This Is Us’ Super Bowl episode ended up as “Death Porn”

The Daily Beast

“The This Is Us death buildup might have been one of the most macabre exercises in drumming up buzz for a TV show we’ve ever seen,” says Kevin Fallon. “What started as an interesting narrative twist—the impossibly perfect dad played by Milo Ventimiglia in the premiere of This Is Us is, in the present-day-set sequences of the time-hopping drama, long-since deceased—became an exasperating trolling device, with countless fake outs and red herrings about how he died and when we would see it. So in many respects, the MVP of the This Is Us cast is actually an uncredited player: The Grim Reaper. He has had a starring role in the majority of the blockbuster series’ celebrated run, and Sunday night he finally soaked in his standing ovation.”

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• Producers used red paper and a password to avoid leaks