The Astonishing Music Selections on This is Us

The music selections on This is Us are astounding. To me they make the show more than the writing and the acting (which also might be the best on network TV now that the Good Place is done.)

We are dedicated watchers of This is Us, but it took us a couple of weeks to get there We already watched too much TV at the time in our minds. The Mrs. started to watch because of everyone talking about it at work. After she watched the first episode, she realized how she could get me to watch. She understood that it would be the music selections on This is Us that would make the show irresistible to me.

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The show is known for making people cry (every week). While I do think the writing and acting play a big part in that, for me, it’s the music selections on This is Us that illicit my tear ducts into action.

It started right in the first episode. While the events were depressing, to say the least, it was the playing of Sufjan Steven’s Death with Dignity that did me in. It’s a sad song to begin with, but it fit the scene so perfectly. The wife knew it. She had seen the episode while I was at football practice. She asked me to watch the first twenty minutes and that if I didn’t have a reaction that I didn’t have to watch anymore.

Of course, she knew the moment I would hear the first notes, that would be it.

Of course, the songs on the show aren’t all from indie heroes. There is some Wang Chung and Reo Speedwagon. But it almost every case they fit the time frame or, more importantly, the mood of the scene.

Take, for instance, a scene about a washing machine. It would have been nostalgic by itself with it’s going through time and watching the kids grow. Add Cat Steven’s song “The Wind,” and you have a recipe for tears.

I’m not even going to talk about “To Build a Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra.

This season is knocking it out of the park. Episode 1, which was introducing new characters, played The National’s “Light Years.” The National’s fans often call them the sad dads, so this wasn’t even fair.

And to have a whole episode built around “So Long, Marianne” was absolutely genius. It found a way to give us a corny happy ending without being trite. Griffin Dunne’s acting while hearing his own character’s words coming back to him through his brother’s son…that’s just brilliant.

The twelfth episode of season four hit me with a double punch to the gut. Kevin and Sophie were watching the ending of Good Will Hunting. Eliot Smith’s haunting voice and guitar linger in the air for a moment before the actors speak. It was a great moment for both actors and the director to give the music some room to breathe.

Then at the end of the same episode, they did the same thing with Hiss Golden Messenger’s Terms of Surrender. They played an expanded version much to the happiness of the songwriter. This simple act explains how the creatives at This is Us get the rights to so many great songs. They respect the music’s power to tell a story.

Great writers, directors, and music supervisors know how vital one song can be to a scene (think Scorsese). They understand how the right song, along with some disciplined acting, can give us more exposition than dialogue can.

All the creatives at This is Us understand this. The music selections on This is Us have become their own character.

The music helps inform us of the story better than any show on television right now.