast member and explore his wife's death and the death of his one child.

I'm hooked for at least season one. No need for twists. The dual time lines and great characters is enough for me. They can bounce all around in the 80s when the "triplets" are 4 or 10 or 15. triple time lines or more. Milo and Mandy can be made to look older and cast kids to play the parts at different ages. So much room to explore. I predict a good 4-7 year run.
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