Last of us HBO

[Mean salto]

i don't know anything about the video game and was skeptical before this series came out on HBO, but i love everyone of these thus far--especially the Bill and Frank episode. i also love the idea that perhaps the writers/director wanted to give glimpses of Bill to entice the average wing-nut "survivalists" into watching the episode (brief previews of "survivalist" fantasies and all) and then slowly revealed that beautifully romantic story one step at a time. i can just picture some overtly masculine prepper really starting to question shit when the Linda Ronstadt music book comes out, and then losing his shit over the first kiss and embrace between Bill and Frank.

the old couple at the beginning of this new episode are great too--wish there would have been more of them.

i think it's cool how they're giving us these fleeting/passing glimpses into people's lives like Bill and Frank and that old couple--even if it is ostensibly just to explain how Joel ends up with a battery. and narratively, talk about a mechanism that would let this show go on indefinitely...

Possibly overly optimistic. I can imagine super preppers being like "yeah see where he messed up is he did all that gay shit. I say shoot on sight! Survival of the fittest..... Yadda yadda..... Blah blah....(usual nutjob stuff)"

[Abyss1]

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i don't know anything about the video game and was skeptical before this series came out on HBO, but i love everyone of these thus far--especially the Bill and Frank episode. i also love the idea that perhaps the writers/director wanted to give glimpses of Bill to entice the average wing-nut "survivalists" into watching the episode (brief previews of "survivalist" fantasies and all) and then slowly revealed that beautifully romantic story one step at a time. i can just picture some overtly masculine prepper really starting to question shit when the Linda Ronstadt music book comes out, and then losing his shit over the first kiss and embrace between Bill and Frank.

the old couple at the beginning of this new episode are great too--wish there would have been more of them.

i think it's cool how they're giving us these fleeting/passing glimpses into people's lives like Bill and Frank and that old couple--even if it is ostensibly just to explain how Joel ends up with a battery. and narratively, talk about a mechanism that would let this show go on indefinitely...

[close]

Possibly overly optimistic. I can imagine super preppers being like "yeah see where he messed up is he did all that gay shit. I say shoot on sight! Survival of the fittest..... Yadda yadda..... Blah blah....(usual nutjob stuff)"

Pim Tool sells prepper kits on his podcast so I decided to check out what he says(this guys over power level 1000 kook)... and its sounds pretty homophobic to me...he says in the beginning he turns gay after bill meets frank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYtX08fmnYc

[Deputy Wendell]

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i don't know anything about the video game and was skeptical before this series came out on HBO, but i love everyone of these thus far--especially the Bill and Frank episode. i also love the idea that perhaps the writers/director wanted to give glimpses of Bill to entice the average wing-nut "survivalists" into watching the episode (brief previews of "survivalist" fantasies and all) and then slowly revealed that beautifully romantic story one step at a time. i can just picture some overtly masculine prepper really starting to question shit when the Linda Ronstadt music book comes out, and then losing his shit over the first kiss and embrace between Bill and Frank.

the old couple at the beginning of this new episode are great too--wish there would have been more of them.

i think it's cool how they're giving us these fleeting/passing glimpses into people's lives like Bill and Frank and that old couple--even if it is ostensibly just to explain how Joel ends up with a battery. and narratively, talk about a mechanism that would let this show go on indefinitely...

[close]

Possibly overly optimistic. I can imagine super preppers being like "yeah see where he messed up is he did all that gay shit. I say shoot on sight! Survival of the fittest..... Yadda yadda..... Blah blah....(usual nutjob stuff)"

[funeral_tuxedo]

Sunday night's episode was the best one since 3 (RIP Bob / Frank)

[doublesteveburger]

Episode 8 has been the biggest rollercoaster ride since the opening episode. Holy hell, I was audibly rooting then immediately almost brought to tears the next second. I hope they don't botch the season finale though I can't see how they would given how every episode has been a damn home-run in my opinion.

[Newphone]

Episode 8 has been the biggest rollercoaster ride since the opening episode. Holy hell, I was audibly rooting then immediately almost brought to tears the next second. I hope they don't botch the season finale though I can't see how they would given how every episode has been a damn home-run in my opinion.

Oh the end of the story’s the best part…

[doublesteveburger]

my dumbass ruined it for myself by having videogamedunkey on as background noise one day, i guess i wasn't paying attention and came to when he was discussing something specific/prominent that's yet to happen in the series adaptation


regardless, i'm in it for the ride and just wanna watch everything play out

[ApesPissed]

my dumbass ruined it for myself by having videogamedunkey on as background noise one day, i guess i wasn't paying attention and came to when he was discussing something specific/prominent that's yet to happen in the series adaptation


regardless, i'm in it for the ride and just wanna watch everything play out

Shoutout dunkey

[ohtight]

last episode was my favorite part of the game and i was hyped on how they adapted it. i feel like the 2nd game has so much more to it that i'm having a hard time imagining it being only 1 season. the season finale is gonna make me cry 100%.

[Atiba Applebum]

Last episode was definitely my favorite bc it felt like it deviated enough from the video game to be unique.    Last few eps felt too similar to me, not that they weren’t enjoyable

[Abyss1]

Bella's acting was phenomenal on recent episode....goddamn kids a beast

[yghartsyrt]

Last episode was definitely my favorite bc it felt like it deviated enough from the video game to be unique.    Last few eps felt too similar to me, not that they weren’t enjoyable

Exactly the opposite here. I enjoyed that episode in the game a lot. The tv episode felt a little bit too much in terms of additional details. The way the introduced David had a lot more impact on me in the game. The way they seem to bond together over fighting of a horse of infected and how abruptly everything went south for Ellie. The reveal how those people really are was way more shocking in the game.
But anyways. Still an cool episode. Can’t wait for the finale. And for the second season

[Newphone]

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Last episode was definitely my favorite bc it felt like it deviated enough from the video game to be unique.    Last few eps felt too similar to me, not that they weren’t enjoyable

[close]

Exactly the opposite here. I enjoyed that episode in the game a lot. The tv episode felt a little bit too much in terms of additional details. The way the introduced David had a lot more impact on me in the game. The way they seem to bond together over fighting of a horse of infected and how abruptly everything went south for Ellie. The reveal how those people really are was way more shocking in the game.
But anyways. Still an cool episode. Can’t wait for the finale. And for the second season

I laughed aloud when the woman was like “what type of meat is this” and he looks hella sus and says “venison” and basically Homer Simpson’s backward out of the scene. 

[Atiba Applebum]

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Last episode was definitely my favorite bc it felt like it deviated enough from the video game to be unique.    Last few eps felt too similar to me, not that they weren’t enjoyable

[close]

Exactly the opposite here. I enjoyed that episode in the game a lot. The tv episode felt a little bit too much in terms of additional details. The way the introduced David had a lot more impact on me in the game. The way they seem to bond together over fighting of a horse of infected and how abruptly everything went south for Ellie. The reveal how those people really are was way more shocking in the game.
But anyways. Still an cool episode. Can’t wait for the finale. And for the second season

Ah maybe it’s just that I didn’t remember that scene as vividly as the mall DLC (must have had to replay it a bunch to pop a trophy)

[Mean salto]

Hmmmm I guess I give it a B. In a vacuum I would of scored higher and I would recommend it over a lot of other shows but with the amount of zombie/society breakdown series and movies over the last 10ish years I don't think it offered much new.
Keeping in mind I never played the game so I'm only going off the show itself and naturally can't get as much out of it as everyone else.

Now it's done how happy are the game fans with it all?


Is this how a Zelda tv show would go? As in each episode is a new town and villain then they just move on but then people would be like oh but in the game dodongo is so much more important....

[ApesPissed]

Season finale felt rushed. Liked the season as a whole but certainly didn’t have the impact that game did. I’ll watch season 2 but I won’t be counting down the days.

[Abyss1]

Hmmmm I guess I give it a B. In a vacuum I would of scored higher and I would recommend it over a lot of other shows but with the amount of zombie/society breakdown series and movies over the last 10ish years I don't think it offered much new.
Keeping in mind I never played the game so I'm only going off the show itself and naturally can't get as much out of it as everyone else.

Now it's done how happy are the game fans with it all?


Is this how a Zelda tv show would go? As in each episode is a new town and villain then they just move on but then people would be like oh but in the game dodongo is so much more important....

Im giving it an A purely on camera shots and overall cinematography.   I like how much they were able to pull off without special effects.  I want to play the game now

[Atiba Applebum]

That was the OG ellie (voice) as the pregnant mom in the beginning I believe.   Also was a huge fixture of 90s tv

[Lenny the Fatface]

Season finale felt rushed. Liked the season as a whole but certainly didn’t have the impact that game did. I’ll watch season 2 but I won’t be counting down the days.

I agree, the video game ending felt better. Think they didn’t make show Ellie altruistic enough to be bummed out that the procedure didn’t go through. The actress portrayed her season one experiences as too life affirming to want to be sacrificial.

The problem with the cure in the Last of Us universe is that the logistics behind manufacturing and distributing it are so unrealistic that Joel’s point of view always sound like the correct one when you really sit down and think about it. You can gloss over the semantics in the videogame because of the pace, but on Television everyone is going to sound stupid in the upcoming seasons whenever they talk about the missed opportunity.

The show is doing a better job of making the Ellie from part 2 a more natural character evolution though. Instead of being fake Juno in one game then fake Beatrix Kiddo in the next game. 

[Mean salto]

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Season finale felt rushed. Liked the season as a whole but certainly didn’t have the impact that game did. I’ll watch season 2 but I won’t be counting down the days.

[close]

I agree, the video game ending felt better. Think they didn’t make show Ellie altruistic enough to be bummed out that the procedure didn’t go through. The actress portrayed her season one experiences as too life affirming to want to be sacrificial.

The problem with the cure in the Last of Us universe is that the logistics behind manufacturing and distributing it are so unrealistic that Joel’s point of view always sound like the correct one when you really sit down and think about it. You can gloss over the semantics in the videogame because of the pace, but on Television everyone is going to sound stupid in the upcoming seasons whenever they talk about the missed opportunity.

The show is doing a better job of making the Ellie from part 2 a more natural character evolution though. Instead of being fake Juno in one game then fake Beatrix Kiddo in the next game.

I was thinking the same thing but figured I must have just forgotten some detail from an early episode. Like you make a vaccine but then how do you get it to all the hidden groups of bandits or hostile towns without them just killing you and then there's still the 99% of the earth's population that are violent monsters to deal with even if they can't infect you anymore. Or will it just kill them all somehow? I guess once again it's best just not to think about it and just go along for the ride

[doublesteveburger]

I second what y'all are saying about this finale feeling rushed. It felt a bit anticlimactic. Despite knowing what was going to happen I was still hoping to be at the edge of my seat along with the ride... but it all happened so quickly I didn't even have time to process the impact of Elle's would-be fate.

The birth scene was both depressing and beautiful alike.


For the game players - how impactful was it when playing the game? Did you see that coming sort of? Or was it a slap in the face?


Despite all of that I loved the series and I'll be on board for season 2.

[SHARPSHOOTER]

The game is much better. The show felt rushed and they spent an entire episode on a gay couple for whatever reason. The Ellie mall episode was good but it was in game DLC for a reason , it only added context to the story , not progress

[Mean salto]

The game is much better. The show felt rushed and they spent an entire episode on a gay couple for whatever reason. The Ellie mall episode was good but it was in game DLC for a reason , it only added context to the story , not progress

Unfortunately there is a formula many series follow now which is strong opener, ok second, best episode third and then six, seven or eight (depending on how long the series is) a flashback episode. Last of us did it exactly.
Thinking about the rushedness of the show basically each episode of lof would be a full season of walking dead so while I kind of appreciate not having to sit thru sixteen hours for the same result i personally never felt any suspense or tension as any challenge was dealt with in like five mins

[Atiba Applebum]

I don’t get how it was rushed.    You’re removing about 30 hours of gameplay and going with the bare bones story here which it is hewing fairly close to.

Season 1 is the journey to the hospital.  It’s about time they got there.  every episode that preceded this told you that new locations aren’t going to be the setting for long. 

I thought it was one of the better episodes and actually loved that it ended on the first fissure in the relationship between the two of them.     There was never going to be a 30 minute action set piece. 

[Lenny the Fatface]

Not rushed in plot, but rushed in character development. For the season finale to work, it has to be believable that Joel is really attached to Ellie, and that Ellie is okay with sacrificing herself to science. They didn’t really land that.

While you’re correct the show covered all the story beats of the game, the small talk during the gameplay is where the characters form their bond and that part wasn’t translated well. Joel still found her annoying as fuck two episodes ago, and was incapacitated for most of the previous episode. So murder spree doesn’t really hit the same.

[Atiba Applebum]

Not rushed in plot, but rushed in character development. For the season finale to work, it has to be believable that Joel is really attached to Ellie, and that Ellie is okay with sacrificing herself to science. They didn’t really land that.

While you’re correct the show covered all the story beats of the game, the small talk during the gameplay is where the characters form their bond and that part wasn’t translated well. Joel still found her annoying as fuck two episodes ago, and was incapacitated for most of the previous episode. So murder spree doesn’t really hit the same.

I didn’t quite gather Ellie knew she would be sacrificing herself - maybe that’s on me, but I thought they were skirting the issue with her like they did with Joel when he came to.   Ellie knew she was going under, but was it clear to her the extent of the surgery?   Again, I might have missed something.   

I suppose there could have been more to seal that bond, but I saw the rift healing here and there and especially after Ellie nursed Joel back to life and he basically tried to go on a rampage to rescue her last episode sealed their bond to me.   

I do love that this treats Joel’s body count completely different than a video game would.   A human being killing all those people really does register different than when a character does it.   I know that’s obvious, but the deaths video game characters rack up is rarely addressed in the video game narrative.   

[SHARPSHOOTER]

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Not rushed in plot, but rushed in character development. For the season finale to work, it has to be believable that Joel is really attached to Ellie, and that Ellie is okay with sacrificing herself to science. They didn’t really land that.

While you’re correct the show covered all the story beats of the game, the small talk during the gameplay is where the characters form their bond and that part wasn’t translated well. Joel still found her annoying as fuck two episodes ago, and was incapacitated for most of the previous episode. So murder spree doesn’t really hit the same.

[close]

I didn’t quite gather Ellie knew she would be sacrificing herself - maybe that’s on me, but I thought they were skirting the issue with her like they did with Joel when he came to.   Ellie knew she was going under, but was it clear to her the extent of the surgery?   Again, I might have missed something.   

I suppose there could have been more to seal that bond, but I saw the rift healing here and there and especially after Ellie nursed Joel back to life and he basically tried to go on a rampage to rescue her last episode sealed their bond to me.   

I do love that this treats Joel’s body count completely different than a video game would.   A human being killing all those people really does register different than when a character does it.   I know that’s obvious, but the deaths video game characters rack up is rarely addressed in the video game narrative.

That’s what I liked about the final episodes action sequence. From what I remember there wasn’t much sound so it was like he was numb to it all.

[Atiba Applebum]

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Not rushed in plot, but rushed in character development. For the season finale to work, it has to be believable that Joel is really attached to Ellie, and that Ellie is okay with sacrificing herself to science. They didn’t really land that.

While you’re correct the show covered all the story beats of the game, the small talk during the gameplay is where the characters form their bond and that part wasn’t translated well. Joel still found her annoying as fuck two episodes ago, and was incapacitated for most of the previous episode. So murder spree doesn’t really hit the same.

[close]

I didn’t quite gather Ellie knew she would be sacrificing herself - maybe that’s on me, but I thought they were skirting the issue with her like they did with Joel when he came to.   Ellie knew she was going under, but was it clear to her the extent of the surgery?   Again, I might have missed something.   

I suppose there could have been more to seal that bond, but I saw the rift healing here and there and especially after Ellie nursed Joel back to life and he basically tried to go on a rampage to rescue her last episode sealed their bond to me.   

I do love that this treats Joel’s body count completely different than a video game would.   A human being killing all those people really does register different than when a character does it.   I know that’s obvious, but the deaths video game characters rack up is rarely addressed in the video game narrative.

[close]

That’s what I liked about the final episodes action sequence. From what I remember there wasn’t much sound so it was like he was numb to it all.

and those shots on the "bad guys" as they lay their bleeding out.

There are a handful of movies that have the older guy won't sacrifice the child in his care for the benefit of humanity trope.   All of them seem to justify the protagonist's actions.   This is the first time where it feels like that guy is judged for that selfish action.   That he couldn't bare to lose his "daughter" again, despite whether that would fix the world or not and that creeping doubt in Ellie's eyes as she asked about it was really good.


Side note - I've been into the series only so much.  It felt way too indebted to the video game for me (i rolled my eyes really hard at the giraffe scene hah) but did a good job of adapting a video game into this medium.   But for all that, the second half of this episode (as well as the last episode) really got to me.   

[Abyss1]

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Not rushed in plot, but rushed in character development. For the season finale to work, it has to be believable that Joel is really attached to Ellie, and that Ellie is okay with sacrificing herself to science. They didn’t really land that.

While you’re correct the show covered all the story beats of the game, the small talk during the gameplay is where the characters form their bond and that part wasn’t translated well. Joel still found her annoying as fuck two episodes ago, and was incapacitated for most of the previous episode. So murder spree doesn’t really hit the same.

[close]

I didn’t quite gather Ellie knew she would be sacrificing herself - maybe that’s on me, but I thought they were skirting the issue with her like they did with Joel when he came to.   Ellie knew she was going under, but was it clear to her the extent of the surgery?   Again, I might have missed something.   

I suppose there could have been more to seal that bond, but I saw the rift healing here and there and especially after Ellie nursed Joel back to life and he basically tried to go on a rampage to rescue her last episode sealed their bond to me.   

I do love that this treats Joel’s body count completely different than a video game would.   A human being killing all those people really does register different than when a character does it.   I know that’s obvious, but the deaths video game characters rack up is rarely addressed in the video game narrative.

[close]

That’s what I liked about the final episodes action sequence. From what I remember there wasn’t much sound so it was like he was numb to it all.

[close]

and those shots on the "bad guys" as they lay their bleeding out.

There are a handful of movies that have the older guy won't sacrifice the child in his care for the benefit of humanity trope.   All of them seem to justify the protagonist's actions.   This is the first time where it feels like that guy is judged for that selfish action.   That he couldn't bare to lose his "daughter" again, despite whether that would fix the world or not and that creeping doubt in Ellie's eyes as she asked about it was really good.


Side note - I've been into the series only so much.  It felt way too indebted to the video game for me (i rolled my eyes really hard at the giraffe scene hah) but did a good job of adapting a video game into this medium.   But for all that, the second half of this episode (as well as the last episode) really got to me.

I thought Joel was foreshadowing when he told Ellie how he didn't shoot fast enough and doesn't know why he hesitated when his daughter died... For me it was like Joel had his moment of truth and he knew he couldn't trust the firefly's and didn't hesitate. Brilliant how he was just crack shooting all of the fireflys, I loved the how they captured that final act (guy gets girl back), they brought it back to episode 1 nicely.