The Last of Us (spoilers)

[DaveInSeattle]

First off, yes, I just read something about that. ECU in the game = consistency in the show. Makes sense.

That said, the reason I was hung up on the "Eastern Colorado" thing is that 1) I-25 is right off the Rockies and runs through Ft. Collins-Denver-Co. Springs. 2) Having made the drive out there and back in recent months, I was acutely aware of the fact that "Eastern Colorado" is nothing but prairie for hundreds and hundreds of square miles. Heck, the minute you drive east out of Denver... nothing but prairie.

East of the Denver-Colorado Springs corridor = Western Kansas.

[A_B]

First off, yes, I just read something about that. ECU in the game = consistency in the show. Makes sense.

That said, the reason I was hung up on the "Eastern Colorado" thing is that 1) I-25 is right off the Rockies and runs through Ft. Collins-Denver-Co. Springs. 2) Having made the drive out there and back in recent months, I was acutely aware of the fact that "Eastern Colorado" is nothing but prairie for hundreds and hundreds of square miles. Heck, the minute you drive east out of Denver... nothing but prairie.

ETA - And I guess I'm not in the right spots (reddit) to see if there's any criticism, but folks were pretty worked up about the "mountains" and terrain 40 miles west of Boston. This is just as "egregious" in terms existing landmarks, landscapes and highway placement... If not moreso, given millions of Americans know where I-25 runs.

I like to think i'm not a big dumb idiot, but I-25 is not one of the interstates I personally know as a marker for geopgraphy the way I-10,I-90, I-75, I-95 and personally I-64 are. I could also get some bearings around I-40 and I-65 I suppose. But those are in my bailiwick so to speak.

[Shirley]

First off, yes, I just read something about that. ECU in the game = consistency in the show. Makes sense.

That said, the reason I was hung up on the "Eastern Colorado" thing is that 1) I-25 is right off the Rockies and runs through Ft. Collins-Denver-Co. Springs. 2) Having made the drive out there and back in recent months, I was acutely aware of the fact that "Eastern Colorado" is nothing but prairie for hundreds and hundreds of square miles. Heck, the minute you drive east out of Denver... nothing but prairie.

ETA - And I guess I'm not in the right spots (reddit) to see if there's any criticism, but folks were pretty worked up about the "mountains" and terrain 40 miles west of Boston. This is just as "egregious" in terms existing landmarks, landscapes and highway placement... If not moreso, given millions of Americans know where I-25 runs.

I like to think i'm not a big dumb idiot, but I-25 is not one of the interstates I personally know as a marker for geopgraphy the way I-10,I-90, I-75, I-95 and personally I-64 are. I could also get some bearings around I-40 and I-65 I suppose. But those are in my bailiwick so to speak.

Yeah, I literally drove on I-25 two months ago and I still couldn't have told you where it was if you asked me out of the blue. But either way, I don't get too caught up in geographical mistakes in movies and shows. Hell, that show Outer Banks famously (well, locally famously) had the characters catch a ferry to Chapel Hill!

[tennbengal]

If I were gonna get hung up on something, it would be the bio of Tommy's significant other. She's revealed as pregnant, and in talking to Ellie says she was an asst DA in Omaha in the before time. It has been 20 years since the collapse of everything. So, I guess she was a YOUNG DA who had just come out of law school after going straight to law school from undergrad and was starting her career at age 25 - maybe charitably when she says she "put bad guys in jail" it was a descriptor to Ellie but new DAs don't do a lot of that. In any event, she has to be, minimum, age 45 and more likely closer to 47 or 48 character wise - and pregnant. That's the highest of high risk pregnancies.

And NONE of that matters to the plot, but as an attorney, I got distracted running that timeline as the show as unfolding. Had to pause and go back to to clear my head of it.

[rass]

^^^^
yes

Though I guess you might feel compelled to take that risk with so few people left, and once you've finally established what you hope is a safe and permanent environment?

[A_B]

1)Black don't crack

2)If you're repopulating the world, might you be more inclined to risk a pregnancy?

[The Sybian]

1)Black don't crack

2)If you're repopulating the world, might you be more inclined to risk a pregnancy?

Or not have the means to terminate an unplanned pregnancy? When she said she was pregnant I questioned how old she was, but didn't take issue with a 45-50 yo being pregnant.

[tennbengal]

I don't have an issue with them trying to have a child, or with her age being 45-50. Like I said, it didn't matter in the larger plot. Just noting I got stuck on it because of her ID'ing herself as a former asst DA and knowing she had to be young when that was the case so not much experience and none of that matters, I just got stuck on it. Also, if the writers had been so inclined, they could have easily had Tommy tell Joel he was extra reluctant to go given that his significant other is an older pregnant person and at a high risk etc.

[Giff]

I was so excited to read this thread after finally watching this week and it turns out we're shaming older black women for getting pregnant in a fictional apocalyptic television show. #orange

Another gut-punch of an episode. We have a hard time watching it without distracting ourselves with our phones. Just too intense, especially with a daughter around that age.

[Giff]

Also the directions on I-25 around Santa Fe are all jacked up. It's weird travelling north on I-25 south.

[L-Jam3]

I’m avoiding this thread until I catch up, and I just finished the 4th episode last night. I just came here to say that the third episode. Man. I saw it Friday night, and it stayed with me all weekend. Just beautiful. And heartbreaking.

[tennbengal]

[A_B]

Call me a hater, but this show isn't living up to the first few episodes to me.

[tennbengal]

Hater.

[The Sybian]

Call me a hater, but this show isn't living up to the first few episodes to me.

This show has a different flow from anything I can remember watching. It's like each episode is a different segment that very slightly moves the arc of the series along, but delves deep into a side story. Like the KC episode was a pause in their journey, but a deep dive into the lives of the two brothers and the rebel group that overthrew the government. Ep 3 barely included the main characters at all, Ep 6 was so much about Tommy and his outpost. I thought Ep 7 was really cool, the scenes in the mall were just so fucking detailed and set such a deep emotional connection to the characters. It's such a cool and unique way to tell the story of how Ellie was bitten, basically spend an hour showing her friendship and post-apocalyptic kids seeing a mall for the first time, then at the end we see her get bitten. It does feel like a different show from the first 2 episodes, but then again, seeing Joe and his daughter the day all hell broke lose wasn't much different.

[rass]

Call me a hater but Storm Reid couldn’t hang with Bella Ramsey acting-wise and that episode suffered for it.

[Jerloma]

I liked it. I knew it was setting up what was going to happen next but I was hoping it didn't last the whole show. It was still very well done. I didn't care for the jump from Joel getting stabbed from last show to them in some random basement.

[DaveInSeattle]

Oooof....I think that was the darkest episode so far. Yikes....

[rass]

Love a creepy eating scene. So much cutlery scraping!


They mentioned it was an unexpectedly harsh winter, but is there an in-game explanation for why people would try to make a go of it in places that can have rough winters (without access to a dam to provide power)? The leader (at least) wasn't from there. Does the climate have the advantage of affecting or repelling the fungi?

Apparently his second in command was the voice of Joel in the games.

[wlu_lax6]

Love a creepy eating scene. So much cutlery scraping!


They mentioned it was an unexpectedly harsh winter, but is there an in-game explanation for why people would try to make a go of it in places that can have rough winters (without access to a dam to provide power)? The leader (at least) wasn't from there. Does the climate have the advantage of affecting or repelling the fungi?

Apparently his second in command was the voice of Joel in the games.

Well in the episode last night he explained they kept moving on from raiders.

[wlu_lax6]

So i one of Pedro Pascal shows the plot is driven by him trying to protect a little girl and the other one it is a little green alien. Both have strong western tv show influences.

[A_B]

Didn't love the latest either. I dunno, maybe I'm just in a weird headspace. I just think this one seemed a bit rushed...and that's coming from someone who has thought large parts of the past few have been plodding. So it was a bit weird to me.

(But yeah, roaming away from Raiders seemed to be the reasoning, but also just away from people at all.)

[wlu_lax6]

Also In don't know the game at all but seems like HBO has saved $ on costumes and makeup except for a few big scenes. Not a whole lot of zombies.

[rass]

Feel like Marlene would want a do over on everything that happened after Joel woke up.

Wow.

[The Sybian]

Feel like Marlene would want a do over on everything that happened after Joel woke up.

Wow.

I hope she had a save point before that.

[Giff]

WTF?

[Nonlinear FC]

Not really much in this, but some early info on S2.

https://www.polygon.com/23634196/last-u ... -cast-news

[brian]

Also In don't know the game at all but seems like HBO has saved $ on costumes and makeup except for a few big scenes. Not a whole lot of zombies.

And frankly, thank goodness for that.

I was all-in on The Walking Dead as a character study in how a group of people would handle surviving in a post-apolyptic world but AMC decided they just wanted a show where a bunch of people murder zombies for 43 minutes.

I'm way less interested in the goddamn zombies than the people.

[A_B]

Also In don't know the game at all but seems like HBO has saved $ on costumes and makeup except for a few big scenes. Not a whole lot of zombies.

And frankly, thank goodness for that.

I was all-in on The Walking Dead as a character study in how a group of people would handle surviving in a post-apolyptic world but AMC decided they just wanted a show where a bunch of people murder zombies for 43 minutes.

I'm way less interested in the goddamn zombies than the people.

And I, for this particular story, feel like it's been missing something.

And this episode was rushed. I think because I enjoyed the game so much I just never feel deeply in love with the show.

[wlu_lax6]

Also In don't know the game at all but seems like HBO has saved $ on costumes and makeup except for a few big scenes. Not a whole lot of zombies.

And frankly, thank goodness for that.

I was all-in on The Walking Dead as a character study in how a group of people would handle surviving in a post-apolyptic world but AMC decided they just wanted a show where a bunch of people murder zombies for 43 minutes.

I'm way less interested in the goddamn zombies than the people.

And I, for this particular story, feel like it's been missing something.

And this episode was rushed. I think because I enjoyed the game so much I just never feel deeply in love with the show.

Never played the game or know much about it. Did you pick up on the actress playing the mom in the show being the girl in the game?

[Nonlinear FC]

That was wild. I thought for a second they were doing some weird CGI shit. Seeing who she was in the wrap up section was pretty damn cool.

[A_B]

Yes, I knew that was happening. She was in the Blacklist show around the same time, so I knew her voice and it finally clicked, then I heard she would be making a cameo. In fact, I think she helped cast some of the show with the showrunners.

To be clear, I enjoyed the show on it own merits and completely thing the human aspect is the real driving force, but I also felt like it didn't do the game justice. Have read that the writer knew he had to change some stuff because it couldn't just feel like you were watching a video game. I suppose that makes a lot of sense. I don't think they will be able to get as far away from it in the next seasons, but I could be wrong.

[Shirley]

Just caught up last night. A lot of violence in the last two episodes. Really interesting what they did with Joel in the last episode. Obviously, he's our guy and he's on our side, but it's really hard to make the claim that he's a good guy after all that. Sure, the Fireflies were sacrificing Ellie, and I get his rage, but there were ostensibly doing it for the greater good. In the after-show thing they made the good point that so much of what we think of as monstrous behavior is actually driven by love.

[govmentchedda]

Also In don't know the game at all but seems like HBO has saved $ on costumes and makeup except for a few big scenes. Not a whole lot of zombies.

And frankly, thank goodness for that.

I was all-in on The Walking Dead as a character study in how a group of people would handle surviving in a post-apolyptic world but AMC decided they just wanted a show where a bunch of people murder zombies for 43 minutes.

I'm way less interested in the goddamn zombies than the people.

And I, for this particular story, feel like it's been missing something.

And this episode was rushed. I think because I enjoyed the game so much I just never feel deeply in love with the show.

Never played the game or know much about it. Did you pick up on the actress playing the mom in the show being the girl in the game?

Chrissy Seaver!

[tennbengal]

Just caught up last night. A lot of violence in the last two episodes. Really interesting what they did with Joel in the last episode. Obviously, he's our guy and he's on our side, but it's really hard to make the claim that he's a good guy after all that. Sure, the Fireflies were sacrificing Ellie, and I get his rage, but there were ostensibly doing it for the greater good. In the after-show thing they made the good point that so much of what we think of as monstrous behavior is actually driven by love.

Fireflies are equally as sucky - all someone, anyone, had to do was give her a choice. Now, if she says "fuck that" and they want to cut anyway, then Joel is good in his actions. If she says, "I will so sacrfice" - then Joel is shit for his actions. But fireflies should have addressed all this with both of them.

[Shirley]

Agreed. But he killed more than he needed to. And I'm not sure all the Fireflies knew what was going on. And then he lied to Ellie about it, so he knew it wasn't necessarily the right thing to do.

[duff]

He had to kill all of the fireflies at the hospital. They would have searched him down until the end of time. And the immunity was only for paying along the fungus, not dropping heads off.

[Nonlinear FC]

It was definitely foreshadowed and then paid off, in terms of him reverting back to his murdering, soul-less ways that kept him and his brother alive in the years right after the beginning of the apocalypse.

I had zero problem with it, because it wasn't like it came out of nowhere.

I am totally divorced from the video game, so my perspective is just the story they told and I thought they did an absolutely phenomenal job. The acting of the two main characters is incredible.

[Shirley]

I've been thinking a bit about the last episode and one thing bothered me about the Fireflies' plan. They just got Ellie in and she's this super rare person who's immune and who might be used to make a cure for all humanity. So, the first thing you do is within hours of seeing her is cut her brain open and kill her? I get that maybe that's the only thing that might work, but wouldn't you want to be sure about that first? You know, run some tests on her blood, maybe try a less-invasive surgery first? I mean, this thing's been going on for 20 years, maybe it wouldn't hurt to take a few more days, weeks, months, etc. If this doesn't work, you've just killed your one hope!

[brian]

Makes sense but only to play devil’s advocate they had already had 20 years to study the disease so perhaps they were exceptionally confident that any immunity lies in the brain and not the blood, etc.