“This Is Us” has a lot of strengths.
But why-oh-why does the NBC family drama insist on drowning so many scenes in mawkish music rather than let its cast take viewers to the desired emotional depths or heights by just, you know, acting?
There are few more irritating devices than the overuse of soundtrack music, and it has been an issue for “This Is Us” ever since the show debuted in 2016, marring some otherwise sterling episodes. (The series is returning from a brief hiatus Tuesday, with just a handful of episodes left this season.)
The reliance on this lazy shortcut is especially baffling and frustrating given how much thought “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman and his writers have clearly devoted to character development and narrative arc and all that good stuff.
Why undermine that craftsmanship by saturating scenes with manipulative, elbow-to-the-ribs musical cues?
Sometimes, the music on “This Is Us’' actively interferes with the dialogue. At a minimum, it’s a cheap trick, essentially telling the viewer what to feel and when to feel it.
Whenever the music intrudes excessively on “This Is Us” (and plenty of other TV dramas, past and present), it bespeaks a lack of confidence in the strength of the writing and acting to carry the story.
The breaking point for me arrived in the March 23 episode, which focused on Uncle Nicky, played by the estimable Griffin Dunne. Deeply scarred by his experiences during the Vietnam War, Nicky is a curmudgeonly, morose, and solitary figure. But in this episode he tried to break out of that solitude by flying across the country to see Kevin and Madison’s newborn twins.
Pretty solid setup. Yet sure enough, there it came, surging into an early scene like a tide of molasses: the lugubrious sounds of America’s “Lonely People,” with the grating lyrics “This is for all the lonely people/Thinkin’ that life has passed them by/Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup/And ride that highway in the sky…”
It felt like the series was saying to viewers — and not for the first time — “Get it? Get it?”
Yes, we get it, “This Is Us.” Now please stop it. Constantly tugging on our heartstrings is one thing. Constantly tugging on our sleeve is quite another.
Don Aucoin can be reached at donald.aucoin@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeAucoin.