The Last of Us - HBO *Spoilers* See warning in post #1

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120202629#Comment_120202629

If you're not regularly reading video game chatter online, it's important to emphasise how demented the conversation around TLOU Part II was before its release and immediately after. I'm not even a fan of the second game (it's a bit of a mess) but it was one of the wildest and most hyperbolic public responses I've ever encountered about a single piece of media.

It's also important to note that insane online chatter rarely reflects actual reality and the way most normal people consume media, though 😂

Can we stop even hinting at TLOU2? There's zero need to mention it, in this early TV thread

I'm not even going into how easy it would be to guess the story point people are talking about

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120202893#Comment_120202893

Fully agree. There's some really great story beats to come in season 1 but the TLOU 2 chat is playing a fine line.

johnny_ultimate

I only mention TLOU2 in the context of bad faith culture warriors flooding user review sites with bad reviews, very often for reasons completely unrelated to the actual quality of the plot, writing etc… Legitimate criticism is another thing entirely and should only be encouraged, but as we’ve seen with this episode the vast majority of the most vitriolic responses are just culture war or homophobic bullshit. There is alas simply some precedence for some of the nonsense seen online in the last few days - but again, it’s entirely an internet bubble thing and not at all reflective of how most people are watching and talking about the show :)

naughtyboy

I have not played any games but gave this a go.

I think its not scary enough , it's actually kinda boring. The girl character is played by a bad actress and also is played way too brave for a girl never out among the city before.

Ellie is annoying and Joel a pushover which is mad considering he is supposed to be an ex solider who has done bad things

The third episode, sure show how the 2 boys got to know each other but the two main characters should have met the 2 lads who in the end did indeed turn them away from their door. See that would have been the sucker punch, the world is now a very different place

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195572#Comment_120195572

Clue: it's nothing to do with the deviation.

Look at the number of '1' scores on IMDB. Look at the male vs female scores. That's all you need to know.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14500888/ratings/?ref_=tt_ov_rt

\

CastorTroy

So if the flour was the cause, does that mean only those on gluten free diets survived?

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203709#Comment_120203709

Until they were infected by the infected.

beertons

I never played the game, didn't know what to expect. Not usually my kind of programme, but I like it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203709#Comment_120203709

To be fair they're used to surviving, and not living, anyway.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203660#Comment_120203660

I think the girl is terrific ! Would in no way describe her as a bad actress. Funny how perceptions differ. Also think Pedro Pascal is very good.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203660#Comment_120203660

Ellie's not so much brave, it's more a case of oppositional defiance. She largely rejects authoritive figures. As well as that, she's grown up her whole life in the quarantine zone. While she's definitely liable to be scared when in danger, most of the time she's displaying wonder and interest in life outside the QZ and what life was like before the outbreak.

naughtyboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204583#Comment_120204583

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204721#Comment_120204721

Dreadful acting , she shows no fear of the monsters or even being alone with a man who is meant to be a bad man

She was raised in the city where its a tough life. but that does not harden you to meeting real monsters but should school you in how to behave with being around dangerous men who are still alive 20 years after the fall of society

Stupid stuff and this show is just another walking dead

Tony EH

If you think Bella Ramsey's acting is "dreadful", then you haven't the first clue what dreadful acting is.

naughtyboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204967#Comment_120204967

It's dreadful acting and she was very poor in game of thrones too

Her American accent is as bad as the buck playing Joel's texan accent is or should I say was as it has completely disappeared by episode 3

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204953#Comment_120204953

Why would she be afraid of Joel? Marlene (who Ellie trusts) told her to go with Joel and that Joel would protect her. Joel then attacked the guard to help save her (Ellie obviously doesn't know about Joel's whole history). Joel protected Ellie against the Clickers (where Ellie was definitely scared). She was also definitely trepidatious when approaching the infected trapped in rubble in the basement, but the infected was trapped and unable to move.

She's only known Joel a few days, but he's also given her no real reason to be afraid of him.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204976#Comment_120204976

Sure thing boss.

😉

naughtyboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120205053#Comment_120205053

She was held hostage and than handed over to a random couple to get out of the city and the lady partner of the couple dies and she should not be afraid of being alone with a man who has managed to survive since the fall of society .

Wtf? The viewing audience and Ellie should not be able to trust Joel or anyone on this show. That is what this show should be out

TheIrishGrover

OK. Finally got around to watching episode 3. Fantastic episode. Thought Frank and Bill's story was beautifully done. Really fleshed out Bill's character (Who was barely in the game). I know Nick Offerman is mainly a deadpan comedian (And a surprising amount of voice work... Well, I suppose he has the awesome voice) but I thought that was great. And I don't know Murray Bartlett at all. Was also very good (Although the old age makeup was a bit poor). It was a total deviation but I have no problem with that. As I mentioned previously, sometimes "Standalone" episodes can be great and interesting - Some can be terrible cheap "Bottle" episodes but thankfully this is the former. Four amazing performances. Ramsey basically channeling Ellie. Her whole "I'm not offering The Sorries" bit at the start and Joel's sort-of-apology by simply pausing.

Again, I can understand that this may look like a fairly generic Zombie show (Said so before it came out) but, as an adaptation, it so far has not set a foot wrong (IMHO of course). Does it bring any new dynamic thinking to the Zombie genre? Honestly, no. But I'll take 9 episodes of this over 177 episodes of The Walking Dead... NOT including its multiple spinoffs.

And look, we ALL knew this episode was going to get review-bombed online (Thankfully not here. Everybody is entitled to their opinions and some didn't like it. Fair enough. IN GENERAL, this thread has been quite civil.). It was COMPLETELY predictable, pathetic, and boring (The woke-outraged REALLY need a new trick). Review-bombs should almost be worn as a badge of honour. Well, they should simply be ignored but, if you are going to acknowledge them then at least think "Well, we must be doing SOMETHING right"

So yeah, really liked that one

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120205073#Comment_120205073

But that is The Walking Dead, not this show. The Walking Dead is where every group who survived is full of murderers, cannibals, raiders, dictators, even weird junkyard people... TWD is the type of show where Joel and Ellie would have been turned away by Bill & Frank. The world of TWD is one where the infection hit so hard and fast that there were no attempts at governments creating things like quarantine zones etc. In TWD, you can't trust anyone. It became part of why I hated the show the longer it went on. They'd meet a new group, fight the group, some of the group would actually be good guys, they'd join the main cast the next season to replace other cast who were killed off, then they'd meet the next group who are actually evil.... rinse and repeat...

In TLOU, quarantine zones were set up. There's a form of government control (FEDRA) set up to run them. There are bad guys out in the wild, sure. But the idea that no one who has survived for 20 years can't be trusted simply because they've survived so long is ridiculous. Most people would have spent most of the 20 years in the quarantine zones. Ellie knows Joel was a smuggler, doesn't know much else other than that. She trusted Marlene because Marlene knew her mother. Ellie knows that given her immunity to the virus, Marlene needs to get her to her other groups so they can do tests on her to find out how or why she's immune. Marlene told her to go with Joel and Tess, and that Marlene trusts them. Joel and Tess haven't given Ellie any reason for her not to trust them. Tess literally died while transporting Ellie, and Joel has saved her from the guard and then the Clickers.

But in TLOU, just because people aren't in the QZ doesn't mean they're bad or dangerous. The QZ has awful conditions, bad jobs and minimal rations. Some people just didn't want to live in the QZs. But it doesn't mean they become like Negan's or the Governor's groups in TWD. They're still just people. You have bad groups like the raiders who attacked Bill and Frank's compound, but you also have good people like Bill and Frank.

Trust is definitely hard to earn. Bill barely even trusted Joel after about 12 years. Ellie may not even completely trust Joel, but he's risked his life to save her twice, and hasn't done anything to hurt her, and Marlene trusted him and she trusts Marlene. But if it became a show where no one trusts anyone, everyone who survived in the world this long is probably a bad guy etc, then the show may as well just be another spin-off of The Walking Dead, and we got about 20 seasons worth of those shows with more coming. TLOU is doing something different.

Slydice

So.. eh.. this is still the thread for The Last of Us yeah? 🙂

4: That was good. Just breezed right by for me. Felt like it has returned closer to the gamestyle feeling that episode 2 had.

I laughed on the third.

Spoiler Warning

The last pun I mean. I dunno. The writer just built it up just right in the episode and I felt like laughing along with them 🙂

Definitely.. the sitting inside the window looking out for the street to get quiet. That felt like a bit of a mini scene in a game.

Anyway.. so Kansas Fedra got rebelled against and taken over I'm guessing.

The new folks seem to have given up on protecting the place and that .. crater is it?.. that looks worrying. Not sure if it means there's cordyceps .. vines are they?.. under it or if there's some big creature/swarm to be revealed.

All the supplies gone! One wrong move I guess. Ellie getting to learn what Joel means about people though.

I'm guessing this guy and son? is the Henry they were talking about. Maybe going to help/join Joel and Ellie to get outta town. I wondered about the fedex van in the basement.

Song from the end credits was good, link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ZMHUtIeNA

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204953#Comment_120204953

What you are describing is bad directing, not acting. Do you think an actor decides how their character reacts, or the director? Who should push the story on?

It shows me you haven't a breeze what "bad acting" is.

Vicxas

Spoiler Warning

What’s bubbling in the floor? Fungus veins or a bloater? Will they have the different variations in the tv series I wonder.

Zero-Cool

Episode 5 is out Friday night instead of Sunday night this week.

Flaneur OBrien

Obviously not as good as last week, but I'm enjoying the development of Joel and Ellie.

Saying that I hope it starts to stray from TWD, "evil gang with a few good people" territory.

I much prefer the mutants being the bad guys.

johnny_ultimate

A much more straightforward episode this week, which isn’t surprising. Good timing at least that the next episode is coming a little sooner as it was very much ‘part one’ of a (presumably) two parter, unlike the other episodes to date. A fairly straightforward adaptation of the game material, albeit with an added character or two and a few tweaks so it makes a bit more sense in this format. A lot of it’s from the game, but good to see the relationship between Ellie and Joel warming over the course of this episode in a way that felt convincing.

Disappointed there was no ‘cold open’ this week. I’m still a fan of that approach to add some extra texture to the world, and while its absence last week was understandable, it’s a shame they skipped it this week as well. Curious if it’s something they’ll return to now - you’d imagine they might skip it next week too if they’re continuing on with the story and characters established here.

AMKC

Just watching the 4th episode now. I must say it's much better than the last 3 episodes. The last episode was a nice episode but that was it. It was nothing special. This episode is actually funny in parts lol.

Interesting ending to it.

Evade

I enjoyed that episode. I was complaining about the lack of puns last week too although thinking about it now they didn't show up until the city in the game either. The ambush was a lot less gruesome this time and I hope the "lets get the raiders side of the story" isn't a trend, it'll get old fast and will detract from something later IMO.

I still can't see it being finished in 5 episodes without cutting something significant.

CastorTroy

Most unbelievable part of that episode is how was Ellie sleeping like she was in the jeep and no sign of drool? 😀

Galwayguy35

Watched the first episode last night, was looking forward to it with all the hype surrounding this series but thought it was average at best.