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‘This Is Us’ Star On Fan Reaction To ‘Disappointing’ Finale

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 09:26 PST, Mar 15, 2017

This Is Us stars and showrunners know you can’t please ’em all. On the heels of the highly-hyped first season finale of the hit NBC drama, This Is Us star Mandy Moore (Rebecca Pearson on the show) addressed fans’ frustration over an episode that didn’t touch on the impending death of patriarch Jack Pearson (Ventimiglia) and instead went in a completely different direction; a direction many fans found disappointing.

“Sometimes we don’t get all the answers we want. Patience. That’s the kind of show we’re making and I couldn’t be prouder,” Moore tweeted.

Mandy Moore previously told Variety the This Is Us finale would “destroy America,” so fan expectations were high. People were prepared to bawl, but the finale failed to register on the tissue box meter, at least not for the expected reasons.

The This is Us finale is the first time the beloved show has received any real backlash. Following the finale, many fans took to social media to express disappointment in the episode, which was titled “Moonshadow.”

While the This Is Us finale gave the back-story as to how Jack and Rebecca first met in the early 1970s, it didn’t move Jack’s death storyline forward at all. Which is just the way This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman wanted it. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Fogelman said the theme for the season-ending episode was planned early on, and he never considered changing course due to audience expectations.

“This was always the episode we had planned,” the This Is Us showrunner told THR. “From the very first pitch, this was the ending we talked about for the first season. There are a lot of questions as we leave this marriage in the most dire place it’s been.”

Fogelman also revealed that while fans expected to get answers to Jack’s death, with many assuming he would die in a car crash during his drunken drive to Cleveland after his daughter Kate urged him to go to his wife’s show, he wasn’t playing with viewers’ emotions with Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) recent revelation that she is responsible for her dad’s death.

“We’ll see the setup that Kate talked about, how she feels responsible for Jack’s death, it’s not that that isn’t true,” Fogelman said.

“It’s just that the timing of that is now we’re starting to brace the audience that it’s coming and they should be ready for it. But it’s not necessarily going to happen in a way that people may or may not be expecting.”

Fogelman also admitted he is aware that some This Is Us fans are frustrated and want answers about Jack’s death.

“Jack and Rebecca at this stage of their marriage had a severe bump in the marriage that coincides with a bunch of things that we set up in the past, so that’s why the story is being told now,” the This is Us creator explained.

“Jack passes away in a certain point and in order to get to that point in the story that’s what will happen. These characters are real people who exist in our minds and this is what happens and this is their history. You can’t necessary change that timeline because it’s pleasing or displeasing, or not fitting in line with how the audience wants to witness it.”

The This Is Us showrunner said it is a constant balancing act to space out the reveal of Jack’s death “in a way that is interesting for the audience and keeps people engaged and talking about it.”

It turns out that fans are talking about it, but maybe not in the way This Is Us writers had hoped. But in all fairness, Fogelman did hint that the finale would not be what people were expecting.

“[The finale] is going to answer some questions and make people ask some new ones, and change a lot of people’s perceptions about where they think the show is going,” the This Is Us creator told Entertainment Weekly ahead of the episode. “It changes everything — and maybe in ways people might be talking about, maybe in other ways.”

Take a look at the video below to see the This Is Us cast talking about the finale episode on the This Is Us after-show.

This Is Us returns to NBC in September.

[Featured Image NBC This Is Us Facebook]

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