The TV flashback is nothing new; it's a standard way of advancing character development in both comedies and dramas. Golden Girls used them; the cutaway is standard on Family Guy. Friends' flashbacks brought us the legendary, if problematic , Fat Monica. And in recent decades, flashbacks have become the very premise of shows themselves. It works for both comedy and drama; How I Met Your Mother and Lost both relied exclusively on flashbacks (and, sometimes, flash-forwards) to tell their stories. In the current TV landscape, shows like Once Upon a Time and Orange Is The New Black rely on flashbacks to explain their characters' personalities. And, of course, This Is Us has captivated audiences with its twists, most of which are revelations about past events. The current seasons of Scandal and How To Get Away with Murder are told heavily through flashbacks, too. So why are we so obsessed with this past-tense framework of guiding the story? I'd argue that our propensity for flashbacks tends to stem from the human desire to see the good in people. If a character acts out of turn or has a dislikable trait, it's probably because something bad happened in their past, right? We don't want to believe someone is bad just because they're bad. We instinctively assume there must be an explanation. Even the most sinister villains have origin stories, after all. And when they're executed correctly, flashbacks can be even more shocking than the present-day plot developments. (Case in point: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season finale .) The reliance on flashbacks to "explain" character flaws part of the reason This Is Us has become so popular, even though it's only in its first season. We're inclined to believe that people act the way they do because of their upbringing, and the NBC drama attacks this head-on. In This Is Us, we get to know three thirty-something siblings navigating life and love. But the scenes of their current lives are spliced with flashbacks of their parents' relationship, and how they were treated as children.