Just felt like a slog. The human camp woman storyline feels superfluous- and the very last scene introduces what I expected to be the meat of this episode. I did enjoy that Ellie is becoming more like the character I expected. Funny they did the porn mag scene this week and gave the homophobes a week to cry about how much of a manly badass bill is in game and he can’t possibly be gay. I lol’d. This is the first episode that I have no desire to rewatch.
I'll be honest, I thought the first episode was real well done and the acting in episode 3 was great, but otherwise the show really isn't doing it for me either. Episode 2 was a bore and pretty "paint by numbers" zombie stuff. Episode 3 was good and like I said, incredible acting, but it was a full hour flashback that resulted in Joel getting a car battery in the last 2 minutes. I understand the thematic resonance of losing hope in humanity and learning to care again (clear foreshadowing for Joel's relationship with Ellie), but having all of that take place in a flashback between two characters who will otherwise have no effect on the story is peak Walking Dead material.
Haven't seen episode 4 yet, but my buddy who did watch it also decided that the show wasn't scratching his itch either. The lady and I will still give it a go in hopes there's an uptick (and out of loyalty to our boy Pedro Pascal), but so far it's just... "alright" I guess.
I know Episode 1 is free to watch, but I'm thinking I should wait until the 1st season concludes, and I can purchase a month and binge all the episodes.
So far I'm really digging The Last of Us. I'll echo thejaw on the flashback issue with EP3, but that was a pretty gripping story, even if it shoved Joel and Ellie to the side for a long time. EP4 kicked me in the teeth even though I wasn't remotely surprised.
Yeah I agree, the show has been great so far, very happy with it!
After seeing what's coming in the next episode, feels like they're moving kinda fast and sadly ... feels like in fact the entire first game will be covered in Season 1. Truth be told, feels like they could (and should) have drawn this out further.
It's awesome playing Part 1 Remastered now, but is making me wish the show slowed down and did more with exploring.
Been so long since I played this. Bill is definitely quite different (not to mention that Frank hated Bill), and man... Ellie is so much better in the game.
Just played through and beat the Last of Us and the Expansion Left Behind. It's been an utterly satisfying 20 hours or so of play. I had wanted to do this prior to watching the show. Now I'm caught up . Btw, Last of us II is on sale for $10 on PlayStation store.
I tried to like the game but it just didn’t hook me. (Please don’t flay me yall.) I’ll keep watching the show eventually but still haven’t seen anything past the third episode.
It was good. They got lots done tonight. Notice the Depeche Mode song from end credits episode one is covered in credits tonight. “Never Let Me Down Again.”
This episode was good, the Joel developments were well done. Even in those emotional scenes, Bella has one facial expression ... Her range of emotions is very limited.
So wait, is next episode the dlc? I never played it, pretty excited to do it with Remaster. Just seems odd that they're throwing it out there now.
Yeah, it's during the events when Joel is impaled. Ellie looks for medical supplies to stitch up his wounds. At the end of the original game before she makes Joel promise he's telling the truth. She talks about Riley and how they would "would be all poetic and lose their minds together." The DLC is the a flashback lead-up to their relationship and the moments leading up to the them being bitten.
I finally watched the first six eps over the weekend with my wife. I'm ok with the show, but it feels really condensed, and I kinda question the extensiveness of some of these character backstories that ultimately end up to nothing.
Yeah, you gotta pad the show and stuff. But something feels weird. My wife commented that the ep with Sam and Henry felt like it was moving into Walking Dead territory and she had a hard time keeping interest.
I was shocked to learn that there are only 9 eps (?) so I'm really wondering how they are going to squish the rest of the story into those three eps.
I get some of the changes - if they played out Bill's story like it was in the game I'm sure people would complain. So go in the total opposite direction. I still felt like Bill was miscast. It should have been Earl Brown like in the game. He was really good.
I'm fine with Ellie. I'm okay with Joel.
I dig it, but I dig the game much much more.
I'm also let down by how little we are seeing infected/clickers/bloaters/etc.
I’ve seen a lot people comment about the length and how they are condensing the game/plot. I disagree. I posted way earlier in this thread that the amount of “story” game only amounts to around 5 hours. The gameplay is what is mostly being cut. I mean. How often can you watch Joel killing raiders or infected? It would make no sense to show that over and over on the show. It would just become The Walking Dead. Makes the infected feel much more dangerous. There 3 episodes left. That’s 3 episodes to cover…
Left Behind DLC (which Ep. 7 seems like it will cover), the Winter segment with David and the cannibals, Spring segment when they arrive at Salt Lake City and the Firefly hospital, and the Epilogue, and then fitting in some flashbacks of Ellie’s mom giving birth that’s added plot in the show only (which based on episode cast listings will be in Ep. 7).
> I’ve seen a lot people comment about the length and how they are condensing the
> game/plot. I disagree. I posted way earlier in this thread that the amount of “story”
> game only amounts to around 5 hours. The gameplay is what is mostly being cut.
> I mean. How often can you watch Joel killing raiders or infected? It would make
> no sense to show that over and over on the show. It would just become The Walking
> Dead. Makes the infected feel much more dangerous. There 3 episodes left. That’s
> 3 episodes to cover…
>
I was thinking the same thing. I was even telling my wife… I guess they’re not gonna show the dozen or so times Joel has to float Ellie on a raft to some nearby objective. Let’s be honest, the story/presentation was the only thing going for the game.
The pacing is ok as far as the backbone story goes- but as someone previously mentioned- they’ve pretty much made this an infected-less buddy trip. It feels very unbalanced in an action sense- the world doesn’t seem as dangerous etc. I’ll finish this season for sure - but no doubt this has gone from something that felt exceptional and different to something that feels overly safe and a bit boring / by the book. Personally I feel almost no attachment to these characters- I certainly did with the game.
I'm almost up to speed with the show from the game. Last night I was playing the Tommy era and when Ellie ran off ... I'm kinda bummed they left that out. That in itself could have been a whole damn episode. They're moving too fast
I've also seen people complain about the characterization of both Ellie and Joel with regards to how Bella and Pedro are portraying them. They are different vs. the game, but I think the portrayals are much more realistic in how people living in this type of environment would actually act. Both Joel and Ellie in the game were much more upbeat, and while that made them much more likable, seems out of place.
Joel (Pedro) bearing his soul to Tommy was incredible.
It’s frustrating because there’s 30 minutes of hiking and small talk and 15 minutes of story per episode it seems. Like they didn’t know if they’d milk it and slow it up or zoom though it. They gave as a mashup of both. It feels like there’s an identity crisis.
> I've also seen people complain about the characterization of both Ellie and Joel
> with regards to how Bella and Pedro are portraying them. They are different vs.
> the game, but I think the portrayals are much more realistic in how people living
> in this type of environment would actually act. Both Joel and Ellie in the game
> were much more upbeat, and while that made them much more likable, seems out of place.
>
> Joel (Pedro) bearing his soul to Tommy was incredible.
You're right, didn't really consider that. Playing the game in parallel right now, I love the game characters much better ... but how they're portrayed/played in the show is more realistic.
Regardless, the game Ellie is so much more sassy and entertaining. Game Joel definitely feels a bit more dark than TV counterpart, which is probably for the better of the show to round him out a bit more.
I’m struggling with knowing how this ends (understanding it may be changed up) and feeling absolutely no emotion towards that thought. If they pull this off with these actors / scripts and pull me back in then magic. I just don’t think it’ll happen, at least with me- recognizing it could just be a “me” problem.
