This just in – “This Is Us” was merely a TV show. Settle down.
Was it though? Unless you’ve been under a rock in your garden or have no interest in television (no judgments either way), you’re probably aware that the Tuesday night drama came to its series finale last week after six years and 106 episodes.
Offensively simple summary: This is the story of the Pearson family, originating in Pittsburgh, where Jack and Rebecca are expecting triplets. It’s the early 1980s. By the series end, it’s approximately 2040 and much has happened, including the passing of both Jack (in a mid-late 90s house fire) and Rebecca (at the very end).
In between: Drama. So much drama.
Like a typical story, we begin at the beginning (babies born) and end at the end (a funeral). For “This Is Us,” that’s the end of what’s “typical.” In the storytelling, we jump back and forth in timeframes. It takes some getting used to.
It so happens that, like the Pearsons, I got married in the late 1970s and had my first child in 1982, very near the timeframe of this story. This brings me to the sheer magic of the storytelling in this show.
There are a thousand small details in the scenes that are from the 1980s that achieve the look and feel of that time. Everything from MTV to the ill-fated Crock Pot (did I mention the house fire?).
As we are learning how it was when a not-wealthy couple comes home with three babies, we see the bond grow between the parents and the strain of that impossible time, too. Then we see them a moment later as they’re all adults, reflecting on something that happened at the pool when they were kids.
We know right away that Jack Pearson died young, but we don’t know until season two how it all went down related to the house fire. When Milo Ventimiglia (the actor who played Jack Pearson) first read the script, he must have been scratching his head … so, I’m dead all along?
Think of the logistics. You have actors who play these characters (the three siblings) at multiple stages in their lives. Each character at about 7, 10, 13 and 16 years old. The “problem” for a TV show is that, well, kids grow up, so they have to shoot segments years in advance for episodes that are coming later.
It’s as brilliant as it is impossible.
The raging success of the series is this: We come to its end, and we watch as Rebecca slips away due to Alzheimer’s disease. It’s noteworthy that Mandy Moore, who plays Rebecca, is younger than all three actors who play her children.
In the episode leading up to this, we see the Pearson kids struggle to determine who is best suited to take care of her, though in the expected sanitized-for-tv manner, it’s never a question of resources. They decide to bring themselves to her, in the home where she’s comfortable. With the luxury of jumping around in time, we come to understand the brutal, extended process of an Alzheimer’s patient’s long goodbye.
We also see a little bit of what great hospice and palliative care looks like. The benefit for families knowing what’s happening, talking through questions and conflicts, cannot be overstated. We get one chance to give our parents a good passing. There’s no space for selfishness and no do-over.
I’ve just been through the loss of my father (a year ago this week) and my uncle (his kid brother) just two months ago. I still cannot fathom that in one year we’ve lost them both.
As I attended to both at the end, I experienced exactly what “This Is Us” sought to dramatize. What I have with me from my childhood … (accidents, glorious surprises, learning to drive, dancing on my uncle’s feet at his wedding and thankfully some humor) … it’s all right there as I said goodbye to them. I convey it to my kids and they have their own stories that build on mine. It becomes a family mythology.
For a little TV show to achieve all this – conveying the work of a lifetime – in just six seasons and 106 episodes is a stunning achievement. Fans of the show have offered an outpouring of love and sadness at seeing it end … because we feel all 60 years of its span. In the end, though, it was the very smallest details that mattered the most and live on. Parents and kids, taking time to bathe in the joy of a birthday cupcake and a train ride. That’s what it’s all about.
(featured image via BOER/NBCUNIVERSAL)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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