Docteur Qui

They're called bloaters. They're the final stage of cordyceps infection, after clicker. If the host survives long enough it becomes completely covered in hardened fungal plates making them very difficult to kill. In the game they also have sacs on their bodies that they rip off and throw at people which explode with spores on impact. But as the spores aren't in the show I guess they don't do that here.
 
Totally agree on the child clicker. It was nightmarish - reminded me a lot of the zombie children in GOT's "Hardhome". The way it contorted over the car seats was chilling.
 
Good episode. In many ways it felt more like a part 2 to last week's episode, meaning that it was mostly payoff. For the most part I was satisfied with it, and it had some great game adaptations like the abandoned colony in the tunnels, and Joel with the sniper rifle out the window. I wonder if they filmed and cut out the discovery of the childrens' bodies in the tunnels because it's just so damned grim, or perhaps they wanted to imply a worse fate for the kids by showing us the child clicker. 
 
The final few scenes with Sam were truly heartbreaking. I appreciated the bait-and-switch with Ellie's "medicine blood", for a second I thought they really were going to go there with that (which I would've hated), but it was subverted immediately.

Man, there is nothing more beautiful than Episode 3. A Malickian love poem that resonates. The performances from Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman. Sensitive, tactile, beautiful. I adore this show.

I will never not hate "nostalgic solo piano rendition of a famous theme drenched in reverb" as a trailer music choice. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Episode 4 was solid. It's difficult to follow up from last week's fireworks, but it did what it needed to do in order to get Ellie and Joel moving on their journey. Loved all the quiet moments between them as we start to see their mutual affection start to really grow. I'd forgotten about the book of puns from the game, I enjoyed its inclusion here (the cover is even identical to the one in the game!), it's a great little device for showing us more about these characters. Ellie really does feel like a kid with all her giggling at stupid jokes. I loved the moment Joel cracked and we see him smile broadly and then laugh almost hysterically.
 
The rebels/Henry/Sam stuff worked well enough; I particularly like the casting of Melanie Lynskey as the de facto rebel leader. She really sells the idea of a completely normal person pushed to the absolute limits of their humanity; I get the impression that pre-apocalypse she was just a fun auntie with a bubbly personality, right down to the way she's dressed. This episode was very much concerned with humanising the antagonists which is very welcome. Also nice to see Jeffrey Pierce (who voices Tommy in the game) get a cameo as her lieutenant, what a beard!
 
I like that they're building multiple threads of tension in Kansas City. Henry and Sam have Joel and Ellie at gunpoint, while the entire rebel city is hunting them, but uh-oh, what's that ominous crack underground mean? Continuing to love the additions they're adding to cordyceps beyond the zombie horror, like the tendrils and now this mysterious underground activity. It really adds a fresh element for people familiar with the story and piles on the tension and dread of what's to come.
 
A big drawback for me was that this was the first episode that felt like it was merely a part of a larger serialised story, without a strong internal structure. The first three episodes had very clear thematic statements which served as scaffolding for the scenes, giving each story a solid beginning, middle and end while still moving the larger story along. It gestures at a theme of "innocence lost" through the Joel and Ellie scenes (capped off with a child holding a gun at Joel's head) but for me it wasn't as effective as the last two episodes and felt like a lot of setup for the next episode.

Man, I still need to see Heavenly Creatures!  I loved her in I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Digging for Fire, and Happy Christmas among so many other things
 

I'd agree that a lot of her character remains to be seen - why or how could someone like her end up in charge of a militant rebellion? I imagine we'll learn more next week. I think I was just struck by the casting choice which is bold and interesting, and having watched Heavenly Creatures I feel like we're in safe hands; Lynskey knows how to wrangle these kinds of character contradictions. I also have complete faith in Mazin's writing and vision, he genuinely hasn't dropped the ball once.
 
 
I found out after listening to the official HBO podcast (which I listen to right after watching, it's really great, even if Druckmann doesn't get to say much most of the time lol).
 
 

Oh that's neat that the cover is the same as the game.  The only thing that kinda bummed me was that Ellie just all of a sudden has this book?  I wish there was a scene of her finding it.  
 
Yea her giggling reminded me of Game Ellie so much, it was great, and seeing Joel warm up to it was just great.
 
 
Interesting we'd have opposite opinions of her casting.  I did see some reluctance to be in charge in her performance, I guess maybe I'm most lamenting the lack of expostiion explaining how she got there - but maybe we'll get there next week.
 
 
That's true, isn't it; FEDRA has not been humanized at all yet, and of course the fungus can't be
 
 
Did you know that was him during the show, or only find out after like I did?  And yes, the beard was mighty!
 
 
Yes, good point!
 
 
Yes I like that I had no idea what that sinkhole was all about.  I loved the way both Kathleen and the lietenant guy acted in response to it - their terror was palpable!
 
 
Damn, you're totally right!  I hadn't thought of it like that.  I guess they knew Kansas City was too big to fit in one episode and had to break it somehow, so had to use a cliffhanger and leave all their setups un-paid-off until the next episode, which they hadn't done before.  I guess on future rewatches, this will all be less of an issue.  And, we're only 3 days away from Episode 5 now!
 
 
Oh man, I agree that this was a huge step towards Bella being like Game Ellie, but I also got those vibes right away in episode 1 the way she talked back to her captors there.
 
 
It is a bit alarming that only halfway through the season, they've only covered 4 1/2 of the games 13 (including Left Behind) chapters...
 
 
 
 
Well I'm not sure that you're supposed to root for any of them, I think their screentime was more to world-build what society is like now
 

I will never not hate "nostalgic solo piano rendition of a famous theme drenched in reverb" as a trailer music choice. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Episode 4 was solid. It's difficult to follow up from last week's fireworks, but it did what it needed to do in order to get Ellie and Joel moving on their journey. Loved all the quiet moments between them as we start to see their mutual affection start to really grow. I'd forgotten about the book of puns from the game, I enjoyed its inclusion here (the cover is even identical to the one in the game!), it's a great little device for showing us more about these characters. Ellie really does feel like a kid with all her giggling at stupid jokes. I loved the moment Joel cracked and we see him smile broadly and then laugh almost hysterically.
 
The rebels/Henry/Sam stuff worked well enough; I particularly like the casting of Melanie Lynskey as the de facto rebel leader. She really sells the idea of a completely normal person pushed to the absolute limits of their humanity; I get the impression that pre-apocalypse she was just a fun auntie with a bubbly personality, right down to the way she's dressed. This episode was very much concerned with humanising the antagonists which is very welcome. Also nice to see Jeffrey Pierce (who voices Tommy in the game) get a cameo as her lieutenant, what a beard!
 
I like that they're building multiple threads of tension in Kansas City. Henry and Sam have Joel and Ellie at gunpoint, while the entire rebel city is hunting them, but uh-oh, what's that ominous crack underground mean? Continuing to love the additions they're adding to cordyceps beyond the zombie horror, like the tendrils and now this mysterious underground activity. It really adds a fresh element for people familiar with the story and piles on the tension and dread of what's to come.
 
A big drawback for me was that this was the first episode that felt like it was merely a part of a larger serialised story, without a strong internal structure. The first three episodes had very clear thematic statements which served as scaffolding for the scenes, giving each story a solid beginning, middle and end while still moving the larger story along. It gestures at a theme of "innocence lost" through the Joel and Ellie scenes (capped off with a child holding a gun at Joel's head) but for me it wasn't as effective as the last two episodes and felt like a lot of setup for the next episode.

Well to be fair, Season 1 only hit the airwaves 6 1/2 years ago

"Only"
 

Clickbait websites find this thread and post headlines saying "John Williams to Write Indiana Jones Trailer Music" and then everyone thinks the shitty trailer house music is actually John Williams 

Anyone else think it’s pretty weird for Jay to call me out like this?
 
Jay, if nobody here cared about that “other website” (the frickin’ Internet Movie Database) and didn’t appreciate my comments about it, how come I got *14* positive reactions from my first two posts mentioning it? To me that indicated some interest here about the review bombing, so it’s not at all unreasonable that I would bring up it happening for an episode that hasn’t even aired yet.
 
That said, despite your oddly directed criticism of me, I applaud and appreciate you for your much more detailed posts/reviews about each episode of this fine series so far (I’ve “liked” every one!) and I look forward to more. I’ll try to write more on the subject myself going forward.
 
Yavar

Some other things I forgot to mention:
 
I love the bit in episode 2 when they are in the hotel lobby, and there's a frog on top of the piano making some notes ring out.  That was so well done
 
I also loved in episode 2 when they finally busted out their shoulder-mounted flashlights like you have in the game!  And they Ellie used it in episode 3 as well
 
It was so cool to see Tess again in episode 3 after dying in Episode 2.  Especially because we only saw her in the first 2 episodes recently traumatized and with a huge black eye, it was nice to see her in more normal times.  It was kind of surprinting, though, to learn that her and Joel were a couple for over a decade, didn't see that coming.  It seems like the kind of relationship that would only work for a few years, tops!
 
I'm very curious about the new bit in the show that wasn't in the games, that Marlene apparently knew Ellie before recent times, and had in fact brought her into the orphanage?  I wonder why they are expanding this lore; It makes me worry they are going to introduce that she was worked on by scientists to be immune or something, which would be an awful change.  Hopefully it's something else that I can't think of yet that they're setting up. Nevermind, I forgot about game stuff
 
I'm on board with tendrils being the non-biting way to get infected other that spores, but in order to explain the flour being the source of the infection spreading wordwide, that mean this fungus does still make spores and those will infect you, there just isn't going to spots where they turn the air into a cloudy fog like in the games, I guess.  But what I'm not sure I'm fully on board with yet, is the whole "tendril network" thing, where a dying infected dude's tendrils just touched some fungus on the ground briefly and instantly tons of infected stood up to come after them.  It was all cool in the moment, but I wonder how plausible this will work as the show goes on. Maybe they just won't come into many places where the fungus is all over the ground like that?  I did like how outside of the museum, the fungus had completely dried up and was dead, and basically not connected to the rest of the fungus around.  Makes you wonder if humanity is thriving in some hot, dry climates?  The game never really gets into anything outside of what Joel, Ellie, and Abby experience so I'm curious what world-building they have in mind.  The episode 1 and 2 cold opens have already been really cool in that regard.

The Last Of Us 1x03 Long, Long Time
 
I thought this episode was really special when it aired, and my appreciation has only increased in the days since.  It's hard to tell a complete, memorable story with characters you care about in just 46 1/2 minutes, and they really did so here!  And how refreshing that was it was two middle-aged dudes who finally got to have something they hadn't had before, and die happy in old age together.  A lot of people say this is a sad episode, but these guys had a happy ending, as happy as you get get in the apocalyptic setting the show takes place in.
 
It wouldn't have worked without two talented actors, and both Nick Offerman and Maury Bartlett really nailed everything they had to do, and then some.  Nick Offerman was perfectly cast (amazing that they originally wanted Con O'Neill to do it)!  He's one of those comedic actors who knows drama so well, and does it better because of the comedic background.  I loved that it was his idea to say the "jack-booted thugs" line outloud instead of just being internal direction, that's such a great way an actor can elevate the material and I'm sure there was a tons of little things like that.  Bartlett was the perfect screen partner for him to, they really were great together.  That strawberry scene was so touching (You have to imagine Bill ran out of sugar years and years prior and this was probably the first sweet thing they've tasted in ages), as was their entire initial courtship.
 
I loved how balanced they were.  Bill was a brilliant protector, who clearly had an apocalypse plan and nailed it as soon as he could.  How smart was it to use his neighbor's boat as a trailer, raid Home Depot and the power plants to stock up on those essentials.  Not to mention he figured out how to break down a car battery into its component parts to last longer in the fridge!? (I'm not sure what they are doing for gas 20 years after refineries shut down though, unless Joel and Tess bring that to them or something).  And his traps were awesome, loved the angle grinders making sparks to just burn alive all the raiders.  And the pit that poor Frank probably hurt himself pretty good falling into.  And Frank taught Bill how to open up and make your home worth living in.  I love that their relationship wasn't portrayed as being rosy all the time despite everything they had going for it.
 
People viewing this as some kind of detour are totally missing how important this episode is for Joel's character, with Bill's note practically spelling it out for the audience in the end.  I loved the scene where Joel and Tess come over for lunch and Tess and Frank leave Joel and Bill alone for a bit, knowing they'll find some common ground.  I love how they recognize a lot of themselves in each other, and how Joel offers the stuff to make his fence better - for both of them.  Bill hated the world and realized it was worth living to save one person and share a life with them, rather than just surviving.  And we have to hope Joel will take that to heart and do the same for Ellie, which at the end of the episode he sure seems to be ready to do.
 
But before that I liked how the episode started, with Joel alone by the river, likely thinking about Tess and hoe he failed her like he failed Sarah.  And I love that Ellie is ready to stand up and state it's not her fault what happened - and that Joel gives that curt little nod in agreement.  Fantastic wordless response.  The fact that they enter a Cumby's was a nice local touch for us Massachusetts-ers, though of course the geography shown doesn't exist 10 miles west of Boston (which is like, Waltham).  I was very intrigued by the scene with Ellie and the creature in the basement (kind of halfway between a regular infected and a clicker, right?  He had one eye covered in fungus, and was starting to make clicker-esque noises).  I was just like her at that age, in terms of always wanting to explore everywher even when I knew I shouldn't.  But with the creature, I read her cutting it open and then killing it in a couple ways.  One was the conversation she had with Joel in the last episode, asking him if its hard to kill them knowing they were once human.  When she cuts his face and sees nothing but fungus under the skin, I think that makes it easier for her.  And I think she killed it to sort of get experience, since she feels so far behind what Joel and Tess know.
 
The pit they find of bodies, and Joel revealing that FEDRA burned people alive that weren't even infected yet just to cut down on the number of people in QZs was horrifying.  The world building this show has is paced out just how I like it so far.
 
I loved the touch that when they get to Bill's house, Joel notices the wilted flowers and immediately knows what's up.  I like that he so callously asks "so they're dead?", before being willing to hear the note. And I like that the note hit home, because Bill has such insight into Joel's character.  But of course he couldn't know that Joel had just lost Tess.  At least Joel did the right thing at the end.  
 
Loved the truck scene!  The sheer joy on Ellie's face and the way she reacted to everything in the car was great.  Of course it'd seem like a spaceship to her, and she'd have no idea what a seatbelt was.  That scene reminded me a bit of the spaceship scene from game 2, actually.
 
Oh yea, and she finally gets a gun before they leave!  The show has shown us the violent side of Joel, and I think they've nicely hinted that something similar could exist in Ellie - her description of the violence in Mortal Kombat II, the way she plays with her knife whenever she can, always asking for a gun, cutting and killing the proto-clicker, and now the gun.  Can't wait to see her get a a chance to use it!

I also really like some of the Marvel scores, and I think there are some great themes here and there, but the biggest problem, which has already been commented around many times, is the fact that for example, characters like Thor, Iron Man or Captain America have had from 3 to 6 different themes through the films, which makes it a bit harder to make an impact on the popular conscience, as opposed to, for example, the Avengers theme, which has been used in many of the MCU movies with great effect, and even if some might consider that is not a great or original theme, it's quite memorable in how it has been used through the movies.
 
The MCU is a big missed opportunity for a huge musical tapestry of themes for all the different characters and locations, but as it is, there are still some great ideas here and there, and I especially like when a composer gets to do a complete trilogy, like with Giacchino's Spider-Man or Beck's Ant-Man scores, allowing them to build an interesting catalogue of themes, which sometimes cross over to other movies.

Not sure I agree with Marvel. There are 30 hours of Marvel music and maybe 10 minutes of memorable themes. I am not sure if this is just the younger composers' lack of interest in writing memorable themes or they are just writing generic orchestral music to fit the movies because Marvel films are usually as vanilla as it gets. With that said, there are still a lot of thematic identities, but far less so now in dramas and thriller films. 
 
Some of the memorable themes imo are from TV series now. Title themes from Succession, Game of Thrones, Westworld, Severance, For all Mankind, etc. Nature documentaries have some of the best themes in recent years. "A Perfect Planet" from Ilan Eshkeri. Main themes from Frozen Planet II, Blue Planet II, and Prehistoric Planet. 

I haven't watched the Cushing movies but I'd like to, they look like fun. 
 
There's a hilarious moment in Moffat's novelisation of Day of the Doctor implying that the Cushing movies exist within the universe of Who; posters for the films appear in the Black Archive and Clara and the Doctor have a short exchange about it. That easter egg was apparently supposed to be in the televised story but they couldn't clear the rights for the posters which is a shame. I recommend reading the novelisation, it's a lot of fun, and also captures some of the mystery and poeticism around the Time War which could never be translated to the screen.

I haven't watched the Cushing movies but I'd like to, they look like fun. 
 
There's a hilarious moment in Moffat's novelisation of Day of the Doctor implying that the Cushing movies exist within the universe of Who; posters for the films appear in the Black Archive and Clara and the Doctor have a short exchange about it. That easter egg was apparently supposed to be in the televised story but they couldn't clear the rights for the posters which is a shame. I recommend reading the novelisation, it's a lot of fun, and also captures some of the mystery and poeticism around the Time War which could never be translated to the screen.

THE MOVIE pulled in approximately 9 million viewers, in the UK.
Although I didn't like it at the time, I am sure that McGann would, given the chance, have made a fine Doctor.

Yeah, the amount of unreleased music we know was recorded is pretty small. There's more stuff that was written, but it may never have been recorded.

Who still rates things on IMDB anyway??  They completely removed the social component of it so now it's just like throwing numbers out into the void.

They may have, but the idiots who pull these campaigns always have a way around those kinds of protections. At any rate we're talking about IMDB which clearly has no such interventions.

I've never trusted IMDB's or any other site's user-generated ratings systems. Too easily manipulated with targeted attacks from miserable basement-dwellers, not to mention culturally homogenous - like many online spaces it skews heavily male, white and American. The sample pool for IMDB reviewers has never traditionally been a cross-section of mainstream society, so it's hardly an accurate indicator of what people actually like in the real world.

I don't think it's terribly important to have a mass rating/opinion system at all  to be honest, at least when it comes to art. I'm quite happy listening to the communities that I'm involved with that have similar interests, and reviewers whose critiques I find compelling and well-argued.
 
Too many people put stock in populist ratings when they tell you absolutely nothing about what is being rated. 97% on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't mean something is better than 97% of what else is out there, just that the majority of the reviews are "positive"; not necessarily glowing or outstanding, just "not bad". A film or show that is incredibly influential and meaningful to a specific audience may only get a score of 50%, which isn't at all indicative of the quality of the art in question. IMDB is even worse; on one hand you have sycophants rating everything 10/10 and on the other you've got trolls bombing things for political reasons with nary a nod to nuance.