#* in character ┊ rebecca pearson.

[missroller15]

HELLO guys i started watching this is us (currently on s2 ep3) and i don’t even know how to explain what the plot is but it got me like

[whitegownsandflowercrowns]

My Top 10 Characters According To OpenPsychometrics

Mary Margaret Blanchard/Snow White, Once Upon A Time

2. Georgiana Darcy, Pride & Prejudice

3. Belle French/Belle, Once Upon A Time

4. Eliza Hamilton, Hamilton

5. Deanna Troi, Star Trek: The Next Generation

6. Egwene al’Vere, The Wheel Of Time

7. Esme Cullen, Twilight

8. Rebecca Pearson, This Is Us

9. Jess Day, New Girl

10. Jane Villanueva, Jane The Virgin

[gloomyfilm]

Q&A ✨ Milo Ventimiglia Edition

[ using words, pics or gifs - reblog, copy past the questions and add your answers! ]

Fictional character crush: Jack Pearson 😮‍💨

favorite on screen couple: Jack & Rebecca 💘

Favorite villain character: Jason Lennon

favorite red carpet look: I also love his look at the 2017 Golden Globes with beautiful Mandy Moore but I had to go with this one ❤️‍🔥

favorite street look: I don't really know tbh, he's wearing a basic shirt on a lot of on and about photographs lol

favorite character look: I hope you guys will do better than me because I unfortunately couldn't come to a decision. You can throw tomatoes at me.

worst character look: Dark Peter Petrelli from Heroes. The hair, the weird facial scar, the coat. Just no.

last movie watched: MadTown

last tv show watched: The Company You Keep

favorite movie: Not easy but I'll go with Second Act because I love JLO so I've definitely watched this one several times. Wish he had a bigger screen time though.

favorite tv show: This Is Us 💛

to re-watch (movie/tv show): still This Is Us 🥲

Invitation sent to: @coffee-smell-and-lilac-skin @disasterbiwriter @sdots-world @ernestonlysayslovelythings @sagesfandomspot @saltygilmores and whoever wants to participate. 💌

Feel free to ignore as well.

[anewkindofme]

Another post got me thinking that people tend to pick apart characters who aren't bad parents but ones who make mistakes and are human. While hyping up those that are just...unrealistically perfect all the time. And I do think a lot of times, these are people who had shitty parents in their own life and understandably want to cling to a parent who always done the right thing.

But as someone who also didn't have the best parents...I'd rather watch the ones who fuck up but take accountability and do better. Because to me, that's more impressive. We're all human. We're all going to reasonably mess up at some point. But that's not what matters. What does is how we handle it. Are we taking accountability? Are we working on becoming better people?

That's what I look for in characters period but especially those that are parents. In fact, I live for the arcs where they fuck up and do something because that shows who they truly are. Are they going to rise to the occasion and work to do better? Or are they going to fold and walk away? That's the true test for me.

So, yes. I love characters like Owen Strand, Rebecca Pearson, Lorelai Gilmore, Snow White (OUAT), etc. Because they fail then do better the next time. Which is all I can really ask for.

[ruby-babayan]

TASK 003: character inspiration for Ruby Babayan

ann perkins / kitty foreman / carla espinosa / rebecca pearson / annie january / norma jennings

[ussenterpeen]

characters wanted for @denouementrpg

denouement is a post-to-play pan/multifandom roleplaying game built on a world of unique lore, constant sitewide and personal plots, and a strong member base. Members are able to write traditional, novella-style threads on either the Jcink forum or the Discord, engage in real time group roleplay via Cbox or Discord, or supplement character interactions with rapidfire Discord threads, one-shots, and communications (texts/group chats).

Hi! I'm Jeebies and I write in a number of fandoms on Denouement, including but not limited to Marvel, The Umbrella Academy, Ted Lasso, Firefly, and more!

I'd love to see the following characters on Denny, and I'm happy to discuss in-depth plotting ideas for any/all of them!

Rebecca Welton (Ted Lasso) Jamie Tartt (Ted Lasso) Keeley Jones (Ted Lasso) Sam Obisanya (Ted Lasso) Sam Wilson (Marvel) Natasha Romanoff (Marvel) Vision (Marvel) Thor Odinson (Marvel) Luke Cage (Marvel) Trish Walker (Marvel) Foggy Nelson (Marvel) Klaus Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy) Viktor Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy) Ben Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy) Leonard McCoy (Star Trek) Nyota Uhura (Star Trek) Crystal Palace (Dead Boy Detectives) Niko Sasaki (Dead Boy Detectives) Mike Ross (Suits) Jessica Pearson (Suits) Donna Paulsen (Suits) Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly) Kaylee Frye (Firefly) Zoe Washburne (Firefly) Shepherd Derrial Book (Firefly)

If you're interested in chatting, or checking out the site, feel free to swing by the official Discord and say hi!

[chicgeekgirl89]

Last Book I...

Thanks for the tags @lemonlyman-dotcom and @bonheur-cafe!

BOUGHT:

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros- Went on a search through several Barnes and Nobles to find the sprayed edge edition! Technically I have already bought Onyx Storm...from two places...but I don't have them yet lol.

BORROWED:

As Seen on TV by Meredith Schorr- I creeped on someone at the pool and saw them reading this and it seems EXACTLY like something I'd love, so I'm super excited to try it!

WAS GIFTED

The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher- @bluenet13 gave this to me for Christmas and it was delightful! Magic, baking, mystery, it's got it all!

GAVE/LENT TO SOMEONE

Christmas at the Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan- I ADORE British women hitting rock bottom and moving to a remote location to find themselves while baking and falling in love. This is the second in this series and Polly, Huckle, and Neil are just as delightful during the holidays as they are during the summer.

STARTED

Someone Just Like You by Meredith Schorr- Okay so TECHNICALLY I haven't started this one yet, but I'm about to! We love a book new in NYC!

FINISHED

The Beauty of Darkness by Mary E. Pearson- A rec from @bluenet13, this one is the finale of The Remnant Chronicles Trilogy and it was quite an epic end. I loved all the side characters and their interactions!

GAVE 5 STARS

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier- I got this one from Book of the Month and it was so fun! I love some high seas hijinks during the summer and this one was all of that plus a lot of love and heart. A young woman who is estranged from her homeland, sea dragons, pirates, a prince with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and tattoos that come to life as familiars!

GAVE 2 STARS

Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley- I wanted to love this one because it's set in Scotland and I read it in Scotland, but it fell really flat. Enemies to lovers, but like...not a good enough reason to be enemies, not enough time to let it develop, I felt mildly annoyed the whole time!

DIDN'T FINISH

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld- Another Book of the Month and I made it like...two chapters. The characters feel like over-the-top caricatures of people, it was kind of crass, and the SNL type sketches seemed really stupid, not funny. Meh.

Idk who the bookish people are on here, so if I tag you and you don't read, no worries! Tagging @bluenet13, @ladytessa74, @liminalmemories21, @carlos-in-glasses, @welcometololaland, @strandnreyes, @thisbuildinghasfeelings, @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut, and anyone else who would like to do it!

[a-member-of-minuteswithmandm]

I loved all six seasons of this is us, even when the show was getting in my nerves I was having a good time!

That being said, let's talk about how all the Pearsons were unrealistic hopeless romantics who repeatedly made shitty decisions when it came to love! ☺️☺️

So first of all...Jack and Rebecca, honestly I think they were both equally flawed so I don't have much to say there. As for Rebecca and Miguel? Damn I hate that couple loool. Miguel is a snake of a beat friend for getting with Rebecca after Jack died. It was giving "ice always loved her" vibes and it gives me the ick. He should have used all the effort he gave to Rebecca and the Pearson on his first wife and kids that's he treated so garbage the first time around smh

Beth and Randall - I love Randal SOOOO much but Beth was effectively a saint for dealing with his shenanigans for 20 years. He was just soooo much, his heart was in the right place though so I let some of his tomfoolery slide.

Then we have Katie girl who destroyed Katoby after years of showing us how they could go the distance. I have not and WILL NOT forgive Kate for ruining her marriage with Toby idc Idc Idc. He wasn't perfect but he was much closer to it than she was that's for sure! I hate that the show acted like his perfectly reasonable concerna and arguments were wrong just further the narrative that Kate was "growing". Ughh

Don't let me even start with the fact that her shan of a relationship with Philip came out of absolutely no where and half of the final season was dedicated to Kate's breakup then second marriage. I actually like Philip but the writing for him was all over the place and their relationship made no sense whatsoever.

For the last member of the big 3 we have Kevin......um okay I guess. The show was all over the place with what they wanted for his endgame - Sophie? Maddison? Cassidy? Zoe? He was obssessed with finding love and due to behind the scene issues, the writers keeps fluctuating with giving him a sense of direction. Everything with Maddison feels so pointless after the ending getting him back with Sophie.....which I wouldn't have hated if it wasn't so clear that all the decisions about her character were based on the actress' pregnancy and availability. I will give them props for making Cassidy his best friend though because I LOVE their dynamic.

Outside of the adult Pearsons we also had Deja and Malik and lord knows I hate them as a couple so much. I don't know why Deja couldn't get an easy love. Why did she had to be a stepmom at 15? Ughhh

Well if you enjoyed my rant then you'll probably also enjoy us talking about this topic on our podcast channel. Please watch, like and comment your thoughts! We love hearing from people 😁

[the-arkham-librarian]

statistical character personality test. take the linked quiz from the perspective of your character, then select 5 - 10 results from the complete matches list that you feel resonate with your character the most.

Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender): 93%

Guinan (Star Trek: The Next Generation): 93%

Annie Reed (Sleepless in Seattle): 92%

Egwene al'Vere (Wheel of Time): 92%

The Oracle (The Matrix): 91%

Bonnie Bennett (The Vampire Diaries): 91%

Rebecca Pearson (This Is Us): 90%

Claire Randall (Outlander): 90%

Molly Weasley (Harry Potter): 89%

Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica): 89%

Tagged by: @who-is-muses

Tagging: @treatedblxde @foolish-pleasure @fincl-transmission @fides-nihil

[denimbex1986]

"...I think I'm more like Jack than anything...I feel probably closest in line to Jack in a lot of different ways..."

[tvobsessed96]

2022 TV Recap

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but I wanted to bring back something I used to quite enjoy doing! Reviewing and ranking the best TV I watched in a given year, that is. I kept track of all the new TV I watched last year on Twitter with the intention of picking a top 10 or top 5 episodes at the end. But after giving it some thought, I want to try something a little different. Since the pool is actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be and I don’t particularly have the motivation to rank all the episodes anyway, I’ve decided it might be better if I simply recap and review the shows I watched last year and list a few standout episodes at the end! With that explanation out of the way, let’s get into it. 

The Shows

This Is Us (Season 6)- One of the most talked about (and cried about) shows of the past decade came to an end in 2022, and I can honestly say it was pretty spectacular! The main focus of this season was how the Pearson family handled Rebecca’s declining health, and it was pretty effective. The performances all around were incredible, but I was especially stunned that Mandy Moore didn’t get her long overdue Emmy win or even a nomination! She’s long deserved it, and it’s a shame the show has ended without her getting that recognition. I know some fans said this season (particularly the finale) lacked some of the flashiness one might expect, especially considering how long they’d been planning this ending. But honestly, I can’t imagine a more perfect way to end this cozy, emotional family drama than what we got. Was it the best season of This Is Us overall? Maybe not. But it was certainly a very good one, and immensely satisfying in a number of different ways.

Ghosts (US) (Seasons 1B and 2A)- I decided to tune into Ghosts when it premiered in the fall of 2021 because it looked like a lot of fun and I’m a big fan of Rose McIver. Having never seen the British version, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I’m so glad I tuned in! The beginning of season 1 is a little bit rough around the edges. But as the show has grown into itself and found its own voice, it’s become a true delight! Throughout the second half of season 1 and first half of season 2, the show just kept getting funnier and sweeter! I love all the ghosts, I love Sam and Jay, and I’m excited to see what fun stories the writers come up with now that the B&B has been fully operational for a bit. If you like charming, hilarious stories about a group of people who love each other having wacky adventures, this show might be for you!

Good Trouble (Season 4)- Good Trouble continues to be one of the best shows not enough people are talking about. I know a lot of fans were nervous going into this season when it was announced that Maia Mitchell would be leaving, but I think the writers handled it very well. The Coterie crew still feels like the Coterie crew! One thing that stood out to me the most was the character growth. Everyone feels so grown up and mature compared to when we first met them 4 years ago! Alice standing up for herself and regaining her confidence as a performer! Malika figuring herself out and making smart career moves while also not losing the passion for social justice that makes her who she is! Davia standing up to her mom, setting boundaries in her relationships, and finally having the courage to stop beating around the bush with Dennis! Gael becoming a father!! There’s a lot to look forward to in season 5, including the resolution of that insane cliffhanger, and I can’t wait!

Raven’s Home (Season 5)- I’m actually...not fully caught up on Raven’s Home. Oops! But I have watched enough of the season to be able to say that I’ve really enjoyed it! I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel given the huge changes that were made and the absence of some beloved characters. I’m happy to say the show still brings a huge smile to my face! Ivy, Neil, and Alice are my children and they must be protected at all costs! And bringing Alana back as the principal was a brilliant choice!

So You Think You Can Dance (Season 17)- I enjoyed this season of SYTYCD. I did! I really liked the cast and there were some really great routines! Unfortunately, there were some things that disappointed me as well. For one, it was way too short. They’d been doing shorter seasons with smaller casts for a few years, but something about this season felt extra rushed and condensed. It felt like we barely had time to get to know the dancers before we were down to the final few. Additionally, as much as I tried to put a positive spin on it when it was first announced, limiting the voting to just the studio audience was not a great choice. If Fox can’t give SYTYCD the time and freedom it needs to truly live up to the potential of the format, maybe they shouldn’t have brought it back at all. That’s not to say I won’t be tuning in for season 18, which I assume is happening. Let’s hope the network hears the fans out!

Only Murders in the Building (Season 2)- I absolutely LOVED the first season of OMITB, and season 2 was also excellent! Funny, an acceptable amount of suspense, some great twists, and excellent character work! I’m not sure the mystery was quite as well crafted as the first season, but that didn’t make it any less engaging to watch. Really looking forward to season 3!

Reboot (Season 1)- As a TV nerd and a sitcom nerd specifically, there’s pretty much no way I wasn’t going to check this one out! It’s about the cast of a fictional sitcom from the 2000s coming back together to do a reboot. I expected it to be a silly good time, but it’s also surprisingly deep. It’s very funny, that’s for sure, but there’s also some great character work and satire going on, too. I recommend checking it out!

The Standout Episodes

“Kiss Me and Smile for Me” (Good Trouble 4x02)- How do you properly say goodbye to a character that’s been a huge part of your life for the better part of a decade? As a writer, as an actor, or as a fan? That was the task Good Trouble was presented with when Maia Mitchell decided she would be departing the role of Callie Adams Foster, and I think the writers did a very admirable job! The episode did a good job of closing this chapter of Callie’s life while making it clear that she has a very bright future ahead of her. From the goodbyes Callie got to have with each member of the Coterie crew, to the sometimes complicated but always heartwarming bond between the Adams Foster sisters, to the callback to Callie and Mariana’s first party at the Coterie, it was a truly lovely episode from start to finish! Callie Adams Foster will always be a very special character to me and watching her growth from the terrified teenager who didn’t believe she was worthy of love or a family to the confident woman who got on that plane to DC was incredible. I hope we get to see some more guest appearances before the show eventually ends!

“Miguel” and “The Train” (This Is Us 6x15 and 6x17)- Death and grief have always been themes that This Is Us has been pretty skilled at handling, but these two episodes took that to another level. First, we got “Miguel,” an immensely moving portrait of a character that never got the love he deserved from the fandom. I honestly believe Jack would be thrilled that his two best friends eventually ended up together. Miguel was there for Rebecca when she needed him the most and he was there was for her until his final days. And then there’s “The Train.” The fact that the show wasn’t nominated in multiple Emmy categories for this episode alone baffles me. Visually stunning, incredibly well written, and impeccably performed. Truly the sendoff Rebecca Pearson so richly deserved.

“Flipping the Pieces” (Only Murders in the Building 2x07)- It’s kind of hard to pick a favorite episode from OMITB season 2, but I think this one fits the bill. Mabel and Theo make a great duo, both comedically and dramatically! And I absolutely loved the metaphor of the puzzle pieces as it relates the repression of traumatic memories. The one thing I may have changed is the way Mabel kept talking at Theo even after he specifically told her he couldn’t pick up much of what she was saying just by reading her lips. But I get why the writers probably thought it was necessary and seeing her learn a little bit of ASL along the way was very sweet!

There you have it! Looking forward to another year of great TV!

[tallulahowens]

INTRODUCING 𝒯𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓊𝓁𝒶𝒽 𝒪𝓌ℯ𝓃𝓈

｡⋆｡˚ ʚïɞ ˚｡⋆｡｡⋆｡˚ ʚïɞ ˚｡⋆｡｡⋆｡˚ ʚïɞ ˚｡⋆｡

Ally here again! This time with my Texas sweetheart & former Miss America 2009, Tallulah Owens

STATS;

Full Name: Tallulah Jean Owens

Nicknames: Tully, Tul, Lou

Age: thirty-nine

DOB: May 1st

Height: 5’7

Preferred pronouns: she/her

Parents:  John Owens (father), Suzanna Owens (Mother)

Siblings: two older brothers and two younger ones (potential connections perhaps??)

Birthplace: Dillon, Texas

Occupation: Former Miss America, Philanthropist

Sign: Taurus

(+) ; resilient, reliable, kind, organized

(-) ; materialistic, perfectionist, has a rebellious side

Sexuality; heterosexual, bi curious

Character inspo; caroline forbes (vampire diaries), gabrielle solis (desperate housewives), vivian ward (pretty woman), lyla garrity (friday night lights), rebecca pearson (this is us), rayna james (nashville)

HISTORY;

TW drinking, husband death, domestic violence mention Tallulah Jean Owens wasn’t supposed to make it out of Dillon, TX let alone become the belle of the South. From the moment she was born, the odds were stacked against her, a beautiful wild flower born into a family of chaos. She was the only daughter of four unruly brothers. Her daddy was the local drunk, unable to cope with his time spent in Vietnam while her Momma was a failed pageant queen turned hairdresser making minimum wage. The Owens were trouble, trailer trash, and broke as hell with too many mouths to feed. But Tallulah was their meal ticket. Like her brothers, she had a wild soul but her natural beauty seemed to surpass it all. She was taught to wave and smile, wow the crowd with just the bat of her lashes. By the time Tallulah was six, she was entered into pageants all over the state. At first as a last resort, and to appease her mother’s failed dreams, and then because the girl actually had a knack for the stage and her winnings kept food on the table. Even if she was the dime store contestant draped in her mother’s repurposed hand-me downs while her competitors were dolled up by the pros and donned the latest fashion trends, there was something about the little girl in bedazzled riding boots hidden beneath layers of tulle that judges couldn’t get enough of, a quality that couldn’t be bought and one that earned Tallulah sponsorships that took her all the way to the big show. Tallulah went on to become Miss Teen Texas, Miss Teen America, Miss Texas three years in a row, and at long last the most coveted prize in the Beauty Pageant World. She was twenty- five when she secured her Miss America 2009 crown and caught the eye of James Calloway, cowboy casanova and heir to the Texas oil fortune. It didn’t matter that she may have been sort of into a guy she grew up with or that James would eventually urge to quit the pageant circuit. The family had old money, the kind that demanded respect and bought them class and prestige not to mention summer homes on the coast. Tallulah was no fool to pass that up. For a while, it was magic and they were in love. All roses and champagne, whirlwind rendezvous, and summers on the coast (the Cape May house was always Tallulah’s favorite). Much like the judges, the Calloways loved her, too. Church bells rang not long after she finished her Miss America tour, and they were married in the most lavish country wedding Texas had ever seen. Tallulah not only had a platform now, but access to more wealth she could wrap her head around. At James’ request, Tallulah retired from the pageant circuit to become his trophy wife and raise their daughter. She focused on her philanthropy specifically helping veterans return to civilian life after war, ran the junior league, mentored pageant girls, and was a prominent figure at the country club. From the outside, it all seemed perfect, but there were cracks in this Barbie and Ken, ones that Tallulah occasionally had to hide behind large designer sunglasses. Whiskey and jealousy were to blame, and eventually it got the better of her husband. There’s a certain mystery surrounding the specifics of his death. A part of Tallulah blames herself, that she didn’t stop him when he took the keys to the Mercedes three sheets to the wind. But in the end, she got everything. Widowed three years, Tallulah now resides in the Cape May house she inherited with her twelve year old daughter. She hopes to maintain a quiet life, use the Calloway money to grow the many charities she is involved in, and of course, for world peace. (tldr; church bells by Carrie Underwood gives you a pretty good gist. she’s straight out of a country song)

AESTHETICS;

Million dollar pageant smiles and practiced princess waves, bedazzled riding boots beneath layers of tulle skirts, glittering tiaras under a confetti explosion, cowgirl boots filled with flower bouquets, blue jean queen, country songs,1 oz whiskey 3 parts champagne, barefoot on the beach, oversized sunglasses, white cable knit sweaters, sipping sweet tea out of mason jars on a wrap around porch, more denim, and a fading butterfly tramp stamp

PERSONALITY;

RESILIENT (+): No matter what was thrown her way, broken family, alcoholic husband, daddy issues, Tallulah learned, for better or for worse, how to pick herself up from her riding boots and put on that million dollar smile of hers and wow the crowd. GENEROUS(+): Miss America gave Tallulah a platform and she was recently given access to her late husband’s fortune, so she certainly intends to use it all for good. She is very focused on her philanthropy, specifically helping veterans return to civilian life after war, running the junior league, mentoring prospective pageant girls, and being a prominent figure at the country club and her daughter’s school. MATERIALISTIC(-): Being thrust into the world of pageants at a young age, Tallulah can be superficial at time.s She loves keeping up with the latest fashions and treating herself to a spa day here and there, not to mention the newest pair of Jimmy Choos. REBELLIOUS SIDE (-): Tallulah has a wild soul, one that was tamed at an early age for the pageant circuit. But growing up in Texas Tallulah always had her horses and riding made her feel free. She’s a down home girl at heart who loves a good dive bar, and can shoot whiskey like the best of ‘em. And don’t even get her started at billiards.

HEADCANNONS;

The talent portion was always her favorite part of pageants because she got to let her wild soul show a bit more. Her talent was horseback riding. She now  keeps her horses at her Texas property. They are always the first she goes to see when she visits home. Marigold is her prized horse.

She did actually love James, and it kills her to think that she could love someone with demons like his. She can still picture the first day she met him, posted up against the record machine in some dive bar they wouldn’t have been in. Naturally, she blew him off at first, but he was persistent and she liked that about him.

Still toying with this one BUT I like to think Tallulah wasn’t directly involved in James’ death but it was orchestrated by someone close to her (a brother, her mother, father?? close friend etc.) because they knew she’d never leave him and she deserved better. something along those lines. Potential connection perhaps?

Though Tallulah grew to become eloquent and poised, her southern drawl always comes out when she is angry, upset, or is passionate about something.

She has a 12 year old daughter named Miranda. Tallulah is that mom who’s super involved in the school, junior league, etc. and would do anything for her baby. She calls Miranda her little lucky charm.  

WANTED CONNECTIONS;

coming soon.

[sejmisland]

characters i write for!:

apex legends

the seer (obi edolasim)

horizon (dr. mary somers)

ash (dr. ashleigh reid)

wraith (renee blasey)

dead by daylight (including the re characters):

meg thomas

dwight fairfield

james sunderland

felix richter

élodie rakoto

the pig (amanda young)

the nurse (sally smithson)

the dredge

drayton sawyer

yui kimura

the singularity (hux-17-13)

the dark anthology

jason kolchek

eric king

zain othman

andrew

faith

john ward

lisa pearson

amy martin

my own universe / ocs (including any aus of them. most of them are also kinda multiverse)

brownstone / benjamin dayton

everest mcfennif

jarhead / locke lockhart

l / calvin rockwell

n / bishop blue

portal: 

wheatley 

chell

glados

resident evil:

alex wesker

sheva alomar

rebecca chambers

ada wong

chris redfield

leon kennedy,

jill valentine

helena harper

[hiddenwashington]

friendly reminder that if you’d ever like to leave washington, there’s no need to deactivate-- instead, we would greatly prefer a quick message to let us know your decision! absolutely no hard feelings, but we’d appreciate that heads-up so we can unfollow & take your characters off of the pages. thanks in advance for being considerate! 

please note that jessica moore and rebecca pearson are now reopened for applications!

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: This Is Us

[image description: A Tweet by Danielle Nicki that reads, “You have to give an in-depth presentation about a TV show. You’ve been given no time to rewatch any episodes or research. What show is your presentation about?”]

NBC’s This Is Us is a masterwork of visual storytelling. I say this because it takes full advantage of its medium as filmed live-action scripted series, not only to tell a story that is inherently a TV show - it could not be told successfully in any other way - but also to gradually deconstruct its own genre and create a more comprehensive and empathetic view of what the twenty-first-century “American family” truly is.

Alfred Hitchcock once said - and if I were given time to prepare, I would look up the exact quote, but I’m taking the prompt seriously and writing this in a single draft with zero research, so instead I will paraphrase - that the magic of film is in the editing. Putting two clips next to each other affects how you, the viewer, interprets the clips. In Hitchcock’s example, a clip of an old man smiling placed next to an image of a woman with her child gives the viewer the impression that the old man is a kind, grandfatherly figure. However, putting that same clip of the old man smiling next to an image of a woman sunbathing makes you feel that the old man is a lecher - even though nothing has changed about the clip. The human mind creates connections between clips viewed next to each other, and these connections lead us to moral inferences and emotional reactions. This is a device that is unique to film storytelling.

The creators of This Is Us have a masterful understanding of this device and put it to work from the very first episode of the show.

The following contains specific spoilers for the pilot of This Is Us and also the episodes “This Big, Amazing, Beautiful Life” and “Strangers.”

The pilot presents us with four characters who have the same birthday: Kate, Kevin, Randall, and Jack. Their storylines are presented simultaneously, with clips from each character’s story interspersed between each other as the episode’s focus jumps from place to place. They are also each facing what I understand to be typical TV drama plots. I don’t watch a lot of TV dramas, but I understand “fat girl desperately trying to lose weight,” “black man searching for closure with his biological father,” and “new parents face the struggles of triplets” as three examples of common or common enough TV drama plots, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s the same for “actor who supposedly has it all is depressed and desperately searching for meaning in his life.”

At first, these four characters don’t seem to have anything to do with each other besides their shared birthday. Then, we learn that Kate and Kevin are siblings. And then, at the end of the episode, we get hit with a wham shot that reveals Jack’s story is in the past - he is Kate, Kevin, and Randall’s father. These characters are not merely connected because the show put them together, but they have been connected the whole time. This Is Us was known for its last-minute reveals that cast the whole episode you’d just watched in a new light.

This reveal is also an amazing risk for a TV show - it lets us know exactly what the future holds for Jack, his wife Rebecca, and their triplets. We know that the kids will grow up and become very different kinds of accomplished adults. We even could assume (from the way that Kate and Kevin reminisce about their dad) that Jack will die before the kids are adults. But here is where This Is Us demonstrates a mature prioritizing of emotional connection over shock factor. This Is Us doesn’t need to surprise us, even though it will, again and again. It just needs to make us care.

And make us care it does! Over the course of six seasons, we watch the Pearsons through time. Every episode jumps around just as much as the pilot. We don’t always know what the connection is between the clips until the final act of the episode, but the fact that the clips are shown together creates the foundation necessary for the final reveals. And through it all, we spend time with the Pearsons. We laugh with them. We groan at their jokes and sympathize with their struggles. We watch them grow up, and not only in the sense that we see the Big Three as kids, teens, and adults - portrayed by four or five actors each over the course of the show - but also in the sense that their adult selves mature in the decade-plus covered by the show’s six seasons. It gets to the point that when in season six we see a flashback to season-one versions of the Big Three, I was really annoyed with them! In turn, that made me all the more proud of them and how far they’d come as people.

There are lots of things that I could talk about here, but I don’t want this blog post to go on forever, so I will zero in on two of my favorite episodes of the show and how they epitomize the thesis statement I made about this show being a masterwork of visual storytelling and a revolutionary look at what “the American family” means.

One of these episodes is titled “This Big, Amazing, Beautiful Life.” Before this point, the show has had two full seasons to get us to fall in love with the Pearson family. This episode focuses on two relative newcomers to the Pearsons’ world - Deja and her mother. By this episode, we know that Deja will end up in foster care, staying at Randall’s home. However, we don’t know much yet about her past or her mother, who has been a figure on the fringes of the story, seen as a potential threat to Deja and to the rest of Randall’s family. This episode uses the magic of film storytelling to turns that narrative on its head in a very simple, direct way, using the book Goodnight Moon. We see Deja’s mother and grandmother reading this book to her, and the show immediately cuts to Rebecca Pearson reading the book to her children, as well as other examples of characters we’ve already grown to love reading this book together. Without a single word, the show says, hey, look, they’re all connected. They’re all parents and children. They all love each other. These newcomers, these people we don’t understand, this struggling mother that we’ve judged so much - they are also part of “us.” The show uses the pre-established love we feel for the Pearsons to make us love Deja’s mother. The “American Family” of This Is Us already included a sprawling multi-racial community, and now it also included them. The “American Family” includes what we might dismiss as “broken homes.”

Another episode I want to call out here is the season four premiere, “Strangers.” This episode follows three characters that we have never seen before in the show. We see Malik, a black teenager who has an infant daughter. We see Cassie, a white woman home from her military work in the Middle East, dealing with PTSD. And we see a blind singer - whose name we don’t learn right away - living a comfortable adult life and getting engaged to his girlfriend. It’s a lot like the pilot, really, in that we don’t know why we are seeing these characters or what they have to do with each other. But the show tells their stories just as well as it’s told the Pearsons’ stories, and so over the course of forty minutes, we fall in love with these three newcomers. We see them as complete, complex humans and we root for them. And then, in the last five minutes, we learn the connections. Malik will be Deja’s boyfriend. Cassie will meet Nicky (a Pearson uncle) when he throws a chair through her support group’s window. And the blind singer is the adult version of Kate’s baby, Jack.

Here’s the magical thing - while Malik and Cassie could have easily been two-dimensional or even antagonistic figures in Deja and Nicky’s stories, because we’ve already met them and grown to care about them, we can’t see them that way. We can’t judge them harshly or see them as dangers to our beloved Pearsons, because we already love them! Malik and Cassie are already “us!” Also, this is the way that we learn that Kate’s son Jack is blind - by seeing him as a competent adult. This Is Us refuses to make baby Jack’s blindness a source of tragedy or excessive drama. The show promises us as clearly as possible that baby Jack will be okay. A TV drama that refuses to take the dramatic way out? Amazing! Instead, it takes all of these characters, from so many walks of life, and says - visually - “This is not them. This is us. We are rich and poor, white and black, blood-relatives and chosen, disabled and traumatized and doing our best. All of it is real, all of it deserves your love, and all of it is us.”

[frazzledsoul]

So the This Is Us podcast still hasn't released the Milo episode (the Instagram account confirmed in the comments it will be out in a few weeks) but it appears they did a Zoom with Alexandra Breckenridge (Sophie) this week. The Sophie episode was filmed later, I suspect (Mandy looks WAY more pregnant in the clips than she did in the Milo pictures) and they didn't tease it at all, which is strange to me (Sophie was definitely the most popular of Kevin's many, many women and Alexandra's other show Virgin River is fairly popular) but I think maybe they just wanted to pull Alexandra in for when Sophie was introduced in S1 and maybe save Milo for the Jack/Rebecca showdown at the end of the season.

And I'm thinking ... when else would you bring in Sophie's actress? After she and Kevin get back together in S1, she does not do anything interesting ever again. We didn't see a lot of them in S2 and their breakup mostly revolved around Kevin falling off the wagon and still grieving Jack. Then she shows up once a season to give Kevin a pep talk and make him sad about breaking her heart...until the final season, when they reconcile for good. We hear almost nothing about their relationship after that except that Sophie hates LA so she's happy to move to the opposite coast so that Kevin can take care of another member of his rapidly expanding clan because he's got a sexless polycule thing happening at this point and they all have to follow each other around from state to state or they will die.

And I'm kind of sad about that, because I feel that Kevin's domestic situation could basically fuel seasons and seasons of more drama but even in that context Sophie still ... doesn't really do anything. What is her relationship with Madison, Madison's husband, her stepchildren, with Nicky, with her new in laws like? Who the heck knows. She's not so much a character as an ideal for Kevin to project on, the dream girl he lost over and over and then won after he had grown up and taken on Jack's caretaker role. Kevin is definitely my favorite of the Pearson kids and I'm happy for him that he finally reconciled with his one true love and still remained close to Madison and basically formed this huge extended family that Jack couldn't. He really idealized the relationship his parents had and the one Randall had with Beth and he wanted that for himself eventually but I feel all of his other main love interests (Madison, Zoe, even Cassidy) were depicted more as real people and real relationships and Sophie is more of an....elusive fantasy. We never got to see what that relationship looked like up close.

So I guess it's okay that Alexandra's episode came first