THE LAST OF US (HBO TV) - spoilers allowed for aired episodes (game spoilers masked)

[Jay 37,368]

You mean 2013?

[Crimson Nagus 43]

Oops, that’s right.

[A24 4,338]

- Pilot felt too long but I did like the first part with his daughter. Then I got slightly uninterested during the present part (20 years later) where the current situation is explained. The Last Of Us is a very conventional show, not all that different from The Walking Dead. It just has better production values and so far it is less soapy. 

- Second epsiode is better. The Fungus Heads looked ridiculous though.

[Knight of Ren 789]

Oh my god, that was a brutal episode! I wasn't expecting it to go as dark as it did in the end. At first David struck me as a kind of nice guy, with a bit of a saviour complex, but he really turned out to be a full on psychopath, and the final minutes in the restaurant between him and Ellie were probably the most tense the show has been so far.

 

Bella Ramsey totally owned the episode and her acting when

 

Spoiler

she fights David and repeatedly strikes him with the butcher knife

 

got me shocked. The episode felt a bit slow on the beginning, but oh boy did the intensity picked up, and I liked that it was mostly Ellie figuring things out for herself, with Joel having less to do this time.

 

There's just one episode left, and it's quite a short one (45 minutes I think), so I don't know how they're gonna wrap things up, but I'm sure they will offer a fitting conclusion, and this will probably stand as one of the best tv shows of the year (at least for me) at the end of this year.

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

Yeah. This episode was insane. And indeed quite brutal. Not only the final showdown but also the scenes leading up to that.

 

The horse chase and the jail conversation were both really tense. And wow, Davud was a creep. Kudoos to the actor for playing such a despicable character. And I was truly shocked about the revelation that they were eating their dead. Which in hindsight makes sense when you go back the opening and the dinner scene later in the episode. The girl wants to bury her father, but there is no father left to bury. And after that revelation that dinner scene was really disturbing.

 

And wooooow, is Bella Ramsey a great actress. I really feel that both she and Pascal should get nominations for this show. Their work has been incredible. But this episode Ramsey did a perfect job. She never oversold anything or was overly dramatic. I loved it.

 

I'm also very curious what they are going to do with the finale.

[A24 4,338]

Episode 3: Average but it's good that they are able to do an episode with totally different characters living their own story. 

 

 

[Jay 37,368]

The Last Of Us 1x08 When We Are in Need

 

Scott Shepherd was an awesome David!  And it was trippy hearing Game Joel's voice come out of James!

 

The sets were really nicely realized in this episode. The abandoned neighborhood reminded me of various gameplay sections from either game.  The rabbit and deer hunting scenes in the woods were well done, as was the little cabin Ellie and David have their chat in.  And the ski resort was good too.

 

The plot felt incredibly fast-paced to me, but I find it harder and harder to gauge that rationally since I played the game.  Maybe it felt just right to non-game-players

 

I liked getting introduced to David's people before Ellie runs into them.  But I kinda feel like this episode had the reverse problem of the Kansas City episodes; In those episodes, they took a really thin villain character in Kathleen and spread her out over 2 episodes.  In this case we have an incredibly compelling, complex villian character that gets introduced and killed off within a single episode.  They really could have turned this into 2 episodes: The first episode climaxing with Ellie getting captured but Joel still out of it, the second episode showing much more of his journey back to Ellie, much more David's background and plans for Ellie, etc.  

Oh well

[Jay 37,368]

‘The Last of Us’ Episode 8 Hits Series High of 8.1 Million Viewers, Up 74% From Season Premiere

[enderdrag64 624]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

The Last Of Us 1x08 When We Are in Need

 

Scott Shepherd was an awesome David!  And it was trippy hearing Game Joel's voice come out of James!

 

The sets were really nicely realized in this episode. The abandoned neighborhood reminded me of various gameplay sections from either game.  The rabbit and deer hunting scenes in the woods were well done, as was the little cabin Ellie and David have their chat in.  And the ski resort was good too.

 

The plot felt incredibly fast-paced to me, but I find it harder and harder to gauge that rationally since I played the game.  Maybe it felt just right to non-game-players

 

I liked getting introduced to David's people before Ellie runs into them.  But I kinda feel like this episode had the reverse problem of the Kansas City episodes; In those episodes, they took a really thin villain character in Kathleen and spread her out over 2 episodes.  In this case we have an incredibly compelling, complex villian character that gets introduced and killed off within a single episode.  They really could have turned this into 2 episodes: The first episode climaxing with Ellie getting captured but Joel still out of it, the second episode showing much more of his journey back to Ellie, much more David's background and plans for Ellie, etc.  

Oh well

I agree that it was a little rushed as someone who hasn't played the game. I was genuinely confused by the end of the episode by David's motivations and by the caliber of Ellie's violence towards him. It wasn't until after the episode ended and I read about his motivations in the game that I realized the child predation and cannibalism.

 

I personally think they could have made his negative traits just a little more explicit, although maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been

[Jay 37,368]

You didn't pick up on the cannibalism from watching the episode?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Or his child grooming? He tries to rape Ellie. 

[Jay 37,368]

Maybe he was fiddling with his mobile device while watching

[A24 4,338]

Episode 4: Umm ... this was a rather short episode, there's not much to talk about, except, you don't sleep on the cold forest floor at night, you sleep in the car. That didn't make any sense. Not only are you isolated from the cold ground, it's much safer too.

[Gabriel Bezerra 302]

13 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Or his child grooming? He tries to rape Ellie. 

Even before that, as soon as he hit the girl in the dinner and said "you still has a father" the jig was up.

[Jay 37,368]

It was definitely a terrific moment when Joel reunited with Ellie and he held her and called her baby girl.  I like that she was able to rescue herself from the cannibals, but I do think that if Joel hadn't been there immediately afterward, she would be far worse off than she will be now.  She'll still be forever changed by what happened, but even though Joel didn't help her physically survive, I think he is crucial to her emotionally surviving this.

[Hurmm 91]

As someone who's never played the game, the series comes across as extremely episodic, with many episodes having settings and characters that never appear again beyond that episode. 

 

There is character development and progression, to be sure. Joel and Ellie's bonding does feel earned and real, so props to that. But narratively speaking this hasn't been going anywhere for ages. It takes a certain dare and panache to even consider having this many episodes of a zombie series with nary a zombie in sight, but after awhile it does get to a point where I begin to wonder "where is all this going?". 

 

Ep 3 is the best episode by far, so far. 

[Jay 37,368]

I will say that the game doesn't have that problem.  Character still come and go, but you spend much more time with every one before that happens.  This is largely due to them completely cutting out 90% of the game's action sequences from the show.

 

For example in the game when you're in the cabin with David, you end up getting attacked by infected, and it's this massive action sequence culminating with having to take down a bloater.  This actually kind of bonds Ellie and David together a bit since they literally saved each other's lives - and it makes Ellie's "I'm infected, look at my arm!" moment make more sense because it's more believable that she just got recently bit during that encounter.

 

Also the show compounds the 1-off character problem by inventing a character the game didn't have (Kathleen).  At the time it seemed fine, but in retrospect since they were going to turn David and his cannibal camp into a 1-episode story, they shouldn't have added Kathleen to KC and just made the focus be on Sam and Henry more.  Speaking of them, they are around for WAY longer in the game and you get up to way more stuff with them.

 

Anyways, Game 2 is structured very differently from Game 1, so season 2 shouldn't have this problem.

[Benhip 21]

I thought in the beginning that I would be annoyed by the episodic aspect of the series, but, since a few episodes, I begin to wonder if it doesn’t in fact make more sense than a classic construction. We are in an entirely different world, and this helps us to discover many different types of adaptations to the apocalypse. Though, more episodes or longer ones would have been better to explore the relationship between Joel and Ellie, which is quite underused. Anyway, I’ll wait until next week before giving any definitive advice.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

4 hours ago, Hurmm said:

It takes a certain dare and panache to even consider having this many episodes of a zombie series with nary a zombie in sight, but after awhile it does get to a point where I begin to wonder "where is all this going?". 

 

Ep 3 is the best episode by far, so far. 

I agree with you on that last sentence, and notice that lengthy episode only (briefly! barely!) had two zombies in it!

That might clue you into the fact that this isn’t *really* a “zombie series”. The zombie apocalypse is just the background to a relationship drama, which is what this is.

 

Yavar

 

[Jay 37,368]

I knew the show would remove a lot of the game's action scenes (which are really the only time infected appear), but man does it have even less infected action than I could have ever expected

 

Episode 1A (orig 1) - multiple runners 20 year ago

Episode 1B (orig 2) - none (just the guy stuck to the wall Joel and Tess find)

Episode 2 (orig 3) - 2 clickers

Episode 3 (orig 4) - none (just the half runner / half clicker stuck under the gas station Ellie finds and the one Bill sees on his TV)

Episode 4 (orig 5) - none

Episode 5 (orig 6) - bloater, multiple clickers and runners, crazy child gymastic clicker

Episode 6 (orig 7) - none

Episode 7 (orig 8) - 1 clicker in the flashback

Episode 8 (orig 9) - none

Episode 9 (orig 10) - TBD (I'm expecting none)

 

Couldn't see that coming

[Bespin 8,483]

So cannibalism is supposed to be the ultimate taboo? You never read Anne Rice haha 😄 

[Jay 37,368]

Who said that?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The show can’t really replace the moment-to-moment dialogue beats and environmental storytelling of the game.

 

It doesn’t allow the audience to simmer on certain characters or interactions before it chugs along to the next episode. The music is also severely underused, in my opinion. The aftermath of Ellie killing David, for example, is done entirely without dialogue and sound effects in the game, just music. 
 

That being said, I still think it’s an incredibly strong adaption. I just don’t understand why they had to cram the entire game into 9 episodes or even 1 season. 

[Jay 37,368]

Well they wrote and shot it as 10 episodes, they just combined the first two together in editing

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Right, but I think more time than that spent with these characters would have made for better television. 

[Jay 37,368]

I agree. I think they should have taken two seasons to cover the first game. 

[Mephariel 451]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

I agree. I think they should have taken two seasons to cover the first game. 

 

Maybe...but then again, I think no. I think that is the kind of overexuberance thinking is what plagued shows like The Walking Dead. I don't want to see Joel and Ellie shoot or kill zombies every episode and regurgitate the same talking points over and over again just to fill 20 episodes of TV. 

 

I think the series has enough episodes. I think if anything, it needed longer episodes. Like 1 hr 10 mins per episode would be great.   

 

I also said in another forum that it isn't realistic to do what the game does. How on earth do they have enough bullets or strength to kill all those people and clickers? Unlike the game, you are not going to find bullets in a random abandoned store. You are not finding scissors and bindings to make shivs or nail bombs. You are not punching that many guys without breaking your hand. And you are definitely not carrying a 2 long guns, 2 short guns, a crowbar, and a 40 pound pack while sprinting like an Olympian and going prone. 

[Datameister 2,044]

Jesus. Episode 8 was dark. I picked up on the cannibalistic overtones from the first shot of the meat being prepared, and I hoped I was wrong. But it makes sense that it would happen in this world.

 

I've got to think Ellie is going to be affected quite a bit by her experiences at the end of the episode. I hope they don't break her.

[Jay 37,368]

[DarthDementous 1,059]

Interesting coincidence, I wonder if Stranger Things was inspired

[Crimson Nagus 43]

I think the show’s length has been fine.  On YT, you can find cutscene edits of the first game and it is not as long as I think many people remember.  Edits that even include all crucial dialogue sequences run 3:30 to 6 hours long, just depends on how much gameplay they include.  Depending on your play style, this game can be completed in 10 hours if you don’t search for all loot and the collectibles.  My first play through took 18-20 hours but, I’m a slow game player and search every area for a long time.  I also died a lot and had to repeat plenty of sections.

 

The show, including the last episode will be about 8 hours, 40 minutes long.  But you have to take away 1:40 because 45 minutes of episode 3 are not in the game at all and almost all of episode 7 was DLC, released a year later.  So that leaves 7 hours which is very comparable to the game’s length minus some of the gameplay action. (I think I did my math right)

 

I just think splitting it over 2 season would have added a lot of needless filler.  I have enjoyed the quick, tight pace, especially compared to something like The Walking Dead. I stopped watching that somewhere in season 5 and never went back.  It was just moving way to slow and didn’t seem like it was going anywhere.

 

 

I really enjoyed the episode 8. I don’t really have much to add outside of what others have said.  Although, this is one action sequence I wish they didn’t skip.  David and Ellie fighting infected together caused Ellie to trust him more, especially when he reveals he still had a hidden gun the whole time.  This was while they were waiting for James to return with the medicine.  This was a huge swarm in the game so, maybe make it smaller in the show but, I was surprised they didn’t even have to fight a few together.

[Jay 37,368]

4 minutes ago, rolltide1017 said:

Although, this is one action sequence I wish they didn’t skip.  David and Ellie fighting infected together caused Ellie to trust him more, especially when he reveals he still had a hidden gun the whole time.  This was while they were waiting for James to return with the medicine.  This was a huge swarm in the game so, maybe make it smaller in the show but, I was surprised they didn’t even have to fight a few together.

 

I agree with this 100%.

 

Plus like I said above, it makes it more plausible that Ellie hadn't turned yet when Ellie is like "I'm infected!" if she was just "bit" the day before during that action scene

[Gabriel Bezerra 302]

21 hours ago, Jay said:

Episode 3 (orig 4) - none (just the half runner / half clicker stuck under the gas station Ellie finds)

Two. There's also the one who falls in Bill's trap.

[Jay 37,368]

Haha, I put that one under the wrong episode, it's moved to the right episode now

[Koray Savas 2,251]

5 hours ago, rolltide1017 said:

I think the show’s length has been fine.  On YT, you can find cutscene edits of the first game and it is not as long as I think many people remember.  Edits that even include all crucial dialogue sequences run 3:30 to 6 hours long, just depends on how much gameplay they include.  Depending on your play style, this game can be completed in 10 hours if you don’t search for all loot and the collectibles.  My first play through took 18-20 hours but, I’m a slow game player and search every area for a long time.  I also died a lot and had to repeat plenty of sections.

 

The show, including the last episode will be about 8 hours, 40 minutes long.  But you have to take away 1:40 because 45 minutes of episode 3 are not in the game at all and almost all of episode 7 was DLC, released a year later.  So that leaves 7 hours which is very comparable to the game’s length minus some of the gameplay action. (I think I did my math right)

 

I just think splitting it over 2 season would have added a lot of needless filler.  I have enjoyed the quick, tight pace, especially compared to something like The Walking Dead. I stopped watching that somewhere in season 5 and never went back.  It was just moving way to slow and didn’t seem like it was going anywhere.

 

 

I really enjoyed the episode 8. I don’t really have much to add outside of what others have said.  Although, this is one action sequence I wish they didn’t skip.  David and Ellie fighting infected together caused Ellie to trust him more, especially when he reveals he still had a hidden gun the whole time.  This was while they were waiting for James to return with the medicine.  This was a huge swarm in the game so, maybe make it smaller in the show but, I was surprised they didn’t even have to fight a few together.

Most of the main story beats are here, but so much of the character development is sprinkled through the moment to moment gameplay, not even combat. That’s the stuff that can’t be replicated by the TV format, in my opinion. It’s what makes gaming a unique entertainment medium that stands on its own. This is probably as good as an adaption that can exist, but to me the game still reigns supreme. I think that’s a testament to how great it really is. 

[mstrox 6,651]

Yeah, if you just sit down and watch cutscenes only, you’re missing tons of story and character development.

[A24 4,338]

Will the little girl (Ellie) be the youngest actress ever to receive an Emmy Award? Discuss!

[Faleel 5,350]

No.

[Edmilson 7,463]

8 minutes ago, AC1 said:

Will the little girl (Ellie) be the youngest actress ever to receive an Emmy Award? Discuss!

According to the website below, the youngest actress to ever win an Emmy was 14 when she received the prize:

 

https://www.purewow.com/entertainment/youngest-emmy-winners

 

Ellie's actress was 19 when she filmed the show IIRC.

[A24 4,338]

But in the show Ellie said she is 14. I believed her! 

[Jay 37,368]

She's 19 now, 18 when this filmed. 

 

Not even close to youngest winner. 

[Jay 37,368]

The physical CD edition of the Season 1 OST album is up on the various European Amazon sites now

 

https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0BW2PPTNR
https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0BW2PPTNR
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BW2PPTNR
etc

 

Nothing on Amazon US yet

 

 

On 27/02/2023 at 8:53 PM, MaxMovieMan said:

EPISODE 8

• Complications - David’s men chase Ellie
• Collateral - Ellie and Joel embrace

 

Thanks for updating this!

[Jay 37,368]

Some random thoughts after second watch of Episode 8

 

 

Troy Baker was really good as James!  I'm very glad they found a role for him in the show, and I really don't think he would have been good as any other character we've seen, but he was perfect for this guy.

 

Little rewarding things on second watch I didn't pick up on the first time (even though I knew they were cannibals from the game), like David's excuse for not burying Hannah's father.  BTW, is it him that they are eating later in the episode!?!?

 

It's made a big deal that Ellie can't escape the restaurant because all the doors are locked but David has the keys.  However, there are tons of huge windows.  Ellie didn't even try to break one?  Plus, at the end of the episode, she just walks out an unlocked door by pushing it open, no keys needed.  Womp womp.

 

The restaurant being on fire is almost meaningless, just window dressing really, it doesn't effect anything that happens.  In fact, it makes it even weirder that David tries to rape her inside a burning building.  I know the burning building is iconic imagery from the game, but in the game it actually plays into the gameplay of sneaking around avoiding him, and you really feel like even if you kill him you won't get out of the building alive, until Joel shows up and leads you out.

 

Another thing, I thought it was weird that the building was the same building that they have their meetings and meals in.  Was it like that in the game?  The reason I bring it up is because I thought it was strange that NOBODY from town shows up once the building is ENGULFED in flames?  Are they all sleeping through it?  It could have been more plausible if the restaurant ended up being far away from the general population, would would make a ton of sense since they were trying to hide the cannibalism from most of the group.  But it's the their primarily meeting spot, so I'd imagine people are close by?  I mean, how big could a ski resort be?  Anyways, it's just kind of weird that no one shows up to deal with the fire.

 

Also, at the end of the episode, Joel and Ellie just walk straight towards the open water, instead of into the woods or something.  I know all 5 of the people that did all the leading and hunting for David's group are dead, but you'd think some of the people would pursue them in some way... I dunno

[Koray Savas 2,251]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

The restaurant being on fire is almost meaningless, just window dressing really, it doesn't effect anything that happens.  In fact, it makes it even weirder that David tries to rape her inside a burning building.  I know the burning building is iconic imagery from the game, but in the game it actually plays into the gameplay of sneaking around avoiding him, and you really feel like even if you kill him you won't get out of the building alive, until Joel shows up and leads you out.

I mean this plays out the same way in the game. David’s only reason for keeping Ellie alive is to groom her. His people already want her killed for the death of their own. After killing James and setting fire to part of their shelter, David knows there would be no talking them out of killing Ellie, so this is sort of his last opportunity to get what he wants out of her. 

[Jay 37,368]

I guess so

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

It's made a big deal that Ellie can't escape the restaurant because all the doors are locked but David has the keys.  However, there are tons of huge windows.  Ellie didn't even try to break one?  Plus, at the end of the episode, she just walks out an unlocked door, no keys in hand.  Womp womp

Why on earth wouldn’t Ellie (especially since she’s in shock) just leave the keys in the lock after unlocking the door? Why would she need to walk out  with the keys, once they’ve served their purpose in unlocking the door? I mean, sure when unlocking a door we usually then extricate the keys and put them back in our pocket, because they’re our keys! But why on earth would Ellie want to hold onto David’s keys, once she’s unlocked the door and can go out into the open?

 

Yavar

[Jay 37,368]

Sorry, I meant that the keys were not needed for the door at all, I wasn't saying she should have brought them with her outside.  I'll fix my wording.

 

Regardless, she did not unlock the door she exited through, she just pushed it open.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

Wait, I thought he locked the door. So yeah, even if we don’t see a shot of her digging around his corpse for his keys, the implication is that’s what’s happened for her to be able to unlock the door and emerge.

 

Yavar

[Jay 37,368]

Sorry, you still don't understand what I'm saying, or I'm not being clear enough.

 

The shows tells you that David locked all the doors, so Ellie can't escape without the keys.  (Or breaking a window, which I don't know why she doesn't try to do).

However, after it's all over, the door she exits is, in fact, not locked.  It's one of those doors with a push bar, that she just pushes open.  No keys were needed after all.

 

That's it.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

Doors with push bars can still be locked, though. I just figured we didn’t see her finding the keys and unlocking.

 

Yavar