This Is Us

So I’m back after a week’s hiatus. (Can a hiatus last just a week? Usually hiatuses are reserved for bands whom loathe one another, but don’t have the guts to formally split. Then, after about ten years of pursuing solo projects - that only they are interested in- they reform, arguing they were only ever on a break and were always going to get back together.) My hiatus was a lot more noble: I was celebrating my brother’s birthday and The Girl's mum’s 60^th. I was always going to come back to you, dear reader. I know you were worried last week when I didn’t post – has he found something a lot more productive to do with his time? Is he busy creating culture rather than filling time writing about it? - But I can say this categorically and emphatically: I wasn’t doing anything more productive; nor will I ever. I will never leave you.

On hiatus.

All I ask in return is you don’t leave me. I’ll be honest I didn’t cope well last week without the dopamine hit of people clicking ‘like’ and reading the blog. To redress the deficiency, I spent much of the week seeking the validation I so sorely missed. My Year 7 class were surprised when I broke down in the middle of class, clutching my iPhone, screaming: “I just don’t know if people like me.” Fortunately, the Head smoothed things over by telling the parents, “He didn’t get any ‘likes’ on Facebook.” Completely empathetic to this modern malaise, the parents bought me flowers and chocolates.

This week I’m writing about hit American show, This Is Us. The NBC miniseries has done massive business Stateside, and the hope was it would do the same here. In truth it hasn’t found traction with Britain’s goggleboxers. For a drama that came with a 9 o’clock reputation, it has now been relegated twice: once to 10 o’clock and now to 11. With eight episodes still to run, there is a very real danger that it’s following the same scheduling trajectory as Norfolk’s finest Mr Alan Partridge.

Buried in the late night slot.

So how can a Golden Globe nominated drama be so loved on one side of the ocean yet ignored on the other? My instinct is that Channel 4 haven’t got the wrong time: they’ve got the wrong day. This family drama would have done better business on a Sunday night – just after Homeland. I think that double bill would work real nice. It would be like a CIA lab experiment where you induce an hour of meth amphetamine paranoia into the patient and bring them back round with a warm slice of American pie. 

My love for This is Us has caught me by surprise. It’s not something I would usually go for. In fact, after the first episode I turned to The Girl and said, “I don’t know if this is for me.” It felt a little saccharine, even for my sweet tooth. Some way into the second episode though, I was hooked. Currently it’s the thing I’m most enjoying on TV. (Admittedly it hasn’t been a golden 2017: Sherlock was so incomprehensible that the eponymous would have failed to understand it; Tina and Bobby was a scrapbook of important moments that didn't add up to a story; as for Apple Tree Yard: well, that was all fur coat and no knickers.) With This Is now buried in the late-slot, we’ve been forced to exhume the body by watching it the next day on catch-up.

This is Us begins with the statistic that 18 million people share the same birthday. The drama revolves around four such characters: Jack, Randall, Kevin and Kate – all Pearsons: the first, the father; the rest, the children. However, it isn’t until late in the pilot that we find out this connection exists- prior to this the viewer believes these are just disparate individuals who happen to be celebrating on the same day. Randall is a successful white-collar worker, living the good life with his intelligent wife and adorable children; Kevin is the sitcom star undergoing an existential crisis, and Kate is fighting her food addiction with cautionary post-its. We’re then taking back in time to the 1980’s where Jack’s birthday is upstaged by his wife Rebecca’s waters breaking. From the resulting hospital visit, the three children ensue.

Randall, Kate and Kevin.

With Randall being black and his siblings being white, you can tell this is drama strays close to soap opera. This in many ways was my problem with the first episode. Contained in the first 50 minutes is a long heart-to-heart between Jack and the obstetrician regarding complications with Rebecca’s birth. The cotton candy succour the doctor administers feels clichéd and written, but such is the programme’s good nature you wash it down all the same. There are other moments where creator Dan Fogelman falls into tropes and conventions: one such being the character of William, a reformed drug addict who just so happens to be the wisest owl in the aviary. Even though you can smell the ink on the character’s words, the drama maintains its compulsiveness.

One real strength of This Is Us is its structure. The decision to go back and forth through time is inspired. Aristole said, (I warned you this blog was pseudo-intellectual) ‘Give me a child until he is seven and I’ll show you the man.” Having the past and present run concurrently in the episode gives us an insight into why the three children turned out how they did: why they have their strengths; why they have their problems. It’s such a wonderful balancing act that means the show sea-saws from being a study of childhood to a thesis on adulthood. And Fogelman has things to say on how Aristotle’s quote is true: how in time our physical appearance changes, yet our character doesn't. There are also critiques on race, gender and consumerism, which, although didactic, are so well intentioned you cheer all the same.

Back to the 80's.

For me, This Is Us is a programme that we all need right now: warm, witty and compassionate. In a Trump world opposed to colour and kindness, this multi-racial drama celebrates the Obama values of tolerance and togetherness. If This Is Us really were us, then the world would be a better place.

This Is Us is currently on Channel 4, Tuesday at 11pm, but by the time you read this it might be aired exclusively on leap years.