It’s the last day of 2022, and time is pretty much running out if I hope to meet my goal of writing at least one blog post a month. I’ve never liked New Year’s Eve, although I enjoyed the Top 40 countdowns when I was young enough to stay at home without FOMO. Come to think of it, maybe the fear of missing out never weighed that heavily on me. During my 20s, I volunteered to take a shift on the crisis line every New Year’s Eve, and felt relieved to have purpose and a place to be without false cheer and a lot of drinking. One of the big reliefs of aging is how pleasant it is to fall into bed before 10:30, maybe having a nice dinner with friends, maybe not.
This year, I decided to finish my very last episode of “This is Us” on the very last day of the year. Fans of the show probably watched the final episode of the sixth season in May this year, when the family-centered, heartstring-pulling drama came to an end. Fans of the show with husbands who don’t like “This is Us,” however, kept forgetting to watch it during the day all by their lonesomes.
I’d pretty much forgotten about “This is Us” until this May, when I was laid up with Covid. I was three seasons behind and not particularly flattened with fatigue, so spent my quarantine catching up. I can see why my husband doesn’t like the show–it’s a bit heavy-handed and sappy, with such idealized family members who are always making great speeches that it can lead to lots of eye-rolling. But I loved it–all the characters (especially Uncle Nicky, the most acerbic and least sappy character), the tough issues tackled, the sense of depth and authenticity and struggle along with the idealization. Besides, Mandy Moore, who plays the main matriarch Rebecca very convincingly through several decades, really reminds me of a charismatic, positive-without-being-cloying, absolutely lovable mom I used to know. And since Ken Olin of “thirtysomething” was a mainstay of our 30s, how could I resist a series where he directed so many of the episodes?
As I made my way through the last season, I didn’t want it to end, so I’d go for weeks without watching. The last season deals with Rebecca’s rapidly advancing Alzheimer’s and death, and the fact that her end was approaching seemed fitting for this year’s end. The journey from life into death was depicted as a lovely Orient Express style train ride (without the murder mystery), in which significant loved ones are there in real life and in memory. Plus, Rebecca on the train looks like she’s dressed for New Year’s Eve!
Lots of heartfelt messages about family bonds and the beauty of life along with the sorrows abound throughout the show, particularly the last couple of episodes. Very corny, very moving. 2022 has been it’s own wild ride–so much sorrow in the world, so much love and laughter personally, especially this past Christmas, with both daughters here along with our new son-in-law and his whole family as well.
Tonight my best friend from graduate school and her husband will arrive, since we’ve all tested negative for Covid. We’ll eat good food and hopefully be in bed before 10:30. It will be the end of a long, trying, and rich year. As “This is Us” unsubtly reminds us, life goes on. 2023, here we come.
Happy New Year!