This blog is essentially one giant spoiler...
The finale of The Last of Us was a lowkey and drab affair specifically designed to illustrate that even optimism is going to have a nasty aftertaste. Joel was shown doing what he's been hinted at being able to do and one wonders if Ellie had some idea of what happened while she was being prepped for her own expiry.
I can't say I've enjoyed this series; I felt half of it was wasted and there wasn't enough threat. It may well be the most realistic post-apocalyptic series we've ever seen even if Fungus the Bogeyman hardly ever appears and psychopaths and nutters are few and far between.
Ultimately if this was the video game encapsulated in nine parts of television then I'm glad my video gaming career ended around 1994.
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The second series of Happy Valley was finished in as much time as the first. Usually second and third seasons of programmes have a feeling of familiarity about them; you know the cast, you feel comfortable around them and the story takes on a different feel. This was no different; the problem I had with this second series was it felt too complicated, too contrived and too convenient. Don't get me wrong, it was quality TV just not as quality as the first series. A case of second [album] season syndrome.
Series three of Happy Valley didn't feel as though it had moved on over six years. Some things had changed - police HQ and a few relationships - but other things stayed very much the same. The main thing I took away from it was how little happens; here we are with the conclusion of this story that spans eight years plus on the horizon and there's a lot of nothing going on.
I'm a bit peeved to have to be reporting how disappointing the series ended up for me given the praise heaped on it. Series two and three were both overlong (although obviously not) and uninspiring; whereas the first series was sensational, nothing in the subsequent episodes did anything to recreate the tension and lunacy of that and ultimately it all felt a little bit like it petered out, much like Faisal's story and contribution to the final series. I expected more and I expected something better and I got neither. The hype outweighed the quality in the two sequels and they ended up being unnecessary.
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A programme that is looking like it's living up to its hype is Ted Lasso, something I have never been interested in but finally relented. It's about a bog standard average American football college coach who is employed by a struggling Premier League side - as an act of revenge by the new chairman against the previous owner, her ex-husband - despite knowing little about football and having zero respect from any of the players he has inherited.
I have been told by a number of people that you need no knowledge of football to enjoy - not that this is a problem for me - and I would say that it could be about anything, any sport, but the fact that this is a quintessentially English sitcom with a very fishlike person out of his comfort water is a wordy, prosaic sentence that is very much what Ted is about.
It's choc-a-bloc with stereotypical football types, wags, bloodthirsty journalists and wankers, yet I wonder if it's got British writers because there are some things about it that don't make a lot of sense, which is often synonymous with Americans writing British people.
One thing is clear almost from the beginning and that's Ted's homespun, ultra-positive optimism and likeableness - you just know that all the players and supporting cast who think Ted is a twat are going to change that opinion of him over the span of the first series. Yes, AFC Richmond are probably going to get relegated, but you get the impression they will do it as a team who play for each other. I like this series, I wish I'd given it a go three years ago, I'm glad I didn't because I wouldn't be able to binge watch it. I can't recommend this enough.
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Picard was proper TV this week. By far the best episode of the entire series it featured the return - albeit fleetingly - of one of the worst open ended plots/characters from latter seasons of Star Trek: Next Generation, Ro Laren, played by Michele Forbes, who is now looking her age. I knew there was an unexpected guest star waiting in the wings, but Picard season three seems to have taken it upon itself to conclude the ST:NG/DS9 cycle completely, so if you were never a fan of those two shows then a lot of this is going to go over your head (I never watched DS9 with any great enthusiasm).
I'm now 100% sure that the AI, Big Bad and driving force behind the events in this current series is going to be Data's brother Lore. How else would they be able to shoehorn all former ST:NG actors into this?
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The wife's biggest complaint about Hello Tomorrow is she doesn't think much has happened and that it's not going anywhere despite of the ingenious set-up. I get that; I understand that not enough has happened and that some of the characters are more pantomime villain than believable, but this isn't any planet Earth we've ever known and I'm starting to wonder if this is earth at all.
We're heading towards the home straight and I have to admit that it's lost me a little as well; the attempts at making Jack's sham business a debatable actual thing and the scam within a scam to get themselves out of the mess they're in isn't working for me - it needed a different story to work with that hasn't materialised, either that or this simply didn't have 10 episodes in it.
A complete side line from that, I'd love to know what is actually happening on the moon (and a close enough shot to confirm it is or isn't our moon) and why there's so much traffic going back and forth; are there actual homes on the moon and is Jack's company sham selling an actual thing?
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And that's about it; our TV has been curtailed by a number of things and we've also watched stuff that I've not felt compelled to write about. I could recommend Iain Robertson Rambles which you can probably find on iPlayer if you don't live in Scotland. It's a well known - in Scotland - actor who likes to do long walks in Scotland - West Highland Way, the Southern Upland Way etc - and films himself (and has a drone following him at times) - it's essentially ten bob TV and he probably earns more from it than it costs to make but it's an affable bloke walking through some of the best countryside in the world; meeting up with chums who walk with him for a day. It's easy going, doesn't get too serious unless there's some ecological issue and Robertson is known for Grange Hill, Rab C Nesbitt and River City, he has a face you'll vaguely recognise and he's a passionate and honest bloke so you get a warts and all personal journey every time he sets off for the day.
I'd suggest having a look for it and also Roaming in the Wild which is one of my favourite shows on BBC Scotland. I'd also recommend Scotland's Home of the Year which is one of the more intelligent property porn shows because it's largely about how real people live so for every manse there is there's a terraced house in Stirling. The three presenters are... interesting.
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Next time: I have no idea, possibly nothing interesting and probably as slim as this week's edition. I might try and persuade the wife to watch Cocaine Bear and we'll probably spend the next few days watching Ted Lasso so you get what you get.
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