The Last of Us (HBO Max)

[RangerWickett]

There are different needs in different media.

Playing a character in a game, the foremost draw is the gameplay, so the designers kinda need to pander to the desire to be powerful and cool. So game Joel is a bit more of a swaggering bad ass.

With a show, you're not there to seat yourself in the role of the lead character as you overcome challenges, but to enjoy their journey - physical and emotional.

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Also, Arcane is a video game adaptation that's pretty amazing.

 

[Bolares]

No, the dog scene was new. I actually like this "weak" side of Joel. I think it was excellent set up for the PTSD he suffers which is turning into panic attacks. It actually makes his decision to try and pass Ellie on to Tommy make a lot more narrative sense.

I think this will also connect really well with the themes the we are probably getting on season 2

 

[Morrus]

These episodes are so long! I'm still one behind.

 

[payn]

These episodes are so long! I'm still one behind.

Not long enough for me!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I will somewhat ironically stand up for the Jolie Tomb Raider movies, entirely unironically stand up for the Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider movie, and entirely ironically stand up for the OG Super Mario Bros. movie, but yeah, The Last of Us is definitely the leader of a pretty sad pack

The Vikander movie probably needs a few script tweaks, but she was great in it (she's great in everything) and it was pretty compelling. A much more successful film than Uncharted, IMO.

 

[Older Beholder]

I enjoyed the ‘DLC’ episode, a nice homage to video games and arcades.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I enjoyed the ‘DLC’ episode, a nice homage to video games and arcades.

As a non-player, I kept watching the shadows all the time for an attack to come. It was a very sweet episode, despite that constant layer of dread.

I also like that we don't seem to need resolution on it. We probably now know how Ellie met up with the Fireflies -- the kids went to them for help and only one of them survived.

My only quibble is that I don't really get moving a Firefly recruit from the Boston QZ through what is presumably a dangerous eastern seaboard (which is much more densely populated than the rest of the US, meaning it's likely full of infected, especially in the warmer and wetter south) to the Atlanta QZ, where she won't know the geography or local politics. But maybe they're trying to take (or hold) the CDC, a la The Walking Dead. But it's a minor quibble and it didn't disrupt my enjoyment of the episode.

 

[Aeson]

While The CDC does have a main campus in Atlanta, there are a number of facilities all over the city. I hope they can take and hold the right one. lol Emory University and Hospital are near by. Georgia Tech would also be a good place to go. Atlanta is one of those cities where people work in but live outside of. The city itself isn't very densely populated. The greater population is in the surrounding suburbs. If they can make it through the rednecks and hillbillies in North Georgia and the red state conservatives ( many would be super jealous of Bill. At least before Frank came along. ) in the Northern suburbs I think they can get to Atlanta.

 

[Flamestrike]

I get its not a show about zombies (it's a show about human relationships and choices) but I'd still like to see more infected.

They're appearing a little too rarely for mine to frame the overall threat to the protagonists (although to be fair when they do show up, they're 20 times the threat they are in TWD and many other zombie shows).

A single infected is a 50/50 threat and in the few encounters the protagonists have had with them, in each one 2 of them got bitten.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, this was the most Walking Dead episode this show has had, but it wasn't as implausible as many of TWD's monsters were.

Unless they completely crash and burn in the final episode of this season, this will have been a triumphant run of television.