"This Is Us": This Is It

The series finale of the NBC family drama "This Is Us" airs tomorrow after six seasons of compelling stories with wild flashbacks and flash-forwards and all of the trials and tribulations of the incredibly complex Pearson family.  They're not a typical family - there aren't that many families whose two sons become a Hollywood actor and a U.S. Senator, least of all when one is transracially adopted, nor are there a lot of families where a transracially adopted son has two fraternal twin siblings and was born on the exact same date as they were - but they do have a lot of typical family issues that they have to deal with.  The time shifts in the storylines have always been used very effectively.  By the end of each episode, you're surprised to learn what has happened, but you have to wait awhile to learn how it happened. 

All through the run of "This Is Us," the heart of the series has been Mandy Moore, who played Rebecca Pearson, the family matriarch.

When Mandy Moore first arrived at the turn of the millennium, she was a teenage pop singer in the style of Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson.  This is not a lineage any chanteuse worth her salt would want to be associated with, and I groaned at the prospect of yet another teen-pop sensation.  But something funny happened - Mandy Moore turned out to be talented,  Not only is she a fine singer, she piqued my interest as an actress as the starry-eyed but conniving talent-show contestant Sally Kendoo in the 2006 satirical film American Dreamz.  Her performance as Rebecca in "This Is Us" has been nothing short of outstanding. As a mother and wife who gives up her (big surprise) singing career to raise her children, she ends up being the rock of her family, the constant in changing situations that become more and more frequent after her husband dies from inhaling to much smoke in a house fire that displaces the family. Moore played the role with the right mix of spunk, humor and pathos.  She was the biggest reason to watch the show.  (The very close second biggest reason to watch was Sterling K. Brown, who played adopted son Randall; he could give a great performance just by reciting the phone book . . . if you can find a phone book these days.  Thanks for nothing, Whitepages.com.)

I'll certainly be watching the series finale of "This Is Us" tomorrow, but I wonder what producer Dan Fogelman could possibly have left to surprise us with.  After the tearjerking penultimate episode last week, which showed Rebecca dreaming of the people in her life gone by aboard a luxurious passenger train as she fights to stay alive before she ultimately succumbs to her terminal Alzheimer's disease,  I can only wonder.