This Is Us Review: Season 5 Premiere

The Pearsons return with two hours of facing COVID, Black Lives Matter and the ultimate twist

Taking inspiration from the real world headlines of the past six months, This is Us reappeared last night with not just one, but two bangs.

The award-winning series returned with a two-hour premiere that had the Pearson family reflecting the reality of 2020 whilst also tugging on threads left hanging last season.

Just to recap, season 4 ended with the following: Kate and Toby deciding to look into adoption. Rebecca preparing to head off to St Louis for a clinical trial to treat her recent Alzheimers diagnosis. Kevin and Randall finally coming to blows after decades of unspoken turmoil. And finally, Kevin finding out he has gotten Kate’s friend Madison pregnant…with twins.

The premiere picks up directly where we left off, quickly catching up to the Big Three’s 40th birthdays. Between those two events, we touch on everything that has happened since April. The Coronavirus outbreak. The death of George Floyd and it’s aftermath. Showrunner Dan Fogelman delicately weaves these events into the lives of the Big Three without making their inclusions feel forced.

Aside from these real world situations, we get to catch up with the lives of our characters. We find Kevin and Madison in an intimate relationship of sorts. Justin Hartley’s gives us an incredibly supportive Kevin. The father-to-be look is a massive change from the self-absorbed actor of ‘The Manny’ that we met in season 1.

The Black Lives Matter movement is shown to resonate very much with Randall. To us, he is a black man brought up in a white household, never having racism effect his life directly. Or so we thought. He admits to Kate in hour two that it has been difficult knowing he and his family have never sat down and had a real conversion concerning his identity. His identity and also the struggles that come with it.

Sterling K. Brown truly steals the premiere with his reaction to BLM and how it connects with him and his family. This ultimately encourages him to seek out a therapist of colour moving forward, something else that is is handled poetically. We’re sad to say goodbye to Pamela Adlon’s Dr Leigh, but this feels like an interesting development for Randall.

The animosity between Kevin and Randall is also handled in a weirdly realistic fashion. You would expect these characters to be written as loathing each other and staring daggers whenever they cross paths. Thats not what we get here. We get two brothers who long to be there for each other. Sadly, after comments made by both parties at the end of season 4, understandably nothing can be fixed so easily. Another piece of expert writing from Fogelman.

One thing to remember is that this is This is Us; with that title comes the promise of playing around with timelines. Though this two hours focuses mainly on the events of the present day, we do venture back to the day that the Big Three were born. In that time zone, we wee the effects on both fathers from that faithful day: Jack Pearson and William Hill.

Milo Ventimiglia may not feature heavily in this episode, but he definitely gets moments to shine. He plays the family matriarch as anxiously awaiting the birth of not just one or two, but three babies. On the side of our younger version of William Hill, portrayed by Jermel Nakia, we get to see what really happened the day Randall was born, and that’s where the shocker of the episode hits.

Admittedly, some cast members don’t get anything memorable to do in this opening story given everything that is covered. Aside from the events of the episodes taking place during the flash forward of season 4’s midseason finale in terms of Rebbeca’s episode, all is quiet for the rest of the family.

Chris Sullivan’s Toby gets a few sparks of comic relief as usual. Jon Huertas’ Miguel actually gets some emotional moments as he tries to cope with Rebecca’s illness. But, for Chrissy Meitz and Mandy Moore, they unfortunately get side lined quite a bit during this season opener.

In true This is Us fashion, we of course got a twist to open up the season. This writer’s opinion? No one will have seen coming. By touching on the day of Randall’s birth, we find out the truth behind the “death” of Randall’s birth mother.

She appears to overdose after using to take away the pain of giving birth without anaesthetic. From there, William calls an ambulance and his love is later declared dead by one of the paramedics. At the mention of “child services”, William then quickly flees with his son. We are led to believe there is nothing left to see there, but our two hour special ends with the scene being revisited…and carried on. As the paramedic suddenly notices a pulse from Randell’s mother, we cut to black just as she breathes.

Needless to say, Fogelman has already said we’ll get answers. Apparently, we’ll actually gets answers quick.

Sure enough to say, season 5 has opened with a lot to take away in terms of not only relating to real world current affairs but also how this is sure to be a new chapter in the lives of our favourite family.