The Last of Us (HBO Spoilers)

[Maltaran]

12 hours ago, Ran said:

That was an excellent and unexpected episode. 

Agreed. Completely not what I was expecting from a post-apocalyptic fungus zombie show, but great.

[dbunting]

Very unexpected episode, really liked it but seems strange in a 10 episode season to take an entire one to get our main characters supplies and some meaning to teaming up and move them down the road, all the while barely showing them. I did appreciate them showing us the way these two survived and really thrived in this environment. Normally we see these places get spoiled, the "raiders" usually win and kill the "good" people and destroy what has been built. Also great touches to add his paintings to the walls in all the rooms.

I kept expecting them to show up and for us to find out the person Joel shot at was Bill and they missed each other and then started working together.

I wonder if Joel has even more regret now. If Tess had lived they could have moved there and lived the rest of their lives out like Frank and Bill. I'm sure we won't get any thoughts on that but it has to suck. Of course if we ever see his brother again they could try coming back there but I assume his brother will forever be one step farther away from Joel.

[Heartofice]

Yeah honestly Episode 3 is a beautiful piece of tv. I had no idea this would the sort of thing we would be getting from a Last of Us tv show, I expected a roller coaster zombie ride, not some end of the world romance between two old men. It was gorgeously done and maybe one of the most touching romantic things I've seen on tv.. like ever. I guess there is something much more powerful seeing two people growing old together.

I have no idea if any of this was in the game, I don't remember any of it. 

I doubt if the rest of the show is like this, which might be a bit of a shame.

[dbunting]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I have no idea if any of this was in the game, I don't remember any of it. 

I doubt if the rest of the show is like this, which might be a bit of a shame.

What I've read about this from the game.

Spoiler

When the game shows Bill he mentions his partner Frank but he is dead. They come across his body later, he was leaving Bill and got infected and hung himself. Left a note saying he grew to hate Bill and who he was.

 

[Mexal]

I was a huge fan of this episode. I've played the game and while I enjoyed this particular part as a player, I can totally see how this rework of the story elevates the source material as a television show. Such a beautiful story, both uplifting and tragic. My wife was balling and rightfully so. This episode reminded me of something from Station Eleven in the best possible way.

[Kalbear]

It was great on many levels, and nick Offerman gave such a nuanced performance of a survivalist in a role I normally despise.

One small complaint I had with it is that it did not feel like it was part of the TLOU world. It didn't build on the background very much or really require anything specific of the storyline. Bill's backstory was about as generic prepper as they come, and Frank got even less. We could have taken that story and put it in TWD or many last man on earth style things. I'm not sure what they could have done differently - maybe give us more of the story, more of frank and bills backstory to show us how important the paradise they made together was - but it felt a bit adrift to me.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

On 1/17/2023 at 12:15 PM, Corvinus85 said:

Meanwhile I've been pondering why this fungus infestation has been so successful to begin with. Based on the helpful chart we get during that scene with the boy, it takes less than 24 hrs for someone to be fully infected from a leg bite, and from there the time decreases depending where the entry point is. So I'm not sure how this could have been so effective at spreading worldwide as such a fast pace. COVID, for example, has a much longer incubation period, and there were plenty of cases of asymptomatic people. But you'd think that with such a noticeable infection, that governments would have more time to react.

How was the lady next door infected? She didn’t go outside, she didn’t have an opportunity to be biten by another infected.  

[Ran]

1 minute ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

How was the lady next door infected? She didn’t go outside, she didn’t have an opportunity to be biten by another infected.  

Flour. They had baked cookies or muffins that they offered to Joel. I'm guessing the old lady's immune system was weaker than that of her daughter and son-in-law, being older, and so she succumbed first.

In fact, note that the entire day, Joel and his daughter miss out eating anything made with flour: pancakes (hence the pancake mix reference), the cookies/muffins, Joel forgot to get a birthday cake for himself despite promising.

 

[Corvinus85]

27 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

How was the lady next door infected? She didn’t go outside, she didn’t have an opportunity to be biten by another infected.  

Ran gave you the details. My initial question about the success of the infection was answered this episode with Joel's explanation. And I did realize it was the food that got the old lady in the beginning, I just didn't realize how widespread it could be.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Nick Offerman bares a strong resemblance to Michael Shannon in the face, am I the only one who sees it?

[JGP]

14 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Nick Offerman bares a strong resemblance to Michael Shannon in the face, am I the only one who sees it?

Yes, weirdo. :p

Shannon has defined cheek bones and a rectangle-ish shaped head. They don't look alike at all. 

[Werthead]

4 hours ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

One small complaint I had with it is that it did not feel like it was part of the TLOU world. It didn't build on the background very much or really require anything specific of the storyline. Bill's backstory was about as generic prepper as they come, and Frank got even less. We could have taken that story and put it in TWD or many last man on earth style things. I'm not sure what they could have done differently - maybe give us more of the story, more of frank and bills backstory to show us how important the paradise they made together was - but it felt a bit adrift to me.

Tangent TV! So much discussion of that genre of TV in the last day or two.

[Raja]

People need to stop using Max Richter's on the nature of daylight to try and make a scene emotional. I thought you were better than this Mazin.

I wasn't as taken with this episode as a lot of people seem to be, agree with kal that a lot of it was quite generic really but it's quite well acted and I'm always a fan of offerman in dramatic roles.

[Maltaran]

14 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Ran gave you the details. My initial question about the success of the infection was answered this episode with Joel's explanation. And I did realize it was the food that got the old lady in the beginning, I just didn't realize how widespread it could be.

There was also the prologue of episode 2 with the Indonesian scientist where the infected person was a worker at a flour mill

[kairparavel]

8 hours ago, Raja said:

People need to stop using Max Richter's on the nature of daylight to try and make a scene emotional. I thought you were better than this Mazin.

I wasn't as taken with this episode as a lot of people seem to be, agree with kal that a lot of it was quite generic really but it's quite well acted and I'm always a fan of offerman in dramatic roles.

It's rather powerful and though I never really considered how often I've heard it, it's still not in the range of The Four Seasons or other traditional pieces as far as usage. However, you are not alone in your opinion! 

https://www.cherwell.org/2020/04/27/stop-using-max-richters-on-the-nature-of-daylight-in-everything/

There was also an r/television thread that was deleted, no doubt started after Sunday's episode. 

[Mexal]

21 hours ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

One small complaint I had with it is that it did not feel like it was part of the TLOU world. It didn't build on the background very much or really require anything specific of the storyline. Bill's backstory was about as generic prepper as they come, and Frank got even less. We could have taken that story and put it in TWD or many last man on earth style things. I'm not sure what they could have done differently - maybe give us more of the story, more of frank and bills backstory to show us how important the paradise they made together was - but it felt a bit adrift to me.

It's interesting that even a generic story of two men growing to love each other in the middle of a worldwide endemic event can be so moving. That's a massive testament to the power of the differences in personalities + the power of the actors involved. I don't mind that it felt adrift because I thought it was quite beautiful and while I agree that the importance of their paradise feels understated, I think it'll become very clear over the next 5 episodes how rare what they had actually was in this world. Given the game storyline, not sure they could have done it any later.

I personally love standalone tangent episodes and I'm glad they get managed to be fit into seasons like these. To me, they're always the most powerful because they have a beginning, middle and end, they're self contained so they have room to breath and they break up an otherwise intense series of episodes.

[Corvinus85]

 

2 hours ago, kairparavel said:

It's rather powerful and though I never really considered how often I've heard it, it's still not in the range of The Four Seasons or other traditional pieces as far as usage. However, you are not alone in your opinion! 

https://www.cherwell.org/2020/04/27/stop-using-max-richters-on-the-nature-of-daylight-in-everything/

There was also an r/television thread that was deleted, no doubt started after Sunday's episode. 

I had only heard in Arrival before. I did see a list of where it was used in both TV and movies. I was perfectly ok with its usage here, it works well with dramatic montages.

And if it's OK for productions to use known lyrical songs for emotional effects, why can't they use instrumental songs as well?

[IFR]

I didn't have a problem with a "generic love story" being given considerable screen time in this show. This is, after all, another zombie apocalypse story, and another story of a grown, cynical man thrust into guardian role of a child as they navigate a hostile environment. Can't get more generic or overdone than that kind of story.

It's the details and execution that set this show apart. So even though this is pretty familiar ground, the show has enough of an identity to feel fresh. And I think it's very enjoyable.

That said, my only disappointment was that many critics were hyping episode 3 up to be some phenomenal experience, one of the best episodes of television in years. I certainly didn't feel it was that: I think it was consistent to the quality of the preceeding 2 episodes. This is all a matter of subjectivity, of course, but I do think there is merit in the speculation that critics loved it so much due to the representation aspect. If this episode was a love story between a man and a woman, the response would have been more muted by critics, possibly even negative, because - as some people have noted - it doesn't seem to really fit in with the rest of the show - it's like its own separate movie.

But one can only speculate, I suppose. And it's largely irrelevant anyway. Whatever reason makes this episode impactful to an individual is perfectly valid.

[Heartofice]

43 minutes ago, IFR said:

That said, my only disappointment was that many critics were hyping episode 3 up to be some phenomenal experience, one of the best episodes of television in years. I certainly didn't feel it was that: I think it was consistent to the quality of the preceeding 2 episodes. This is all a matter of subjectivity, of course, but I do think there is merit in the speculation that critics loved it so much due to the representation aspect. If this episode was a love story between a man and a woman, the response would have been more muted by critics, possibly even negative, because - as some people have noted - it doesn't seem to really fit in with the rest of the show - it's like its own separate movie.

Personally, the fact that it was a love story between two old geezers I think made it all the more interesting, because really that isn't something you seem to see a lot of. If anyone knows my posting history you will know I can't stand any of this woke shit, or trying to make political points by making everything as diverse as possible. But that wasn't what this was in my mind, it was an interesting love story between two people who would mostly never be shown on screen in a romantic manner in this sort of setting. That they were just old was probably the big seller, two young attractive gay guys is also kinda dull and has been done. 

If this show ended up being an anthology of stories in the wasteland I would really enjoy that, because quite frankly I and not fussed about the story on The Last of Us. Actually on The Walking Dead, there was a point during Season 4 I think where the show became more about the lives of people just living in a zombie apocalypse, and that was the best period of that show. 

If this show has a negative so far, I think it's that Ellie is a bit of a know it all, the sort of snarky wise ass kid who is uber competent. I don't much like her, but I'm assuming she will let her guard down and be less of an irritant as time goes on. 

[Nictarion]

3 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

If this show has a negative so far, I think it's that Ellie is a bit of a know it all, the sort of snarky wise ass kid who is uber competent. I don't much like her, but I'm assuming she will let her guard down and be less of an irritant as time goes on. 

She literally thanked Joel in this episode for filling her in on everything she didn’t know…