Hello, friend!

I’m back with my third(?) go-round at writing a newsletter. 😬 This time, I’m just going to talk about whatever the hell I want to talk about, but mostly TV, music, and movies. (Feel free to unsubscribe - no hard feelings!) Let’s dive in.

Review: The Last of Us (54/100)

The Last of Us is an aggressively mediocre TV show. What began as an exciting post-apocalyptic zombie thriller, quickly devolved into a boring video game adaptation that actually started to feel like you were watching someone play a video game.

But before I start complaining, here’s what I liked:

1. The set, costumes, and cinematography were excellent. They truly built an amazing world and the scariest zombies on TV. I was absolutely repulsed by their depiction of the fungus. They knocked this out of the park.

2. Pedro Pascal is always great.

And the rest? I mostly hated. Here are my biggest complaints:

1. The story of season 1 was choppy and lacked a compelling through line. Every episode felt so self-contained (almost like a level of a video game…), that it was hard to feel compelled to watch the next one.

2. There was no real villain. I have never seen a show like this just refuse to employ a true villain character. The showrunners instead seemed content that each episode had a “boss” to beat. While that may work for video games, it doesn’t work for TV. There is no “game to beat” while watching TV, but this show did leave me feeling like finishing it would be the ultimate challenge.

3. It’s barely a zombie show. TLOU does zombies so well. And then forgets that they exist 75% of the time. Some viewers might appreciate this. I did not.

4. It’s impatient. Every time you met a villain or a conflict, you could reasonably count on a resolution by the episode’s end. The showrunners seemingly had no patience for letting viewers sit in suspense. If there was a problem, it had to be solved within 60 minutes. Thus, they developed a bit of a “boy who cried wolf” reputation with my wife & I.

5. Even the characters didn’t care that much about staying alive. In high school, I loved The Walking Dead. I loved the feeling that the characters would do anything to survive. That made me care about their journeys. In TLOU, the characters barely even care about staying alive (Ellie refuses to stop yelling), so why should I care if they live or die?

Ultimately, for me TLOU was a massive disappointment. The visceral fear I felt in episodes 1 & 2 never returned and finishing this show was a chore.

The context, actors, and cinematography provided a really fun opportunity to create something extraordinary. It seems to me that they wholly missed the mark. Season 2 will be a hard pass for me.

What else is new?

• Season 1 of Shrinking is nearly over. We’re 9 episodes in and I am loving this show. For me, Harrison Ford is the star. Jason Segel is amazing, but Harrison Ford steals every scene he is in. This show makes me think about my life choices. It makes me ponder the importance of the people in my life. It makes me laugh out loud. While the first two episodes are a little corny, it really finds its footing in episode 3. Please watch it. It’s my favorite new show of the year so far.

• Episode 1 of Ted Lasso is out now. It took me a second to get back into the “world of Richmond,” but once I did, I was happy to be back. Ted Lasso is the anti-TLOU. It’s bright and hopeful. It’s incredibly real. It challenges you to be a better person. You root for just about every character every second of every episode.
  I did hear some folks say that this first episode “felt off.” At first, I found myself agreeing, but after a bit of thinking I think it was intentional. I think that this first episode (and potentially the entire season?) is meant to show us how just because everything seemingly should be awesome, people don’t always feel awesome.
  Richmond was just promoted. Nate just got a cool new job. Life should be great. But everyone is clearly struggling with their own garbage. I think there’s a lesson there. Anyway, the conflict for this final season is now clear. And I cannot wait to see how it turns out.

• Bert Kreischer’s new comedy special, Razzle Dazzle, came out on Netflix this week. The release was especially timely for me because my wife and I just got ticket’s to see Bert live in July at the Gorge Amphitheater (which is just a stone’s throw away from where I grew up in Grant County, WA). The special was great. I would say the first 2/3 are just good–in the 6/10 range–but the last 1/3 had me literally in pain. Definitely worth a watch.

• I can’t say enough good things about the album North Georgia Rounder by Pony Bradshaw. It’s become a bit of a comfort album for me this year, as I’ve spent more time listening to new music this year than (perhaps) ever before.

• I’ve been beating this new album by punk band Goalkeeper, I Wish I Met You Sooner, to DEATH. It is punk rock at its purest. It’s the music that we listened to in high school. If you like punk rock, please listen to this. If you like Blink-182, I think you’ll love this.

• I gave College Park by Logic a listen at the behest of my little brother. It’s classic Logic storytelling. I’ll probably listen again.

• If you haven’t watched Detroiters, do yourself a favor and check it out. My fellow ITYSL maniacs will love it.

Anyway, that’s all folks!

❤️ Nate