Mental Health and 'This is Us'

Over the past few years, TV shows have had a meteoric rise in popularity. They have now become one of the most widely consumed forms of media available to man. On one hand, we have shows like “The Voice” which are reality shows not only for our entertainment but also to help further the careers of the singers who appear on the show. On the other hand, we have shows like F.R.I.E.N.D.S which are completely fictional and the only purpose they serve is that of entertainment. In this article, I would like to discuss the latter, and in particular, one show: This is Us. (SPOILER ALERT)

The question I would like to pose to you is this: Do fictional shows which exist just for entertainment have the liberty to do what they want and operate on their framework? The answer is a simple no. Even with shows which exist solely for entertainment, one cannot have a complete disregard for how real life works. Unless your show is based in a post-apocalyptic reality, it still has to function within the norms and the frameworks of society. For example, even if someone annoyed Sheldon (a fictional character in The Big Bang Therory), he couldn’t just kill them and get away with it, because that is not a viable option in the society we exist in. Thus, even if the premises and storylines are fictional, these shows still function as reflections of the society we live in.

Thus, these shows suddenly face the burden of accurate representation. Whatever they put out for people to watch and consume, they have to understand that people are going to consciously or subconsciously consider this to be a guide on how to be “cool” or “societally acceptable”. Hence the onus lies on the shows to portray everything that they do with care, lest they misrepresent certain sensitive things. One of the sensitive matters which has been the victim of representation in television shows has been mental health.

In a country like India, where mental health is already considered to be a taboo, with so many people already labeling it as “a figment of your imagination” and consider that people who suffer from depression should just “not be depressed”, misrepresentation of the same on shows just increases the existing problems. The biggest problem is the romanticism of suicide and depression in pop culture. Case in point, while something like Netflix’s ’13 Reasons Why’ prompted the conversation, it also glorified how Hannah Baker took her own life. What this does is convey an extremely wrong, detrimental, and harmful. More than often, shows depict psychologists and psychiatrists as cold people who are out to get their patients. This creates a narrative of mistrust I the viewers and furthers the taboo that going to mental health professionals is “unsafe”

Hence, even though it is extremely important and essential to portray mental illness properly, and avoid romanticizing it, most shows end up getting it wrong. However, in a sea of misrepresentation and fault portrayal, the one show which gets it right every single time is NBC’s This is Us. The show follows the life of one Pearson family. There is nothing fantastical about the show and all it does is provide a window into the lives of the family. It is supposed to be as close to live as possible, and with almost half of the population suffering from a mental illness at least once in their life, it was but natural for them to depict mental illness. However, there is nothing tokenistic about the way they depicted mental illness.

For a show which was supposed to be “real”, most would’ve gotten away with one character always crying and ending their arc by attempting to take their own life, because that is how crass and two-dimensional our understanding of mental health is. However, the show chose to take the more difficult path and portray mental health in the most real and relevant way possible. Several illnesses have been explored, all through major characters. Whether it is Randall suffering from panic attacks, Toby going through episodes of depression, Nicky (their uncle) suffering from PTSD from his time in the war, or Jack and Kevin both suffering from addiction, This is Us, has never backed off from portraying mental illnesses on the screen.

The best part about the portrayal of mental health issues on this show is that not once have they skipped the ugly side of depression. On so many occasions, writers fail and neglect to show how mental health issues impact the person and the people around them, but This is Us never shirks away from the same. The show never goes just all out with their portrayals but also portrays the smaller telling signs, which we tend to ignore.

The show not only deals with just the realities of the mental illness but also the ugly side of how people deal with it. One conversation had between Randall and his brother in law Toby, highlights the way men deal with mental health issues.

“I can’t picture you with anxiety,” Toby says to Randall. “You know, the way you present.”

“That’s what we do, right?” Randall replies. “Men.”

Toby then tells Randall that he took medication for depression. “Without it, life gets pretty scary.”

“Never would have known,” Randall admits to him.

“Yeah, well, Man,” Toby leaves it at that.

This one scene got a lot of coverage and got men talking about mental health, with twitter buzzing when the episode premiered. Not just this, but the actors actively talk about and engage with people on the issue of mental health as well. Sterling K. Brown, the actor who portrays the character of Randall, has actively spoken to media about the problems his character faces and consistently reminds the viewers of the realities and pitfalls of mental health not only in interviews but also through twitter.

I think This is Us has set the standard every show must aspire to reach up to. Mental health is a pressing issue in society right now and we must demand accountability from the shows we watch to portray it accurately, much like NBC’s This is Us does.