EPISODE 808: WHO IS "US" IN "LAST OF US" ASKING FOR FRIEND
Also, 3 or More Straight Male Friends May Result in a Trip to Atlantic City
Paul was beginning to realize he probably shouldn’t have stayed Mark’s therapist after all.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and welcome back to Pop Culture Spirit Wow! This week has a lot of Last of Us content, but also not really, it’s more about turtles and rainbows and questions I don’t know how to answer. I hope you enjoy it.
The WOWND UP (BECAUSE I SAID SO #LOVEYOUMOM&DAD)
So hey, Baby Yoda is back in the saddle in The Mandalorian, and I don’t know about anybody else, but every time they have him up in that little top compartment of Mando’s new ship I am terrified he is about to be impaled by a micrometeor.
Seriously, Mando, you’re two years into this child rearing thing and you still don’t know that your vehicle needs to be child-safe?
Also, what is with your vehicle, anyway? You traded from a space ship with sleeping compartments and, you know, places to stand, for something where you can’t even move? Like, honey, I know it’s fast, but that is not trading up.
In other news, for all those who have enormous father issues they want to see not at all even slightly worked out onscreen, Succession is coming back soon. But good news, it’s ending this season, and I’m sure by the end the kids will finally, I don’t know, straight up murder their dad or something.
Because yeah, that seems likely. (Warning: Logan likes to swear.)
And in Wait, What now? Warner Brothers has decided to turn the Lord of the Rings into a “Star Wars-like franchise”, in competition with Amazon, because if someone else is doing something cool with the thing you made a billion dollars off, you should definitely flood the market with other stuff to ruin everything.
It’s true, somehow, and yes, this seems very hard to understand, Amazon maybe only owns the rights to Tolkien’s Second Age, while Warner Brothers—which by the way is a producer on Amazon’s show—still owns the rights to the Third Age (aka the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings)?
And if you’re thinking, But wait, didn’t they already do all that though?, yeah, they did. But you know, who doesn’t want a Smeagol series, I guess?
Here’s a live feed of Warner Brothers launching its new plan:
THE LAST OF US, PART I
I had been planning to write something about the Writers’ Guild, which is entering into new contract negotiations with the networks. From the pretty far outside, the situation seems pretty serious. The networks have been pushing smaller seasons, which means fewer writers and less employment. There’s also this thing now called a “mini-room” where a showrunner works with just a few writers to develop their show, which again, decreases employment and also seems to increase the amount of work expected of those writers for the same pay (or, I suspect in some cases, less pay, because hey, it’s just a mini-room). And there’s a bunch of other pretty serious issues, too.
Then I’m watching The Last of Us tonight, which was fine. I am just about done with any kind of plotline that involves truly crazy people. There are truly crazy people, they make for a lot of drama, I get all that. But you know what’s more interesting, and what’s made The Last of Us Special? Normal people, with relatable motivations.
So maybe I’m just grumpy because of the story, but as I’m watching I keep thinking to myself, Craig Mazin, the guy showrunning that show, is writing 8 of the nine episodes, two of them with the video game creator, Neil Druckmann, who also gets a full credit for last week’s episode (as he should because it’s pretty much exactly from the video game).
Maybe you read that and you think how impressive it is. And it is! This show is a massive undertaking. But Craig Mazin is part of the Guild, the writers’ union. And to me, the idea of doing a whole show by yourself, with no writers’ room, is contrary to the whole ethos of being in a Guild. I get it; you have a vision, you want to execute it. I have a pilot that’s a bit based on my own life as a priest that I want to see get made and I absolutely want to write it all myself. Why hire someone else to tell a story I know so personally?
But if I do that, what does it mean to say that I’m in a union? That I pay the Guild their percentage, which supports the services that help other writers? It’s not nothing. Hell, by virtue of the fact that he’s both showrunner and sole writer on most of the project, Mazin is making a ton of money. The Guild will get a nice amount from that.
But I don’t know, to me it doesn’t seem right. It’s certainly not how most shows work. House of the Dragon did 10 episodes and had 8 writers. Severance did 9 and had 7.
And more than that, it strikes me that if writers agree to this, then networks will use it more and more. Because why wouldn’t they?
I tweeted out a whole thread on this. Honestly, I’m nobody in the Guild, and there’s no reason anyone would be paying attention to me. (Also, is anyone even on Twitter anymore?) The one writer who has responded—and whose work I really appreciate— said every show is different, it depends on the showrunner’s vision, and a bunch of other writers have liked that. So you know, who am I?
But if you’re interested in me talking into the abyss, here’s the link.
THE LAST OF US, PART II
Speaking of TV: One of the very cool things that I get to do from time to time is consult on TV shows. Actually, it’s one of my favorite things, bar none. I feel like it’s one of those moments where the many different parts of me are all being accessed. It’s a really special feeling.
At times that work involves me having to reach out to experts in various Catholic things that I don’t know much about. A show wants to talk to a nun about being a sister in a male-dominated Church. A show has a question about I don’t know, Vatican II or exorcisms and my job is to go get the answer.
This week I had to do something like that, and after a plunge down a rabbit hole, I ended up talking to someone at a Catholic organization that I had never heard of before. But they were actually located in Chicago, where I’m from, and the person I spoke to had a son that just graduated from a Jesuit school. Things were looking good! Huzzah!
Then, I start to explain what I want, and two very strange things happen. First, when I mention where I work, America Magazine, they gasp. I have no idea why, but my brain, which apparently needs to explain everything immediately and in a way that justifies the behavior rather than just noting the oddness, assumes it’s because they think I want to do some sort of interview, I’m one of those awful “journalists.” I can definitely understand that apprehension, having been at times both one of those awful journalists and having watched loved ones on the receiving end of what awful journalists can do.
I push on, explaining no no, I don’t need an interview, I just need an answer to a terminology question that’s being asked of me. And as I explain what it is, they start laughing. Once again, my brain tries to make sense of this in a way that defends them, but it’s very strange. And there’s something about the quality of their laugh that I can’t put my finger on. It’s off somehow.
They interrupt me: You’re a Jesuit from America? And the way they ask makes me think they might not have believed anything I’ve said so far, which Okay, sure, I can understand that, I guess. Yes, I am, I say. They put me on hold.
When they come back, they tell me that the head of their organization is actually a Jesuit, which is very unexpected; I hadn’t seen his name mentioned on the site. They tell me if I email my question, they’ll pass it along to him.
This is great! I thank them profusely, and make it clear, I respect the work that their organization does and the show I’m working on does, too, which is why they’ve sent me chasing this question that honestly is a very very small point that most shows and movies would just make up an answer for.
But as I’m about to hang up, I just have to find out what that laughing thing was all about. Did I say something in a strange way, I ask them, or maybe just the request itself seemed ridiculous?
And they say, “You said you were from America, right?” Yes. “And doesn’t James Martin work at America?”
James Martin, if you don’t know the name, is a Jesuit writer who for the last 5 or 6 years has been giving a lot of talks around the world about queer Catholics. His message is really basic: Queer Catholics are a part of the Church and loved by God. Seriously, that’s pretty much it. He’s not out there campaigning for the Church to bless gay marriages or disputing the teaching of the church on homosexual sexual activity. He’s just saying queer Catholics are, by virtue of the teaching of the Church itself, just as holy and blessed as everyone else. His book is literally titled:
And while it has won him a lot of fans and gratitude in some quarters, he’s also been thrashed by other parts of the Church.
Here’s the weird thing: two and a half years ago I wrote an article about being a gay priest myself, and received really nothing but love from the broader Church, which I did not expect. Meanwhile Jim has just been writing in support of queer Catholics, and he is like Public Enemy No. 1.
So Yes, I say, Jim Martin does work at America. He’s part of our staff.
“Well,” they say, “that’s why I laughed.”
YEAH. And their words are so sharply said, suddenly the laugh makes sense; it was odd because it was so derisive.
As I sort of stammer for a second, because I am just so shocked I didn’t know what to say, they made some comments about the things he says. And I’ll be honest, I don’t remember the exact words they used, because I was pretty much the defintion of this:
In the end, I just say, Oh, okay, well, thanks for your help. Then I hung up and sent them and that Jesuit my request.
And I kind of hate myself for that. I know, who cares, right? There are mean and stupid people in the world. Shocker. Pick your battles. My job was to get that information and I got it. In a sense you could say I won, because I convinced this seemingly homophobic person to help me.
But I also let them shit talk a guy who has basically decided to spend all the good vibes that he’s earned over many years standing up for people like me. I turtled, in other words. Which was one of the reasons I wrote about being gay in the first place. I’ve spent so many years passing, and it’s all been out of fear, really. And there are so many great gay priests out there, probably most of the priests that the person I spoke to knows, who feel like they have to do the same.
Which means we’re all left on our own to defend ourselves against anyone in the Church who wants to say we’re sick or that supporting queer people is wrong. Like the bishop this week who called out the U.S.’s new Cardinal, Robert McElroy, for doing just that, saying his views may make him a heretic.
Bishops disagree, that’s fine. And who doesn’t like it when they get a little salty?
But this guy actually has a position of authority in our national bishops’ conference, so there’s more to his comment than just an opinion being rendered. And while his target may be McElroy, he’s also sending a signal to gay priests and those like Martin who speak on behalf of queer Catholics. Watch out.
I don’t know. I don’t understand how any of this is church, or remotely connected to Jesus. And sometimes it sort of feels like the Church is sending this ad to all its gay priests.
If you got to the end of this week’s Last of Us you have some sense of how I feel about that.
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
This week’s message might be more for me than for you. But if it speaks to you, here it is.
Have a great week!