TV Talk: ‘This is Us’ ends quietly, poignantly; bloated ‘Stranger Things’ returns

This column contains spoilers for the series finale of NBC’s “This is Us,” which aired May 24, 2022.

After last week’s episode about the death of Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore), viewers could have come into the series finale expecting a “Six Feet Under”-style, time-hopper that showed what became of each of the characters, but the swan song episode, written by showrunner Dan Fogelman and directed by executive producer Ken Olin, opted for something smaller, simpler and ultimately more meaningful.

While the present-day story was largely set against the backdrop of preparations for Rebecca’s memorial, “This is Us” did not wallow in grief, forgoing eulogies in favor of heartfelt flashbacks to the halcyon past. That proved an ideal way to end this thoughtful, big-hearted and rare family drama.

“When you’re young, you’re always trying to be older. Then when you get old you’re always trying to get back, be back, trying to appreciate the moments,” Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) tells young Randall and Kevin while teaching them to shave on a rare, plan-free Saturday in the late 1980s. “That’s what we’re doing, collecting these little moments. We don’t recognize them when we’re in them, we’re too busy looking forward but then we spend the rest of our lives looking back, trying to remember them, trying to be back inside them.”

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, showrunner Fogelman, who spent part of his childhood in Bethel Park, said “that amidst all the talk of twists and turns and death and house fires and appliances that cause house fires, where the show really lived was just with a family.

“I always felt that the boldest and most confident ending for the show .. after the emotional, sad, death [of Rebecca was] then allowing the final episode to be a simple reflection on family and time,” he continued. “And I think in some ways, thats the most challenging stuff.”

The “This is Us” finale embraced the notion of living in the present, something Rebecca also expressed on that nothing-to-do-Saturday. Lying in bed she told her husband about being pushed on a swing by her father.

“I really wish I spent more time appreciating it while it was still happening instead of worrying about when it was going to end,” she said.

Large swaths of this episode were written and filmed several years ago when the little set of Big Three kids were younger and held for use in the finale: The shaving and pin-the-tail on the donkey scenes, William (Ron Cephas Jones) reflecting on the “easy, pure love” of a grandparent for a grandchild.

Fogelman said when he saw the shots of Jack looking at young Randall and Randall looking at Jack, he knew he wanted to end the series on those images and wound up pairing it with similar shots of grandpa-to-be Randall looking at Deja and Deja looking at Randall.

“I just wanted the simplicity of the shot of the child taking in the parent at a moment when the parent is taking in something bigger, and knowing that that child will carry it forward in their own lives,” he said. “It was less about Randall and Jack and it was more about child and parent in that moment.”

While some of the plot revolved around Randall (Sterling K. Brown) trying write a eulogy for his mother’s service, the show opted not to share that eulogy with viewers, Fogelman said, because so much of the penultimate episode “was about people emoting and saying this stuff to Rebecca.

“Lord knows Randall gave the world’s perfect eulogy, but what else is he going to say about his mother at this point that he hasn’t already said in the show?” Fogelman said. “I lost my mom and very similarly sat up all night the night before deciding that people are waiting for the perfect eulogy from me. … And my experience of the day, and frankly, the week or two after, was, as I described in the script, I just kind of floated through space and time and didn’t hear anything. And I worked so hard on that eulogy and I don’t remember a single word I said in it.”

Fogelman defends Randall telling his siblings when he thinks of “his family” his first thought is always the family he grew up in rather than the family he has now with his wife and daughters.

“It’s a really honest reflection, which is, your primal, original family was whatever family you lived your childhood within as much as your family that becomes the family that you may build,” he said. “There are some of us who always go back to that childhood family in their mind’s eye when they think of who their people are. And I think for Randall, that’s something that was true to him and a reminder of the bond that you hold with siblings and with your parents even though you may become a 40-year-old-man living across the country seeing them once a year.”

The “This is Us” finale had one brief nod to the distant future, showing Jack Jr. (Western Pa. native Blake Stadnik) pushing his child on a swing.

“We never planned on living heavily in 2040 or whatever that year would be,” Fogelman said. “This show was always about this generation of the family and the sprawl of their family within those lifetimes. Obviously, there’s more story that could potentially be told in the adult lives of their children and grandchildren. But that was never the intent of the series. Every book has to end. In every generational family a novelist can go back further or go forward further if you so choose. We had the beginning, middle and end points of where our timelines would start, center and end. And this was always the plan.”

The Big Three siblings expressed their future career goals, including Randall’s bombshell that he may be headed for the U.S. presidency.

“You’re left to choose-your-own-adventure as to what you think happens with him,” Fogelman said. “Does he even decide to run? Does he win? In my mind, I know what happens to Randall and his family but it’s meant to not be answered and to just live with the promise. It’s up to the audience to decide what they think happens next. Did we watch an origin story without realizing we were watching one of the future leader of the free world? Or is the completion of Randall’s arc to not push further in his career, to settle into a role where he’s comfortable? I think it was always more about Randall choosing to move forward because his mother has now freed him to do what he wants, to go for the big choices if it’s something he wants to do. That was always the completion.”

The show did not go further forward in time, leaving a large blank canvas for potential “This is Us” spin-offs or sequels down the road. But Fogelman pushed back on such suggestions – at least for now.

“I think I’m pretty set on this being it,” he said. “We’ve really answered the questions of the show. … There’s always going to be another part of the story if you continue to go further, which is the whole theme of our show. But my well is pretty dry right now. … Who knows what change of heart my ensuing midlife crisis brings, but I really feel we’ve put these stories to bed now and certainly for quite a bit of time.”

‘Stranger Things 4’

There are stranger things than watching young actors age on screen and yet seeing the kids who started on this series in 2016 grow by leaps season-to-season is odder than any of the show’s demons but slightly less strange than the choice to make almost every aspect of “Stranger Things 4” more bloated and cumbersome than necessary.

Streaming Friday almost three years after its third season, “Stranger Things 4” is a sad, indulgent, at-times-predictable slog. Episodes routinely run more than an hour and many characters are mopey.

It’s a year later, 1986, and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) lives with Joyce (Winona Ryder) and family in California and she’s not fitting in with the kids at school and later finds herself the subject of a seemingly unholy alliance that leads to endless scenes of Eleven trauma porn.

Back in Hawkins, Max (Sadie Sink) is depressed over the trauma of watching her brother die at the end of season three. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) has fallen in with mean jocks.

Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve (Joe Keery) are still good for some laughs as is Lucas’ sister, Erica (Priah Ferguson), but the MVP award for injecting an otherwise missing sense of light-hearted fun goes to Maya Hawke as Robin, who wisely has been given a larger role. She brightens every scene she’s in.

But as has been the case since after the first season, the characters are largely split up — the action drifts from Hawkins to California to Alaska to Russia — which gives this penultimate season the feeling of a placeholder, an effort to bide time until they can fight side-by-side again in season five.

When it’s not rehashing plot elements of past seasons, “Stranger Things 4” foregoes the Amblin-esque, ‘80s movie joy of previous seasons in favor of a more gruesome, horror-tinged story.

True believers may not care about this tonal shift but more casual viewers – and those who value not having a TV show waste their time with needlessly over-long episodes – probably will.

“Stranger Things 4” consists of nine episodes with the first seven dropping this week and the last two debuting on July 1 (the season finale will clock in at two hours and 30 minutes).

You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow Rob on Twitter or Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.