If you loved Black Mirror’s “San Junipero,” you’ll need to give a thought to “Long, Long Time,” the third episode of The Last of Us on HBO Max, starring Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman in a visitor position as Bill.
No, “San Junipero” doesn’t have something to do with zombies, and “Long, Long Time” doesn’t have something to do with importing your persona to an infinite Eighties membership scene. They share a much more area of interest class: self-contained episodes that pivot from the total thrust of their respective TV sequence to current a sci-fi-tinged queer love story.
Back in 2016, everybody I knew was watching “San Junipero,” speaking about how they hadn’t watched “San Junipero” but, or telling me I ought to watch “San Junipero,” the fourth episode of the third season of Black Mirror. It’s not that I knew rather a lot of Black Mirror followers; it’s simply that I do know rather a lot of queer of us who take pleasure in style TV. Eventually, I watched “San Junipero.” It was beautiful! I’ve by no means seen one other episode of Black Mirror.
“San Junipero” is broadly thought of one of the greatest episodes of tv to come back out in 2016, and continues to be appreciated for being mainly the solely episode of Black Mirror the place expertise is an efficient factor that’s good, as an alternative of a Twilight Zone horror. But for a lot of, “San Junipero” is most fondly remembered as a result of a romance-centered style story is uncommon sufficient to see on TV, not to mention one the place a homosexual couple will get to trip off into the sundown collectively.
Did you take pleasure in what “San Junipero” did for bisexual and lesbian sci-fi followers? Would you prefer to see The Last of Us do it for (white) homosexual males?
Well, then, can I curiosity you a 60-ish-minute brief movie the place Nick Offerman performs a closeted survivalist in a zombie apocalypse who learns the irreplaceable worth of attachment from one other man’s tenderness, as you comply with their relationship from its starting by way of to a peaceable finish in outdated age?
[Ed. note: The rest of this piece contains broad spoilers for “Long, Long Time.”]
Also Joel and Ellie are there too, I suppose, however no matter. They bookend the episode, showing solely at the starting and finish, leaving the relaxation for director Peter Hoar and author Craig Mazin to spend increasing on Bill and Frank. And increase they do. Bill’s sport look is minor, and Frank died earlier than the participant even finds out he existed. What gamers know is that their relationship ended badly. One can infer that they had been lovers, however there’s no direct affirmation of it. The Frank (performed by The White Lotus’ Murray Bartlett) and Bill of The Last of Us TV present are a near-complete retread.
Offerman frankly stuns in the position as a self-sufficient prepper who freezes like a deer when introduced with the freely provided intimacy he had by no means dared to permit himself to want. Bill and Frank kiss, and fuck, and argue; they cook dinner, and make artwork, and shock one another with loving items; they discover a lot wrestle however larger pleasure in constructing out a pocket of paradise in the wasteland.
If the episode has a failure level, it’s that these guys are nearly literal Log Cabin Republicans (though the log cabin is a contemporary colonial in the suburbs of Boston). Or, and I’m placing on my greatest Surfer Dude accent right here, “Getting yours and then actively resisting creating a community to share with others even though you absolutely have the resources to do so? Not (queer) radical, dude. Not (queer) radical at all.”
But that’s a failure level of all of The Last of Us, sport and present, in that regardless of race or creed, it molds its characters in line with a lionization of the largely legendary concept of the personal, isolationist homestead defended righteously in opposition to chaos.
Offerman’s and Bartlett’s performances are what make the episode transcend The Last of Us’ restricted concepts of splendid society, turning “Long, Long Time” into the greatest episode of the present’s first season. Time — and additional seasons, as they arrive — will inform if it seems to be the greatest episode of the present, interval.
But in the meantime, no pun meant, it may be loved in isolation from the relaxation of The Last of Us. If you possibly can watch the satisfying factor all people’s speaking about with out signing up for hours of notoriously dour tv on both facet of it, properly, that’s a straightforward promote. Stand-alone standing propelled the unfold of “San Junipero” throughout the face of queer discourse, and it could simply stroll “Long, Long Time” into the queer sci-fi corridor of fame as properly.
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