The Last of Us – Sky’s thriller set in a desolate America populated by the violent undead – has put viewers through the emotional wringer. Tragedy is never far from triumph, peril alternating closely with sanctuary. And this second season has upped the stakes, delivering, first, the sheer shock of a main character’s death, and then, on an episode called “The Price”, a heartbreaking rumination on the nature of fatherhood and inheritance. Not bad for an adaptation of a point-and-shoot video game.
Great television shows are not always a source of great fathers. Think of Don Draper drifting in and out of Sally and Bobby’s lives in Mad Men. Or Walter White recklessly gambling Walt Jr’s safety in Breaking Bad. Or even Tony Soprano’s failure to provide Meadow and AJ with a sense of direction. Because the canon of great American television has been so singularly focused on flawed men – the antihero – it has also been a breeding ground for bad parenting. Ambivalence or animosity; they are ad men, meth kingpins or mobsters first, and parents second.
