The Last of Us

Supermatch

Supermatch

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As a huge fan of the games, I was hoping and praying that HBO wouldn't butcher this one. I am cautiously optimistic after the premiere. I thought it did a great job of explaining the basis of the zombification with the early interview, albeit a little light on the Fireflies history. Jury is still out on Ellie, but I thought all the other cast choices so far have been solid (and I was very hesitant about Pedro Pascal playing a good Joel until I saw the first episode.) Pace wise, they're moving pretty quickly, so I hope they don't get too far ahead of themselves and end up in a Game of Thrones situation once game content runs out. I also hope they don't deviate TOO far from the source material, but so far, it looks like HBO is doing a much better job of it than Netflix or Amazon would have.

Looking forward to the next episode, where it appears they will introduce the Clickers and we see how good a job they've done with CGI and set design for life outside the quarantine zone.
 
Never heard of the game; is the series stand-alone or do you need a basis in the game?
 
Car0linab0y said:
Never heard of the game; is the series stand-alone or do you need a basis in the game?
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Nope, it should stand alone.

The game itself is very story telling/cinematic, so pulling off the show successfully would be a major accomplishment. The first game is regarded as one of, if not the, best Playstation game ever made. The sequel was also impressive, but received a ton of backlash from the anti-woke crowd and another large group for killing off a character, so all the reviews are majorly skewed on the second game. The second game is played from alternating points of view from a couple of characters whose stories converge, but I haven't seen any mention of those characters yet, so I'm guessing HBO will stretch the first game's content out over a couple of seasons. Given that there are a number of prominent locations and cities in the first game, and tons of material to work from, that shouldn't be tough for them to do.

I will give the costume designers some credit where its due as well. There is only so much you can do to separate your zombies from those of all the other series like Walking Dead, etc. In this show, the zombie "plague" is fungus-based, so I thought it was pretty cool how they depicted the mushrooms/fungi growing out of the nose/mouths of the zombies during some close-ups.
 
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Just finished the first episode and we really liked it.
Yes, the zombies in this are quite different
Loved how they did 1968, 200X, and then 2023 - the beginning of the 2023 part was a shocking way of showing the state of things. But great!

Got it set to record on dvr, look forward to more episodes.
 
So we (wife and I) were curious if the woman who he runs into at the end/near the end was the mother of his daughter.
 
We watched and so far was & was good..

My only question so at the beginning The guy was in TEXAS then his daughter got killed….how did he wind up out east/Boston????
 
HMP said:
So we (wife and I) were curious if the woman who he runs into at the end/near the end was the mother of his daughter.
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At least in the context of the games, no. Joel's only relationship with Marlene (the leader of the Fireflies/woman he met at the end who was shot) is that they know each other well since his brother Tommie joined the Fireflies some years prior. In the game, Joel's daughter is not of mixed race, so it's more apparent there. That's not to say they won't take some weird creative liberties with the show, but it wouldn't make sense.

SDIVER2006 said:
My only question so at the beginning The guy was in TEXAS then his daughter got killed….how did he wind up out east/Boston????
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After the outbreak, FEDRA was established in combination with the military (Federal Disaster Response Agency) to create quarantine zones in major cities (the overwhelming majority were northern or coastal areas with some exceptions like Dallas, Atlanta, and Las Vegas). Anyone who was picked up by military/FEDRA that tested negative for the virus was flown to one of those QZ's with no story basis as to which one they were sent to. FEDRA eventually grew in power/had an uprising and declared a sort of "martial law", and is now the de facto government running each QZ as their own psuedo police state. The show could have done a better job of explaining this, though they may go into more background on the Fireflies origins/goals as the show progresses. A lot of the background detail is revealed throughout the game as you pick up notes/communications scribbled by survivors/military personnel.
 
I remember checking out that game on the Tube during last year's pre-summer game buying run.
Got all into wantin to try it and then saw it was PS or some other non-XBox platform.
Kinda sucked cause it looked like a great game. Ended up with several others instead.
 
So, still home sick. Saw this thread, never heard of the books, the games or this series.

Just watched the opening scene. While interesting and I’ll probably going to continue to watch I have a question.

Can Hollywood create anything anymore without a global warming scare?

And did the books/games make the fungal evolvement to be able to withstand higher temp hosts about global warming or was this just HBO’s interpretation?
 
The weirder part of this is there's actually some tie-in with reality.
There's a variant of fungi that actually do "control" some insects behavior to their advantage.
Interesting concept.. :cool:
 
Chdamn said:
And did the books/games make the fungal evolvement to be able to withstand higher temp hosts about global warming or was this just HBO’s interpretation?
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There was no mention of global warming in the games. Joel's daughter can pick up a newspaper in the opening minutes of the game that talks about a 300% spike in "mysterious infections" at hospitals, followed by an FDA article about a massive food recall due to mold-tainted items coming from South America. That's as deep as they go into the origins. The introductory talk show about cordyceps and global warming was HBO.
 
HawgBonz said:
The weirder part of this is there's actually some tie-in with reality.
There's a variant of fungi that actually do "control" some insects behavior to their advantage.
Interesting concept.. :cool:
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The writers at Naughty Dog actually got the idea for the game's premise after watching a Nat Geo special on jungles that included a segment on the fungus.
 
Supermatch said:
There was no mention of global warming in the games. Joel's daughter can pick up a newspaper in the opening minutes of the game that talks about a 300% spike in "mysterious infections" at hospitals, followed by an FDA article about a massive food recall due to mold-tainted items coming from South America. That's as deep as they go into the origins. The introductory talk show about cordyceps and global warming was HBO.
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Thanks. I figured.

What’s funny is, I’ve always thought that if we ever did have a mass extinction, zombie like, event it would probably be fungal related.

Mainly because I watched the Nat Geo show on the ants. Lol.
 
Kris sez the whole "zombie" thing is actually not that far fetched on a coupla fronts.
If rabies ever mutates to being airborne we'll have a whole heap'o'trouble on our hands. ☠️
 
Chdamn said:
Thanks. I figured.

What’s funny is, I’ve always thought that if we ever did have a mass extinction, zombie like, event it would probably be fungal related.

Mainly because I watched the Nat Geo show on the ants. Lol.
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Same here, LOL. At the end of the day, we function on electrical impulses, and it really doesn't take much to throw that out of whack...
 
We tried to watch it two days ago. I was really into it until it jumped to 20 years later. The beginning of these things is what i like and how it evolves.

This reminds me of walking dead and once it gets to kingdoms and stormtroopers i just lose interest.

I'm fairly sure this will be flashback heavy and eventually you will see how it got to where it is, but i can't do it. I wanted to like this badly as i need something new to watch.
 
Mr. Bggs said:
We tried to watch it two days ago. I was really into it until it jumped to 20 years later. The beginning of these things is what i like and how it evolves.

This reminds me of walking dead and once it gets to kingdoms and stormtroopers i just lose interest.

I'm fairly sure this will be flashback heavy and eventually you will see how it got to where it is, but i can't do it. I wanted to like this badly as i need something new to watch.
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Sorry to hear that. I don't think you will be seeing too much more in the way of "origins". The game/story is less about the virus and more about the relationship development between Joel and Ellie.
 
Yea i didn't even know it came from a game until my son told me. The first 45 mins or so really had me intrigued.
 
The first episode interested me enough to spend $20 to buy the remastered version of the original game and start playing it today.

Only a couple hours in but so far the show is in pretty much lockstep with the game.

Can’t say the game play on a 10 year old game is anything to write home about but it’s fun and entertaining so win win.
 
Episode 2 not as good as the first IMO, but still solid (coincidentally enough, the museum is one of the more memorable locations in the game where heavy stealth tactics are important). We saw the introduction of the "clickers", whose appearance and movements stayed true to the game. Clicker sound effects appeared to be a direct copy of the game audio, which given their sort of cult status/instant recognition amongst fans of the genre is a good thing. They have hinted that we're going to meet Bill in the next episode, who would probably get along with the majority of the people on this forum once we see how he operates. The audience now knows that Ellie's immunity is the real deal, and Joel is now forced to move on without his partner, Tess.

One difference to highlight at this point is Joel's motivation for going west. In the game, Joel is not heading west in search of his missing brother. The show seems to be pushing for a softer, more values-oriented version of Joel. In the game, he is a ruthless survivor, very rough around the edges after the loss of his daughter, and his agreement with the Fireflies is in exchange for a shipment of guns. That said, his connection/relationship with Tess in the game seems to be much deeper - she genuinely convinces him to take Ellie west as sort of a dying wish, where Joel would have otherwise just turned around and gone back after her death - he genuinely did not give a rats arse about Ellie at this point. This is in contrast to the show, where Joel probably would have been heading west in search of his brother, with or without Tess and Ellie.

One thing they emphasized that was different than the game was the fungus' way of spreading and communicating via a "root" system so to speak. This is a departure from the games. HBO Max shows a short companion guide episode on the making of/commentary about the show, and elaborated some. In the game, there are areas similar to where we saw the infected sort of "enshrined" in fungus in the wall with tremendous overgrowth. In those areas of the game, there are huge clouds of spores tinging the air a murky yellow, where our protagonists wear gas masks. The show's creators commented that they felt the audience couldn't be convinced that this is how things would work, as they felt nobody would believe that the spores are somehow staying confined and aren't just constantly traveling through the air. Consequently, they made the shift, which is probably for the best - you can only make so much of a TV series in complete silence, so this gives them a good way of attracting some hordes while they're on the move.
 
Supermatch said:
Episode 2 not as good as the first IMO, but still solid (coincidentally enough, the museum is one of the more memorable locations in the game where heavy stealth tactics are important). We saw the introduction of the "clickers", whose appearance and movements stayed true to the game. Clicker sound effects appeared to be a direct copy of the game audio, which given their sort of cult status/instant recognition amongst fans of the genre is a good thing. They have hinted that we're going to meet Bill in the next episode, who would probably get along with the majority of the people on this forum once we see how he operates. The audience now knows that Ellie's immunity is the real deal, and Joel is now forced to move on without his partner, Tess.

One difference to highlight at this point is Joel's motivation for going west. In the game, Joel is not heading west in search of his missing brother. The show seems to be pushing for a softer, more values-oriented version of Joel. In the game, he is a ruthless survivor, very rough around the edges after the loss of his daughter, and his agreement with the Fireflies is in exchange for a shipment of guns. That said, his connection/relationship with Tess in the game seems to be much deeper - she genuinely convinces him to take Ellie west as sort of a dying wish, where Joel would have otherwise just turned around and gone back after her death - he genuinely did not give a rats arse about Ellie at this point. This is in contrast to the show, where Joel probably would have been heading west in search of his brother, with or without Tess and Ellie.

One thing they emphasized that was different than the game was the fungus' way of spreading and communicating via a "root" system so to speak. This is a departure from the games. HBO Max shows a short companion guide episode on the making of/commentary about the show, and elaborated some. In the game, there are areas similar to where we saw the infected sort of "enshrined" in fungus in the wall with tremendous overgrowth. In those areas of the game, there are huge clouds of spores tinging the air a murky yellow, where our protagonists wear gas masks. The show's creators commented that they felt the audience couldn't be convinced that this is how things would work, as they felt nobody would believe that the spores are somehow staying confined and aren't just constantly traveling through the air. Consequently, they made the shift, which is probably for the best - you can only make so much of a TV series in complete silence, so this gives them a good way of attracting some hordes while they're on the move.
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I’m going to be disappointed if Bill shows up and it isn’t W. Earl Brown.
 
Chdamn said:
I’m going to be disappointed if Bill shows up and it isn’t W. Earl Brown.
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I'm honestly pretty shocked they didn't offer him the role, but Bill is going to be played by Nick Offerman, i.e. Ron Swanson. He was one of the first names confirmed from the initial casting.
 
Just finished ep2. It seemed to go fast, which I know it was half hour less than the first episode.
Was good, though. More development of the story.
The fungus going from mouth to mouth was creepy
 
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The man. The legend.
 
confused said:
End of the world and there has to be a gay love scene. Blank me.
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I was pretty disappointed in this episode.

For what it was, it was fine (I could do without any love scenes in the show, period, and wish they would focus more on the grittiness of post-apocalyptic survival rather than the emphasis on softness and humanity). However, the show strayed way from the source material, and because of that, we don't get to see the nuance or subtlety of the feelings that Bill had in the game, including the regret, and the heightened levels of paranoia after Frank leaves. Some of the differences:

- Bill is a massive prepper in the game, to levels beyond what was portrayed here. This is of importance, because his town (much larger than depicted in show) was actually cohabitated by zombies, such that he had multiple areas/safehouses stockpiled with supplies, was constantly on edge, and had the entire town boobytrapped top to bottom. This led to a lot of tense stealth/action sequences with Joel and Ellie just to get to Bill, and then one of the most exciting scenes/getaways in the end, that we will never have the opportunity to see.

- Bill was gay in the game, but you had to pick up on it through dialogue. He was a mean, snarky, paranoid jerk who made references to Frank in his conversations with Joel. There is no flashback to Bill's origins in the game.

- The fight between Bill and Frank is alluded to in the game. However, once Frank walks out on Bill, Frank gets bitten and ultimately chooses to hang himself before cordyceps takes over. The duo encounters Frank's body and a note he left behind, and the note was NOT apologetic towards Bill in any way. The note highlights a growing rift between Bill and Frank over the years, where Bill's set-in-his-ways attitude really wears Frank down and leaves him "wanting more from life", to the point where he pens that his impending death is better than spending another day with Bill.

IMO, that third bullet is where they really miss out. The "lets die in each others arms" trope is very much played out. Here you had an opportunity to show two people in love, separated in the worst of times over their own interpretation of what "survival" means, and the ability to follow one man's descent into madness, left to live with only his thoughts and regrets for decades to come, never knowing the fate of the partner he drove away until its revealed by Joel and Ellie on a scrap of paper. IMO, they could have struck a balance between how they started the episode, and then gone that direction without the "happy ending" (no pun intended), and made Bill so much more nuanced and complex. Instead, it was just two dudes in love who grew old together and chose to die together because there was nothing else to do or live for.
 
confused said:
End of the world and there has to be a gay love scene. Blank me.
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I just came in here to post that I really could have done without the bearded, hairy man love scene.

@Chdamn's Wife covered her eyes and said ewww tell me when it’s over. I was like effe that you tell me when it’s over.
 
Supermatch said:
I was pretty disappointed in this episode.

For what it was, it was fine (I could do without any love scenes in the show, period, and wish they would focus more on the grittiness of post-apocalyptic survival rather than the emphasis on softness and humanity). However, the show strayed way from the source material, and because of that, we don't get to see the nuance or subtlety of the feelings that Bill had in the game, including the regret, and the heightened levels of paranoia after Frank leaves. Some of the differences:

- Bill is a massive prepper in the game, to levels beyond what was portrayed here. This is of importance, because his town (much larger than depicted in show) was actually cohabitated by zombies, such that he had multiple areas/safehouses stockpiled with supplies, was constantly on edge, and had the entire town boobytrapped top to bottom. This led to a lot of tense stealth/action sequences with Joel and Ellie just to get to Bill, and then one of the most exciting scenes/getaways in the end, that we will never have the opportunity to see.

- Bill was gay in the game, but you had to pick up on it through dialogue. He was a mean, snarky, paranoid jerk who made references to Frank in his conversations with Joel. There is no flashback to Bill's origins in the game.

- The fight between Bill and Frank is alluded to in the game. However, once Frank walks out on Bill, Frank gets bitten and ultimately chooses to hang himself before cordyceps takes over. The duo encounters Frank's body and a note he left behind, and the note was NOT apologetic towards Bill in any way. The note highlights a growing rift between Bill and Frank over the years, where Bill's set-in-his-ways attitude really wears Frank down and leaves him "wanting more from life", to the point where he pens that his impending death is better than spending another day with Bill.

IMO, that third bullet is where they really miss out. The "lets die in each others arms" trope is very much played out. Here you had an opportunity to show two people in love, separated in the worst of times over their own interpretation of what "survival" means, and the ability to follow one man's descent into madness, left to live with only his thoughts and regrets for decades to come, never knowing the fate of the partner he drove away until its revealed by Joel and Ellie on a scrap of paper. IMO, they could have struck a balance between how they started the episode, and then gone that direction without the "happy ending" (no pun intended), and made Bill so much more nuanced and complex. Instead, it was just two dudes in love who grew old together and chose to die together because there was nothing else to do or live for.
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It was a far jump from the game. Bill is an ahole and the ultimate survivalist. I assumed he and frank were gay based on the note he leaves in the game that said I would rather be dead than spend another minute with you.

But bills character wouldn’t have offed himself.
 
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