Recaps
THIS IS US: Randall Dismantled As Sterling K. Brown Delivers Masterful Performance
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.
General Hospital
GENERAL HOSPITAL: Mike’s Family Says Their Goodbyes in Emotional Episode Filled With Touching Performances
Dancing with the Stars
DANCING WITH THE STARS: Anne Heche. Jesse Metcalfe & Chrishell Stause Make Their Ballroom Debuts; While Tyra Banks Bows As New Host
Season 29 of Dancing with the Stars got underway last night, and with the pandemic the changes were noticeable.
Judges seemed more than six feet apart at the table, gone was the Sky Box interviews, gone was the live band, but we did get canned crowd applause and noise which was too over the top without any audience members truly in the ballroom.
Photo: ABC
Tyra Banks made her debut as the new host replacing Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews, while Derek Hough took over Len Goodman’s spot at the judges table. With all of that; soap fans were intrigued to see how three of the contestants would do in the scoring with their first dance of the competition.
Anne Heche and dance partner Keo Motsepe (Cha-Cha): Here we go – for pizazz and going for it … and doing well, we got to give it to Anne Heche (Ex- Vicky/Marly Another World) although at times her foot work was off, she really sold this dance with her enthusiasm and spunk. Judge Carrie Ann had high praise for Anne as a potential star on the dance floor, and the duo danced to Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now, which we love. Judges’ Score: 18 out of 30
Photo: ABC
Jesse Metcalfe and dance partner Sharna Burgess (Quickstep): Metcalfe (Ex-Dallas, Passions, and Desperate Housewives) looked intense on the dance floor and got some critique for his posture and foot work, but the quickstep is such a hard dance to pull off in the first place. The duo danced to Stevie Wonder’s Part Time Lover. And of note: Sharna fangirled out meting Metcalfe whom she loved as Miquel on Passions! Judges’ Score: 18 out of 30
Photo: ABC
Chrishell Stause and dance partner Gleb Savchenko (Tango): With mistakes that were noticeably caught by the judges, which they shared were about timing, footwork, and frame work, Chrishell (Ex-AMC, DAYS and Y&R) held it together and got through the dance in spite of it all. She danced to Pink’s Raise Your Glass. In a play on Stause’s Selling Sunset real estate gig and reality series, judge Bruno said Stause was “far from closing the deal” with that dance. Judges’ Score: 13 out of 30.
At the top of the leaderboard after night one of the competition were: 18-year-old Skai Jackson with 21 points, as well as Justina Machado, then former ‘Bachlorette’ Kaitlyn Bristowe with 20, along with Catfish creator and host Nev Shulman. At the bottom of the score board was Tiger King’s Carole Baskin with 11 points.
Watch Anne, Jesse and Chrishell’s performances below. Then let us know, what did you think of their first dance? Who impressed you from the entire cast? What did you think of Tyra as Dancing with the Stars new host? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
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General HospitalSeptember 10, 2020GH’s Chloe Lanier Talks On Nelle’s Twisted Plots, Her Co-Stars & That Cliffhanger “Ending”
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General HospitalSeptember 12, 2020GENERAL HOSPITAL: Britt is the New Chief of Staff; But Who is the New Head Nurse?
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Breaking NewsSeptember 15, 2020Cady McClain IN As DAYS Jennifer Temporarily Replacing Melissa Reeves
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General HospitalSeptember 18, 2020Alicia Leigh Willis On Her Heavenly Return To GH: “What a Wonderful Experience Reminiscing With My Favorite Cast & Crew.”
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NewsSeptember 9, 2020B&B’s Denise Richards To Exit ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’
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Dancing with the StarsSeptember 10, 2020Chrishell Stause to Dance to Pink’s ‘Raise Your Glass’ In Season Opener of DWTS Shares It’s “A Rallying Cry For People Who Feel Like Misfits”