Horror 'The Last of Us' HBO Series

[Man in the Suit]

Offerman/Bartlett, "It's like a spaceship", the final shot... Perfect episode.

 

[Agent Orange]

I never played the game, but I was familiar with the uproar over it, and it just seemed like a really bad idea. It would work much more on a show (like this one) where the audience is just that, an audience. But doing that in a game where the player actually controls the protagonist, suddenly switching it up and having them be the antagonist just doesn't work.

Abby isn't an antagonist. There are no clear cut black and white areas in this universe.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Abby isn't an antagonist. There are no clear cut black and white areas in this universe.

If someone is

Spoiler

actively trying to kill the protagonist of the game, that makes that person the antagonist

. Regardless of how "grey" the game is trying to be.

 

[Agent Orange]

If someone is

Spoiler

actively trying to kill the protagonist of the game, that makes that person the antagonist

. Regardless of how "grey" the game is trying to be.

Ellie does some extremely bad sh*t in game. They both do, and you play as both. They're dual protagonists.

 

[Dr.]

Admittedly, the year is young. But many critics are predicting that "Long Long Time" will stand among the best television of 2023.

 

[Kane52630]

I will admit I was disappointed that we didn't get those crazy moments from the game of Bill's town like the upside down trap escape or the high school attack, but I thought what they did with it instead was incredible.

There's so much in the game where you would read letters that were left behind of people's tragic backstories trying to survive and I thought they nailed it here by using Bill's story.

 

[Drizzle]

No, I didn't cry in my car in the parking lot before work to this song. Why do you ask?



BTW, can't wait for the Mandalorian edits with Din and Grogu cruising the galaxy to this song.

 

[Kane52630]

Shout out to them for playing that song from Shutter Island and Arrival

 

[Kane52630]

Oh and I love the preview of the next episode.

Spoiler

"He aint even hurt."

 

[Kane52630]

 

[antsman41]

Shout out to them for playing that song from Shutter Island and Arrival

When that Max Richter track came in... I was feeling very The Leftovers - heartache, sadness, beauty.

It was perfect.

 

[Bobber]

I never played the game, but I was familiar with the uproar over it, and it just seemed like a really bad idea. It would work much more on a show (like this one) where the audience is just that, an audience. But doing that in a game where the player actually controls the protagonist, suddenly switching it up and having them be the antagonist just doesn't work.

Except it totally worked and it was amazing.
So...

 

[Arachnerd]

Man... I was not expecting the freaking gut-punch this episode would deliver, but man it did. If both Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett don't get Emmy nominations from this episode alone, I swear to god.

I also didn't mind the big deviation from the game because it still served the story quite well. Stuff like this makes me believe they won't be afraid to take a few more chances later on which will be interesting to see.

 

[Still Wynning]

Everyone’s said what pretty much what I would say about this episode, so I’ll just say that was a beautiful, heartbreaking/heartwarming episode and one of the best hours or so of television I’ve ever seen.

Spoiler

Had to put our 16 year old Malti-Poo to sleep a little over a couple weeks ago to end his suffering. Up to this point, I thought I had mostly gotten over that.

Then, at the end of this episode, we get to their last day.

Frank telling Bill what he would like to do, both of them doing it, both of them getting married, both of them drinking the ground-up pills in the wine after their last dinner (“I’m old. I’m satisfied. And you were my purpose.”), and Bill going and rolling Frank to bed, shutting the door behind him, out of focus, and those feelings were immediately dredged back up, and it left me bawling and emotionally devastated all over again.

I think this episode helped me finally sort of get and process what my dog was thinking in his last days. He lived a good, complete life, that life was finally over and couldn’t go any further, he was suffering and he wanted to go. Doesn’t make the pain go away or hurt any less, but it helps.

Basically, to paraphrase Frank in this episode, he got “one more good day”.

Thank you, The Last of Us. Also, f**k you, The Last of Us.

 

[squeekness]

His breakout role was in The White Lotus in which he won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. You should check it out.

Oh, wow. I was wondering where I'd seen him before. He was great in that.

 

[Dr.]

Kind of a cute description from the NYTimes review of this episode:

It’s as though the opening montage from the movie “Up” were extended to about 45 minutes and then dropped into the middle of “World War Z.”
​

(It was a glowing, positive review. )

 

[Kane52630]

World War Z (the book not the Brad Pitt movie) is a great reference for this show.

 

[TheVileOne]

Loved her on 24.

I really hated what happened to her on 24. I think the show really took the whole anyone can die thing too far.

 

[Drizzle]

 

[Art Vandelay]

Ellie does some extremely bad sh*t in game. They both do, and you play as both. They're dual protagonists.

And did players who played that game see it that way? From what I've read, most fans hated it. Like I said, I never played it. But I think it's such a bizarre idea to suddenly switch away from a character the gamer has (presumably) been rooting for since the previous game, only to have you play as someone else in opposition to that character. Like playing a Mario game where halfway through you're now Bowser, and you're trying to kill Mario, after everything you've just gone through.

Regardless of what Ellie might do in the games, she is still an avatar for the player. The gamer doesn't want to see Ellie hurt, and they certainly don't want to hurt her. This very feeling is in direct contrast with the character they're suddenly being forced to control.

Which is why I think this is something that works better on television, because television requires the audience to be passive. We're watching characters interact, we're not the ones controlling those interactions.

 

[Still Wynning]

So, I was watching a video of Chris Stuckman reviewing this last episode. Then, scrolling through the comments, found this one waste of a human being spamming the same comment on a bunch of other comments and complaining about how terrible and a waste the episode was. They bemoaned how it was a betrayal of the source material for being different and “super woke” because Bill and Frank being gay “wasn’t in the game”, despite the fact that it was. Other people responded to them with evidence to the contrary, but they still weren’t having it and insisting that everyone was all wrong. They even had the audacity to insensitively comment under someone who loved the episode that recently lost a loved one and said they didn’t care if it was hurtful or not. Like I said, waste of a human being.

I am convinced that said person is a troll that had nothing better to do and wanted to spew their homophobic grievances into the ether.

I normally don’t get super riled up about this sort of stuff, but, if I had the ability to track down this person and punch them in the face, I would absolutely do it in a heartbeat.

 

[Arachnerd]

You'll always get persistent trolls on the Internet. Best to not give them attention or let them bother you, it's what they want. Unsurprisingly, the negative reactions I've personally read from this episode so far are the exact type you'd expect.

 

[Kane52630]

From what I've read, most fans hated it.

By this logic, most fans hated The Batman because I read a few online reviews that have Snyder's Jesus mural as their avatars.

 

[Man in the Suit]

A lot of gamers are media illiterate. Best not to listen to them based on that and... other reasons.

 

[Bobber]

And did players who played that game see it that way? From what I've read, most fans hated it. Like I said, I never played it. But I think it's such a bizarre idea to suddenly switch away from a character the gamer has (presumably) been rooting for since the previous game, only to have you play as someone else in opposition to that character. Like playing a Mario game where halfway through you're now Bowser, and you're trying to kill Mario, after everything you've just gone through.

Regardless of what Ellie might do in the games, she is still an avatar for the player. The gamer doesn't want to see Ellie hurt, and they certainly don't want to hurt her. This very feeling is in direct contrast with the character they're suddenly being forced to control.

Which is why I think this is something that works better on television, because television requires the audience to be passive. We're watching characters interact, we're not the ones controlling those interactions.

Everything you just said is exactly why it was a bold and interesting choice to make.