Justin Hartley is set to return to TV in his first leading role since This Is Us, but it’s merely a coincidence that Netflix has a new series called The Manny that premiered at roughly the same time. The situation has proven confusing for some fans of the NBC Pearson family saga that ended in 2022, as Hartley’s character Kevin was an actor on a show-within-the-show called The Manny. This Is Us fans took to social media with their thoughts, and I feel exactly the same way.
The Manny is a Mexican rom-com series about — you guessed it — a male nanny who shows up to help a stressed-out executive care for her three children. This show, which can be streamed now with a Netflix subscription, is unrelated to both Justin Hartley’s upcoming CBS drama Tracker and the fictional series from This Is Us, but those facts didn’t keep this fan from writing on X (Twitter):
Did Netflix really just release a show called The Manny, and it doesn't star Justin Hartley?? And the promo art is just a bad Photoshop placing all of the characters together. I'm so confused 🤣
I have to admit, Kevin Pearson’s version of The Manny was the first thing I thought about when I heard about the Netflix series from Carolina Rivera, who wrote for Jane the Virgin and Roswell, New Mexico. But after watching the trailer, there didn’t actually seem to be much inspiration taken from This Is Us — and certainly no utterings of the catchphrase, “Manny say whaaaat?”
Still, many fans who are still missing the NBC drama seemed certain (and amusedly so) that The Manny drew inspiration from Justin Hartley’s character, with other X posts reading:
- I thought Justin Hartley was the Manny. How they gonna take something from This Is Us? Hollywood really running out of ideas. – iamreneejai
- Saw this coming for a while. The writers of This is Us gave us two tv shows for the price of one! – namitishere
- Netflix really took the concept of The Manny from This Is Us and made a show lol – moweezyana
- Wait they made a show called The Manny. That’s gotta be some type of copyright infringement. That was a show on This Is Us. – CallonJo_
As a This Is Us fan myself, I totally understand how these viewers are having trouble not connecting the two. Even though This Is Us’ faux sitcom looked dumb as hell, I’d be willing to give it a shot, especially if it meant more Kevin Pearson! Heck, back when we were all excited about a possible This Is Us spinoff, I threw out The Manny as a possibility for NBC to continue the Pearsons’ story.
I have no doubt Netflix’s The Manny is a better quality show than Kevin Pearson’s fictional version, and that series is available now to stream on Netflix. Justin Hartley’s Tracker, meanwhile, is set to premiere at 10:30 p.m. ET Sunday, February 11, and old episodes of This Is Us can be streamed with a Hulu subscription.
