For the last five years in my role as a critic I have advocated for This is Us as one of the greatest series in television history. I think all the characters are well-written, not because they are perfect but because THEY aren't. Everybody watched the first season thinking the Pearson family were the model one; each season they would peel away another layer to reveal just how flawed all of them are and were.

A huge part of my love for this series is Sterling Brown as Randall. Is he the greatest actor on television today? We want to see Randall as this perfect husband and father, and I think one of the things that bothers so many people is that he isn't. No one can live up to the image he's built up in his head and I really think that would've been the case even if half the shit that happened to him in this series hadn't.

Randall was dealing with a lot of shit in his life and he's finally getting to the point of accepting the other half of his identity: being black in America. And this pisses off everybody. How dare he be unhappy? I think a lot of people who was angry about season 5 deep down thought: "Why is he so ungrateful? He was raised by white people. He has no reason to complain!"

The reason I thought Brotherly Love (when Kevin went to apologize to Randall and they unpacked forty years of baggage) was one of the series highpoints was because it basically told everybody what Randall had gone through his whole life in a way people could understand. I have no doubt there were a lot of 'fans' who saw it and thought: "Kevin and Randall hugged; now we can get past this." This is Us is a great show because it knows better.

This is never a show where things are ever wrapped up in a nice bow, not just for Randall but for any of the characters. I think the difference between the real lover of this show and the people you discuss in so much of this article is that they think the Pearson should be the model of the American family as thye were when they first met them. The real fan knows that it just isn't so.