A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at our website: couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in November 2020, our supersized panel of Pearson-loving resident Couch Potatoes – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Kristen (L), Spencer, Eddy, Emily (S), Kristin (T), and Jared – reconvenes around the CPU! Water Cooler, cheering “Big Three!” all the while, to discuss Season 2 of the critically-acclaimed and widely popular NBC family drama This Is Us, in this, Episode Two of our four-part “Catching Up on This Is Us” Series. As always, if you have not watched any of This Is Us, be aware that there are, most definitely, MAJOR SPOILERS! Tell us what you think, and/or if there are other shows you’re interested in CPU! covering, below; email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com; or check out our Guestbook at the website, our Facebook page, our Twitter (@cpupodcast), our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), or our Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/couchpotatoesunite. Until next time, until next episode…buh bye!
Executive Producer/Chief Couch Potato: Kylie C. Piette Associate Producers: Krista Pennington and Selene Rezmer
Editor: Kylie C. Piette Logo: Rebecca Wallace Marketing Graphic Artist: Krista Pennington
Theme Song: Written by: Sarah Milbratz Singers: Sarah Milbratz, Amy McDaniel, Kels Rezmer Keyboard: Kels Rezmer Bass: Ian McDonough Guitar: Christian Somerville Engineer/Production: Kyle Aspinall/Christian Somerville
Who: “This Is Us” is a romantic family drama series that currently airs on NBC, fall to spring Tuesdays at 9:00 PM.
What: Created by Dan Fogelman, the series follows the lives and families of two parents and their three children in several different time frames and stars an ensemble cast featuring Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan, Jon Huertas, Eris Baker, Faithe Herman, as well as Alexandra Breckenridge and Ron Cephas Jones in Season 2.
When: Season 2 aired on NBC from September 26, 2017, to March 13, 2018, with a total of eighteen episodes.
SYNOPSIS
This Is Us follows the lives of siblings Kevin (Hartley), Kate (Metz), and Randall (Brown, known as the “Big Three”), and their parents Jack (Ventimiglia) and Rebecca Pearson (Moore). It takes place mainly in the present and uses flashbacks to show the family’s past. Kevin and Kate are the two surviving members from a triplet pregnancy, born six weeks premature on Jack’s 36th birthday in 1980; their brother Kyle is stillborn. Believing they were meant to have three children, Jack and Rebecca, who are white, decide to adopt Randall, an African American child born the day before and brought to the same hospital after his biological father William Hill (Jones) abandoned him at a fire station. Jack dies when his children are 17, and Rebecca later marries Jack’s best friend Miguel (Huertas). Randall becomes a successful finance professional and marries college classmate Beth (Watson); they raise two daughters (Tess, played by Eris Baker, and Annie, played by Faithe Herman). Kevin becomes a successful actor while struggling to be taken seriously. After lacking direction much of her life, Kate meets Toby (Sullivan).
Most episodes feature a storyline taking place in the present (contemporaneous with airing) and a storyline taking place at a set time in the past, but some episodes are set in one time period or use multiple flashback time periods. Flashbacks often focus on Jack and Rebecca in and around 1980, both before and after their babies’ birth, or on the family when the Big Three are children or adolescents (and played by two sets of younger actors); these scenes usually take place in Pittsburgh, where the Big Three and their parents are born and raised. As adults, Kate lives in Los Angeles, Randall and his family are in New Jersey, and Kevin relocates from Los Angeles to New York City and back again.
Where: The action follows the core family members – two parents, three children, and their eventual spouses – who are originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but who later move and spread, particularly in the present/future timelines, to Alpine, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California; and New York City, New York.
Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching this show, listen to the Season 1 podcast episode via the link below!
How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS
This is Episode Two of our “Catching Up on This Is Us” Series. You can listen to Episode One here and at our audio feeds (Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music):
Season 1
Frequent CPU! contributors and panelists often suggest shows for CPU! to cover in our podcast episodes – loyal listeners should have picked up on this particular trend by now. As the podcast has been underway for several years now, many of our long-yearning Couch Potatoes and This Is Us devotees called repeatedly for a This Is Us panel and subsequently encouraged meticulous season-by-season coverage of the whole shebang. Thus, herein we offer our Season 2 recap and review of This Is Us, in which our recently formed panel – consisting of Kristen L, Spencer, Emily, Eddy, Kristin T, and Jared – remarks upon the success or lack thereof of this gripping and layered family drama, and in so doing, ruminates in-depth upon the production values, performances, writing, and, in the case of this panel, the music of this acclaimed program..
As such, tonight’s episode is the second episode of a four-episode series in which CPU! gets caught up on this show, which premiered on NBC in 2016. In this chapter, our panel reflects upon and recaps Season 2 of This Is Us, in which we continue learning about the Pearson family in several different eras of the family’s story and in pieces and parts, providing clues to a larger mystery around how the family survives hardship while remaining centered and grounded in the face of life’s greatest challenges. The enthusiasm from our panel remains palpable, as this series has become one of the highest rated shows (by review of our panelists) that we have covered on the podcast.
This episode was recorded in November 2020, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the second season. Listen at your own risk, and let us know what you think by commenting below!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@cpupodcast), Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), Pinterest (@cpupodcast), or email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com – or subscribe to this blog, the YouTube channel, our Apple/iTunes channel, our Stitcher Radio channel , find us on Google Play, on Spotify, on Castbox, on iHeartRadio, on Amazon Music, and now on Patreon(!) to keep track of brand new episodes. In the meantime, let us know what you think! Comment or review us in any of the above forums – we’d love your feedback!
Remember, new episodes and blog posts are published weekly! Next week, our Outlander panel re-gathers at the CPU! Water Cooler to continue a five-part Catching-Up series with Episode Three, in which we discuss the third season of the wildly romantic historical Starz drama. Stay tuned!
RECOMMENDATION
This Is Us continues to be wholeheartedly and boisterously recommended by our CPU! panel to “almost anyone” who enjoys watching television – full stop – but particularly to those who enjoy family dramas like Parenthood, Brothers & Sisters, and The Council of Dads and to those with some years of life experience behind them that would make some of the more difficult parts of this series, in terms of the challenges that the characters face, resonate more fully on an emotional level with would-be watchers. Our panel believes that this show will appeal most to people who appreciate some reality in their fiction, as opposed to pure fantasy, because the creator and writers have infused their story with an undercurrent of wisdom and a concentrated sense of genuineness that renders the show a fulfilling and emotional viewing experience that keeps one wanting more, as the story is told non-linearly, with meted out clues and parallelisms connecting well-meaning, three-dimensional characters with whom it quickly becomes easy to identify. The panelists universally describe This Is Us as well-written, well performed, and well directed, with expertly plotted, interweaving storylines that both tease the mind and fill the heart and are executed by earnest and genuine performers who breathe a comfortable vitality into smart, relatable, and emotionally complex characters. Our panel notes that a decision to watch this NBC drama should be one made with a firm commitment, a preparation for an investment that requires full concentration for the watch without the “second screen experience” and other distractions, as there are glimpses and hints of story revelations in early seasons that ultimately play out masterfully in later seasons (these become subjects of this and future episodes in our “Catching Up” Series). The panel further praised the casting, lauding the seamless ensemble of this drama and its effortless cast chemistry. In the end, the panelists unanimously enjoy this series and enthusiastically recommend it to any would-be viewer who would be enticed by it to start, without hesitation; in fact, our supersized panel proved all too eager to continue watching – or to re-watch – Season 3, which we will discuss in Episode Three of our “Catching Up” Series next month!
LOOKING AHEAD
NBC renewed This Is Us for three additional seasons, including a sixth season, at the same time that the show received its fourth season renewal (May 2019); Season 5 is currently airing, and a Season 6 premiere date has not yet been announced. CPU! will next visit This Is Us for Episode Three of this “Catching Up” Series in May 2021, during which our This Is Us panel will focus upon Season 3. Like, follow, and/or subscribe to the website, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, Amazon Music, Patreon, or our social media accounts to stay abreast of new episodes regarding This Is Us as well as new episodes for all of our podcast panels! And, if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Thank you!
A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at our website: couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in August 2020, our supersized panel of Pearson-loving resident Couch Potatoes – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Kristen (L), Spencer, Eddy, Emily (S), Kristin (T), and Jared – convenes for the first time around the CPU! Water Cooler, cheering “Big Three!” all the while, to discuss Season 1 of the critically-acclaimed and widely popular NBC family drama This Is Us, in this, Episode One of our four-part “Catching Up on This Is Us” Series. As always, if you have not watched any of This Is Us, be aware that there are, most definitely, MAJOR SPOILERS! Tell us what you think, and/or if there are other shows you’re interested in CPU! covering, below; email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com; or check out our Guestbook at the website, our Facebook page, our Twitter (@cpupodcast), our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), or our Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/couchpotatoesunite. Until next time, until next episode…buh bye!
Executive Producer/Chief Couch Potato: Kylie C. Piette Associate Producers: Krista Pennington and Selene Rezmer
Editor: Kylie C. Piette Logo: Rebecca Wallace Marketing Graphic Artist: Krista Pennington
Theme Song: Written by: Sarah Milbratz Singers: Sarah Milbratz, Amy McDaniel, Kels Rezmer Keyboard: Kels Rezmer Bass: Ian McDonough Guitar: Christian Somerville Engineer/Production: Kyle Aspinall/Christian Somerville
Who: “This Is Us” is a romantic family drama series that currently airs on NBC, fall to spring Tuesdays at 9:00 PM.
What: Created by Dan Fogelman, the series follows the lives and families of two parents and their three children in several different time frames and stars an ensemble cast featuring Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan, and Ron Cephas Jones in Season 1.
When: Season 1 aired on NBC from September 20, 2016, to March 14, 2017, with a total of eighteen episodes.
Where: The action follows the core family members – two parents, three children, and their eventual spouses – who are originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but who later move and spread, particularly in the present/future timelines, to Alpine, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California; and New York City, New York.
Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching this show, listen to the podcast episode via the link below!
How – as in How Was It?
The pilot/premiere rating scale:
***** – I HAVE TO WATCH EVERYTHING. HOLY SMOKES!
**** – Well, it certainly seems intriguing. I’m going to keep watching, but I see possible pitfalls in the premise.
*** – I will give it six episodes and see what happens. There are things I like, and things I don’t. We’ll see which “things” are allowed to flourish.
** – I will give it three episodes. Chances are, I’m mainly bored, but there is some intrigue or fascination that could hold it together. No matter how unlikely.
* – Pass on this one, guys. It’s a snoozer/not funny/not interesting/not my cup of tea… there are too many options to waste time on this one.
This Is Us = 4.8, by average of the podcast panel.
SYNOPSIS
This Is Us follows the lives of siblings Kevin (Hartley), Kate (Metz), and Randall (Brown, known as the “Big Three”), and their parents Jack (Ventimiglia) and Rebecca Pearson (Moore). It takes place mainly in the present and uses flashbacks to show the family’s past. Kevin and Kate are the two surviving members from a triplet pregnancy, born six weeks premature on Jack’s 36th birthday in 1980; their brother Kyle is stillborn. Believing they were meant to have three children, Jack and Rebecca, who are white, decide to adopt Randall, an African American child born the day before and brought to the same hospital after his biological father William Hill (Jones) abandoned him at a fire station. Jack dies when his children are 17, and Rebecca later marries Jack’s best friend Miguel. Randall becomes a successful finance professional and marries college classmate Beth (Watson); they raise two daughters (Tess and Annie). Kevin becomes a successful actor while struggling to be taken seriously. After lacking direction much of her life, Kate meets Toby (Sullivan).
Most episodes feature a storyline taking place in the present (contemporaneous with airing) and a storyline taking place at a set time in the past, but some episodes are set in one time period or use multiple flashback time periods. Flashbacks often focus on Jack and Rebecca in and around 1980, both before and after their babies’ birth, or on the family when the Big Three are children or adolescents (and played by two sets of younger actors); these scenes usually take place in Pittsburgh, where the Big Three and their parents are born and raised. As adults, Kate lives in Los Angeles, Randall and his family are in New Jersey, and Kevin relocates from Los Angeles to New York City and back again.
THOUGHTS
Frequent CPU! contributors and panelists often suggest shows for CPU! to cover in our podcast episodes – loyal listeners should have picked up on this particular trend by now. As the podcast has been underway for several years now, many of our long-yearning Couch Potatoes and This Is Us devotees called repeatedly for a This Is Us panel and subsequently encouraged meticulous season-by-season coverage of the whole complex, multi-layered shebang. Thus, herein we offer our Season 1 recap and review of This Is Us, in which our new panel remarks upon the success or lack thereof of the series. The panel convening at the Water Cooler tonight includes requesting CPU! panelists Kristen (L), our most involved panelist and one of our moderating team; Spencer, our fifth most involved panelist (this week) and one of our moderating team; Eddy, who is currently active on our American Horror Story Series panel but who has appeared on several past panels; Emily (S), who is currently active on our American Horror Story Series and Riverdale panels but who has appeared on several past panels; Kristin (T), who is currently active on our The Crown panel; and Jared, who is currently active on our Full/er House Series panel. Our newly constituted panel of “Big Three”/Pearson supporting Couch Potatoes, therefore, gathered “Around the Water Cooler” to take a “First Look” at this gripping and layered family drama, and in so doing, to ruminate in-depth upon the production values, performances, writing, and, in the case of this panel, the music of this acclaimed program.
As such, tonight’s episode is the first episode of a four-episode series in which CPU! gets caught up on this show, which premiered on NBC in 2016. In this chapter, our panel reflects upon and recaps Season 1 of This Is Us, in which we are introduced to the Pearson family in several different eras of the family’s story and in pieces and parts, providing clues to a larger mystery around how the family survives hardship while remaining centered and grounded in the face of life’s greatest challenges. The enthusiasm from our panel is palpable – this series is one of the highest rated shows (by review of our panelists) that we have covered on the podcast.
This episode was recorded in August 2020, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the first season. Listen at your own risk, and let us know what you think by commenting below!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@cpupodcast), Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), Pinterest (@cpupodcast), or email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com – or subscribe to this blog, the YouTube channel, our Apple/iTunes channel, our Stitcher Radio channel , find us on Google Play, on Spotify, on Castbox, on iHeartRadio, on Amazon Music, and now on Patreon(!) to keep track of brand new episodes. In the meantime, let us know what you think! Comment or review us in any of the above forums – we’d love your feedback!
Remember, new episodes and blog posts are published weekly! Next Wednesday, our “Star Trek 50+ Series” returns to the Water Cooler to continue their mega-sized Retrospective Series covering all shows under the Star Trek franchise banner. Next week’s episode will talk Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stay tuned!
RECOMMENDATION
This Is Us is recommended by our latest CPU! panel to “almost anyone” who enjoys watching television – full stop – but particularly to those who enjoy family dramas like Parenthood, Brothers & Sisters, and The Council of Dads and to those with some years of life experience. Our panel believes that this show will resonate most with people who appreciate some reality in their fiction, as opposed to pure fantasy, because the creator and writers have infused their story with an undercurrent of wisdom and a concentrated sense of genuineness that renders the show a fulfilling and emotional viewing experience that keeps one wanting more, as the story is told non-linearly, with meted out clues and parallelisms connecting well-meaning, three-dimensional characters with whom it quickly becomes easy to identify. The panelists universally describe This Is Us as well-written, well performed, and well directed, with expertly plotted, interweaving storylines that both tease the mind and fill the heart and are executed by earnest and genuine performers who breathe a comfortable vitality into smart, relatable, and emotionally complex characters. Our panel notes that a decision to watch this NBC drama should be one made with a firm commitment, a preparation for an investment that requires full concentration for the watch without the “second screen experience” and other distractions, as there are glimpses and hints of story revelations in early seasons that ultimately play out masterfully in later seasons (these become subjects of future episodes in our “Catching Up” Series). The panel further praised the casting, lauding the seamless ensemble of this drama and its effortless cast chemistry. In the end, the panelists unanimously enjoy this series and enthusiastically recommend it to any would-be viewer who would be enticed by it to start, without hesitation; in fact, our supersized panel proved all too eager to continue watching – or to re-watch – Season 2, which we will discuss in Episode Two of our “Catching Up” Series next month!
THE FUTURE OF THE SHOW
NBC renewed This Is Us for three additional seasons, including a sixth season, at the same time that the show received its fourth season renewal (May 2019); Season 5 is currently airing, and a Season 6 premiere date has not yet been announced. CPU! will next visit This Is Us for Episode Two of this “Catching Up” Series in April 2021, during which our This Is Us panel will focus upon Season 2. Like, follow, and/or subscribe to the website, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, Amazon Music, Patreon, or our social media accounts to stay abreast of new episodes regarding This Is Us as well as new episodes for all of our podcast panels! And, if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Thank you!
couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com 