TV: The Last of Us (HBO)

[TheBeastCoast]

I think I have accepted that this season is kind of ass at this point. I held out hoping it would turn around but nope, this isn't it.

 

[GKJ]

The venture into the building made it come off that they’re both stupid more than reckless, which at their age can be expected as it was already established earlier in the season that they will be reckless on purpose. From a story perspective, I would have preferred Jesse show up and stop them from going in, and then they try to escape through the park.

But they went through all that and then rushed the scene of Ellie killing Nora. There was a much harder interrogation of Nora before Ellie kills her. The episode was only 50 minutes so it’s not like they were pressed for time. And at risk of trying to be too comparative to the game, I didn’t think that was acted very well, which sucks because it’s such an important moment. They just didn’t do it right, and seemed to instead focus more on the soldiers trapped in the cordyceps.

It did skeeve me out though.

 

[Jussi]

The venture into the building made it come off that they’re both stupid more than reckless, which at their age can be expected as it was already established earlier in the season that they will be reckless on purpose. From a story perspective, I would have preferred Jesse show up and stop them from going in, and then they try to escape through the park.

But they went through all that and then rushed the scene of Ellie killing Nora. There was a much harder interrogation of Nora before Ellie kills her. The episode was only 50 minutes so it’s not like they were pressed for time. And at risk of trying to be too comparative to the game, I didn’t think that was acted very well, which sucks because it’s such an important moment. They just didn’t do it right, and seemed to instead focus more on the soldiers trapped in the cordyceps.

It did skeeve me out though.

It was actually only 44 minutes. Shortest episode yet?

 

[GKJ]

It was actually only 44 minutes. Shortest episode yet?

I was surprised when it was over

 

[Jussi]

I was surprised when it was over

Like I said, for someone who hasn't played the games, the episode felt both rushed in some areas and also took too much time on "unimportant" stuff.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

My complaints stem from the plot armor really.


Like you're telling me all these "Soldiers" literally missed every single shot multiple times when shooting at Ellie/Dina before they go into the Park. Or Ellie when she was in the hospital? Just complete nonsense.


There's simply no way you can believe these two have actually survived what they've been through so far.

It's completely taken me out of the story essentially.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

The shocking thing is Ep2 is rated so highly.

Tommy quite literally spent the whole episode with an impenetrable Plot Armor field. Ruined the whole siege on Jackson, when all of the zombies are running past the easy kill because "reasons".
Cheapening the Joel death scene also highlighted the poor quality of writing. Then there is the Bella problem. I fail to see how any episode could be rated higher than a 4. That one is getting buoyed by Joels death, and it is completely undeserved.
Checked out after episode 3. Everything this season felt so cheap and Bella is so unconvincing in the role that now they're going to spend more time with her, just can't do it. There's better things to watch

That doesn't shock me at all, Episode 2 is the biggest episode of not just this season, but if we get to the end, probably the entire series.

Not only does it have Joel's death but it also has the attack on Jackson which doesn't happen in the game but made the episode awesome.

You give people a high events episode 9 times out of 10 they are going to like that episode

 

[zombie kopitar]

The first half of this episode was just cringe af, second half was some of the best of the season

Like the Ellie and Dina relationship is perfectly cool as a plot point, but why tf are they making it so sappy. I guess they're trying to recapture Bill and Frank or something, but they shouldn't. The love/sappiness of that was a story told throughout years of their life, and it worked. This doesn't, they've been dating for like a week, and are in the middle of a revenge tour/zombie uprising, chill a little bit damn

Really interested in the spore mutation, and the Seraphites though. I wonder who the 'Mother' is, and if it is in anyway tied to Ellie, and the lore of 'the immune girl' that is out in the ether.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

well Joel was the main character for a 3rd of the first game. by the end of it, it felt like he was no longer the main character and it was shifting to Ellie. I think part of the reason why people lost their shit on the game was cause it was in away false advertising,

there was a part where Ellis gets grabbed from behind and its Joel in the trailer saying, think I'd let you do this on your own? then when you got to that part Joel was replaced by another character.

anyways I like what they did to him, not often you get to see both sides of a story, it was unique. many couldn't get past that moment though, grew too attached to Joel. I thought it was well deserved

It wasn't that it wasn't deserved it was that it was rushed.

That's something you do in a 3rd or 4th game.

Imagine if they had Darth Vader chop off Luke Skywalker's head 20 minutes into Empire Strikes back.

That's essentially what they did.

It's not that they did it.

It's WHEN they did it, and HOW they did it.

There was no build up to it.

It would have been so easy to have Joel and Ellie become separated, an Ellie has to find Joel.

Then she meets Abbey and they become friends and save eachother's lives.

then eventually Abbey finds out who Ellie really is and then It's ultimate decision time.

There was none of that there was no build up.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

So is Ellie transgender? I thought she was a lesbian but the Dad comment made me think otherwise. Doesn't matter to me either way but made me wonder if that's something they changed from the game.

No, at least if they stick to the game She's not.

I suspect that line is there because Bella identifies as non binary

 

[The Marquis]

No, at least if they stick to the game She's not.

I suspect that line is there because Bella identifies as non binary

Bella is playing a character called Ellie. That's just next level dumb if that's the reason they wrote that line.

It's another episode I didn't like, AT ALL. The Ellie/Dina angle is very bad and feels wholly unnecessary. This doesn't need a love story, they already had one of the best single episode love stories one could pull off in Season 1 Episode 3 (Though I'd also say that was mostly unnecessary). The whole WLF, religious fanatics story is void of any purpose and I'd rank that as "too late, I don't care, you blew it."

The situations the writers are putting the characters in are borderline Marvel ridiculous. I miss the way they did the first season (and even the first episode of Season 2) where having a small or "reasonable" number of the zombies was a major undertaking, or it was largely a match-up that made sense (Battle of Jackson) if they were in a place with a lot of "help". Now, everything is overblown and relying on convenience (and still being ridiculous) rather than building an intelligent level of peril and having the characters navigate it intelligently, or even by sheer force if needed. It's just bad, I'm disappointed and it's starting to feel like a waste of my time. If this is how the game is, I'm glad I didn't play it.

I'm hoping the next episode is the last of the season. Hopefully they learn from these poor episodes and do something more compelling and less Marvelly.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

It wasn't that it wasn't deserved it was that it was rushed.

That's something you do in a 3rd or 4th game.

Imagine if they had Darth Vader chop off Luke Skywalker's head 20 minutes into Empire Strikes back.

That's essentially what they did.

It's not that they did it.

It's WHEN they did it, and HOW they did it.

There was no build up to it.

It would have been so easy to have Joel and Ellie become separated, an Ellie has to find Joel.

Then she meets Abbey and they become friends and save eachother's lives.

then eventually Abbey finds out who Ellie really is and then It's ultimate decision time.

There was none of that there was no build up.

the shows been rushed since season1 episode 1 lol
I didn't mind his death, happens quickly and makes you want revenge, then you see everything from the others perspective, I wouldn;t change a thing about it. now the show there's plenty I would change lol

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

My complaints stem from the plot armor really.

I think that's the peril of sticking "too close" to the source material. A lot of situations in the game (or most games, really), you're outmatched and you can only progress through after a lot of trial and error. It's messy.

So from a main plot standpoint, I'm all for more closely following games. But from an action standpoint, I wish they'd take a few more creative liberties and not try to mirror those situations so closely. As someone who didn't play the games (but is familiar with most of the main beats), it's really easy to tell when a scene is a videogame-action scene. And simply put, that stuff is more fun to play in a game than it is to watch on a show.

Although, a deviation that would've been helpful is focusing on Abbey earlier this season. I think in the game you don't really get her stuff until halfway through? Which I guess they're planning on Season 3 being more her......but they really needed to build out with the new characters, i.e., Abbey and Isaac first, then the Wolf/Scars stuff, not the other way around. The result this season is a bunch of shit happening but we're not really invested in a lot of the characters it's happening to.

 

[Stylizer1]

I think I enjoyed The Acolyte more.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Bella is playing a character called Ellie. That's just next level dumb if that's the reason they wrote that line.

It's another episode I didn't like, AT ALL. The Ellie/Dina angle is very bad and feels wholly unnecessary. This doesn't need a love story, they already had one of the best single episode love stories one could pull off in Season 1 Episode 3 (Though I'd also say that was mostly unnecessary). The whole WLF, religious fanatics story is void of any purpose and I'd rank that as "too late, I don't care, you blew it."

The situations the writers are putting the characters in are borderline Marvel ridiculous. I miss the way they did the first season (and even the first episode of Season 2) where having a small or "reasonable" number of the zombies was a major undertaking, or it was largely a match-up that made sense (Battle of Jackson) if they were in a place with a lot of "help". Now, everything is overblown and relying on convenience (and still being ridiculous) rather than building an intelligent level of peril and having the characters navigate it intelligently, or even by sheer force if needed. It's just bad, I'm disappointed and it's starting to feel like a waste of my time. If this is how the game is, I'm glad I didn't play it.

I'm hoping the next episode is the last of the season. Hopefully they learn from these poor episodes and do something more compelling and less Marvelly.

I think there is one more after next week

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I think I enjoyed The Acolyte more.

Let's not say things we can't take back

 

[the valiant effort]

I was about to blow a gasket when Ellie started strumming in the auditorium

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Bella is playing a character called Ellie. That's just next level dumb if that's the reason they wrote that line.

It's another episode I didn't like, AT ALL. The Ellie/Dina angle is very bad and feels wholly unnecessary. This doesn't need a love story, they already had one of the best single episode love stories one could pull off in Season 1 Episode 3 (Though I'd also say that was mostly unnecessary). The whole WLF, religious fanatics story is void of any purpose and I'd rank that as "too late, I don't care, you blew it."

The situations the writers are putting the characters in are borderline Marvel ridiculous. I miss the way they did the first season (and even the first episode of Season 2) where having a small or "reasonable" number of the zombies was a major undertaking, or it was largely a match-up that made sense (Battle of Jackson) if they were in a place with a lot of "help". Now, everything is overblown and relying on convenience (and still being ridiculous) rather than building an intelligent level of peril and having the characters navigate it intelligently, or even by sheer force if needed. It's just bad, I'm disappointed and it's starting to feel like a waste of my time. If this is how the game is, I'm glad I didn't play it.

I'm hoping the next episode is the last of the season. Hopefully they learn from these poor episodes and do something more compelling and less Marvelly.

If you feel that strongly stop watching now because if they stay faithful to the game the reliance on convenience will continue

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I think that's the peril of sticking "too close" to the source material. A lot of situations in the game (or most games, really), you're outmatched and you can only progress through after a lot of trial and error. It's messy.

So from a main plot standpoint, I'm all for more closely following games. But from an action standpoint, I wish they'd take a few more creative liberties and not try to mirror those situations so closely. As someone who didn't play the games (but is familiar with most of the main beats), it's really easy to tell when a scene is a videogame-action scene. And simply put, that stuff is more fun to play in a game than it is to watch on a show.

Although, a deviation that would've been helpful is focusing on Abbey earlier this season. I think in the game you don't really get her stuff until halfway through? Which I guess they're planning on Season 3 being more her......but they really needed to build out with the new characters, i.e., Abbey and Isaac first, then the Wolf/Scars stuff, not the other way around. The result this season is a bunch of shit happening but we're not really invested in a lot of the characters it's happening to.

It's about a 3rd of the way through.

You get 10 hours as Ellie.

Then 10-12 hours as Abbey

Then end as Ellie

 

[GKJ]

It’s Abby without an e god dammit

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

It’s Abby without an e god dammit

I'm tying on my PS5 that's how it auto corrects it.

It's 4:38 AM and I don't care enough to change it.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

The venture into the building made it come off that they’re both stupid more than reckless, which at their age can be expected as it was already established earlier in the season that they will be reckless on purpose. From a story perspective, I would have preferred Jesse show up and stop them from going in, and then they try to escape through the park.

But they went through all that and then rushed the scene of Ellie killing Nora. There was a much harder interrogation of Nora before Ellie kills her. The episode was only 50 minutes so it’s not like they were pressed for time. And at risk of trying to be too comparative to the game, I didn’t think that was acted very well, which sucks because it’s such an important moment. They just didn’t do it right, and seemed to instead focus more on the soldiers trapped in the cordyceps.

It did skeeve me out though.

If Jesse stopped them from going in, why would they escape through the park

 

[GKJ]

If Jesse stopped them from going in, why would they escape through the park

They could be in the parking lot

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

They could be in the parking lot

??? Meaning?

 

[Sad People]

Alright episode. Bella seems like she would play an amazing crazy or insane character after that short scene we saw with her and Nora.

I want Ellie to get her revenge and i can only assume she will but the war between the scars and the WLF i find a little more interesting than Ellies revenge arc,