This Is Us
Quality
Drama
Family
Devastating
Long CommitmentThe review
This Is Us was one of the defining broadcast-network hits of its era — a sprawling, non-linear family drama that made viewers cry on a weekly basis and became a genuine watercooler phenomenon during a period when appointment TV was supposedly dead. At its best, it combined the warmth of classic network family dramas with a structural ambition that kept audiences guessing: every episode shuffled across multiple timelines spanning decades of the Pearson family's life, rewarding close attention with carefully seeded reveals. The ensemble was uniformly strong, anchored by Sterling K. Brown's Emmy-winning performance as Randall, a Black man adopted by a white family who carries both profound gratitude and an aching search for identity. Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia anchored the show's emotional center as Rebecca and Jack, with Moore's arc in particular gaining depth and acclaim as the series progressed.
The show's weaknesses were as consistent as its strengths. Critics and audiences frequently flagged its emotional manipulation — skeptics nicknamed it "Twist Is Us" — pointing to telegraphed revelations, heavy-handed musical cues, and a willingness to wring every drop of sentiment from a scene. The middle seasons ballooned with concurrent timelines and subplots, and one season in particular drew criticism for heavy-handed topical messaging that some fans felt overwhelmed character storytelling. Critics split on whether the emotional machinery was genuinely earned or merely effective; both sides generally agreed the performance quality and sincerity were never the problem.
The series finale, however, largely unified skeptics and faithful alike. By setting the twists aside and trusting the characters' small, quiet moments, the ending was near-universally praised for sticking the landing — a rare achievement for a long-running serialized drama. It reinforced that This Is Us, for all its excesses, was a show that genuinely loved its characters and wanted audiences to leave them feeling hopeful.
Seasons
- Season 1
The breakout debut whose pilot became famous for its closing twist: the interconnected strangers sharing a birthday turned out to be a family. Sterling K. Brown's Emmy-winning performance as Randall anchored the season. The mid-season episode revealing Jack's death became a cultural watermark and cemented the show's signature blend of mystery and grief.
- Season 2
Doubled down on the nonlinear structure, filling in Jack's Vietnam backstory and the immediate aftermath of his death. Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia's performances deepened as the show examined how the family learned to live without its patriarch. Generally seen as sustaining the debut's quality, though some critics noted the twist mechanics were becoming formulaic.
- Season 3
Expanded the timeline again to follow Rebecca's early music career and Randall's search for his birth family. Introduced the "future timeline" device that would carry the show's endgame. Reception remained strong, but reviews began to note strain from juggling so many eras.
- Season 4
Brought the "Big Three" to age 40 and deepened the future storyline. Kate and Kevin's adult arcs grew more central, drawing more mixed critical response than Randall's consistently strong throughline. Still delivered episodes with enormous emotional impact, including several of the series' most devastating hours.
- Season 5
Shot through the pandemic, incorporating COVID and a Black Lives Matter story arc into Randall's journey. Took a critical dip: some viewers and reviewers found the topical material heavy-handed and Kate's storyline one-dimensional. The weakest-reviewed season of the run, though it retained its core audience.
- Season 6
The final season refocused the story around Rebecca's Alzheimer's diagnosis and the family gathering around her, giving Mandy Moore her most acclaimed work. The series finale ("Us") was widely praised for sticking the landing, choosing small, intimate moments over another grand twist.
Who it's for
Viewers who love emotional, character-driven family sagas with strong ensemble casts and nonlinear storytelling — fans of Parenthood, Brothers & Sisters, thirtysomething, and Friday Night Lights are the clearest match. People who watch television to feel — who don't mind crying on a weekly basis and actively enjoy being emotionally worked over. Audience members who appreciate well-crafted slow-burn reveals and long-serialized arcs that reward paying close attention across many seasons. Anyone who finds comfort in stories about family bonds, grief, resilience, and the idea that love can outlast loss.
Who it's not for
Viewers with a low tolerance for melodrama or overtly sentimental storytelling that reaches for the heartstrings with visible machinery. Those who prefer gritty realism, moral ambiguity, or restraint in emotional registers. People who dislike twist-dependent plotting or time-jumping narrative structures. Anyone who resents a show that knows exactly what it's doing when it makes you cry — the manipulation is sincere but unmistakable. — Death of a parent · Grief and loss · Alcoholism and addiction recovery · Eating disorders / weight struggles · Alzheimer's disease / dementia · Racism and adoption-related identity trauma · Pregnancy loss · Chronic illness · Pandemic-related themes
Birds of a feather...
- TVGrey's Anatomy (2005)
Both wear their hearts on their sleeves, using grief and memory to deepen family bonds; the nonlinear reveals and tearjerker catharsis echo Grey's sentimental, character-driven storytelling.
85% - MusicLost Weekend (2026)
Both treat grief as an ongoing, non-linear memory-work rather than a wound that closes, and both are unafraid of loving a flawed family member while telling the truth about them.
82% - BookWhistler (2026)
Both hinge on how families curate a shared myth around a defining loss, and both use dual timelines to show how the past keeps rescripting the present.
80% - BookKin (2026)
A quiet, decades-spanning study of family and friendship under systemic pressure, sharing This Is Us's belief that grief and identity are woven into the texture of ordinary life.
75% - TVThe Madison (2026)
Both are intimate domestic reckonings where grief is the felt substrate and performance precision carries the emotional weight, favoring submerged feeling over conventional plot movement.
70% - TVTransparent (2014)
Both are built around the idea that trauma and love travel through generations, with nonlinear structures that rescript the past to illuminate the present; despite tonal differences (earnest sentiment vs. acerbic instability), both share a deep investment in how family myths and secrets shape identity.
70% - TVThe Bear (2022)
Both are fundamentally about how loss rewires a family across time, and how grief becomes part of love. The Bear is chaotic and anxious where This Is Us is warm and sentimental, but they share a fascination with intergenerational damage and the stories families tell to keep living.
65% - TVMare of Easttown (2021)
Both explore how the past's weight and loss shape family identity across generations. This Is Us shares Mare's focus on grief and memory, though with a more sentimental, melodramatic register.
65% - TVBetter Call Saul (2015)
A slow-burn tragedy about the impossibility of escaping your past and the small compromises that harden into identity, with a brother relationship that echoes the Pearsons' intergenerational entanglements.
63% - TVHow to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026)
Processes communal grief and buried trauma through an ensemble of women and a delayed-reckoning structure that, like This Is Us, rescopes your understanding of the past.
58% - TVThe Golden Girls (1985)
Both shows are ultimately about grief, loss, and the bonds that carry us through life's hardest transitions. Golden Girls wears its sadness inside a laugh-track sitcom while This Is Us makes grief the explicit engine, but viewers drawn to the emotional heft of either will recognize the same commitment to exploring how family and friendship soften mortality's sting.
58% - TVMad Men (2007)
Both study how people perform selves to survive childhood wounds, and how the past keeps intruding on the present; This Is Us is warmer, Mad Men more opaque, but the emotional archaeology is comparable.
55%