A Million Little Things

What does it mean to be a friend? How do you cope with the sudden and tragic loss of one of your inner circle? The ABC primetime drama A Million Little Things attempts to answer these questions and a dozen others. The show stars the ensemble cast of David Giuntoli, Romany Malco, Allison Miller, Christina Moses, Christina Ochoa, Grace Park, James Roday Rodriguez, Stéphanie Szostak, Tristan Byon, Lizzy Greene, Chance Hurstfield, and Ron Livingston. The show has run for five seasons, with the current fifth season being its final one. The title is a reference to the saying “Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things”.

The show takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, and follows the lives of a tight-knit group of friends who’ve known each other for years. Their close group is turned upside down when one of its members, John Dixon (Livingston) unexpectedly dies by suicide. The rest are left to cope with this loss and pick up the pieces of the lives they once knew. There’s Gary Mendez (Rodriguez), a breast cancer survivor and de facto leader of the group after John’s passing. He’s dating Maggie Bloom (Miller), a therapist and fellow breast cancer survivor. There’s also Rome and Regina Howard (Malco and Moses), a filmmaker and a restauranteur that are married. Then there’s Eddie Saville (Giuntoli) and Katherine Kim (Park), another married couple. Katherine is a busy lawyer while Eddie is a musician and stay-at-home dad to their young son Theo (Byon). Finally, there’s John’s family, comprised of Delilah (Szostak), Sophie (Greene), and Danny (Hurstfield). Delilah is John’s widow and mother to Sophie and Danny.

After John’s death, it is revealed that Eddie and Delilah were having an affair behind everyone’s backs and that Delilah is pregnant with Eddie’s child. This puts the group through even more upheaval and nearly costs Eddie his family. We also learn that Rome, unhappy with his career and what his life had become, was planning on taking his own life before John took his. The group works through these issues and many more as they mourn the loss of their friend and the lives they once knew. They soon learn that they truly weren’t living before, and that their friendships weren’t as deep as they once thought. None of them knew how badly John was hurting, and this leads them to be more involved in each others lives, and to live and love more than before.

This show is very much a mixed bag. Starting with the positives, the cast is very good. James Roday Rodriguez is standout and manages to balance the serious issues of the show with a lot of levity perfectly. He works so well as the emotional core of the show and he makes it easy for everyone else to bounce of him. Romany Malco, Allison Miller, and Christina Moses also consistently deliver great performances each episode. The characters also do feel like real people. They make realistic decisions, have varying emotions, and even wear chucks! Multiple characters wear chucks during the show’s five seasons. However, the writing at times unfortunately fails these actors and the subject matter. There are lots of scenes that really nail the emotional subject matter, but other where the writing isn’t as subtle and sometimes send the wrong message. The shows overall message about truly being there for your friends is beautiful, but it sometimes get muddied by the typical network drama stories the show chooses to tell. Overall, the show leans more towards that standard network drama lane, and wastes the potential of its premise and the talent of its cast.

Cast members working things out.

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