This Is Us Character Analysis

Featuring an incredibly diverse character range, emotionally and physically, NBC’s This Is Us acts as the perfect vehicle to show audiences all over the world the highs and lows of human behavior. One of this show’s greatest talents is reminding audiences of man’s flawed nature, even in the midst of the best intentions. They do this by presenting each character in an incredibly realistic and relatable light, showing their character development ranging from their childhood to their present-day lives. Through these characters, the show draws on several societal and common personal issues, including mental illness, physical appearance, alcoholism, identity, ego and the overarching theme of grief, and presents them in such a way that shows the

Randall has been a perfectionist since he was a child, as many intelligent people are. Because of this, his need to be perfect causes him to bottle up all of his stress and emotions from when things are not executed perfectly, leading to huge nervous breakdowns. We see this in a flashback of Randall as a teenager, sitting in front of his computer screen with tears streaming down his face because he could not get his essay right. Although not every watcher is as anxiety-ridden as Randall, this behavior is a reminder to prioritize mental health, something many people push to the backburner and also stigmatize. Included in the article, “Mental Health & Stigma,” “the most commonly held belief [is] that people with mental health problems [are] dangerous,” that their illness is self-inflicted, and that they are incapable of being successful. Randall is aware of this stigmatization, ignoring the signs of his breakdown in an effort to convince himself and others as though he has everything together when facing his competition at work, as well as while taking care of his dying, newly-found biological father at home. His effort to avoid the appearance of imperfection also