Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett teach us about love in the time of Cordyceps and zero hope. And we emerge from this elegy of a life well-lived with remnants of their sentient soulful connection.
It’s been interesting to dip into the comment sections of articles about this episode and see the bro gamer culture flipping out over HBOs “wokeness” ruining the story while the rest of the world is like, “Awww.. so sweet and hopeful!” 😂
So Yeah, I saw the after show where showrunners, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, discuss the episode and they mentioned how this whole love story was invented and not a faithful adaptation from game to TV, but I also think the fact that this is the season's best episode to date creates a problematic relationship for gaming purists because the qualities that render it fun and entertaining in a gamefied way don't translate to the tender and deeper human stories we seek in TV (something discussed here in good detail: https://screenrant.com/last-of-us-episode-3-perfect-show-future-problem/) TV has more dimension in that sense - It's a passive form in our consumption of it but it requires a more cerebral slower, reflective absorption that renders it wholly different from gameplay
Thanks so much for the shout-out, Beth! I like how you weaved in my Aimee Mann excerpt with your analysis (that sounds too clinical) of the Last of Us episode.
I also love how you included two of the most impactful songs, ones that have formed the person I am, into your piece, and just left them there for the reader to incorporate. I am sure to write an Air Supply focused Earworm piece sometime this year, as that was the very first concert I ever attended. My parents played them constantly. And R.E.M. was one of my favorite bands. It's always nice when a song can speak to how we feel about another art form, let alone our personal lives.
I do plan on watching Last of Us, I'm just having trouble finding time to watch TV -- so busy trying to keep up with the Substacks! I'm also trying to finish Fleishman (I'm half-way through; mixed feelings about it).
I get it. It’s slow going. And it’s pretentious a little and definitely unaware and navel gazing but it also reflects certain truths about people that I find really interesting and enjoy seeing cinematically broken down
Yeah, it definitely starts off shallow and tonally deaf, but reveals more depth as it goes. But as I’m not finished with it and didn’t read the book, I don’t know if it eventually acknowledges the rampant privilege portrayed.
Re: FIIT- There’s a shift that happens in perspective and it picks up steam in the last two episodes. Those episodes did it for me especially episode 7. I think there’s a lived female experience of certain socio-economic background, age and religious/ethnic appreciation for me that I connected with. Not the really rich upwardly mobile Upper East or west side of NYC or any of the other posh areas but more with the Lizzy Caplan character where you look around and recognize all the BS you’ve subjected yourself to at a certain time in your life and you kinda go into a tunnel a bit.
It’s been interesting to dip into the comment sections of articles about this episode and see the bro gamer culture flipping out over HBOs “wokeness” ruining the story while the rest of the world is like, “Awww.. so sweet and hopeful!” 😂
So Yeah, I saw the after show where showrunners, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, discuss the episode and they mentioned how this whole love story was invented and not a faithful adaptation from game to TV, but I also think the fact that this is the season's best episode to date creates a problematic relationship for gaming purists because the qualities that render it fun and entertaining in a gamefied way don't translate to the tender and deeper human stories we seek in TV (something discussed here in good detail: https://screenrant.com/last-of-us-episode-3-perfect-show-future-problem/) TV has more dimension in that sense - It's a passive form in our consumption of it but it requires a more cerebral slower, reflective absorption that renders it wholly different from gameplay
Thanks so much for the shout-out, Beth! I like how you weaved in my Aimee Mann excerpt with your analysis (that sounds too clinical) of the Last of Us episode.
I also love how you included two of the most impactful songs, ones that have formed the person I am, into your piece, and just left them there for the reader to incorporate. I am sure to write an Air Supply focused Earworm piece sometime this year, as that was the very first concert I ever attended. My parents played them constantly. And R.E.M. was one of my favorite bands. It's always nice when a song can speak to how we feel about another art form, let alone our personal lives.
I do plan on watching Last of Us, I'm just having trouble finding time to watch TV -- so busy trying to keep up with the Substacks! I'm also trying to finish Fleishman (I'm half-way through; mixed feelings about it).
(not to take us off topic, but I can’t even stomach the trailers for Fleishman 🙄)
I get it. It’s slow going. And it’s pretentious a little and definitely unaware and navel gazing but it also reflects certain truths about people that I find really interesting and enjoy seeing cinematically broken down
Yeah, it definitely starts off shallow and tonally deaf, but reveals more depth as it goes. But as I’m not finished with it and didn’t read the book, I don’t know if it eventually acknowledges the rampant privilege portrayed.
Re: FIIT- There’s a shift that happens in perspective and it picks up steam in the last two episodes. Those episodes did it for me especially episode 7. I think there’s a lived female experience of certain socio-economic background, age and religious/ethnic appreciation for me that I connected with. Not the really rich upwardly mobile Upper East or west side of NYC or any of the other posh areas but more with the Lizzy Caplan character where you look around and recognize all the BS you’ve subjected yourself to at a certain time in your life and you kinda go into a tunnel a bit.