The Last of Us (HBO Spoilers)

[Raja]

He 100% does not sound like Pedro Pascal, have you heard him talk? It's obviously not that. His voice is distinctive and I don't hear any of that in the accent - which is fine!

I hear people's comments that accents change - but I think his accent is distracting from his performance in some scenes, which is what is taking me out of the show a little. So if deliberate or not, I just don't think he's executing it well in some scenes and it's one of the first things that stood out to me - pretty sure one of my first comment on the threads was regarding his accent.

For what it's worth, I thought his comments here explain what he's trying to do with the voice

Quote

Joel’s from Austin, so a thick Texas accent, isn’t technically applicable. I grew up in San Antonio. Before I was two years old, my family landed in San Antonio, and I lived there until I was nearly 12 years old. It was more matter of playing with, what’s in my system already. What’s the sound that shapes the words that are on the page. What harkens to something that is from the game, that is familiar to us already. What is the music of it all? A bit of a twang was definitely part of it.”

I still think he's generally really good in the part, though the distracting accent is a minor complaint compared to overall issues with the show

[Raja]

7 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

His Texan accent disappeared faster than Elizabeth Olsen's generic eastern European accent.

Man, that was so bad.

Though absolutely nothing will beat Sonoya Mizuno's accent in House of the Dragon. It's like the creators of that show didn't watch the footage back

[DireWolfSpirit]

9 hours ago, Ran said:

Texas has an array of accents.....

^^^^^This, so much this.

Do people not realize how enormous Texas is?

It has a variety of accent and dialect just as any group of 30 million have globally. Theres no way that large of group should properly be viewed as monolithic.

I have met people from Texas and Nevada that sound very similar to Pedro's character, not to mention his previous, much praised work as a DEA agent from Texas in the acclaimed Narco series.

Im not understanding the accent complaints, they dont reflect the reality of that very large southwest territory.

[DireWolfSpirit]

7 hours ago, dbunting said:

I moved from Michigan to Mississippi in the 3rd grade, then to Louisiana for 4th grade (got the yankee accent comments from everyone) and back to Michigan for 5th grade and stayed. I then had Michigan people commenting on my southern accent quite a bit but it faded over time as well. So 20 years removed, yeah it's going to change.

My sister from Mich. went away to college then to Asia for 15 years and finally back in Mich. again, shes multi lingual . She has a sort of international accent that doesnt squarely fit any one region.

 

[Raja]

25 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Theres no way that large of group should properly be viewed as monolithic.

It isn't, the accent he's putting on is just inconsistent with itself, which is what distracts me. 

[Corvinus85]

I'm not hearing any inconsistencies in his accent, but I guess.

I lived in the Rio Grande Valley for two and a half years. The majority of the population there is Hispanic, so they have a distinctive Hispanic accent with various degrees of thickness. But you still get the occasional Texan drawl for some words, like "y'all". 

[Mexal]

That was incredible. 

[Corvinus85]

So bloaters, why?

Well the latest episode was something. This show is so depressing, but so well done.

Everything about Henry and Sam and Kathleen wanting bloody vengeance was good. We got a strong dose of video game feels this episode with the multitude of clickers and the one bloater. But now I question their existence. For a video game, they need to be there for the scary but also action heavy moments. But everything that the show has setup up mostly suggests that infected mainly attempt to infect others, no? That is what a fungus like cordyceps would want to do, spread, replicate. So not sure that heads-ripping type of infected really fit in this story. But visually that whole sequence was pretty good. Well maybe apart from Joel's infinite bolt action rifle.

[Whiskeyjack]

Awesome episode.  Probably my favorite so far.

[briantw]

51 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

So bloaters, why?

But everything that the show has setup up mostly suggests that infected mainly attempt to infect others, no? That is what a fungus like cordyceps would want to do, spread, replicate. So not sure that heads-ripping type of infected really fit in this story. 

Could be a simple defense mechanism since it was currently being shot at by like fifteen different people.  

And I'm sure plenty of infected have accidentally killed their victims while trying to infect them.  I can't imagine they understand their own strength or how fragile human bodies can be.

[Whiskeyjack]

Real question is, did the bloater have an accent?

[Ramsay B.]

Definitely my favorite episode so far. Pleasantly surprised they had the game sniper scene in there, with its own little spin of course. All the background of why they wanted Henry so badly was fantastic too.

The little girl clicker was terrifying also. Imagine that thing chasing you?

[sifth]

Yea, episode 5 was easily my favorite. Man, I found that part of the video game to be particularly depressing.

[Mark Antony]

Henry’s actor was very good. 

[Mexal]

5 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

Henry’s actor was very good. 

As was Sam's who's actually deaf. They were both great.

[Kalbear]

4 hours ago, Mexal said:

As was Sam's who's actually deaf. They were both great.

He did really well and the chemistry he had with Bella was awesome. 

I loved the detail of Sam the next morning just staring at the morning sun until ellie touched him. He had been infected but was still deaf, so it didn't notice her until she touched him. Great little detail.

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

He did really well and the chemistry he had with Bella was awesome. 

I loved the detail of Sam the next morning just staring at the morning sun until ellie touched him. He had been infected but was still deaf, so it didn't notice her until she touched him. Great little detail.

I wondered what would happen, since in ep1 the old lady could suddenly run, I thought maybe iSam would be able to hear.

iSam wouldn't have made a very good clicker

...too soon?

For me, making Sam deaf was a mis-step, that final conversation did not land as well as in the game with not-deaf Sam. And it ended up not having anything to do with Kathleen's beef with Henry. I was looking forward to the segment where the party gets spilt with Ellie and Henry being together and Joel and Sam being together, so I was a bit sad this part of the game never got adapted, but also changed so that rather than being Joel and Sam fighting off runners we would have got Henry and Ellie talking and making their way through the tunnels.

I kind of wish Henry had said Kathleen was more evil than FEDRA when she said the kids would be murdered too.

My instinctive reaction to Sam showing Ellie he was bitten was negative. But the way Ellie handled it, as a call back to ep1 with the infected kid and the FEDRA officer, I thought was beautiful, so it was a good change in the end.

And Ish makes an appearance.

[Raja]

On 2/11/2023 at 3:11 AM, Mexal said:

That was incredible. 

Agreed.

I liked every bit of that episode, and it was nice to see Joel soften up just a little bit.

Imo, there is an explosion of emotion inside Joel that is waiting to come out and hopefully we see that this season, if not I'll be disappointed. Both the actors that played Sam & Henry were excellent, and you instantly emphathize with both of them when they're on screen, and it was nice to get all the background regarding Kansas city too.

( Also, see everyone even Henry noticed Pedro's accent is a bit off )

[Slurktan]

Out of curiosity but why are they going through Kansas City to get to Wyoming?

[Ran]

5 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Out of curiosity but why are they going through Kansas City to get to Wyoming?

They needed to find a city in the US that matched where they were filming (Calgary) and KC was the best fit in terms of looks.

The in-world reason is probably that there are stretches of highways that are known to be impassable by vehicles and there are other regions known to be extremely dangerous for various reasons, and the highway to KC was their best shot to get closer to Wyoming in the truck they had.

Good episode. I agree the "bloater" thing doesn't make a lot of sense as an example of fungal evolution, and is more a game thing. 

Really good performances all around.  I also feel like the episode put Kathleen's running thing in context: not only that it's only been ten days since she successfully led the rebellion against FEDRA, but that it's probably not been that long since her brother Michael's death. Between her moral authority as this good leader's grieving sister and her ruthlessness-to-the-point of madness, I can see how she could be in the position she was in. I also suspect that if she had survived the episode, she would have been overthrown within months or even weeks as her obsession with revenge against collaborators started to make people realize she was unhinged.