What I’m Watching: This Is Us

This Is Us: Season 1, Episode 13 “Three Sentences” (B-)

I had seen before I watched this episode – unfortunately, since I don’t like spoilers – that this show was finally going to address Jack’s death. That happened, a little bit, enough that we saw pictures of Jack at his funeral, and his children, that showed that he wasn’t much older than at their first separate birthday parties. Jack pushing the idea of having another kid while they were juggling three different celebrations at the same time did seem inopportune, and that didn’t end up leading to anything, though it does seem like Jack was alive for a few more years after that. Seeing both Randall and Kate ostracized at their own parties explained how they grew up to be isolated in their own ways, Randall so hyper-competitive and Kate having trouble forming connections with people because they like others better. The best part of this episode was that Toby didn’t let Kevin just whine about how great his wonderful life is and the many women he has to choose from, and instead pushed him to make a grand gesture for the woman he loves. Not going to either Sloane or Olivia and instead to Sophie, who turned out to be both his ex-wife and Kate’s childhood best friend, was a nice twist, and I’m looking forward to seeing him get serious with her both in the past and the present. Randall teaching William to drive was somewhat sweet, but it wasn’t the most effective plotline. What I really didn’t like was Kate’s trip to a “fat camp,” as she called it, where she met an obnoxious, petty character played by Adam Bartley. I was excited to see him since I like Ferg on “Longmire,” but his insistence on breaking up Kate’s engagement is totally unnecessary and annoying, and not at all what Kate or this show need right now.