The Last of Us (HBO Spoilers)

[Heartofice]

6 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

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

Not sure that makes up for her entire character. 

[Ran]

I wouldn't consider Ellie "super competent". There's little evidence of this.

But I will say is that she feels like a generic plucky teenager at the moment. I suspect the idea is that the events of this show will be formative for her. 

[Heartofice]

18 minutes ago, Ran said:

I wouldn't consider Ellie "super competent". There's little evidence of this.

But I will say is that she feels like a generic plucky teenager at the moment. I suspect the idea is that the events of this show will be formative for her. 

My hope is that her character traits are more bravado covering up an inner fear. I suspect that will be what will happen, and I hope it does.

[Cas Stark]

I watched the first ep, little surprised how much love the show is getting on here.  I didn't see anything beyond your typical zombie apocalypse show, but maybe it gets better/deeper as it goes along.  I know nothing at all about the game, maybe that plays into my under whelmed reaction.

[Corvinus85]

9 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

I watched the first ep, little surprised how much love the show is getting on here.  I didn't see anything beyond your typical zombie apocalypse show, but maybe it gets better/deeper as it goes along.  I know nothing at all about the game, maybe that plays into my under whelmed reaction.

I find the "zombie plague" part somewhat more realistic and better done. Some of my favorite moments so far in the show have been the opening scenes for episodes 1 and 2.

[Kalnestk Oblast]

3 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

I find the "zombie plague" part somewhat more realistic and better done. Some of my favorite moments so far in the show have been the opening scenes for episodes 1 and 2.

Some of it is, some of it isn't. The Cordyceps vector and the stages of infection are really cool. The incredibly rapid speed of infection is kind of bullshit. The actual apocalyptic vector of infected flour in INCREDIBLY unrealistic; in no reasonable way would people all around the world on the same day or two be eating flour-based things from that one specific factory. Flour and mixes are things people buy and then use weeks, months later, and the shipments take weeks and months to arrive at their destinations. I like how they set up the first ep and the avoidance of gluten - finally we understand what a threat gluten is to us - but the actual collapse is really, really dumb.

[Corvinus85]

2 minutes ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

Some of it is, some of it isn't. The Cordyceps vector and the stages of infection are really cool. The incredibly rapid speed of infection is kind of bullshit. The actual apocalyptic vector of infected flour in INCREDIBLY unrealistic; in no reasonable way would people all around the world on the same day or two be eating flour-based things from that one specific factory. Flour and mixes are things people buy and then use weeks, months later, and the shipments take weeks and months to arrive at their destinations. I like how they set up the first ep and the avoidance of gluten - finally we understand what a threat gluten is to us - but the actual collapse is really, really dumb.

Oh fully agreed. Unless the mutation had started earlier, and it was only a matter of time until it was going to grow into a human-infecting fungus, meaning there was already infected product on the shelf in Austin, TX by the time the problems started rising in Jakarta.

[DireWolfSpirit]

So i am reading online this latest episode, the third, has been getting near universal "likes" while running a longer than normal 72 minutes.

The writer said the original take was a full 2 hours before they (HBO execs) cut the run time down to appease the stuffed suits (HBO execs) that seem to always step on art.

Anywho my point being theres a 2 hour version of the episode that HBO denied the public from seeing. The writer feels that longer uncut version was even more compelling and emotional than what the hacks allowed us to see.

This is an age old problem, if your not sure what im implying i would recommend people see the mini series "The Offer", which is the backstory about making The Godfather.

Gives us the whole uncut version you HBO nitwits (on the corporate side).

Edited February 2 by DireWolfSpirit

[Raja]

On 2/1/2023 at 11:56 AM, 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. 

Yeah, it's a very common piece of music that people go to. I know a lot of people didn't recognize it but I found it a bit...lazy, shall we say, especially when there is so  much other good stuff out there.

[Whiskeyjack]

I only know Max Richter from his work in The Leftovers.  Think The Departure Suite is probably my favorite piece of music I've ever heard in a television show.

The music in this episode was also really good.  Didn't recognize On the Nature of Daylight when I heard it, but I do also love Arrival, so I guess I've heard it before and just didn't remember.

Anyway - credit to him for contributing to so many great shows/movies.

[Raja]

I think it's an excellent piece of music. I'm just tired of seeing it everywhere and if affected my enjoyment of that scene, and I suppose I thought Mazin would make more original choices.

Edited February 2 by Raja

[Calibandar]

17 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

So i am reading online this latest episode, the third, has been getting near universal "likes" while running a longer than normal 72 minutes.

The writer said the original take was a full 2 hours before they (HBO execs) cut the run time down to appease the stuffed suits (HBO execs) that seem to always step on art.

Anywho my point being theres a 2 hour version of the episode that HBO denied the public from seeing. The writer feels that longer uncut version was even more compelling and emotional than what the hacks allowed us to see.

This is an age old problem, if your not sure what im implying i would recommend people see the mini series "The Offer", which is the backstory about making The Godfather.

Gives us the whole uncut version you HBO nitwits (on the corporate side).

Seconding The Offer which was an amazing show that I watched a few weeks ago.

I hope HBO will at some point release the much longer version of this episode, that would be tremendous to see.

What a total kick ass episode this was. Bill was such a great character, really wish they hadnt killed him off.

[grozeng]

On 2/1/2023 at 12:26 PM, Heartofice said:

My hope is that her character traits are more bravado covering up an inner fear. I suspect that will be what will happen, and I hope it does.

I think that is going to be it.  I liked how she was amazed about the car and had no idea what a seatbelt was.  I thought that was well done.

I also like the sets.  I never played the game, but walking into the building at the end of second episode just felt like one of those video game scenes where you enter a room and get the sweeping view of a room. The landscape around Boston is not very true to life, but really looks nice.

I am also watching last season of Fear the walking dead right now (just because I watched it for so long and just want to end it), and it really is bad and pales in comparison to what HBO did with this show.

[dbunting]

11 hours ago, grozeng said:

I think that is going to be it.  I liked how she was amazed about the car and had no idea what a seatbelt was.  I thought that was well done.

I also like the sets.  I never played the game, but walking into the building at the end of second episode just felt like one of those video game scenes where you enter a room and get the sweeping view of a room. The landscape around Boston is not very true to life, but really looks nice.

I am also watching last season of Fear the walking dead right now (just because I watched it for so long and just want to end it), and it really is bad and pales in comparison to what HBO did with this show.

Agree with that building scene feel.  I have been free from watching Fear of the..  for a couple years now, just got to be tedious to watch.

[Cas Stark]

The third ep was by far the best, but is it me, Bella Ramsay seems not very good in this.

[IFR]

Pretty good episode, probably the weakest so far for me. I thought the scenes of bonding between Joel and Ellie were terrific, but the bandits are extremely underwhelming, particularly the leader. The show had been building up these bands of outlaws as this terrifying menace, but everytime Kathleen appeared I expected her to serve everyone brownies and ask if people have taken their vitamins.

Maybe that is what the show was going for - the banality of evil. But it is pretty hard to take this group seriously from my perspective as an audience member. It's really hard to believe that someone like Kathleen could end up as a leader to this group. She wouldn't last a minute among the gang from Blood Meridian.

Aside from that problem, it was entertaining.

Edited February 6 by IFR

[psynetik123]

My god, is Bella Ramsey really the best they could find to play Ellie?

She's a terrible actress.

[psynetik123]

Oh and by the way, Jeffrey Pierce, the actor who played Tommy in the video game, also appeared in this episode.

He plays the lieutenant with the white beard who works with Kathleen.

[Ran]

I like Ramsey, she has a somewhat thankless role as generic plucky teenager (from what I've seen of the game, Joel is far, far more nuanced and interesting than Ellie in the first The Last of Us game as well)),  but like @IFR I think this episode with her bonding more with Joel and getting just a bit more depth to her worked very well.

Speaking of Joel, he really screwed up by not going over the route through Kansas City before actually venturing in there. He could have both figured out what he was going to do and also get Ellie on board with helping him navigate. Maybe had he done so they could have just gunned it and gotten out of there.

I admit Kathleen being in charge seems .... curious, but I guess we don't have enough background to understand how that came to be.

Edited February 6 by Ran

[Corvinus85]

7 hours ago, IFR said:

Pretty good episode, probably the weakest so far for me. I thought the scenes of bonding between Joel and Ellie were terrific, but the bandits are extremely underwhelming, particularly the leader. The show had been building up these bands of outlaws as this terrifying menace, but everytime Kathleen appeared I expected her to serve everyone brownies and ask if people have taken their vitamins.

Maybe that is what the show was going for - the banality of evil. But it is pretty hard to take this group seriously from my perspective as an audience member. It's really hard to believe that someone like Kathleen could end up as a leader to this group. She wouldn't last a minute among the gang from Blood Meridian.

Aside from that problem, it was entertaining.

I thought it was clear that those people had recently rebelled against FEDRA and took them down, and were now busy hunting collaborators. Not quite your usual heinous bandits.