This Is Us: 5 Ways The Show Has Improved Over Time (& 5 Ways It’s Gotten Worse)

NBC’s This Is Us is still a genuine hit with viewers, but has the series changed for the better or only steadily gotten worse and worse over time?

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From the moment it premiered on NBC in 2016, the family drama series This Is Us has been a television giant like so few series manage to be in the era of streaming versus broadcast. This is Us, the story of the multigenerational Pearson family, has gripped audiences for five seasons so far, developing one generation of Pearsons after another through deeply emotional and barrier-breaking journeys.

Yet no matter how popular the series may be, both in terms of viewership ratings and critical reactions, it’s clear that the series isn’t necessarily as good as it once was. Some aspects of the series have definitely been changed for the better over time, but in many ways, the series has failed to recapture the craze of its initial popularity.

10 Improved: Understanding Miguel

More than any other character in the series, Miguel is a character who had the odds stacked against him almost from the moment he was introduced. After all, it was only the second episode of the series in which it was revealed that Rebecca was no longer married to Jack, but now to his best friend, Miguel.

Over time, as the show has moved away from showing Miguel in flashbacks and focused more on Miguel in his old age as Rebecca’s supportive second husband and a member of “the other big three” with Toby and Beth, Miguel has finally won the audience over.

9 Worse: Too many new unlikable characters

Given how much time and space This Is Us covers, with its seemingly endless number of timelines, ever changing locations, and always beginning and ending relationships (particularly in Kevin’s world), it’s only natural that not every character introduced is a winner.

But recent seasons have been bogged down by the introduction of far too many characters who have been duds from the beginning, yet continue to get much more screentime than they deserve, most notably Jennifer Morrison’s dreadful Cassidy and Caitlin Thompson’s unbearable Madison.

8 Improved: Beth’s time to shine

Beth Pearson has been a key player in the Pearson family and in the series from the very beginning, but only in recent seasons has the series finally allowed Beth the time and space to shine in the way the character deserves.

Whether through the emotionally fraught near-divorce arc between Randall and Beth, her deeply moving centric episode “Our Little Island Girl,” her journey to running her own dance studio, or her deft navigations of mental health and race issues within her family, Beth continually shows that she is one of the best Pearsons of all, and one of the series’ true assets.

7 Worse: Mishandling Kate

In an early series episode, Kate Pearson states that aspects of her life are always going to be about weight for her, given how long being overweight has defined her experiences. But it’s a real shame that the series seems committed to making this true for her character overall.

Every time Kate embarks on a new journey, whether in her career or personal life, it’s always brought back to her weight. And no matter how many new careers she starts, these plots always fizzle out and never amount to anything more. Kate deserves better.

6 Improved: New moving stories aplenty

Though many new characters introduced in the series don’t always land in the way they were perhaps intended to, it’s hard to deny the fact that This Is Us still manages to bring viewers to tears week after week with unexpected and moving new stories.

Recent highlights have included the ill-fated romance between Laurel, Randall’s birth mother, and Hai, a Vietnamese fisherman; Kate and Toby’s journey to adoption; the inclusion of the real life love story of Nasir and Esther Ahmed.

5 Worse: Lack of Jack

From the very beginning of the series, it has been clear that Jack Pearson is the heart of the Pearson family. The mystery of his death kept the series moving in its first two seasons, but over time, the series has been gradually using his character less and less since this reveal.

Even in later storylines featuring Jack, such as the Vietnam arc, the storyline was primarily used to introduce and develop Nicky’s character. In recent seasons, Jack has felt like an afterthought, which is a true shame.

4 Improved: More Randall

While not every Pearson is created equal, it’s become abundantly clear that Randall Pearson is the best written, best developed, and best acted of them all. Season after season, Sterling K. Brown turns in award-caliber performances as the most complex member of the wide-ranging Pearson clan.

Whether working as a Councilman in Philadelphia, navigating decades of trauma and identity issues in therapy, bonding with adopted daughter Deja, or exploring the pasts of the parents he never got to be raised by, Randall is a character who is impossible to look away from, and impossible to stop rooting for.

3 Worse: More Kevin

This Is Us can try as hard as it wants to hammer in the idea that Kevin is more “Jack Pearson’s son” than anything else, but it becomes clearer and clearer over time that Kevin is arguably the series’ greatest failing.

Selfish beyond reason, childish to a fault, and downright unbearable in almost every single relationship, Kevin is a character the series has made impossible to stand not just in its main present timeline, but every single past and future timeline, too.

2 Improved: More inclusive

From the very beginning, This Is Us has been dedicated to depicting a far more modern family than its contemporaries. But over time, the series has become inclusive in incredibly important and moving ways.

Tess, Randall and Beth’s first daughter, came out as gay; Jack Damon, Toby and Kate’s son, is blind, and is portrayed by blind actor Blake Stadnik in the future. The fifth season has delved into the Black Lives Matter movement, and discussions of mental health and stigma have been far-ranging and thought-provoking.

1 Worse: Less of the past

As This Is Us continues to look to the future, most notably to a timeline in which Rebecca is elderly and the Pearson children are much older as well, the series continues to let viewers down in one impossible to ignore way: by featuring less of the past in which the Big Three were children, and Jack was still around.

Many of the series’ most emotional moments, in terms of bringing on the tears and revealing key episodes of character development, have occurred in this crucial timeline. The series is absolutely worse off by utilizing it less, and would be much improved by changing course and including it more frequently once again.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/this-is-us-how-improved-worsened-over-time/