Television

I just started The Last of Us with my wife last night. We're 3 episodes into it so far.

I wasn't planning to watch it originally. My biggest gripe about zombie shows is that it's not about the zombies; it's about the people surviving zombies. And honestly, I don't care to get to know a bunch of people who might get killed off throughout the series. Their drama just isn't appealing to me. I'm here to watch zombies do their zombie thing!

For the record, I'm a huge empath; I get way too invested emotionally in other people and their stories, so shows where characters are killed off frequently are extremely stressful for me to deal with.

I couldn't get into The Walking Dead because the zombies took a backseat to the drama going on in the humans' lives. They had some of the coolest looking zombies I've ever seen on screen and they became so unimportant, there are literally scenes where the characters are conversing while zombies just shamble by in the background! No fear, no sense of urgency. Zombies literally became less important than the survivors and their interpersonal drama.

But I've played the video games for The Last of Us and they were quite enjoyable. Because I was in control of the main character(s), I got invested in their story. I feared the TV show would expand on the universe and get too wrapped up in creating more post-apocalyptic drama, but from what I've read, it seems like it's staying pretty loyal to the plot of the games.

And then I heard there was outrage over the beginning of season 2. Pedro Pascal had to post a picture of him hugging a costar on social media, informing the masses that despite their on-screen drama, there's nothing but love and respect between the two actors. That's when I found out they're staying very loyal to the video games, and that intrigued me. A bold move, knowing the plot to the second game.

So I waited for season 2 to wrap up, and now my wife and I are binging the whole thing from the beginning. I'm hoping the series is officially caught up with the games now, because I hate waiting for more episodes to drop a year or two later.