Hey, Folks!
Well, that’s interesting. Just as I was about to start this little missive with a gripe about how grey and life less it looks outside this morning, I looked outside the window and a glorious blanket of sunlight exploded across the parking lot. Miraculously enough, no one burst into flames nor was anyone reduced to smoking ashes. It was a nice moment but I’m not fooled. Save for some dispiriting rain showers, it is supposed to be pretty spring-like for the next week or so, but I know that there is still a last gasp of crappy weather just beyond the horizon. Freezing temperatures, maybe some snow, maybe some ice…oh, mark my words, it is coming.
I have been castigated repeatedly recently for apparently not doing a better job about holding my tongue in regards to movies and television shows. I never considered myself a “Spoiler” and I am mildly embarrassed as I have taken time out of my busy schedule to rake Spoilers over the coals in the past. I really don’t mean to, but I sometimes DO get excited about something I’ve seen and I just sort of open my mouth and things come out. So if I have acted as a Spoiler here in the store at some point over the years, I would like to most sincerely apologize. I will try to do better in the future.
All of that was a sort of preamble leading up to my little review of HBOMax’s latest TV triumph, The Last of Us. This TV show, adapted from the hit video game that I had never heard of before, has earned great reviews and I had several customers recommend it to me. Hill and I were sitting around the other night trying to decide what we wanted to watch for the evening and I suggested giving it a whirl. There were three episodes out at that point and we decided to watch the first of them. The first episode, as well as the second episode, was more or less what I expected…post-apocalyptic zombie action/horror with a smidgen of drama to keep us involved with he characters. The cast, led by The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, was competent and the writing was entertaining. The fungi plot twist was novel and the action and special effects top notch.
Then we watched episode 3. Now here is where the whole Spoiler Warning MUST go into effect. I mean, I don’t WANT to spoil anything and I am going to try to stay as vague as possible, but I think that I need to give some sort of caution because I really don’t want to ruin anyone’s viewing experience if they haven’t gotten around to tuning in yet.
So. We watched Episode 3. And this frikking television series broke my heart. Not once, not twice, but several times during this frakakta episode that veered wildly away from it’s post-apocalyptic action horror hijinks and instead gave us a love story. It is certainly the first post-apocalyptic romance I have ever seen and know that is post-apocalyptic and knowing that it is set in a time when all of the happy endings are well and truly over, we also have a pretty good sense that it is heading towards tragedy. I won’t go into specifics, but I will say that I burst into anguished sobs about three times during this episode and after it had ended I could not sleep for most of the night. Yes, it is true that I am a big marshmallow and cry at the drop of a hat at the movies, but this was nearly cruel in its effort to wring every single tear out of the viewer. It is well written and beautifully performed and I truly wish I had never watched it.
Despite its well crafted merits I have reached a point in my life where I decidedly do NOT watch TV or movies in order to be made sad. Laugh, made horrified, thrilled, yes, these are fine, but (to paraphrase Wanda) NO MORE TEARS. Isn’t there enough going in real life to make me cry? Do I really need fiction to show me a sad and depressing world? My answer is no. I don’t believe I will be continuing with this show. It seems a bit of an over reaction, I suppose, even to a drama queen like me, but I don’t think I can face more sadness as a result of viewing. Of course, I may get overruled by my adoring husband, but Hill can watch it without my help and there are literally dozens and dozens of other things we can watch together. I think that the end of episode 3 works for me as an ending to the whole show. I’ve been saying for years to my survivalist friends that I have no desire to live through the apocalypse, zombie or otherwise. This episode is the perfect reason why I have no desire to go in the face extinction.
WOW. That was quite a bummer, huh? Sorry…I just had to get that off of my chest…lol. Is there anything else to talk about this week? Oooo…I know! Okay, so last week while pulling the sub orders I noticed that I didn’t get any copies of the latest Captain America or Star Trek comics. I wasn’t sure if they had come out or not. I mean, if I make a mistake like that I usually catch it during the construction of the sub form, but mistakes do slip through all the time. Well, after an e-mail or two and further investigation it seems I apparently missed ordering both titles back in December. Eek! It turned out to be no problem and PRH was able to get me the copies I needed so no harm, no foul. Unfortunately, while pulling books this week I found another one. This time it was Black Panther! D’oh! December PRH FOC orders were a little weird and I had done a lot of FOC that month…so much so that I had books ordered through the second week of February by the end of December. I know what I did as well. I put the issues information into my FOC spreadsheet and then forgot to add the total to my online shopping cart. I was so distracted and working so hard to get that crap updated that I simply missed a step. So, for the rest of the month, I have to keep an eye out for any more missing titles. Please bear with me during this time of confusion, I pinky swear that I will do better in the coming FOC’s…lol.
Okily dokily…that’s it for me this week. I mean, I keep thinking there was something else I wanted to talk about, but I didn’t have any coffee this morning and I honestly can’t remember what it might have been. If I remember I’ll just put it on a sticky note and get back to it next week! Thanks for tuning in and I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Remember, only three weeks left for Monarch Comics’ post-holiday sale!
Eddie