HBO's The Last of Us

[AlexanderMBush]

This episode freaking hauled ass in all the right ways. Bravo to Neil for debuting in the directing shoes.

 

[Nick]

This episode freaking hauled ass in all the right ways. Bravo to Neil for debuting in the directing shoes.

Yup, great episode and again, they changes made all ADD to the lore and overall story.

I thought I wasn’t going to like spores not being present in this show, but the fungi network where all clickers are connected that they are going with us actually more interesting and in many ways has the opportunity to be scarier going forward. I also like the flashback to 2003 again and hope we see more flashbacks in the series to fill out some of the gaps.

I will say though that Bella Ramsay’s British accent came out multiple times in the episode and definitely bothered me.

 

[Nick]

If people like the show and especially if you played the games too, you'll appreciate this podcast every week:


Great untold backstory for Tess:

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Yup, great episode and again, they changes made all ADD to the lore and overall story.

I thought I wasn’t going to like spores not being present in this show, but the fungi network where all clickers are connected that they are going with us actually more interesting and in many ways has the opportunity to be scarier going forward. I also like the flashback to 2003 again and hope we see more flashbacks in the series to fill out some of the gaps.

I mentioned this in a tweet reply I sent to Emory; but the expansion of the universe's lore; the evolution to see how they evolved it from Spores to spreading by a mycelium network is perhaps one of the best changes to the universe lore yet. It feels incredibly natural; it doesn't take away from what the spores meant in the game but rather lets the TV show have the chance for ticking time bombs to go off depending on a situation. Makes me really interested to see how that's tackled when we get to Fall at the University.

Another thing that I have to give genuine props for: are the clickers. The Museum scene felt extremely like something that is similar to the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park; in how tense the actions are due to the nature of the creatures (which, look absolutely amazing and they captured how the clickers look and behave completely well.

 

[Nick]

I mentioned this in a tweet reply I sent to Emory; but the expansion of the universe's lore; the evolution to see how they evolved it from Spores to spreading by a mycelium network is perhaps one of the best changes to the universe lore yet. It feels incredibly natural; it doesn't take away from what the spores meant in the game but rather lets the TV show have the chance for ticking time bombs to go off depending on a situation. Makes me really interested to see how that's tackled when we get to Fall at the University.

Another thing that I have to give genuine props for: are the clickers. The Museum scene felt extremely like something that is similar to the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park; in how tense the actions are due to the nature of the creatures (which, look absolutely amazing and they captured how the clickers look and behave completely well.

That museum scene was sooooo good. Great comparison with the JP kitchen scene.

I also highly agree the new lore only adds, nothing has taken away so far, in some cases the changes are better than what the game does imo (that Tess scene was crazy).

I do think for a video game spores works better, but I can’t help but imagine what it would be like if Part 1 and 2 were made with the intent of the essential hive mind concept rather than spores and how that would feel playing it. Maybe they’ll incorporate that into the games someday.

 

[Nick]

Word of mouth is out and viewership is up big time!

‘The Last of Us’ Scores HBO’s Largest-Ever Viewership Growth for a Drama From Premiere to Episode 2

After achieving HBO's second-most watched series premiere in more than a decade, "The Last of Us" is now reaching an even bigger audience.

variety.com

 

[Jerroddragon]

I got one of my friends to watch it yesterday before the new episode


Yeah...its a good show and feel like many are still missing out so hope people listen to their friends and watch

 

[Jaden]

Episode 2 was fantastic. Love that they did the Clickers so well in love-action. Prosthetics and costume design looked amazing, and hearing its noises gave me chills and excitement. They did a really good job showing why a Clicker is to be feared and made the scene so intense thanks to Joel and Tess’ acting.

 

[Nick]

I got one of my friends to watch it yesterday before the new episode


Yeah...its a good show and feel like many are still missing out so hope people listen to their friends and watch

It's already doing great and can only go up. As far as non-GOT related Universe shows go, TLOU already is less than 1 million viewers behind the all-time HBO record set by Euphoria last year with 6.6 million viewers in the finale episode of that season. TLOU, if it keeps increasing, looks to surpass the 6.6M Euphoria saw last year fairly easily (that's Sunday night viewers counted only) at some point in this first season of the show.

With an audience so large, it really does make me wonder what they'll do for a season 2. I just can't see them diving right into Part 2 for various reasons (or at least not the whole second game), but if they are to tell an in-between story, it has to be worthwhile and not just to pad seasons since the show is bringing in a sizable audience. If you do a tweener story and it has the same level of writing and care that they've given to the added parts or changed up scenes.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

It's already doing great and can only go up. As far as non-GOT related Universe shows go, TLOU already is less than 1 million viewers behind the all-time HBO record set by Euphoria last year with 6.6 million viewers in the finale episode of that season. TLOU, if it keeps increasing, looks to surpass the 6.6M Euphoria saw last year fairly easily (that's Sunday night viewers counted only) at some point in this first season of the show.

With an audience so large, it really does make me wonder what they'll do for a season 2. I just can't see them diving right into Part 2 for various reasons (or at least not the whole second game), but if they are to tell an in-between story, it has to be worthwhile and not just to pad seasons since the show is bringing in a sizable audience. If you do a tweener story and it has the same level of writing and care that they've given to the added parts or changed up scenes.

Spoiler: P2 Spoilers

Honestly I think a perfect middleground might actually be doing Season 2 on the period in-between TLOU and TLOU2. Set up Abby, show her pain and the elements of grief that she undergoes alongside giving more to WLF for her character; while also building upon and going into Joel and Ellie's relationship after the events of Ellie agreeing to initially stay.

TLOU2 in the Present Day storyline from the night of the party to it's ending could then fill in Season 3.

 

[Nick]

Spoiler: P2 Spoilers

Honestly I think a perfect middleground might actually be doing Season 2 on the period in-between TLOU and TLOU2. Set up Abby, show her pain and the elements of grief that she undergoes alongside giving more to WLF for her character; while also building upon and going into Joel and Ellie's relationship after the events of Ellie agreeing to initially stay.

TLOU2 in the Present Day storyline from the night of the party to it's ending could then fill in Season 3.

By the time we are looking at a Season 3 being done and aired, I think it's quite possible that Part 3 is close to being released as this show had about an 2 year production timeline (not counting pre-production). If each season takes that long, a season 4, where they could theoretically dive into Part 3 and finish out the story, wouldn't could out until around 2028/2029 anyway and that gives plenty of time (even with how long games take to make these days) to get TLOU 3 out while the show is still going on and before the show even would reach the point of needing to tell that Part 3 story.

There was 7 years between P1 and P2. If they go 7 years again or so and with rumors of a new TLOU single player game in development, we could be looking at 2027 or 2028.

Spoiler

I do wonder if we'll see Abby as a younger kid (Ellie's current age) in sort of a cameo role or get to know her father a tiny bit in this first season or if they'll leave things like that for the future.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

 

[Nick]

The people have spoken!

 

[SailwiththeTide]

The first half of the episode dragged. The opening sequence in Indonesia was good but just walking around seemed like filler. 2nd half was good. Nothing really revolutionary here and think most people are really trying to make it better than it is because of the game they played. Had not played the game and liked the 1st episode but the apocolypse genre is kinda overplayed. I compare it to Station Eleven which is probably the best show in the last 10 years.

 

[Nick]

The first half of the episode dragged. The opening sequence in Indonesia was good but just walking around seemed like filler. 2nd half was good. Nothing really revolutionary here and think most people are really trying to make it better than it is because of the game they played. Had not played the game and liked the 1st episode but the apocolypse genre is kinda overplayed. I compare it to Station Eleven which is probably the best show in the last 10 years.

Just walking around is directly from the game and a big part of the overall story. Joel is tasked with finishing the journey he started with Tess in dropping Ellie off as she may be a cure, all in a post-apocalyptic world where you have various stages of people infected with a cordyceps virus. This is a story and show that wants you to bathe in the world because the smallest misstep and you could be screwed. The eerie world and walking through it where anything could go wrong at any point is my favorite thing about the show and the game.

 

[Jamesh22]

The first half of the episode dragged. The opening sequence in Indonesia was good but just walking around seemed like filler. 2nd half was good. Nothing really revolutionary here and think most people are really trying to make it better than it is because of the game they played. Had not played the game and liked the 1st episode but the apocolypse genre is kinda overplayed. I compare it to Station Eleven which is probably the best show in the last 10 years.

What you call 'dragged' I call world building and character growth.

I have never played the game, didn't even know anything about the storyline, and I'm absolutely loving the show.

 

[Nick]

What you call 'dragged' I call world building and character growth.

I have never played the game, didn't even know anything about the storyline, and I'm absolutely loving the show.

Yeah, not everything is going to be action sequences like in episode 1 where the outbreak happens and Joel and Tommy rush to leave, the plane crashes and cars are crashing everywhere. We're 20 years beyond that and people are barely surviving or have already gotten infected.

Like you said, a lot of what happened in the episode was world building to let Ellie (and also the audience) know of what lies ahead in terms of the threat that the infected pose to them. One thing I want to point out is notice how when Joel walks into the Capital building and sees that the fireflies there are all dead, he's ready to move on from Ellie. He hasn't trusted her at all to this point, but in a way he still does feel protective of her as if she's his daughter, which is why when Tess shows him the bite and says "save who you can save" he gathers himself, grabs Ellie by her at least twice bitten arm, and hauls out of the capital building. He now believes Ellie since she hasn't turned and Tess did so fast and I think he's now motivated to do this for everyone he's lost over the years. At least that's the way I gather the show is trying to depict it.

 

[Captain Tragedy]

Amazing so far and I would like to highlight one really understated, brief, but incredibly powerful performance of the mycologist in Indonesia during the episode 2 cold open. Her reaction to when that military guy told her how many workers were missing and then her solution to how to stop the spread was masterful. Just unreal tension and you could feel the dread she exudes. Loving the expanded lore and these cold opens are so cool. Incredible show.

Spoiler: I loved this line reading

Bomb

 

[Nick]

Supposedly episode 3 is a 76 minute episode so that alone gets me excited. I'm expecting at least one more 2003 sequence at the beginning possibly with it showing the spread from Indonesia to the rest of the world?

 

[Jerroddragon]

I'm honestly disappointed we aren't getting a new story in between this and Part 2 but...its easier for them. Just really wanted a new story for none gamers to get to sit back and enjoy and we all know how many written stories get left on the floor and would have been perfect to set up part 2 more....but yeah its not ment to be