Posted 3-3-20
I would like to say that I am taking a one-day hiatus from our topic to talk up a TV show, but it is completely not the case. Today I want need to talk about the NBC show This is Us. There will certainly be spoilers throughout, so please skip down a ways to below the picture announcing it is safe if you don’t want to have Season 4 ruined for you. Commence scrolling….NOW.
(Elevator music commences)
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OK…we good here? Spoilers aplenty coming. Last chance! 🙂
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OK. This is Us. Wow. Just wow…. I am pretty much speechless, something that happens about as often as I pass up a free dinner. What a show! While it doesn’t exhibit Christianity or a Christian worldview, it is a fascinating look at the state of the American family. The show absolutely masterfully moves to and from generational look-ins that feature three siblings and an extended family. They are shown as babies, toddlers, grade school kids, awkward youth, teens, young adults, adults, and seniors seamlessly as needed to push forward an amazing story. It covers seemingly every family situation known to happen, even in the challenging times in which we currently live.
This show has covered: abuse, mental illness, disabilities, obesity, loss (even the tragic loss of the head of the household), disease, LGBT issues, politics, war, adultery, finances, dating, crime, class differences, and many, many more topics….and now it turns to Alzheimer’s/dementia/MCI. The matriarch of the show, Rebecca Pearson (masterfully played by Mandy Moore), has a wonderful and terrible and average life, just like the rest of us. In the current season, though, things turn toward her as the show’s focal point (the previous seasons, arguably, focus on her late husband Jack) as she starts to struggle. Here are just some of the clues that Rebecca may be experiencing the beginning stage of Alzheimer’s.:
- She seems to have a lot of to-do lists and takes notes when notes really shouldn’t be necessary.
- She calls her son a congressman instead of a councilman.
- She is frequently vague when the situation calls for detail.
- She is very intense and upset when she loses something, especially her phone
- Miguel, her husband, is enabling her. He accidentally tells the kids that she “is always losing her phone” and that this isn’t her first phone. He refers to her lapses as “senior moments”.
- As she is mentally preparing for a large family dinner, she goes for a walk to the store to get a baked item. She gets flustered, then forgets why she is there…only to sort of remember again.
- She loses her phone at the store, and, most telling, forgets why she is there. She ends up eating Chinese food instead of eating with her loving family and gets lost in the restaurant, eventually needing a ride back with the police.
- Mood swings.
- She fights the notion that there is anything wrong.
- Far away memories are much better than memories of recent events.
- She hides her condition (very well!)
- Precursors?: She lost a close loved one, her beloved husband, in a terribly traumatic event. She also had at least one concussion from an accident.
Reference: Here is my little checklist of symptoms/warning signs for dementia. Link
There was only one of the items I put on my warning signs that she didn’t overtly show: desire to be alone. It was implied, however, that Rebecca and Miguel preferred staying at home and playing games to going out. The show truly covered all of the bases. That little fact is exactly what made it so stinkin’ hard for me to watch. Typically television shows make little or no effort to show dementia because we just don’t want to talk about it. Or, worse, they make light of the disease. This show gets it. If you are caring for someone with this disease, This is Us is heading toward some real potential to raise awareness. I am very excited and expect that it will be amazing like the rest of the show has been.
https://www.nbc.com/this-is-us/video/kevin-learns-about-rebeccas-diagnosis-this-is-us/4118532
Last disclaimer: It is so well done that it is very emotional. Prepare for the waterworks. However, it is also funny at times and mundane other times. Note this, though…nearly everything that ever happens matters to the complex story line. Know this, too, as good as you may be at predicting story lines in other shows or movies, if you can predict these things you are the master. This thing has caught me off guard 100 times.
#EndALZ
#ThisIsUs
OK…you are safe now to avoid the spoilers above.
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Update: Mom is still (regular) flu-free although many of her friends are not as fortunate. What a mess… I will catch up with her and my stepdad this evening to be sure that all is well.
Diet update: Lost another 4.8 last week. 29.2 total. WW is a great plan, and following it to the letter is doable. I need to lose this weight and get healthier. I have about 17 years until I am mom’s age at diagnosis…not very long in adulting years…
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