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It’s that time of year again. The temperature is dropping, the days are growing shorter, and 2023 is drawing to a close. Which can only mean one thing: It’s time for Pop Culture Maniacs’ annual TV Top Ten list! This year in television was a tumultuous one, as it was for all of Hollywood, with […]
The first season finale of The Last of Us was excellent for a number of reasons. Strong performances, once again, from our two leads – along with some great work from Merle Dandridge in her return as Marlene and Ashley Johnson (the video game’s Ellie) as Ellie’s mother, Anna.* A story that was unafraid to […]
My god, is Bella Ramsey a great actor. That’s what I found myself saying over and over to myself following the close of this week’s The Last of Us. After starting the series off as the closed-off counterpart to Joel – a character we knew far more about than we did Ellie, Ramsey has gotten […]
We all knew this was going to end in tragedy, right? I mean, it’s not like we weren’t prepped by the preceding six episodes – along with Ellie’s vague mentions of the mall from early in the season. But, as has been the case with each tragic ending we’ve experienced, it certainly doesn’t get easier […]
Unresolved trauma has a way of sneaking up on people when they least expect it – sometimes decades after that first blush of pain was inflicted upon a person. When it comes to Joel, hit after hit have built up a massive wall around the man – no surprise there for anyone who has been […]
After five episodes – all stellar, smart, and well-constructed – I think it’s become clear just what makes The Last of Us work as well as it does. Sure, there’s a pre-ordained narrative for the writers to follow (even if they take some liberties from the source material at times, it, thus far, only serves […]
After last week’s emotional tour de force, The Last of Us made the right move in taking a beat before fully diving into the next confrontation for Joel and Ellie. Now, I’m sure there will be some people who want the series to be more of a go, go, go narrative arc, but this is […]
Well shit. I didn’t expect that. Perhaps it’s years of conditioning from The Walking Dead and/or Game of Thrones, to expect that a named actor (in this case, the great Anna Torv) wouldn’t be dispatched with this quickly in a show. Sure, I knew that ultimately, The Last of Us was a buddy story about […]
Before I get into the review of the premiere of The Last of Us, some housekeeping notes. If you listened to our recent Pop Culture Maniacs podcast on video game adaptations, you might know that I am not a gamer. I don’t play video games (outside of the occasional Mario Kart race) and I don’t […]
Kieran Freemantle and Jean Henegan by joined by Andrea M. Catinella to discuss the history and issues of video game adaptations. d