Ordinary Joe

I get it. I really do. The writers of this new TV series obviously have some issues with their own life choices and now that they are either middle and/or old age they are second guessing the life/career choices that they have made. This is by no means a new concept as anyone who is now past the age of thirty (30) something has most likely looked deep into their current situation and wondered how different their lives would be today if only they had made one key alternate decision and/or life/career choice.

This series simply explores the possibilities of what one man's life would be or could be depending upon the life partner (s)he chooses as well as their career choices.

I am a happily (twice) married retired senior citizen with three (3) adult sons and two (2) grandsons so far and wishing for more grandchildren. The series title is most appropriate as this ordinary Joe (James Wolk) provides his audience how one's man life is lived as a rock star, a hospital nurse, and also as a police officer as his own dad was until his father lost his life saving others during the 9/11 attacks in New York City.

The series has a similar feel as the multiple Emmy Award winning (2016 - 2021) series "This Is Us" as both series explores both the past and present periods of a persons life story. I believe if this series sticks to maintaining a more dramatic presence rather than a sci-fi genre it will sustain a large enough audience to win a few Emmy's of its own.

I give the series a positive 8 out of 10 IMDB rating.

I have been interested for years in the concept where a series of random events and choices we make have a great influence on the direction our lives take. My first wife died recently and, even though we are no longer married, for our children I wrote a 10,000 word history of how we met and the series of random events that led up to it, plus all the random events that resulted in each child being born. The kids loved it.

This new series borrows on that, where Joe at graduation and the immediate aftermath, has the opportunity of three different choices. What the program does is show us what happens in each of the different choices. It takes a bit of effort to keep up with which life we are seeing but is done very well and color shading is used, green when he is the nurse, blue when he is the policeman, and red when he is the rock star. It makes for an interesting, and thought-provoking, TV show. My wife and I have continued to watch it.

This sort of has a "This Is Us" vibe to it and that is a good thing as far as we are concerned. Another plus is that each show is available streaming on Peacock the next day so we can watch it at our leisure if we want to use the initial broadcast time for something else. Or simply re-watch parts of an episode to gain more insight.

Update FEB 2024: Seems the COVID pandemic and its aftermath just lost this TV series with no explanation.

You've got to be kidding. This was one of the best 3 shows on TV and they've canceled it.

With all the trash TV and reality TV why do they always get rid of the good ones.

Jump between lives way too much, too quickly to let us get in-depth details about each one. We don't get to enjoy any of it or get shown enough to really care about any one of them. It other words we are going through everything entirely too fast and with too little detail to even care. Has the potential to be an Emmy contender and a 10 but as it is it's only a 6 at best.

I wanted to like this show. I like James Wolk. Acting is decent. Interesting concept. However...

As others have said, it jumps around way too quickly. As each "life" is made up of the same actors, it becomes hard to follow. But the biggest problem I had with the show is, other than the same characters living three different lives, there's no real purpose... no reason for the links. There's no payoff. You're literally watching the same actors playing three different parts telling three variations of three essentially unrelated stories. As such, none of the stories are told particularly well and really, the "what if" premise just becomes, "oh, okay, so that would happen instead." So what?

Left me bored and wondering why.