Plus: Wonderful things, predictions, and the joys of virtual power washing

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when the Obama movie list came out. It was the week when Chris Harrison was a little bit late to the news. And it was the week when we bid farewell to Tom Smothers. (Lots more at the news quiz.) Let's get to it. The last to play 'The Last of Us' The game The Last of Us, created by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive, came out in 2013. Its sequel came out in 2020. The HBO adaptation was a critical hit in 2023. I got around to it last week. To Part 1 -- the one that came out 10 years ago. The Last of Us is shown at a Sony press conference in Los Angeles in 2012. David McNew/Getty Images I'm not that much of a zombie person or a dystopian-landscape person or a shooting-game person or a long-game person. It wouldn't necessarily have occurred to me, early in the history of this franchise, to play this particular game. But what I am is a person who tries hard to keep experiencing new things, so I took a shot (har har). The Last of Us is the story of a man named Joel, who teams up with a girl named Ellie (and some other people along the way) to survive in a world that's overrun with zombies who were zombified by a fungus. Eventually, you come to see the regular zombies as the easy ones, because you can whack them with a 2x4 for a while and they'll go down. The fungus-headed monsters are the real jerks. Those guys, well, you have to shoot them in the head or set them on fire. If you try to fight them close-up, they will reach their fungus heads down and scream as they devour you. Look, I'm not going to say I am good at shooting zombies (and fungus-headed monsters). But I'm better at it than I thought I was going to be. Especially early on, I know I missed probably 50 percent of the stuff I could have found and picked up. (Ransack all the houses! I know now!) I'm roughly a third of the way through the game, I think (I just got a car), but I have gotten better at both survival and preparation. What I find most interesting about this game is that while you do keep accumulating weapons (bow and arrow! shotgun! rifle! bat with nails in it!), one of the things you learn, or one of the things I learned, anyway, is how often your best bet is not to shoot. I have sometimes tried to square off with some enemies using my pistol or my shotgun and immediately died (I die so much in this game, just so much), only to later realize I could just crouch down and sneak through. Or sometimes, the best thing to do is run like hell to the other side of whatever place you are so you can regroup before you go back and battle again. Restraint is important. Avoidance is important. Patience is very important. Even though it's a game that will give you a shotgun, that doesn't mean you have to shoot everything. Don't take me to be saying this is a peaceful game. This is the most violent game I personally have ever played, I think, and it enjoys its gore. Every time I die from a zombie bite, I get to see my ... I actually don't know what it is, an artery? ... pulled out of my neck like a long noodle as I expire. When I started getting killed by the bloater (this gigantic supersize fungus monster), who is a very tough enemy (I had to throw a Molotov cocktail at it and then shoot it a bunch of times), it got even worse. That guy kind of pries your head apart and you get to watch your eyeball pop out. I probably saw this animation ... at least 25 times before I beat that section. I think I muttered aloud, "Well, jeez, that was unnecessary." I talk to myself a lot. "OK," I say, "So I gotta go over here ... and I gotta get this guy ... and then this guy ... oh, I'm going to get you, you gross thing." And sometimes, "What am I supposed to do? If I go over there, they kill me. I am so confused. WHAT? I can't go this way or this way." I do peek at walkthroughs that are available online, sometimes just for clarification that something I have tried 15 times will eventually work if I try it over and over and do a slightly better job each time. I like it. And this is why I never close the door. Not to zombies, not even to shooter games (although I am extremely selective about them and will continue to be so). Through that door lies something that maybe will be more up your alley than you anticipate. Also through that door: a whole bunch of zombies, so pick up your pipe and be ready. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend This week, I discovered the world's most soothing game for the PS5 (though it's also available on other platforms). What's it called? PowerWash Simulator. What do you do? You power wash stuff. I have already cleaned a van, a dirt bike, an entire yard full of gross rocks and dirty paving stones, a shed, a swing ... it is the most hypnotic, satisfying gift you can give yourself. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I also played The Stanley Parable, which I can only describe as sort of ... an existential examination of gaming itself? It's very strange and surprising, even though it starts with a very simple premise of a man sitting at a desk. Should we stick with games in what has turned out to be this game-heavy newsletter? Sure. I recently started playing with the mobile game Operate Now: Hospital. It's a very rudimentary surgery simulator that walks you through fixing broken bones, taking out growths, stitching up what it eagerly labels "GAPING WOUNDS," and the like. Unfortunately, it also requires you to act like a hospital bureaucrat, staffing up and making people get their rest and building new MRI machines and stuff. All unnecessary. I just want to cut cut cut! Why do games always want me to run an office? Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week The year in review: 50 wonderful things from 2023  Photo credits clockwise from left: Universal Pictures; Apple TV+; Eli Adé/Warner Bros. Pictures; Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images; Tor Books; Apple TV+ Stephen was part of the All Songs Considered holiday extravaganza, and we were happy to share it with you. J.C. Howard joined me to talk about the film The Iron Claw, which is ... very very sad. Chris Klimek and I talked about Michael Mann's Ferrari, as well as Michael Mann's The Heat and Michael Mann's Miami Vice. Every year, I put together my list of 50 Wonderful Things that I saw, read or heard that year, and I did it again for 2023. Aisha sat down with Bob Mondello, Bedatri D. Choudhury and Jordan Crucchiola to look back at some of the great movies you might have missed in 2023. And, as we do every year, your four hosts made predictions for 2024 and looked back on how we did in 2023. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Glen Weldon: 5-Second Films Aisha Harris: 30 Rock Stephen Thompson: "Ça plane pour moi" by Plastic Bertrand Linda Holmes: Isaac Butler's article "The Virus Inside Your TV" in Slate Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? 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