This Is Us is closing in on afterschool special territory

The A.V. Club

Earnestness has been the NBC drama’s greatest strength and greatest weakness, says Caroline Siede. “But this (week’s) episode piles on the ‘Big Conversations’ to such a degree that they can’t all be redeemed by the show’s nuanced execution and stellar acting,” she says. ALSO: This Is Us creator explains this week’s episode.