I didn’t see a thread on this yet. We know from the Season 2 finale that there are a lot of changes for the Big 3, and in the first two episodes we start to see how that plays out.
Randall and Beth are adopting Deja, but something is going to go wrong there. Toby gives up his depression meds to raise his sperm count. Kevin is in a casual (but probably not for long) relationship with Beth’s cousin.
So glad to see William back, and we can see from Teen Randall giving up Howard that he wants to fix things, even though he doesn’t grasp the scope of what needs to be fixed. Changing a light bulb in a rec center isn’t going to cut it.
Thanks for starting the thread ivylass! I was surprised we didn’t have one yet and was going to start one if nobody else did.
Kate’s comment about being the only one who can pass along a piece of dad is obviously not going to sit well with Randall. I know she was speaking in strictly genetic terms, but that’s still going to sting.
Mods, can we get a fix to the thread title? “This is Us”.
Especially since one doesn’t dream under anesthesia. But okay then.
I liked the Young Jack and Rebecca part. Correct me if I’m wrong, but did Jack take his mother to Miguel’s house? I recognize the layout. Also, did they film a lot of the ten year old Big Three parts earlier? Those kids should have aged more, but they’re still the same even though this is the third season.
What do Toby and Kate do in order to afford IVF? We know Randall has been out of work for awhile, but they still seem to be rather well off, but now Beth has lost her job. Randall does enjoy rescuing people, doesn’t he? It will be interesting to see if he puts aside his plan to run for office on hold while he helps Beth.
I did like Kevin’s part. His realization that his dad must have seen combat and his desire to learn more shows growth for his character.
I don’t feel like spending 10 episodes with Kevin moping about how he never asked Jack about his service before he died. He was 16, 17. I’m sure if he were still alive he would have asked him about it by now. It’s totally fine that Jack didn’t share details with a literal child.
In one flash-forward I think during the premiere (I just watched all three of this season’s episodes so it’s a blur) Toby isn’t wearing his wedding ring while he was on the phone. I thought surely Kate was going to die this last episode. I think that is still a possibility in the near future.
That was such a powerful and moving episode. I loved seeing Jack as a young man in Vietnam. His relationship with his brother is so complicated, given the abuse they grew up with. October 18 was not lucky for so many young men.
The scene with all the babies at the end drove me to tears. I’m still tearing up when I think of it.
And the soundtrack! Darkness, Darkness has always been a favorite of mine. Such a sad, haunting tune.
Looks like next week is going to be exciting and emotional, too.
As they kept going further back in time I couldn’t help but think of the reverse Seinfeld episode.
I called it when the black dude got blowed up. Two cliches at work: the black guy gets it first, and the counting down the days until he goes home. I knew right away he was doomed.
Really good episode though. Nice to get some more back story about Jack’s family. And it’s interesting that Jack’s dad didn’t start drinking until after the boys were born.
I didn’t like it. Partly to blame is NBC’s website, which doesn’t always sync audio and video and then it kept having to reload and it would show the same 10 seconds over and over. And if it went to commercial? It would show all 8 of them again instead of “remembering” it just showed me 3 minutes of ads. Still, it works better and more consistently than FOX’s, CBS’s, and ABC’s, plus various cable networks.
I think parts of it were really good, like the above-mentioned babies. But it held no surprises for me and was like every Vietnam fictional piece I’ve seen. And that’s ok, but not for me. I don’t like Very Special Episodes, which was how this was promoted.
It was mostly predictable and cliche wasn’t it? Most of the episodes are though. I think I mostly stick around to find out the answers to the mysteries as they bring them up. I don’t find any of the characters endearing except Toby.
I liked it, but we didn’t get any answers. Why was Nick angry at Jack? What happened to Nick? I guess we’ll find those things out when Kevin goes on his search.
Either Michael Ironside has really gone to seed or he was wearing a fat suit. My goodness.
Did anyone catch that when Jack’s dad was in the hospital when Nick was being born that his voice sounded like Jack’s? It will be interesting to find out what happened in the seven years after his son was born that he became abusive. I found it so sad when he came home from work and the boys didn’t immediately leap up from the porch to greet him. That speaks volumes.
How accurate was the draft they portrayed? Were those the dates they really pulled in that order?
I also thought the black guy was going to die, but he just got his foot blown off. That must have been the person Kevin wrote to in the episode before this one.
It’s a pretty big leap to go from loving husband, father, and teetotaler to an abusive drunk. Maybe a job loss? Maybe he finds out Jack isn’t his? If Jack isn’t his son maybe that’s why he more abusive to him than Nick.
Yeah, I thought it was boring. Typical Vietnam drivel, including music soundtrack. The most realistic part of it was Nick burning the shitter barrels. That was always a job for fuckups.
Jack’s father was already abusive. Unless nbc.com messed up what I saw, the nurse asked Jack’s mother if she liked the baby’s father and she gave the nurse a look like “Bitch, are you high? Hell no.”
He just moved on from wife to kids when that part of his brain said it was time.
