This Is Us season 3 will likely feature more standalone episodes

One of the hallmarks of the first two seasons of This Is Us, beyond just frequent sobbing and nominations at various awards shows, is seeing some standalone episodes that really highlight everyone from the regular cast members to valuable recurring players. We had a great one with Dr. K during the first season and last season brought you ones about each member of the Big Three to go along with the one about Deja.

Ultimately, you can expect to see the NBC series continue this trend moving into season 3, and for a number of key reasons. For starters, it’s just a way to shake things up so that the story constantly feels and looks different. That’s something that show executive producer Dan Fogelman described further via Variety at a recent For Your Consideration event:

It’s something we really like doing, it keeps our story fresh, it keeps our audience guessing what they’re going to be tuning into each week … I think sometimes the death of a show that goes for a while is the fact that there’s comfort in knowing what you’re getting every week but there’s also stagnancy, so what we try to do with our plot lines and our characters is keep the stories moving, keep the audiences guessing.”

Beyond just this, we do think that there are ways to dive into specific character issues within these stories that you often don’t have time for at some other points. Take, for example, some of what happened with Kevin’s alcoholism in season 2 — his homecoming was probably one of our favorite episodes of the show to date. While we don’t think that such episodes are created solely for the sake of nominations, we do believe that these episodes help because you give voters a longer period of time to examine performances and what people bring to the table.

What do you want to see on This Is Us season 3, and which performances do you think are poised to shine the brightest? Share right away in the comments!

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