Really, really liked the finale of
The White Lotus S3. Cool how the girls saw through each other (and themselves) enough to get back to the raw point of being cool with who they were and also the same for the other two collectively. Chelsea was the only real moral compass of the season and, yeah, that kind of didn't pay off. Ratliffs ended up, I dunno, about as best could be, probably. Maybe no more talking about being a pleaser Lach. Gaitok, loved it. Chloe and Greg and Belinda and Zion, sure (I assume Belinda and/or Greg will be the character(s) that carry over to S4). And then Goggins was the best character on the show overall, dude can really f ing act.
Built up a somewhat realistic level of dread throughout, then followed through nicely. Probably my favorite show outside of
Succession over the past 5 or so years, good S4 could easily boost it to first.
Yellowjackets S3 was a solid step up in quality from the others IMO. Finally started to show the direct consequences of the decisions they made in camp and also in the present. Shauna, in particular, was MUCH more interesting this season, which, no spoilers, makes sense given how things went. Ricci being a tiny person makes a lot of her scenes with the others all the more striking somehow. Also I fucking love Elijah Wood in this as is pretty much tradition.
The Last of Us S2 - I know it's only one episode in, but I think it's pretty damn obvious that the show is dumbing down the second game's plot quite a bit at this point. I mean, c'mon, when's the last time a videogame to film adaptation decided that the videogame's audience was so much smarter? Anyway, it's slow, and Joel is still a hell of a lot more boring here (I like Pascal quite a lot but Baker is so, so much better), Abby is on screen in seconds explaining her motives (the game takes, what, 2/3 to show how utterly fucking pissed off she is?), she's a little petite woman played by Kaitlin Dever (I like Dever a lot but Abby's muscularity/size and physical intimidation was a major part of her character in the game), Dina's apparently just sort of a player in this, Tommy's a dumb pushover, Joel has a therapist that mostly really hates him.
Eh, I'll still watch it I guess but it really does seem to be a significant downgrade in storytelling from the game. Didn't think I'd type that.
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