What I'm Watching This Week - 4.21

TV Shows

The Last of Us - S2, Episode 2

Obvious spoiler warning if you haven't watched the newest episode -- cause holy fucking shit. In the words of Ron Burgundy, "That escalated quickly." After a less than stellar first episode to the newest season of The Last of Us, they turned up the dial quickly. A full-on, Game of Thrones/The Walking Dead-esque Infected-Attack on Jackson, and death of a main character in Joel. Abby finally got her revenge -- with Ellie watching no less -- and the stakes of Season 2 just got kicked up a notch.

Obviously the creators stuck to the video game story by killing off Joel, something there was skepticism about. I think it made for a fucking rollercoaster episode with everything I like about TLOU rolled into one: High-level stakes, Infected attacks/action, and a non-Infected adversary. I see why Abby is such a controversial figure now, and I'm not sure where they go from here. Pessimistically, my first thought when the credits rolled was: "That was an incredible ep, but is this show about to fall off a cliff without Joel/Pedro Pascal?" I hope not, I'm locked back in, but I have my doubts if Ellie can carry the middle of this season to whatever finale event they have in store.

**One last note - Fuck all of you video game dweebs that are crying about this episode sucking on Twitter. You couldn't keep your mouths shut and have been tweeting golf clubs and "Fuck Abby" memes since Season 1, but now you're whining about them cutting a stupid scene of Ellie/Dina smoking weed from the clear-cut best episode of the show's run. Give it a fucking rest.

The Studio - Episode 5

My least favorite episode so far but still very funny. Featured a battle between Sal and Quinn trying to get Matt's attention over a new horror film director. The prank battle is pretty funny, Sal throwing the burrito and ensuing crash was hilarious - the rest of the episode was just fine to me. Every ep there's like one massive bit/set-piece of a fuck-up, whether it's Matt screwing up the oner or Ron Howard pushing him over a glass snack cart. Still on board, still exciting every week to watch.

Daredevil: Born Again - Season 1 Finale

I wrote about the Penultimate episode feeling more authentic to the Daredevil universe I came to know and love on Netflix, and the finale kept the ball rolling perfectly. Bringing back Jon Bernthal's Punisher, who made an appearance earlier in the season, but plays a great side role in this finale. Karen is back, Kingpin is back to making sociopathic decisions and demonstrating obscene violence (Major Yikes for the Police Chief's face), And Matt is back to gruesomely fighting crime and having relationship problems with his smoking hot partners. We sure this guy is blind?

Movies

Sinners

Wrote a longer review earlier in the week, but this is an excellent new "Horror" Blockbuster from directing-genius Ryan Coogler. Featuring Michael B. Jordan (playing two roles, twin brothers) and Hailee Steinfeld, this is a period-piece set in the Mississippi Delta in 1932 about Blues Music (lots of music really), race and culture, and Vampires. I rated it a 89/100 and thought it was a ton of fun. Not overly scary, uses music beautifully, powerful themes, and thrilling action.

Warfare

Double-Duty at the theater putting the cinema industry on my back. This is a new War Film from co-directors Alex Garland (Civil War, Ex Machina, 28 Years Later) and Ray Mendoza (Veteran, former US Navy SEAL, story's based on his and his fellow SEALs memories). This was the scarier of the 2 movies I saw, beating out the Vampires. But it's incredible as well. Purely focuses on telling this story of what these men experienced that day in Iraq -- done in a raw, harrowing, non-glamourized, authentic, LOUD way. Unique to any War movie I've ever seen. Rated it a 85/100.

Sports

St. Louis Blues - NHL Playoffs

A disappointing start to the Blues playoff hopes against the winners of the 2025 Presidents' Trophy, Winnipeg Jets. Down 0-2, but heading back to STL for Game 3.

Kicking off the NHL playoffs as the first game, the Blues scored the first goal of the playoffs as well with Robert Thomas finding the back of the net. Oskar Sundqvist tied it up before the 1st Period ended to make it 2-2, and Jordan Kyrou put them ahead early in the 2nd Period with a power play goal. But the 3rd period was a disaster, only getting 4 shots on goal and allowing 3, losing 5-3.

The defensive effort was stronger on Monday night from the Blues, but while the offense had chances, they couldn't capitalize much of the night. Jimmy Snuggerud scored a bang-bang goal with just 2 seconds remaining in the 1st period to tie it up, but an early 3rd Period goal was all Winnipeg needed to secure a 2-0 lead with a 2-1 win.

The series moves to St. Louis Thursday night, and it's obviously a must-win for the Blues. Can't go down 3-0, ideally need both at home, but have to at least force a Game 5 and steal one in Canada. This team got hot at the end of the season winning 12 straight -- let's hope they can capture some of that magic again.

NBA Playoffs

Not a ton of great games through 3 days of the NBA playoffs, but a few standouts that I was able to catch good chunks of. Nuggets vs Clippers on Saturday was a classic - Denver sneaking away in OT with a 112-110 win. It felt nostalgic watching James Harden and Kawhi getting buckets, Jokic doing his thing, a big Aaron Gordon game and a ton of Russ Westbrook minutes (for better and for worse). Currently watching their Game 2 which has been good through halftime.

Knicks/Pistons Game 1 wasn't too shabby either, closer than the final score makes you think. The Pistons actually led by 6 going into the 4th quarter, but the Knicks used a 21-0 run to sprint away and secure a 123-112 wins (behind 34 points from Brunson). Game 2 Monday Night was very competitive as well, and Detroit got ahead early and rode it out to a 100-94 win. This snapped a playoff-losing-streak dating back to 2008 in the process, led by Cade Cunningham's 33 point, 12 rebound performance.

If that's all you watched, you didn't miss much. OKC beat Memphis by 50+, Cavs and Celtics cruised, Warriors and Timberwolves got double-digit road wins, Pacers spanked Milwaukee. 3 games a night starting on Tuesday, and I'm keeping my eye on MIN/LAL, HOU/GS, DEN/LAC, NY/DET most closely going forward.

Hoping to continue writing about The Blues if they can get a couple home wins and extend the series, but definitely will continue checking in on the NBA playoffs. Also have some MLB blogs in the works (not just focused on the Cubs don't worry).

Will continue checking in on The Last of Us and The Studio. Hoping to get into Your Friends and Neighbors starring Jon Hamm, The Rehearsal from the comedic genius/sociopath Nathan Fielder, and 100% will be covering Andor -- aka the best Star Wars TV show (yes, including The Mandalorian) and Top-3 Star Wars project.

Probably won't be back in the actual theater for awhile, unless I see some rave reviews on The Thunderbolts, which I'm hoping is good so I feel compelled to return for The Fantastic Four later in the year. But might get into some movies on streaming soon too -- a handful that I'm considering below, comment if any catch your eye:

• Anora

• Companion

• Conclave

• All of the Mission Impossible's if I can find them

• The Order

• A Complete Unknown