This is Us

[steveeeeeeeee]

Watched two episodes of this at the bequest sra. stev9e last night. I wanted to hate it from the first moment it started; A sugary sweet perfect couple expecting triplets. An honest hard working African America. A lonely woman struggling with her weight. A lonely comic actor struggling with life.

After moaning how crap is was constantly for the opening 30 minutes, it suddenly lifted off with the addition of some interesting characters (a love interest for the overweight woman, a long lost father for another character). And then it ended on quite a superb plot twist, which was echoed in the second episode.

Anyway, watched two episodes back to back on Channel 4 catch up, looking forward to the next.

[Incandenza]

This is Us

The commercials for this on NBC made it look really bad, and the title doesn't help, but I have heard that it's good. Still, it seems like they ordered this to be an obvious replacement for Parenthood.

[Gerontophile]

This is Us

Apparently, it's the only NBC show up for an Emmy.

[San Bernardhinault]

This is Us

The trailers make it look so cynical and manipulative, and as a result I despise it despite not having seen any of it.

But people who actually watch it tell me it's pretty good.

[Gerontophile]

This is Us

I've had exactly the same thoughts, and subsequently won't go within a mile of it.

[steveeeeeeeee]

This is Us

Yes, like I said, everything about the first half hour of the show made me want to shout F*CK THE F*CK OFF YOU PERFECT F*CKING SPECIMENS OF IMAGINARY HUMANITY.

I really was at the point of no return, I was giving g sra. Stev9e grief for making me watch such filth. But then it took off, I loved the twist at the end of the first episode and the second episode overall was much more palatable.

[steveeeeeeeee]

This is Us

Watched episode 3 last night, jury is back out as sickly sweet scenes came dangerously close to outnumbering watchable stuff.

Some of the writing and ideas behind it are really good, the opening sequence to episode 3 where you got to see Shakespeare's life story over the course of a series of bus journeys was brilliant. In fact, the whole series so far just seems like screen-writer muscle flexing, the past and present story lines, the twists, the hidden stories of the characters, it's largely screen writers demonstrating how good they are at their craft.

There's still enough to keep me watching, the story of Shakespeare (Ron C. Jones) is intriguing and Chris Sullivan, who plays Toby, is a great actor. However, the whole back story involving the sickly earnest triplets father just makes you want to lean towards the sick bucket, the comedy show brother ain't much better.