The Last of Us (2023; HBO) Thread II

Thread I

Love, love, L❤️VING this show.

Those of you fretting about miscasting need to just forget it, retard yourselves and get aboard the Joel Train.

Or… just stop watching, STFU, and enjoy MILF Manor.

This show is someone’s vision. If you don’t like it, fine. But do t critiwue it like you could have done it better. That’s like letting Darfur Orphan provide input on a family dinner recipe. ANY recipe.

Does the show deserve a second thread?

Why not? The first one is close to reaching 600 posts.

Thank heavens! Those long threads often crash my mobile browser when I try to post.

Now, if I could only think of a witty comment, so that I don’t waste this position at the top of the thread…

Can video game Joel go up in video game Bill?

So when does the season end? March? April?

Such fun.

And so diversely proud.

The season finale is March 12th on Oscar night.

Hate the writing, pace, and the ugly bitch who can't act, but was cast because of a pre-existing HBO contract. She has the bulbous forehead of a dinosaur and the small, beady eyes of a goblin. Wow, British people are ugly!

[quote]Does the show deserve a second thread?

"Deserve?" Really?

There are 4 more episodes left and the first thread maxed out. Is that reason enough for you or should we put it to a vote? Maybe we could ration responses so everyone only posts once every other episode. Then your precious eyes won't be marred by too many TLOU threads in existence.

Go choke on a cordyceps, cunt.

I finally broke down and watched the first five episodes last night. I was really trying to hold out until the season was complete and I could binge the whole thing but I couldn't wait. Now I have to wait.

I agree with most everyone - this is a really good show. I haven't played video games since Asteroids back in the Dark Ages and I'm not a big post-apocalyptic fan but this was totally engrossing. I couldn't stop watching it.

Nick Offerman was amazing, Murray Bartlett was amazing, Episode Three was amazing, the whole damn show is amazing. Turn on the waterworks. The Viper and Lady Mormont are both fucking fantastic. Stop bitching about Lady Mormont, you evil cunts, she's doing a good job against some very experienced actors and she's holding her own and doing well. She's playing a 14 year old - a kid who's never been outside of the Protected Zone or whatever they call it.

The woman who played Tess was wonderful (sorry, I don't know her name) her "death kiss" had me covering my eyes and screeching "No!" and "Light it up! LIGHT IT UP!" The rest of the supporting cast are very strong too. The actress who played Kathleen was terrific, so crazy and toxic with a suburban frau voice and tone. Perfect evil with that touch of banality that is the reality and the really frightening part of evil.

Something to watch while I patiently wait for another Pedro Pascal show, The Mandalorian on March first. Happily, that show releases the whole season at once for lazy, spoiled people who have no patience anymore, like me. Yay.

Man, I hope Pedro Pascal and Aaron Rodgers meet, fall madly in love at first sight, and marry each other!

(My one and last attempt at erotic fan fiction.)

Episode 6-Joel and Ellie make it to Wyoming and meet up with Tommy.

I often wonder how Millie Bobby Brown would've played Ellie

I didn't read the first thread but has anyone pointed out that Diego Luna, to my knowledge, is NOT in this show?

Yes, that was established in the first thread.

Probably even more annoyingly r15.

So it got repeated in the OP of the second thread?

No r12, the Mandalorian releases one episode a week, just like this but on Wednesday.

"my blood is medicine"

Ma'am I need some receipts. The little boy lying in a pool of blood is still a bit skeptical.

R14 I'm looking forward to seeing Graham Greene and Elaine Miles.

There's a dog in the first episode. We haven't seen another animal since. Did the infected eat all the animals and birds? Are there clicker ponies? Will we see a coyote with bulbous warts? Stay tuned!

Btw, anyone have an answer?

Don't worry, a clicker hummingbird will fly up your ass.

Here I keep thinking the two main characters will get traveling companions but they all die. That huge mushroom man was scary as fuck. He must have been a linebacker in real life. I was actually surprised the evil frau died so soon. I guess KC is gone.

WTF r20?

I was late to the Mandalorian so both seasons were complete, as well as Boba Fett, before I ever saw it.

Fuck. I hate slow-release television. I watch a handful of shows a year, just give them to me.

Pedro’s boyfriend is visiting him in NY.

But according to that one person from the first thread who says he "works in the business," he has never heard any rumors of Pedro being gay!

R28, that must have been a Pedro frau fangirl.

R28 My bad, his platonic bestie is visiting him for Valentine’s Day so that they can bro out.

Maybe the fungus needs a human internal temperature to proliferate.

I really wasn't familiar with Pascal. And watching "The Mandolorian", as I have, doesn't make one familiar with Pascal.

I developed a huge crush on the character of Joel in TLOU and became curious about Pascal.

I did a deep dive into the interviews and promotions he's done and are posted on Youtube. For the first time in decades, I watched SNL, only because he was hosting.

The ping of Pascal's gayness that emitted from my TV was so strong, it shattered my Princess House Champagne flutes.

Homosexual. Case Closed.

Bravo, Detective Fancy Spew. And we can tell you're gay from the cum dripping out of your ass from the homeless man from last night.

Whatever, r33.

Next episode we get to see Pedro on a horse! 🐎

Daddy!😍

Watched him on Seth Meyers last night. All the clues were there. He plays such dangerous studs, but he can turn into a giggling homo on a dime.

Ending was epic, can't believe they all died though.

The actor that plays Bloater is ripped as fuck.

I wanna know if the military really bombed Jakarta. And if they rally thought this was an option. I really enjoyed those scenes with the older scientist. I wish these shows would focus more on the time before the apocalypse and the transition into chaos. The Walking Dead also almost entirely skipped the initial outbreak, but it's so interesting to see society slowly collapse.

I looked at r39’s pic and thought “Go, Go Power Rangers” 🎶

The opening of ep 1 was fantastic, but the quarantine zone sucks does it get better?

[quote] I wish these shows would focus more on the time before the apocalypse and the transition into chaos. The Walking Dead also almost entirely skipped the initial outbreak, but it's so interesting to see society slowly collapse.

The Walking Dead spin-off "Fear The Walking Dead" was supposed to show that. I guess it's just too expensive. Because just as the zombie outbreak started, the did a time-jump of a few weeks to the point where a neighborhood was fenced in by the military. And then the military buggered out. And ... we never actually got to see much of the actual collapse EVEN THOUGH THAT WAS WHAT WAS PROMISED.

I was so annoyed I gave up on the show after season one.

^right. And then it basically turned into TWD: Boat Edition and then TWD: The Farm Part II and then…. Still good imo, but they could have done more. I made it halfway through season three.

R23 When they're driving around in Ep 4 they briefly show a field full of buffalo, but I was wondering about domestic animals as well. Any pups in that world would probably be emaciated and scavenging for food, so I'm glad they're just bypassing that.

It's why it does not make sense to think too hard about the fictional worlds in shows like this.

Because dogs, with their superior hearing and sense of smell could likely have been trained to guard against clickers or at least sniff them out.

Answering my own question from earlier- on early Reddit boards about the game, people claimed that each strain of cordyceps was unique to its host species, so that a human cordyceps could not infect another mammal, the same way ant cordyceps did not infect other insects

Then where are all the dogs? Rabbits?

Are you kidding me? Who's taking care of bison after 20 years?

The bison take care of themselves. Domestated animals would probably go pretty quick.

Fried Spam and cubed potatoes with lots of Cheddar melted in the mix.

Oops wrong thread LOL

I think part of the reason we have so many questions is that they never really explain how the virus(?) or the fungus is transmitted. It didn't make much sense in TWD that you're infected after a bite, but having Walker blood all over you apparently wasn't a problem. It's also unrealistic that the fungus is transmitted via food and bites, but being in a house full of fungus, touching, inhaling etc. isn't a problem.

I guess we'll see if wildlife is affected when they get to Wyoming. Wyoming should be crowded with dangerous animals after 20+ years. Wolves, bears, coyotes. I hope they saved some bullets.

R23 animals and birds? Didn't know bird are separate organisms from animals.

Birds are dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs were animals too

The dead coming back to life...is...impossible. Being infected with a fungus that destroys your brain is at least in a vague realm of possibility.

I worried about that bird flu now.

But if my numbers up my numbers up. We're all going to die someday anyway like the billions before us.

I honestly don’t get the hype on this show. Each episode has been slow as fuck, dull and been there don’t that vibes. We’ve all seen this a million times before and the little girl is annoying.

Who's forcing you to watch?

That sounds so good r51!

The last two episodes have the vibe of a show on its fifth season jumping the shark for the third time.

So I'm supposed to believe that it was three months before she admitted what she did with the blood?

And then she just does it all casually like that? Matter of factly? And he doesn't really react?

That didn't seem realistic.

This episode went a long way in selling me on the Joel and Ellie dynamic.

What? No surprise anal?

R58, I don't even know what to say to you. Other than I don't agree with ANYTHING you posted.

Marilyn from Northern Exposure! I'd know that voice and face anywhere, she was my favorite character.

WTF are the monkeys surviving on? On second thought, don't tell me.

Well, who or what is going to appear out of nowhere to help Joel?

Joel better not die.

I can help!

I'm not saying Joel isn't going to die eventually, but aren't there at least 3 more episodes left in this season?

And, there's also a 2nd season that I heard is probably already in the can.

Isn't it a little early to kill Joel off?

Also, the writing in the last 2 or 3 episodes has lost some zip.

But I did enjoy one thing in #6.

That town where Tommy lives had a creepy, almost too good to be true atmosphere to it. Like a western Norman Rockwell painting crossed with a too perfect town from an old Twilight Zone episode.

I wish they gave Miles and Graham Greene more to do.

Was the really Marilyn from Northern Exposure? I thought so too but thought unlikely.

The second season is not in the can. It was only ordered a few weeks ago

r74, to clarify my statement about season 2 being in the can already I was repeating what I heard on the John Campea YouTube channel that said that it should surprise no one that HBO had ordered a 2nd season and that the decision was probably made a while back.

They also said that it’s common for several episodes including those intended for a future season to be produced at the same time as a season1

I’m only 3/4 in the the last episode, but I’m distracted by the horse. Isn’t that too much weight for a horse? Joel + Ellie + their stuff must be 350 pounds.

Also - why was the choice Tommy OR Joel? Why not go back to Joel’s original assumption and have both go?

I rolled my eyes internally when they arrived at the commune. It seemed like something that had been done 100x. Still not happy with the choice, but given that they made the choice to have the hackneyed perfect on the surface lacking freedom oasis, the ambiguity was pulled off pretty well. Especially the character of Tommy’s wife.

I appreciate the effort made to develop the characters, but I feel like they do some really stupid stuff. Like Joel telling Ellie she doesn’t know what loss is. 1. She’s a 14 year-old who is all alone. She clearly knows loss. 2. The episode opened with “3 months later.” WTF have they been talking about for 3 months? It’s plausible that Joel would never have mentioned his daughter, but they would know the rest of each other’s backstories. Also, what, exactly, did Joel do that was so bad? Tough times call for tough choices, but if he really was evil beyond what was required to survive, then when and why did he change? Because people don’t usually change that much. They might get stronger, so they can resist temptation to do bad. But they don’t go from being bad to good.

Pedro clinched his Emmy nomination with that tearful speech to Tommy

I just got to “Everybody loved contractors.” I take back everything bad I said. Well, not everything. That should have been said sometime in the previous 3 months.

- R76

Tara from "True Blood"!!!

These last two episodes haven't been quite as compelling, but they're still pretty good. I like this show, but damn, is it ever bleak.

The old couple are listed for 2 episodes in season 1. I'm just wondering how Joel and Ellie hook up with them again.

Maybe they save Joel. Marilyn probably picked up a lot of medical stuff from when she was working with that doctor.

The old native couple is eaten by the cannibal raiders

Interesting they're watching Neil Simon's "The Goodbye Girl" for movie night on the prairie.

Aileen Quinn was quite the sassy girl sidekick for the day, but True Grit would have been more on the nose.

Aileen Quinn? You mean Quinn Cummings?

The town is Jackson Wy. Chichi Cowboy.

I think they’re hinting at Ellie’s backstory, but I guess it’ll be a big reveal later. I’m just hoping that the secret of the Fireflies/Ellie/whatever is creative. I mean…we’ve already established that everyone is a scumbag in some way or another. There doesn’t seem to be much room for an appreciable “twist”.

So is Joel dead?

No, if it follows the game.

Flyers, that stockade around “Jackson Hole” is straight out of “The Passage.”

R86 Ugh! Yes! Those two, both the worst child acting has ever had to endure and ever intertwining names to confuse us further!

I'm guessing the mutilated bodies mentioned by the Indian couple are the aftermath of medical experimentation. Joel and the Ellie will probably meet the researchers in SLC where they will no doubt want to dissect her alive. I haven't played the game but I'm hoping the story manages to surprise me in the end.

If Joel’s mission in the game/show is to deliver Ellie to the Firefly scientists, why did he want to leave her with his brother? Was that just him freaking out about his emotional connection with Ellie, along with his brother’s announcement that he was having a baby? And where the hell was he thinking of going without her anyway. His brother’s little commune seemed like the best thing we’ve seen on the show so far, even if the entertainment is a screening of the awful 70s film The Goodbye Girl.

What would make sense is for Ellie to remain safe in Jackson while someone else brings the scientists to her or, if she must travel, for someone to contact Firefly to send a small army to Jackson protect her

So Marilyn has two Joels in her life.

[quote] Tara from "True Blood"!!!

So relieved she didn’t bring up “Eggs” 🥚!

I just realized that there was not one zombie in this episode. Weird watching a show about a zombie apocalypse and there're hardly ever any zombies around. Is the makeup for the mushroom zombies too expensive? We already know that people are the real threat in a post apocalyptic world from TWD, but it would nice to actually see one of those infected from time to time and get more info on the zombies in this world and some background information.

Really wasn't feeling Gabriel Luna's Clairol hair in this episode. Talk about overkill. I still think he's a better actor than Diego, however.

Maybe fungus zombies don’t like the cold, they’re hothouse zombies.

R94 The Goodbye Girl is not an awful film, you ass.

You just know one of those kids watching The Goodbye girl was a babygay who was later traumatized to find out that Marsha Mason lost the Oscar

The art direction is beautiful - all those shots of the scenery and Joel and Ellie in silhouette.

Yes, R103. I agree that the scenery in this episode was beautiful.

I'm glad Joel got new boots and Ellie a coat. They should have been given a couple of down sleeping bags.

Feels like the commune might have secret Mormon-style beliefs.

That commune was too perfect.

And the cinematography seemed to be adjusted to make the town brighter and colorful, like a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Why did they spend dangerous, exhausting weeks on the road to get to a safe compound with food, water, heat, electricity, community and family, and then LEAVE THE NEXT DAY with no solid plan, spare provisions, and on one horse?

I swear that woman from True Blood hasn't aged a day...

It's so weird for the life of me I thought she died from alcohol related disease but it was LaFayette.

Why would you continue to watch a show you thought was that awful? (There are several posters on here who seem to think it is the worst thing they've ever seen, yet are still watching five episodes in.)

R109 Wasn’t she a vampire?

[quote]That commune was too perfect.

True. But the dark underside is that you had to "follow the rules." I don't know anything about the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if this were explored more next season.

Why was Ellie being such an obnoxious cunt in this past episode?

[r114] I’m guessing lack of toilet paper in the woods for the last few months and probably wiping with leaves covered in poisoned Ivy

R114, she wasn't? I mean, she was rightfully upset that the closest thing she had to a friend or family was wanting to ditch her, YET AGAIN, and she had every right to be pissed off.

I dislike Tommy so much, Joel took care of him even before the outbreak, taking him out of jail repeatedly. Tommy dished Joel for the Fireflies and later for the "Xmas and bacon" shady community, without even trying to contact him, telling his wife he was some innocent guy forced to do awful things by his brother. Joel risked his life just to make sure he was OK.

Joel isn't dying.

Why was the community wasting energy and light bulbs by having the string lights lit up during the day?

If they are hooked up to the hydroelectric process at the dam, it isn't exactly like they are going to run out of electricity, especially when they are the only ones using it.

[quote] My bad, his platonic bestie is visiting him for Valentine’s Day so that they can bro out.

Their itinerary includes wrestling in tighty-whities, deep tissue oil massage, and a home-cooked candlelit rabbit dinner with a vintage beaujolais.

Tommy is a horrible character. I was hoping they'd kill him off next.

Surely Tommy is secretly evil or something. He’s indeed pretty damn boring if not.

It's the boring breeders who'll repopulate the planet, who else.

Any nudes of that stunt man in the bloater suit - Adam Basil? I require verificatia of sizemeat.

Is Adam Basil biracial? He reminds me of Vin Diesel.

For the first time, I feel the chemistry between Joel and Ellie that feels TV show worthy.

It was cute when, after he told her his dream was to be singer and yet he refused to sing, she said that if she's going to save the fucking world? He's gonna sing. He says: Fair enough.

Is it just me or is this show kinda bland and tame? Especially considering it is an HBO show?

I don't know about bland or tame, but the very clear video game structure is getting boring. And then we went here and explored and did a task, and then we went here and explored and did a task!

I'm going to finish the season because I'm still curious how it ends, but I'm out for Season 2.

Steve Reeves did choose to go for the “S,” and it stands for “Stunning!”

Are we coming for Ellie yet with the whole precocious kid thing?

I kind of want Ellie to become the fungus queen or something, instead of creating a cure. That’d be bleak.

R130 Ugh, sorry wrong thread….

r128 That's my main issue with it -- this chasm between how (over)praised it is and what I'm actually seeing on the screen. It's a quality show, but I'm not getting any insights into the nature of humanity, as I did with Station 11. Solid entertainment, just not prestige TV, not by a long shot.

I'll still tune in next season, supposedly it'll wrap up in two seasons anyway.

[quote] It's why it does not make sense to think too hard about the fictional worlds in shows like this.

If you do that, you realize none of them are actually possible.

There are over 400 nuclear power plants operating in the world right now. Four HUNDRED. When the power grid goes down, they stop being cooled. They quickly melt down. That’s 400 Chernobyls, except Chernobyl itself received MASSIVE emergency containment efforts. Imagine Chernobyl without any containment — and then multiply that by four fucking hundred.

Sorry apoc enthusiasts, but when the power goes down, this planet will be continuously bombarded by unsurvivable levels of radiation. For a very long time. That will take care of the Cordyceps issue and the everything else issue too.

A planet-wide nuclear apocalypse? I like the way you’re thinking, Bootsy/R135!

Not a very interesting fantasy story though, r136. Everything is poisoned by radiation and dies. The end.

And if the power goes, *this WILL happen*

The closing music isn't especially inspired. We'd have Depeche Mode's Never Let Me Down Again in both original and Euro cafe versions. Maybe one is supposed to reflect the other but when you in New Order it's like I scored this from 1988 in high school.

R137, no, that's not actually how things work. Though it's certainly possible some of them will have catastrophic failures, the way most are designed, they won't go all Chernobyl.

To see why you don’t just cast a someone who’s a dead ringer for a character, here’s a dead ringer for Ellie.

She’s a beautiful girl, and cute too, and she looks uncannily like the game character, but … can she act? Probably not.

Ok I see we can’t link to TikTok. Here’s an IG link.

Craig Mazin was born in 1971 so this is our teenage music but

I rerewatched Station Eleven this week, also HBO, and found it just as good as the first time and the book. For those waiting between episodes of this I highly recommend it, as it starts out similarly with a young girl and adult man thrown together by circumstances trying to survive in a world gone to shit. The emotional payoff at the end will completely destroy you. The same team will be producing series of the author’s other two books that act as standalone siblings to Station Eleven.

You’re wrong, sadly, r139, because physics is what it is. It’s magical thinking like yours that got us in this mess in the first place. Any nuclear power plant not continuously cooled WILL melt down.

R138 - in the original (with David Gahan, a guy, singing) is in relation to Joel taking care of Ellie. But in Sunday's episode, the cover version has a female lead singer because now Ellie has to take care of Joel.

OK R144. I'll allow

Here we are —

The best thing about the show is the art direction. Truly stunning and I can't even imagine how they filmed it. Calgary and Alberta probably shouldn't put it on tourist brochures.

I agree with the above poster about Station Eleven. The series was just as moving as this one and the emotional pay-off was gut wrenching at the end.

R148 As I watched the final episode at 3:30 AM I was unprepared to start making guttural noises I couldn’t control and openly sobbing at the key moment, it just hit so hard even knowing it was coming. I think it was more moving then the first time I saw it.

Am I the only one who thinks Station Eleven sucked?

I loved Station Eleven. It really should have gotten more attention.

R134 No way will they wrap it up in two seasons. It's a hit show. If Americans are good at anything, it's milking the cow dry.

I hated Station Eleven.

Why does every thread about a popular show here have to include 20% of posters who hate the show and announce they'll stop watching soon or already have stopped watching it? Is this contractually obligated in some way? What's the deal with that, and what are those posters getting from it?

It's EVERY thread about a popular show and it's SO tiresome by now. I see multiple threads on shows I don't watch and I just scroll past them no problem. Why are there so many who can't do that too? Is it mental illness?

Because trolls HAVE TO shit on anything that's popular on a gay site. Anything.

Season 3 might cover the forbidden love between infected and human.

I really hope they give Joel a different ending! Going out the way he did in the game would be too hard to watch!

Why are people so intolerant of dissent? Anything worth liking is going to have some haters. Deal.

R140 she looks like Eliot page.

I loved the opening of this week’s episode with Graham Greene and the woman. I loved her line delivery. She just didn’t give a shit.

“You gave them soup?”

…”yeaaah”

Was Joel having heart trouble in this episode? Twice he grabbed his chest. Is that how he eventually dies? Heart attack?

r147 referred to "art direction".

Is there a difference between set design and art direction?

[quote] Twice he grabbed his chest. Is that how he eventually dies? Heart attack?

The writer explains that this is a panic attack. Joel is terrified that he can't competently protect Ellie anymore This is a call back to Episode 3's theme "I was never afraid until you showed up." (Bill to Frank.)

The writer also explains that the film "The Goodbye Girl" that Ellie watches was chosen for its themes as well. He says that movie is as much about Richard Dreyfuss learning to be a father to Marsha Mason's young daughter as it is a film about courting Marsha Mason. So more Bill and Ellie theme stuff.

At link the writers/showrunners discuss for almost an hour what they are trying to accomplish in episode 6 .

[quote] I rerewatched Station Eleven this week, also HBO, and found it just as good as the first time and the book.

🎼 Danielle D. In Station Eleven was all of us! 🎶

I thought Station 11 started out great - just exceptional - and then got really bad. The acting group was unappealing on so many levels. And that swimsuit was weird. Could not get past it. Even if you had some strange reason for wanting to wear a swimsuit as everyday clothing, it would have held up for about two weeks of constant wear. I didn’t want any of them to survive.

not to even mention the yeast factory a swimsuit would be

new from Vulture

[quote]Why are people so intolerant of dissent?

Dissent is fine. If you don't like the show, you're welcome to come and say why. What I don't care for are the attacks on people who do like the show. Often you're called ignorant, low-brow, sheep following the crowd, etc.

[quote]For the first time, I feel the chemistry between Joel and Ellie that feels TV show worthy.

Because now he is friendlier towards her. That's the arc of his character. They actually had chemistry throughout. It was just different.

What swimsuit? I watched Station Eleven but don't remember a swimsuit.

That Vulture article said a whole lot of nothing. Criticism is really in the toilet.

R168, the main character (Kirsten) wore a swimsuit in her scenes as adult.

[quote] What I don't care for are the attacks on people who do like the show. Often you're called ignorant, low-brow, sheep following the crowd, etc.

Where in this thread does that happen?

It doesn’t.

You just don’t like people disagreeing with your opinion. Nobody’s “attacking” you. They’re just having a different take on a tv show. They can say they’re going to stop watching if they want to. People can have a discussion about plot holes, inconsistent characters, inexplicable decisions made by characters/writers, lack of relatable characters, actors they don’t like, etc. They're not shitting all over you, as you imagine.

We have no duty to affirm your opinions. And there’s a reason why the term “hate watch” exists. Some people do it. They’re allowed to. Some people watch a show for a drinking game, like “take a shot every time someone in Downton Abbey says ‘times are changing and we’ve got to change with the times’.” Or every time a writer/showrunner declares “it’s all about trust” on whatever podcast they’re doing.

I don't know if I'm bored out of my mind with his episode or an edge from all the built-up tension and suspense.

I’m going with the former, R172.

Perhaps the set the bar of excellence too high in the first three or four episodes and I'm spoiled, but I've been half-disappointed with the last 2 or 3 episodes.

Perhaps they ^

That was not good. And because it wasn’t good the stupid interview at the end was especially annoying. Just tell me a story.

You people are complaint about young Queer love?

“Get in loser, were going shopping!”

This was a filler episode. The story of Ellie and her friend could've been told in ten or fifteen minutes. I didn't think the arcade scene was going to end.

Baby dykes. I love it.

That girl sister actress to Zendaya should have been studying her for acting lessons, she was very flat with little affect.

She’s better on Euphoria.

It was another slow episode so I wasn’t paying full attention. Was the parasite creature the same guy who overdosed on liquor and pills? Did he do that because he knew he was infected?

Also - how the hell did Ellie get Joel all the way to that house on her own?

I hate teenage girls. They both deserved a kick in the cuntbone.

Boooooring. I almost skipped it, and probably should have.

After sleeping on it, I’m almost angry about how bad the show has gotten. The first two episodes had great flashbacks. The gay episode was arguably out of place and diverged from the storyline but it was a great standalone show, so fine.

The recent episodes are garbage. Last night’s gay episode #2 was the worst so far. It somehow managed to be boring and anxiety producing at the same time, but mostly boring. You knew exactly what was going to happen and just had to wait 55 minutes for the girls to acknowledge their feelings and for the monster to get them. But it was cheap suspense. Did anything surprising happen at all? It was just a long wait for an unrewarding finish.

They are clearly trying to drag it out for more episodes. The prior episode ended with a cliffhanger and all they did last night was add another mini-cliffhanger (what happens to Ellie’s girlfriend?) without doing anything to resolve questions about Joel’s fate.. We learned nothing new. And the world building sucked. Having everything in the mall working because electrify was accidentally restored but nobody can see it was ridiculous. And why would Ellie’s girlfriend be storing bombs there? Also, why were the two lesbians so shy they were acting at though it was 1990? They go to girl soldier school and were roommates, ffs.

So much hype and a great budget and it’s wasted.

The dreaded flashback episode. Had it on in the background, zoned out until the final couple of minutes, and still I was bored.

How has TV not invented a way to make flashback stuff more compelling by now?

[...]

I'm getting a little bored, too. The show doesn't have the momentum it had in the first few episodes.

I wish there were more flashbacks to the time before the collapse of society, like the doctor in Jakarta. That was much more interesting than watching Ellie play Mortal Kombat for 20 minutes.

[...]

Agree with the haters on Episode 7. The mall shit went on and on and on, with no scares and no surprises. And the whole thing took place as a moment while Ellie was looking for a needle and thread? Bullshit.

The Last of Us game creator, Neil Druckman, wrote episode 7 by himself, with no Craig Mazin assist. Maybe that matters.

The showrunners should have gained some valuable information/insight in this episode. Ellie (as played by Bella Ramsey) is a wonderful character with rough, irritating edges who needs Joel (Pedro Pascal) as a sparing partner to make it really work. That's got to scare them a bit about season 2, but they need to deal with it somehow. Good luck.

That young black actress was annoying and unconvincing until she got bit. Then her acting became much better. This episode was the weakest of the series by far.

Handmaids Tale has the same problem. Very few flashbacks of the early days of society collapse. Why is that always glossed over? Is it truly too scary and realistic to dramatize?

The showrunner has said he's not stretching the show past the game. So no Walking Dead, Handmaids Tale sad decline BS

Nobody's watching this show for babydyke drama. We want to see gross infected zombies wreaking havoc. Last night's episode was like some CW bullshit show for teenagers. They'd better get back on track.

They STILL didn't tell Ellie's backstory. They spent too much time playing in the mall. Wouldn't they attract attention from everything and everyone that's out to get them in a building that completely lights up and playing loud video games that could wake the dead? What happened after she got bitten? How did she survive? What happened to her friend, whom we are to guess was not immune? It was both too much and too little.

I've never played the game, nor will I, but I started off really enjoying TLOU up until the last couple of episodes.

I've gathered that the creators of the HBO series have really deviated from the game at certain points.

Is Joel going to be dead at the end of season 1?

If so, and unless they replace Pascal with another hunk of rough-edged, appealing, handsome, that's going to pose problems for me in deciding whether to see this through another season.

Real the fate of Joel—see r193

I'm guessing that Ellie's girlfriend starts to behave infected and Ellie has to kill her.

Remember when she told Joel she killed before?

R198 Malls are like casinos and are designed as such to completely cordon off the real world so you lose track and the sense of time and stay as long as possible. Most malls have no exterior windows (though sometimes skylights) for this reason and her friend kind of said as much when she questioned it.

That R201, would have been a dynamic and interesting episode and a great ending. Unless they're "saving it", stretching it out for yet another episode. The problem is that by parsing up the most dramatic moments it weakens the linear emotional throughline. Too many flashbacks tend to fracture the narrative. The rave reviews for Episode 3 seem proof of that logic. What-ever, showrunners. Get back to writer's room.

So, are we to surmise if her girlfriend survives too, that lesbians are the chosen people and can’t develop fungicitis and will be the ones to inherit the earth??? Does this have something to do with yeast infections?

Well a good cane can be used as a weapon in a pinch.

R179 Most people said the same thing about the episode 3. That it was a filler episode and that the story of Bill and Frank could've been told in ten or fifteen minutes

R197 What about old gay couple drama?

If there’s no gay fungi love story couple stand alone episode during this show I’m going to be deeply disappointed!

This last episode was lame. Even though I’m gay, another gay love story so soon after episode 3 felt very heavy-handed. The show is losing momentum and I’m finding myself unable to care about what happens to the characters at this point.

If Ellie has to kill her girlfriend, so far, blacks and gays who have contact with Joel and Ellie don't survive too well, do they?

Bill, Frank, Sam, Henry, Ellie's girlfriend...

R210 Neither do straight and white people.

Why are there no infected animals?

PETA put Vagisli on all the animals. Thank god.

r206 but the difference there was a compelling story, great writing and two top-notch actors in Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman.

R214 I think the two teen girl actresses did a great job.

Like someone said, I just wanted to see them make out and fight a zombie quick to go back to Joel's cliffhanger. It felt so unnecessarily slow, for how long they were dancing, 10 mins?

[quote]So, are we to surmise if her girlfriend survives too, that lesbians are the chosen people and can’t develop fungicitis and will be the ones to inherit the earth???

No, you complete and total moron, R204. Her girlfriend died. Obviously. She's lost everything too, like Joel. No wonder you don't like the episodes, you don't UNDERSTAND them.

I'm really shocked at reading all these replies... impatient, immature, with a complete inability to appreciate character development and nuance. Or how this decision to leave and go back to FEDRA or stay mirrors the decision she's making in the present to leave or stay with Joel.

I guess if it's not all car chases, explosions, and evil zombies ripping people apart, you can't be bothers? How pathetic.

This episode was beautiful, moving, tense, and heart-breaking.

What we really need to sbruce up the joint is DL fave Lori Petty coming over from Station Eleven and performing their weird voodoo Shakespeare Wheel shit! That will save Joel from his wounds!

Oooh. Look at Miss Thing at r217. So much better than you.

Ok, r217.

This is r172 and r174.

You've persuaded me to re-watch episode 7.

Gee, some of y’all don’t understand facetiousness at all!

[quote] Handmaids Tale has the same problem. Very few flashbacks of the early days of society collapse. Why is that always glossed over? Is it truly too scary and realistic to dramatize?

I think it’s hard to come up with a plausible timeline and even harder to film one. Fear the Walking Dead actually did a pretty decent job in the first 2 or 3 episodes.

They are glossing over much more than what is typical in this series, though. And it’s a shame, because the episode with Joel’s daughter and the Jakarta scenes have been the best parts so far. We don’t know how many people are dead. What the survivors are eating or even exactly how the fungus is transmitted. And I think I’m tired of waiting to find out. I’ll watch the rest of it eventually when it’s all available. That way I can fast forward through the episodes like last night’s.

[quote]This episode was beautiful, moving, tense, and heart-breaking.

It was boring as shit. Nobody's watching this show for two babydykes to take a trip to the mall and play Mortal Kombat.

The most recent episode was pretty slow, but Bella Ramsey's been a really solid actor thus far. I thought she played infatuation really well and she nailed the reaction to Henry's suicide in that other episode.

Are the incel fanboys losing their shit at another gay themed episode? Both this one and the Murray Bartlett episodes have the lowest ratings on IMDB.

Even though this episode wasn’t my favorite it was still better than the previous one with the brother.

More action, less boring flashbacks about doomed love. It's like the writers don't really want to write a zombie show?

[quote] More action, less boring flashbacks about doomed love. It's like the writers don't really want to write a zombie show?

As I said in the last thread, the showrunners are trying their damndest to be the anti-The Walking Dead. Also, I feel like they're desperately trying to garner Emmys. I hate the pandering, and it almost feels like they don't even respect or like the zombie genre.

But you see it’s not about [italic] zombies. [/italic] It’s about [italic] people [/italic] . It’s not the zombies you need to fear. [italic] It’s the people! [/italic] it’s about [italic] relationships! [/italic]

I really loved the actors who played Henry and Sam. I wish they had gotten longer story arcs. I think Henry’s actor is going to be famous. He was awesome.

I think the whole cast is excellent. The only one I felt was miscast was Melanie, and I usually really like her.

so ellie's friend had to be black?

She self identified as black in the game r230

And a gay. A black gay. And a lesbo. A black gay lesbo. And a nepo baby. A black gay lesbo nepo baby. And a stan. A black gay lesbo nepo baby stan.

R229 I wholeheartedly agree with you about Lamar Johnson. He was very compelling and charismatic.

R231 but she wasnt

Lamar Johnson is a black gay lesbo nepo baby stan.

R234 and DOSNT matter what was in the game, sweetheart , joel's daughter was white and blonde, bit she was turned into afro american , for obvious reasons. But Henry and Sam stayed black

Total cop out that it all turned out to be a dream.

Am I missing something? What turned out to be a dream?

R238, the whole narrative. A bit of a let down. These series are becoming so predictable, a bit like the Twin Peaks reboot. Bombarde the viewers with weirdness and crazy storylines but then don't back them up with anything other than "it was a dream" punchline.

A dream? Gurl, it was a flashback 😂

I would have gone into the stores to see if there was anything left that I needed.

R241 Yeah I think a changing room montage really would've given the show a lift.

Ellie walked past the stores without even looking at them. As if.

R243 Er, she's a lesbian.

She was looking for Canes 'R' Us.

She was looking for Canes 'R' Us.

[...]

[...]

Isn't Bella Ramsey a baby gay?

Is Ellie really a lesbian or a teenager in a single-sex environment with a crush?

She's going through a short 80 year phase.

This is not a show for Dataloungers.

Completely different aesthetic than the shows our Eldergays tend to like.

So chorus of hissing is no surprise though sticking around for 7 episodes even though you don't really like the show is surprising.

Hate watching?

Eldergay and his eldergay partner here are really enjoying TLOU. I'm not sure age is a factor.

I don't get the eldergay criticism either since I'm one myself and enjoy the show.

I was assuming that people who didn't like the show were gamers who were angry with the changes made in adapting it to TV.

"Eldergay" is used to troll. It's a pointless convention.

Apologies for tarring some of you with he "Eldergay" brush - it's easy to use it interchangeably with "Datalounger"

What I had meant is that a crowd that views Dynasty, Real Housewives and Facts of Life as the best TV has to offer are probably not going to be a big fans of TLOU. Similar to how Game of Thrones was never all that big with many DLers, eldergay or otherwise.

My Eldergay nitpick with this episode is that by 2003, most malls no longer had video arcades. Especially not with a "Joust" game.

Or a carousel.

All the details a side, the biggest problem about the episode that we KNEW. Showing her life before was engaging until the mall lighted up. They already told us that she lost everyone and was bitten there, so tic tac, just show us how that happened because Joel is dying.

The "scenes from a mall" episode could've been much better just not mention it before or at least showed how that ended, not just leaving another cliffhanger.

[bold]Ellie Is at the Center of Another Dynamite Episode of The Last of Us[/bold]

HBO's hit zombie drama starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey adapted the Left Behind DLC from the game

Was that dynamite that the friend had, it looked more like pipe bombs?

You know what Chekhov would have said about those pipe bombs.

The last episode was pretty boring. My question is if the other girl had been investigating and living in the mall how did she miss the mushroom guy? I also have a pet peeve about dumbass kids making noise and not being on watch in a situation like they were in.

R248 Most lesbians on tv shows and movies are femmes. So what are you talking about?

Is this game really short? Cause there have already been two episodes that people who play the game call fillers. The third one and the last one.

The first game has a nice length to it and never felt boring. For example, you got to spend far more time in the game with Sam, Henry, and Bill, where they help Joel and Ellie fight zombies and the soldiers.

The show has eliminated everything that makes a zombie series fun and entertaining because the showrunners do not want it to appear similar to The Walking Dead.

[...]

R257-You obviously never went to a mall in Paramus, N.J. Paramus Park had a carousel. Westfield Mall had arcade games. Willowbrook Mall had both.

Oak Park Mall in KC has a two story carousel.

Friends really was ahead of the game in that r267.

R267 I think you are the one living in the parallel universe. Name some of this unattractive and tomboyish lesbians in tv shows. Most are portrayed by feminine straight actresses. Also, what's wrong with tomboys? Most lesbians are tomboyish, so it would make sense that most lesbians in tv shows are tomboys.

Is the commune where Joel's brother lives a part of the same government, the one that was in charge in Boston, where Joel and Ellie were staying?

I also have not heard about the game it's based so I don't have any reference but so far I find it entertaining. Maybe not a must-see right away but it kept me interested with the characters and the storylines. B+

No r272

A better representation of the lesbian scene would have been if they both dressed in sexy lingerie, painted their nails a deep red, had a pillow fight and then tapped each other's snatches!

[quote]Is the commune where Joel's brother lives a part of the same government, the one that was in charge in Boston, where Joel and Ellie were staying?

This is a profoundly stupid question that proves you haven't been paying ANY attention at all. No. Of course not. Not even close. Jesus.

Now now r276

Obviously r272 is a mongoloid or in the grip of senile dementia

Why not both, R277? Don't limit yourself to either/or.

R276 I didn't. I was half asleep. It's boring show, what can I say

R277 "mongoloid or in the grip of senile dementia" Did you just time travel from 1950s? Also, was that supposed to be funny?

Mary ^

It's not a boring show. You're just a dull person.

^ that makes zero sense

R281 Hick

Faux sophisticate mary ^

^ ass scratching redneck

I’ve always wondered if I could stomach sewing someone up like Ellie did. It was a very realistic looking wound and they way she dug the needle in…yeesh. I sincerely hope I never have to.

R287 What you can do is start practicing on a piece of fruit first and then move on to cadavers until you build the confidence for alive humans.

My thoughts exactly.

Would that sewing of the wound really do much?

In the real world he'd die of infection.

Yeah, without antibiotics the tiniest scratch, in the apocalypse, would lead to sepsis or gangrene.

[quote] It was boring as shit. Nobody's watching this show for two babydykes to take a trip to the mall and play Mortal Kombat

Ditto.

But, on the other hand, watching nothing but people battle psycho, quasi-humans in repetitive, violent tropes awash with gore is middle-school level formulaic. The episode could have worked so much better with just a few, but brief and intense flashbacks of critical emotional moments between the two girls, and then interjecting their bonding by going back to Ellie and Joel in their current situation.

In fact, the entire episode would have stood on its own compressed into a short film. I would have enjoyed it so much better as 15-20 minute dystopian film of budding young love in an environment of virtual hopelessness.

R226 You’re watching the wrong show for the wrong reasons. As many posters have already stated, it isn’t about zombies and mutant fungi, but humanity’s regression in the wake of a global calamity.

[quote] Yeah, without antibiotics the tiniest scratch, in the apocalypse, would lead to sepsis or gangrene.

That makes no sense. You take antibiotics every time you get a scratch? I’ve never had to take antibiotics for a cut or scratch in my life (although anything requiring stitches would have been cleaned well, obviously).

But, yeah, taking four inches of a jagged old baseball bat might cause a real problem.

Not that Ellie is going to know how or have the equipment, but wouldn’t making basic antibiotics be fairly easy? Was it Pasteur who discovered penicillin on moldy breast? If you ingested than, would it have antibiotic properties?

Moldy bread.

Fungus on food is how it started.

Or at the very least I was thinking he might tell her to find a bottle of liquor as alcohol has antiseptic properties.

I believe that has been discussed R298 - that while it seemed irrelevant at the time, the lack of pancake batter, decision not to eat the oatmeal cookies, etc., made sense after the Jakarta episode

The reason people don't die from an infected cut like they did 100 years ago is because our food is laced with antibiotics.

"That makes no sense. You take antibiotics every time you get a scratch? I’ve never had to take antibiotics for a cut or scratch in my life (although anything requiring stitches would have been cleaned well, obviously)."

In the absence of clean water, you might want to take antibiotics!

Boiling water kills bacteria. They have clean water.

Who is this actor playing the cult leader?

Wow. He's creepily fantastic. I hate him.

What's scarier and more deadly than fungi zombies?

TLOU: Christians!

lol, r304,

R303 Scott Shepherd.

I want Bella Ramsay to win an Emmy. BTW HBO, the third episode of this first season gave EVERYONE the feels. More like that, please.

Ellie just hacked and killed "Joel" (the actor (Troy Baker) who plays Joel in the game is now playing one of the minister's minions who attacked her and then died when she attacked him.)

Thanks, r306.

He's very talented.

Ok, between r306 and r308 now I'm all kattywampus.

What's the name of the actor who played the minister/bad guy/cult leader?

Scott Shepard or Troy Baker?

The cult leader was not Troy Baker. Troy Baker played a minion of the leader, not the leader.

One more episode to go. Academy Awards or TLOU next Sunday night? Oscars win! Don't worry HBO, I will record.

I’d love to know what went on behind the scenes of this show. Because I don’t think I’ve seen a show with promise go off the rails so quickly before.

Last night’s episode was just one cliche after another. Needing antibiotics, the group out of food, the cultish leader, getting captured, and the completely not shocking cannibalism. The people responsible for “when are we going to bury him?” and “what is this?…..venison” and the minion’s reluctance to dig into the stew should be fired.

Every episode since 2 has been 99% a detour from the story. Episode 3 was a good detour, but the rest not so much and this one was the worst. We’ve learned almost nothing about the world they live in. Everybody loved the beginning of the first episode and the Jakarta scenes. That’s what people like about apocalyptic shows. Sure, you can show the hero’s journey is an episodic format, that’s not enough by itself.

And WTF was with the clicking noise when Ellie was hunting the deer? Did I imagine it or were they playing the sound the zombies make?

I’m seeing more of Cormac McCathy’s The Road in each episode, enough that he could possibly sue for theft of intellectual property.

I'm at the point now where I have no idea where they're headed. They ought to be trying to find their way back to Joel's brother and their compound and forget about trying to track down the scientists who were working on a cure, because it's pointless. If I were in charge, I would set up groups to go out and kill every single infected, and then monitor the remaining population closely. The only way to eradicate the virus is to destroy the spreaders.

[quote]They ought to be trying to find their way back to Joel's brother and their compound and forget about trying to track down the scientists who were working on a cure, because it's pointless.

What in the story of Joel and Ellie we've seen thus far would make them think finding a cure is pointless?

R313 is so damn tedious. The show is following the game's story. This episode wasn't a diversion from that at all. Some of it was word-for-word, scene-for-scene identical. The show hasn't gone "off the rails" at all. Every episode has been its own little brilliant masterpiece. The tension and horror in last night's episode was epic.

I have no idea how they resolve anything in one more episode. I imagine they finally reach their destination, the scientists in the Firefly group. Clearly there will be no happy ending since we know there's another season. But it's been a pretty damn good and wild ride so far.

I got a gay vibe from the evil pastor, I thought originally when he told Ellie “you’re like me” he meant they’re both gay. When it turned out he was a cho mo I was surprised. All around gross

I wish it was 10 episodes, but 9 doesn't sound impossible for an effective conclusion. And I know at least the broad strokes of the game's stories.

Also, this is not the Hero's Journey. Maybe there's cues taken from that model, but this is still not that kind of story. It interrogates (whether we agree or are happy with it or not) human behavior, it doesn't slay some dragon. And its perfectly on the rails for this. We're seeing more and more of who Joel and Ellie are, and what might help us understand who they'll be in the future.

If they get a full order, TLOU should get a max of 4 seasons, and that's only if they really stretch things out, adapt a third game if that releases within a few years, and they take 2-3 years to release each season.

I expect 2-3. 2 if the third game is up in the air and the show audience deflates. 3 if the third game happens soon enough and they're allowed to take their time to release the final season.

What's the point of all that character development when you kill off the characters at the end of each episode? Episode 7 was so boring. Had to turn off the sound after 15min and was only watching with one eye while reading news on Twitter. Why did they waste 45mins on teenagers playing videogames, dancing, soapy dialog and doing stupid shit? Ellie is a normal teenager who had a crush on a girl and likes to do stupid teenager stuff, but sadly she's still a teenager in a post apocalyptic world. Very insightful.

That episode was painful to watch and a waste of time.

I now the illumination is scarce after the apocalypse, but it's getting really hard to understand what's going on the dark scenes, specially when the previous one was on the snow.

I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the previous one, although that final "the fighting back is my favourite part" was so cringe, it nearly ruined it for me. We get it, the pastor is the devil incarnate, no need to hit us over the head with it.

That line was taken directly from the game.

The pastor wasn't just bad, the point was that he was all about façade and he was exhilarated he felt he could be his full self (with all its evil) with another person. He finally had someone who wasn't so meek. He'll rape girls, but he'll tell Ellie about how he loved raping girls, because he has a misguided belief that someone with her spirit could end up as depraved as him one day. (light spoilers, but Ellie does go down darkness, but she is still decidedly NOT like him)

R321 Because this season is Joel and Ellie's show. There's little to no ensemble here. That said, some characters do persist, like Tommy.

The flashback episode was an adaptation of an expansion to the first game, and it was about Ellie's early exposure and reaction to loss before even meeting Joel. There's an argument it should have been more like 0.5 an episode instead of nearly a whole episode, but it isn't like there wasn't worldbuilding, important relationships, and teases to Ellie's character there. It wasn't *useless*.

[quote]What's the point of all that character development when you kill off the characters at the end of each episode?

You probably loved the Walking Dead.

R315 is Michael “Brownie” formerly the director of FEMA, writing from the former New Orleans QZ, now overrun by mushroom zombies, alligators and the rusted out hulks of 2003 FEMA “temporary” trailers.

The season finale will be the shortest episode of the season, with a run time of 43 minutes.

Bella Ramsey has said that the season finale will be "massively divisive." It's not clear if she thinks it will be massively divisive because it follows the game or because it departs from the game. (Following the game's ending may be startling to people who are not at all familiar with the game.)

There are a lot of stupid, old and querulous people posting in this thread

Episode eight was ... OK. Better than the mall flashback. But still kind of lacking. The Kansas City episodes are turning out to be the peak of the season; every episode since then has lacked the same energy and momentum.

Will they air the season finale on Oscar night, the 12th? After all, Succession doesn't start until the 26th.

Yes R331. But you can watch TLOU anytime, so I'm watching the Oscars and then catch it Monday.

Episode 5, which premiered on the same night as the Grammy Awards, was available early on HBO Max. But I don't know if they'd do that with the finale.

I was so worried about the horse. And of course they had to kill it. Damn, why do they always have to do this.

Overall enjoyed episode 8, but there were a couple of lines/scenes that made me roll my eyes.

1) David says the winter has been very harsh. Nothing will grow. Yeah….that will happen in winter. 🙄

2) Note to self. When ambushing a meat cleaver holding asshole from behind, it’s always best to warn them by loudly yell “Yaaaaagh!!” 🙄

Also R313, I think the clicking sounds were supposed to be the buck scraping its rack on trees. Which would make me roll my eyes again as they only do that during rut, which is earlier in the year. By this time in winter, the antlers would have already fallen off.

R335 Are you some sort of a deer expert?

R336

One more eye rolling moment. Two guys dragged an at least 1,000 pound horse two miles? Good luck with that.

Not a deer expert R336, but grew up around deer and deer hunters.

I did like this episode overall, but at times ... well, hey, we're in a building that's burning to the ground. Guess it's time to rape you!

Another really good episode--it seems some posters have a hard time with series where each episode is sort of a self-contained story.

This is not a series for an audience that still pines for Dynasty and Laverne and Shirley.

Not a putdown of those shows or the people who like them, just this is a very different sensibility.

R339/R340

The Ap-Gay Alist-Play Oll-Tray is Ack-Bay

I grew up in a family of deer hunters, and thought it was ridiculous that they didn’t gut the deer and horse before dragging it back to the cult town. You cut down the weight of the carcass and it’s important to cool the meat and prevent spoiling and bacteria growth and contamination from internal decomposition. I’m in my 50s and a vegetarian since 16 and even I know that.

[quote]This is not a series for an audience that still pines for Dynasty and Laverne and Shirley.

That's a problem with some of the posters here. They can't get into the format of modern shows because they want modern shows to be like the formulaic shows they loved in the 70s and 80s.

[quote] There are a lot of stupid, old and querulous people posting in this thread

People disagree with me! Waah! Bad! Old! Stupid!

I'm old as fuck, and I think this is one of the best shows I've seen in a long time.

Yes, modern shows, much more sophisticated. Based on video games.

[quote] What's the point of all that character development when you kill off the characters at the end of each episode?

That’s actually what I like about the show the most. Keep the two main characters moving and encountering new dangers and with each episode (I like this about Poker Face too). Do not introduce a fucking Negan!

[quote] Yes, modern shows, much more sophisticated. Based on video games.

This poster is at least 70 years old.

R321 is just exceedingly tedious, and I really wish they'd stop posting. Their posts are so boring. So unimaginative. Why the fuck would anyone waste time typing such drivel?

Because r321is retarded.

Block him. He writes nothing of value.

R343 "I grew up in a family of deer hunters...a vegetarian since 16" They must have been thrilled when you broke the news to them.

R352 Actually, I have absolutely no problem with hunting, you’re taking responsibility of killing what you’re eating, unlike most people who are so removed from understanding what the experience the animals had to go through to arrive on your plate. When I was young and my father lost his job, for no fault of his own, there were stretches of time when the only food we had to eat was because he was a hunter. They are respectful of my choices as I am of theirs.

This show is such a slog. Are people actually enjoying it or just saying they are because it’s the show of the moment? It’s like misery porn to me. Am I the only one?

One thing I don’t get is that in video games your character dies and you reboot another life. Why haven’t we seen this where he or Ellie dies multiple times and they just reboot?

Why are all you Eldergays watching it if you don't like it?

[quote] This show is such a slog. Are people actually enjoying it or just saying they are because it’s the show of the moment? It’s like misery porn to me. Am I the only one?

I agree for the most part. I think the pilot was good and it got the critics to fawn all over the show but since then it's just proven to be another competently-made dystopia zombie series. And it really cannot get away from comparisons to Walking Dead. It's almost like an anthology series - each episode has new guest stars, most of whom end of being nasty people that our leads need to get away from. Sound familiar?

It's not a 'slog'... it's extremely well done, great acting, great cinematography, fascinating characters and story, it's VERY tense, and thoroughly entertaining.

I really, really don't understand the haters. Go watch your Michael Bay movies or whatever it takes to keep your ADHD brains interested, and leave the rest of us alone to enjoy this work of art.

R358 Well pardon me, Miss Precious.

I really enjoyed this last episode, mostly because of Bella Ramsey’s performance. I thought I was going to hate her after episode 1 but I understand now why they cast her. She’s really good.

This one did cross into The Walking Dead territory too much, but I didn’t mind it as a stand-alone episode. The actor playing the preacher was fantastic, and so much more effective than Jeffrey Dean Morgan on TWD.

When it started, I thought this will be the show to beat in the Emmys this Fall. Now, not so much.

I am enjoying this a lot. The mall episode was boring and predictable, last night was ,u h better, though that character was really over the top. Agree that Bella Ramsey is very good.

Having said all this i don’t see it as such a spectacular tv show. The Guardian has an episode by episode review that is gushing to the point of being embarrassing.

A lot of what occurs in a whole hour of this show could be covered in 5 minutes if it was a two hour movie.

Episode 8 drew the largest audience yet, 8.1 million viewers. I read it on MSN. Finale will air Sunday March 12th but oscar lovers can record it or watch later on HBOMAX.

[quote]Why are all you Eldergays watching it if you don't like it?

Why presume they're eldergays when more than a few above have said they enjoy the show?

R365 - I was about to ask the same thing. Everyone I know, including eldergays, love the show.

I'm an elder gay and I love this show. Since most of the complaints boil down to "this is boring" or "this is stupid," it doesn't sound like the haters are elder gays at all.

I haven't watched the Oscars since the BBM snub. I'll be watching TLOU live next Sunday.

SMH

It's not that ALL Eldergays hate the show

It's just that the people hissing about how they hate it are.

I'm enjoying it. Some of it is amazing. And some of the fan emoting is a little over the top is all.

As a longtime fan of many post-apocalyptic films and series, I appreciate the effort. But after two episodes, and about eight overdone tropes, I've had enough.

Seriously? There's just one 40-minute-ish episode left, and you've "had enough"?

[quote]It's just that the people hissing about how they hate it are.

And your proof for this? I think it's more confirmation bias.

[Quote]It's just that the people hissing about how they hate it are.

Why don't you fuck off and post on "The Last Of Us -Appreciation Thread" on FanForum if you can't handle an adult discussion about a TV show with different opinions, moron?

I bet you don't have many friends in real life if you try to silence everyone who doesn't agree with you. I doubt anyone enjoys your company with that horrible attitude.

Fuck off, you delicate flower.

I will be sure to add a trigger warning on my posts from now on R374

The doctors worry when your Hiss-o-meter™ goes over 8 and that was easily a 9.5

Take a Pamprin r374

[quote] I bet you don't have many friends in real life if you try to silence everyone who doesn't agree with you. I doubt anyone enjoys your company with that horrible attitude.

Fat! Stupid! Elderly! This show is the greatest thing on earth. It literally makes me cry buckets and I don’t mind admitting it. Because I have a heart and a soul and I’m not fat and old. You need to go back to watching Scooby Doo because you can’t handle this beautiful show about people going to a different place all the time and meeting new people, and then something really bad happens, but then our heroes pull through and go someplace else. With monsters in the background.. There’s never been anything like it before on tv. It’s not about the monsters. You fat ugly jealous hissing gays can’t get over how very new this concept is. It’s about people!!!!!’ Being people!!!

It’s not like there’s ever been a show before where the main characters are involved in a journey and come across different locales and people. Like a journey through the Old West, or in outer space, or Ancient Rome, or they’re an alien on earth, or the characters live in a world where the seasons are unpredictable, or someone who’s escaping from the law because they’ve been unjustly accused of murder and need to clear their name. Or they’re in danger from plants that shoot poison at them and then digest them.

R374 - Show us on the doll where the bad man touched you.

Insufferable troll. R377, R374. He's all over this site. Always hysterical and enraged.

A couple of beauties

[quote] you've "had enough"?

Yes, R372. Repeated and overused story devices seen in dozens of similar films and TV shows:

- hive-mind zombies

- the gruff hero haunted by familial loss

- the single immune one who can save humanity

- the chase scene in a cramped space

- the hardy colleague, fatally wounded or infected, who stays behind to hold off the zombies, and blows up real good

- fascistic walled 'zone' with bad cops in black

- the lengthy trek across decimated cities

- the cult with a charismatic nutjob leader

I didn't expect anything unique, since it's based on a bro-made video game. But it's basically The Walking Dead Mushroom People/I Am Legend with a kid.

God, you’re tedious and boring r381

I'm simply describing the show (and dozens just like it), you whiny little bitch.

I'm probably one of the few that isn't disappointed that they haven't shown more of the monsters. They are just too fucking gross.

Who wants to have more zombies? Zombies aren't characters. They can't talk or have story-lines. Their only motivation is to kill for killing's sake. In fact, it never really makes sense on WHY the zombies are always wanting to kill. It isn't like they benefit by having more. Either way, it's much more interesting to focus on the human characters.

No r354, I feel exactly the same way.

Pascal said in nearly every interview I've seen or read that his kids almost demanded that he take the role, because they loved the game. He and Bella are quite charming, despite the show's derivative story. It's found its audience: children, gamers, and adults who've either never seen a zombie show or film, or those who like seeing the same concept again and again.

[quote] It's found its audience: children, gamers, and adults who've either never seen a zombie show or film, or those who like seeing the same concept again and again.

So pretty much everyone except the ones who think they're the cool kids by being contrarian.

Pascal has children?

Did anyone else get that David assumed Joel was also a pedo and Ellie was experienced?

R387 he has no children, he was referring to his sister's kids

Nephews, perhaps, R389.

R388, I enjoy popcorn Marvel movies on occasion. "Think" I'm a cool kid? If enjoying a span of arts from Steve Reich to Lizzo makes me "cool," then thanks. A "kid?" Hardly.

Oh, and I only watched eps, 1 & 2 to enjoy ep. 3, the "gay" one, which deserves the praise. Now I'm done with it. It's still just another zombie series, fungi or fungals notwithstanding.

Let’s get real; we are watching it because of Pedro.

R392 - so you've only watched three episodes of the eight and you're still here carrying on about how you don't like it. Why?

As for all the tropes...you can find dramatic tropes that go back to the Bible and earlier. Yes, we know. You've seen it all before. Jaded and cynical poseur.

DL hates most popular things, especially video games, super-hero movies, and anything with gay stuff in it.

[quote] DL hates most popular things created over the past 35 years, especially video games, super-hero movies, and anything with gay stuff in it.

Fixed

Can’t watch. Too triggering. The monsters remind me of my 1st boyfriend.

R397 Was he heavy in to shrooms?

This show is just okay. It's not bad but it's not great either. I was expecting to be blown away, like with the first season of Game of Thrones.

R397, I can still feel him inside me.

I keep hearing that the finale might be polarizing. Why? Although, as it is, the series is already polarizing Dlers. I'm not at all familiar with the video game but I've been hearing indirect spoilers it's about Joel.

R81, Ellie isn't the only immune human -they have been many, you just have to wait and see what happens.

*there*

R402 Ever heard of spoiler alerts, you motherfucker?

[quote] What I don't care for are the attacks on people who do like the show. [/quote]

But calling anyone who disagrees with your passionate defense of it a "poseur" or a "Trumptard" is fine, eh?

You're strangely obsessed with defending the fungi-zombie show and spewing vitriol at its critics. Glad you have such a banal hobby, dear!

Garth, take that stick out of your butt and relax

Leonard ^

Or Garth

Whatever

You are annoying whatever your name is

Where is R405, I don’t have anyone on block?

I don't think the Fireflies have good intentions.

9 episodes?

When did we get to the point where 8 or 9 episodes is a season? That is just not good enough. Especially when it’s already dragged out as much as it can be. Why not just make it a fucking move? 9 episodes????

9 episodes is normal for HBO.

Whatever, R411.

[quote] When did we get to the point where 8 or 9 episodes is a season?

Probably in the late 90s, maybe even early 00s, so a good 10-15 years after 1987, the year in which Datalounge takes place

When is 9 episodes normal?

You go gurlina! R415!

Dynasty used to run 25 episodes each year!

R416 is posting from 1981.

Is anyone else thinking they will do a surprise early release of the episode?

It was a joke R417. Chillax

I am also R414

In the season finale, to honor the video game, they're going to add classic sound effects to each character death.

No r414. These ridiculous short seasons are a very new thing.

[quote]Did anyone else get that David assumed Joel was also a pedo and Ellie was experienced?

I missed that, but believe you that it's there. That whole episode was traumatizing!

I was so not expecting a rape scene after the sheer amount of stabbing and bludgeoning happening.

Didn't play the game so the story is all new to me, but I thought they did an amazing job of making the preacher scarier and scarier with each little reveal in each scene without it seeming to come out of nowhere (like Daenerys going insane in 3 episodes on GoT).

If I was thinking of watching this show, the fucking insane fan boys on this thread have put me off. Easily triggered drongos.

Thanks for letting us know r423

Your opinion is important to us.

You will be missed.

Careful, R423. Any critique of the fungi-zombie show will be met with vituperative screeches from the self-appointed thread monitor R394, and half the comments in this and the other fungi-zombie thread! You will be sternly finger-wagged by the devoted elderfan!

Poor trolls. It's so hard for you. You're the victims.

Poor elderfanbois; any critique induces textual sharts and failed insults.

Who's the elder here?

A reference from 1975? —LeonardPinthGarnell

48-year-old references are my wheelhouse.

It is sort of odd how offended and angry some posters are about criticisms of the show. I’m wondering if it’s PR.

My admittedly obvious prediction for the season finale episode-

Ellie and Joel are separated.

Season 2- Ellie and Joel re-unite.

I'm in until the end.

I've disappeared from this thread. I guess I was full of shit all along.

You all want to watch Happy Days because you’re old and contrarian. You need Love Boat. You can’t handle drama. You’re all old and out of touch. Oh look, MyFavorite Martian is on somewhere. Go watch it. Leave us young, brilliant, au courants to watch the most unique and scintillating entertainment on TV since the last zombie/apocalyptic/dystopian/ rampant disease/authoritarian/journey through chaotic future show, which aired about 4 weeks ago.

You need to go to Woolworth’s and buy yourselves a parakeet and stop at the automat on your way home for some meatloaf. Call your mom from the pay phone and ask her if she wants anything. Then make coffee in your percolator just in time for Battle of the Network Stars. You are so old and angry!!! This is the greatest show on television

Goodness; a weekend offline to visit friends in Montauk, and I return to such desperate thirst for my presence! Round 2 of discussion of the series has truly sputtered to mere fumes.

R428/R429, so if someone uses a Shakespearian name for a handle, you think they must be centuries old? How obdurate. You must be on the spectrum.

Self-appointed hall monitor R394 called himself an elder fan of the mushroom zombie show. It's a fact, not an insult.

I've endured haggard jokes about my SNL-inspired handle for more than a decade on DL. Your ankle-biting is unoriginal and inept.

R432, you're so desperate for my presence that you pathetically imp my handle; how sad you are. First the superfans of the mushroom-zombie show sputter "Boring!" then pine for my return.

As for R433, you're an entire dung-load of idiocy. "young, brilliant, au courants"? You're watching a TV show, Mary, not premiering an exhibit at the Bienniele. And you obviously have a lot of mushroom-headed solitaire time on your little stubby hands.

You don't need to expose yourself to a lot of online discussion, to just watch a tv show and like or dislike it. Don't worry so much about what other people say (incl. here, me, etc).

I'm guessing the plan might be for 3(to 4, 5 absolute max?) seasons with 2(ish) years between them. Part 2 game can be covered in 1 season, but because of its design, it could be extended to 2 if really deemed appropriate, though I think it'd be a bad idea. Part 3 game isn't even in active development yet, but relatively unprecedented coordination between the game devs and studio production work just fine.

They're test the viewership for Part 2/Season 2 and if the response isn't there like Season 1, it could just end there.

Well, if they follow the game these new fans will be shookethed.

R436 People will play Part 3 in massive numbers just as they played Part 2. The controversies are overblown, at best. This franchise continues to be massively successful.

At most, Season 2 will adjust some emphasis and portrayal of some story and character elements to be more fitting to tv and more in care to how unaware audiences may react to events, but I don't think the creatives are very concerned beyond that.

People are loving Bella Ramsey (I think she's not the best choice for Ellie but far from the worst) and I don't see that changing, no matter Part 2's events on a screen.

That said, I can see it being 2 seasons of a show just out of it not being an annualized show and audiences just moving on to another big thing instead. Or the tone of Season 2 just not resonating well. A sort of Westworld S3 thing.

(Sorry, I know there's more issues with Westworld than its tonal shift. That was just a big part of losing the audience is all)

Joel is the anti Rick Grimes! He leaves no one alive!

Joel knew Marlene was a lying cunt. She didn't ask Ellie if she wanted to sacrifice her life for a cure.

Wait, did someone do a separate thread for the finale, otherwise this show went out with a whimper not a BANG!

R441, it was Oscars night, the Day of Holy Blessing on Datalounge, thus unusually slow activity on this thread.

Was the finale a set up for season 2 betrayal?

Pacing for finale was off IMO. Could have easily been 10 episodes instead.

Marlene was... manipulative. But it reflects how desperate she's become as a leader. I think the show was more sympathetic to the Fireflies than the game, even though the show did insert a bit of critique of them. If I remember correctly, in the game, they really did go through a bunch of other immune kids, killing them in the process, and there was less certainty that any medical advancement, let alone a cure, could be gotten from Ellie. Ellie was more innocent acting in the game, and more casually desiring that she could help with a cure, while show-Ellie was more obviously traumatized and avidly seeking a purpose to it all.

Joel had more of a point in the game while Ellie was just looking for something to make the journey worth it, while in the show it seems like the showrunners are trying a more fluid transition between seasons, where Joel has less of a point and Ellie really might have saved the world. All these elements exist in both versions, but its clear that dramatic focus, and minor details change some context. We're more allowed to be unhappy that Joel did what he did - not necessarily disagree with, but be unhappy.

I thought they totally stuck the landing. The episode, the shortest episode of this short season, was full of emotional gut punches. A roller coaster ride, from sweet moments and fun moments, to horrifying moments, and gut-wrenching revelations. Everyone's acting was top notch. A good capper for the series.

And yes, the ending gives a lot to think about. Is Joel a good guy or a bad guy? Do those labels even mean anything in this world? Could you sacrifice someone you loved to save the world? Could you believe the sacrifice would actually work and not be for nothing? It's an absolute moral dilemma, and I'm not sure there's any right or wrong answer.

My position, regardless of the slight differences between the game and show, is that unless they had an absolutely clear and confident way to get a cure from Ellie - as well as a clear and defined plan on how such a cure would even save the world in relatively short order - the Fireflies should have gotten total informed consent from Ellie before doing anything to her. I give them a bit of leeway in that its the post-apoc and if they really had a total reliability on the outcome, then Ellie's death is just one of the many that have had to happen.

If it was a more abstracted opportunity, like the show had, she should have been asked anyway. Marlene can state Ellie would have agreed, but Ellie was never asked so we can't know that.

If it was an unlikelihood to reach success (at least though Ellie alone), like I believe the game had, they're pretty evil (though understandably desperate) so its just Joel Evil vs Firefly Evil and why the whole audience debate happened in the first place.

Did he like kill the only pediatric neurology surgeon left on the planet?

(cont 446)

In the end, the ethics of the procedure doesn't matter as much as Ellie's reaction to events. She wanted this all to mean something, and it didn't, besides a breach of trust with Joel, and fewer resources (dead doctors, weakened Fireflies) available to her in case she wanted to try again for herself.

R447 We can't know that, but he'd be at least one of the last.

Its been decades and society has been disintegrating, but there's surely some 50s-70s year olds with some expertise, and potentially 30s-40s year olds who have picked up enough knowledge and experience to do something. It appears that the more established FEDRA QZs could have non-terrible medical and educational facilities, and they try to retain media from the past.

But the combination of securing a proper hospital (not essential but I'm sure is helpful), having all working supplies on hand, getting that surgeon and assistants, planning out the medical science and procedure, and shipping the immune person over, is something that legitimately may never happen again.

FEDRA may have tried things and may try things in the future, but they seem to be more occupied with struggling at wrangling the larger human populations. In the further future, there's settlements like Tommy's that might grow and cherish knowledge of the past, and they could try something, but it might take decades to get there. There's other organizations too, growing or emerging, but at least from TLOU Part 2 game, these aren't ones that'll be interested in investing in a cure any time soon.

Fireflies only really cared so much (I'm not sure how much the show illustrated this) because of the political win they'd have if they could immunize members. QZs could be overthrown from within, from this alone. Fireflies could operate much more easily in the wild because they wouldn't lose members to infection, even if the existing Infected would still pose some danger. New settlements could be more reliably started up, and be potentially Firefly aligned. FEDRA would be seen as grossly ineffectual until they at least get their hands on this cure.

Yeah, I think that angle was missing from the show, R449. It certainly adds flavor to their desperation to kill a child to maybe, MAYBE, get a handle on a cure.

I thought what Joel did was right just based on the scientific point of view. Killing your only inmune subject on the first try just based on an unproven theory was a terrible plan. Of course I didn't know she wasn't the first one in the game, but still applies if she is the only one.

The finale had a lot of great moments, and I liked it overall. But it definitely felt a little anticlimactic.

Meanwhile, the season was solid from beginning to end, although it was noticeable it lost some momentum in the back half. The third episode will for sure get Emmy attention.

Surely they could have gotten a real giraffe for that one-minute appearance, instead of splurging on a CG one? They're super docile and they eat from anyone's hands, they're basically perfect animal actors.

Watching that scene felt like WE were living in a post-apocalyptic world where no giraffes were around anymore.

Yeah, R453. The giraffe’s markings didn’t look right at all. It was like they spray painted a camel.

Not to be one of "those people," but giraffes would have a damn tough time surviving for 20 years in snowy Salt Lake City.

[quote] Surely they could have gotten a real giraffe for that one-minute appearance, instead of splurging on a CG one?

The showrunners said that the closeup of the giraffe eating was a real giraffe. The longer shots were CGI.

Didn’t The Walking Dead teach them to never kill your last remaining doctors?

Wait, the climax was in Salt Lake City? When was that said? Is there sone anti Mormon embedded in the story?

R453 It was real, it just wound up looking fake because of the fake background and lighting.

Where would all these giraffes have come from? The zoo?

Are we to assume climate issues have continued to shift and Utah has the same climate as the African savanna?

So in the time it took Joel to come to, they figured out how to stop the fungus and were confident enough to kill the only immune person they had identified?

Was that a defect on the story, or was it intentionally ludicrous to make Joel’s rampage more sympathetic?

Oops; wrong thread. Keep on, obsessed fanbois and elderzzz...

Ellie's mom was played by Ashley Johnson who is the voice of Ellie in the game. She looks like she could be Bella Ramsey's mom.

She was the awful Chrissy on Growing Pains, R464.

The birth scene was harrowing.

That house was filthy!

It reminded me of the house in NIght of the Living Dead.

R462 I imagined that the Fireflies, to some level, have been aware of Ellie for some time, through Marlene. They may have been content not to tamper with her until she was of an older age, but Riley may have been a honeypot to bring Ellie out of FEDRA territory peacefully (they had to have known Riley was Ellie's roommate and friend). Then Ellie gets exposed to infection, and monitored for a while as we see in Ep 1, and it speeds up the Fireflies priorities. I haven't checked, but I think they were taking samples from her, no? So they were probably doing tests off-screen and deciding that they had enough to put concrete plans into motion, but it needed facilities that the current base couldn't handle. Then that firefight happened (off screen) and they had to scoot Ellie out of the city now instead of sooner or later.

We can consider that the Fireflies (and FEDRA, and Fireflies stealing info from FEDRA) have developed theories upon theories on how to treat, cure, or vaccinate infection, but they've lacked some critical material to test those theories.

It makes more sense in the game where there really were other immune people so there was a knowledge basis, but also the deaths of ALL the previous immune laid bare how much of a risk Ellie sacrificing herself really was.

On the other hand, the scene with Ellie's mom was never in the game, and it implies possibilities about Ellie that the game never included. If its the Fireflies that had first hand exposure to these detail (umbilical cord, etc), I think that suggests that they had literally decades to develop the science to have at least *some* confidence that brain surgery on Ellie would be worth it. Perhaps still desperate, but also worth the risk.

Why didn’t the Fireflies just do experiments on pregnant women exposing them to fungi monsters just before giving birth to see if the baby would develop immunity? They obviously have no ethical boundaries and that seems like an easy enough experiment to replicate and do multiple times to test for efficacy.

If Marlene and a group of Fireflies were going to go to Salt Lake City themselves, why did they need to have Joel and what's-her-name take Ellie out there? They could have just done it themselves.

Marlene's immediate forces were decimated and she was injured. Without enough forces, she's just a target for FEDRA and Ellie is too valuable (beyond Marlene herself). FEDRA is all about wiping out Fireflies.

Joel and Tess were not supposed to go far - just to a drop off point outside Boston that we saw in Ep 2. This drop off point gets ambushed by FEDRA in the game (reinforcing how on-the-run Fireflies are), but it was the Infected in the show. It was too dangerous to stick around and Joel knew where the final destination was anyway. There was practically no way to know where to intersect with Marlene's group.

Joel was then not going to take so long to get to Colorado, but we saw the several detours they had to take (even around Wyoming), so Marlene got there first. Marlene's forces also likely had vehicles the whole time, and more ability to take down opposition. And even then, she had to flee west to Utah so Joel and Ellie had to catch up there. We are given the impression that Marlene was in too weak a position at the start, with fewer forces than she'd easily trust for the trip, and even then, they lost another half before reaching Utah.

She did not trust Joel to take Ellie all the way to Colorado/Utah, just the outskirts of Boston, but with little to no way to communicate, she just ran on hope and a prayer that Joel's skills would manage the cargo further. She wouldn't have even come to Boston in the way she did, but Ellie was too valuable a prize.

R470 They don't have boundaries but they likely have a comfort zone. They're not the 'cure cordyceps' group but a revolutionary force that really would like to cure cordyceps. Stashing Ellie wasn't primarily about having her ready for experimentation, but to fulfill a friend's dying wish.

Practically, almost no one thinks there's a cure, so why bother with that radical stuff while the focus should be on the fight against FEDRA. There's just enough of a chance that Ellie has the cure, that the Fireflies (really just Marlene; the others are confused at her) will drop everything to deal with her once its shown more clearly that she's immune.

Perhaps R472, they shouldn’t have gone through Kansas City. The direct route to Wyoming from Boston would be I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska….nowhere near KC. The show writers made some odd/stupid choices.

R474 Do you think the highways like that would be so safe for just a man and a child? I'm not even sure the roads would be clear.

Yes they ran into other danger along the way, but I'm thinking the I-80 would be of opposite safety to the most dead roads they took for much of the trip. At least, it sounds like a route that would most frequently have FEDRA travelling.

Not to mention most of the highways would be jammed with old cars.

R476 Yeah that's what I meant when I (badly put) said "I'm not even sure the roads would be clear."

I just looked up if there were other discussions online about this and I saw someone mention that Joel really needed places to siphon gas and that's super unlikely to find any on the interstate. A convoy may be able to stash lots of gas, but not an improvising smuggler like Joel.

Still though, R477, why go as far south as KC. AND if you’re trying to steer clear of FEDRA, it would be wise to stay away from large cities. Hence go through Iowa and Nebraska.

I liked the finale. Not a game person, so the HBO series is it for me and have enjoyed it. I think Joel did the right thing. I was thinking about how Ellie tried to save that little boy with her blood and it didn't work. Also considering what a long shot the whole notion is, I thought Joel's reaction was the correct one.

To take the one person they had, Ellie, and do something as extreme as they proposed was simply irrational. And I was especially upset with it because Ellie had no idea how they were going to try to elicit a "cure" from her... if it was even possible. She told Joel, "first lets fulfill our mission, then I will follow you anywhere and we can do what ever. " So clearly she was being misled by Marlene and that whole crew.

As my husband said, could they not have at least fired up an MRI and made sure they fungus was where they thought it was going to be before cutting Ellie's skull open? I agree that their plan seemed incredibly half assed from a scientific standpoint.

R480, exactly, and given the entire situation all the years that have passed, and how it has affected everyone, I can only imagine some deranged eccentric "scientist/doctor" who feels that in some god-like way he will be "The One" who will save humanity and discover the cure. And to achieve it all he needs to do is use humans as if they were lab rats. My point is they have had years and years to figure something out. Back when there were even more scientists and medical professionals, and the equipment and the labs were mostly destroyed and antiquated. So the entire project just seemed way too farfetched and irrational. Good for Joel. IMO his actions were not arguable.

"and before the equipment and the labs were mostly destroyed and antiquated."

So what happens now? They just keep wandering around?

Ellie's mother lied to Marlene and said Ellie was born *before* she (the mother) was bitten, so they had no way of knowing immunity might come from being bitten during birth.

r480 There's no way in hell MRI machines are still working twenty years after the start of the pandemic. They need so much maintenance, even just a temporary war in a country can mess with their proper functioning, let alone a global catastrophe that's wiped out most of humanity.

I just had a PET scan done two days ago and I had to wait a bit for the fluorine isotope to arrive from Austria first. These complex machines are the very first ones to go after a global cataclysm.

We had to wait TWO years for Mando season 3, while Pedro was busy with this show, and this is the finished product?? Seriously?

Well sure R485 but if we can suspend disbelief about the old gasoline working, and having enough power to keep even part of a hospital running (even the elevators), why not that?

I heard nothing much else happened in season 2 of the game? Honestly, there's really no big cliffhanger here. Nothing that can make you wish season 2 can't come soon enough.

R488 TLOU Part 2 takes place years after, and is both a continuation and its own story. They're now saying they'll split it into two seasons (S2-3) which makes some sense to those who played the game. Its a longer story.

R487 You have a point. For the old gas, we have to make up details like FEDRA still running some refineries and some of the cars on the road being recent. Its not impossible to imagine that cars become this sort of (expensive but) disposable thing that you use as long as you can, then leave on the road if need-be, using gas from FEDRA QZ but otherwise seeking out more recent abandoned vehicles to take usable gas from. For the 20 year old gasolene though, obviously that has to be unusable.

Some things change over time. 5-10 years after the outbreak, we can believe that people tried to cling to cars and any of the old world as hard as they could, especially with operational FEDRA facilities likely providing fuel on a harsh ration. What we know of that time is that people did believe more in what FEDRA could accomplish and they let them take their freedoms in return. 15-20 years after the outbreak (so recent Joel and Ellie's time) supplies and safe routes became more scarce, as QZ's fell to themselves or Fireflies, resources broke down or were running out, and Infected and hardened raiders made distribution harder. FEDRA also continued to crack down and prioritize their people instead of their effective-prisoners. So that's where we see car parts, even working gas be a great prize. People probably felt increasingly trapped into single QZs compared to before, and FEDRA likely put priority on an obedient new generation of officials instead of pre-outbreak adults. 20-25 years is more like TLOU Part 2 time, and besides some particularly concerted efforts, things degrade further. Working communities have to default more to horse travel, or otherwise accept the long distances on foot. A gas-powered future is far from impossible, but the stuff is even harder to acquire.

That is to say (without me knowing all details of Pt 2), Ellie isn't going on another road trip any time soon.

R483 Joel and Ellie have reached Jackson and intend on staying there, but their relationship has forever changed. Jackson is still thriving. FEDRA is continuing to degrade. Fireflies have been dealt a very heavy blow.

I didn't like the ending of the season.

[...]

[quote] They just keep wandering around?

Yes, just like the show's mindlessly obsessed fans.

If they follow the game's storyline this will come back on Joel.

I want to come on Joel’s back.

R494 and so far the creators are indicating that S2+ will go with a similar approach to S1. Maybe various tweaks like more Infected involvement this time around, but I don't think we should expect an extensive plot rewrite.

I'm sure it will come back on them. Why couldn't Joel just tell her the truth? "They were going to kill you! They were going to cut your skull open and remove your brain. I had to stop them from killing you, and when I tried to stop them they tried to kill me. They were fanatics."

What is the next HBO new breakout show that’s on the horizon?

This show is such a gip it reminds me of LOST. You have to wait years and years only to find out nothing and it’s all just about waiting till the next episode.

I want my 9 hours back. What a rip off. I’m going to wiki the stupid game and go find out for myself.

We already have one show of Pedro walking around in circles but at least that one has some plot to it. And a little payoff each week.

This is just teasing for teasing sake.

HBO is on thin ice for me. Very thin.

R500 Well, it is spring, the ice wasn’t going to last forever.

Tetris is coming up on APPLE+, but I don’t know how they’re going to make the same few shapes very interesting and build a story around them?

R502 I would watch that over any remake or reboot no one asked for.

R502 It’s going to be a very puzzling show.

I have to repeat narcos how Pedro runs, sweating

The official The Last Of Us podcast, with Troy Baker (Joel in the video game), Neil Druckmann (creator of the video game and writer of the TV series) and Craig Mazin (show runner and writer of the TV series) is highly informative about the creative decisions that went into the TV series. There’s an individual podcast for each on the TV episodes. I listened on Spotify, but it is available on any the major podcasting networks.

The ignorance and the stupidity of certain posters in this thread will be solved through listening to the creators podcast.

Ok well let me just painstakingly trove through 10 podcast episodes and see what I must have missed. As if I haven’t spent enough time to get some sort of answers by now. I just don’t have this much time sorry. They should have dumped this out all at once. At the very least.

Moron ^

Will they be adapting Among Us next?

I like the show and thought the finale was good. Even Joel's shoot 'em up was fun.

The snooty, if-you-don't-like-this-show-or-listen-to-the-podcast-you're-a-moron fanboys don't make it easy to root for this series

I've come across a few articles regarding the casting of Abby in S2. I would avoid reading them. I don't play the game but was spoiled regarding the fate of a character.

I don't get this show. Where are all the infected people? Where's the danger? Those giraffes should be easy prey, but no one was bothering them. Three episodes in a row now without any zombie encounters (the mushroom zombie in the beginning was a flashback). It seems like you actually have to look for a zombie in this world. In TWD there were hordes who would constantly threaten your life or community, but here it seems possible to build a small community or just live your life on a farm and never encounter a zombie if you just stay away from former cities and civilization.

I thought the ending was a little ham-fisted but really enjoyed the series overall.

Like most series of this kind, you just have to take it as it is, rather than analyzing it like R474 ("why did they go through Kansas City--it's not the most direct route!")

My Aspie-adjacent question was why they did not make more use of dogs, who, as we learned in the Jackson episode, can indeed sniff out The Infected and would seem to have made great guardians--post dogs around the perimeter and they can bark up a storm when a clicker draws near, possibly even kill them

Do we know for sure that giraffes can't survive in colder climates?

I was not sure how we were supposed to regard Fireflies vs FEDRA. FEDRA were almost fascistic but also seemed to be dealing with people who kept leaving the QZ and thus potentially infecting everyone. It was unclear what the Fireflies proposed utopia would look like.

I also read spoilers about part 2 of the game. I must say I don't like it, kinda reminded me of The Walking Dead. Hope they do some tweakings of the storylines.

R513 The infected are nesting but a wrong move will move a flood of them towards you. The danger is clearly ourselves. The Infected can attack animals, but this particular type of infection generally attacks humans. Perhaps a mutation could change that.

However, the creators have taken the audience response and already said they'd intend for the next season(s) to have more Infected. But in-universe, the Infected are not an issue until you encroach on them out of your safe zone, then you're probably doomed.

You can have a small remote community and I'm sure Jackson isn't the only one in North America, but the human population has been so harmed and demoralized, and supplies such a tricky matter to acquire or produce (after 1.5-2 decades), that it is difficult to make happen for a long term. Like I'm sure just one good raiding party can head into one of those Jackson-style towns and ruin it within a day, given the opening.

R514 I think we're to regard both as not properly prepared for this world. FEDRA cannot maintain the past, no matter how hard and desperately it tries. Fireflies cannot make the miracle cure and revolution to save the world, no matter how hard and desperately it tries. Future society may have aspects of either, but they're more of the old world ways (people who survived the outbreak and want to make something of the result), not the new. Same as how Joel is of the old, but Ellie will have to navigate the post-outbreak norms. She cannot be a good soldier, nor savior. She, and so many others being born in this time, have to navigate and build a society in their own way.

R516, plus there would be conspiracy theorists and cultists who would think God wants everyone to die and just go around d randomly killing people. They had a group of them in The Walking Dead, which I thought was realistic. Living through an. Optpse is goi gvto mess with people’s heads. Life wouldn’t be worth as much when people are used to seeing a lot of death. At a certain point, they’re just going to say, oh well.

Joel mentioned to Ellie at one point that a lot of infected died within a few months. Exposure, lack of food and water, infections from getting cut feet and so on. The ones that survived and grew strong were probably a smaller percentage. Just eating while your head is getting slowly ripped open has got to be a challenge.

A place like Jackson is cold, the infected would probably freeze to death in the winter or at least go dormant in some abandoned building. Most likely they’d die of starvation in the winter when there’s nothing to eat. Really cold places would probably be unsurvivable for them. The solution might be for people to stay in cold areas in small communities.

Living through an apocalypse is going to mess with people’s heads, sorry^^

The thing I have to consider is that in the past almost two decades or whatever, there were times when there were more scientists and doctors and working equipment, etc. and I'm sure they were desperately trying to f ind a cure or figure out how to stop the spread. And now it seems like you can stop the spread only by self isolating. And if anyone comes in contact or becomes infected from some outsider, they have to be killed. ASAP. I mean these people are down to the most basic, primitive solution. It also seems like to me that fire could kill them off. I don't know why they haven't gotten f lame throwers and just incinerated nests of them. Settlements like Jackson have to maintain vigilance. They have to watch everything. and they still need to establish normal life that requires them to educate, house, feed and provide medical assistance day to day. It's not going to have a Game of Thrones solution where if they kill the Night King they all die.

While the infected can attack animals R516, it seems that they can't pass on the fungus to non-humans, even to monkeys as we saw in the Colorado research lab sequence.

But sometimes it takes time to figure out long term effects. So you're not sure what works or doesn't works unless you have time to observe and experience.

I think it was said in the show that most of the infected don't live very long. So I guess .kat of the zombies are dead. What I want to know is why aren't there any zombie animals. Either domesticated or wild ones.

And I'm sure giraffes can survive in a cold climate since they have them in zoos all around the world, in colder climates than the one on Utah. The question is, would they have enough food to eat during the winter

^ that most

IMO opinion that's a big plot hole , R522, that we have not seen any animals getting it. Now animals can adapt given enough time, but for me it's a huge question: Why aren't animals getting this? And corollary to that, How can we discover what makes animals' response to the virus different? Instead of trying to remove Ellie's brain they ought to be removing Fido's.

I don't miss the zombies/infected. I like this show because they are a threat but not seen.

It's not a plot hole. The cordyceps that's a real fungus that really does attack ants and reanimates their dead bodies to help itself spread to other ants, only infects ants. It doesn't infect other species. Such organisms are specialized. It would be WEIRD, in fact, if this fungus infected other animals and had the same effect.

What R526 said, plus we've seen it does not even seem to infect the lab monkeys whose DNA would be much closer to humans than dogs or giraffes.

Though still not sure why they didn't train lots of dogs to sniff out The Infected, as it seems, from the Jackson episode, that they are very adept at doing so

True R526, but if we have learned nothing else from AIDS, Polio, and COVID, we have learned that it's possible for viruses to mutate and jump from one species to another. In fact, with COVID, all these variants are a result of the virus being active and spreading. And we know it can be found in animals.

When Aspies Watch Science Fiction

Just googled cordyceps ants. That's some freaky shit.

R528, those are all viruses.

This is a fungus.

If fungi can start growing in humans, why couldn't it in other mammals and birds?

Cordyceps can take over tarantulas too:

[quote]If fungi can start growing in humans, why couldn't it in other mammals and birds?

It could but it's hard for a pathogen to jump species as it is. Think of SIV. It jumped probably 5 times (4 types of HIV-1 and 1 type of HIV-2) in what were probably only 5 different transmission events and it's never jumped to dogs, horses, birds, doesn't have a reservoir like mosquitos. Jumping into one species is a big enough challenge. Don't expect them to affect all mammals.

Binged it all this weekend. It will probably be a two year wait on the next season, huh? Also I always thought Alberta was flat and wheaty like in Corner Gas

I watched it this weekend. After episode 2, I fastforwarded and skipped a lot. I give it a B-. I like the art direction and the acting. The plot was boring and predictable. I mean, really lame.

This seems a lot like a video game.

On the previous thread, someone said they were going to end this series before it got tedious. If that were the case, this would’ve been three episodes long.

Pedro Pascal looks so haggard in real life that he looks appropriate in this as a man who’s lived through a zombie apocalypse for 20 years or so. It’s not a great performance, by any means, but he looks like and manages the slight charm of a dollar store Burt Reynolds which makes his performance passable.

Melanie Lynsey is so miscast here as a sadistic, authoritarian counter revolutionary. The best she can muster are like 3rd Heather soccer mom vibes.

*Lynskey

Wow. Bella Ramsey. She’s the standout here.

The episodes range a lot in quality, I thought 1-3 were outstanding and a few of the later ones a slog. I had to mute Melanie Lynskey. That voice drove me bonkers and, unfortunately she had quite a few monologues. She just seemed like a pissy lunch lady. Agree Bella was standout. I’m sorry she had such a hard time with the trolls over her casting.

Sorry but Bella is terrible in this series. I am watching it now that I finished Succession and man is she terrible. I decided to find a thread from when it was originally airing to see what you guys were saying and sorry, but she’s so bad. I cringe every time she opens her mouth.

Shocked some of you say she was a standout. That was laughably bad.

But not shocked to see it’s mostly coming from a particular poster.

And I wanna add that the show is pretty boring. Im not understanding what all the praise and hoopla was for. Im on episode 2 and bored to death.

R544 What are you smoking? She's great.

R546 TO YOU. I disagree. She is terrible in every scene. And what is up with every other word out of her mouth being fuck? It’s getting ridiculous, like the writers thought that would make her edgy or something. It’s hard to root for a teenage loudmouth know it all who thinks she’s the smartest person in the room. And she’s ugly as fuck. Her facial expressions are some of the worst in the series. It’s so bad.

Also, episode 3 with the gay love story wasn’t nearly as good as you all hyped. It was sweet but the writing was ridiculous and Bartlett was meh in it.

“So who’s the girl you’re singing about?”

“There is no girl”

“I know”.

Then he goes in for a kiss in the most awkward manner.

[quote] But not shocked to see it’s mostly coming from a particular poster.

Link?

R549 and there he is. Exposing his stupidity and lack of education. Lmaoooo

I didn't like Bella Ramsey the first few episodes but by episode 5 I thought she really shined. She's terrific in episode 7. Absolutely wonderful. An Emmy nomination for her wouldn't upset me.

What I dont understand is the hype for Pascal. He's meh at best in this.

I wonder how long we'll have to wait for Season 2 due to the writer's strike. We're made to wait a long time as it is without the strike. The one thing that network tv did was to bring back their next seasons every year.

So I just finished watching this and I have to say that I absolutely love the finale. I have not read much of this thread, so I do not know what your opinions are but I personally love the finale. I thought episodes seven through nine were terrific. The riding with top notch, and the acting was amazing. Bella Ramsey went from being just OK in the beginning to being absolutely terrific by the end. I loved her by the end of the show.

R546 what about Bella's performance is "great" to you? Is it her constant mugging and making faces? Is it the nasal monotone? Perhaps it's all the huffing and lip smacking she does when she's being emphatic? Is it the way she juts her jaw out every. Single. Time. that she's attempting to convey defiance? Is it the beady-eyed lack of charisma?

Please! Bella Ramsey is a very, very weak actor whose entire career was purchased by her wildly wealthy mummy and daddy. She's the Ben Platt of the UK.