I'm a middle aged suburban mom who hates "This is Us"

By all accounts, the Bloody Mary should be one of my favorite cocktails. I love vodka. I enjoy several forms of the tomato including marina sauce and salsa. I love olives/pickles/celery. I should love Bloody Marys.

I can't stand them.

Oh, I've tried. Over and over again. People have sworn I just haven't tried the right one, and that when I do, I will be converted and my remaining days will be spent sucking down the spicy confections. Sometimes, when I'm out with my best friend and she orders one, I'll think about asking for a sip. Just to see if I've outgrown my distaste for them. And then she gives me her olives because she hates those and you can see why we're such good friends.

The same goes for the highly lauded show "This is Us". I should be all over that show. I love crying. I love drama! I love schmaltz. I love Milo Ventimiglia. I should love that show.

I can't stand it.

Like the Bloody Mary, I have tried really hard to like "This is Us." I sat through 6 or 7 episodes of the first season and waited patiently for the love to arrive. It never did. Instead, I found myself disliking it more with each episode. My eyes rolled, my attention waned and before I knew it, I was hate-watching. There is way too much television out there to be wasting time hate-watching, so I peaced out and gave up.

Apparently I am in the minority because it seems as if every other woman in my demographic has fallen head over heels in love with this show. People talk about it with exuberance and reverence and deference. When I admit that it's not my cup of tea, I'm regarded with narrowed eyes and suspicion. Like I just said I eat puppies. In this group I'm in on the facebook, a group for parents of college kids, I was straight up mocked for not liking it. WOMEN LOVE THIS SHOW YOU GUYS.

My reasons for not liking it are pretty simple. It doesn't move me. Okay, the very first episode, with the guy from that old show Simon & Simon as the gruff-but-loving doctor and the little abandoned baby...I may have shed a tear or two. But that was it. I find the writing to be hackneyed and predictable. After the first couple of episodes it was like catching onto the beat of a song. Banter, pause, laugh/kiss/hug, pause, long emotionally charged monologue with serious face, cut. Rinse and repeat.

The acting (aside from *maybe* the dude who plays Randall) is not great. Kevin? He makes me think of Joey Tribbiani as Dr. Drake Ramoray. Mandy Moore is just so MUCH all the TIME. And Toby? Don't get me started. My creep-detectors went haywire when he was onscreen. I don't know if it's the actor or the way the character is written, but he is gross and if Kate was my homegirl I'd be telling her to run, fast.

And Kate. Ahh. One of the novel points of this show was how they were going to feature a fat woman as like, a real person. With feelings and stuff. As someone whom society considers fat, I think I'm supposed to be Team Kate. We should grateful to have a representative on a super popular show, ya know. I suppose it is good and progressive to have a less-than perfect size zero woman on television being shown as just an everyday gal and not the funny sidekick or the eccentric cat lady. In that respect, yay! What I couldn't get past was the acting by the woman who plays Kate. She seemed, to me, to be practically expressionless most of the time, aside from when she was reciting yet another of her verge-of-crying speeches. I could never really tell if Kate was pissed off, sad or happy.

Listen, I'm not disparaging those of you who love this show. If anything, I envy you.

There's nothing like getting swept up in the embrace of an hour-long distraction from the rat race. And lest you think I consider myself Roger Ebert or anything, please know that I have watched every episode of Sex and the City at least ten times. I'm not special nor am I particularly qualified to critique a television show. And I did only watch six episodes...for all I know if I'd stuck it out I'd be the one joking about "getting my Kleenex ready" every Tuesday night.

Maybe it has to be like all the other shows I've fallen in love with- it needs to marinate for a while. I've been late to the party with so many others: The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Office...perhaps This is Us, like revenge, is a dish best served cold.

*I've decided to challenge myself and do the NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, and write a blog post every single day of November. I figure it's the kick in the ass I need to get writing again. I've made this one with about 3 minutes left of November 1st, so you can see how well it's going so far. 

Stay tuned. And thank you for being here.