Pretty Much Pop #125: The Dramatics of “This Is Us”

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Mark is joined by rhetorician/educator Michelle Parrinello-Cason, Chris Sunami (The Pop Culture Philosopher), and award-winning former journalist Kera Mashek to discuss the recently concluded NBC drama created by Dan Fogelman.

What’s the message of the show, and is it a good one? Is this comfort food, or a stark portrayal of a diverse array of struggles with death, guilt, identity, and self-destructive behavior. Is it “contrived” the worst sense? Are the characters actually relatable or just Hollywood-engineered “relatable”? Can we just love our way out of conflicts as the show seems to depict? We talk about casting, using kid actors, time-jumping plotlines (not time travel!), diversity, music, and depicting the future. 

Some relevant articles include: 

• “The Overly Tidy Conservatism of This Is Us” by Delia Cai
• “Is this us? An analysis of the NBC series ‘This is Us’” from whispersofawomanist.com
• “Six Ways ‘This Is Us’ Is Basically Free Therapy” by Danielle Page
• “Why we see ourselves in ‘This is Us’” by Jane Greenway Carr
• “7 important life lessons learned from ‘This is Us’” by Elizabeth Wellington
• “Toby’s Weight Loss Journey Began a Few Seasons Ago on ‘This Is Us’” by Leila Kozma
• “After ‘This Is Us,’ Which Show Will Hold Us While We Cry?” by Melanie McFarland

Follow us @DaylaLearning (Michelle), @KeraMashek, @PopCultPhil (Chris), and @MarkLinsenmayer.

Get bonus material for most episodes at patreon.com/prettymuchpop, or now you can sign up directly via Apple Podcasts for a subscription for ad-free and bonus material for three of Mark’s podcasts together on the Mark Lintertainment Podcasts Channel.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.