What I’m Watching: This Is Us (Season Premiere)

This Is Us: Season 3, Episode 1 “Nine Bucks” (B-)

As I watched the season premiere of what may well be the most beloved show in America, I got a few flashes of events shown or indicated in the season two finale. Normally, a show would pick up with most of those things featured prominently, but not this one, which insists upon manipulative storytelling, forcing viewers to stick around to find out more about developments only hinted out and not truly revealed for what I’m sure will be a long time. As I remembered some of these moments, Toby seeming depressed made sense, especially when he took the step of flushing his antidepressants, something that we know is not going to turn out well given how we saw him interact with Kate in the finale. The entire episode didn’t address it until the closing moments, but it now appears that the person that Tess didn’t want to go see with her father – and apparently Toby – may be Kate. I think this show can do fine without relying on the crutch of needing to key viewers glued and guessing, feeding them one tiny bit of information per hour, but that’s always been its thing. I don’t know why Beth needed to be so mad about this relationship, particularly if Kevin isn’t necessarily the villain, but they very well may keep seeing each other. And what better gift for Randall on his birthday than Deja agreeing to the legal adoption? The flashback to Jack’s first very poor date with Rebecca as he tried to spend his nine dollars sparingly was endearing, but I don’t understand the need for another love interest to get in the way when we know they’re going to get together anyway.