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

Evade

They could have done a better job adapting the game parts of the story, there's a lot of background dialogue and such when you're doing game things that really add to the story. In the game Ellie and David had to work together to escape infected while Troy Baker went for the penicillin and built up a bit of trust which made the twist much better. Wasn't it lucky the four at the university didn't have guns, they don't seem to be short of them. I backed off that point the other week once I realised I was skirting spoiler territory.

I think this series could have done with a few more episodes the pacing is very uneven.

lertsnim

I enjoyed this week. Tremendous performance again from Bella Ramsey. Next week's finale will be the shortest episode of the series which is annoying.

BruteStock

The pacing and structure of the season has been knocked off kilter having unnecessarily crowbar'd the mall section into an entire episode. This episode was good but felt rushed. From Joel rising up like the undertaker, killing people left and right, to an entire community vanishing into thin air. The way it went down in the game was more believable. Still a really good show though.

Shank Williams

9 episodes is just a weird number- def could have done with 10 or 12

episodes 3 and 7 wasted a lot of time they didn’t have on side charro considering it’s a 9 ep season would have been ok in a slightly longer season

Tony EH

^

It is a very poor oversight that absolutely nobody came to put out the fire that was raging in the local saloon.

In the end the show either needed to have more episodes, or concentrate less on tertiary sidelines like Bill and Frank and the mall. All those episodes served to do was to drag everything off course.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120322459#Comment_120322459

I listened to an interview earlier with Troy Baker where he talked about how instead of Ellie and David fighting off infected together, they instead have a longer conversation and have a bit of a natural rapport, which leads to David seeing the potential in her as someone who is stronger and a bit more savage and willing to do whatever it takes, even more so than Troy Baker's character. As such the fight against infected was no longer really needed.

Yeah, the fire thing was a bit odd. But it's entertaining, all the same.

Slydice

8: Dayum 😲 There was me thinking the big thing from the episode was going to be ..

Spoiler Warning

me googling where the right place to administer a penecilin needle was.. I'm still not sure.. seems to be an ass cheek?!

but then like..

Joel taking those dudes out and getting the info.. the first kill with the knife especially! 😲

Then Ellies face when she first realised inside the cage and then her final kill scene! 😲

I swear at the very end I was like..

Spoiler Warning

lol, look at these two poor fuckers barely able to carry each other along.. one of those have to laugh or you'd cry moments

CastorTroy

Aaaahh,

Spoiler Warning

Ellie killed Joel. Kinda.

Sudden Valley

the villain this week seemed a it of a perv- I dont remember the game equivalent giving that vibe. Still good episode. The minor issues with pacing withstanding I have enjoyed the majority of this season. Have hopes that the Fallout and Bioshock tv adaptations will be of same quality.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120322762#Comment_120322762

It would have been really nice to see some of that instead of skipping straight to the end.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323031#Comment_120323031

I always thought that part in the game was a bit rapey but it's much more explicit here.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120322732#Comment_120322732

It's poor translation from game to screen in the game they're kind of busy being murdered by Joel at that point. There's a lot of gameplay related story points that are just cut but the series acts like they're still there.

ULMarc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323031#Comment_120323031

It's the jail cell scene that gives away his motive in both the show and the game, just before Ellie breaks his fingers.. Though, the way it played out in the end is a bit different. In the show, he has his monologue first and is literally fumbling with himself when Ellie gets the jump on him. In the game version, while he does have Ellie pinned, it isn't as explicit. David's intentions are then confirmed to us with Ellie telling Joel, "He tried to..."

It was difficult to watch either way. I was a bit choked up despite knowing what was coming.

JoeA3

I’m not a gamer. I’d never heard of the game and thankfully it doesn’t seem to be a pre-requirement to be otherwise. Might even be a good thing to be watching this “cold”?

Anyway, for me, this is the best, most gripping series of television I’ve seen in recent memory. That latest episode was incredible!

nc6000

Who were the people Joel was supposed to have killed? Were they the people in the place with the monkeys?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323126#Comment_120323126

This was the first time my wife was lost.

Had to explain that while we were watching Ellie's fight, Joel had killed everyone

EltonJohn69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323185#Comment_120323185

That episode was very close to the game, I knew what was going to happen but I still found it to be completely gripping. I have watched many adaptations of book to film and often found them to be quite lacklustre. This adaptation is a triumph and I think a huge part of its success is down to casting.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323242#Comment_120323242

Yes

johnny_ultimate

Ah, the classic video game trope makes it to live action: a character suffers a mortal wound and is incapacitated, finds themselves in a dangerous situation, walks slowly for around 30 seconds because they’re still critically injured, and then comprehensively murders a bunch of enemy goons and is fine again 😂

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323333#Comment_120323333

His health bar had regenerated. Makes perfect sense.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323333#Comment_120323333

The magic of game/TV antibiotics.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120322732#Comment_120322732

Yet I still think episode three is the best episode

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323389#Comment_120323389

Well, as I said when it came out. As a stand alone piece of television it's fine. As an episode of a 9 part TV show, it was a terrible waste of running time that meant nothing in the over all scheme of things.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323396#Comment_120323396

I'd argue half of the episodes meant nothing in the overall scheme of things. Characters are introduced and are dead by the end. Bill and Frank episode, the mall episode, the Henry episode, and now the most recent one. Joel and Ellie are back on the road just as we left them before. I'm trying to remember episode 4 but I think it followed a similar pattern. There's nothing wrong with it being episodic. The mandalorian did it well. I'm still enjoying it all but episode 3 certainly isn't alone in not significantly progressing the story. And it is the best imo.

Gamergurll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323126#Comment_120323126

I agree the game explains it a lot better. Word got out that she killed James and is on the loose, and Joel is too so the women and children are indoors, and the men are busy hunting them both down. Depending on the type of played you are, stealthy or a shoot-em-all-on-sight type the amount of survivors by the point of the fire differs but I'm sure those that did are too busy saving themselves than worrying about a fire in an empty building 😁

Also if you listen to Npcs, a few that Ellie pass are discussing the town being sick of David's leadership, they've had enough of his s*it and they're kicking him. He caused the whole situation really in a search for a 'toy'. The game was more subtle about him being a sicko but that was one hint.

Also when they first bring out the meat and we already know what it is. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be the father, did not want to overthink that one to be honest! But when they all started stuffing it down my stomach just lurched. My daugher was beside me eating popcorn and I was so glad we weren't sharing 😂

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323362#Comment_120323362

Of course it did, Ellie gave him two health kits.

Gamergurll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323119#Comment_120323119

He taunts her so much in the restaurant as you hunt him down, knows that she loves her horse and laughs that they won't waste any of the meat etc, by the time you catch him you want to be slapping him yourself! The game made a good job of making us really dispise this guy, obviously in the show they did too but you get to know him more in the game

Royale with Cheese

It definitely feels rushed. Nine episodes is just an odd choice, is there a particular reason they didn't make ten? After last week when I saw there was only two episodes left I thought wow they have a lot to cram in here.

I felt the second game really dragged, it took me about 25 hours to get through which was about double the first. Good luck fitting that one into 9/10 episodes. I wasn't that keen on the storyline either, so not massively looking forward to season two of this.

Macy0161

I thought it was a very good episode, but I didn't get why no one came when the fire broke out (including Joel). So we're saying Joel took everyone out? Or just the men and the women and children stayed inside?