ABC’s A MILLION LITTLE THINGS is Going to Force Us all to Shed A Million Little Tears

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to the ABC line up this fall, and personally I can’t wait for all the new shows, is the first season of A Million Little Things.

The series opener brings friends Jon Dixon (Ron Livingston), Rome Howard (Romany Malco), Eddie Saville (David Giuntoli) and Gary (James Roday).

What brings them together even more is that Jon decides to do something that is about to change their lives forever. Rome almost met the same fate as his friend as he hides his depression; Eddie tries to stay away from the bottle and is in love but not with his wife and Gary works days to day to keep the fear of cancer at bay.

Delilah (Stephanie Szostak) must come to terms with why Jon chose to leave his family, Regina (Christina Marie Moses) discovers that Jon believed to much in her that he had a surprise waiting, Maggie (Allison Miller) also deals with a threat in her life and Jon’s assistant Ashley (Christina Ochoa) is hiding secrets from them all.

Filled with fear, doubt, love, uncertainty, friendship, change, secrets and surprises – these friends and their loved ones are on a journey to discover why Jon did what he did and what that means moving forward.

Livingston as Jon is going to be the ghost of the show in that we will only see him in the flashbacks of his family and friends. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest because Livingston is one of the most underrated actors we have today. His body of work has always kept me watching because he keeps taking on roles that challenge not only Livingston as an actor but me as a viewer.

Roday as Gary is the first character in a series that addresses the fears of cancer for men. He is the jokester of the group with his witty come backs and one-liners but, as with most funny people, there is a deep well of fear that is going to bubble to the surface with each episode. I am a bit fond of Roday’s character from the first episode and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Malco as Rome is the character that is going to let us know that sometimes even the darkest places can have moments of light. Wanting to get a movie made, he is feeling his life out of control and confessing to his friends how he has been feeling, those same friends he was afraid to talk to will be the ones to reach out with a life preserver.

Giuntoli as Eddie has a secret that is a big one and I have to say as the story of all the characters unfold, I can’t say his role in it all is going to come off so well. I’m not sure how I feel about it all but at the season progresses I’m sure I will have a lot to say about him.

Szostak as Delilah has so many questions about Jon yet the answers might be more than she can take. Raising a teenage daughter and young son, they also want to know why tragedy has struck their family and she is going to have some explaining to do.

Moses as Regina has a big dream that she believes in unattainable considering the circumstances she and husband Rome are in. It’s hard to be a chef and start a new restaurant but Jon believes in her and proves it. Miller as Maggie joins the group swift and hard capturing Gary’s attention straight out. The group takes to her right away and Delilah likes her immediately.

Ochoa as Ashley is going to be the keeper of all secrets I think and I don’t like the look of what she’s done in just one episode. Of course with any good employee there is going to be a modicum of protecting one’s boss but boy, she is going above and beyond the call of duty. As Truuvy would say, “I think there’s a story there!”

From the first scene to the last, we are invited to talk about issues that still, to this day, remain hard to talk about or impossible in some cases. A Million Little Things isn’t about to let that stay the fact for long and I welcome it. If the stories of these characters open dialogue (as I hope it will) then trust when I say this series is well on its way to becoming a stand out favorite.

Hold onto your Kleenex boxes because this show is going to have us all understanding and embracing the complexities of these characters with occasional tears. Diving into their individual stories is going to be complicated and bringing us even more questions and personally – I can’t wait.

DJ Nash is the creator and executive producer of A Million Little Things. Also Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor are executive producers of the show along with James Griffiths who also directs the pilot. The show is brought to viewers by ABC Studios and Kapital Entertainment.

A Million Little Things premiers Wednesday September 26^th at 10:00 p.m. on ABC!