The Last of Us (HBO)

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I started it. I never played the video game - Got through 3 episodes but don't feel the love. I think anybody who played the game will love it, and maybe even if you didn't play the game it will offer alot. But to be honest, I feel the whole post apocalyptic thing has been done to death in recent years and this adds nothing new. It's just like The Walking Dead but with better production quality.

And it's been done better too - (The Rover, The Road, The Quiet Earth are all way better).



I agree, it’s not working for me at all, very derivative, though the mushrooms are great (then again, that evokes Hannibal the show where it was definitely done much better). Will probably power through this season and that’s it.



It's better than all the things it's being compared to, but more because those other things make really ridiculous, rudimentary storytelling mistakes. It's a good show, overall, but it's depressing that the reason for this is that it's one of the only shows in the genre willing to slow down and tell a story of narrowly reduced scope and patience.

In a nutshell, The Last of Us will spend one episode on what would've been a season-long arc in the worst seasons (not that I saw all of it, I had to bail like almost everyone else) of The Walking Dead. I find myself appreciating leanness as a storytelling feature more over time.

That said, yeah, it's not was great as everyone's saying. We got two standalone/flashback style episodes involving characters we'll never see again, one of which was good and the other which was sort of just a copycat of the first, just lazy teenage melodrama that could've existed in a thousand other shows. And neither of which had a lot of depth or told us much more about the world they're trying to create.

I still enjoy it, more for the performances than anything else. It reminds me of a Peter Berg show sometimes, in ways both good (patient, surprisingly affecting now and then) and bad (the aforementioned melodrama).



In defense of The Walking Dead, it started off great and was solid until they got rid of Frank Darabont. Eventually, it devolved into shipper-hell/misery porn. This and Game of Thrones is proof why a series needs more than a premise--to be truly great, you need an arc that is completed at the end (e.g., it's a story). GoT ran out of greatness when it ran out of books to adapt. Breaking Bad transcends, because it completes its arc. Have the end in mind when you start and end the series when you reach the end.

I like the mushroom angle. I wish someone would have thought of it sooner before the genre became so fatigued.

The politics of the show are predictable fare for "present year." The communist camp is a utopia. The Federal Camps are oppressive. The religious group is a cult (because of course they are, "paging Mrs. Carmody"). The episodes that don't move forward are pride pieces. And now let's pause for a special message about love... In the original Battlestar Galactica, on the other hand, the politic are right-wing. The military leaders are right and the hippie leaders are always "appeasing" the Cylons and bringing the human race to the brink of ruin.

What to do in a disapora/apocalypse is not an apolitical question, but rather an experiment that shows how the writer imagines the "state of nature." Our writer, working from his/her metaphysical assumptions draws up social contracts formulated as experiments which are predestined with win or lose on the basis of their metaphysical baggage. It's not a question of whether you're doing politics in this genre, only if you "like" the politics of the writer. If you like the politics of the writer, you will say that it is "real," or "honest," or "gritty," or "brave.' If you don't like the politics of the writer, on the other hand, you will object that it is "political."

I would have rather seen a World War Z HBO series that actually followed the stories in the books. Those were great little standalone stories, and they all combined to show the great arc of the zombie apocalypse from collapse to rebuild. As promised, it was an "oral history" of the zombie war.

The genre, I think, speaks to our sense that we're coming to the end of our age, our fear that civilization is on the edge of collapsing. "Zombie" is a just a nice way of saying, "I am afraid of those faceless hordes of other human beings I will be competing with when the excrement hits the spinning blade." It's the faceless fear of our sheer mass without the guardrails of common values, routines, and cops to keep the peace. I don't think we need the veil/buffer anymore. Just tell the tale of the collapse (e.g., The Road). No need for zombies, just show the varying strategic and ethical responses to the crisis.



The genre, I think, speaks to our sense that we're coming to the end of our age, our fear that civilization is on the edge of collapsing.
You guys are really cheering me up here just as my acute PTSD has started to abate somewhat.

(Not that I disagree with the point made, God knows I concur).

What can I say, will try to finish this season at least (I expect it’ll have more).

I, too, love the mushrooms angle and wish more time was spent on mold, inhaling spores, because as someone who knows all about breathing issues, that’s a narrative goldmine. And hard agree that zombies are unnecessary in most contexts where they have been popping up in recent years.



I, too, love the mushrooms angle and wish more time was spent on mold, inhaling spores, because as someone who knows all about breathing issues, that’s a narrative goldmine.
Yeah, you could go wild with the mushrooms angle. There is all sorts of body-horror stuff you could do with it. As you noted, Hannibal already went there and did so with more visual impact.



I'd like to see more "betweeners." Show us the Ellies who don't get infected. Show us other people who are partially infected, minds of their own, in a way, still communicative, but still influenced by the mushrooms to engage in behaviors that help their spread. Have some people just die of injection. Have other people go rabid. Have others be compliant tendrils of the great mushroom gods. Have others trapped without a nation, neither really shroom people, but not trusted by humans either. That infected person who hasn't turned on you, because they're semi-immune, but who could turn on you at any moment, because they're semi-NOT-immune, could be an interesting landmine to have to navigate for characters. You love them or need them (guide/expert character), but never know if you can really trust them (e.g., "dangerous dog breeds").



It could be fascinating to see the fungus-side of the story more. Tell story of the person who is absorbed by cordyceps. How much do they hear? How much of the person is left? What do they dream? How does a mushroom area work? What is its radius? Do they compete with other colonies or cooperate?



They've got this semi-novel mechanism for creating zombies. Why not run with it. Play with those toys. What happens?



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
not.
enough.
looting.
__________________
"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear



It may not completely live up to all the effusive praise but it's still better than the stuff it's being compared to. There should be a grace period to allow people to enjoy something before the naysayers swoop in.



It may not completely live up to all the effusive praise but it's still better than the stuff it's being compared to. There should be a grace period to allow people to enjoy something before the naysayers swoop in.
It’s not the greatest show I’ve ever seen & I definitely won’t watch it again, but, once a week, I enjoy the latest episode. The two leads are both excellent.

Comments on Twitter from some people who “don’t want to watch a zombie show” which, of course, it isn’t at all. The amount of footage related to “the infected” is very very small. The show is not about them, it’s about two very different people navigating a dystopian world.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



It may not completely live up to all the effusive praise but it's still better than the stuff it's being compared to. There should be a grace period to allow people to enjoy something before the naysayers swoop in.
If people on the interwebs have the power to disallow you from enjoying TV shows, you might be giving them too much power?



At any rate, the consensus here seems closer to "Meh" and "OK" than to naysaying.



It’s not the greatest show I’ve ever seen & I definitely won’t watch it again, but, once a week, I enjoy the latest episode. The two leads are both excellent.

Comments on Twitter from some people who “don’t want to watch a zombie show” which, of course, it isn’t at all. The amount of footage related to “the infected” is very very small. The show is not about them, it’s about two very different people navigating a dystopian world.
Episode 8 this week was amazing. I may watch it again. Finale - episode 9 - is next week.



Episode 8 this week was amazing. I may watch it again. Finale - episode 9 - is next week.

Yeah, I've been enjoying it, for what that's worth. I really like the pacing for this season. It appears that season one will cover the arc of the video game. The downside is that this implies season 2 will be video game 2 (the sequel), which was not as well received.



Yeah, I've been enjoying it, for what that's worth. I really like the pacing for this season. It appears that season one will cover the arc of the video game. The downside is that this implies season 2 will be video game 2 (the sequel), which was not as well received.
Didn’t know there would be a season 2. For some reason, I thought this is a limited series.



Didn’t know there would be a season 2. For some reason, I thought this is a limited series.
I believe that this one was a result of ratings dictating ambitions. They saw that this thing was doing well out of the gate and quickly decided to commit to the cash cow for another season.



https://news.yahoo.com/going-season-...120300907.html



The series is based on a game which itself has a sequel, so I figured two seasons would be the absolute minimum.

That said, as I mentioned earlier, it does a good job of compressing things and not drawing them out, so I'd imagine, like a lot of critically acclaimed hits now (thank goodness), it probably wouldn't go more than 4-5 seasons at the most. And I'd take the under at 4.5, personally.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
I would go 2.5 and take the under.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
Mother?
Yes, Father?
What does one shout to pack of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infected ants in the Iditarod?
I do not know, Father. What does one shout to pack of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infected ants in the Iditarod?
Mushroom.
...