Did 'This Is Us' Go Too Far in Season Premiere?
by EG
NBC's hit drama This Is Us aired its season premiere this week, and fans were, for the most part, ecstatic. Dan Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter, however, wasn't as thrilled at the direction the series is taking. He'd like to see less easy writing about the fate of Milo Ventimiglia's character and more authentic interpersonal drama. Read on to decide if you agree.
[This article contains spoilers for the Tuesday, September 26 second season premiere of This Is Us.]
I don't know if I can do this for much longer, This Is Us.
Heaven knows, I respect This Is Us. No, I don't think it's one of the six best dramas on TV, but other than begrudging it some of its top-tier Emmy recognition — not Sterling K. Brown, mind you, he's The Man — I liked the first season right up until the finale, which I hated, but I mostly hated it because I loved the two episodes previous so much.
But I can't keep going with This Is Us if it's going to treat each week's episode as a 57-minute build-up to another clue about the death of Milo Ventimiglia's Jack.
That's not the show I signed on for.
It's not the show I want to watch.
And I honestly can't believe it's the show that This Is Us truly, in its heart of hearts, wants to be; that Dan Fogelman wants to be writing a show in which there are going to be fans angry and disappointed if the way that he and the writers have chosen to kill off a main character is "right" or "good enough." What kind of ghoulish nonsense is that for a family drama?
It's just so strange to be watching a show that's about love and emotional compromises and family bonds and then for it to become a guessing game about how and when and why a character died. People are going to guess "right" and people are going to guess "wrong" and websites are already writing up voluminous posts of "theories" and people are going to be "disappointed" that this character didn't die the way they wanted him to or the way they thought they emotionally needed him to or in a way that was satisfying to them.
And what is that? You know what that is? That's Kevin Can Wait — And no, I'm not talking about Justin Hartley's Kevin.
I'm talking about the awful CBS sitcom starring Kevin James that I watched on Monday night for one reason and one reason only: Between seasons they wrote out Erinn Hayes' Donna so that Leah Remini could rekindle her King of Queens chemistry with Kevin James. The idea that a badly written sitcom wife could just be killed off when writers tired of her was so crazy that I watched Kevin Can Wait on Monday night and I was embarrassed with myself. Then I was embarrassed with myself for being disappointed that nobody came out and said, "Man, since Donna unexpectedly fell into the petting area at the aquarium and was suffocated by starfish, we've been so sad." Instead, they acknowledged her death at the top of the episode in the form of an insensitive renewal notice from her gym and then in tacky, emotionally manipulative fashion at the end. There were actually no details at all. It was dreadfully done, but as I paused and thought about it, I was forced to wonder what gave me any reason to believe Kevin Can Wait was going to be smart or compassionate, much less that it would honor that it wasn't Erinn Hayes' fault nobody gave her the opportunity to be funny.
Read the rest of the review at The Hollywood Reporter.
Do you agree that This Is Us is overusing the drama surrounding Jack's death? Sound off in the comment section below.