Fall Preview 2016: Can NBC’s ‘This Is Us’ make everything come together?

Sometimes, it’s hard to know what is going to take off entering a TV season, and also what is going to sink. Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised to see that NBC’s upcoming “This Is Us” seemed to capture so much attention on social media. It scored huge numbers with its Facebook trailer, and thanks to some factors coming up in terms of scheduling, it’s got a mighty good shot of being a hit.

Will it be able to sustain momentum? That is something we have to try to figure out in the latest chapter of our Fall Preview series.

Premiere Date and Timeslot Competition – Tuesday, September 20 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time. The timeslot on Tuesdays is going to move around a little thanks to “The Voice,” but the great news is that the show will have the singing competition as a lead-in for much of its run. It could be competing at times against “Agents of SHIELD” or comedies on ABC, “Bull” or “NCIS: New Orleans” on CBS, and then “Scream Queens” potentially on Fox. Its big challenge could be when it shifts down to 9:00 p.m. and has to compete more against a lot of other shows that have comedic elements, as it does.

Logline – “Dramedy follows an ensemble — some of them sharing the same birthday — whose life stories intertwine in curious ways.”

Cast – Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, Sterling K. Brown, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan, and Ron Cephas Jones.

Trailer – We can’t include it here because of content, but if you find it over on YouTube you’ll see that there are some silly elements to it, and then also some humor. Ventimiglia in particular seems like a great cast, and we like how it starts with a few laughs before getting into some softer, more intimate, emotional moments. This is a show that packs a lot into two and a half minutes, which is a great runtime since it doesn’t make us feel like we’re getting the entire pilot spoiled to us right away.

Overall Take – We love the cast, especially now that we know that “Castle” alum Jon Huertas is also going to appear in some capacity. We also love that Dan Fogelman (“Galavant”) is involved in some capacity. This on paper may be one of the most intriguing and promising shows of the fall. It’s struggle will be connecting all of these characters in a way that is logical in the long-term, and balancing them so that a few don’t get overly ignored.