Dancing Into an Apocalypse

Are you ready for the end of the world? No, not whatever is going to happen in approximately 10 days in Washington D.C. I mean the end of the damn world, with mushroom zombies and armed lesbians. “The Last of Us” is back and amid to bring us more death and and decay, both physically and morally. If you’ve played the game, or read the spoilers like me, you will know the aftermath of Joel’s actions to save Ellie at the end of Season 1 will drive much of the story in Season 2. We also get clearer looks at Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, who you’d better believe is coming for Joel’s ass, and Isabela Merced, who plays Dina Ellie’s new love interest and slow dance partner. Something tells me we’d better hold onto every last moment of warm, sapphic happiness because the rest of the trailer. Yeah, the end of the world isn’t for everyone.

Return to the End of the World

Holy, and I mean this sincerely, shit. Like, holy shit does the second season trailer for “The Last of Us” look good. Like holy shit, should I be feeling weepy about a trailer? Now, I haven’t played the video game. But I have a general sense of the emotional shitstorm that’s coming in the new season. And, of course, the sapphic relationship that made me pay any attention to a video game in the first place. This show is, to put it succinctly, scary as hell. But it’s also filled with so much quiet pathos, which is a hard duality to pull off. And, I am biased, but I love that a queer character (and actor) is at the heart of this show that has become a bit of a cultural phenomena. And it’s definitely not subtext or wishful gay thinking. It’s just a queer girl (played by a nonbinary actor) fighting to stay alive at the end of the world. I mean, holy shit, how cool is that?

Also, I was not expecting Moira Rose to pop up. But now I’m pretty sure I’d tell her each and every last one of my deep, dark secrets. And it’s reassuring to know that even during an apocalypse, playing acoustic guitar for a girl you like totally and completely works. (Well, for lesbians. Men are still advised to stop playing “Push” aggressively at women, per the Barbie rules.)

So, thoughts? As a non-gamer, I’m not sure what the exact dynamic will be between Bella Ramsey’s Ellie and Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby – but I’m guessing it’s not good. So that will be quite something to watch Bella and Kaitlyn square off (again, if they do – no spoilers). Also, are we already a little swoony about Isabela Merced as Dina? Because the way she looks at Ellie with that guitar, well, heart eyes is an understatement. Finding gay love in a desperate, mushroom apocalypse place? Holy shit, I can’t wait.

Love & Other Apocalypses

Hey, remember getting the bejesus scared out of you by “The Last of Us?” And remember how it’s coming back for Season 2, a.k.a. When Shit Gets Really Gay? The first footage and images of Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Isabela Merced as her girlfriend Dina have emerged as the second season continues production. Hello, thigh holsters! You gotta give the makeup and props department props for how well they’ve recreated the videogame. Granted, I never played the game but from my untrained (but highly gay) eyes that looks great and super gay.

So, there’s at least something to look forward to as we trudge through our own hellscape. There may be an apocalypse, but there is also gay love. And we haven't really seen Kaitlyn Dever as Abby yet either. So bring on the murder mushrooms again. Time to strap one one and get ready for the second season.

The Newest Last Leads

Because of the weird annual sputter restart that is the New Year (see: Dreaded January Doldrums above), I’m a little behind with this news. But that makes it no less exciting. “The Last of Us” has cast two key female stars for its much anticipated (and much anxiety making, man that show is stressful), second season, Namely, they’ve cast Abby, who if you played the game know is a key protagonist (though, um, antagonist for Joel) in the “The Last of Us: Part II.” And they’ve cast Dina (a.k.a. Ellie’s girlfriend on TLOU: II). The series has named Kaitlyn Dever (from “Book Smart” and “Unbelievable”) as Abby and Isabela Merced (from “Let it Snow,” but one of the straight storylines) as Dina.

Having not played the video games, and while trying to maintain relative unspoiled status for what will happen in the second season, I don’t have a ton of insight into these casting choices other than to say I think they’re both good. Kaitlyn (who it always astounds me has also spent like ten seasons on “Last Man Standing”) is very talented and capable of convening the most complicated of emotions without words through just the vulnerability of her face. Yes, Kaitlyn might have to work on her guns a little. But I have every faith in her ability kick future ass. As for Isabela, well, to be extremely superficial she makes an extremely cute couple with Bella Ramsey. Get it, Ellie. So, any of you play the games? Thoughts on these castings?

The End of Us

Spoilers: I will be discussing the first season finale of “The Last of Us” in full. If you haven’t watched and don’t wanna know, stop reading. I have lots of women in tank tops for you to enjoy instead. Or, read it and know the insidious ravages of time will no doubt make you forget whatever you read once you finally get around to watching anyway. Your call. We’re all adults (probably, and to any Youths welcome but be aware I’m just a middle-aged lesbian who likes to yell at my TV while I watch my stories).

Well, at least they got to pet some giraffes. As a non-gamer, I didn’t know what was coming for us at the end of the first season of “The Last of Us.” Instead I watched silently as the show became a first-person shooter in the name of love. The moral ambiguity of killing good (or at least goodish) people to save someone you love is one most of us don’t like to think about too much. It’s the old trolley problem, but with your significantiest someone tied to the other train tracks. So, like, we all deeply get what Joel did. (And, don’t get me started on the dubiousa-at-best saving the world science that put Ellie on those metaphorical tracks.)

But, here’s the other thing, we all deeply get that things will never be the same, either. Ellie (who Bella Ramsey continues to play beyond brilliantly) was a different person in the finale than the rest of the season. The trauma she endured thanks to the Bible-Thumping Pedo Cannibal cult clearly left a deep psychological mark, as those kinds of horrors are wont to do. This is not to say she didn’t go through terrible things before, like her finale revelation that she had to kill her best friend/first love Riley when she went all rabid mushroom. (Thank goodness for the small mercies of sparing us that scene, show. Truly.)

So when Ellie asks Joel if he told her the truth about what happened at the Firefly hospital, she knows he’s lying to her. And he probably knows she knows he is lying. But that’s what happens sometimes when you love someone, you lie to them.

Part of what has made TLOU such great television is the at times grim and other times grimly glorious mirror it has held up to our humanity. Our instinct for survival, at any cost. The weight and wonder of human connection. The power of loss and reverberation of trauma. We’ve watched a father become a father again. A teenager finds the parent she never had. So many people die. Good people. Bad people. Mushroom people. And an indifferent world that just keeps on spinning.

In the end, this might be the show that makes me not want to survive a zombie apocalypse. Because what’s left of the world seems made for people made of harder stuff than me. I don’t know if I have the right combination of luck and ruthlessness to succeed at the end of the world. Or maybe, I just don’t have the motivation anymore. Love makes you do the wacky, or as according to TLOU lore, you keep going for family.

I hope the next season brings us more beauty and heartbreak from this found family. May it keep giving us reasons to look toward the light amid all the relentless darkness. And, well, at least we know for sure it’ll be gay.

The Ballad of Bill & Frank

When I tell you that I did not expect the show about a mutant mushroom zombie apocalypse to include some of the most sensitive and heartfelt queer storytelling currently on television, I am so not lying. But, here we are, all struggling to emotionally recover from the Ballad of Bill & Frank/Episode 3 of aforementioned mutant mushroom zombie apocalypse show. Wow, is “The Last of Us” good. Like, it’s very good. Scary, funny, touching, scary a lot more. It is, at least for this horror wimp, incredibly tense to watch. But also, in the weirdest way possible, it’s been sort of life affirming.

Humans, we find a way. It’s not always a good way or a moral way or a logical way. But we find a way to survive. And, in the case of Bill and Frank, find love in a hopeless place. (Again, it’s hard to think of a more hopeless place than a mutant mushroom zombie apocalypse, especially when the remaining societal structure is an extremely fascist state/Nazis).

The performances, from leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey to supporting cast like Anna Torv and Melanie Lynskey and of course Bill/Nick Offerman and Frank/Murray Bartlett, are all phenomenal. And, while the first few episodes were pretty scary because mutant mushroom zombie people are scary, I think the last two episodes have settled into a more hard-scrabble but also reflective post-apocalyptic tone.

And that Bill and Frank standalone episode (for real, you don’t even really need to watch the show to enjoy it), well, if you didn’t cry at least a little you may already be a mutant mushroom zombie. Creating fully realized characters in the span of one hour-long show is no small feat, but to make us care so deeply for them and their relationship in that same short timeframe — well, that’s almost magic. I think it helped that Offerman and Bartlett played to type here (rugged individualist Ron from Parks & Rec and urbane gay Dom/Armond from Looking/White Lotus, respectfully). But the chemistry and the connection and the tenderness. Well, that’s just talent.

In many ways, Episode 3 especially, reminded me of the wonderful “Station Eleven.” It was my favorite television series last year, where the almost pastoral approach to the post-apocalyptic world was a refreshing departure from all the shooting and fighting. Also, if you haven’t yet watched “Station Eleven” is also on HBO Max. So if you can watch the mutant mushroom zombie apocalypse show, you can also watch the one about the bad flu that took out the world and left bands of wandering artists in the countryside instead.

Best yet about TLOU, we already know that as the show continues we should be in for a lot more queerness. Even though I’m not a gamer, even I know that Ellie is gay and has a girlfriend in the video game’s sequel. Since “The Last of Us” has been a massive hit and HBO Max has already renewed it for a second season, more gay days should be ahead.

So now, the only question is, who should play Dina?

Join Us At the End of the World

Does the prospect of possible future lesbian content warrant current excitement? Probably, if it’s the highly anticipated first trailer for “The Last of Us,” the new HBO post-apocalyptic series based on the hit video game series. Now, I know, I still have a hard time with major media based on amusement park rides and video games. But, as someone with a gamer wife, I do now appreciate that today’s video games have unmistakable storylines and real character progression, which gives them a definitive edge over the animatronics of a theme park ride.

Anyway. The new TLOU adaptation is already giving us some very The Walking Dead vibes, what with the end of the world caused by a humanity decimating infection (in this case, it’s a fungus that makes humans into murderous mushroom heads who are definitely not zombies). Pedro Pascal apparently can’t get enough of shepherding the universe’s underage charges across dangerous landscapes (hello, The Mandalorian) because he plays Joel, a smuggler who promises to take a teenage girl (Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey who we last saw as the little badass ever, Lady Lyanna Mormont). The original video game came out on Playstation in 2013, and was followed up by a successful sequel in 2020.

And that’s where the gay stuff comes into it. If you were on Tumblr anytime in 2020 you probably already know because of the endless sea of gifs, but in the sequel the story picks up by following a now more grown-up Ellie who is still fighting to survive in the post-apocalypse but now also happens to also have a girlfriend. And, as mentioned above, there were endless clips and videos and gifs of Ellie and her girlfriend Dina all over Tumblr. So the new series puts us in the unusual position of rooting for the sequel before we’ve ever seen the original. But any show that drops a surprise Melanie Lynskey on us has gotta be good and gay. Also, in case the Lynskey bona fides weren’t enough, the series also stars Anna Torv. Yes, here I am now officially rooting for a video game show to succeed. Come on, sequel, come on.

Out Developments

Right, I may have calmed down a little from last week (also because I’m about to go on vacation). So how about we get maybe possibly future excited for some new projects that hopefully (maybe, hopefully) will bring us some new queer lady stories. Development and casting news has come out about a two new premium networks shows in particular that have queer potential.

The first is the HBO adaptation of the videogame series “Last of Us.” Now, I’m not a gamer. But even I know that the “Last of Us” franchise features prominent female queer characters. Maybe it was the Ellie and Dina gifs all over my timeline when it came out a that tipped me off. I also know things don’t really get gay until the game’s sequel, Part II. So I don’t know what we can expect on the queer front from the new HBO series based on the apocalyptic video game. But, for once when referring to a show about a video game, I’d love if they kept it close to the source material.

What I do know is that they’ve cast “Fringe”/”Mindhunter” start Anna Torv in a key role as smuggler Tess and “Game of Throne” badass Bella Ramsey in the even keyer (whatever, it’s a pandemic still, who grammars) Ellie! You might remember Bella Lyanna Mormont, the tiny warrior nobleswoman of Bear Island. I know I might be grasping at tiny little gay straws here, but I feel like they could definitely Make It Gay™, like the original videogame story. Or, why stop there, with Anna in the show please Make It Gayer™. But then I say that about everything. Game on, queers.

The second new development that immediately had my gay lady ears perked up is the adaptation of the No. 1 bestselling nonfiction book “Three Women.” Shailene Woodley has been attached to star in the new Showtime series. As soon as I heard the premise for “Three Women,” I knew there would be some queer up in there.

Described as “an intimate, haunting portrayal of American female desire, three women are on a crash course to radically overturn their lives.” The character of Sloane is particular is described as “a successful restaurant owner in an exclusive enclave of the Northeast, is happily married to a man who likes to watch her have sex with other men and women.”

Yeah, I dunno how hopeful to get about that since I have not read the book it was based on. But, I’d be interested to see who they cast as Sloane. Woodley is playing the writer character in the series adaptation, so I’d field any suggestions.

Last Dance

I don’t play videogames, unless you count the little procrastination enabling apps on my phone. Now, I have nothing against videogames or gamers or videos or any combination of the terms (GamerGaters, though, are another matter entirely). To be honest mostly I lack the hand-eye coordination, time and patience to play videogames. But, I do appreciate videogames and gamers – particularly lady gamers because, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m all about the ladies.

Now, videogames that let you play as queer characters aren’t necessarily new. Game franchises like “Final Fantasy” and “Mass Effect” and “Fallout” have all allowed for same-sex romances and relationships. And the more recent “Life Is Strange” series is essentially just lesbian feelings games.

But the unveiling of the “Last of Us II” trailer this week at E3 2018 presentation was something different. This isn’t a small indie label, this is freaking Sony. And it wasn’t hinted or alluded or whispered that shit was gonna get gay. It was one of the main selling point. Well, that and all the brutal hand-to-hand combat. But seriously, how wonderful. A videogame predicated (or at least sold) based on a same-sex relationship between two young women. Post-apocalyptic romance for the masses! And machetes!

What makes this even better is they used real actresses to capture the motion of Ellie and Dina. And what actresses they used. None other than Shannon Woodward (of “Raising Hope” and “Westworld” fame) played Dina and Ashley Johnson (from “the Avengers” and “Blindspot” and “The Killing”) played Ellie.

I am so unbelievably excited to be a part of this game. I am literally crying this makes me so happy. Take a look. https://t.co/I13P2Wyk47

— Shannon Woodward (@shannonwoodward) June 12, 2018

Just slow dancing with my lady @shannonwoodward (aka Dina) #PlaysStationE3 https://t.co/1Vkf5pMmWe

— Ashley Johnson (@TheVulcanSalute) June 12, 2018

Dina/Ellie stand ins. #TheLastOfUsPart2 pic.twitter.com/zCfGQ6QPLZ

— Shannon Woodward (@shannonwoodward) June 12, 2018

Bts my dudes pic.twitter.com/jYLdlFIqeb

— Shannon Woodward (@shannonwoodward) June 12, 2018

Is this what all videogame development is like? Ladies in motion-capture suits slow dancing and making out? Because if so I am clearly in the wrong field.

Still, even if you are not sold on the game itself, the kiss is worth a watch (and rewatch and rewatch some more). Luckily someone was kind enough to cut the trailer to be just a nice, lovely kiss (without the knives to the jugular) in between.