The Last of Us - HBO *Spoilers* See warning in post #1

MarkR

That episode went really quickly for me. I was stressed when they (or Ellie at least) were sleeping outside in the woods, and was convinced they'd receive some nighttime visitors.

The visuals are great, really make you think about how they did it and the effort it took just to give a sweeping overhead shot.

Surprised to see "Rose" as the leader of the local militia. Her second in command (Tommy voice actor) looked badass. Wondering what is below the basement, and what they know about it. One of the zombie types from the game we know already, or something new?

Henry and Sam have made an appearance, and Sam had some had red warpaint on. Wonder if is he painting himself as a superhero?

I was disappointed that it didn't seem to answer much, but I guess we're in for a bit of a story arc.

PhiloCypher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120212470#Comment_120212470

And yet the ratings grow week on week. At what point do you start asking yourself maybe I'm the outlier here in not liking it, and its actually pretty good(just not for you). Food for thought .

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120214868#Comment_120214868

i dunno

look at pripyat in ukraine for how overgrown things are after 37 years since chernobyl.

https://www.google.ie/maps/@51.4054679,30.0579098,2a,75y,109.83h,91.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saatjhYbEwue4NeHA4gedMg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

while there are fast growing trees in existence, there isnt the lush over growth you might imagine

also remember that they are driving through essential what is the american midwest. the further they travel west the most sparse and 'deserty' the ;lands are going to become

in the cities the main growth that will take over is the artificially planted areas which existing pre infection event.

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120215159#Comment_120215159

Would the huge amount of radiation on the area not effect the speed of plant growth ,

TheIrishGrover

Well everybody is entitled to their own opinion. However if someone doesn't like a show, I personally don't see the point in going to a thread and repeatedly stating how cr*p something is. Simply don't watch.

I hate "Reality" TV (Sole exception being The Bake Off). But I realise that the genre is HUGE. That Traitors show was MASSIVE on BBC. I watched, didn't like it, but I didn't feel the urge to go to the thread (Assuming there is one) and repeatedly state how cr*p it was (Or state that it is woke/and/or racist or hompophobic or how it's doomed to fail)..... I simply stopped watching. And saved myself 45 mins a week by not watching. Simple as.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120215198#Comment_120215198

I think part of it is just down to some people having unrealistic expectations of what the show is or should be. It's hard not to draw comparisons to something like The Walking Dead, and I think that idea of every episode featuring a battle against zombies/infected and/or human enemies is what people expect because that was usually par for the course in TWD and all associated spin-offs. It kinda makes sense too when you also consider the number of infected/humans Joel would have killed in the game by this point through gameplay. The show has definitely cut back on the number of action sequences to make it more realistic and so they have greater impact when they do happen. So an episode with not a lot of action is boring to those who expect a lot of action.

But it's a bit like saying The Sopranos is boring because there aren't mob hits or shoot-outs with police in every episode. TLOU is about the characters and their journey. The infected and groups of human enemies are just the framework around that story. Whereas with The Walking Dead, the character's stories were usually so bare-boned, repetitive and generic, because ultimately there was more focus on the big battles against The Governor, or the Cannibals, or Negan, or the Whisperers, or whoever else they've been fighting in recent seasons.

The Last Of Us just isn't that type of show.

one armed dwarf

eh, imo if people don't like the show there's nothing wrong with mentioning that and watching week by week. It's a low weekly commitment to tune in, after all. A weekly love-in with only positive comments can be just as boring (tho nowhere near as boring as the constant low value 'woke-posting').

TLOU is a weird one. I'm not fully certain what I think of it myself. I thought episode 3 was excellent but I get pulled out of this show now and then and I don't know if it's cause I know the game story or if it's a slight bit of fatigue with the conventions of this type of story, which imo TLOU doesn't really break new ground with.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120215196#Comment_120215196

no not really, vegetation started returning within 3 years of the disaster

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190701-why-plants-survived-chernobyls-deadly-radiation

the main reduction in plant spread would have affected those plants which require animal scat to spread their seeds, but air bourne spread wasnt really affected at all.

and in TLOU, id imagine animals would also be affected by the fungal infection, so the results could be considered to be similar

yourdeadwright

I do think this series may be better if binge watched ,

Although iv a feeling it may be about to go down hill ,the actress heading a heavy armed group of militia just doesn't feel right ,

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120215967#Comment_120215967

I would agree the actress looks to be miscast, she just seems too nice and indecisive given her men are out there killing people. I would expect a Negan type character leading through fear and charisma. Interesting to know if gamers found the game equivalent so to be similar.

The last of us after four episodes should have built up a number of strong cast of characters but instead have killed off most of them.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216166#Comment_120216166

She looked pretty decisive when she shot the doctor.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120215198#Comment_120215198

I disagree with your reality show example, there is a difference between a genre you dont like and shows in genres you expect to like. if someone hates this show but thought the walking dead was a 10/10 show then thats a valid opinion

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216166#Comment_120216166

indecisive?? not sure what were you watching.

'determined' and 'single minded' are descriptors i would use to describe Kathleen. She will do anything to find the people who informed on her brother, leading to his death. Thats literally whats driving her on the basis of what we've seen so far. The doctor is of no use anymore? kill him.

i think viewers are a bit uneasy with kathleen's character exactly because she's NOT a Negan character. Shes not obviously a 2 dimensional evil git. The morals around what shes doing are already difficult to understand.

Shes the leader of resistance against the FEDRA, who are already painted as the bad guys here... so she must be good yeah??? enemy of my enemy etc. But obviously in a post apocalyptic world survival is the goal, and survival at all costs, but also society must continue, and people are rebelling against FEDRAs image of society. So Kathleen must be good then... yeah. did she lead the creation of their new society there??

maybe, just maybe, theres an element of viewers who have difficulty with seeing a female as a leader?

MarkR

Anyone think that Kathleen (militia boss) looked pregnant? Could have been the coat I suppose. Normally I'm not one to suggest someone is pregnant, until I see a baby, but this is TV, so I'm going with it.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216166#Comment_120216166

It's about 2 people traveling the country there won't be any strong cast of characters. Everybody will just be something met in passing.

FortuneChip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216278#Comment_120216278

Doubt it. Don't think an American TV should could introduce a pregnant character without making sure everyone knew it.

She might have some at least some reason to spare the doc if that was the case too.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216259#Comment_120216259

I guess it was her manner of speaking, she just didnt project power, even the leader of the fireflies in the city had more authority to her. But killing a doctor even though there was no immediate need for him has to rank as one of the most stupidest things to do in a post apocalyptic world. she probably should have cut off a limb or something to make the point

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216486#Comment_120216486

She seemed to have plenty of authority. Everybody listened to her.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216479#Comment_120216479

she isnt a great character, killed a doctor for what looked like was an emotional reason not a rational one, and a doctor must be like gold dust for a society on the edge.

breezy1985

Jeysus lads we have seen about 2 minutes of her.

Penn

I just think it was a bad first scene we got of her, or at the very least she shouldn't have had a positive emotional connection to the doctor (he said he was the one who delivered her). It just added an unnecessary conflict in her first scene which was instantly disregarded when their man that Joel injured wasn't going to survive and she then killed the doctor without hesitation. To me it just threw her character off. It would have been enough to have her hate the doctor because of what happened to her brother, then take her frustration of their man being killed out on the doctor by killing him.

It just felt like an unnecessary emotional beat with no real payoff and works against what we're likely supposed to feel for the character considering she's hunting Henry and now Joel & Ellie.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216493#Comment_120216493

Yes but they are all actors they were told to 😀 i think anna torv but had played the character better, she showed steely determination. Anyway only her first episode i wont prejudge that she wont get better.

Dial Hard

I honestly think the biggest issue people have with Melanie Lynskey's casting is that they can't get past her voice (and possibly the character she played in Two and a Half Men). Try to suspend your disbelief, folks, it's called acting.

Tony EH

Lynskey's character looks like someone for whom leadership, or a semblance thereof, fell to her out of necessity rather than someone who wanted it in the first place. So, in that respect she's a very realistic character. But we really know little to nothing of her so far and have no idea what she's capable of, except that she has no problem off'ing people that rat out her family.

Zero-Cool

Like the show runners said in the companion podcast when the host asked about her character "just wait for the next episode". Yeah it's a weird intro to her but I'm sure she's not playing the hardened gang leader for a reason.

Jesus Christ, some of the posters attitudes here are the reason that Star Trek has gone all pew pew splosion!!!

Wanting battle scenes every episode FFS

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216681#Comment_120216681

That's where I recognised her from

FrostyJack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216523#Comment_120216523

I have seen some bad takes on this show, especially on episode 3 (See Ben Shapiro's review) but this takes the biscuit. One guy in a comment section on FB wrote an essay on how he worked with women all over the World and none of the great female leaders looked like her or had the same mannerisms, the rest were saying how could a Karen be running things. Unbelievable. First of all this isn't a CAG team she is commanding, they are all ordinary people. Only her number 2 looks anyway highspeed. As stated already we are to find out how she got into that position but she clearly isn't a meek handwringer going from shooting the doctor, her relentless chasing of Henry and then choosing not to inform the group of the impeding danger over the mission to capture him. Most likely her brother was the leader but since he was captured/killed by Fedra they looked to her to lead.

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216839#Comment_120216839

She is a new character and I have not looked anything up or watched podcast or companion show or anything so i know nothing but yeah, this is what I assumed from that episode. I'm assuming something went wrong and it resulted in death of someone close to her/the group. Maybe they were trying to leave and an accident killed their leader and this person she mentions. She keeps referring to them by name so they are close. She knows them. I am willing to wait. I believe it will be explained. I don't want Murder She Wrote where everything is explained and closed in an episode. I thought her actions, as said by others above, where the actions of someone in personal pain, trying to hold it together as responsibility has just been thrust upon them.

fitz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120216911#Comment_120216911

She was great in Yellowjackets.