What I’m Watching: This Is Us

This Is Us: Season 1, Episode 6 “Career Days” (B-)

This episode (unsurprisingly) followed the same format of the past few episodes, particularly looking at career choices for all three of its present-day adult characters. Randall’s story was the most stirring, as we saw him selected for a different kind of education as a child and worried about being pigeonholed into being a certain kind of person. It seems it definitely had an effect on him as he grew into being an adult, since he’s so passionate about being the best at everything. His foray into piano-playing and singing wasn’t such a wonder to behold, and you could see that it hurt him that no one knew or really cared what his job was. Kate, on the other hand, proved herself to be exceptionally qualified in an interview and netted a job offer on the spot. Not only that, but she went from being personal secretary and occasional chauffeur to her new employer’s miserable daughter, who also happened to be overweight, to demanding her own intern and negotiating for a much more realistic set of job responsibilities and rights. Jami Gertz’s Marin seems pretty down to earth, and Kate already successfully kicked her daughter out of the car and didn’t even get in trouble for it. Kevin isn’t really meant for the stage, and I love that Olivia thought it would be a good idea to crash a random funeral to teach him what it’s like to grieve. Them sleeping together may have been inevitable, but it does seem a little early, and something tells me Kevin’s not going to be able to keep his feelings out of his work in a much more problematic way than Olivia intended.