The Last of Us

Now that was a crappy cliff hanger.

Agree completely.

yes Joel is the draw of the show for me, probably cos male/same age group etc

but in general i really like this series the one episode a week kills it though i think

I need to rewatch, but the only thing I didn't like about the finale was the camera work. It's a cross between a green screen and trying to make it look like a video game (which I get).

I kind of like the call backs to Joel and don't mind hearing more about the Abby backstory coming up, but obviously Joel is the best character. I like Jeffrey Wright, so I hope he has a bigger role.

Hey Ellie! Maybe you wouldn't have to squint so hard and could see better if you, I don't know, PUT ON YOUR ****ING HOOD!

Spoiler

Show

The finale was definitely rushed. Knowing how it was going to end, I kept thinking to myself, "How are they going to pull this off?" By rushing...that's how.

Still a solid season with a lot of great moments and shots. Overall, I'm flirting between a 7.5 and an 8 out of 10.

For me, the bits in the game that focused on Abby really made me like her character more. Even though I still sided with Ellie on wanting revenge.

Now part of that could be that playing as Abby was way more fun than playing as Ellie. In the game, Abby is super jacked, and you could just run around punching everything.

So it'll be interesting to see how non-gamers will react to a more Abby-centric storyline.

She was great on Justified. Show still sucks, but I watch because it is there.

Since The Last Of Us Part 2 is the best game I’ve ever played, I will probably keep watching until the bitter end of wherever this IP ends up going, but as a whole, I didn’t like this season very much. Probably 6-6.5/10 with 3-5 10/10 moments. It’s less and less the more I think about it, so I won’t anymore until season 3 lol

As interesting as Joel is/was, Dark Ellie is on par. But we never got Dark Ellie. We got Sad Ellie a lot and the occasional ******* Ellie, but not the real Dark Ellie. She certainly did some dark ****, but she was all over the place in a way that felt like terrible writing. It was almost like season 2 was the first draft of the game before they finally got it to where it needed to be.

But that’s not even why my score is as low as it is. It was just a poorly put together and executed season. There was so damn much handholding and cheap exposition over here, then “all this depth and subtext” that wasn’t really there, over there. So much time was wasted on “this” stuff then “that” stuff was far too rushed. I’m honestly surprised that this is what we got considering who was writing it.

For non-gamers who are just watching a TV show, the core of the story was the developing relationship between Joel and Ellie. We watched Ellie go from "cargo" to "daughter" in season 1. That's something people can relate to.

Once Joel is killed off, the core of the show is gone. All that's left is one main character's desire and mission to murder those responsible. Going on a quest to murder other people is not very relatable.

Boring season, and I was looking forward to it. And, WTF is with that ending.

didnt even realise was season finale

Uh, there's been a TON of cinema with revenge as the theme, I think wanting to dish out justice is very relatable.

The problem is the casting and writing. Ellie comes across as a bratty teen (which doesn't match with how she was portrayed in the game, so I've heard, having not played the game). But it doesn't really endear one to her character in the show.

On top of that, while inclusion is all well and good, a lot of viewers are just plain tired of inclusion as a message that is shoved down the viewers throats. Many writers seem to lack the nuance of having a message flow organically within the story, resorting instead to just smacking the viewer in the face with a sledgehammer to ensure their message is heard.

The fatigue for this lazy writing and from people just plain tired of the back and forth between the extreme right and left in every piece of media we attempt to digest causes people to tune out (unless, of course, that particular message speaks directly to their viewpoint)

The same issue is plaguing The Boys. While it was always poking fun at the conservative right, initially it did it in a way that was digestible and made sense within the confines of the world and story.

But recently it feels like the writers have become unhinged and are just SCREAMING at the viewer about their disdain for those who have an opposing viewpoint than they do.

Being one of those stuck in the middle (socially liberal and fiscally conservative) I consume entertainment to be.............ENTERTAINED. The past 5 years have been INSANE with the political back and forth between both sides and we're all just tired of it. There's nothing entertaining about people trying to cram whatever political messaging they have down your throat, it's tacky and lazy and selfish.

It's like the idiots who put bumperstickers on their brand new cars, screaming to everyone who views it whatever their political or ideological beliefs are. You're just saying hi to those who agree with you, and making yourself a target for those who oppose your viewpoints vehemently.

Cliffs: Old Man Rages At Clouds

That’s part of what I mean. As much as I enjoyed the flashback episode, spacing them out in the game as they did (in between the days) drove you to keep going to avenge Joel. This sounds kind of cheesy but Joel’s spirit was there the entire time. And it was pretty gut wrenching experiencing her downfall.

The show didn’t do what it needed to do to make the journey work.

I would be all for an Ellie revenge tour which is what this season should have been. The writing has been terrible and the pacing is just as bad.

Yeah this show blows but I still watched every episode and will continue to do so. You mean to tell me you couldn’t have come up with a season’s worth of story lines in Jackson - particularly with Catherine O’Hara and Joey Pants involved?

The problem is the less savory members of the right take those subtle points and co-opts them for their cause. To be "red pilled" is alt right jargon for waking up to the corrupt system. Nevermind red pilled was an allegory for the trans identity and the alt right thinks the trans identity shouldn't exist. Or that the alt right is a boot licking cult about as far from a rejection of the corrupt system as could possibly exist.

The same thing happened with homelander. Alt right white supremacists felt like he spoke for them and the writers were like, no you morons, hes the bad guy.

I understand the fatigue as I feel it too. But there is a bit of context to why writers aren't doing subtle anymore and its because people are ****ing stupid

I watched one episode after Joel died and dropped the show. I mentioned in the other thread that I wasn't sure how they were going to pull off the hard transition to Abby and Elle as the main characters and I don't think they pulled it off well.

They didnt. But i think its worth watching episode 6 for closure on Joel's story. Great flashback episode where he's front and center.

I think Abby will be more interesting next season though

Never played the games. Really enjoyed Season 1.
Finished season 2 the other day. Meh.

I don't know if she's a bad actress or what but the lady playing Abbie just annoyed me. Like she's meant to be this great leader but I just wasn't buying it. She was playing it more like some entitled teen who missed out on Prom Queen to her nemesis. If Season 3 is all about her I don't think I'll bother with it.

Also agree with others that Joel was the best character and the show isn't the same without him.

I think it is bad writing more than anything else on Abby. S3 should be more broad with multiple story lines. I don't have a lot of hope that it will get back on track though. Joel is too big of a loss and the rest of the cast can't carry the show. Hope they prove me wrong.

I assume Ellie is dead? Or was that some sort of cliffhanger where she might not have died?

For those that are done with S2, but never played the game...