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Review: This Is Us



Due to living at the edge of the earth (when it comes to TV at least), I will often discover great shows long after everyone else. Usually, this isn't a bad thing because I can binge all the seasons at once and not have to wait a week for each new episode, although there is the problem of spoilers. No matter how hard I try, I will accidentally find out about some death or wedding. Kind of hard to avoid when I follow lots of American Facebook pages I guess. 

BUT NOT THIS TIME.

Oh no, I am getting in early on this one. This Is Us was only about ten episodes in before I caught wind of it. Milo Ventimiglia is in a new show, you say? I must check it out! So I did and, although the general gist I got was that it was a great show, I was not prepared to fall in love with it so hard.

You know how sometimes you will watch the first episode of a show, and you think 'oh yeah, this is alright' and keep watching, and each episode drags you in further until you're hooked? Well, this is not like that. The first episode was an amazing first episode. Without giving away any spoilers, by the time you've finished the first episode you will be committed.

So what makes the show so freakin' great that is making me rave about it so intensely? I think it's actually a combination of things. Firstly, due to the flashback element. The show is set in two different eras so a lot of times you will know how a situation or person turns out, but you don't know how it got to this point, so the element of mystery or curiosity is there. Secondly, the characters are fantastic. There is a great diversity in the cast, and the characters each have their own struggles and their own take on their shared history. 

It's a great cast too, Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore are amazing as usual, and I have no complaints about the rest of the cast, they're all fantastic. Special mention for Chrissy Metz, who I am loving in her breakout role. 

There is a bit of everything; racism, illness, death, struggle with obesity, fame, love. Tying it all together is family, both the good and hard parts, and that is, at its core, what This Is Us is all about. 

And it will make you ugly cry. Prepare yourself. 







This Is Us is currently halfway through season 1, still time to catch up and jump on the bandwagon! It is also about to show here on free to air TV, which isn't as long as we usually have to wait for new shows, so there's that. If you actually want to watch it when the episodes are first aired there's always *cough* downloading them *cough cough*.

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