To me, your post is worse than saying they don’t have friends. If we squint and tilt our heads just right, we can see their friends. LOL
Couple of things. One as I noted, its just an observation. Two, I know several people who have few/no friends outside family (if you want to call people who are family friends but that may be debatable I suppose). One person has repeatedly told me that he defies anyone to tell him why he needs more than his wife and daughter (and now his son in law and his grandchildren) in his life to be happy. It works for him. And others in that category have big families who are very close making it tough for other relationships.
But I have a deal: I won’t mention the lack of friends (seems to have touched a nerve of sorts which I think is interesting) if others won’t bring up the time travel and geography issues (such as traveling from Philly to Pittsburgh like its a trip across town).
I think the friends situation is similar to the geographic one: the need for simplicity outweighs any desire for reality.
“This Is Us” has a very large ensemble cast, especially once you consider the number of actors needed to play just one character throughout a lifetime. The immediate family alone includes around 20 characters, and that wasn’t even counting Jack and Rebecca’s own families of origin. I mean parents, kids, spouses, and grandkids. Writing in peripheral friends seems untenable.
Well, you just did mention geography again -“such as traveling from Philly to Pittsburgh like it’s a trip across town.”.
I get not casting lots of friends, but there is little or no mention of friends outside the family. That could have been mentioned without actually showing it. Rebecca had lunch with a friend, a friend visited her when she was declining, etc.
Maybe its the family problem with cooking devices? Invite them over and they may bring a crockpot. Grill out with them and your marriage falls apart. Though you could invite them over last minute because they all drive very fast cars.
I’m sure many of you know how obsessively attached an Alzheimer’s patient becomes to their caregiver, especially a family member. It grounds them, the “caregiver relationship” is their life preserver as they swim in scary waters.
Rebecca’s reaction was so realistic, and agree, with you @abasket , Rebecca will be lost without Miguel.
Although, I still believe she will think Nicky at her bedside is Jack, which would be Sad, too, if Miquel is erased pass the tissues.
Knowing that, no way I would have voted that Kevin ended up marrying Madison. Is it too late to change my vote? Oh wait, I voted for Cassidy. Never mind.
My only comment on this weeks episode is, wow, the costumers and set decorators must have had some kind of elaborate spreadsheet to manage all the little mini-scenes telling Miguel’s life! Lots of time travel!
Miguel and Rebecca, after their marriage, have dinner with his adult kids. They treat Rebecca like dirt. Miguel finally breaks in and tells him they will treat his wife with respect. It is implied–I can’t remember how–that the kids think that Rebecca and Miguel were involved while Shelly and Miguel were married and Jack was still alive.
In a flashback, Jack is consoling Miguel right after his divorce. Miguel says Shelly is trying to make the kids hate him and they do. Jack tries to argue that isn’t true. Miguel says something like “Lets face it, Jack, I was never there for Andy and Amber. Work always came first.” Jack says Miguel was just trying to provide for his family and that Miguel is the hardest work he’s ever known. He has to use the fight he had to get ahead in the world to fight for his kids.
Interesting how much Miguel changed then. Even before they got together, Miguel was spending a lot of time with the Pearsons and helping out Rebecca. Had his family moved away by then? When he left for Houston, it was to be closer to his kids, but at that point they were interested. Possibly part of that was because he was spending so much time with the Pearsons. Yet he becomes Rebecca’s full time caregiver.
Would have liked to see a bit more about that. I think Kevin went in person to see the son because the calls were going unanswered. I was glad to see him to do that and to see the son come back into Miguel’s life.
I really liked the episode. Nice to have more info on Miguel. It was interesting detail that manager only offered interview to Mike Rivers version, even though he desired Spanish skills.
I try to go with the flow for how things play out. But it does seem rather impractical to have Rebecca and Miguel spend their last years at the cabin in PA. Kate, the backup decision maker, is in CA. Kevin is probably based in CA, since his twins are there. And Randall is a fair distance away (but as we discussed it may be fictionally closer than Philly/Pittsburgh trip). Miguel’s family is a plane ride away… little opportunity to patch that relationship. It also makes me wonder if I truly would want to “shelter in place” at home if widowed and in need of constant care. It seems a burden to the family. But that’s a topic for another thread.
My dad was SO reluctant to move out of his house, but now he loves his retirement facility. There’s always something going on. I wish Rebecca could have found a place like that.
I deleted the episode from my DVR and then restored it. I have watched the last segment 3 more times. For me, I overlook all the geographical inconsistencies, etc. because there are sometimes moments that connect to my life. In this episode it was Kevin saying to Andy “take it from me, man - you don’t want to leave things unfinished.” My dad was a terrible father and cheated on my mother. My dad died in 2005 and my brother and I still speak of all the painful feelings that surround that void in our lives. So that scene left me sobbing as it spoke to that brokenness in my own life. I liked all of the Big Three in this episode, but especially Kevin.
pass the tissues.