The Last of Us - HBO Series [Spoilers after episodes have aired -- no game spoilers]

[Winsor_Pilates]

I finished the game last night (part 1) and without talking game talk, I will say the last episode makes me excited for how much the can flush out details and storylines to add a lot of depth to the source material.

There's good source to work with and the show can become much greater than the game with the ability to take things so much deeper.

[chemgear]

Going back to Frank's rant about "Paying attention to things, it's how we show love." and then seeing Bill evolving to happily taking care of the flowers as his partner is getting sicker.




And there is a two hour version of the episode:

https://deadline.com/2023/01/the-las...al-1235242560/

DEADLINE: This episode is already being praised by critics as one of the best in television. But when did you know that you had something substantial during the creative process?

MAZIN: Well, we felt really good about the script, and we felt really good about our cast, and we felt really good about our director. But I felt good about scripts, cast and directors before, and then sometimes the soufflé doesn’t rise. And with this one, in being there each day and watching the episode take shape, I was feeling pretty good about it. But it wasn’t until I saw the director’s cut that I knew. Peter Hoar did his director’s cut with our editor, Tim Good, which was quite long. When they sent it to me, I think it was almost two hours or something like that. So, I was like, oh, that’s probably not good.And I sat down, but I’m like, “OK, I’ll watch the two-hour version of this episode.” And I cried so hard that at one point, I actually said out loud, “Ow.” I mean, it hurt. I cried so hard; it hurt. And I thought,” Well, if these guys can do this to me and I wrote this ######ing thing, then I think it might work pretty well on other people” Now, we did work really hard to, but we knew we couldn’t put a two-hour version of this thing out there, but HBO—

DEADLINE: OK, wait. But you could. It sounds like we need the painful, longer cut. We could see more of Bill and Frank falling in love with each other …

[bax]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

I was just chuckling to myself last night, with the success of the The Last of Us I wonder if Sony's itching to auction off other properties.

God of War, starring The Rock, coming soon to Paramount+!

This has been well underway before the Last of Us aired. Sony has already signed off on adaptations for God of War, Horizon, Gran Turismo, and Twisted Metal.

[Yeah_Baby]

Uncharted was first property released under the new banner of PlayStation Studios. You don't create a new banner for just one thing.

[N-E-B]

Loving this series so far, but I don’t think that last episode was the masterpiece it’s being made out to be. I’ve seen people giving it 10/10 ratings and calling it the best episode of television ever made.

I don’t agree with that. It was just a good episode. Maybe 7/10. Felt Bill and Frank’s backstory dragged on a bit. Also, as someone who played the game,

Spoiler!

I enjoyed the interactions between Bill, Joel, and Ellie and felt a bit robbed of that. I did like the happy ending between Bill and Frank better than the bitter breakup they had in the game leading to Frank’s suicide and malicious note. I just wish maybe they kept them alive long enough for Bill and Joel and Ellie to interact and then had Bill and Frank die as Joel and Ellie are leaving with the truck.

[The Familia]

I'm not seeing all the hype of the last episode. I enjoyed it and I have enjoyed the series as a whole so far, but to say it was the best episode of TV ever is quite a stretch. The series has been good but I still feel that other shows like Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones have been better and produced better episodes. I've never played the game so I have no idea of the storyline. I'm mostly watching this for the Calgary connection, and if this wasn't filmed here I don't even know if I would have even started watching it. It has been good so far and I plan to watch the whole thing.

[Shazam]

Yeah, the metaphors were cheesy.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Yea I wish they hadn't even gone into what caused the outbreak at all, it's not needed and doesn't make any sense since no one is eating raw flour

I think the idea is that it developed in a factory in Jakarta and was transferred onto finished products by way of humans.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Loving this series so far, but I don’t think that last episode was the masterpiece it’s being made out to be. I’ve seen people giving it 10/10 ratings and calling it the best episode of television ever made.

I don’t agree with that. It was just a good episode. Maybe 7/10. Felt Bill and Frank’s backstory dragged on a bit. Also, as someone who played the game,

Spoiler!

I enjoyed the interactions between Bill, Joel, and Ellie and felt a bit robbed of that. I did like the happy ending between Bill and Frank better than the bitter breakup they had in the game leading to Frank’s suicide and malicious note. I just wish maybe they kept them alive long enough for Bill and Joel and Ellie to interact and then had Bill and Frank die as Joel and Ellie are leaving with the truck.

after the montage of their last day, I almost expected a "two weeks earlier" or something like that to pop up as Joel and Ellie arrive. Just because I fully expected Ellie to at least meet them ... I didn't mind the final version one bit, but I absolutely loved Ellie and Bill's banter in the game, so some of that would have been sweet for sure.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

For Ellie and Bill to have banter of the same type as the game they would have had to show up in 2003. The Bill at the end was not the same character as the Bill in the game and would not have interacted with Ellie in the same way, or anything close to it.

Originally Posted by Shazam

Yeah, the metaphors were cheesy.

OK, go for it - what metaphors are you talking about, and how were they cheesy? I'm interested to see this analysis.

Anyway, I don't think it's the best episode of TV ever either. That is an absurdly high bar to clear. It might be top 20 though... hard to say, and also depends on what the rules are (like, one episode per show, or what).

Basically, what it boils down to is that trying to rank it against other episodes of other shows seems weird and pointless. At the end of the day, it was a really really great episode of television. Like, objectively great. There's no room to fault any aspect of the script, the acting is obviously exceptional, everything to do with the design from sets on down is top tier, and it is beautifully lit and shot (the scene with the strawberries... hot damn). So 7/10 is... not really defensible, but whatever, no accounting for taste.

[Yeah_Baby]

We're all entitled to our own reactions to art, but for me the episode was right about with The Constant from LOST or International Assassin from The Leftovers or Kiksuya from Westworld.

But as I said to each their own, as I'm someone who doesn't like TNG's The Inner Light as much as some.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

We're all entitled to our own reactions to art, but for me the episode was right about with The Constant from LOST or International Assassin from The Leftovers or Kiksuya from Westworld.

But as I said to each their own, as I'm someone who doesn't like TNG's The Inner Light as much as some.

Sort of agree, it was great, and award winning considering what it will be up against. Still, it will never beat the best episode in television. ER's "Be Still My Heart"

[dino7c]

Its by far the lowest rated episode of the 3 on IMDB but I think we all know why

Somebody on facebook was arguing that he wasn't gay in the game lol...I pointed out that he had a partner and gay porn in the game but what do I know

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Its by far the lowest rated episode of the 3 on IMDB but I think we all know why

Somebody on facebook was arguing that he wasn't gay in the game lol...I pointed out that he had a partner and gay porn in the game but what do I know

lol. i don't know why but i went and read FB comments on it. It was like reading 100 posts from Yoho. I'm an idiot.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Its by far the lowest rated episode of the 3 on IMDB but I think we all know why

Somebody on facebook was arguing that he wasn't gay in the game lol...I pointed out that he had a partner and gay porn in the game but what do I know

Yeah, the Gameverse versions were always Gay, it was just 2013 when games like Mass Effect were just allowing for gay romance, so it was less explicit if you weren't looking for it.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Its by far the lowest rated episode of the 3 on IMDB but I think we all know why

Somebody on facebook was arguing that he wasn't gay in the game lol...I pointed out that he had a partner and gay porn in the game but what do I know

well he was obviously just a business "partner", and he clearly just kept the gay porn for ... research. The more you know!

I'm not even surprised any more lol. I'd imagine the episode called "Left Behind" won't get high IMDB scores either.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

Yeah, the Gameverse versions were always Gay, it was just 2013 when games like Mass Effect were just allowing for gay romance, so it was less explicit if you weren't looking for it.

They weren't hiding it or downplaying it for that reason, they just didn't actually decide that Bill was gay until W. Earl Brown talked to Druckmann about it in the course of making the thing. So the indications are subtle because they were later tweaks and not originally planned, and because in the game Bill's sexuality wasn't particularly important to what his character added to the story. It was basically an addition to give the character more depth and dimension and give Brown an opportunity to play the role the way he wanted to, which added to his performance.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

lol. i don't know why but i went and read FB comments on it. It was like reading 100 posts from Yoho. I'm an idiot.

It's like people complaining about "gender politics" in a tv show or video game.

We all know what that is code for. And what it says about the person that says that sort of thing.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by chemgear

We all know what that is code for. And what it says about the person that says that sort of thing.

That's often true, though it's not quite that simple. There definitely are instances where a show or other property will deliberately shoehorn in a gay character or story just to have a gay character or story in it (or other LGBT or minority character), which is tokenism and is worthy of eye-rolling, especially when it's done in a paint-by-numbers, superficial way which is often exactly what happens. That is demonstrably, clearly, not what this story was.

[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by chemgear

https://twitter.com/user/status/1620133449637203968

Deleted scene of Joel, Ellie and Tess vibing with the Linda Ronstadt song after leaving Bill and Frank's place.