HeyThere83

You beat me to it. Nothing special about the acting here. I have always thought Mandy is OK. Always thought Justin was not good. I enjoy Sterling. Milo isn't doing anything special. So yeah....overall, this is yet another thing I need to put in the unpop thread.

I just busted up laughing!!! The thought of them all sitting around at table reads together bawling their eyes out is really, really stupid.

I have no idea why he's the inspiration. Anyone know if he was married before? Or in other serious relationships that maybe he wanted to base this on so he could show how superior he was to his ex?? I dunno....

I just read an interview, and if I read it correctly, the inspiration for Jack is Dan Fogelman himself. I had never read that before, so I am going to double check what I read. But if that's true it would explain so much. Just double checked, and yes, it says that he based Jack on himself and had originally envisioned someone more "average" looking in the role, but hired Milo for it.

I just read that for season 2 to look forward to a lot of singing for Kate, and that we could possibly see a Kate and Toby wedding. Sounds absolutely thrilling.

My thoughts about Justin and his ability to carry a dramatic story aside..... I don't see what the showrunners excuses would be for not simply switching out the useless and boring scenes Kevin (and Kate) had with other ones that would have been more useful. They could have done that. No need to wait for season 2 or 3 or whatever magic number. Especially considering it is an ensemble. If you can't manage more than one story in an ensemble you definitely have no business being hailed as brilliant or nominated for a Golden Globe. The other issue is...if you are going to choose to write a story about a kid not getting enough attention on a serious, dramatic level, then you need to actually write that. Don't try to pass off the stuff we have been shown as something heavy that needs serious screen time to show the incredible depth of the story. Have the guts to write it otherwise it just comes off as some whiny ass kid (and adult) that wanted to be an only child so the spotlight could be on them all the time. And don't be so concerned about ohhhh nobody is ever really wrong we are all just great hopeful people here tryin to do the right thing. Because in cases of kids being neglected or whatever, there is usually going to be someone in the wrong. So...pick what you are going to do and don't try to tell me Kevin has such "issues" because Rebecca didn't remember the name of his play!!!!!

So much this. I can't stand the back and forth twitter party during each episode airing with the constant complimenting of all their brilliant performances. Over the dang top.

There's also this weird expectation that when you have kids you can never ever take a moment for yourself when possible. And as teenagers they need to be able to function without her holding their hands every single minute of the day. She's not going to be following them into the bedroom of whatever guy or girl they are with, or hiding in bushes with binoculars to see if they are gonna have sex, or show up at every practice, or every party they attend. And if they need to talk and talking to dad just won't cut it they can use the phone.

I don't think teenagers can be (or should be, really) watched 24/7. All you can do is give them the information they should know about that topic and hope they don't do anything stupid. They are going to make their own choices. Same for Kate and the obesity, Kevin and all of his whatever issues, etc.

The other issue is....since when does this show require much patience? Pretty much every plot point with the exception of Jack's death has moved at lightning speed. Dan has said multiple times....I want to make em wait. In the sense that....I want to keep the viewers in suspense so they come back and that translates into a high 18-49 demo. Not in the sense that it just takes time to tell this particular story. That's BS!

I'm eliminating cry, destroy, Kleenex, and probably some others from my vocabulary. So I guess Mandy Moore felt the need to make an Instagram post defending the finale? I like Mandy Moore and all, but.....I don't get the need for this?? People watched it, and obviously felt some kind of way about it that didn't involve tears. I think part of the show's problem is that it DOESN'T get critiqued at all because tears are usually flowing and the 18-49 demo isn't awful. But these problems have been there since the beginning. Oh well....Dan Fogelman said just last week FU (literally) to anyone that didn't like what they were doing.

I feel it's a given the show is going to try and do wayyyyy too much regarding Jack's death, when really they could have just already revealed he had an illness or something and called it a day. So I could totally see them going there. This is a case of not knowing to quit when you're ahead, I think.

SO. SPOT. ON.

Is there such a thing as.....TOO MUCH DAMN PROMOTION?!?

Mr. Fogelman and Milo keep saying OF COURSE JACK HAS FLAWS!!!!!!!!! YOU WILL SEE THEM!!!!!!!! But they know darn well how things are being presented.

Personally, I think a lot of times....there is this belief that if a man doesn't treat you like crap, then you need to be thankful, grateful, lucky, never complain, be content with what you have, etc. If Jack wants to be a superhero fine...but that doesn't mean Rebecca is going to want to follow suit.

Really? Hmmm....I feel I see that all the time. Other than that....boredom (because he knows the shows were not hits)<------which is no excuse. There is just a general lack of emotion and range for me. Even though he's been on shows with lackluster writing, I feel he has been given opportunities to show SOMETHING...ANYTHING other than the usual. In certain scenes where I'm supposed to really FEEL something, I never do, in part because I don't believe his characters are really feeling anything. And sometimes I end up laughing when I am not supposed to. That happened in the scene where he was talking to the widow at the funeral. I was laughing because I thought he was laughing. I think he lacks certain skills required to be a serious dramatic actor.

I first saw him on his first gig...Passions. He was probably best there, to be honest. I especially thought he completely wasted the role of Patrick on Revenge. That role called for a serious, mysterious, brooding type. Not sure why he was hired for that role when he has never been able to pull that off, imo. His shtick is sarcasm (basically playing himself) and every role does not call for that. I'm assuming Kevin is supposed to be a character where you get the impression there is something more beneath the surface. However, unless it is literally written in his script, it would not be apparent.

Ill-conceived and poorly written character. Weak and limited actor. Seems to be little interest in the character on the writing staff. If they were, things would have been different this season. And sometimes writers give material based on the actor's ability, which I think in this case is rather limited. Ironically, given the "story" Kevin has, he might be the resident pretty boy, because I guess people think he's great looking. To me, it's just another way in which he is very bland. Not a fan.

I was going to say....they skip over most things....

YES! Speechless is superb! Best new show of the season for me.

This.....this. right. here. I read an article from someone reviewing the pilot episode and she was somehow able to see this was how the series would go after just that one episode. She was spot on. Her opinions would probably go in the Unpopular Opinions of Reviewers category because most others called it brilliant, groundbreaking, phenomenal, etc. Oh, and of course to get the tissues ready.

Oh for cryin out loud..... Ugh, I just said cryin

Yeah, especially since he can be found on twitter talking about which episode will make people cry the most. He sure is. I want to remind him that this is the first season, and that it was only 18 episodes. Something else I don't understand is why there are constant comparisons to Empire in terms of ratings. Empire's ratings were massive, and the show has been on, what....3 years now? It is still performing well ratings-wise even though they have dropped off. Actually, what is considered not very good for Empire is considered fantastic, amazing, like nothing ever seen before for TIU. So I am not sure I understand attempting to get a dig in at Empire. And Grey's Anatomy, which has been on for over a decade was pulling in numbers pretty much in the same ballpark as TIU just a few weeks ago. I know Dan doesn't think he has to write complete stories, or show the follow-up to major moments, but it seems that there are people looking for that. More viewers tuned in to watch the winter finale and premiere and then seemed to go away probably after realizing nothing really happened after Toby's drama. Now more people are tuning in probably looking to find out what happens with Jack's death. And of course next week will probably be even more. But he has said he just wants to keep people hanging on and in suspense. He thinks that is the answer to keeping audiences engaged.

The only one I think has an ego is Justin Hartley. For some reason he thinks he was always entitled to a hit show and to never have to remove his shirt. I think someone smartly pulled him aside and told him to cool it with that whinefest. He definitely wants the same stardom as the rest of the cast, so we shall see. This article was so damn long. I'm used to Dan Fogelman contradicting himself in interviews about this show, but he broke a record here. And I see he is deciding to ignore a segment of the audience that maybe wants to see actual stories. He says everything can't be happy happy all the time but that's what he has pretty much done all season, resolving all conflicts in record speed and tying everything up with a nice little bow. The latest being Kevin and his play. He claims to not be manipulating the audience, but plays Jack one way the entire season and decides to change things up in the LAST episode to explain his death, and is also going to drag that out until it can't be dragged out anymore. Why drag this but go from A to Z with every other storyline? He says it will be difficult getting the audience to like Miguel and Rebecca, but he chose to write them the way he did this season. He claims to not be writing for tears and is just writing stories, but this whole season seems to prove otherwise. And usually stories have a beginning, middle, and end. His stories only have beginnings and endings.