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Critic Reviews
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Once you start looking at the individual characters’ storylines--Jack and Rebecca are going to be parents, Kate struggles with her weight, Kevin wants his acting career to have meaning, Randall tracks down his biological father-- they feel less like actual stories than like placeholders, characters to be filled in later. It’s hard to hold too much of this against the show when the characters are played by great actors, and when the pilot has a script as emotionally adroit [as] the one crafted by Dan Fogelman.
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Though a final reveal in the pilot feels a little gimmicky, it’s also a signal that the real drama (and tears) can start to flow. If you were a Parenthood fan, this series appears to be in a similar vein. Mark it one down as the most likely candidate for the guilty (or perhaps not so guilty) obsession of the fall season.
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"It all works out" seems to be the main takeaway from the pilot, but where things specifically go from here is one whopping question mark. Perhaps if this was an episodic anthology series with new characters flooding in every week and new arcs every season, This Is Us could repeat the mysterious highs of its subjectively mediocre pilot (depending on how you like that ending).
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The show has promise, but its cynicism in terms of trying to evoke an emotional response is both what viewers will be tuning in for and its least accomplished aspect. If it could work to wring out a real response, not just an easy one, this might be a show worth watching each week.
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The show is almost good, or at least exactly the sort of emotional drama networks should be trying to make these days. But it is so sure it is special, so convinced it has something to say that it sullies its basic achievements with self-satisfaction.
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It’s deceptively difficult to build a surprising and complete story in just 40 minutes with so many characters. Yet This Is Us manages to both craft an intimate series of portraits and stitch them together. ... But at the same time, waves of cloying sentiment threaten to submerge everything.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 160 out of 210
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Mixed: 12 out of 210
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Negative: 38 out of 210
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Sep 21, 2016
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Dec 8, 2016
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Sep 25, 2016