This is Us

“That initial kernel was me looking to my right, center, and left at emails and Facebook updates from friends, and I was like ‘Holy s---, we’re all the same age and our lives could not be more different!’”.

- Dan Snierson

IT'S MORNING RUSH HOUR IN THE PEARSON HOUSEHOLD, REBECCA (MANDY Moore) hustles around the kitchen, managing breakfast for her boisterous children. Husband Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) zooms into the room, searches for some coffee, and pumps up the little ones with a sweet call-and-response family cheer: “First came…ME! And Dad said…GEE! Then came…ME! And Mom said…WEEE!”  We can’t share the rest of that chant. Or divulge what one kid is teasing another about. Or explain why there’s a whiff of marital tension. Or even describe the overbearing-parent dynamic. But we can tell you that this quotidian breakfast scene will vibrate with significance when you see it. “There’s a lot going on here,” stresses Moore. “It’s a show that definitely will break your heart,” sums up Ventimiglia, “but also kind of reach through and give it a hug at the same time.”  This is This Is Us, the NBC dramedy that’s one of, if not the most anticipated new series of the fall, according to critics and tens of millions of views of the show’s trailer, which teems with touchy-feels, optimism, and ache, plus a glimpse of Ventimiglia’s bare butt. The ambitious series follows a disparate group of 36-year-olds who share the same birthday. There are no government conspiracies to untangle, no scandals to be spun, no murders to get away with—these are just people on the precipice of big change, seeking better versions of themselves.  These people would be: Jack and Rebecca, who are dealt a bittersweet hand during the birth of their triplets; Kevin (Justin Hartley), the star of a hacky hit sitcom titled