Jeri Jacquin
Coming to DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the highly successful television series comes to DVD with THIS IS US: The Complete Third Season.
The season begins with Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) preparing to take Rebecca (Mandy Moore) on a date. Going to a carnival turns up a wash when Jack comes clean that his life hasn't exactly been as he planned since returning from Vietnam. Agreeing to another date, Jack sees something that is difficult. Deja (Lyric Ross) is still with the family and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) is doing his best, especially when she sees her biological father. Zoe (Melanie Liburd) and Kevin (Justin Hartley) are still together but Beth (Susan Kelechi) has her opinion on the matter. Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) are determined to have a child and she must convince a fertility specialist that it's what they truly want.
Looking into the Pearson's past, Rebecca must find a new home and each of the kids are having their own difficulties. Realizing that she is barely functioning with Jack gone it all have consequences. Now Randall tries to help with a rec center but it seems the residents aren't impressed. Kevin finally has his film premier but not everyone is there to cheer on his success. Rebecca puts in her two-centers with Kate and Toby and gets a response she isn't expecting.
More of Rebecca and Jack's past are explored and in one fell swoop Rebecca tells Jack they should drive to Los Angeles together. After making a comment about Jack at Kevin's movie premier, Randall gets a little hot with his sister. As the IVF begins for Kate, she has a moment under anesthesia that changes her perspective. Beth gets an unexpected shock from work and Randall decides he can't help people unless he runs for city council. It is Kevin now that needs to know more about Jack and decides he needs to know more.
Jack and his brother Nick (Michael Angarano) have a story that has long been kept quiet but now we see it played out. Nick is on the draft list to go to Vietnam and Jack wants him to go to Canada to get away but Nick has other ideas. Jack knows he has to go as well to keep an eye on his brother and lies to be accepted into the military. Doing his own time after a battle, Jack discovers where Nick is and flies in to see him.
Miguel (Jon Huertas) buys Rebecca a piano and finds himself more and more at the Pearson's place as each of the kids go through their own emotions. In adulthood Kate and Toby wait to hear if she is pregnant and she discovers Toby has been avoiding his own issues. Beth and Randall are dealing with their career changes and Kevin learns more about his father and a necklace he wore.
Randall and Kevin need each other as the campaign goes into full swing and Deja knows something is wrong between her foster family. Rebecca and Kate talk about motherhood and Zoe tells Kevin she will follow him to Vietnam.
While in Vietnam Jack helps a young boy who is injured and his mother gives him a gift. Nick isn't about to get his hands dirty after everything that happened. In the now Beth isn't thrilled with an event in Randall's campaign. Kate and Toby are in town and making dinner at the Randall's house. That's where Tess (Eris Baker) tells her Aunty something she hasn't told her parents yet. The only thing missing is Miguel and Rebecca who are visiting his adult children.
In Vietnam Jack discovers that Nicky has a problem and it brings them to brotherly blows. Jack would do anything to avoid fighting yet all Nicky wants to do is fight. Now Kevin and Zoe are in the village his father and uncle were at and a family secret is uncovered. Kate decides to teach music but has one obstacle to get through with Toby's support.
Kevin and Zoe move in together but there is something odd about it all. Kate and Toby are getting ready by vamping the baby's room but she makes a mistake that sends Toby over the edge. They both realize they are stressed about the coming baby and do something extraordinary for each other.
After a tragedy in Vietnam, Jack ignores incoming mail from Nicky until he can't any longer. Kevin begins to realize the substance of what secrets do to a family and turns to his siblings to find an answer to the nagging questions they all admit to having. All of it prompts to a slip by Kevin as they all begin to remember things only to discover everyone has their own perception of how it really was.
Beth's story comes to light showing her story of being accepted into a ballet school and the struggle her parents went through to make sure she could go. The struggle continues for Beth and as the family yet there are things that haven't been said between mother and daughter.
It is graduation time for the Pearson Three as Randall plans to attend college, Kevin wants to go to New York and Kate is floundering. Back to the now, Randall deals with news about Deja and her schooling and telling Beth he needs her at home with the girls. Toby does one of the most loving things ever creating a party for Kate where Kevin has problems. Taking him home, Kate's water breaks and they are stuck.
Everyone waits impatiently on the baby news which gives Randall and Beth time to argue about careers and child raising. Miguel has an opinion that isn't well received, Rebecca is quiet, Zoe is full of information that doesn't please Beth, Kevin and Randall can't seem to stay civil and Toby saves the day with an announcement.
Toby is having trouble being a Dad and Kate won't spend a moment away from their son. Kevin decides that maybe couples therapy is the way to go and Zoe drops a little bomb on him. Randall needs Beth for support and does something horrifically stupid that he can't take back. The struggle for both of them to be married, parents and have careers of their own continue to bring strife to them both.
As Kate's worry for her son increases, Rebecca starts stepping a little bit out of her grandmother lane. Kate doesn't exactly know how to handle this until her frustration spills over. Kevin and Zoe have a difficult decision to make and babysitting seems to be the way to find an answer. Randall is put in his place by a teenage Deja who reminds him how wonderful Beth truly is. This is their family…
… this is us!
Ventimiglia as Jack and Moore as Rebecca are the characters we thought we would never see, always wanted and are imperfectly perfect together. Every time they are on my television screen together I am moved, heartbroken, hopeful, understanding, a little angry, joyful and everything in between all of those. Growing up in their "time" I get it, I understand it and, in a way I miss it. A time I hold in my heart as simple in some aspect was also totally fraught with issues that are only coming to light in the past few years. Even after Jack's death I knew there was more of his story to tell and happy to see him in flashbacks. Moore has the tough part of not only flashbacks but a different life in the present for her character. Just both so well done.
Brown and Kelechi as Randall and Beth are going at it full bore this season. They have both been used to having careers and family that go along smoothly. Now that there are bumps in the road, either have to come to face their youthful disappointments, separate family issues never resolved and a future that seems so uncertain for their marriage. There is so much going on that they forget there are kids right in front of them seeing every bit of it, it happens.
Metz and Sullivan as Kate and Toby are about to embark on something neither believed possible. They are also dealing with the emotions of their lives and it's time for them both to find their lane with it. Metz as Kate continues to struggle with Jack's death which interferes with her decisions on motherhood and Sullivan is continually there for his wife and makes a decision about his own health that is dangerous. I love their humor together and admit that Toby just absolutely has my heart.
Hartley and Liburd as Kevin and Zoe are a couple that I never saw fitting together. Kevin is just a hot mess trying to find his place in the world - still. Every time I think he's finding it and happiness along with it, the pieces on his life board get moved quicker than he can adjust too. Hartley is a master of his Kevin character and this past season he kept it fast paced and uncertain. Liburd as Zoe is a woman with her own issues and good at keeping them away from Kevin.
Huertas as Miguel comes into more focus this season as we see how his own family has dealt with his marriage to Rebecca. I'm sure there is much more to has story and I hope we see more this next season. Ross as Deja is a young girl turning into a young woman with smarts beyond her years. She sees what is happening in her home and feels the needs to straighten the adults out. Kudos girl…always step in when it seems the adults are acting childish!
Angarano as young Nick is a kid just looking for a way to escape everything. When Jack follows to Vietnam, the two brothers have to deal with the home issues. He literally is a one man wrecking crew and it's easy to see where Kevin gets it from. Baker as Tess has something important to tell her parents but that's difficult when the household is upside down and you can't get next to your cactus parents!
Other cast include Faithe Herman as Annie Pearson, Caitlin Thompson as Madison, Porter Duong as Hien, Wendie Malick as Mary Damon, Joy Brunson as Shauna, Phylicia Rashad as Carol, Carl Lumbly as Abe, Alexandra Breckenridge as Sophie and Griffin Dunn as Nick Pearson.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment brings award-winning global product and new entertainment to DVD, Bluray, and Digital HD. There amazing collection offers fans an opportunity to expand their own home libraries with the best films. To discover what other titles they have please visit www.fox.com.
THIS IS US: The Complete Third Season includes the episodes Nine Bucks, A Philadelphia Story, Katie Girls, Vietnam, Toby, Kamsahamnida, Sometimes, Six Thanksgivings, The Beginning is the End is the Beginning, The Last Seven Weeks, Songbird Road: Part One, Songbird Road: Part Two, Our Little Island Girl, The Graduates, The Waiting Room, Don't Take My Sunshine Away, R&B and Her.
The Special Features include THE AFTERSHOW on all Episodes and this is us AT Paleyfest 2019.
THIS IS US started out with a slowly lovely burn letting the story continually unravel about the Pearson family. I was actually hooked the very first episode and haven't missed one since. There are shows that just reach deep inside and won't let go and THIS IS US is that show for which millions don't mind the hold. Instead, we want to know more and more. Granted we all waited for Jack's death and when it happened it broke our hearts, but, like most people who watch the show, knew then as we know now that there is so much more of this family's story left to be told.
Each of the characters brings something different to the series with intensity, humor, love and complexity to which we'd expect. I mean seriously, there isn't a family out there who doesn't have their problems and histories - it's just that the Pearson's have invited us in to see all of theirs - raw and unfiltered.
The fourth season of THIS IS US is about to begin on NBC and along with millions of others we have more questions we hope are answered but even if they all aren't, we don't mind sharing our evening with the Pearson's. Actually, we don't mind one little bit.
In the end - they are us all!
