Must See TV -- NBC's "This Is Us"

This past Tuesday, a new show aired on NBC titled, "This Is Us" and I think the network has a new hit.  When the trailer premiered earlier in the summer, it had received so many hits.  From what I read, it was one of NBC's most anticipated shows for the Fall season. After seeing the first episode, I can see why.

The show stars Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia (from Heroes, Gilmore Girls), Justin Hartley, Sterling K. Brown (newly minted Emmy winner), and Chrissy Metz, along with a few others, but those named above are who the stories are centered around.  When the show opens, we see Mandy Moore playing a very pregnant Rebecca and Milo Ventimiglia -- rather, his bare butt in the first scene, as Jack.  It's his birthday and I guess their tradition every year is a sexy birthday dance followed by some sexy time for the both of them.  Unfortunately, they never do get to the sexy time because Rebecca's water breaks and it's time for their triplets to make their debut.

Chrissy Metz plays Kate and Justin Hartley plays Kevin. They play siblings where Kate is overweight and struggling with her situation. Kevin is an actor who appears to be going through a career crisis (can it be called that?) of sorts. He's realizing or more so wondering if he'll always just be that guy who plays these hunky characters that have no substance.  And for some reason, he keeps citing the Challenger explosion as an event that affects his life until this day. Kate decides to take charge of her life and makes it a goal of hers to "lose the damn weight." Meanwhile, Kevin has a meltdown on the set of "The Man-ny", the show he is starring in, realizing he too should take control of his life.  As for what he's going to do now that he's quit the show he is on, he has no idea.  The two of them share a heartfelt moment at the end of the episode, talking about something their dad told them growing up, making lemonade out of the most sour lemons.

Sterling K. Brown is a successful businessman named Randall who recently found his biological father.  As a newborn infant, he was left at the doorstep of a fire station.  Now he's located his biological father and is debating whether or not to meet him. He ends up going to meet him and attempts to tell him off, and he does get what he wants to say off his chest. The words he says are full of emotion but for some reason, Randall still lets him into his life. He brings his biological dad to his home and lets him meet his daughters.  Come to find out towards the end of the episode, Randall's biological father has been sick for a while and is dying.

Back to the birth of Rebecca and Jack's children... we are treated to two scenes between Rebecca, Jack and Dr. K (played by Gerald McRaney).  Rebecca's actual doctor has a ruptured appendix, so Dr. K is stepping in to deliver the babies.  We find out this pregnancy is high-risk and Dr. K wants to discuss something about positioning of the babies, but Jack cuts him off saying with confidence that today was going to be a good day because it was his birthday and both he and his wife will be walking out the the hospital with three healthy babies.  We're now in the delivery room, the first baby is born without complication, but suddenly Rebecca goes into distress and Dr K. must intervene and go in to deliver the babies.  Later on, we find out that the second baby is a girl, but the third baby was stillborn because the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck.  Dr. K and Jack share a very somber moment in the hallway, but Dr. K reminds Jack that he still has two healthy babies that need their father.  We learn Dr. K lost his life the previous year to cancer, but moreover we learn that he also lost a baby, his very first many, many years ago.  And what strikes a chord most with Jack was the following from Dr. K:

I like to think that one day you'll be an old man like me talkin' a young man's ear off explainin' to him how you took the sourest lemon that life has to offer and turned it into something resembling lemonade. If you can do that, then maybe you will still be taking three babies home from this hospital, just maybe not the way you planned.

Jack is standing at the window to the hospital nursery looking at his babies. He asks the man next to him which baby was his and he's tells Jack none of them are, but that he brought a baby that was left at the doorstep of his fire station to the hospital.  He takes out a pack of cigarettes, takes out one and lights up... in the hallway.

Wait, what?

As a viewer, this is where is dawns on me how all the characters are connected.  Prior to the episode, the running premise of the show was that the main characters shared the same birthday and that is what tied them together.  But now as the camera pans back, we see more of the scene and everyone is dressed in late 70's clothing and there is a vintage cigarette vending machine.  The baby that was abandoned and brought in is Randall.  Jack and Rebecca are Kevin and Kate's parents, and they end up adopting Randall, completing "The Big Three."

Neat twist.  We are seeing the past (Rebecca and Jack's life) and the present (through the kids lives).  It will be interesting to see how this series plays out.  Clues about the twist were peppered throughout the episode, but if you weren't really paying close attention to things, they were easily missed.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the show navigates through everyone's lives. How did they get to where they are today?  How did Kate develop her weight problem? What inspired Kevin to be an actor?  Is Randall estranged form his siblings?

All these questions are things I need to know and more.  I can't wait for the next episode this Tuesday, September 27th at 10PM.

Until then... I am your couch critic signing off.