Take Three: This Is Us

This Is Us: Season 1, Episode 3 “Kyle” (B)

This show is proving to be immensely popular, and I know that, for that reason as well as my wife’s affection for it, I’m going to be continuing to watch this show. I do appreciate the format and don’t think that the show is bad by any measure, but I’m not as entirely enthralled as I was with a show like “Parenthood,” a series that is often used as a point of comparison for this one. What this episode didn’t have was a shocking finish like the first two installments, but there was a major revelation during the episode, which is that Rebecca and William know each other. This show really does romanticize the past, chronicling the run-up to Randall’s birth with a sweet montage of bus boardings that summarized the love felt by William for Randall’s mother. Rebecca’s struggle to bond with her third child is what led her to find William, and it’s pretty crazy to think that William was aware of where his son was but didn’t try to initiate contact the whole time. That secret is sure to come out, and Randall only being more invested in helping to prolong his birth father’s life is going to make the fact that he could have had more time with him all the more devastating. We have no more information about why Miguel is in the picture and Jack isn’t, and instead we got to see Jack be a loyal father to his three kids when Rebecca was having trouble. Toby is a pretty dramatic and loyal guy, and it was nice to sweet a nice ending to the episode after his grand gesture at the nursing home. Kevin leaving on a redeye without saying goodbye is probably for the best, and we’ll see how well he does on his own in New York and how much his absence will help Kate to move on with her life.