Wednesday, January 6, 2021

What I'm Watching: This Is Us

This Is Us: Season 5, Episode 5 “A Long Road Home” (B+)

I’m glad that this show is back so early in the new year since it was really a tease to have only four episodes back when it started in late October. I think viewers like me probably needed the closure with Marc even more than Kate did, and it was affirming to learn both that he reacted terribly to Kate showing up and almost telling him about her abortion, and that he hadn’t accomplished much with his life when she tracked him down in San Diego. The fact that he didn’t recognize her at first and had no concept of the negative impact he had on her life was indicative of how much he wasn’t right for her and how terrible he was. Randall finding out that his mother might have been alive until 2015 without him knowing and thinking that his father had lied to him was a gut punch, and Kevin deciding to call at that very moment to tell him how much he meant to his adopted family only made that more intense and complicated. Making that call was a big step, and Hai’s openness helped to clarify things, not that it will give him all that much more closure, although an in-person visit and tour through her memories likely will. Madison was understandably not comfortable with the idea of Kevin wanting to jet-set with the kids all the time, but it seems like he’s committed to at least seeing her perspective and finding something that can work for their growing family.

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