HBO: The Last of Us

[The Buffinator]

It's people! Their meals are people!!!

Tastes like chicken lol.

Love the Soylent Green reference.

 

[ArtDamage]

Yeah it wasn't terrible, but I do feel we missed something with not getting any Joel, Ellie, and Bill interaction.

The Emmy fishing out of the way, maybe we can really develop Joel and Ellie's relationship in the next one.

 

[Jman101010]

I really liked the episode, but it was absolutely pointless. I watched it believing Bill was going to still be alive and we'd get some of the stuff from the game. Now that he's already gone and they skipped over all of that, it was just a waste of time. If I went back and watched it knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't like it as much. If we got this and another episode with Bill, then I'd be ok with it, but since they skipped over it, this episode just feels like they just wanted to show the relationship for obvious reasons. Not to mention the note in the game from Frank that paints a different picture about their relationship. Again, I would've been fine with it if they kept Bill alive and did the stuff from the game as well.

 

[R_R_X]

I get the impression that Bill in the game is the Bill we see on the show a couple of years later had he not drank the wine with Frank.

I didn't, Bill is a completely different person in the game whom everyone had a hard time with, an extremely paranoid and antisocial hermit who built literal and psychological walls around himself and everything sorrounding him, Joel didn't even know Frank existed until they find his corpse and his suicide letter with some nasty last words for Bill.

Bill in the game is a version of who Joel could become if he kept closing himself to everyone and everything while Bill in the show is a version of who Joel can become if he allows himself to love again.

 

[R_R_X]

Yeah it wasn't terrible, but I do feel we missed something with not getting any Joel, Ellie, and Bill interaction.

The Emmy fishing out of the way, maybe we can really develop Joel and Ellie's relationship in the next one.

They're going to fish all the Emmys with this one considering the over dramatic response to this episode online and the fact HBO is Emmy's darling but yeah I'm way more interested in seeing how they keep developing Joel and Ellie's bond on the show and meet characters that actually leave a lasting impact on them.

 

[Wor-Gar]

We all know Hollywood will throw every award its got at Frank and Bill's love story.

Emmy-fishing is a great term.

 

[Jman101010]

Yeah it wasn't terrible, but I do feel we missed something with not getting any Joel, Ellie, and Bill interaction.

The Emmy fishing out of the way, maybe we can really develop Joel and Ellie's relationship in the next one.

Don't forget the Riley stuff coming up as well. The Emmy fishing isn't done yet lol.

 

[ArtDamage]

Don't forget the Riley stuff coming up as well. The Emmy fishing isn't done yet lol.

True enough lol I'm guessing we'll get "Left Behind" in the winter section somewhere.

 

[choombaz]

EGOT Fishing In The Yemen

 

[R_R_X]

And unrelated to the relationship, but my God did Bill look ridiculous standing right in the middle of the street shooting at people. All that incredible preparation and he stands out there as a fully illuminated target.

That scene sticks out like a sore thumb, I don't know what was more ridiculous Bill firing in the middle of the road like a sitting duck or the raiders literally throwing themselves at that hilariously deadly fence.

It's like they remembered they were doing an episode of an apocalypse zombie show midway through and quickly put together that scene to create false tension and keep a portion of viewers from falling asleep, I saw some people comparing this episode to Disney's UP and I couldn't agree more, this felt like a Disney fairy tale romance compared to all the other traumatic, harrowing, depressing expiriences every single character in the franchise goes through.

 

[𝘨⃨𝘭⃨𝘪⃨𝘵⃨𝘤⃨𝘩⃨10ᔦᔦ]

That scene sticks out like a sore thumb, I don't know what was more ridiculous Bill firing in the middle of the road like a sitting duck or the raiders literally throwing themselves at that hilariously deadly fence.

It's like they remembered they were doing an episode of an apocalypse zombie show midway through and quickly put together that scene to create false tension and keep a portion of viewers from falling asleep, I saw some people comparing this episode to Disney's UP and I couldn't agree more, this felt like a Disney fairy tale romance compared to all the other traumatic, harrowing, depressing expiriences every single character in the franchise goes through.

And the way they were sneaking up on the town made them look like ex military or something. I was thinking something like "B&F are in for it now!" Joel and Tess have to show up and help them....oh...ok, nevermind then.

 

[Wor-Gar]

So are Raiders normal people that thieve from other normal people... or are they somehow infected and stupid?

Why do they throw themselves at the fence? Why don't they duck when they see fire?

 

[R_R_X]

So are Raiders normal people that thieve from other normal people... or are they somehow infected and stupid?

Why do they throw themselves at the fence? Why don't they duck when they see fire?

Bad A.I so it's not really a big deal, happens in the game too.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Bad AI?

 

[jye4ever]

I could buy the reaction to this episode being an 8.0 but the 11.0’s has got my eye rolling lol

But we know why the over reaction sigh

 

[batfan08]

Personally, I loved it, but, then, I’m also a sap who grew up on romance movies and rom coms, so, mileage may vary. But I feel like the nature of adaptations is to make the changes best suited to the respective mediums and I feel like this one was very well done. There was a toxicity to Bill and Frank’s love story in the game that I feel we got shades of here and while, ultimately, that story had a decidedly different (and far more cynical) ending, I feel like that was at the behest of that particular medium.

Simply put, I don’t feel like you could tell this story in a game like The Last of Us. Not because of any political or social reason, but just because it would very much interrupt the flow. That being said, before someone says “like it did here,” I feel like, going back to what Asta said, the game was able to use other narrative devices to tell side stories that a show or a film could not. You can’t spend 15 minutes of a 9 episode series with Joel checking every floor of a house for supplies and showing letters/journals/suicide notes on the screen for viewers to read while they pause it. It doesn’t work that way and I felt like the Bill and Frank story did a nice job of highlighting some of that without betraying the intent of the game (the show gets us from Point A to Point B with no real difference aside from an additional death. Joel and Ellie leave Bill’s with a truck that works and go on their way.).

I also feel like, in talking about an adaptation, one should also consider author’s intent and, considering one of the game’s actual authors is directly adapting his own work, acknowledging that a decision previously made could be subject to revision or to the desire to do something else entirely, much as this episode did. Was it Emmy baity? Probably. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t work. I got teary eyed during their last day together and I thought it was incredibly moving.

I also found it kind of a funny social experiment in thinking about some of the politicization of media. The idea that the gay guy at the center of this episode was, effectively, what every…person of a particular political ideology could only dream of (right down to calling FEDRA troops “New World Order Jackboot f***s.”). My girlfriend and I were discussing how torn some people might be on this episode because of that.

 

[Rayman]

Let me summarize what I’m reading a little …

1. Episode gets raving opinions and causes mass reactions.
2. Episode isn’t that great though - some of you think.
3. Emmy will be won because they (academy) love this kind of stories.
4. 1 and 3 are aligned, but wrong?

Ok just being a little sarcastic here. I still insist: this was episode 3. It’s risky to put this kind of stories so soon in a series (not that it’s the first time we see this thing on TV). But still it’s way too soon to get a full picture here. Key thing of this episode for the series was: Joel has a reason to be alive, to fight. A very important thing, even if it’s a very small thing too. Everything else was a beautiful movie. A love story in the dark. Which, again, is TLoU thing from the beginning.

It‘s true that we still haven’t seen much of Joel and Ellie, but I’m not worried. Huge amounts of drama can be created in 60 or less minutes. And the team behind this series seem totally fit for the task. And for proof, well... Did you watch episode 3?

This was great TV and great writing, even as unconnected as some of you feel it from the mainline of Joel and Ellie. I’m in owe, for realsies. I’m a huge fan of the games (both of them). And this is feeling to me like adaptation at its finest.

 

[ArtDamage]

Let me summarize what I’m reading a little …

1. Episode gets raving opinions and causes mass reactions.
2. Episode isn’t that great though - some of you think.
3. Emmy will be won because they (academy) love this kind of stories.
4. 1 and 3 are aligned, but wrong?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding here. Are you saying mass reactions = good?

I mean from a studio perspective I'm sure that's very true, but I wouldn't say "Journalists" or "influencers" giving it a 100/10 and saying they bawled for days makes it landmark television.

Everyone has already pointed out the shortcomings of dropping a vignette into an already short season where we're still barely getting to know our characters. As well as the interactions missed out on versus the game's version.

The episode was good, but I don't blame anyone rolling their eyes at the more hysterical reactions around it.

 

[BladeS]

Whenever something comes out that's incredible and everyone in my immediate life loved it, I come here to find all the reasons why it's bad.

 

[ArtDamage]

Whenever something comes out that's incredible and everyone in my immediate life loved it, I come here to find all the reasons why it's bad.