From SCTV to the original Beetlejuice to Home Alone to mockumentaries like Best In Show and straight through to Schitt's Creek, Catherine O'Hara has been making audiences laugh for a very long time. She's one of the best in the business, and this April she'll be bringing her comedic talents to The Last of Us.
I know what you're thinking: The Last of Us is a grim show about humanity's struggle to survive following a zombie apocalypse. Humor has no place here. O'Hara begs to differ. "You can't take that out of your life," she told Entertainment Weekly. "And when you do, it makes for a very dull performance."
I completely agree; I wish sweeping TV dramas would embrace the fact that, even in the darkest of times, people find a way to crack jokes. Maybe they're really dark jokes, but they crack them. I think pops of humor make the dramatic stakes feel much higher, because we get a glimpse of the joy and humanity we stand to lose if the zombies take over, or the war is lost, or the patient dies, or whatever conflict we're talking about.
That said, don't expect O'Hara's character to put on a standup routine or anything. Based on the trailers, her character seems to be some kind of therapist. She'll be talking to Joel (Pedro Pascal), who could really use some therapy after what he did at the end of The Last of Us season 1.
"I have an odd relationship with Pedro's character," O'Hara said. "You don't quite know why she's got...well, she's got this edge to her, but it makes for some weird, good dark comedy, I think. So it's there. I never want to deny the gift of humor."
Nor do I, Catherine O'Hara! Laugh on.
Like I said, the second season of The Last of Us will premiere in April. HBO hasn't revealed the exact drop date, but if you do a little light counting you can deduce that the season 2 premiere will probably air on Sunday, April 13.
O'Hara's character, whoever she is, does not seem to appear in the original video game The Last of Us Part II, which will pick up with the story of Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) after they return to the relative safety of Jackson, Wyoming at the end of the first season. The original video game takes these characters on a twisty, unpredictable ride, one that was very hotly debated when the game came out in 2020. If the show inspires even a fraction of that passion, discussions around The Last of Us season 2 are going to be very interesting indeed.
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