I really hate to give her any
credit for anything, but I owe Shonda Rhimes a favor. Last year, I thought A Million Little Things was one of those
gems of a series that never get a chance to live. But like so many good series
on broadcast television, it’s ratings were weak, it wasn’t a police procedural,
and it was in a time slot – Wednesdays at 10pm that was a dead zone. And then,
in 2019, for reason which boggle the mind, ABC moved into Thursday night at 9,
right between Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away With Murder, even though
it bore absolutely no resemblance to any Shondaland series. It worked, though –
the series ratings doubled overnight, and it was renewed for a second season. Furthermore,
ABC now has enough confidence (and is running out of Shondaland series) to keep
it there in the new fall season.
Things have gotten more complicated
for the group even though they learned at least part of the mysteries behind
John’s death, which made up so much of Season 1’s backstory. Now, most of them
are dealing with life after John, which is not much easier. Eddie (David
Glutnick) spent much of season 1, trying to repair his marriage with Katherine
(Grace Park, doing some of her best work period for the medium). They just
about seemed to have healed – then in the Season 2 premiere, Eddie revealed
that he was the father of Delilah’s child. Katherine has spent the last couple
of episodes trying desperately to recover.
The only couple that seems to be in
a uniformly good place are Greg (James Roday) and Maggie (Alison Miller).
Maggie finally went into remission, and is now willing to move in with Greg.
Miller and Roday are by far the strongest performers in this cast, and both of
them lead to truly humorous sections, and some of the best moments. When Maggie
attacked the lactation specialist who spent the season premier bullying Delilah
for wanted to use a bottle, it was one of those painful, joyous moments that
are just there. Watching Miller trying
to deal with the world – and in the last episode, her mother who moved to Boston
A
Million Little Things was one of the bigger and more impressive surprises
of the 2018-2019 broadcast season. It still draws a lot of comparisons to This is Us, which is both logical and
unfair. There is a certain mythology to the show, surrounding the back stories.
At the end of last season, we learned that John had an illegitimate child named
P.J., who until the season finale, didn’t know that the man who said he was his
father had been lying to him his whole life. P.J. has spent the last couple of
episodes stalking the gang, trying to get answers. This is frankly the one part
of the series I’m not entirely comfortable with – we dealt with John’s
backstory last year, and the lack of resolution to his suicide, was actually
one of the better things about it. The fact that despite everything, we might
never really know our friends is a bold, dark statement. To try and follow it
up seems to border on turning us into so much of a soap opera – which makes me
wonder if the writers are under pressure to make the story fit into TGIT, a
night that grows weaker by the year.
But for all that, this is still one
of the most endearing shows I’ve seen in awhile. The performances are genuinely
arresting, and the characters are fully dimensional – something that many
Shondaland shows were never able to pull off even after years on the air. I
hope A Million Little Things becomes
the bedrock for a totally different TGIT. This is a superb series, the kind
they literally almost don’t make anymore.
My score: 4.5 stars.
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