Ooooooo…I am loving this!
A series I would love to deflower again would be THIS IS US.
At the risk of sounding cliched, I found everything in it I seek in a visual medium set to entertain me and more. I am someone who perceives everything with all my senses. Naturally I am super sensitive and it expresses itself in everything I choose and do.
THIS IS US pulled me to it with the story of 3 siblings born on the same day. I knocked it’s door for the story and stayed for the multi-course meal it served with so much love, care and empathy. I swear, a little part of me will forever carry the warmth and affection I took away from it in the end.
A series I never wanted to end. A family saga with drama, comedy, tragedy, music and everything in between; Life itself in all its expansiveness. That left me in joy and suspense with every episode. The best part? The silences where I could breathe and let go and just weep for the sheer beauty of life being reflected through art and vice versa.
I watched it after the breakdown of a relationship that held promises of a till-death-do-us-apart. I didn’t really need any particular reason to cry, but this series opened up a world to me that held me when I was falling to pieces in grief, comforted me and showered me with love that stays. Through tear stained pillows. Through the snot. Through the mind numbing pain that refused to die.
Always quietly prepping me to get off the floor everyday with a promise : There is more to life, child! Just look around you…you have people who love you just as much as you loved him. Open up to them and melt in the glow of the magic of the aftermath.
I am a middle child. Sandwiched between an older sister and a younger brother. Both worlds apart from me. Like the buns of a burger. I always thought I am the odd one out. The black sheep of the family. I was. I am.
But in childhood I isolated myself from them for the same reasons I grew closer to them in my later years. From feeling worthless compared to their achievements I came to see that me being the odd one actually bound us together better. I was the patty in the burger. Our relationships with each other was fantabulously fun because of the surprise that awaited in the middle: ME!
Our relationship is the only one that hasn’t sunk in the storms of my life. Yes, we have drifted apart from time to time like a ship lost at sea but we always managed to catch the wind in the right direction and bend it our way to cross paths with each other again.
As an infant my brother fascinated me because he had gadgets I did not. By gadgets I don’t mean electronic gadgets. I mean anatomical. Yes, you are right on track now! My sister was the one I accompanied everywhere. Her friends were mine. Her interests became mine. Until I figured out who I was, I was her shadow. My brother became my shadow later. We did everything together. We were an island of our own. Self sustaining. We didn’t need anyone’s company. We still don’t.
Life took over the reins and we discovered ourselves and our identities and set sail to walk our individual paths. But we were always present in each others lives. Mostly because we lived together for years. The family home kept us moored together. Still does.
This relationship with my sister and brother is the ONLY relationship I worked my ass off to keep improving. I am eccentric. That’s saying the least of my character and personality. I am not simple in any way, so people find it easy to drop me midway than try harder to carry the relationship and see it through to it’s rightful end. I find it funny and weird that they still find me tolerable and actually respect me for my eccentricity! Friendships, relationships came and faded away like rainless clouds.
But US, we are still joined at the hip in one way or the other. All in our 40’s but we still play the games we played as children. We arm wrestle and hit our bums off like mad kids at play. Fight like stray dogs out to get the last morsel off a krackjack biscuit. This is us!
Exactly why the series made a home in my heart. It held a mirror to my own life and my siblings. There were times while watching it, I would go back in time and revisit our memories together. Times it caught me unawares, pondering on the occasions I could have handled things better. Not yelled my mouth off. Times it taught me how to repair a relationship with the right thing to say or simply staying together in silence.
There’s a world out there I don’t understand. I won’t brag I understand my siblings to the last dot, but that is what is so interesting, right? There is so much to discover and learn and be in awe of. If I had to redo life I would do it with them. Always.
THIS IS US is that thing that comes close to what I share with my siblings. A precious joyride through life.
If I could, I would watch it again like it were my first time. But I won’t mind watching it again with the experience of knowing what’s coming. It is a world I would revisit again and again, finding a deeper meaning in what has already made it’s mark and creating new meaning through all that I missed the first time.
THIS IS US is just like This is us. The macro reflecting the micro. Screen reflecting life. Life mirroring life.
A movie I would love to watch with the glee of a first ever watch is MAYAKKAM ENNA. Wanna know why? Catch it here.
A book I have read the most number of times, yet wouldn’t mind reading as if it’s a virgin to me would be R.L.Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Interested to know more. Read all about it here.
Care to drop a tiny pearl from the ocean of your mind?