Weekend Watch: Drop, The Last Of Us Season 2
A fun new thriller and a welcome return for a superb series
Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Meghann Fahy goes on the first date from hell and Pedro Pascal returns to the mushroom post-apocalypse. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite, Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite and Blue Sky: @jammerwhite.bsky.social
Writer/director Christopher Landon might be best known for the supremely entertaining mixtures of horror and comedy that are the Happy Death Day films and serial killer body swap bop Freaky.
For Drop, though, he’s working from a script by someone else –– Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach –– and is swapping comedy horror for psychological thriller, going full Alfred Hitchcock via Drop.
It’s the story of nervy, widowed abuse survivor Violent (Meghann Fahy), who has finally decided that after a few years spent raising her son, she’s ready to re-enter the dating world. Her choice is Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a handsome and charming photographer she met via an app.
But when she shows up to the upscale Palate restaurant in downtown Chicago, her night turns terrifying when she starts receiving mysterious gifs, memes and other messages via a data drop service on her phone, seemingly from someone in the room. Soon, she’s shown evidence of an intruder in her house, threatening her sister Jen (Violett Beane) and son Toby (Jacob Robinson).
If Violet doesn’t do as she’s told, her family will be slaughtered. And it’s not giving too much away to reveal that her date is also a target…
Landon gives the whole thing a real energy, cranking up the tension and making the most of the claustrophobic setting (the set itself is very impressive). This is a taught, propulsive and inventive thriller.
Fahy also does well, infusing Violet with smarts and vulnerability in equal measure, while Sklenar is perfectly fine as the easy-going Henry. A comic vein running through the film is boosted by the likes of Jeffery Self as Matt, the cheerful waiter who serves the couple (and is also a wannabe improv performer) and Ed Weeks as Phil, the slightly lecherous piano player.
Drop certainly stretches believability at certain points, but not to breaking point and it keeps you guessing. If the finale lets some of the air out, it still doesn’t hurt what is a worthwhile thrill ride.
Drop is in UK and US cinemas on 11 April.
Image Credit: HBO
Though I’d never played the games, I watched and very much enjoyed the first season of HBO’s The Last Of Us back in early 2023.
It has been a couple of years now, but the show is back with a strong second season that, while it suffers a little from separating central adoptive father/daughter duo Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), it remains one of the better shows on TV.
Overseen again by Neil Druckmann (who created the original games) and Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin, it pushes the story forward by five years, catching up with Joel and Ellie settled into life at the ski-resort-turned-survival-fortress, where a group is building community while watching out for the fungi-mutated humans who wander the lands outside their gates.
Ellie, now 19, is maturing into a badass fighter and itching to have more responsibility while striking up a relationship with Diana (Isabela Merced), in whom she finds a kindred spirit.
Joel, meanwhile, is wrestling with his own position as a construction foreman and general handyman, spilling his concerns to therapist Gail (Catherine O’Hara).
Yet the consequences of his actions years ago at the end of season one (a murderous rampage against the people experimenting on the virus-immune Ellie to find a cure) are going to catch up with him, especially in the determined shape of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).
Druckmann and Mazin carefully craft each episode, finding time for solid character work among the occasional bursts of chaos thanks to the creatures or rogue humans. And there’s not a dud acting performance from the committed ensemble.
Assuming you can handle your drama post-apocalyptic in the current days, this remains top-notch entertainment.
The Last Of Us Season 2 starts on HBO in the US on Sunday 13 April, and Sky Atlantic/Now on 14 April.