This Is Us Analysis

Great Essays
Contemporary TV: This Is Us This Is Us is a new NBC show that premiered on the 20th of September of this year and International Business Times reporter, Caitlyn Hitt, summarizes the beginning of the first episode with, “It centers around five people — one couple, two siblings and a big wig trying to discover his roots [who all happen to be celebrating their 36th birthday]”(Hitt). This Is Us fits into Jason Mittell’s definition of “narrative complexity” through its unique use of operational aesthetics, which includes the show’s use of a “narrational mode” type of storytelling, time shifts, and editing techniques to portray the plot in its pilot, “Pilot” episode. Through these and the show’s promotion, it was able to achieve an overwhelmingly positive approval rate from critics and general audiences and thus, This Is Us becomes an excellent example of the growing popularity of narrative complexities as the preferred choice of contemporary television.
Narrative complexities are a “new mode of storytelling [that has] emerged as an alternative to the conventional… forms,” (Mittell). The term is used by Jason Mittell, who uses it to categorize this growing form of television as “… uniquely suited to the television series structure apart from film and literature”(Mittell). Before its “prototype
…show more content…
It’s through these creative and unique editing decisions, that the makers of This Is Us’s pilot episode were able to achieve an operational aesthetics that left audiences

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