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THIS IS US: Randall Dismantled As Sterling K. Brown Delivers Masterful Performance

Courtesy/NBC

In yet another riveting performance by Sterling K. Brown, the highly-touted episode that aired on Tuesday’s night’s This Is Us, had his character of Randall in the spotlight again, as the first of the Big Three trilogy this season.  Next week, look for the installment to center on Justin Hartley’s Kevin.However, last night on the episode aptly titled, “Hello of a Week: Part One”, viewers followed what happened next to Randall following his return home after the stress of flying across the country to get a diagnosis for his ailing mother’s memory lapses (while keeping it from his siblings), and then winding up facing an intruder in the Pearson family home.After Randall offers the intruder money, the guy runs out of the home.

Next, the police come, and Randall installs surveillance cameras and security alarms throughout the house, which ends up being a continued tipping point in his mental state as he obsesses over keeping his family and his home safe, especially when the cops tells him that it is common for a thief to return,. It appears later in the episode he did when Beth’s earrings and Randall’s cufflinks are MIA.

Photo by: NBC

Throughout the episode, flashbacks to Randall’s childhood showed little Randall, unable to sleep and afraid of monsters, who then asks his dad, Jack to stay with him through the night.  Jack sleeps on the floor, but when Jack eventually gets up to go to his own bed, he tells Randall who comes running after him, “to be brave: and that he needs him to be the easiest child to care for since Kate and Kevin are handfuls.

This laid the foundation for how Randall deals with others, by not letting them know his inner most feelings.   The writers juxtapose Randall’s dreams throughout where he feels he can’t get out whether it be screaming through a locked window at his mother to get out of the storm, or watching some creepy guy touch Beth and he screams so loud, but you can’t hear him,

In addition, in flashbacks, we see how a college-aged Randall needing college-aged Beth to spend countless nights with him. At one point he tells her, “I just feel so helpless, like I have no control over anything,” especially following the death of his father Jack.  Beth says she can understand. She had bad dreams after her father passed away, but after she talked to a therapist she began to feel better.  In a key moment, Randall agrees to attend an grief group with her, but that plan goes awry when on the day they were heading to the grief counseling group, Randall’s family has an emergency and he could not go.

The theme of Randall seeking counseling surfaced later in the episode after Randall was struggling to hold it together as City Councilman at the Town Hall, which did not go unnoticed by Beth or by Malik’s dad, Darnell.

The next day, he tells Randall that he himself needed therapy and suggest he do that to.  Randall says all he needs is his runs around the city to help him clear his head.  But that takes another drastic turn when Randall comes upon a woman being beaten and proceeds to pounce on the aggressor.  Next, Randall with messed up arm from landing punches on the guy, ends up being touted as a hero for saving the woman’s life.  He is not comfortable with that and he begins to lose his grip.

In the culmination of the episode, locking himself in the bathroom in his home, Randall begins to cry and phones Kevin.  Thank God his brother answered, as he seems to be the only person Randall feels he can talk to, and has, through his life.  At the time of the call, Kevin is in bed with what looks to potentially be Sophie, because he was heading back to Pittsburgh for a funeral of one of her parents.  But is it Sophie, or another woman?

During their call, Randall begs Kevin just to talk, and to please  distract him. Kevin promises his brother, “I’m the guy that’s gonna get you through this,”   Will Kevin ultimately help Randall, or will what happens next become the huge rift that we know exists between the brothers in the flash-forward viewers learned about episodes ago?

This Is Us executive producers, Issac Aptaker, and Elizabeth Berger weighed-in on revisiting Randall’s anxiety and panic attacks with Entertaintment Weekly. This is something that was hot on all of our minds, because over the past year, a couple of the writers in our room had had people break into their homes when they were home,” shared Issac Aptaker.  “People would come in and we would see the impact that it has on you when someone invades your space like that — the aftermath and the fallout. So, as we were looking at what Randall’s season would look like, and what would be potentially the breaking point for him with all that’s been brewing this year, it was at the front of all of our minds at how upsetting something like that can be.”

“We’ve seen that Randall is someone that is so in touch with his feelings emotionally, and he is so willing to talk about everything, but there does seem to be this block with him when it comes to therapy, where he just does not want to engage,” says Elizabeth Berger. “That really fascinated all of us and got us thinking, “What’s that about? And how do we get him to a point where he has his back against the wall and has to move past coping mechanisms and keeping things just below the surface and finally deal with them?” And this felt like a really compelling way to go about that.”

When all was said and done, Sterling K. Brown delivered a nuanced and masterful performance as viewers watched Randall slowly but surely, struggling to cope with all the pressure, and horrific events that happened to him one after the other, as Randall’s anxiety and panic attacks were about to reach epic proportions.

So, what did you think of last night’s This Is Us? Sterling’s performance? Comment below.

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To me, Mr. Brown is one of the industry’s most overrated actors. He’s competent and obviously dedicated. But he telegraphs every emotion ahead of time so we know exactly which expression he’ll have (usually either bewilderment or confusion), just as he did in THE PEOPLE VS. O. J. SIMPSON. Whenever an episode focuses entirely on Randall, the show grinds to a very slow trot. It’s best when the adult siblings are interacting. That’s the show’s strength.

Recaps

Christopher Cousins Makes His Y&R Debut: What Were Your First Impressions of Alan Laurent?

Soap veteran, Christopher Cousins (ex-Cain, OLTL et al), made his first appearance on The Young and the Restless on the Tuesday, April 30th episode of the CBS daytime drama.

As previously reported, Cousins is taking on the role of Ashley’s friend/psychiatrist from Paris, Alan Laurent. In story, the Abbotts flew Alan in from Paris to see Ashley (Eileen Davidson) first-class ticket to Genoa City, no less.

Alan recalls to Traci (Beth Maitland) how Ashley was upset after revisiting the cafe where she had the fight with Tucker (Trevor St. John), and had two different versions in her mind of what actually happened. Traci enlightens Alan that Ashley has been having personality shifts from being assertive, to child-like, to taking tequila shots and having a good ole’ time. In addition, that Ashley is having blackouts with chunks of time gone from her memory.  Traci goes on to say that Billy (Jason Thompson) said he once experienced something like this himself with a personality splinter.

Photo: JPI

Traci is hoping Alan can talk to Ashley and insist she undergo treatment. Alan firmly explains that he can’t treat her himself, but he will see what he can do.

When Ashley, now as her alter Belle, comes to the Abbott home after chatting with Diane (Susan Walters) at Crimson Lights, she is thrilled to see her old friend, Alan. Eventually, the two head to Society where a concerned Abby (Melissa Ordway) pours them some champagne.

Photo: JPI

The two talk about Paris as Belle flirts with Alan. She then wonders if he is in town to probe her innermost thoughts. She tells Alan that her family has decided there’s something wrong with her. Alan assures Ashley that he cannot treat her as a patient in the U.S. as he is retired and does not have a license to practice in the states. Alan said he is concerned for her, but would never treat a friend.

Photo: JPI

Belle tells Alan, “The rumors about my mental breakdown are highly exaggerated.” Belle speaks to the other alters, and thinks Alan is the perfect solution for Ashley. She says, “Time for some joie de vivre.”

What did you think of Christopher Cousins in his new role as Alan Laurent? Will Ashley’s alters get Alan in bed with her? Will she set him up for something more devious? Will Alan figure out what is going on with Ashley and pretend to just be her friend, while somehow treating her multiple personality disorder? Let us know in the comment section below.

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American Idol

AMERICAN IDOL: Katy Perry Makes a Heartbreaking Decision as Top 7 are Revealed

It was dramatic American Idol on Monday night. The episode marked the return of the “Judges Song Contest”, where Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie each serve up a song choice for the contestant to sing, and they must choose one and then figure out who recommended that song choice.

As in the past, when it got down to the bottom two from the at-home voting, the judge who scored the most picks of their song choices by the contestants, was in the drivers seat and could ultimately save one of the two performers to sing another day.

After a night of sterling musical performances by Jack Blocker performing Willie Nelson’s Always On My Mind, Abi Carter doing her rendition of Evanescence’s Bring Me to Life, and Emmy Russell performing her grandmother Loretta Lynn’s classic, Coal Miner’s Daughter, the following were safe after the nationwide vote.

Photo: ABC

The aforementioned, Blocker, Russell and Carter, plus Will Moseley, Triston Harper, and Julia Gagnon. However, that left McKenna Faith Breinholt and Kaibrienne in the bottom two. At that point, Katy Perry conferred with her co-judges and announced with tears in her eyes, in an almost impossible choice for her, to save Breinholt, thus Kaibrienne’s run on ‘Idol’ came to an end.

Photo: ABC

The episode also welcomed back former Idol contestants Danny Gokey, Melinda Doolittle and Colton Dixon for a performance of “Shackles,” in honor of former Idol contestant, Gospel artist, and Grammy-winner, Mandisa who passed away earlier this month at 47.

Photo: ABC

So, did America get the Top 7 right? Did Katy do right by keeping McKenna for the Top 7 and sending Kabrienne home given her choices? Are there too many country artist contestants left in the mix? Share your thoughts via the comment section below. But first watch what happens when the final 7 are whittled down and Katy’s anguised decision.

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Recaps

THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: Deacon and Finn Make a Shocking Discovery and Find Sheila

On the Monday, April 29th episode of The Bold and the Beautiful, our two sleuths, Deacon (Sean Kanan) and Finn (Tanner Novlan), are looking for clues that Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) could be alive, especially after the homeless man (Clint Howard) tells them he saw a woman in their photo go into an abandoned building and he heard screaming until suddenly it stopped.

Deacon and Finn decide they have to go inside the dingy vacant building and search for Sheila. Once inside, Deacon is overcome, saying, “It’s awful in here. Like something died.” Finn keeps calling out his mother’s Sheila’s name. Eventually, the two end up at a locked gate and see a rat.

Next, they bust open the padlock to the gate and make their way down a flight of stairs, and then split up. During the search, Finn is hearing Sheila and Steffy’s (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) voices in his head, but take his flash flight and spots an old mattresses, garbage and a blanket.

Courtesy/CBS

Finn shouts, “Deacon, hurry up get in here!” Deacon hurries and they lift up the blanket to reveal a body. Finn rolls the body over and it’s a bloodied Sheila! Deacon is in shock, but takes off her shoe and sock to reveal the missing toe on her foot. Finn cries out, “Mom! Mom!!” We fade to black.

As previously reported, Kimberlin Brown is back as it appears Sheila is alive, and her lookalike Sugar is the person that Steffy stabbed in self-defense. Now the question becomes, what will happen to Steffy when she finds out that Sheila is alive, and she killed the wrong person?

What did you think about the reveal that Sheila is alive as discovered by Finn and Deacon? Comment below. But first, check out a little bit from yesterday’s B&B.

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Peter Reckell returns for a second visit with Michael Fairman following the wrap-up of his recent run as Bo Brady on Days of our Lives.Leave A Comment

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