Dave Has Thoughts on… The Last of Us, Andor, The Rehearsal and More
In this column, TVLine's West Coast Bureau Chief Dave Nemetz shares his take on the current state of TV, including capsule reviews of upcoming shows, commentary on recently aired episodes and perspective on TV casting news, cancellations and more.
I couldn't talk about this in my full review of The Last of Us Season 2, for obvious reasons, but Sunday's Episode 2 delivered a jaw-dropping twist, with Joel being brutally murdered by a vengeful Abby right in front of Ellie. (Read our full recap here for all the gory details.) The episode also featured a terrifying full-scale assault by hundreds of undead clickers that emerged from a snowbank, leaving the town of Jackson in ruins. It was one of the most gruelingly intense hours of television I've seen in years — and I can't say I enjoyed it.
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No, I don't expect a zombie show to be all sunshine and rainbows. And yes, I know this happened in the video game as well, so it wasn't a question of if Joel would die, but when. I do give the writers credit for dropping such a bold storytelling stroke into just the season's second episode, reminiscent of Game of Thrones killing off Ned Stark in Season 1. It was a nice throwback to the days when TV shows could truly surprise us.
But Game of Thrones had a rich supporting cast to fall back on, while so much of The Last of Us' appeal stemmed from Joel and Ellie's relationship — and now that's gone. I've seen the next two episodes as well, and I do think the show is missing something without Pedro Pascal's Joel at the helm. (Beyond Ellie, the other characters are either too new or not developed enough.) It's actually closer to The Walking Dead killing off Glenn in the Season 7 premiere, which led to a mass audience exodus. I wonder if any The Last of Us fans will walk away from the show knowing that Joel won't be back. (Except for flashbacks, of course.)
Even aside from Joel's death, this episode was so unrelentingly depressing, with sadistic torture scenes and unbearable tension, that it just felt like misery porn. With Ellie now certain to seek her own vengeance against Abby, is The Last of Us trying to show us how toxic revenge can be, and how an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind? Quite possibly. But that doesn't mean I want to watch it happen.
* I didn't watch Andor when it first aired — there are only so many hours in the day to watch TV! — but I did catch up with it earlier this year, and I thought Season 1 was terrific. I'd call it one of the five best TV shows of 2022, belatedly. Now it's back for Season 2, and this week's premiere picked up right where it left off, combining exhilarating Star Wars action (like Cass' bumpy escape in an Imperial fighter) with a strong political undercurrent and serious psychological depth. Andor truly is a Star Wars series for grown-ups, and I can't wait to see how the rest of Season 2 unfolds.
* It's so hard to pin down how I feel about The Rehearsal: It's supremely uncomfortable to watch, and yet at times, it's one of the funniest shows on TV. That uneasy balance was only amplified in this week's Season 2 premiere, with Nathan Fielder tackling the issue of… airplane crashes. Are you laughing yet? Fielder is truly gifted at capturing the awkward rhythms of human interaction, and he did manage to find quite a few laughs in his quest to train airline pilots how to communicate better in the cockpit. But I worry that this subject matter might prove too heavy for a goofy comedy show like this, and I also wish Fielder would take on new challenges each week like he did on Nathan for You, rather than just one for the whole season. In the end, I like it, I think — but if you can't stand watching it, I can't blame you.
* I gave Apple TV+'s Dope Thief a very positive review based on the first six episodes, and I still stand by it. But I have to admit: The way Season 1 ended was a bit disappointing. After spending most of the season cleverly subverting crime drama conventions, it fell back into those same conventions in the finale, turning into a deadly serious shoot-'em-up spectacle. In the process, it lost the humor and personal touch that made it so special, and even Brian Tyree Henry, so great all season long, was strangely muted. It's a shame, because the show had such a unique spark in the early episodes, and I was hoping to see more of it. But not all shows can stick the landing, I guess.
Got questions for Dave? Thoughts on his thoughts? Reach him at davehasthoughts@tvline.com.
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'How to Train Your Dragon' returns to screens just as another live-action remake dominates the box office. DeBlois co-wrote and co-directed 2002's animated alien comedy 'Lilo & Stitch' with Sanders, which got a recent overhaul that has topped U.S. charts for the past three weekends and earned more than $770 million globally. DeBlois says neither he nor Sanders were approached when that project began, although Sanders was eventually brought on to reprise his role as Stitch's voice. DeBlois says he can't comment on narrative changes that have drawn some backlash because he hasn't seen the film and wants to support the work of friends. 'I know people who worked on it, good friends of mine. I applaud their work, and I hope it does well,' he says. But he does take issue with Sanders' limited role. 'Chris Sanders should have directed that movie because it's his brainchild,' he adds. 'Even when I worked on it, I felt like my job was to help Chris bring this alive because it was so personal to him. It's based on his sensibility. It's based on his drawing style. The fact that they overlooked Chris and went to someone else is baffling to me.' DeBlois says he embraced a re-do of 'How to Train Your Dragon' as a chance to fix flaws in the original, which he recalls was made in a relative rush. That includes diving deeper into secondary characters like Astrid. 'We didn't really understand why her relationship with Hiccup was so acrimonious and in siding with him, what did she stand to lose? What were her ambitions?' he says. 'But also just simple things like: Why are these Vikings on this island in the first place? Why haven't they left? This seemed like an opportunity to kind of expand the mythology and understand how they came together as a task force representing all these different countries that were beset by dragons.' Currently prepping for a live action remake of the film's sequel, DeBlois says he's similarly eager to 'course correct' elements of 2014's 'How to Train Your Dragon 2,' which added Cate Blanchett to the cast. 'One of them is just that there are a lot of characters that are talking about things that happened that we, the audience, don't see,' he teases, adding that he has already reached out to Blanchett on a preliminary basis, even though he's still working on the script. At the same time, DeBlois continues to nurse 'a hopper full of ideas' that are not based on anything that's come before. He says he knows they're a tough sell when compared to well-loved and well-established properties that have proven commercial appeal. 'I understand it. I mean that is the business of Hollywood. But I'm ready when somebody's willing to kind of venture off and take a risk on an original project.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025.
