I don’t know about you, but I have been mesmerized — literally captivated — by the story and characters of the TV drama This Is Us this past year.
Learning about the series late, I had to go back and binge watch the first year’s past episodes, then ride along to the end of the season. Using my DVR, I’m keeping up pretty much on pace with all of this second season. What a deep pleasure. What an amazing emotional thrill.
Has there ever been a more boldly innovative telling of a TV story, a more insightfully designed and powerfully written script? Have we ever seen any more brilliantly acted characters — apart from some of the greatest big screen movies of all time? (The way you know acting is brilliant is because it seems so incredibly natural, not “acting” at all, and causes a near-total suspension of disbelief.)
I keep waiting for a misstep with This Is Us. A false note. A hokey portrayal. Something too sugary sweet or darkly over-dramatic. It hasn’t happened. The stuff is solid to the core, in my HBAO (humble but accurate opinion). And my hat’s off to the creator of the series, its writers, directors, etc. etc…and of course to all the actors doing such an incredible job.
Here are the 5 main characters that live and struggle together in the single family of This Is Us, with two white parents and three children, one of them a black adopted boy and the other two white twins:
| Cast | Character |
|---|---|
| Milo Ventimiglia | Jack Pearson / … (13 episodes, 2016-2017) |
| Mandy Moore | Rebecca Pearson / … (13 episodes, 2016-2017) |
| Sterling K. Brown | Randall Pearson / … (13 episodes, 2016-2017) |
| Chrissy Metz | Kate Pearson / … (13 episodes, 2016-2017) |
| Justin Hartley | Kevin Pearson / … (13 episodes, 2016-2017) |
Note: I apologize for the messed-up formatting after this next paragraph. Inserting the chart above seems to have thrown the software off for its regular paragraph formation, etc.
The rest of the cast of hundreds (directed at one point or another by twenty separate directors) have played either some other major, or supporting, or minor role in the series…but you never get the feeling that the story is too complex. It focuses magnificently on just the five major characters, with the children of course played at different ages by other than the main actors Sterling, Chrissy, and Justin.
Interestingly, the whole story is constructed on a steady interplay of current action and flashbacks — quite regular but unpredictable flashbacks — that reveal in a deeper and deeper way the characters’ formative experiences (motivation development) that directly impact their current struggles right here in late 2017. You get a better and better revelation of just who these intriguing people are, the Pearsons.
So the longer you watch the story, the more you feel you “get to know” the whole Pearson family. The more you love them, in a certain remote sort of way. The more you don’t want to miss a single episode. Each character is, in his or her own way, endearing and heroic while also being semi-tragic. You come away from watching even just a single episode thinking, Wow. That was powerful. That was real!
And of course, This Is Us is a humongous hit, with sizable TV audiences that include many who are almost fanatic.
Anyway…
It dawned on me as I’ve pondered on all of this, that it’s relatively easy to simply watch the story action of This Is Us. I only have to sit myself down in front of my beautiful Samsung color television screen, listen to the excellent sound coming through my Bose sound bar, and immerse myself in the story. I get lost in it. I almost live life with the Pearsons by vicarious participation!
If you watch this show too, don’t you feel you do the same?
But you know what? The story is all imagined. They’re not a real family. Yes, it’s awesome entertainment, and it teaches, to a certain depth, key life lessons through its drama. But…it’s not as if I’ll ever get to interact with a real Pearsons family, in the flesh — even if I were to travel to the stage set. Not gonna happen. They ain’t real. It’s all just actors and actresses.
And I wonder — no matter the strong relational or moral impressions I gain, or the lessons I learn from the actors’ character portrayals — how long will that “truth” endure in my everyday behavior here in the real world? How truly transformative can watching TV be?
Perhaps it’s all just for…entertainment. Not saying that’s bad. Engrossing entertainment definitely has value, no doubt. Maybe there’s more to it, though. I’m hoping so…
And something has occurred to me…
I started thinking about my spiritual journey of getting to know God, the Creator of not only the whole cosmos but of you and me. The question came to me: What are the differences between easily gaining a good acquaintance with the Pearson family characters (whom I’ve never actually seen in the flesh and never will) by simply watching TV and doing the more challenging work of getting to know the unseen God of heaven and earth who I don’t get to view on TV?
True. I’ve never yet seen God face to face, either. (Emphasize yet.) But based on my personal sense of the truth of the writings of Scripture (especially the Gospels) and based on the many testimonies of changed lives that I’ve witnessed personally, I believe God sent His Son in the flesh to live here among us at the first part of what our calendars of today call the first century A.D. The “characters” in His life and the cities where he lived or travelled were real and historical. He was born a Jewish child to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and given the name Jesus, was raised in Nazareth, and starting at the age of 30 ministered in Judea and Galilee and even in despised Samaria. After doing nothing but tell the truth and heal and love, he willingly let himself be crucified. This was done because of the hatred of the massively hypocritical and arrogant Jewish leaders of that day — whom Jesus had directly challenged — at the hands of mocking Roman soldiers just outside Jerusalem.
He was crucified directly between two thieves, one of whom changed his whole attitude when he “met” Jesus beside him on the cross. We don’t know his name, but we know Jesus promised he’d be welcomed into His kingdom that very day.
And three days later, according to the Gospels, Jesus rose from the dead — for all time — and was taken up back into heaven before a witnessing crowd of followers who afterward fearlessly spread the good news everywhere they went. They were willing to look like fools to tell the truth.
Even secular scholars do not deny the historicity or the powerful dynamics of the Jewish rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth. Some even acknowledge the irrefutability of His miracles and transformative teaching. But most of them deny His resurrection. They do not believe He is alive in Heaven today and ruling the universe, set to return at some point in human history to usher in on Earth a perfect kingdom after destroying all of His enemies who hate Him.
(To willfully ignore Him for your whole life is pretty much to hate him, I think.)
Anyway, back to my comparison between watching This Is Us (easily getting to know the characters’ lives) and getting to know God. I learned somewhere along the way that the sixty-six books of the Bible are like chapters — some long, some short — all of one great story. As you study each of the books separately, tying them together in your mind, you get more and more of the completeness of God’s self-revelation. As you read and meditate more and more, watching Him interact with earth’s flawed characters, starting with Adam and Eve, you learn to love Him, even trust Him with all the affairs of your present life.
Or you turn away and quietly hate Him.
If you keep reading, you have the chance to find yourself trusting Him with your whole future, your eternity.
This present earthly life is so full of anxiety and pain and disappointment…and well, it’s awful short. It’s over before you know it. Does it really make any sense at all that God would go to so much trouble to create you (fashioning you through the miracle of conception and the mysterious growth process carried out through the work of your DNA) and then just let you cease to exist after you die? You’re not just a leaf falling from a tree, or an animal. You’re a man or woman made in God’s own image, more important to Him than even the angels of heaven.
And…
Scripture says that whatever God makes, it’s forever. He may rework things quite a bit at some point in time, but if He created it, it’s forever. That includes you and me. Just sayin’…
Now to my main question, or point, for today and for two more blogs on this intriguing comparison I’m drawing. There are differences, for sure, between the two different types of “getting to know.” And in Part 2 of this post, I’ll start to detail them!
My goal in these 3 blogs? To offer what may provide some spiritual enlightenment that contributes to our soul health directly, and to our grand vitality overall, to the awesome glory of the One who made us and loves us and wants to have us enjoy His kingdom forever and ever and ever and ever….
Grand Vitality 