Feb. 27, 2023 — Today’s Biggest News Stories

The Last of Us
Pedro Pascal plays Joel, the steely middle-aged survivor of a fungal pandemic that turns victims into zombies. His mission is to lead the teenage Ellie (Bella Ramsey), an orphan who seems to be immune to the fungus, across a ravaged America in search of rebel doctors who can use Ellie’s genes to develop a cure. The result is a gritty, apocalyptic road trip, featuring vengeful revolutionaries in Kansas City, utopian cowboys in Wyoming, and Christian cannibals in Colorado. But the most gutting parts of the show come from its depictions of tenderness amid the chaos of a cruel world.

Poker Face
The visually slick series stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie, a low-key casino worker with an uncannily accurate bullshit meter who falls into amateur detective work after the murder of a friend. Each episode hinges on the emotional punch that guest stars — Lil Rel Howery as a jealous pitmaster, Chloë Sevigny as a washed-up rock god, Hong Chau as a horny trucker — bring, but there’s no cloyingness to be found. Instead, there’s a grimy humanity that Poker Face revels in, and the effect is we’re introduced to each guest star as the main character of every episode.

Physical 100
The Korean show brings together 100 contestants — including national team athletes, content creators, and MMA fighters — to compete in a series of games requiring strength, agility, endurance, and teamwork to prove who has the best physique. The spectacle of strength alone is compelling enough to warrant a marathon viewing, but the allure of Physical: 100 is not just the eye candy — it’s also the ethos of the competition. Participants approach the games with collegial spirit and a reverence for both teammates and opponents, both of which are sorely missing in many American reality series.

Full list over here. Get it while it’s hot.

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