Huh.

Two things I do not particularly like are This Is Us, an NBC melodrama about people who are simply themselves (and also death and familial grief, okay) as well as crying.

So, challenge accepted.

I decided to click on the E! News link. I was instructed to “grab my tissues.” I had no tissues near me, but I was wearing a large t-shirt and I figured that would suffice if, for some reason, I managed to cry looking at still photographs of a television show while at work among my intelligent colleagues.

The post began with a photo of stars Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) sitting in a parked car in what looks like the rain.

Didn’t cry.

I clicked through to the slideshow. There was a photo of Rebecca in a cute beret, then a close-up of Jack, who we know now died by (spoiler) crockpot, or at least a fire started by one.

No tears.

Then a photo of Beth (Susan Watson) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown), then a photo of the character Deja, then Annie, then Tess. Then Kate (Chrissy Metz) underneath a birthday banner, then a photo of Kevin (Justin Hartley) taking a call.

I did think maybe a tear was coming at this point, but it was simply the sensation of my eyes glossing over ever so slightly as a result of staring at a MacBook Air all day. No tears.

Okay. Kevin on a set. Jack again. I click once more, and then I am back to the beginning car photo.

Maybe I would have cried if I knew the characters’ stories to a fuller extent. Perhaps I am dehydrated. Alas, I did not cry looking at these new photos from #ThisIsUs.