This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Nottingham chapter.

This Is Us is a fresh NBC show delivering weekly reasons to cry and cripple your emotions with a giant ensemble cast featuring actors you know from other TV shows. These include Justin Hartley from Smallville/The Young and the Restless, Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes/Gilmore Girls and Mandy Moore from Grey’s Anatomy/Entourage to name 3 from TV gold. The story follows a group of characters who all share the same birthday and watches them through their life of parenting, banking, acting and tackling weight issues. Why should you be watching this? Because every single episode will make you cry more than the new-borns in the show, and that’s coming from me – a 6 ft 1 grown man pouring his emotions into this article.

Starting with Hartley who plays Kevin; a struggling actor not enjoying his life or career and, who is trying to find himself and interestingly is a meta writing the actors’ own real life. His struggles with the acting business and Hollywood types come from real experiences which make it that much more emosh, and he does a fair amount of shirtless scenes if Ventimiglia nude isn’t enough.

Ventimiglia is with Moore as the primary couple of the show and they are old school cool with perfect chemistry – genuinely are relationship goals. The charm mostly comes from the realness of their bond as this show does not shy away from being real with the audience whilst also telling you life’s not always so bad. Sterling K. Brown plays Randall, a wealthy banking type from a humble background who does whatever he can for his kids (who are adorable) and his wife who is his rock when things get a bit wavy with his new complicated family. Finally, the last character of this story is Kate, played by Chrissy Metz who deals with weight problems and making the most out of life. The comedy is not laughing at obesity, it deals with relationships and genuine life stories of people with eating problems cleverly and makes it entertaining – much like the way it handles Randall’s dull banking life.

This Is Us is witty, new and a welcome look at dealing with life’s obstacles from many perspectives, in the most genuine and refreshing show you will watch in a long time. After you watch the first episode I guarantee the plot will have you hooked and you will be wondering how it has taken so long for this to come into your life.