The TV Series discussion thread

You guys are very jaded. Episode 3 is going to win major awards next year. Mark it down, you heard it here first. The acting was incredible and you have two actors at the top of their game.
People like to shit on things because they perceive it as woke. It was just a damn good story.
It's nothing to do with "being jaded" and who is shitting on it?. It's about having a different mechanism for scoring. I thought it was good - just not a 9/10 show (yet). I will reserve my score till all the episodes are out.

My second paragraph was generalising and I wasn't even referring to The Last of Us.


Take a look at the link above. Look at the critic scores. All these shows are the greatest thing since sliced bread according to the "Critics". For me a 50% means AVERAGE quality. Not 70% or 80% (like it seems to these days). For me a 80% is a must watch for genre fans and recommended for others. With the scoring these days it is getting harder and harder to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

The reason I am watching "The Last of Us" is because you guys said it was good!! :) Not because it has a 96% critic score (whatever that means)!
 
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I kind of died off in Maniac. It kind of lost me in 6th or something episode. The fantasy metaphor episodes were just getting too much. I lost interest.

So I started a new series, one for which I had only seen the first season ages ago. The Wire. Very solid acting and writing. Some of the characters are really great and likeable.
 
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So I started a new series, one for which I had only seen the first season ages ago. The Wire. Very solid acting and writing. Some of the characters are really great and likeable.
The Wire gets really good. All time good. Seasons 3-5 rank very highly among all of the seasons of television I've ever seen.
 
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The Wire gets really good. All time good. Seasons 3-5 rank very highly among all of the seasons of television I've ever seen.
Yeah, it's not an exaggeration to say The Wire might be one of the most recommended series of all time. Somehow it manages to feel both obscure and very well known.
 
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Yeah, it's not an exaggeration to say The Wire might be one of the most recommended series of all time. Somehow it manages to feel both obscure and very well known.
I don't think all that many people actually watched it, certainly not compared to a network hit (in the US). Those who did tend to think highly of it, and of course it's critically acclaimed. So yeah, it is a combination of well regarded and underseen.
 
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I watched the first couple seasons. Lost interest but perhaps I'll return to it one day.
The second season, though I liked it personally, is the clear outlier among the five and I think a lot of people stopped watching there. Trust me, if you start up again with season 3 it'll pay off very well for you.
 
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I'm behind with watching Last of Us, and just watched ep 2. I didn't think it was that good, TBH. It starts strong again, with the flashback to Indonesia, but the rest of the episode I frequently had the sense of actors just reading some rather clunky lines.

Ep 3 seems to be getting good reports, so I'll see if that grabs me.
 
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Saw Last of Us ep 4. It was probably the least interesting episode so far. And to think I thought so little happened in ep 2. This one is significantly lighter. It's mostly setup for more interesting things later on.
I was really surprised it ended right when it did. It felt like we should be at about the halfway point of the episode. It's kind of jarring having episodes of so varying lengths. This one was 45 min, the previus was 1h 20 min I believe, and they keep yoyoing like that.
Anyway a 7 from me.

Good thing the next episode will air this Friday? Or is it next Friday? Due to the superbowl.

One plot twist I really don't like.
They apparently made Henry (the random dude you find along with his brother) in Pittsburgh (which they changed to Kansas City) from just a random person you meet to someone that's apparently hunted by the people that have the city under control. Really weird change. They should've just expanded with a new character, since it really makes little sense. We'll see in the next one.

Also, just as I anticipated, I really can't take Melanie Lynskey seriously as some sort of ruthless leader of the gang in Kansas City. She just has a look and voice that really does not instill anything close to fear.
 
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I liked it more than the previous episode, but I agree it felt very short. I like that they're introducing some original characters now and deviating a bit from the game. I thought that episode had a little bit of a TWD vibe to it.

The next episode is this Fri at 9PM ET.
 
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I thought episode 4 was slight as well. It still worked for me because of the deepening of Ellie and Joel's relationship, but the games are doing the heavy lifting there because I know where that relationship goes.
 
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The more I think about it the more I don't feel 9 episodes are enough for the full first game. I think they should've taken maybe 20 episodes and taken it way slower. Or split the first game across 2 seasons.
I'm feeling it jumps way too fast between significant points in the story, when they could take things a lot slower, include much more content to expand the world and the story.
To think episodes 5 will likely wrap up Kansas City and Henry and Sam's story, so then we have 4 more for some very significant story beats that I feel will again feel very short and fast.

In other news:
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Some spoilers below.

Episode 3 of 'Last of Us,' to me, was a good stand-alone story. As part of series it did nothing to advance the story, plot, or setting. If it was an episode of Black Mirror, on how a guy with unique skills in a unique situation can survive, find love, thrive, and live a fulfilling life in a post-apocalypse setting, it'd be great. As part of a series? No. You introduce characters, get the people involved and interested in the characters, and then kill them both off. It could've worked if it showed how life in this setting worked outside the QZs for normal people, but a guy with unique skills in a unique situation doesn't do this.

It was a good self-contained story and it really seems (to me) it was only done for one of two reasons - to stretch a ten episode series out to twelve episodes (or some such), or to add a self-contained story into another story specifically as a bone thrown to a specific audience. Either way, it was probably a good financial decision, especially if it got people to talk about the show and made more people aware of it.

My kids said one of these guys was in the game and still alive and part of the story. If I had to guess I'd bet there'll be one other self-contained story like this in season 1, and we'll know for certain if this is stretch material or flag-flying. As long as it's a good story that stands on its own I don't care, because this series is a lot better than what we've been getting lately, and from what my kids say is sticking a lot closer to the source material than most adaptations do. It seems in the last five or so years the writers and directors and everyone involved with an adaptation want to write their own completely separate story having little or nothing to do with the source material besides the name and some flavor.

Anyone here every read the "Cradle" series by Will Wight? I love it. He was doing an interview with other writers and they were talking about adaptations and how it has to change dramatically to fit the medium. But we all know it doesn't. I think 300 and Sin City proved that, and The Watchmen changed in a way most fans didn't mind and thought worked fantastically without destroying the source material. I've never once read a book adaptation of a movie that destroyed the source material, it's always a one-way street.
 
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I could have done without that third episode. The story on its own was fine, but it's not what I'm looking for when I tune into a series based on TLoU.

Broke-Back-Zombie.jpg
 
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The more I think about it the more I don't feel 9 episodes are enough for the full first game. I think they should've taken maybe 20 episodes and taken it way slower. Or split the first game across 2 seasons.
I'm feeling it jumps way too fast between significant points in the story, when they could take things a lot slower, include much more content to expand the world and the story.
To think episodes 5 will likely wrap up Kansas City and Henry and Sam's story, so then we have 4 more for some very significant story beats that I feel will again feel very short and fast.
I do agree that if it is only 9 episodes it might be better to focus on the main story. One of the reasons I felt Walking Dead failed (compared to the comic) was that it got dragged out so far! It should of been 1 season per Omnibus (which is 4 Trade Paperbacks) so 8 seasons total. While side stories can be interesting you have to draw the line somewhere.
 
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