The Last of Us HBO series

[SolterraCyclone]

I liked the season. I’m mixed on the season finale. And the latter half of the season.

I thought the flashback episode was excellent, so exclude that from my commentary on the latter half.

I found myself way more interested in the Seraphite/Wolves war and the history of Seattle than Ellie’s revenge tour. I assume season 3 will be from Abby’s POV in Seattle the last 3 days and add layers to her character, but also dive deeper into the Seraphite/Wolves conflict.

I’ll withhold full judgment until I see Season 3, but I wonder if it would have been better to have made this a 10-episode season interweaving Ellie and Abby’s POVs. Whatever Isaac and his team were doing the finale was way more interesting than following Ellie around.

I’ve also never played the game so not sure how much this season followed the game (if it was strictly from Ellie’s POV) or how far into the second game the season got.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

I liked the season. I’m mixed on the season finale. And the latter half if the season.

I thought the flashback episode was excellent, so exclude that from my commentary on the latter half.

I found myself way more interested in the Seraphite/Wolves war and the history of Seattle than Ellie’s revenge tour. I assume season 3 will be from Abby’s POV in Seattle the last 3 days and add layers to her character, but also dive deeper into the Seraphite/Wolves conflict.

I’ll withhold full judgment until I see Season 3, but I wonder if it would have been better to have made this a 10-episode season interweaving Ellie and Abby’s POVs. Whatever Isaac and his team were doing the finale was way more interesting than following Ellie around.

I’ve never played the game so not sure how much this season followed the game (if it was strictly from Ellie’s POV) or how far into the second game the season got.

Also they’re not going to start filming the next season until 2026, meaning season 3 won’t come out until 2027.

By that time, I’m going to have forgotten large chunks of what happened in Season 2. Which makes how they outlined the story here even more frustrating

 

[alarson]

I wonder if it would have been better to have made this a 10-episode season interweaving Ellie and Abby’s POVs.

I don't think so, at least not if they wanted to effectively convey the same tone and message of the games.

Spoiler

the whole point is to see this all from Ellie's perspective and then suddenly you see it all from the other. And all those people you just killed become just normal people that you killed, just surviving like Ellie and her people were. Honestly I ended up liking Abby by the end

Though by racing through Ellie's time in Seattle, they may have messed that up anyway.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

I don't play video games, so I'm sometimes at a loss with shows like this in terms of knowing the fleshed-out character information that is skipped in the shows.

The scene in the woods where they rescue Ellie from drowning only to hang her confused the heck out of me. I had zero context for it.

And I'm really frustrated with the lighting this season. Some of the scenes, I can barely tell who's in it. I might as well listen to a radio theater presentation of it. Maybe it's my old eyes, but shows that are like 90% on the far end of the dark spectrum are hard for me to watch.

I tried watching on my phone just to see if I could adjust the brightness just a little, but that made it go fuzzy and grey-scale. I'm open to suggestions.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

I don't think so, at least not if they wanted to effectively convey the same tone and message of the games.

Spoiler

the whole point is to see this all from Ellie's perspective and then suddenly you see it all from the other. And all those people you just killed become just normal people that you killed, just surviving like Ellie and her people were. Honestly I ended up liking Abby by the end

Though by racing through Ellie's time in Seattle, they may have messed that up anyway.

I figured that’s where the show was going after this episode. So the game was also narratively set up this way? Switching from Ellie to Abby POV halfway through?

I still say that setup is going to be tough with a show, because we’re going to have at least 2 years between seasons. The emotional strings tying the two perspectives here are going to be faded/forgotten. With the game, that all happens in one game, back-to-back (presumably)

 

[SolterraCyclone]

I figured that’s where the show was going after this episode. So the game was also narratively set up this way? Switching from Ellie to Abby POV halfway through?

I still say that setup is going to be tough with a show, because we’re going to have at least 2 years between seasons. The emotional strings tying the two perspectives here are going to be faded/forgotten. With the game, that all happens in one game, back-to-back (presumably)

Or, if they were going to do it this way, it would have behooved them to film season 2 and 3 simultaneously, to avoid that long of a break between seasons

 

[alarson]

I figured that’s where the show was going after this episode. So the game was also narratively set up this way? Switching from Ellie to Abby POV halfway through?

I still say that setup is going to be tough with a show, because we’re going to have at least 2 years between seasons. The emotional strings tying the two perspectives here are going to be faded/forgotten. With the game, that all happens in one game, back-to-back (presumably)

Yep. It was set up this way.

Actually the tv show has shown us more than the game did about Abby. We didn't get nearly as much about her motivations early on. The game forced you to play as someone you started off hating.

But yeah, I agree. They knew they had a hit on their hands after S1, they should have been filming S2 and S3 back to back, especially considering they're going to reuse a lot of locations. This, and the short episode order from S2, smells like HBO being unwisely cheap with this show, which isn't surprising with their current garbage management.

 

[MeowingCows]

I still have the same feeling that the show is deviating a little too much from the themes of the game and it's taking some of the experience away for me. That's getting pretty nitpicky, though.

 

[Turn2]

Also they’re not going to start filming the next season until 2026, meaning season 3 won’t come out until 2027.

By that time, I’m going to have forgotten large chunks of what happened in Season 2. Which makes how they outlined the story here even more frustrating

Or, if they were going to do it this way, it would have behooved them to film season 2 and 3 simultaneously, to avoid that long of a break between seasons

The Last Of Us: Season 3 Already in Pre-Production at HBO - 9meters

Exciting news for fans of HBO's hit series "The Last of Us" - Season 3 seems to be progressing much faster than anticipated. This news comes ahead of the

9meters.com

As far as I'm concerned the producers have now blown the fantastic premise for the game/show and the story is devolving into a weird love story gorefest. I might still watch, but I'll have a hard time getting into any Abby storyline, and I doubt we'll see any fabulous episodes like the flashbacks or the award-winning Nick Offerman episode.

 

[burn587]

Yep. It was set up this way.

Actually the tv show has shown us more than the game did about Abby. We didn't get nearly as much about her motivations early on. The game forced you to play as someone you started off hating.

But yeah, I agree. They knew they had a hit on their hands after S1, they should have been filming S2 and S3 back to back, especially considering they're going to reuse a lot of locations. This, and the short episode order from S2, smells like HBO being unwisely cheap with this show, which isn't surprising with their current garbage management.

They may have been hedging their bets in case viewers didn’t stick around after Pedro was no longer on the show. Which is probably smart because they knew how polarizing that moment would be.

 

[CyCoug]

Here’s the biggest issue for me.

All the lightning and thunder in Seattle. It rains a lot in the winter (summer not so much), but lightning there is very rare.

I can suspend my disbelief for fungus mind-controlled zombies, or improbable last-minute rescues. But that weather is just a bridge too far.

 

[wenkeej]

Here’s the biggest issue for me.

All the lightning and thunder in Seattle. It rains a lot in the winter (summer not so much), but lightning there is very rare.

I can suspend my disbelief for fungus mind-controlled zombies, or improbable last-minute rescues. But that weather is just a bridge too far.

I'm always amazed at how movie makers can't get little details right. Like shots of corn fields always being tall and green and pre-flower no matter the time of the year.

 

[im4cyclones]

Minor annoyances with the writing and storyline - it has relied too much on coincidences and conveniences in my opinion. That aside, why do we care about Abby’s POV to the extent she needs her own season? I’m invested in this show because I was interested in the premise and then became emotionally invested in Joel and, admittedly to a lesser extent, Ellie. Can they make it? Will they get a cure? Etc.

I don’t really care about Abby or the WLF. An episode with their story? Sure. But this is an entire season dedicated to it? How does this advance the story?

 

[Clonehomer]

Here’s the biggest issue for me.

All the lightning and thunder in Seattle. It rains a lot in the winter (summer not so much), but lightning there is very rare.

I can suspend my disbelief for fungus mind-controlled zombies, or improbable last-minute rescues. But that weather is just a bridge too far.

Maybe the sudden change in human population and industrialization has created climate change that has now caused lightning and thunder to be more common in Seattle?

 

[CyCoug]

Maybe the sudden change in human population and industrialization has created climate change that has now caused lightning and thunder to be more common in Seattle?

I mean if somehow the Earth’s rotation reversed so warm water from the tropics flowed north to Seattle instead of cold water flowing south, then sure.

It probably says more about me, that I get hung up on the weather, rather than all the other implausibilities.

 

[ISUChippewa]

I don't play video games, so I'm sometimes at a loss with shows like this in terms of knowing the fleshed-out character information that is skipped in the shows.

The scene in the woods where they rescue Ellie from drowning only to hang her confused the heck out of me. I had zero context for it.

And I'm really frustrated with the lighting this season. Some of the scenes, I can barely tell who's in it. I might as well listen to a radio theater presentation of it. Maybe it's my old eyes, but shows that are like 90% on the far end of the dark spectrum are hard for me to watch.

I tried watching on my phone just to see if I could adjust the brightness just a little, but that made it go fuzzy and grey-scale. I'm open to suggestions.

I thought she washed up on shore organically (and perhaps somewhat implausibly) then she was intentionally rescued during that scene.

I enjoyed this season more or less, but I agree with others that the up to now unexplained warfare between the WLF and the cultish scar people is more interesting than Ellie's revenge tour.

 

[MeowingCows]

The Seraphite/WLF turf-warring is much better explained in the game than it is so far in this show, but that storyline will get opened up a lot with the changeover to Abby's POV.

 

[MeowingCows]

I mean if somehow the Earth’s rotation reversed so warm water from the tropics flowed north to Seattle instead of cold water flowing south, then sure.

It probably says more about me, that I get hung up on the weather, rather than all the other implausibilities.

It's funny you mention weather and conditions, 'cuz in the game, there are major climate/local condition changes, most notably that a vast chunk of the city is flooded/now under sea level(?) and that changes traversal sections of the game. That part hasn't really been touched on at all.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

Here’s the biggest issue for me.

All the lightning and thunder in Seattle. It rains a lot in the winter (summer not so much), but lightning there is very rare.

I can suspend my disbelief for fungus mind-controlled zombies, or improbable last-minute rescues. But that weather is just a bridge too far.

That was EXACTLY what I told my spouse. I grew up in Bellevue, across Lake Washington from Seattle.

The rain there is a constant drizzle - heavy rain is rare, thunder almost non-existent.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

I thought she washed up on shore organically (and perhaps somewhat implausibly) then she was intentionally rescued during that scene.

I enjoyed this season more or less, but I agree with others that the up to now unexplained warfare between the WLF and the cultish scar people is more interesting than Ellie's revenge tour.

Like I said - sometimes it's so dark I can't tell for sure what's happening.