Monday's Interesting Things
Did you watch The Last of Us last night?
The Last of Us season two began last night. Is that a good thing? I’m not sure… But to get into that a little bit more, I’m going to get into some spoilerish territory so if you haven’t watched it yet, you may want to skip down some.
I touched a little on the idea of the entertainment value of dread, and whether that’s even entertaining anymore, for me personally. I have no background or knowledge of teh video game source material of The Last of Us, so I don’t know what’s coming but… let’s be honest… based on narrative structure and basic storytelling concepts, Joel has to die. His act of selfishness in the finale of season one, regardless of emotional justification or character love we, the audience had, must be dealt with. He will face the consequences, and we know this because last night’s episode mapped it out for us (the five year time jump is a little jarring, but we’re in zombie country, baby). The beautiful town of Jackson, Wyoming is a little too beautiful, the zombies are getting a little too smart and Ellie is getting a little too reckless. Not to mention the dirty dozen at the beginning of the show literally telling us they’re going to kill Joel. The story is telling us what is coming. I know that sounds pretty much like, duh,” but if you read/write/watch stories, you can see the patterns emerge.
And… this is where I come back to the idea of entertainment within a show like this. Season one built a traditional narrative arc of a hero’s journey, until they sledgehammered it by flipping the script on the hero and turning him into the villain. Season two now has the heavy lift of telling us the story of that turn and… since we all pretty. much fell in love with these characters through a full season it’s not going to be easy. Season two I assume will create an arc of redemption for Joel, but also…is that even possible? And if you don’t think so (perhaps where I’m leaning, though I can’t for sure say with 100% conviction), is it possible for me to enjoy season two? The world Craig Mazan has built is bleak, real and seemingly hopeless, regardless of the New Year’s celebrations Jackson, WY throws. Don’t get me wrong, I will continue to watch and the show from pretty much every other metric is excellent but there’s something to be said for telling a story which has a level of hope attached to it, and right now The Last of Us doesn’t have that. The two characters we journeyed with in season two now have significant baggage attached to them… baggage that, when unpacked don’t lead to too many happy outcomes.
I realize that the show can manufacture hope at any moment moving forward, and I’m sure there are people out there who played the game and will tell me to “trust” the people behind the show… and I’m not dismissing that at all, and I will continue to trust them and watch. But last night’s hour, between the guilt of Joel, the stupidity of Ellie and the dread of the sewer pipe… there’s no joy in mudville to be seen.
What to Watch
Speaking of Pedro Pascal projects, this looks like a departure at least from zombies. Well, dead zombies. Oxymorons aside, The Uninvited boasts a great cast and an intriguing premise…
I grew up on comedy albums. Steve Martin, Bob Newhart, and yeah… Cheech and Chong. I still reference Dave, and whether he’s here or not. And so a documentary on Cheech and Chong and their fame in the 70s and 80s… yeah I’m interested:
What to Read
So, I guess we’re getting the SNL expanded universe?
“Polaroid Death Machine” definitely got me into this essay, but the concept of how art can be so transformative is what got me to stay… and while I know many people don’t believe in the power of art, and how it can do so many things for people in a variety of ways that are impossible to list and nearly impossible to accurately define, stories like this serve as a great reminder.
It’s almost quaint to shout against the inevitable, and I know i’ve been a bit of a Chicken Little at times when it comes to AI because of course it can be a helpful tool, and also it’s not like I’m gonna John Connor this whole thing and unite the masses against it. So, I’m not even sure what the singularity of AI is, what it means, or what it will do. That’s on you to decide.
What to Listen To
While it is probably not a woman’s voice, at least not a woman as we define the term, unknown ocean sounds get exponentially creepier when you give them labels such as, “Eerie woman’s voice.” For more details about it, click here.
The next “IT” band? No idea. But GIFT is getting some buzz, so check them out here:
Jam of the Day
Montrose is not the it band of the day. In fact, I doubt they were even considered an it band. But they certainly will a rock band: