Warning: This is Us will make you cry. I have never seen so much happen in a single TV episode. The pilot, which is an hour long , presents the circle of life: birth, death, career crisis, reunions, insecurities, self-affirmations, heart-to-hearts, and reconciliations. It will leave no button on your foreshadowing control panel uncrushed.

I am not one to spoil a show, so I will try my best not to. For those who were in love with Parenthood as much as I, this show fits as a worthy surrogate  The show follows four main storylines, and the four main characters share the same birthday. The story is an intergenerational portrayal of brothers and sisters, but you will have to watch the show and unravel the connection yourself.

At the end of the first episode, these same characters are entangled together so beautifully. The first character is Jack, (Milo Ventimiglia), a nervous expecting dad whose wife, Rebecca, (Mandy Moore), is about to give birth to triplets. The second is Kevin, (Justin Hartley), a hunky actor who landed a soul-killing role in a terrible sitcom that requires him to spend an annoying amount time shirtless. Next is his sister, Kate, (Chrissy Metz), who is fighting a serious weight problem with the help of her new support group, in which she meets the cheerfully acerbic Toby, (Chris Sullivan). And finally there’s Randall (Sterling K. Brown) who has just tracked down the biological father who left him, as a newborn, at a fire station, “because he couldn’t think of something more cliché.

Despite some weak lines in the script, the plot ended with me feeling happily, mistily manipulated, willing to let “This Is Us” pull my heart strings for at least another episode. “It all works out” seems to be the main takeaway from the pilot, but where things specifically go from here is a whopping question mark. Though Rotten Tomatoes rates This is Us as 89 percent, Rego Reviews rate it more like a 96 percent.