That occurred to me as well.
Television The Last of Us - TV Series HBO | NO GAME REFERENCES OR SPOILERS | Receives 24 Emmy nominations
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That occurred to me as well.
Not my favourite episode. Good as a character piece but we're only two episodes away from the end, and they're meant to be short episodes including the finale being the shortest of the season.
I'm still listening to the podcast even though I kind of hate it. It's a little fart sniffing if I'm being honest. I wish it would talk more about what happened during production rather than their wankmarathons about hidden meanings behind every mundane thing that goes on.
"Joel picks up the blue sippy cup instead of the green one because it reminds him of a toy he had when he was a child, and those feelings are drawing him to love Ellie. Pedro twitches his right pinky finger by about an 1/8 of an inch. In the script it was written that it was to be a 1/4 of an inch, but thanks to Pedro's improv the scene now represents the corruption of the American Dream. Oh my god it's absolutely amazing." feck off you smarmy cnuts
I'm still listening to the podcast even though I kind of hate it. It's a little fart sniffing if I'm being honest. I wish it would talk more about what happened during production rather than their wankmarathons about hidden meanings behind every mundane thing that goes on.
"Joel picks up the blue sippy cup instead of the green one because it reminds him of a toy he had when he was a child, and those feelings are drawing him to love Ellie. Pedro twitches his right pinky finger by about an 1/8 of an inch. In the script it was written that it was to be a 1/4 of an inch, but thanks to Pedro's improv the scene now represents the corruption of the American Dream. Oh my god it's absolutely amazing." feck off you smarmy cnuts
Can I moan about people spoilering the game or is that a bit much?
Damn thing finally gets released on PC soon, I don't wanna know how close the show is to it etc.
Damn thing finally gets released on PC soon, I don't wanna know how close the show is to it etc.
The zombies are the least important part of the story, its about people and relationships.
But they are part of the story, and so it doesn't mean you can't embrace some of the natural horror elements that they bring.
Everything in the show is defined by the fact that Zombies exist and how dangerous they are, so making them menacing is important. Though on that, one thing you have to credit the show for is that - so far - anytime there's been a Zombie encounter, somebodies got bit.
Way too much character development not enough universe building this week.
was pretty bored. Enjoyed it up until now. Not a fan of episode 7.
was pretty bored. Enjoyed it up until now. Not a fan of episode 7.
Really? We learn loads about the other side of fedra. But the show is at least half about ellie and her story so having an episode about that part of her life is very important.
They are but zombie stuff has been done to death.
The worst part of the whole show so far was that zombie horde nonsense in episode 5(?). And the whole back story to that. Probably the only miss so far. Clicker scene in episode 2 was amazing.
Triple post here but there is an official podcast by the show runners and hosted by troy Baker who voiced Joel in the game. They do one a week focusing on that weeks episode. Would recommend it.
Really nice episode, Bella Ramsey is ace. Terrific actress.
I don't think the episode is the problem but instead that we know it's only 9 eps so many people wanna see the story progress and maybe have backstory in flashbacks? And also it's weekly... If this was a "binge" show, no one would complain about that ep.
I think it's a show that is nice to discover on a weekly basis (with time between episodes to digest and analyse a bit - cos for example, this week's episode had more to it than meets the eye), but that will be very suited to a binge rewatch.
Yeah I agree. I think certain shows are better this way and think of Ozark went this route, it would have been more popular. But I'm just saying when people know they have to wait another week for an ep, a backstory ep doesn't always quench the thirst.
Yes but, Dirty Schwein, people are idiots.
The fiance couldn't let this go either. Then we watched an episode of House and she had to get to bed..."3 doctors? For one patient? When's the last time you've ever seen that? feck this"
I liked the opportunity to find out more about Ellie in this episode and
Given what ground they have left to cover I'm expecting some hectic / long episodes in the last 2 of the series unless they go for a big cliffhanger ending?
Liked the way you could interpret the "2 ways" of dealing with Riley and both could fit the events - either they stayed there and Ellie had to kill her, or they tried to go to the fireflies and Riley turned / attacked the fireflies. I particularly liked that reaching that key decision point was the thing that snapped Ellie back into reality where she needed to help Joel
Given what ground they have left to cover I'm expecting some hectic / long episodes in the last 2 of the series unless they go for a big cliffhanger ending?
Show is so fecking good. Shame there is only two episodes left this season
Fear, jeopardy and horror intensify human relationships when faced with these situations. As a viewer they’ve missed making us feel the character’s trepidation, and be desperate for them to survive such situations. This weakens the connection between viewer and character.
For example, the prologues in E1 and E2 did an excellent job of setting the scene and building suspense/horror. E2’s prologue was particularly chilling. I’d go as far as to say this scene is the standout moment of the entire series so far. It was also classic Mazin, having shades of Chernobyl. The series has really lacked anything of this nature since, and it’s a huge shame.
The game wouldn’t have been successful without the horror aspect. They’ve also missed one big aspect of the infected, which is how they slowly lose their minds (hence Riley talking about being poetic and losing their minds, which now carries less relevance since we haven’t witnessed any of this in the infected). We don’t see the mental torture an individual goes through as the infection runs deeper. This is a huge miss for me.
I adore the series though. However, E7 is certainly the weakest. I do believe the attack scene felt rushed, and was in fact somewhat amateurish. The prosthetics, for example, didn’t look half as good as in previous encounters. Hoping for a return to form come E8 and 9.
I dunno. We've had that scene from episode 2 and yeah it was great. We know they are there now and how dangerous they are, that's enough most of the time init? Don't need some mad zombie fight every episode.
The game needed more conflict because it was a game, this is a TV show so the focus has shifted to the characters more which is great.
The game needed more conflict because it was a game, this is a TV show so the focus has shifted to the characters more which is great.
I don't think a lot of the viewers have been paying attention here. The zombies /infected are mostly under control. It has been several decades.
I wonder if there's been a general loss of concentration for us viewers as a whole with the majority of shows being made to binge rather than sip once a week.
I wonder if there's been a general loss of concentration for us viewers as a whole with the majority of shows being made to binge rather than sip once a week.
I've enjoyed the series so far but it does feel like it's lost momentum a bit. I'm fine with flashback episodes, but the pacing is a bit weird considering how quickly they've skipped through some segments of the story while drawing out others.
Said this in the other thread, but I was suprised they left out her finding some actual medical equipment in a mall to treat Joel with (which is what leads to her flashbacks) - would not only have helped the narrative of the episode, but also got around the needle and thread issue ('cos I had the exact same thought as you)
Actually felt this episode was more important than episode 3. I like episode 3 as an escape from the main story, but I honestly feel it's been overhyped because of what it represents. Interestingly I suspect if episode 3 didn't exist, this one would have been appreciated a lot more.
I reckon it's suffering from being the second "escape" in 9 episodes, and this one actually helps build the story in a way that episode 3 didn't.
Apart from the pickup truck (which is long gone), trying to recall if episode 3 had any real impact (or additional context provided) on the main storyline
I reckon it's suffering from being the second "escape" in 9 episodes, and this one actually helps build the story in a way that episode 3 didn't.
Apart from the pickup truck (which is long gone), trying to recall if episode 3 had any real impact (or additional context provided) on the main storyline
The way I see it, Bill's letter was the final kick in the ass Joel needed to go all in on protecting Ellie.
This is only a ‘problem’ for people who’ve played the game. And only then if you watched the Tv series hoping for a rehash of the game. As someone who never played the game there’s been nothing about this series that has felt in any way rushed, or too brief.
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Nobody is suggesting fights every week (they are NOT zombies). The prologue in E1 and E2 had zero combat with the infected. They were there to create suspense and drama, kind of important for television.
I don’t think E7 is calling out for any real fighting with the infected. But the storytelling was slow and weak. It took on the same pace as the game, which was the fatal error for me, since there is a significant difference between being the active game-player and simply being a spectator. For example, you can spend hours scavenging on the game and not get bored, but you couldn’t televise this. I’m not saying this was as boring as scavenging, but the pace was definitely lacking.
As has been successfully demonstrated in all the previous episodes, you don’t simply copy and paste the gameplay. This has been done to the point where there have even been accusations of rushing things. They haven‘t rushed, and it is only a complaint of those who have played the game. This episode was almost like for like with the game, went too slowly, and it hasn’t worked as well as a consequence.
Yeah I felt the zombie was less than convincing - kind of reminded me of a fanboy cosplaying at a Last of Us fan meet and greet.
I hate it when things get valued because of what they represent
Not really. I played the game years ago and while I enjoyed it, I can't actually remember any of it. For starters, episode 6 felt very rushed. It went from travelling with near-zero hope of finding his brother, to finding his brother and oh a massive civilised town, to shortly leaving said town and brother, getting to the next/ultimate destination, finding nothing, and Joel getting stabbed, with a couple existential crises in between, in the space of 50 minutes.
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That’s getting close to the silly GoT criticisms about not taking long enough to travel from A to B! There’s only so much “horse plodding through the wilderness” footage you can put up on screen. And episode 6 definitely didn’t feel lacking in that regard. To be fair, they used all the travelling stuff quite well to show the developing closeness between the two leads but it never felt like we needed any more campfire chats than we got.
I regret having played the games because I feel it's tainting my opinion somewhat. I have found the whole show to be very very boring. That's all I could think of
I dunno, there were definitely some pacing issues in latter seasons of GOT. It's obviously not quite at that level, but the brother stuff felt a bit quick considering the most of the story had revolved around the need to find him. At which point it's oh great, you've been living and working in some new world hidden civilisation for the last year or whatever, and you have a mrs, and a baby on the way... let's just do 30 seconds of beer around the campfire time and be on our way. But not before we drop in some vague references to how bad a person Joel is, what they've been through, how troubled his brother is about their experiences etc. Just feels weird to me that they fast-forward through what should have been a pretty significant event. A bit underwhelming.
Interesting you felt like they fast-forwarded through that episode. To me it felt quite leisurely paced. They devoted a lot of time to dialogue, with very little action. I thought they got the balance about right but can see why some people might have wanted more action and less chat. Didn’t think anyone would find it too fast-paced.
I’m glad they’ve used action and “zombie stuff” sparingly to be honest. The further they stay away from Walking Dead the better.
Yeah, I tried Walking Dead but couldn’t get into it at all. I find this show way more interesting.
I don't really have a problem with the pacing in this show but the issue I had with GOT is that by the later seasons, it was violating its own unwritten rules regarding travel - in the first few seasons several episodes were dedicated to characters such as Jamie and Breanne making their way south; in one of the final seasons, Gendry leaves the team stranded on an ice flow, runs south through the mountains, gets word to Dany, who then flies back up north to rescue the team stuck on the ice, all within a seemingly very short period of time. It reminded me of the scene from the Naked Gun where Frank Drebin and his girlfriend do about 50 different things, all in one day.
The Walking Dead was awful. This is levels above.
Walking Dead for the first few seasons was good, and in particular season 1 was great.
Not a patch on this though. This is entirely story driven. You can’t have zombies tearing people limb from limb every episode or it just becomes another zombie show.
Not a patch on this though. This is entirely story driven. You can’t have zombies tearing people limb from limb every episode or it just becomes another zombie show.
Nobody here is calling for zombies tearing everyone apart all the time. Can we also stop calling them zombies since they are living (infected) and not the undead.
What we are calling for is to incorporate higher stakes through the medium of facing life or death situations against the infected more than has been experienced thus far. The prologues in E1 and E2 have no combat with any infected, yet created high tension and fear for the viewer. It set a precedent which it failed to follow through on in later episodes.
At no point during E7 did the viewer get chance to really fear for Riley and Ellie and experience a desperation for their survival. I really believe it takes away from our relationship with them throughout the series. After all, it is a desperation for their own survival that pushes them to keep going.
Another example is at the end of E6 where Joel gets stabbed. It was very rushed. Bandits appear and almost instantaneously Joel gets stabbed. At no point do we get to go through the motions of worrying if they will make it out of this situation alive/unharmed etc.There is almost zero interaction between Joel/Ellie and the bandits. We then don’t get as much of a glimpse into how depraved the human race has become in this new post apocalyptic world. The whole situation lacked any real threat. That’s just bad screenplay.
This series has done a lot of things right, granted. But it’s also got so much wrong and that’s a crying shame.
What we are calling for is to incorporate higher stakes through the medium of facing life or death situations against the infected more than has been experienced thus far. The prologues in E1 and E2 have no combat with any infected, yet created high tension and fear for the viewer. It set a precedent which it failed to follow through on in later episodes.
At no point during E7 did the viewer get chance to really fear for Riley and Ellie and experience a desperation for their survival. I really believe it takes away from our relationship with them throughout the series. After all, it is a desperation for their own survival that pushes them to keep going.
Another example is at the end of E6 where Joel gets stabbed. It was very rushed. Bandits appear and almost instantaneously Joel gets stabbed. At no point do we get to go through the motions of worrying if they will make it out of this situation alive/unharmed etc.There is almost zero interaction between Joel/Ellie and the bandits. We then don’t get as much of a glimpse into how depraved the human race has become in this new post apocalyptic world. The whole situation lacked any real threat. That’s just bad screenplay.
This series has done a lot of things right, granted. But it’s also got so much wrong and that’s a crying shame.