This is (the) U.S.: Life, Death, and Washing Machines

Abstract

When This Is Us premiered in September of 2016 on NBC, it did so in a media landscape (including both networks and streaming platforms) populated by several series that heavily relied on nostalgia with dramas such as The Americans (FX, 2013-18), Masters of Sex (Showtime, 2013-16), Halt and Catch Fire (AMC, 2014-17), or Aquarius (NBC, 2015-16), By the middle of the 2010s, American TV series retromania was in full gear, and I would contend that Dan Fogelman’s This Is Us crystallizes this retrophilia craze. The six-season long series revolves around the Pearsons, an a-typical All-American family that the viewers get to know over a time-span of 60-something years full of flashbacks and flash forwards. They are brought back and forth in an intertwined narrative that puts resilience and happiness at the core of its main storyline, following a gallery of characters that all impersonate a key characteristic of the American society. While starting with somewhat essentializing characterization, This Is Us mitigates these archetypes, clichés and prejudices with multi-layered storytelling and delivers a series that has met the American audiences and critiques with largely positive reviews, a consensus rare enough in American network television to be mentioned. At the crossroads of cultural and production studies, this article intends to analyze the series’ content and context, as it explored complicated socio-economic and cultural issues through the evolving bonds of the Pearson family which personifies Americana and its many commodified artefacts. At a moment when America was becoming more and more politically divided, This Is Us created a space of dialogue and communion in which being blue or red didn’t mean much as the values put forth in the series were first and foremost traditional/universal ones. The context of the series and its clear inspirations (Sense8 to name but one) will also be addressed and will attempt to emphasize the metafictional dimension of the series itself as a cultural by-product specifically designed and imagined to inspire as well as revive the one quest to which anyone can relate to: the pursuit of happiness.