TV: The Last of Us (HBO)

[Natey]

I loved the episode a lot. Thought it was really well done. As a standalone episode about an apocalypse, it was incredibly well done.

However... I'm not sure how I feel about it in this show. The main reason being that we missed out on Bill & Ellie's banter. And to be quite frank, pun intended, that really f***ing sucks.

I read that they went this way because Frank's death in the game didn't hit hard because of multiple reasons including many people thinking he was just Bill's 'business partner.'

I disagree completely because I thought the game hit very hard and also thought it was pretty obvious what Bill and Frank's relationship was.

Regardless, they made it work and while I'm upset with missing that key piece of game for me, I didn't hate the alternative.

 

[Bakayoko Ono]

That sad song from Villeneuve's Arrival always gets me.

 

[Kelly]

Incredible episode. Made my GF bawl. We're loving this series, really sucks having to wait a week for each episode to drop.

Only issue I had with it was when the Raiders tried to invade, why the hell did Bill decide to stand in the street with zero cover? AND decides to grab the bolt action rifle when there were clearly better options in his armory.

Small gripe in an otherwise tremendous episode.

 

[GKJ]

That was nice. I didn't mind that it was a nearly self-contained episode. It was actually more interesting to me than the main story so far. Finally, we got to see a little humanity in the wasteland. The first half reminded me a lot of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. The guy playing Bill did a really good job.

It was extremely predictable, though. I haven't played the game and saw just about everything coming, which undercut some of the emotional power that it was supposed to have.

Think there may be more of them coming.

 

[Saskatoon]

One take I read that I liked was this story also helped show the viewers happy endings are possible.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett have incredible chemistry.

Amazing performances

 

[RobBrown4PM]

Incredible episode. Made my GF bawl. We're loving this series, really sucks having to wait a week for each episode to drop.

Only issue I had with it was when the Raiders tried to invade, why the hell did Bill decide to stand in the street with zero cover? AND decides to grab the bolt action rifle when there were clearly better options in his armory.

Small gripe in an otherwise tremendous episode.

I was more upset with the lawns being well manicured. Why waste time and resources on such a venture.

Furthermore, Bill is a lunatic amateur cosplayer who, as far as I know, has 0 actual training in any kind of combat. You can self-train all you want, but unless you're getting trained by skilled professionals in a uniform setting, you ain't gonna do well in a firefight.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Saying "you missed the point" just doesn't feel good enough.

Well I guess I did miss the point, it's a love story in the middle of a mad max movie that ate a whole ep.
If it was a man and woman and she was half dressed then it becomes gratuitous and un necessary. Thought provoking ok , but everyones take on this situation is what they read in to it not solely what was on screen. Going forward these two men can't add more unless its a flashback which could happen but seems unlikely ,who knows. This. Does it plant a seed that compassion can happen , sure but in that world it likely gets you killed.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Incredible episode. Made my GF bawl. We're loving this series, really sucks having to wait a week for each episode to drop.

Only issue I had with it was when the Raiders tried to invade, why the hell did Bill decide to stand in the street with zero cover? AND decides to grab the bolt action rifle when there were clearly better options in his armory.

Small gripe in an otherwise tremendous episode.

Bolt action are reliable and accurate so at range it's not a bad option especially if the owner knows the weapon and it's dialed in. Standing in the open does seem odd and an easy way to catch some un wanted lead.

 

[stephenball]

Well I guess I did miss the point, it's a love story in the middle of a mad max movie that ate a whole ep.
If it was a man and woman and she was half dressed then it becomes gratuitous and un necessary. Thought provoking ok , but everyones take on this situation is what they read in to it not solely what was on screen. Going forward these two men can't add more unless its a flashback which could happen but seems unlikely ,who knows. This. Does it plant a seed that compassion can happen , sure but in that world it likely gets you killed.

I think it’s a mistake to think of The Last of Us as a “Mad Max movie”. The Last of Us is very much a story of human connection in many ways. I think having this long story was a great break in the show, not just because it was beautifully written/after/directed, but because it was a good parallel to Joel. That you can tell yourself that you don’t want anybody to be close to you and push everything away, but that’s no way to live. I actually think this episode was so good that it will be weird to go back and play this part of the game.

 

[Hivemind]

Well I guess I did miss the point, it's a love story in the middle of a mad max movie that ate a whole ep.
If it was a man and woman and she was half dressed then it becomes gratuitous and un necessary. Thought provoking ok , but everyones take on this situation is what they read in to it not solely what was on screen. Going forward these two men can't add more unless its a flashback which could happen but seems unlikely ,who knows. This. Does it plant a seed that compassion can happen , sure but in that world it likely gets you killed.

TLOU isn’t Mad Max. And I love Mad Max.

I was more upset with the lawns being well manicured. Why waste time and resources on such a venture.

Frank and Bill literally have an argument about this in the episode. It was Franks way of “showing love” and creating a home. You can watch over time as more and more of Franks touch converts their house as time progresses.

 

[John Price]

Incredible episode. Made my GF bawl. We're loving this series, really sucks having to wait a week for each episode to drop.

Only issue I had with it was when the Raiders tried to invade, why the hell did Bill decide to stand in the street with zero cover? AND decides to grab the bolt action rifle when there were clearly better options in his armory.

Small gripe in an otherwise tremendous episode.

I like the weekly threads more than binging them all at once. That works for some shows but not this one. Whole debate on it on other boards and podcasts, but again I like the weekly concept.

 

[HanSolo]

Well I guess I did miss the point, it's a love story in the middle of a mad max movie that ate a whole ep.
If it was a man and woman and she was half dressed then it becomes gratuitous and un necessary. Thought provoking ok , but everyones take on this situation is what they read in to it not solely what was on screen. Going forward these two men can add more unless its a flashback which could happen but seems unlikely ,who knows. This. Does it plant a seed that compassion can happen , sure but in that world it likely gets you killed.

I mean is that not a compelling factor going forward? I can't go on Twitter without being spoiled by stuff from the game so I know this isn't how Bill and Frank went down in the game but I was also explicitly spoiled that Bill's original thematic purpose

Spoiler

Was to ramp up Joel's wariness for letting himself love, care and hope, rather than to inspire it. I'll keep going in spoilers but if the whole point is that this is a pivotal moment in letting Joel open up and starting letting himself care for Ellie, it will touch on any tension regarding her safety, any development of their relationship towards the surrogate daughter-father relationship, and it'll touch on any other tragedies involving people who love each other which I'm sure will come. End of the day the story was a sidebar to show how love can grow in the darkest and most dire circumstances. Unless my understanding of the game's themes are off base, that seems highly relevant to the overarching themes of this story.

And again, the show feels like it's far more concerned with how the people are doing and their stories at the beginning of the outbreak and in the present day. Bill and Frank had pretty unique circumstances going for them given Bill's predeveloped survivalist skills but that makes for an interesting and unconventional survival story that we don't usually get from this genre, if ever. The world crashed and burned around them but the two managed to live a relatively normal, if isolated, domestic life. And it ends with them not dying because of Infected or Raiders. But ordinary human sickness and they chose to die together. If there's a story like that in other Zombie media I must have missed it. Not every character has to make it to the end credits of a finale or help the heroes for a bulk of the journey. Hell I mean Bella Ramsey had maybe less than 20 minutes of screen time in Game of Thrones and her Lyanna Mormont is still regarded as one of the better parts of the latter seasons.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Episode 3

 

[Fripp]

Spectacular television. An epic love story that hit all the feels packed into a single hour... Amazing.

 

[wej20]

Amazing episode. Though I have been re-watching Parks and Rec so I kept expecting Jean-Ralphio to jump out at any moment.

 

[William H Bonney]

I was more upset with the lawns being well manicured. Why waste time and resources on such a venture.

Because it provided them (at Frank's behest) with a sense of normalcy and order in a world where those things had largely disappeared. Same reason they were keeping up the stores or painting.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

I enjoyed the episode, overall it was a good episode but from how closely it followed the game in episode 1 and 2, some parts following scenes from the game word for word. I was little disappointed in it overall. I was kind of excited to see some Joel, Ellie and Bill interaction. wasn't really expecting a romance

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

I absolutely have mixed feelings about this episode but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we only are getting an episode a week and most likely only 9 episodes


I have no problem with Bill and Franks relationship as I’ve played the game and wouldn’t have had a problem with them being together anyways but they made too much of a deal about it and the Bill level in the game was absolutely epic and his interactions with Ellie were amazing yet we never saw it

A lot of this episode felt like way too much distraction, not enough Joel/Eddie and oh yeah, I’ll never stop bitching about this weekly format even if it makes me seem entitled

 

[TheBeastCoast]

I really do not understand the complaints about weekly releases. I couldn't be happier that more shows are starting to spread releases out over a longer period of time again.

 

[Mickey Marner]

One of the best episodes of television I’ve seen. Zombie movies & shows are whatever to me, but it’s been compelling television so far.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

The only two flaws IMO about that episode

1) The quickness in which Bill/Frank were getting it on. I mean come on it wasn't even a few hours since they met and how did Frank know that Bill was gay? And frankly Frank was far too aggressive with first kiss most men or woman would not have been thrilled to have someone all over them a few hours after meeting.

2) Shootout scene with Bill standing out in open with no cover. He was too methodical with his defensive plans, etc to make such a mistake and have no pre-established firing position for him to take cover from as he engaged the attackers.

Outside of those two things it was a very good episode with good acting by the two leads in episode and the cinematography/shots of town, etc. were great. As was the continued development of Joel/Ellie stuff.

 

[Dubi Doo]

That episode was special. Wow.

 

[TheAngryHank]

I mean is that not a compelling factor going forward? I can't go on Twitter without being spoiled by stuff from the game so I know this isn't how Bill and Frank went down in the game but I was also explicitly spoiled that Bill's original thematic purpose

Spoiler

Was to ramp up Joel's wariness for letting himself love, care and hope, rather than to inspire it. I'll keep going in spoilers but if the whole point is that this is a pivotal moment in letting Joel open up and starting letting himself care for Ellie, it will touch on any tension regarding her safety, any development of their relationship towards the surrogate daughter-father relationship, and it'll touch on any other tragedies involving people who love each other which I'm sure will come. End of the day the story was a sidebar to show how love can grow in the darkest and most dire circumstances. Unless my understanding of the game's themes are off base, that seems highly relevant to the overarching themes of this story.

And again, the show feels like it's far more concerned with how the people are doing and their stories at the beginning of the outbreak and in the present day. Bill and Frank had pretty unique circumstances going for them given Bill's predeveloped survivalist skills but that makes for an interesting and unconventional survival story that we don't usually get from this genre, if ever. The world crashed and burned around them but the two managed to live a relatively normal, if isolated, domestic life. And it ends with them not dying because of Infected or Raiders. But ordinary human sickness and they chose to die together. If there's a story like that in other Zombie media I must have missed it. Not every character has to make it to the end credits of a finale or help the heroes for a bulk of the journey. Hell I mean Bella Ramsey had maybe less than 20 minutes of screen time in Game of Thrones and her Lyanna Mormont is still regarded as one of the better parts of the latter seasons.

Not sure it helps going forward with Joel and Ellie , Any normal person will have a basic instinct to protect a younger person especially given she is a female ..Like woman and children first and she is both , Add that he lost his daughter im sure at this point he is already in Dad mode when it comes to her... He chose to continue this adventure with her knowing a bond would form .it quit being about a batterie a while ago for me.At this moment he probly isn/t letting her carry so she doesn't hurt herself I don;t think he fears for his safety.. Id expect weapons training shortley and that will be another moment.
The 45 mins spent on 2 dudes playing house didn't move me or provoke thought that feeling might still be a thing..that part is only natural unless your a psyco killing weirdo.

 

[TheAngryHank]

The only two flaws IMO about that episode

1) The quickness in which Bill/Frank were getting it on. I mean come on it wasn't even a few hours since they met and how did Frank know that Bill was gay? And frankly Frank was far too aggressive with first kiss most men or woman would not have been thrilled to have someone all over them a few hours after meeting.

2) Shootout scene with Bill standing out in open with no cover. He was too methodical with his defensive plans, etc to make such a mistake and have no pre-established firing position for him to take cover from as he engaged the attackers.

Outside of those two things it was a very good episode with good acting by the two leads in episode and the cinematography/shots of town, etc. were great. As was the continued development of Joel/Ellie stuff.

your first 2 bugged me to , like they were in bed in no time , dinner was like the first date then it was time to hit the hey.
they could mow lawns and fix buildings but didn't make a sand bag bunket to fire from? also after Bill got shot did someone yell " car" and the game was over? I didn't catch if the others were all dead yet.