HBO's "The Last Of Us" (Season 2)

[eightslicesofpie]

Interview with Neil Druckmann talking about why they structured the season how they did, about deliberately having Ellie mask her emotions throughout the season, and more:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...ne-1236220287/

[emailking1]

^ Good interview and it all makes sense. I defend the way they handled everything last night.

[jeff BD]

Great singular episode. Horrible placement within the season. This has been a horribly paced season and whenever there is momentum like last weeks final 10min we stop and go back in time and dont more forward narratively? Strange decisions were made and I think its gonna bite them in the ass.

[Jay Mammoth]

Originally Posted by eightslicesofpie

Interview with Neil Druckmann talking about why they structured the season how they did, about deliberately having Ellie mask her emotions throughout the season, and more:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...ne-1236220287/

Brilliant. Awesome season, can’t wait for the next episode.

[MuffinMcFluffin]

I'm fighting myself with this quote from the article:

I think the show would start feeling like it has a template — “What’s the Joel flashback this week?”

Because now I'm stuck here with the opposite effect, thinking: "These are the Joel flashbacks, and now we won't see him again."

It's one of the [several] problems I had with the show Girl Meets World compared to its predecessor Boy Meets World. Every episode was titled "Girl Meets _______," which focused around that one thing and was often never revisited. So in Girl Meets Detention, it's pretty much the only time she got in trouble and never really did before or after that. In BMW, Cory, Shawn, and Eric faced several detentions while the episodes were just about different things.

Anyway, I digress. The point is I think these were just treated as flashbacks only. Druckmann says that these are quick bits, but they didn't have to be at all. Again, the museum sequence alone could've been 20-25 minutes. This literally was just the flashback episode. Good luck expecting to see more Joel in the future now, the way they treated it. Wish they could've spent more time with him.

[Lemmy Lugosi]

I’m not a gamer, don’t follow anything about them, don’t like them. As a viewer of the series, I’m not a fan of the structuring of the story at all. I’m hoping that this meandering slow burn plot has some concrete resolutions.

I wish someone would produce a program that shows the collapse of society due to something like this; I want a survivalist story. An extremely harsh one. The only guitars I am really interested in are which ones were burned as firewood.

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by Havok83

I hate the changes being made with ths season and its dampened my experience with it. Season 2 is a downgrade from 1 especially fo thos that played the game

You complain every week. Why don’t you just stop watching?

[Mierzwiak]

Great episode. Very, very good performance by Ramsey (as oppose to annoying and dumb Ellie for most of the previous episodes) and pretty clever changes to the game; I'm very surprised they gave us the porch scene so early; its placement in the game was an emotional gut punch.

Overall I think the beginning of the season should have been told in chronological order, it would make both the story and Joel & Ellie's relationship more clear.

I'm EXTREMELY nervous about the finale; Ellie still has

[Show spoiler]Manny, Mel and Owen to kill,

I'm afraid they will rush it like, if not more than, the last episode of S1

[emailking1]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

I'm EXTREMELY nervous about the finale; Ellie still has

[Show spoiler]Manny, Mel and Owen to kill,

I'm afraid they will rush it like, if not more than, the last episode of S1

[Show spoiler]Tommy kills Manny. And it happens in Abby's half, so I'm not expecting to see that next week. But who knows.

^ game spoilers

[Mierzwiak]

Originally Posted by emailking1

[Show spoiler]Tommy kills Manny. And it happens in Abby's half, so I'm not expecting to see that next week. But who knows.

^ game spoilers

Right, I forgot about it, thanks!

---

“There’s No Way to Complete This Narrative in a Third Season”: ‘The Last of Us’ Showrunner Reveals How Long He Thinks the Series Will Run
https://collider.com/the-last-of-us-...r-craig-mazin/

[Havok83]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

You complain every week. Why don’t you just stop watching?

Um no I dont but there's only 1 episode left so I will continue to watch

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

Right, I forgot about it, thanks!

---

“There’s No Way to Complete This Narrative in a Third Season”: ‘The Last of Us’ Showrunner Reveals How Long He Thinks the Series Will Run
https://collider.com/the-last-of-us-...r-craig-mazin/

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

I'm EXTREMELY nervous about the finale; Ellie still has

[Show spoiler]Manny, Mel and Owen to kill,

I'm afraid they will rush it like, if not more than, the last episode of S1

It seems like next episode will deal with

[Show spoiler]Mel and Owen. The season will likely end wtih Abby ambushing them at the theater and we wont see that fight until the season 3 finale or close to the end

and that seems largely bc they are making the episodes short. If this got the standard 10 episodes that most HBO shows got, it would be less of an issue

[KarmaNL]

my pet peeve with pretty much every single tv show I watch is that they seem to always stick to this very specific pacing formula.

Let's say a show is 10 episodes. Episode 8 always builds up to some kind of climax. Then for Eps 9 they will always do like a flash back or back story episode that no one is interested in, and then the final eps 10 is usually overly long trying to build up to a climax again that hardly ever pays off.

I've noticed this with so many shows now.

[MuffinMcFluffin]

Yo, everyone rewatch the Joel-Gail therapy session again in S2E1. It hits way differently when she declares upfront that she tried to forgive him about how he condoned shooting Eugene (lying about it himself, herself, and Ellie), that she can't, how she hates him for it and the thought of him even being there in her house.

Then suddenly she goes: "Your turn. I'll help you with your problem." The amount of parallels this has with Joel's situation regarding Ellie is insurmountable, and he can't say anything about it. It's not just because she's immune, but because of how he realizes this will make her feel.

Then the porch scene happens that night, oof. The one saving grace is Ellie saying she would like to try to forgive him.

Originally Posted by KarmaNL

my pet peeve with pretty much every single tv show I watch is that they seem to always stick to this very specific pacing formula.

Let's say a show is 10 episodes. Episode 8 always builds up to some kind of climax. Then for Eps 9 they will always do like a flash back or back story episode that no one is interested in, and then the final eps 10 is usually overly long trying to build up to a climax again that hardly ever pays off.

I've noticed this with so many shows now.

Errrm... I can't say what I say without wrapping it in spoilers (they aren't real spoilers, but more anticipation of what lies ahead).

[Show spoiler]You think this one episode break is bad? Just wait till you see how you feel when S2 ends how it does, you have to wait a couple of years for S3 to resolve it, and it likely won't do so for maybe another 4-5 of those episodes!

[joshsquash729]

Originally Posted by KarmaNL

my pet peeve with pretty much every single tv show I watch is that they seem to always stick to this very specific pacing formula.

Let's say a show is 10 episodes. Episode 8 always builds up to some kind of climax. Then for Eps 9 they will always do like a flash back or back story episode that no one is interested in, and then the final eps 10 is usually overly long trying to build up to a climax again that hardly ever pays off.

I've noticed this with so many shows now.

That, or, like a couple of the Game of Thrones or Walking Dead seasons, the main story will be more or less tied up on the penultimate episode, and the finale is just tying up loose ends or setting up the next season, and feels a little underwhelming in comparison.

That said, I ironically feel like, if they removed the last shot of Ellie going back to the theater, this episode could've worked rather well as a season finale, at least going by the above formula. Don't get me wrong, with them ending it where we all think they're gonna end it next week, the cliffhanger would've been torturous whether it happened in the penultimate or final episode, but if they'd reworked some things, pushed some/all of the events of this next episode to the first episode of season 3, and had the season end with the bittersweet porch scene, that could've maybe worked. Wouldn't satisfy everyone, but it could work.

[mwynn]

Will The Last of Us Get a Season 4? Showrunner Craig Mazin Says 'There's No Way to Complete This Narrative' in Season 3

https://www.ign.com/articles/will-th...ve-in-season-3

[KarmaNL]

Originally Posted by joshsquash729

That, or, like a couple of the Game of Thrones or Walking Dead seasons, the main story will be more or less tied up on the penultimate episode, and the finale is just tying up loose ends or setting up the next season, and feels a little underwhelming in comparison.

That said, I ironically feel like, if they removed the last shot of Ellie going back to the theater, this episode could've worked rather well as a season finale, at least going by the above formula. Don't get me wrong, with them ending it where we all think they're gonna end it next week, the cliffhanger would've been torturous whether it happened in the penultimate or final episode, but if they'd reworked some things, pushed some/all of the events of this next episode to the first episode of season 3, and had the season end with the bittersweet porch scene, that could've maybe worked. Wouldn't satisfy everyone, but it could work.

GOT was even worse. They form a plan in Ep1 to go somewhere, Ep10 has them get on their horses.

Once I figured out the formula , I checked out. Obviously Im oversimplifying it.

[ps3bd_owner]

It was a good episode and I'm always happy to see Pedro Pascal again as Joel.

[Show spoiler]Moreover, Ellie betrayed him making him sound like a villain in regards to Eugene, the guy may or may not been able to make the trip, but it was over for him no matter what.

Part 1 had an amazing story, though Part 2 it all just feels like a disjointed mess. There's a clear difference that's night and day.

[morphinapg]

Originally Posted by ps3bd_owner

It was a good episode and I'm always happy to see Pedro Pascal again as Joel.

[Show spoiler]Moreover, Ellie betrayed him making him sound like a villain in regards to Eugene, the guy may or may not been able to make the trip, but it was over for him no matter what.

Part 1 had an amazing story, though Part 2 it all just feels like a disjointed mess. There's a clear difference that's night and day.

It wasn't about Eugene for Ellie. It was about feeling betrayed and realizing that Joel lied to her before when he swore what he said about the Fireflies was true. In that moment he had lost her trust.

I'm not sure what you think feels disjointed about Season 2.

[morphinapg]

Originally Posted by mwynn

Will The Last of Us Get a Season 4? Showrunner Craig Mazin Says 'There's No Way to Complete This Narrative' in Season 3

https://www.ign.com/articles/will-th...ve-in-season-3

I REALLY hope they mean Season 4 will be that "next chapter" of TLOU Neil was talking about, and NOT the end of TLOU2, because the epilogue is NOT enough story to fill a whole season of TV.

After Season 2, the rest of the TLOU2 story would take 9-10 episodes max to tell. And that includes an episode dedicated to the Seraphite history. Any more episodes than that and you'd really be stretching it out with too much filler. And they already said Season 3 would be longer than 2, so it just makes sense to finish the TLOU2 story there.

[MuffinMcFluffin]

What I don't like about his statement is the thought that a season couldn't be fourteen episodes anyway, or twenty-one.

I wish S2 covered all of Part 2, honestly. Take as many episodes as you need. Seven is way too short, and this will feel like a cliffhanger to others and anger people.

I like the Part 2 story, but it's not for everybody and stretching it out over the course of four real years is ridiculous.