Us

Us manages to be funny and heartfelt despite documenting what looks to be the end of a long marriage. Even if the story isn’t for you, though, you may just watch so you can start planning your next big vacation.

Gorgeously bittersweet. [7 - 20 Jun 2021, p.7]

This was an adaptation that didn't embarrass the novel for two reasons -- 1) a good script, written by Nicholls, and 2) Tom Hollander. I am not saying Saskia Reeves and Tom Taylor were not enjoyable as Connie and graceless Kevin-the-teenager son Albie; they were. But it was the infinitely watchable Hollander, with his talent for acerbic, eye-rolling despondency, who was its main energy.

Occasionally the middle-class, massive-kitchen-ness of Us can teeter just on the edge of smug, but in the end I was charmed, and as strange as it is to feel nostalgic for such a recent period of time, that nostalgia was felt keenly. The cast are all great, but particularly Hollander and Reeves, who warm up characters that could be cold.

Us remains focused on its people rather than the places, becoming a compelling, challenging character journey that feels truthful—even if it doesn’t really make a solid case for the connection between its leads in the past or present, despite Douglas’ desire to keep the union intact.

There’s nothing surprising or exceptional about “Us,” but it’s a solid, well-acted miniseries that begins with a painful sense of decorum and then breaks into something more raw, and more affecting.

While the show does find some drama in that disconnect, “Us” is largely like the Petersen family itself: following a well-worn trail with one man resisting the pull to spend time on a more fulfilling path.