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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Kate Abbott

Farewell, This Is Us: the sensational schmaltzfest we all needed

The big three … Justin Hartley as Kevin, Chrissy Metz as Kate and Sterling K Brown as Randall.
The big three … Justin Hartley as Kevin, Chrissy Metz as Kate and Sterling K Brown as Randall. Photograph: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Warning: this article contains spoilers.

It’s over. After 106 episodes of emotional evisceration, This Is Us (Amazon Prime) has called time. And like Randall at his mother’s funeral, I want to find the right thing to say. Every week without fail, this heartstring-yanking family saga about the big three – the triplets Kate, Kevin and Randall Pearson – made millions weep, myself included. It has been a six-year emotional juggernaut, a guilty pleasure to watch while sobbing into the sofa. It was comfort TV at its cosiest: a winning combination of twists and misdirection that kept you hooked and blindsided, with fantastic, fleshed-out characters delivering endless hokey speeches (Randall, you are the king!). It may have been a shameless schmaltzfest, but how we needed the release of a show as huge, messy and delectable as life itself.

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