TLOU Discussion (spoilers ahead)

[skullman80]

Still need to watch Ep2. Hopefully sometime in the next couple of days.

[Troy Loney]

They talked about that on the official podcast. It's a significant change from how that event plays out in the game (and one that makes so much more sense now, if I'm honest), and they said it was photographed and edited very specifically to be quasi-romantic, or at least not threatening. If she had tried to run, the horde would've ripped her to pieces. But she........ submitted? and so was, er, 'welcomed' to the group. It is, fundamentally, a kissing scene. Blegh

Anything penetrative in the body horror sense is especially grotesque and unnerving. That mode of transmission is unique to the cordys in the show, and it's completely gross. Since they were doing away with spores/airborne transmission they needed a new form of spread to impart fear of the Infected beyond them being simply bitey bitey violent monsters. The tendrils idea was something they explored for the game story (they even shot scenes and recorded dialog talking about it), but decided to abandon.

Fungus roots growing out of your mouth hole is not romantic

[tifosi77]

Not for you, but maybe it is for the fungus.

[tifosi77]

Last Of Us Episode 2 Breaks All-Time HBO Audience Record

The Last of Us continues to grow in popularity as episode 2, "Infected," yields a massive increase in viewership from last week's series premiere. HBO's hugely anticipated adaptation of the beloved PlayStation game of the same name has received widespread acclaim, already establishing itself as one of the network's foremost series alongside its Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon. The power of word-of-mouth has bolstered viewing figures as the show proves to be a worthy adaptation of the apocalypse-set game.

A recent Nielsen report (via Variety) documents the very impressive debut ratings that The Last of Us generated in its first episode, "When You're Lost in the Darkness," which opened to 4.7 million viewers in the U.S. across HBO and linear telecasts. The report has revealed a whopping episode 2 jump of 22% with a total of 5.7 million viewers, the largest ever increase for an HBO original drama series between its first and second episodes. Also disclosed were the viewing figures for episode 1 after a whole week of availability on streaming, landing the current total at an incredible 18 million viewers - nearly four times the number of its premiere night audience. This trend seems to continue, meaning episode 2 could break 20 million viewers after a week of availability.

So not only did all the Ep 1 viewers come back for more, they looped in some friends. If they maintain these numbers, the show will end its first season with cumulative viewership in the range of the middle seasons of GoT.

[meecrofilm]

I will also say there have been a few moments in both episodes where my brain has said out loud, well this looks or feels like something directly from the video game. I don't know if this is a bad thing, but it certainly feels more video game than cinema if you get what I'm saying. Also as much as I love the world, whoever parked new vehicles and just tossed vines and dust on them for the set pieces could have made them a little more believable. I was laughing at how cheap that looked

Yeah, I had a couple instances of the same thought. There are times where design feels too faithful and it's obvious they're working in a "linear" video game path to force characters from A to B. I expect the times where they aren't in cities will feel a lot more natural.

[skullman80]

Incredible episode tonight. Pretty big variation from the game but I think it worked well.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Didn't expect that kind of emotional impact from TLOU, honestly.

Murray Bartlett is a treasure.

[meecrofilm]

Hey, that's a good ep of television right there.

[tifosi77]

"THE GOVERNMENT ARE ALL NAZIS!!!!"



It's amazing how showing stuff that's only alluded to in the game adds so much subtext to the story as they're telling it in the show. I was so excited to see they were including Frank here, because it's such a great counterpoint on all the dire horror stuff.

On the one hand it's a bit of a bummer not seeing the action from the Lincoln level play out (the upside down bit, the Bloater in the school, etc), but I'm not complaining; I have a feeling we'll get plenty of that stuff. Instant classic stuff, and I can't believe we're already 1/3 of the way through.

(And I'm happy to see the ongoing parade of Easter eggs)

[tifosi77]

Also, for the prepper scenes I sorta think they sent Nick Offerman out with a camera crew and they just, like, filmed a normal day of him doing stuff.

[AuthorTony]

I didn't watch the ep until today, but last night I saw someone on FB post, "It only took 3 episodes for The Last of Us to go woke. It added nothing to the story and I'm done." Sigh.

I thought it was fantastic.

[tifosi77]

It added nothing to the story........ except, you know........ meaning.

[eddy]

Nice little one off episode if I can call it that. Was not expecting that at all. It was really well done, but being a 1/3 of the way through the series, I was ready for it to get going again.

[tifosi77]

Also, Tony........ your friends, did they have any knowledge of the game story going in? Cos while it's off-screen in the game, Bill and Frank are definitely a thing, and it's shown in all the trailers that the off-screen stuff will be depicted in the show. 'Go woke' sounds like they feel blindsided by something that was pretty clearly on the horizon.

[eddy]

Also, Tony........ your friends, did they have any knowledge of the game story going in? Cos while it's off-screen in the game, Bill and Frank are definitely a thing, and it's shown in all the trailers that the off-screen stuff will be depicted in the show. 'Go woke' sounds like they feel blindsided by something that was pretty clearly on the horizon.

That's interesting, so was that bunkered up little neighborhood a level in the game or something?

[skullman80]

Yeah the woke stuff is ridiculous. People either never played the game or didn't pay attention.

[AuthorTony]

I don't know if the guy played the game or not. Probably not, if those characters were gay in the game. I don't know the guy in real life. I think he's another author who added me on FB.

[tifosi77]

Also, Tony........ your friends, did they have any knowledge of the game story going in? Cos while it's off-screen in the game, Bill and Frank are definitely a thing, and it's shown in all the trailers that the off-screen stuff will be depicted in the show. 'Go woke' sounds like they feel blindsided by something that was pretty clearly on the horizon.

That's interesting, so was that bunkered up little neighborhood a level in the game or something?

It's a significant part of the early gameplay, yes. Including two of the most iconic bits (one where you spring one of Bill's traps and have to fight off a horde of Infected while hanging upsidedown by your ankle, and the first appearance of the Bloater class of Infected)

The game level of Lincoln

The town is partially overrun with Infected, and Bill's traps are sort of more geared towards bottling them up than keeping people out of the town altogether.

Bill had a business relationship with Tess, but iirc before the events of the game had never met Joel. Bill and Frank's relationship had soured. A FEDRA convoy comprised of several school busses arrived in Lincoln (I forget why), and Frank decided to peace out on Bill and try to make it to the Boston QZ with the FEDRAs. At this point, the convoy was overrun by Infected and Frank was bitten. Instead of waiting to turn, he went back home and hung himself. During gameplay, Joel and Bill discover Frank's body hanging in the living room, and a note left by Frank explaining all of what happened. As Bill cuts down Frank's body he describes him as his "partner"; while it is not stated expressly, it's pretty clear from the subtext what was meant by that term. As Joel and Ellie leave town, it is learned she swiped a porno mag from Bill's house, and if you didn't get the hints about Bill before this scene, there should be no doubt after it. ("Bye bye, dude!")

I think it was when Neil Druckmann guested on Retro Replay in the Before Times he said that just as a character exercise he would've liked the opportunity to explore Bill and Frank's relationship more fully. (Like, devoid of gameplay considerations) This episode of RR was filmed around the same time Mazin and Druckmann pitched HBO, so I don't know how far along they were in actually exploring that at the time. Incidentally, he also said that exploring Ellie's mother's backstory was compelling, and that role is being played in the show by Ashley Johnson who played Ellie in the games.

[CBear3]

So I didn't play the game, loosely knew there was an older dude and a young girl and zombies. Gave that same backstory to my wife as we sat down to watch the first episode.
We only made it halfway (time), and we were like:
Oh, its a Dad and daughter against Zombies show. She seems real nice, I can see some of our daughter in her - WTF they shot her dead?
Oh, another little girl shows up 20 years later. This must be the girl in the show then - WTF they killed her and gave her the shrimp on the barbie treatment!
...And time to go pick up the kids after the drug deal...
Not sure I'm going to be able to convince her to sit back down for the second half

[tifosi77]

TLOU Ep 3 has been review bombed across ye internet. It has racked up around 30,000 one-stars on IMDB. Which is hilarious.

I saw one early review of the ep that characterized it as something that would "p**s off all the right people", and I have to say I concur...... and the 'Lost Behind' episode with Riley is still in our future.

Can't wait to settle in with ep 4 tonight where we presumably Raiders are really just anti-CRT crusaders who blame cordyceps on SARS vaccines.

[AuthorTony]

TLOU Ep 3 has been review bombed across ye internet. It has racked up around 30,000 one-stars on IMDB. Which is hilarious.

Snowflakes, the lot of them.

[DigitalGypsy66]

It will air on Friday at 9 btw

[willeyeam]

That episode was supposed to be in Pittsburgh

[skullman80]

Another great episode tonight. Lots of good relationship and backstory building. Ending was nice and suspenseful to foreshadow what's coming soon. Things about to get real.

[DigitalGypsy66]

That episode was supposed to be in Pittsburgh

Evidently Calgary looks more like Kansas City than Pittsburgh. Who knew?