I didn't want to post it until the end of the season with all the spoilers but we were invited to attend The Last of Us - "One Night Live" back in the day. It was just people from the game studio and friend and family in Santa Monica after Comic Con. Got to meet and hang out with all the voice actors, Gustavo, and the devs for an evening. The on-stage stuff was broadcast as well as it could back in the day.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to chemgear For This Useful Post:
This was the first big miss of the season IMO, really sucks that it had to be the finale. They really needed another episode to let Joel and Ellie breath a bit, or at least extend the finale. When I saw the episode was 43 minutes, and 10 minutes of that was a flashback, I knew the final scenes would be way too rushed. In the game that final battle is a slog, and you feel the weight of it with every Firefly you kill. TV Joel just plowed through them all in 5 minutes without taking a scratch, totally killed the emotional weight of it all. My wife, who never even heard of the games, only said "That's it?" at the end. So disappointing
I wonder if it was a budget issue that caused them to rush things so much in the final few episodes. One of the most expensive HBO productions ever, based on video game which historically has never yielded good results. Maybe the suits got nervous and told them to wrap it up quick
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Hemi-Cuda For This Useful Post:
Super Soldier Joel kinda wrecked what was otherwise a really impactful finale. Of all the video game tropes to adopt not sure why they went all in on that one. There’s no reason any previous or future adversaries should pose a challenge based on that performance.
Unpopular opinion here, but I'm just not really feeling this series at all. I've watched every episode, and while it is good, it doesn't even compare to Game of Thrones and other shows.
I find it rather plodding at times with lots of needless dialogue and scenes that don't really advance the storyline. I don't find much of the dialogue that intriguing or riveting and the overall storyline is rather bland and basic. There are no simultaneous storylines or characters. Contrary to many, the character development other than Joel and Ellie is rather rushed. It seems every episode introduces some new "bad guy" and that bad guy is dispatched or disposed of within the same episode or by the next one for sure. I would have liked a lot more flashbacks to the beginning of the pandemic and how things started to go south.
My main reason for watching is the Calgary connection and looking out for filming locations!
I don't think this opinion will be too unpopular.
It's a decent show but no where near the top ranks like a GOT; with the exception of episode 3 which was outstanding.
But not every show can be at that level. I still enjoyed having it to watch on Sunday evenings and will keep watching season 2.
For game people, I didn't notice this obviously but apparently the nurse on the left was played by Laura Bailey.
Spoiler!
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to CorsiHockeyLeague For This Useful Post:
I feel about the show exactly how I felt about the game, it was okay. I personally never thought the game was the masterpiece of story telling that the gaming world heralded it as. I enjoyed the show on some level, it had some cool scenes and some great acting at times, but at the end of the day its based on a zombie video game. I think they struggled a bit between having to stay faithful to the game and having the freedom to go deeper with the story telling. Honestly this total story should have probably spanned 2 seasons, they would have had way more time to explore the characters. Seeing Calgary and Alberta featured so prominently was great.
__________________
A few weeks after crashing head-first into the boards (denting his helmet and being unable to move for a little while) following a hit from behind by Bob Errey, the Calgary Flames player explains:
"I was like Christ, lying on my back, with my arms outstretched, crucified"
-- Frank Musil - Early January 1994
Last edited by Igottago; 03-12-2023 at 11:46 PM.
The Following User Says Thank You to Igottago For This Useful Post:
This episode almost completely lacked suspense. They were very relaxed walking through the city and buildings, nothing ominous. Maybe that was to show Joel was in a better place mentally, but that’s not how they survived to get to this point.
The hospital shootout was cartoonish. I guess they didn’t want it to overshadow the interpersonal drama, but it also killed any suspense. Season-ending plot armour.
This episode almost completely lacked suspense. They were very relaxed walking through the city and buildings, nothing ominous. Maybe that was to show Joel was in a better place mentally, but that’s not how they survived to get to this point.
The hospital shootout was cartoonish. I guess they didn’t want it to overshadow the interpersonal drama, but it also killed any suspense. Season-ending plot armour.
You could almost say it was straight out of a video game.
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to PepsiFree For This Useful Post:
In the game that final battle is a slog, and you feel the weight of it with every Firefly you kill. TV Joel just plowed through them all in 5 minutes without taking a scratch, totally killed the emotional weight of it all.
It felt like a slog only if you died over and over trying to beat it. It didn't actually last all that long in the game either.
The Following User Says Thank You to timun For This Useful Post:
In the end Joel didn’t grow at all. He starts off being kinda a ####ty dad who is self interested but obviously loves his daughter and ends up kinda a ####ty person who takes away Ellie’s agency to make her own decisions.
Joel sucks
I like Ellie knowing that Joel lied but wanting to believe it and not wanting to know the truth.
Lol at the above. It's precisely what you're meant to feel.
The only part you've got wrong is Joel taking away Ellie's agency to make her own decisions. It was Marlene who did that, as Ellie wasn't informed she'd die on the operating table.
Everyone sucks here. No one is in the right.
The Following 12 Users Say Thank You to timun For This Useful Post:
1. Not sure why there was some discussion about that being "polarizing". It was the same as the game, just shorter.
2. I wish they'd had a real giraffe if they were going to do that scene. The CGI... wasn't that great.
3. Merle Dandridge was fantastic. Ashley Johnson was fantastic-er. Really great cameo.
4. Again, and I've said this for roughly the entire back half of the season, they just didn't give it enough time to breathe. Joel is basically John Rambo plowing through soldiers in a hospital killing everyone... okay, maybe in a video game, but they needed that whole sequence to be a lot less video gamey, even if they had to do something totally different. Dude was clearly not playing on Grounded.
Scenes from the episode in game form:
Joel and Ellie with the giraffes:
Spoiler!
Joel wakes up in the hospital with Marlene:
Spoiler!
Joel kills Marlene:
Spoiler!
Ending scene:
Spoiler!
... I actually think that last scene was actually probably better in the game.
Just one quick note, the giraffe was real. They showed the BTS in the 30 minute special. They took Pedro and Bella to the Calgary Zoo to shoot it.
__________________
The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Cole436 For This Useful Post:
Yep, that was 100% a real giraffe shoot. You can tell when she's closely interacting with it (and for those of us that knew they shot there). A lot of the other stuff around the giraffe shoot was CGI and maybe that influenced how some saw it?
It was a lot of compositing obviously to combine the foreground elements, the actors and giraffe, and the background elements but it looked good to me. No different than the rest of the background compositing they've done throughout.
I really liked the episode, and my wife who hadn't seen the game's ending liked it too and didn't mind the pacing. I think how determined Joel was in not letting Ellie go benefited from the faster pacing in fact. But selfishly I would have liked more.
I would have preferred the season been stretched out more, but I'm more than happy with the season as a whole.
Edit: Though after re-watching this, I agree the TV show's version pacing of the dialogue was a little too fast given it's the final shot of the show:
Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Ending scene:
Spoiler!
... I actually think that last scene was actually probably better in the game.
As an adaptation of something I love? It was good. As a stand-alone TV show, I felt it was excellent.
I don’t know why, but the Giraffe scene never really connected with me in the game. But this version of the scene? Unbelievable. I feel like the scene finally clicked into place for me, and it was beautiful.
Joel’s massacre in the hospital was a little too unrealistic, but it’s executed so well I can keep that suspension of disbelief. The editing, the music, Pedro’s performance? Chefs kiss.
Ashley’s role as Anna was so tragic and wonderful. It’s impossible to separate her from Ellie, and that connective thread was done so well. Hearing all the familiar grunts and breathing while she’s running during the opening scene gave me goosebumps. Her characters addition to the story was smart and grounded Marlene even more.
My main criticism, and it’s been my criticism for the last three episodes, is the infected. Specifically the lack there of. This feels like the biggest “gimmie” moment they could have done with the infected by having it directly be in service of the story, and they fumbled it.
In the game, Joel and Ellie enter a tunnel full of infected after they find the abandoned medical bay. This would have offered a perfect spot to reintroduce the fungal network, pay off the Bloater introduction in episode 5 by essentially having it a “boss fight”, and have Joel put everything on the line to save Ellie.
It would have hammered home the lengths he will go to protect this little girl, which would only have heightened his rampage in the hospital. Heck, it could have even paid off Ellie’s inability to swim by having Joel save her if an infected hits her into the water below.
It would have been the perfect spot to use the infected in a place to serve the story and I don’t understand why it wasn’t taken advantage of, especially since we really hadn’t seen them since episode 5.
In saying that, it was still an incredible episode of TV
9/10
__________________
Last edited by Cole436; 03-13-2023 at 02:50 AM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Cole436 For This Useful Post:
I liked it.. and I do wonder if not playing the games makes it easier to like because I had no expectations.
The rampage violence IMO was done that way so you aren't cheering for Joel to survive and worried about him during it. Its just him mowing people down - including people who've dropped their weapons or didn't have weapons. If it was some kind of tense battle - you'd reflexively be on his side.
The Following User Says Thank You to PeteMoss For This Useful Post:
It's difficult to critique a show like this when you know all the twist and turns before they happen as a lot of suspense is taken away. It seems the people that didn't know the story before hand really like it such as my wife for example so I think mission accomplished for HBO. The show did feel a little accelerated but in an era where too many shows rely on filler episodes to fill out a season I don't really have a problem with a show getting right to the point. I'm interested in seeing where they go with the next season as the 2nd game IMO is too dark, depressing, and mean spirited to follow as closely as it may turn off some viewers as it did gamers.
If it was some kind of tense battle - you'd reflexively be on his side.
Well the way they did it in the game, you also discover the research and some journals from Marlene struggling with what to do, but ultimately coming to the conclusion that the good of the many etc etc... you don't really have a lot of time to weigh what's going on. I wonder how many people it occurred to to think about Kathleen's speech to Henry; "You think the whole world revolves around him? That he's worth everything?”
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
I liked how he actually checked to see if there was a bullet in the hand gun he picked up, and was able to do so by manipulating the slide without fully wracking it or stove piping the round.
Never played the games, fully enjoyed the show. The finale did feel a bit short, but it still accomplished what we needed.
I know there's no danger from Red Shirt Jimmy, so let's get to what matters.
Given the reception of the show I do wonder if they will decide to draw the second game out over several seasons now.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
The rampage violence IMO was done that way so you aren't cheering for Joel to survive and worried about him during it. Its just him mowing people down - including people who've dropped their weapons or didn't have weapons. If it was some kind of tense battle - you'd reflexively be on his side.
this makes sense I guess, as soon as they started playing the sad theme music over top of the action, you knew that his plot shield was at 100% and nobody was going to touch him.
the one other thing I didn't like was how little shock/anguish/defiance Joel displayed upon learning what the true plan was. it's as if he knew in advance that the next quest was to Rambo the entire hospital, so he almost immediately just pressed 'X' to accept.
It didn't actually last all that long in the game either.
