NBC’s This Is Us is one of the best shows on television. Don’t trust us strictly based on our past experience of being right about everything. Trust us on our tears.
This show will give you all of the damn feels—from sobbing uncontrollably to laughing, and then back to sobbing uncontrollably (but happy tears this time). In the same vein as shows like Parenthood and Friday Night Lights, This Is Us interweaves the mostly happy, moderately fucked up lives of family members and friends. And, without giving away any spoilers, the show has also managed to make me knock over several glasses of wine in surprise. But it’s so good, I’m not even mad.
This Is Us is great in the fact that not all of its characters conform to the conventional standards of beauty. The characters deal with real shit, like racism and weight loss and self-doubt, and the show producers don’t try and tie it up in a pretty package. It addresses the uncomfortable stuff (like, am I a super shitty parent? Am I a psychopath girlfriend?) but manages to do it without making the viewers feel uncomfortable. Fucking genius.
Added bonus is that Milo Ventimiglia (aka Jess Mariano) appears shirtless pretty regularly. And Mandy Moore singing is a flashback to the Princess Diaries—back before we hated Anne Hathaway, of course. And Toby is a really damn good boyfriend and every girl deserves a Toby in her life. And William spews wisdom so magical he’s basically Harry Potter. And everything is just so good that if I had any emotions (which betches obviously don’t) I would tear up just thinking about it.
With the second season premiering TOMORROW, you need to get your friend’s boyfriend’s dog’s roommate’s Hulu password and binge This Is Us. It has literally managed to get better each episode, so lawd only knows what the second season will bring. Besides tears.
