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

[filmbuffTX]

The last episode was great. Malls are always cool and nostalgic. There's also something very creepy about an abandoned mall (or amusement park), which makes it a great setting for a horror series. The production design was excellent. I like that they used real stores to give it more of an authentic feel. Also taking teenage characters who've only read about malls or heard about them from elders and having them explore one is a really cool idea. You could also look at it as an homage to Dawn of the Dead. The episode also gave a lot more depth to Ellie's character.

[Lemmy Lugosi]

Is there a new one tonight? I’m not seeing it in the listings.

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by Lemmy Lugosi

Is there a new one tonight? I’m not seeing it in the listings.

Definitely

It’s the penultimate episode

Arguably always the best of a tv series


If tonight’s episode isn’t insanely awesome, you have a right to come in here and make fun of it

[Poya]

Despite the Oscars, they won't be showing the last episode this Friday like they did for the 5th episode to avoid Super Bowl competition. Just goes to show you how far the Oscars have fallen.

[eiknarf]

I often wonder if Ellie waited for Riley to change and shot her… or if Ellie left her and Riley shot herself…??


.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by filmbuffTX

The last episode was great. Malls are always cool and nostalgic. There's also something very creepy about an abandoned mall (or amusement park), which makes it a great setting for a horror series. The production design was excellent. I like that they used real stores to give it more of an authentic feel. Also taking teenage characters who've only read about malls or heard about them from elders and having them explore one is a really cool idea. You could also look at it as an homage to Dawn of the Dead. The episode also gave a lot more depth to Ellie's character.

I could've done without the ADR giggling, took me out of it a bit, but still a good episode. I think the whole point of it was to show Ellie's biggest fear...being left alone, which is why she disobeys Joel and stays with him to mend him. Good set-up for the conclusion. Don't get between Joel and Ellie from tonight's episode onward.

[morphinapg]

Solid episode tonight. Only missing one major moment from the game, but added some extra stuff that gave more depth to David's group so it was worth it imo. Everything important from that part of the game was there imo, and done really well.

[Legend293]

Haven't got to watch the newest episode yet but it seems like this show really likes to remove the action scenes and clickers. Examples the second episode completely skips the broken building scene, the whole bill town basically got skipped, most of the city part got skipped would have been awesome to see them get chased down by that truck with a turrent. They didn't leave the very tense and most scariest part the basement generator, The part that introduced shamblers were gone, we lost Ellie running away towards that house and instead we got a 2 second later Joel changed his mind about not leaving Ellie. Then we lost out on the small fight section at the college which was handled better in the game.

It really seems to me that the show maybe tried to cram the first game into one season in case it got cancelled and possibly they didn't have enough of a budget.

Hoping things change for season 2.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Levon

I like the show, people who don't like it have just as much a right to watch and discuss what they don't enjoy about it, as you do to discuss what you like about it. You need to get over this, mate. Every thread you've got the toys out the pram when someone responds negatively to a show or movie they are watching. Do you live vicariously through these IP's and take it personally, or something?

It’s all in tone I guess, some people are like “I’m not feeling it” or “does nothing special” and some people are like “this is the most overrated thing ever”. Like you can tell people who are casually watching it, and those who are just hate watching, and it’s just leaves you thinking “why are you wasting your time”. It’s all a bit holier than you in their writing.

Like I don’t think the original game is all that special, I found the story itself to be a bit cliched with the exception of the ending, but it’s really elevated by the exceptional facial animation, performances, tone and well-realised writing interwoven with the gameplay. There’s a similar thing with this, except the changes are quite interesting here, not necessarily all for the best, but all fairly distinguished from the game. Might be that I’ve come into it knowing what to expect and they didn’t, but when you’re signing off with digs towards the showrunners, it appears like you’re coming in with some baggage and you want to lay that as everyone else’s problem.

Originally Posted by Legend293

Haven't got to watch the newest episode yet but it seems like this show really likes to remove the action scenes and clickers. Examples the second episode completely skips the broken building scene, the whole bill town basically got skipped, most of the city part got skipped would have been awesome to see them get chased down by that truck with a turrent. They didn't leave the very tense and most scariest part the basement generator, The part that introduced shamblers were gone, we lost Ellie running away towards that house and instead we got a 2 second later Joel changed his mind about not leaving Ellie. Then we lost out on the small fight section at the college which was handled better in the game.

It really seems to me that the show maybe tried to cram the first game into one season in case it got cancelled and possibly they didn't have enough of a budget.

Hoping things change for season 2.

It’s because they don’t add to the story, these are moments left to be played, the show is made to be watched. It was always going to be a talkier version of the story because that’s simply the nature of adaptation. You only really need one action scene to set up the clickers, if they routinely stopped the plot to navigate a room full of clickers, or a street full of thugs every episode, it would become rather monotonous and unthreatening. Obviously the games have access to endless resources to pull of big set pieces that the TV show doesn’t. But in realistic terms and in terms of narrative, it was always going to skip the “gameplay” of the game because that’s the game and this is the TV show.

[Bishop_99]

This episode was good, but it was what I expected based on the recent episodes of the series.

[Show spoiler]My thoughts haven't changed with this new episode, it could have been a 3 episode arc, instead of introducing this story and concluding it all in the same episode.

This David character was different, not creepy like in the game, but different. I wish they would have gone further into this David character, to see his real control over this town and what makes this David different. Sure both David's have the same motives, but this version is different imo. Maybe it was the actor portraying him, but I like felt they could have extended this story to flesh out these characters.

Another point of highlighting of how fast they are going through some of the elements of the story, is the encounter in the lab were Joel kills "that guy" and gets injured in episode 6. Yet it plays an important part to the early plot of this episode. They went by that encounter so fast, that I barely cared that the person Joel killed being that girl's father or why did everyone want revenge. Either he was such a good person or they just believe in an eye for and eye. They could have done more with this plot.


Again, I felt that there was a better story in episode 8 to be told through out 3 episodes, but it was a good episode for what it was. It recreated a lot of scenes from the game and edited them nicely into the episode. Even including Joel's torture scene from the game.

A very good and intense moment when David had Ellie in the Cabin and it looked like Ellie had no way of overcoming her horror. That moment was really well done and the actress really portrayed that fear.


Good episode, but it could have been a lot better if this was part of past great TV show. It played out as I expected, but it's good for what it is.

[morphinapg]

Originally Posted by Legend293

Haven't got to watch the newest episode yet but it seems like this show really likes to remove the action scenes and clickers. Examples the second episode completely skips the broken building scene, the whole bill town basically got skipped, most of the city part got skipped would have been awesome to see them get chased down by that truck with a turrent. They didn't leave the very tense and most scariest part the basement generator, The part that introduced shamblers were gone, we lost Ellie running away towards that house and instead we got a 2 second later Joel changed his mind about not leaving Ellie. Then we lost out on the small fight section at the college which was handled better in the game.

It really seems to me that the show maybe tried to cram the first game into one season in case it got cancelled and possibly they didn't have enough of a budget.

Hoping things change for season 2.

Most of the time I've agreed with what they've decided to cut. You have to think about why those scenes are there in the game. Most of the time it isn't necessarily to tell a story, but just to give the player something to do.

That being said, I think the show could have benefitted from more episodes being around the 80-90 minute length, sure. At least one more infected scene would have been good, because as it is, while the decisions they've made mostly make sense, it has come at the cost of making the infected seem like less of a threat in the world than they should be, which is an issue considering the main goal of the story.

[Show spoiler]I do think Ellie and David fighting infected in this episode would have been good to keep, as then it would have made the reveal that David is part of the group that attacked Joel more of a surprise after he essentially earns her trust in that moment.

I suppose that may be why they decided to include Left Behind where they did, because it did ultimately add an infected scene where it might have felt like we've been lacking one, even though it was a less intense infected scene than the one from the game. Maybe we'll still get something in the finale, but I kind of doubt it.

[Legend293]

Originally Posted by Foggy

It’s all in tone I guess, some people are like “I’m not feeling it” or “does nothing special” and some people are like “this is the most overrated thing ever”. Like you can tell people who are casually watching it, and those who are just hate watching, and it’s just leaves you thinking “why are you wasting your time”. It’s all a bit holier than you in their writing.

Like I don’t think the original game is all that special, I found the story itself to be a bit cliched with the exception of the ending, but it’s really elevated by the exceptional facial animation, performances, tone and well-realised writing interwoven with the gameplay. There’s a similar thing with this, except the changes are quite interesting here, not necessarily all for the best, but all fairly distinguished from the game. Might be that I’ve come into it knowing what to expect and they didn’t, but when you’re signing off with digs towards the showrunners, it appears like you’re coming in with some baggage and you want to lay that as everyone else’s problem.



It’s because they don’t add to the story, these are moments left to be played, the show is made to be watched. It was always going to be a talkier version of the story because that’s simply the nature of adaptation. You only really need one action scene to set up the clickers, if they routinely stopped the plot to navigate a room full of clickers, or a street full of thugs every episode, it would become rather monotonous and unthreatening. Obviously the games have access to endless resources to pull of big set pieces that the TV show doesn’t. But in realistic terms and in terms of narrative, it was always going to skip the “gameplay” of the game because that’s the game and this is the TV show.

They don't need to copy the gameplay fully but a condensed version of it like something like they get chased into the school by a bunch of clickers and as they tried to leave through the gym the bloater shows up and they have to kill it before they can leave. They don't exactly need to go room to room. The walking dead handled this sort of thing better as it had a really good balance.
I was watching earlier seasons when it was really good and so just had me thinking. If the walking dead could do it why not last us.

[tcripe]

Awesome episode that was very loyal to the game for the most part. 10/10 no notes.

[Mephariel]

Really love this episode. I think they did a fantastic job condensing the main themes of the winter chapter here.

[Mephariel]

Originally Posted by Bishop_99

This episode was good, but it was what I expected based on the recent episodes of the series.

[Show spoiler]My thoughts haven't changed with this new episode, it could have been a 3 episode arc, instead of introducing this story and concluding it all in the same episode.

This David character was different, not creepy like in the game, but different. I wish they would have gone further into this David character, to see his real control over this town and what makes this David different. Sure both David's have the same motives, but this version is different imo. Maybe it was the actor portraying him, but I like felt they could have extended this story to flesh out these characters.

Another point of highlighting of how fast they are going through some of the elements of the story, is the encounter in the lab were Joel kills "that guy" and gets injured in episode 6. Yet it plays an important part to the early plot of this episode. They went by that encounter so fast, that I barely cared that the person Joel killed being that girl's father or why did everyone want revenge. Either he was such a good person or they just believe in an eye for and eye. They could have done more with this plot.


Again, I felt that there was a better story in episode 8 to be told through out 3 episodes, but it was a good episode for what it was. It recreated a lot of scenes from the game and edited them nicely into the episode. Even including Joel's torture scene from the game.

A very good and intense moment when David had Ellie in the Cabin and it looked like Ellie had no way of overcoming her horror. That moment was really well done and the actress really portrayed that fear.


Good episode, but it could have been a lot better if this was part of past great TV show. It played out as I expected, but it's good for what it is.

I kind of agree but not really. Using 3 episodes to tell the story is fine if David was a major character crucial to season 2. But he wasn't. He was basically a villain used to develop Joel and Ellie's characters and relationships. What would be revealed about Joel and Ellie with 3 episodes instead of 1?

[cheez avenger]

Great episode but I do wish there was more

[Show spoiler]blood when she killed David. I wanted to see her looking like she was Carrie at the prom.

Outside of that, it was awesome.

[Wernski]

What happened to all the townies they introduced?

[Show spoiler]They've been screaming, firing guns and burn down the whole lodge, but Pascal and Ellie can stumble around outside having a discussion with no one coming to see what's going on?

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Wernski

What happened to all the townies they introduced?

[Show spoiler]They've been screaming, firing guns and burn down the whole lodge, but Pascal and Ellie can stumble around outside having a discussion with no one coming to see what's going on?

Yeah, I wonder if they'll be in next week's episode. They went out of their way to show you how they lived

[Show spoiler](somewhat insolent and passive) and their connection to the episode from 2 weeks ago, but never went back to Silverlake to see what they were up to once Joel came in to rescue Ellie.

[DarkSide2473]

“It’s ok, baby girl. I got you.”

[JamesKurtovich]

Originally Posted by Wernski

What happened to all the townies they introduced?

[Show spoiler]They've been screaming, firing guns and burn down the whole lodge, but Pascal and Ellie can stumble around outside having a discussion with no one coming to see what's going on?

I figured they ran off. Most of those people were barely hanging on to life.

Loved this week's episode. I thought Joel was going to swoop in but Ellie took care of business.