[turtle]

Anyone watching Last of Us? Is it free of sex? I mean, it is HBO so I have assume it is about sex and zombies. Much like Thrones was about sex and dragons, West World about sex and robots.

[Brad]

I haven't started The Last of Us yet, but I was planning to this week. Considering the main characters from the game, unless they deviate pretty substantially from the source material, I can't imagine there's much room for sex and romance. I'll report back on the first episode, but the spoiler-free headlines and memes I've seen so far suggest that it's going to be good.

Character origin story spoiler in case you haven't played the game(s):

The two lead characters are Joel and Ellie. Joel is a grizzled 40- or 50-something year old man who lost his daughter when the disaster struck 20 years ago. Ellie is a young teen girl, born post-disaster, who is carrying something plot-relevant. Joel effectively adopts Ellie and has a vaguely father-daughter relationship as they journey along to do a thing that might save humanity.

That is an oversimplification, for sure, but hopefully that explains why I doubt there will be sex and romance, at least not between the lead characters.

In other recent shows news, I just finished watching the new Willow series (8 episodes) and it was… fine. I was hoping to scratch the fantasy itch that Rings of Power only tickled. Willow is a nice enough romp through its fantasy world, and I feel like it stayed very true to the original movie. The pace is mostly good, with a couple of exceptions, but the writing quality wavers from good to wtf and back to good again.

Without getting into spoilers, there are some very strange and sudden tonal shifts and several points in the show that feel like plot holes, the writer ran out of time and had to rush something together, or the writing was handed over from one person to another mid-scene and blindfolded. Some of the characters are well written, but sometimes they're clearly "holding the idiot ball" (or "too stupid to live", as my wife calls it) in order to make plot happen more conveniently. I also get the feeling that the writers were leaning too hard into trying to be hip and cool to attract a young preteen/teen demographic. There's some seriously ham-fisted teenage romance angst and clumsy use of modern vernacular, which contrasts starkly against the pseudo-medieval backdrop. The actors all did a great job with the material they were given, though.

If you're just looking for a fun, family-friendly (no sex, just a kiss or two plus some dialog innuendo, and very little visual gore) fantasy romp without any major plot twists, it's a good way to spend about 8 hours. It wasn't terrible. It wasn't great. It was pleasantly entertaining, a decent middle-of-the-road fantasy adventure… much like the original film, now that I think about it.

edit: Oh! And importantly: it actually resolves the main plot thread by the end. There is a final scene to tease more for another season (not yet in development), but the conclusion is satisfying enough for me if that was all we got.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Brad I haven't started The Last of Us yet, but I was planning to this week. Considering the main characters from the game, unless they deviate pretty substantially from the source material, I can't imagine there's much room for sex and romance. I'll report back on the first episode, but the spoiler-free headlines and memes I've seen so far suggest that it's going to be good.

I couldn't wait! I watched the first episode, and it was very good. I hope the rest of the series holds up as well.

And there were no HBO-mandated sexy times, either!

[turtle]

Yay! Thanks Brad. My older kids are looking forward to seeing The Last of Us and I just didn't want to be blindsided by sex with them like I was with Westworld.

[Brad]

I didn't intend to report in with episode-by-episode progress, but, damn. I did not expect The Last of Us to be so heart-wrenching. I figured we'd be getting a by-the-books zombie show. Episodes 1 and 2 were already pretty strong, but episode 3 took a slight detour and brought out some very bittersweet emotions. Its plot deviates a bit from the game, for those who have played it and care about that kind of thing, but it does so in a clever way that has a stronger emotional impact on the audience and possibly the protagonist.

Here's how Craig Mazin (writer/co-creator of the show) described his episode 3 idea to Neil Druckmann (writer/creative director of the games, and writer/co-creator of the show), heavily edited by me to avoid spoilers:

I thought that maybe, since we could disconnect (spoiler) from Joel and Ellie, in terms of gameplay, we could expand on (spoiler), and maybe give it a slightly different, or actually a radically different, ending. That is when I pick up the phone and say, “Neil, I’ve got a radical idea. (spoiler…)” So, I wrote it all, I sent it to Neil, and I was like, “Uh.” And he was like, “This is my new favorite.” And I was like, “Phew.” And that’s a credit to him. I completely wandered way off the reservation there, and he loved it."

Much like with Andor, I have been thoroughly impressed and pleasantly surprised by The Last of Us. Six more episodes from now through March 12th? Not sure if I prefer to watch it spread over two months or if I'd rather wait and binge it all, but it's too late for me now!

[turtle]

I'm looking forward to watching this series actually. I'm gonna let you watch it first though them go through them all at once I think. Maybe not one sitting, but one an evening or something. I'm really holding out so I don't get side doored by sex scenes in it because my teenagers want to watch it with me.

[709]

Originally Posted by Brad Six more episodes from now through March 12th? Not sure if I prefer to watch it spread over two months or if I'd rather wait and binge it all, but it's too late for me now!

I'm trying to wait until they're all up, but it's getting such hype I might have to give in. Maybe a 3/3/3 watch I could pull off.

Originally Posted by turtle I'm really holding out so I don't get side doored by sex scenes in it because my teenagers want to watch it with me.

C'mon T. It's not porn, it's HBO.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by 709 ... C'mon T. It's not porn, it's HBO.

That right there is exactly what I'm wanting to avoid! Thank you for sharing that video. I'm going to send that link to people.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by 709 C'mon T. It's not porn, it's HBO.

Genius.

Originally Posted by turtle I'm really holding out so I don't get side doored by sex scenes in it because my teenagers want to watch it with me.

Since you're on the lookout, I'll give a heads-up about any salacious content. Using spoiler tags for people who want to enjoy the show going in cold. The spoiler-free summary is that I'm pretty sure you still have nothing to worry about.

Episode 2 has

a brief scene with a nude corpse of a middle-aged woman on a medical/autopsy examining table, but it's entirely clinical and not at all titillating or objectifying. I'd even wager that the actor was chosen to be especially average so not to give any viewers the wrong impression here.

Episode 3 almost kind of technically has

a sex scene, maybe? We see the first minute of a couple beginning to engage, if you catch my drift, but the scene cuts away before any real action happens, and what you do see on-screen would barely muster a PG-13 rating and could easily be aired on prime time broadcast TV. I think you might get a couple seconds of heavy breathing. Egads! No actual naughty bits are to be seen, though!

At most, I would imaging a teen in the room raising an eyebrow and smirking or making a brief sophomoric chuckle just long enough to be thoroughly disappointed that nothing exciting is actually coming up.

[turtle]

Thank you!

[drewprops]

Several weeks ago I discovered the old British show "Time Team" on Amazon Prime.

A team of archaeologists are given only 3 days to investigate an archeological puzzle, almost always in the UK.

I really didn't have a firm idea about the periods of occupation of Britain prior to this show.

Now, I know that the first 400 years of the first millennia was Roman occupation, and that Saxons came after.

I know that the Neolithic people were better flint knappers than the periods that followed.

The audience's window into the world of the archaeologists is provided by actor Tony Robinson, best known to ME as the actor who played Baldric on Blackadder - but oh golly is he so much better in this show because he's not just a talking head, he's obviously intent on understanding the process in the early seasons and every season that passes he becomes more sophisticated about what's happening - but he always remembers to ask questions that people at home might ask, and they're often "Hey wait a minute, you just said...." so that makes it fun.

One of the main trench diggers is a big tall guy from the Yorkshire area, who has one of those "ooooo arrrrr" type Farrrrmur John kind of accents. He's just terrific. They all are.

I am in season 8 or 9 now, and it's still my favorite thing of the moment.

When I run out of episodes I'll be able to turn to YouTube, where they are posting NEW digs.

Anyway, it's a fun, fascinating, educational program and I highly recommend it.


...

[Kickaha]

turtle, I feel your pain. Our oldest has long had a superpower of walking into the room whenever there's a sex scene. He's almost 25 now, and it still holds. I'm sure he thinks his folks just watch porn.

We could be watching classic Disney for a week, he's hiding in his room, we throw on, I dunno, first episode of Stargate and he will walk out *RIGHT* for the one bare boobs shot in episode 1.

It's uncanny.

It got to the point that he'd been hiding out in his room for a few days other than for quick meals, and we were worried about him, so I told my wife 'watch this', and put on dunno, something probably from HBO. On mute. No sound, nothing.

He was wandering in to see what we were up to, within seconds of naked breasts bouncing across the screen.

We weren't even *watching* it.

Superpowers, man. I think he was bitten by a radioactive boob or something.

[chucker]

Do teens in the US not watch porn?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by chucker Do teens in the US not watch porn?

Ah, the glories of growing up in a puritanical society that vilifies the human body and many of its operations. It makes every tit far more titillating than you could possibly imagine.

It's a funny phenomenon, though. I was watching The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent last night, and my wife walks in during the scene where Nick Cage and his agent played by NPH were naked (maybe just topless with a towel?) in a bath house. Awkwaaaard.

[Kickaha]

Why, back in my day, we had to convince an elder brother to rent Lifeforce on VHS so we could watch it on a 13" TV in the backyard during a sleepover, if we wanted to see boobage.

We went to such lengths.

[kieran]

I started watching Suits a few weeks ago and just got into Season 3 last night.

Didn't really think about watching it while it was on, but I kept getting served clips of it on Instagram through Reels and figured I'd give it a shot. it's a fairly good show and it's something I put on right when I'm doing some work on the couch at night.

[chucker]

It gets a bit uneven (and repetitive?) in later seasons, but I overall remember enjoying it, yep.

[Brad]

I just read that Star Trek: Discovery's fifth season (which apparently wrapped filming in November but somehow won't start airing until next year) will be its last.

Finally.

Discovery was a show that I believed had a lot of potential and, to give it some credit, did try to add some interesting elements to the Trek universe, but overall, the writing quality and character/story direction was a big turd, IMNSHO. I hope that with Star Trek: Picard also ending on its current season, we can finally close the book on the depressing grimdark era of Star Trek.

[Kickaha]

I am going to laugh my damned ass off if my guess about Lower Decks laying the ground work for Picard S3's Big Bad(tm) comes to fruition.

My. Whole. Ass.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Kickaha I am going to laugh my damned ass off if my guess about Lower Decks laying the ground work for Picard S3's Big Bad(tm) comes to fruition. My. Whole. Ass.

I never put this together until now, but let me guess:

Is that it? If that's it…

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Brad Is that it? If that's it…

You're on the right track!

[BlueRabbit]

Originally Posted by Kickaha I am going to laugh my damned ass off if my guess about Lower Decks laying the ground work for Picard S3's Big Bad(tm) comes to fruition. My. Whole. Ass.

I'll laugh so hard if this season gives us Patrick Stewart saying the words

Peanut Hamper

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by BlueRabbit I'll laugh so hard if this season gives us Patrick Stewart saying the words Peanut Hamper

That’s my hope as well. LOL

[drewprops]

Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 2 is now on Hulu.

I've watched all the available episodes.

There are a few moments where skits have a Brooks feel, and that's pretty good considering that he probably didn't participate at any level approaching that of his younger years. (Every sketch might have had his input, but the execution on set might have gone differently under his direction.)

In some cases you can sense other writers' voices.

It's still entertaining. That unique Brooks corniness isn't there all the time, and that makes it harder to grade evenly.


...

[Brad]

Originally Posted by turtle Anyone watching Last of Us?

Originally Posted by Brad The spoiler-free summary is that I'm pretty sure you still have nothing to worry about.

The Last of Us season one just concluded. As anticipated, no sexy times. Also as anticipated, and I don't think this is a huge spoiler, there are lots of shades of grey with few or no true heroes and mostly no 100% black-and-white good guys and bad guys. Well, when it comes to humans, at least. Yes, there are lots of pew-pews and chases and murders, but generally people aren't just one-dimensional monsters. The Last of Us presents a very believable albeit bleak and depressing world.

The only thing holding me from calling the show a true masterpiece is that the pacing felt a little uneven at times, and I think a few scenes could be tightened up a scooch, but that's hardly worth mentioning compared to the much bigger failings of most other recent big productions. I'm looking at you, most of modern Star Trek. Otherwise, ten outta ten right here.

And also like most other recent big productions, The Last of Us can't resist planting just a little teeny tiny (or maybe not so tiny) thought/question in your head at the very end to keep you hungry for the eventual season 2, but I would say that if the show ended here, it has a satisfying enough conclusion to the main story arc. The creators stuck pretty well to the source material, with a few necessary changes to make for better passive watching, and there is a second game that they will likely follow for season 2. The second game takes place five years later; so, don't expect an immediate followup in terms of plot if/when season 2 arrives. Also, I'm pretty sure I read that the creators still want to stick to the story of the games and aren't interested in expanding a TLoU universe, which I think is good and I hope they stick to it. The way the story is told in TLoU Part II the game is… hmm… unique, to put it without spoilers, and will probably be very challenging to adapt for television but could be great if they can pull it off.

Needless to say but I'll say it anyway: put this show on your watch list.

P.S. Pedro Pascal is a treasure, both on and off the screen. Don't let anything happen to this man!

P.P.S. I found a source for that comment about future developments:

Druckmann and Mazin hint — but don’t outright say — that their second season will cover the table-flipping narrative of Naughty Dog’s bold Part II sequel (“I don’t like filler,” Mazin says). Part II cannot be described without spoilers, but it caused such an uproar that Druckmann received death threats. Likewise, Druckmann cannot reveal whether a rumored Part III game from Naughty Dog is coming, but says: “I think there’s more story to tell.” Either way, Druckmann isn’t worried about falling into the same trap faced by Game of Thrones, when the HBO drama famously surpassed author George R.R. Martin’s source material. “We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games,” he says. “We won’t run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.”

[chucker]

Star Trek Picard season 3 is still doing pretty well, almost halfway through the season. (I'm wary, though, since I felt similarly at this point of season 1, and… that didn't end well.)

Slow Horses season 2 was good. I have a few nitpicks here and there, but overall, good stuff.

[drewprops]

As a non-videogamer, I would never call Last of Us a "classic".

As someone who is averse to zombie apocalypse genre, I could never call it a classic.

With those things in mind, I found it to be a fairly well-executed story, with decent character development.

Station 11 on HBO was more interesting and posed stronger dilemmas and weirder situations.

Pascal definitely brought the series up, as did the young actress playing Ellie.

Picard inserted some weirdness between Riker and Picard that felt "off".

I sure am surprised to have opinions about all of these things.


...

[chucker]

Originally Posted by drewprops Picard inserted some weirdness between Riker and Picard that felt "off".

Yes, I didn’t entirely buy that interaction, and wish the following episode had revealed that they were pretending, in order to lure out the Changeling. Oh well.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by drewprops As a non-videogamer, I would never call Last of Us a "classic".

Fair point. I will quickly concede that my love for the show has roots (mycelial tendrils?) in its origin as an already-beloved video game, and that this may be one of the best cinematic/television interpretations of a video game to date. Coming in a distant second to 1993's classic Super Mario Bros movie, of course, which I recently re-watched in preparation for the upcoming remake.

The Last of Us show, kind of like the game, I don't expect to revisit in the future, unless I want a refresher just before season 2 arrives. I doubt it has that much replay value, but the first time watching felt like a great experience. I feel like the same goes for a lot of movies I've loved and recommended over the years. Great to watch and enjoy the drama and suspense as it unfolds; probably never revisit it again after the story is over. It's not a universe I care that much to live in.

Originally Posted by drewprops Picard inserted some weirdness between Riker and Picard that felt "off"

Originally Posted by chucker Star Trek Picard season 3 is still doing pretty well, almost halfway through the season.

I certainly haven't disliked season 3 as much as I did 1 and 2, or as much as I thought I would. It has its moments, several of them I think are thanks to Frakes' undying charm! I think that if Discovery and Picard S1 and S2 hadn't sufficiently acclimated my palette to this "modern" style, though, Picard S3 would be a lot harder to enjoy. Context is everything.

Compared to what recently came before it, PIC S3 is great, but it's a pale imitation of Trek's younger years. I agree that the characters and their interactions often feel strangely out-of-character (yes, I get that "how you change as you age" is a deliberate theme), the cinematography and lighting continues to always be several stops too dark (I will die on this hill. I've seen production photos of the sets in proper lighting, and they have fantastic design and detail that you will never see on screen), and the over-reliance on obvious throwback references feels pandering and lazy and insecure, and it makes the universe feel smaller with every one. My heart sank and I suspect I involuntarily rolled my eyes when the trailers spoiled the return of Lore and Moriarty for this final season. I wonder when Sela and Commander Tomalok and Gul Madred and DaiMon Bok are going to show up too. Maybe they'll bring the Duras sisters back from the dead. /s

At least Lower Decks seems completely self-aware that it's a never-ending fan-service factory and is deliberately leaning into it with all its humor and gags. Discovery, despite its many other flaws, I do appreciate and respect for at least trying (though also quickly failing in some regards) to establish its own "normal" and avoiding callback references beyond the general settings and technobabble and themes, to make itself distinct from its predecessors while still sharing the canon, just like DS9 and Voyager and Enterprise and even Star Trek 2009 did.

[chucker]

The lighting is stupid. They’re going for Hollywood cliché sci-fi look. TNG was unique in that it was lit as “what if a workplace, but in the future, on a frigging space ship?”. (Even DS9 and VOY were already darker. As was ST7, which took the TNG set and then made everything dark because… reasons?)

We’ve also lost Picard as a diplomat. Stewart prefers to play him as an action hero now. That happened with the movies, almost thirty years ago now, so there’s probably not much to be done. Best to enjoy PIC S3 as a long-form sequel to Star Trek Nemesis.