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Last of Us

Discussion in 'The Last of Us News' started by lastcat3, Aug 1, 2021.

  1. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    The other thing is that a number years pass in between the two games, so they could expand on that story in Season 2 while introducing those other characters more. It's would be problematic for them to jump right into all of that. But they have a lot of time to plan and Craig Mazin knows what he's doing.

    I like this quote from Mazin, which I think explains too why they made Season 1 so tight, covering a lot of ground.

    “I don’t have any interest in a spinning-plates-go-on-forever show. When it becomes a perpetual motion machine, it just can’t help but get kind of stupid. Endings mean everything to me.”

    He basically described the Walking Dead there.
     
  2. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    Wow @Stealth that was an awesome premiere episode. The way they expanded onto the already existing story was one of the real strengths of the episode. Shows what good writing can do. The way they expanded Sarah's story was perhaps my favorite part of the episode and the fact that many of the critics have seen the entire season makes it seem like we will get this kind of quality all season long.

    Think I am going to make a thread in the TWD section over how TWD should respond to the bar that Last of Us just set.
     
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  3. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    I thought it was phenomenal too. The casting is good, but I particularly liked the choice of Gabriel Luna for Tommy. And of course Pedro Pascal is always outstanding.

    One thing that stood out to me was that they had a story they wanted to tell in the first episode and they weren't afraid to let it run 1 hour and 25 minutes, the length of a small feature film. Many other series would've said, hey let's cut 35 minutes out add some filler and we can run another episode. So I think that's another thing that speaks to the quality of the show.

    TWD probably would've milked a whole half season out of what we got in the premiere. You'd have Joel during the outbreak in 2 episodes, one where nothing much happens, but then with the old lady turning at the end. The second would be when hell breaks loose. The third would be Joel and Tess in the present timeline. Then you'd have bottle episodes for Ellie and Tess.

    I knew what was going to happen with Sarah but it was still an emotional scene. That was played so well by both Pascal and Luna, Joel still trying to save his dying daughter, but Tommy had the resignation, and realization, of what had just happened.

    I liked how they worked the watch in too, with Ellie mentioning it was broken, and the way that time has just sort of frozen for Joel since his daughter died.

    I loved the Ellie line too in the hallway where she said, "what are they capable of?"

    So, well written and executed, a perfect premiere.
     
  4. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    Also I thought the scene where they euthanized the little kid was great as well. In that one scene that had very little dialogue and without any of the key characters in it we got a very thorough description of what the world was like twenty years into the apocalypse. THe kid was probably with his parents (or other adults) who got injured or killed and he went to the Boston QZ for help and they killed him as soon as he tested positive for the fungus.

    Will be interesting to see if all the QZ's are run that exact way. We will be going to at least one more during this season.

    It's a shame that there aren't very many people that post here any longer as I think a lot of the former posters would really enjoy this show.
     
  5. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    It is too bad. I think the path that The Walking Dead franchise took soured some people on the zombie genre though.
     
  6. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    I thought the episode was flawless until we came to the "kiss" scene. I won't describe it here because if I did I think it'd dissuade people from watching the entire show. I know if I read that I would be like...no thanks. I'm not sure why they did that in an otherwise really well constructed two episodes. It would concern me more if the overall critic reviews for the season had not been so high.

    I think it was a stupid, cheesy decision on their part. Druckmann directed the episode so I assume he wanted to do that. I don't see it being something Mazin would come up with.

    The city scenes were perfectly done and, aside from the moment I mentioned above, I really like what they're doing with the infected. In the game they had spores, but here it's the tendrils and I think that is much better for TV. Besides Pedro Pascal has had enough of wearing a mask in the Mandalorian.

    I really like a lot of the little things that they did with Ellie in this episode, like wanting a gun, and how she was acting in the hotel etc.

    Due to that one scene this episode unfortunately is not in the same tier as the premiere.
     
  7. purriwinkle

    purriwinkle Well-Known Member

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    I’m not sure that TWD exactly turned me off to the genre but after eleven seasons I needed a break for sure. Right now it’s comedy, romance and light fare for awhile, knowing there’ll be more intense drama coming such as season two of House of the Dragon, etc.

    I had a friend suggest I watch The Mayfair Witches on AMC and have caught the first two episodes but I have questions already since I didn’t read the book.
     
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  8. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    The reviews for Mayfair Witches haven't been good. I watched the first episode out of curiosity and it didn't draw me in, the same way something like Interview with the Vampire did. I don't think I'm going to continue with it.

    And that's the other thing, there's just so much to choose from when you have so many streaming services and series. So if it's not getting good reviews, or word of mouth, if it doesn't draw me in at the start then I'll just move onto the next thing. I tried Peripheral on Prime for about 4 episodes and then quit that.

    We won't see season 2 of House of the Dragon until spring of 2024. They start filming in March and it runs until October or early November. Then we'll have the post production that lasts about 6 months.

    I'm most interested in hearing who is cast for Cregan Stark and Daeron Targaryen.
     
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  9. purriwinkle

    purriwinkle Well-Known Member

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    I agree about Mayfair Witches. The plot seems convoluted and I have no real concept of who the characters are exactly. Take Lasher. Is he Satan or the witches familiar? Who are the old aunties? Are they witches too? Etc. Etc. Etc. Not drawing me in either.

    I realize we’ll be waiting awhile for some of the more gritty shows we enjoyed last year but right now I’m content with slightly different fare. PBS on weekends has got my attention at the moment. Miss Scarlet and the Duke, All Creatures Great and Small, Vienna Blood, Midsomer Murders along with Law and Order Thursday and I’m good, lol. NetFlix and Amazon when I have extra time and maybe the next part of La Brea. I wish I could garner some enthusiasm for Last of Us but it’s not happening. Enjoy though!
     
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  10. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    I really enjoyed this episode and thought it was really well done. It took a section of the game that was almost all gameplay and turned it into intriguing television.

    As far as the kissing scene goes it was disgusting but it was also intended to be disgusting. We need to remember the cordyceps are controlling their minds and bodies and at the point the kiss happened it was starting to take over Tess's mind as well. It wasn't Tess allowing it to happen it was the cordyceps noticing that Tess was already infected and was replicating its tendrils into an entirely new host.

    The process of living organisms duplicating themselves often is pretty gross. Look at the things humans do during sexual activity. When you think about it a lot of that is pretty gross behavior.

    This show is clearly trying to be more than your standard zombie story. It has given more background to what caused the apocalypse and how it works in two episodes than TWD did during its entire run.
     
  11. Blueman

    Blueman Well-Known Member

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    Hello, I just began to watch The Last of Us.

    I have not played the game and so I am pretty new to this universe. Regarding the kiss scene, it does not make sense. Since Tess is also infected, why the cordycep still wants to kiss her? This is not human sex where you need a sperm and an egg to have a baby. The primary of a cordycep is to spread the fungus infection and thus that particular cordycep should chase with the group, instead of getting out of line to kiss Tess. Why is this activity so out of line from the basic instinct of a cordycep? (I think it is just the director wants to have a gross scene for the gross of it.)

    I am still quite saturated with this zombie genre by TWD. But I think I will still keep watching this The Last of Us as it has some interesting elements.
     
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  12. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I know sometimes it's just a matter of what you feel like watching. For instance I saw the first 2 seasons of The Boys on Prime around the holidays and then needed a break before watching season 3. Will get to it eventually.

    The Midsomer murders, is that a series based on the film Midsommar? That movie was a bit too dark for me. Some people loved it though.
     
  13. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, it just doesn't fit for me with the story and what we've seen so far. If the other infected were latching onto each other or something then...maybe. But it's the first we saw of it and was implemented strictly for shock value. It's the one scene so far that was "off."

    I mean even what Tess was doing with the lighter was silly. She's flicking it above the gas and can't get it to go. Well, you have a flame briefly at least so just lean down and light it that way. Or you have a gun, or grenades, but no for drama's sake we have to keep flicking it so we don't know if she'll succeed and we need to get that zombie kiss in to blow up social media or something.

    I'll let it go, because it's the first flaw I've seen and no show is perfect.
     
  14. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah and for those that it bothered a bit I am sure it won't be anything that will be shown again in the entirety of the series. This episode was meant to show how the zombie plague works. I'm honestly just pleasantly surprised that they are putting in this much time to explain the monsters. Far different than TWD where they pretty much just threw their hands up in the air and said 'we don't know how the hell any of this is supposed to go.'
     
  15. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    Yeah as someone who played the game, loved the first episode and enjoyed the second one up until the zombie kiss, that scene just took me out the entire episode. Out of that whole horde too, only one walked over to her. So bad.

    What's some showrunners don't realize is less is more. The subtle move is better and more effective than something blatant or over the top. If you just had them staring at her and not rushing at her like they did in the museum you could see they recognized her as being infected too, that would've been perfect before everything blew up.
     
  16. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah definitely keep watching. It is adapting much better source material than the TWD show was and a far better studio is adapting it. Kirkman was really just flying by the seat of his pants when he was writing that TWD comic (especially in the early days). He was an independent writer who just happened to have an idea that people latched onto.

    Also no offense to the actors who worked on TWD but the acting talent overall is at a whole nother level for Last of Us than it was for TWD.
     
  17. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    Interesting that you mention the zombie origin in TWD, because Darabont touched on that a bit in Season 1 with the CDC. Later Kirkman said it was his biggest regret on the show, which is pretty funny, considering what happened later on. I always thought that background helped enhance the story, you just can't keep a constant mystery box for the audience.
     
  18. purriwinkle

    purriwinkle Well-Known Member

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    I didn’t see the movie but I don’t think there’s any connection. Midsomer Murders is a British crime drama adapted from a book series, Chief Inspector Barnaby. It’s been airing since the mid nineties. When the original actor who played Chief Inspector Barnaby retired from the role after more than a decade, it kept going by having a male relative with the same last name take over the inspector’s position. I’ve watched off and on for years and it never gets old.
     
  19. Stealth

    Stealth Well-Known Member

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    Fortunately your series has nothing to do with the film. It took place in a Swedish village and these people were lured into a weird pagan cult, thinking it was some festival, and they sacrificed them. It was just too bleak for me.
     
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  20. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    This show is becoming a massive hit. They are saying a million more people watched ep 2 on Sunday night than they did the premiere. And after a week 18 million have watched the premiere of the show (keep in mind that a lot of people are watching off of hbo max and viewing habits are a little bit different on streaming sites).

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...-1-to-2-viewership-jump-ever/?sh=150dfcf14c82

    Kind of indicates that it wasn't necessarily that people were losing interest in the zombie apocalypse genre. They just were losing interest in what AMC was doing with the zombie apocalypse genre.
     
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