Why Season 4 introduced so many new characters in a disorienting way - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 09-25-2019, 08:33 PM

https://ew.com/tv/2019/09/24/this-is...on-4-premiere/

The NBC drama premiered with a bunch of new characters to worry about, including those played by newcomers Jennifer Morrison, Asante Blackk, Nick Wechsler and Omar Epps. "It was always part of the plan for a while now, which was in the middle of our run," explains This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. "We were going to introduce some new characters in an unusual way that take our main characters off course, or in a new direction. When you’re coming into it fresh as a fan of the show, you’re watching it and hopefully engaging with the new characters and wondering, 'Where are these people and who are they going to cross with and how?'… But then there’s a part where hopefully that drifts away and you’re just in the stories. And then it’s such a relief — for me, at least — when you see the Big Three come back in and you realize, 'Oh, I’ve gotten to meet these characters on their own without viewing them through the prism of Randall and Kevin and Kate. Now I understand a little bit more about who these people are and I’m seeing the beginnings of the connection between characters, so I’m ready to go on a ride and see how these now fully formed characters in my mind’s eye will enter our world.' Normally you would meet characters through the eyes of your main characters, which always gives you a little bit of a skewed perspective, because you’re meeting them through our characters. But that’s not how you meet strangers in real life. The first time you meet the person who becomes your husband or wife or your new boss or your business partner, they’ve had a whole life before you and the meeting with them is your first experience of them. So I wanted to give the audience that feeling of getting to know these people before you got to know them in relation to our main characters."

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"Right now, we're telling stories in the beginning half of the season that focus more on the present-day stories," says Dan Fogelman
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This Is Us' Season 4 premiere was like a pilot to a whole new series

"The reason the big twist at the end of the This Is Us pilot worked so well is because no one was expecting a twist from a series that had been billed as a sentimental drama about strangers who share the same birthday," says Caroline Siede. "It’s a trick the series could only ever pull off once. So even though in many ways the season four premiere, 'Strangers,' feels a whole lot like that pilot, the experience of watching it is totally different. That episode was about introducing us to the complex emotional realities of a set of characters before landing at a surprising endpoint. This one is about using the complex emotional realities of a brand new set of characters to tease out a big reveal we all know is coming."

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Why This Is Us' new characters signal a promising Season 4
This Is Us' season premiere was down 40% from last year's premiere, but steady with the Season 3 finale.

09-25-2019, 08:33 PM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,912	Why Season 4 introduced so many new characters in a disorienting way https://ew.com/tv/2019/09/24/this-is...on-4-premiere/ The NBC drama premiered with a bunch of new characters to worry about, including those played by newcomers Jennifer Morrison, Asante Blackk, Nick Wechsler and Omar Epps. "It was always part of the plan for a while now, which was in the middle of our run," explains This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. "We were going to introduce some new characters in an unusual way that take our main characters off course, or in a new direction. When you’re coming into it fresh as a fan of the show, you’re watching it and hopefully engaging with the new characters and wondering, 'Where are these people and who are they going to cross with and how?'… But then there’s a part where hopefully that drifts away and you’re just in the stories. And then it’s such a relief — for me, at least — when you see the Big Three come back in and you realize, 'Oh, I’ve gotten to meet these characters on their own without viewing them through the prism of Randall and Kevin and Kate. Now I understand a little bit more about who these people are and I’m seeing the beginnings of the connection between characters, so I’m ready to go on a ride and see how these now fully formed characters in my mind’s eye will enter our world.' Normally you would meet characters through the eyes of your main characters, which always gives you a little bit of a skewed perspective, because you’re meeting them through our characters. But that’s not how you meet strangers in real life. The first time you meet the person who becomes your husband or wife or your new boss or your business partner, they’ve had a whole life before you and the meeting with them is your first experience of them. So I wanted to give the audience that feeling of getting to know these people before you got to know them in relation to our main characters." ALSO: "Right now, we're telling stories in the beginning half of the season that focus more on the present-day stories," says Dan Fogelman Fogelman offers eight hints for Season 4 This Is Us promotes Griffin Dunne to series regular This Is Us' Season 4 premiere was like a pilot to a whole new series "The reason the big twist at the end of the This Is Us pilot worked so well is because no one was expecting a twist from a series that had been billed as a sentimental drama about strangers who share the same birthday," says Caroline Siede. "It’s a trick the series could only ever pull off once. So even though in many ways the season four premiere, 'Strangers,' feels a whole lot like that pilot, the experience of watching it is totally different. That episode was about introducing us to the complex emotional realities of a set of characters before landing at a surprising endpoint. This one is about using the complex emotional realities of a brand new set of characters to tease out a big reveal we all know is coming." ALSO: Why This Is Us' new characters signal a promising Season 4 This Is Us' season premiere was down 40% from last year's premiere, but steady with the Season 3 finale.