This is Me

That. Was. Us.

Millions of us, quivering and crying, gasping for air, in our collective state of grief and relief, wondering how we were going to clean up all the guts we had just collectively spilled. 

I usually  need to watch "This is Us" commercial free--it's too intense to have to take a breather in order  to decide what fabric softener I want to buy --so after a brilliant showing of "Abbott Elementary" and "Black-ish" I sat down, at 10:00 PM EST,  to what was probably the most emotional episodes of the series..ever.

This episode deserves an Oscar.

A pop-culture nerd like me does not make mistakes, I know it's a TV show that would only qualify for the Emmys, but I meant what I said: 

 This episode deserves an OSCAR.

 Grab this writer, give them time to expand the teleplay by forty-sixty minutes, and you have a story that could stand on its own: a story that could grab a Best (Adapted) Screenplay award that is as deserving as all the award love given to "Marriage Story" and "Scenes from a Marriage" or even "Revolutionary Road"  and/or "Kramer Vs. Kramer"(the last example truly inspired the hospital scene when little Billy Kramer got his painful stitches after falling off of a jungle jim)

Last night's episode, "Saturday in the Park" was simply  magnificent.  

SPOILERS AHEAD

When Jack left the house, I practically screamed from the  tension, a tension I hadn't felt since I first read the edge-of-you-seat novel "Room" where another adorable boy named Jack made a terrifying  escape. 

I wanted to scream, and then I wanted to cry, when Rebecca solved the mystery like Sherlock Holmes herself..dementia be damned, this was a loving grandmother who could have lifted an automobile if Jack had been pinned underneath it.

Mandy Moore's  performance was flawless, as it's been all season.

But then we get those sibling scenes! 

 It was like watching a documentary.

I am the girl sandwiched between two brothers, and I kept  inserting myself into the scene on the lawn, but mostly for comic relief that was necessary at the moment.

What would my brothers possibly have to say to my husband?

"Why are you keeping our sister up with that snoring?"

"So?  So she lied about how much butter she used in that recipe tonight..shut up and enjoy it, okay?"

The thing is...I saw BOTH Kate and Toby as protagonists and antagonists.

 Both were wrong; both were right; both were so  raw and so vulnerable that they might as well have delivered that dialogue  naked.

(I shouldn't have said that, because someone is going to read this, and know somebody who will use  my description to make a hateful comment about Chrissy/Kate's weight. It's unlikely she's healthy at that weight, I'll give you that, but unless we have absolute proof of the character or actress' medical records and lab work, we need to shut up..and concentrate on that naked image without revulsion)

I wasn't a super fan when the series first came on..I liked it a lot, don't get me wrong, but I thought it would be "Parenthood" good, which it really wasn't, at least in the first season, at least in my opinion.

It's "Parenthood" good.

  It's beyond good.

Now, I gotta run and clean up all the guts I spilled on the floor last night.

Maybe I should call in a professional plumber??