Podcasts
It’s the End of the World All Over Again in ‘The Last of Us Part II'[Safe Room Podcast]
At its core, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II is an infected epic all about love.
Notable in more ways than one, the original game shined as an example of mature storytelling bolstered by personable characters you couldn’t help but be enamored with.
The Last of Us didn’t so much remind us of the potential of storytelling in games, as it redefined. This was an arduous task, one that The Last of Us Part II looked to expand on by increasing the narrative scope and tackling a bevy of new thematic and tonal elements.
Elements that we unpack in this week’s episode, in which Neil and I are once again joined by Newsweek’s gaming reporter and Bloody Disgusting contributor Harrison Abbott (@HarrisonAbbot13).
We discuss Naughty Dog’s divisive narrative direction, the importance of character relationships, expanding the TLoU’s world, the game’s relationship with violence from a narrative perspective, and the evolution of the infected’s morphology.
It all makes for a biting chat about one of the most memorable horror series ever.
Safe Room is a weekly horror video game discussion podcast, premiering on all major platforms every Monday. Feel free to browse our LinkTree for a complete list of services here.
Feel free to follow the show and hosts on Twitter:
Safe Room – @SafeRoomPod
Neil – @Nezzko
Jay – @NotFunnyJ
After kicking off July with discussions of Joe Dante’s seminal werewolf film The Howling (listen) and Ken Russell’s controversial erotic thriller Crimes of Passion (listen), we’re heading to Maine to dissect one of Stephen King‘s most misguided adaptations in Lawrence Kasdan‘s 2003 misfire Dreamcatcher!
Dreamcatcher sees friends Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee) reunite for their annual hunting trip in Maine. Their reunion is cut short when they find themselves caught in the middle of a war between a hostile race of farty-farty aliens and an elite US military unit led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), who has been driven mad after spending decades tracking the extraterrestrials. When Jonesy is possessed by one of the aliens, the remaining friends seek out their disabled childhood friend Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who they believe has powers that can save Jonesy…and the world.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.
Episode 396: Dreamcatcher (2003)
Watch out for “ister gay” (oof), take some Gas-X and bite our bags because we’re talking Lawrence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 adaptation of Stephen King’s equally baffling novel Dreamcatcher.
Join us as we go all in on the farty-farty aliens populating this hilarious misfire that often feels like a bad Kevin Smith script. It’s a film filled with characters who get a single defining trait (if they’re lucky), played by respectable actors who are here for the paycheck (looking at you, Morgan Freeman).
Plus: blown-out assholes, using guns as telephones, pitying poor Donnie Wahlberg, and wondering why the hell this movie is called Dreamcatcher.
Cross out Dreamcatcher!
Coming Up Next: We’re going to be lounging around a posh Greenwich Village apartment as we check in on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 513 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (aka Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch), and the conclusion of our coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat on the Requel Tier.