 I have been watching The Last of Us on HBO Max, and I have to say, bravo, bravo to everyone involved. ["The Last of Us 2"] Neil Druckmann, as much as I hate what you did with the story in The Last of Us Part II, so far you are knocking it out of the park with this series. Three episodes in, each episode builds on the lessons, getting better and better. Now, if they can keep that momentum, we have ourselves a breaking bad level of content here. We have ourselves a better-called Saul level of a show. Of course, we're way too early to make those announcements. Why would I even throw that out? Why would I float something so ignorant? As of right now, though, The Last of Us is recapturing, nay, rekindling some of that old spirit, some of that flame I had for TV shows. It's been a long time since I've sat and said, wow, this show's damn good. I'm actually thinking about this show afterwards, and not just thinking, like, Velma, wow, this show is ass. I don't ever wanna think about it again. What showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazen have done here is provided us with an actual storyline and sympathetic characters and plots that resolve, or at least are headed somewhere, and some goddamn foreshadowing. Things that basic storylines used to have, but seem completely gone now, instead replaced by hackwriting, bizarre commentary, where characters say instead of show. An example would be in Velma, which I will talk about also in a little bit, unfortunately. That show is so embarrassingly bad in the writing department, and it's because all of the characters point out exactly what they're thinking at all times, like they're narrating their own stupid lives, instead of just letting things naturally act out. It's hard to explain without seeing the hacky writing on display, but then you would actually have to watch the show, and I don't encourage that at all. Instead, tune into The Last of Us, because it is gripping. It's a beautiful-looking show, too. The production value, top notch. Now, it helps that it has some of the best source material to work from. The Last of Us video game that they've remastered two or three times now, it's not only a gorgeous-looking piece of video game entertainment, but the storyline is simple, somewhat profound. It has you dig deep inside yourself and then think and look and say, would I make the choices Joel made? Would I do this for Ellie, or is he even doing this for Ellie and not himself? I'm not gonna give spoilers out. If you haven't played the game, or if you're not watching the show, I highly recommend doing both. The show has deviated quite a bit now in this third episode, but they're not like massive deviations from an overall storyline perspective. It's more so separate characters that were hinted at or talked about briefly or had a little segment, such as Bill in episode three. In the game, he's not a big character. There's a section dedicated to him, but we get a full hour plus of Bill backstory and what that means and what he was doing over the course of, I think, from 2007 to 2023 or whenever this, I can't remember when the show actually takes place. In that timeline, it's different from the games, of course. It's brought more up to date now. But man, it was such a good episode and it kept me feeling emotions, which is weird. Oftentimes when I'm watching shit now, I'm just sitting there thinking, okay, there's another green screen movie, kind of laughing on occasion, but for the most part, wanting it to be over, wanting to go do something more exciting and valuable with my time instead of watching just another product. That's what a lot of these shows feel like is products just getting pushed out. I know The Last of Us is a franchise too. It's generated a ton of money. It's very popular, but it doesn't feel like a product. It feels like a passion project. Something that Neil Druckmann and the team are diligently working toward making even better. Of course, there is that thing in the back of my mind, sitting there looming, haunting me. And that is the fact that The Last of Us Part II exists in video game form and they've already announced that they're going to be telling that story in season two or in subsequent seasons. I'm legitimately concerned because I do not like the story of Last of Us Part II. It's a personal opinion, but I know it's one that's shared by a lot of other people. This was, as they like to say, a polarizing game. Polarizing can be fun, but man, for the most part, you're just alienating a huge amount of people. And for what? To say you put yourself out there, you did something different. People love The Last of Us. Almost everyone universally loves and adores that story for multiple reasons. And we can see why, as the show starts to take off, people from different walks that don't play the game are coming into this, like my wife, and they are hooked. And she keeps talking to me like, Adam, was this in the game? Was this in the game? And I'll be like, yeah, shut the fuck up. This was in the game. It wasn't quite like this. Or they skipped over this. I kind of like how they're doing it here. And that's how it should be. The show should stand on its own. You shouldn't have to look at the source material for the answers. You should be able to just watch this on its own merits. And so far, yeah, this show is fantastic. I got nothing but positives. The only negative I would maybe say is Ellie doesn't quite, doesn't quite work for me all the time. The actress is great. The look of her is a little off. I know that's like superficial, but Hollywood actors have a look for a reason. There's a reason why people are casted and why there's similar features for a lot of these actors. Yeah, sure, of course, half of them are related. But the other reason is why the bone structure, the eye space scene, that everything is just kind of like pleasing to watch. With this actress playing Ellie, there's something a little off. And the fact that I already know what she looks like from the game and I'm kind of not seeing the transition, well, it's tough. It's tough. So it does take me out of it a little bit because it feels like a character, an actor who's cosplaying instead of actually being the genuine real deal. That said, she does put in a really good performance. Everybody does. This show has, I mean, Ron Swanson. I was not expecting the performance on him in episode three, but holy crap. I'm all in. I'm all in on this show. Hopefully they keep the momentum because the last of us is shaping up to be a really good treat. Okay, those are my praising thoughts. This thing could turn at any time, by the way. This show could just take a huge nosedive in the story department and I'll be very sad, but I'll move on with my life. I want to hear from you though. What do you think of the last of us? Is it working for you? What do you think of the characters? Mandalorian, he doing it? He kicking ass? He is for me? I like me some Joel. He's knocking it out of the park. Let me know. Like the video and subscribe if you want. If you had some fun. And hopefully, see you next time.