As much as This Is Us is praised, there's one criticism of the show that's fairly common. In its first season, we didn't see Kate (Chrissy Metz) get many storylines that didn't deal with her weight. And when she did get to deal with other topics, they tended to involve her relationships with other people. Kate sees herself as responsible for her dad's death; many of the flashbacks we've seen depict her relationship with Jack (Milo Ventimiglia). That's all well and good — but what we haven't seen much of is who Kate is to herself. (To be fair, Kevin (Justin Hartley) hasn't fared much better, in terms of character dimension.)
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Luckily, it looks like Kate's character will be a lot more developed in the show's second season. Elizabeth Berger, a writer and co-show runner for the NBC drama, told Glamour that Kate will be following her singing dreams.
"We're going to [have Kate] do a lot of singing," Berger told Glamour. "We're excited to explore this part of her, because she has a beautiful voice."
We first learned about Kate's love of singing early on in her relationship with Toby (Chris Sullivan). After Toby overhears Kate singing in the bathroom, she admits to him that she used to love singing "Time After Time" at school talent shows. Toby decides to help Kate overcome her stage fright by organizing a "Time After Time" performance at his aunt's assisted-living home. It's a sweet scene, and Kate clearly enjoys performing again.
And while the This Is Us Season One finale focused on Jack and Rebecca's (Mandy Moore) relationship, we did see one revelation from Kate at the end of the episode. She tells Toby that she wants to pursue singing, now that they're settling back down in L.A.
It's great to know that we'll see more dimension from Kate, and I can't wait to see her doing something that will make her happy. The singing storylines could also give us more insight into Kate's relationship with Rebecca. We know it's strained, thanks to Rebecca's constant nagging about Kate's weight over the years. But Kate has the same dream as her mom did — will she be able to take a singing career further than Rebecca could? Did they bond over a love of singing when Kate was younger? There are a lot of possibilities for the next season to explore.
Berger also hinted that Kate and Toby might start planning their wedding next season. That's a storyline I'm less excited about — Toby remains terrible — but it's still better than a weight loss retreat.
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