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they showed mandalorian sneaking a single cigarette wrapped in tin foil to the radio man which gained him instant access over the mile long line of mooks. i thought that was a pretty strong tell the fungus is mostly inhaled and inhalants are a big no no, while booze and pills are not so much a problem. they also showed particles when he was moving poo poo a few scenes later. i dont think it was the pancakes.
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Jan 19, 2023 07:04
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Live At Five! posted:I think that in the show it's spread by food. They specifically mention pancake mix and other food. I have a hunch that food also spreads it based on them mentioning it in the show and Craig Mazin saying in the podcast that people paying close attention to the first ep will notice things brought up later in the show. I could be totally wrong but it makes as much sense as spores spreading it. As someone who has played both games I can't wait to see everyone's reaction to where the show goes. It's finally my opportunity to feel like Game of Thrones readers, though not quite on the same level. I will say the my favorite moment of the first ep is the out of focus granny twitching out in the background. Specifically, he mentioned "breadcrumbs" that hint at the source of the infection. I think the flour theory is a strong one, although as Platystemon said that doesn't really make sense considering cooking.
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Jan 19, 2023 07:05
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Chamale posted:Specifically, he mentioned "breadcrumbs" that hint at the source of the infection. I think the flour theory is a strong one, although as Platystemon said that doesn't really make sense considering cooking. Yeah that works. The first thing that I thought of was nuts, which are susceptible to fungal contamination and are eaten raw. It’s just that in our world, it’s the aflatoxin that gets us, not the living Aspergillus. That DICK! posted:they showed mandalorian sneaking a single cigarette wrapped in tin foil to the radio man which gained him instant access over the mile long line of mooks. i thought that was a pretty strong tell the fungus is mostly inhaled and inhalants are a big no no, while booze and pills are not so much a problem. they also showed particles when he was moving poo poo a few scenes later. i dont think it was the pancakes. All I got from that is that FEDRA are squares who enforce marihuana prohibition even in the apocalypse.
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Jan 19, 2023 07:19
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There's no indication that those cigs were illegal, as much as they are likely just rare. Rare but totally legal cigs would still be worth their weight in gold.
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Jan 19, 2023 07:35
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Tobacco grows like weeds and has been cultivated since antiquity. This is your bread crumb. It does not need to be a literal bread crumb. Do you think all the flour in the world comes from one factory, this is not freaking Stratholme. The apocalypse didn’t happen because of people wolfing down bad flapjacks
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Jan 19, 2023 08:04
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Tiggum posted:Any amount of explanation for how zombies work is too much, because zombies don't work. The more we learn, the dumber it's going to be. I wish they'd left out all the fungus stuff and let it just be "there are zombies now; it's a mystery; shut up". "Realistic" zombies always end up being less realistic than just saying "magic's real and it makes zombies". The fungus is the thing that makes the zombies unique and interesting, it'd just be another zombie show otherwise.
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Jan 19, 2023 09:12
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Open Source Idiom posted:In the game the entire car set-piece plays out in an uninterrupted single take. IIRC there's only one hard cut in the whole opening, during the car crash. i'm not talking about the plot of the original (again, i haven't played it) but the fact the scene was pretty clearly trying to look like a video game – which is to say bad. just look at the children of men scene by comparison: freebooter posted:Yeah it's probably beat-for-beat much the same as the game, but being inside a car during a tense crazy situation is inherently claustrophobic and it reminded me more of Children of Men's excellent car scene than the game's the camera gently pans around the interior of the car, which lets it show the reaction of each actor against the chaos outside, cut away just as julianne moore is shot, etc. – real cinematography hours. then rewatch the the last of us scene: from the moment a plane flies overhead as they enter town, the camera is anchored in the back seat of the car and whips back and forth, as if an invisible player character is looking back over their shoulder.
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Jan 19, 2023 09:44
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exmarx posted:i'm not talking about the plot of the original (again, i haven't played it) but the fact the scene was pretty clearly trying to look like a video game – which is to say bad. just look at the children of men scene by comparison: It uses some fairly conventional pans that follow action and cross cuts between actors. It’s actually a lot more conventional than CoM’s shot. I’ve worked in the film industry as part of camera crew for a decade, and you’re utterly wrong. It also doesn’t function at all like the camera in the game, or in any other game I’ve played. They’re just telling a story with pretty simple and tasteful camera blocking.
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Jan 19, 2023 10:05
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Gresh posted:Solid if unspectacular premiere episode. I haven't played the game that everyone constantly strokes their meat over so I don't really understand what everybody loves so much about this story/world so far which to me feels a lot like any other zombie apocalypse. I suppose that could change with more episodes. So there are a couple shots of her watching Joel where she looks completely fascinated by the violence, at no point looking away for even a moment. Moving to get a better angle. She tries to front with that attitude and even with a weapon, and sees what he does without making any threats, just pure distilled violent action. I never played the game either it just seems like it's all written with a certain intent behind what's being depicted and how it's defining the various characters. I'm guessing that irritating angle gets toned way down, because I think so far it's been pretty smart about everything. I even agree with the flashback choice, because I don't think it's there as an audience reminder. matureaudiencesonly posted:this convo reminds me that i'm still kind of confused about the infection rules, and i can't remember if they more fully explain in the game and maybe it's coming in the show. Others have pointed it out and it lines up.Being fed the biscuits. Forgot the pancake mix. Forgot the cake. Not wanting to stay for the cookies. The guy at the start explicitly naming wheat fungi. Survives higher temperatures (cooking?). It makes sense for a TV format to alter the vector to where everyone doesn't have to be in masks. People-born instead of airborne, with the same intent to spread far and wide, not hunger. Idk if this will all translate over the run. Who can say at this point. Justin Credible fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Jan 19, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:27
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That DICK! posted:they showed mandalorian sneaking a single cigarette wrapped in tin foil to the radio man which gained him instant access over the mile long line of mooks. i thought that was a pretty strong tell the fungus is mostly inhaled and inhalants are a big no no, while booze and pills are not so much a problem. they also showed particles when he was moving poo poo a few scenes later. i dont think it was the pancakes. That DICK! posted:Tobacco grows like weeds and has been cultivated since antiquity. This is your bread crumb. It does not need to be a literal bread crumb. Do you think all the flour in the world comes from one factory, this is not freaking Stratholme. The apocalypse didn’t happen because of people wolfing down bad flapjacks He gave him essentially a whole 'pack' of cigarettes, not just one. And if you've ever been in jail you know that people will pay quite a lot for a cigarette when they are scarce. The 'bread crumb' thing is insanely obvious. It comes up several times. First it's the random callout of pancakes four times, then the neighbors trying to pawn off some biscuits, then the neighbors making raisin cookies, none of which are taken by the protagonists. Bread or flour being shipped out around the world (and some parts of the world already having problems before people in america have a clue about it, like Jakarta) and *starting* the infection, and then having it be normally transmitted through bites appears to be the way the show is handling it. If it was 'particles' then Joel would have turned zombo when he moved his dresser. I'm fairly sure that was just 'this is a dusty area because Joel doesn't dig in his secret stash often'.
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Jan 19, 2023 10:42
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On one hand, cordyceps surviving being cooked is ridiculous. But so is cordyceps being able to manipulate a central nervous system (it only works because of the unique way insect nervous systems work). And then there’s the fact that it somehow confers superhuman strength and echo location abilities over time… Don’t fret too much about the hard science of it all.
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Jan 19, 2023 10:50
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Liked the episode, it was a bit long but didn't feel too long. Grandma twitching out of focus was awesome, reminded me of the out of focus shots of new IT and just as unsettling. Haven't played the game but strongly considering getting the PS5 remake now, so in that regard, the show did its job I guess.
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Jan 19, 2023 11:07
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exmarx posted:the fact the scene was pretty clearly trying to look like a video game – which is to say bad. just look at the children of men scene by comparison The show doesn't try to replicate that Sarah POV 1:1 (the equivalent would have been a one-er shot I guess), but I do agree it was trying to retain the general spirit of it. Only cutting when really necessary, lots of time looking straight out at the road ahead, etc. I don't agree it was bad at all. It felt claustrophobic and tense, even knowing (almost) exactly what would happen. I don't have a general association of game-style cinematography as being bad either, though.
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Jan 19, 2023 11:17
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Bugblatter posted:On one hand, cordyceps surviving being cooked is ridiculous. But so is cordyceps being able to manipulate a central nervous system (it only works because of the unique way insect nervous systems work). And then there’s the fact that it somehow confers superhuman strength and echo location abilities over time… Yeah felt like the beginning called out that the fungi evolved to withstand higher Temps. Anyways that's a sufficient bit of pop sci fi for a zombie series for me. At least it gives it some rules.
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Jan 19, 2023 14:21
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The origin of the fungus is never really sketched out in the games and the zombies were mostly to give the player something to shoot at between story scenes. Apart from a few cool set pieces they don't affect the story much, which is much more of a character-driven narrative. I'm hoping the show goes the same route.
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Jan 19, 2023 14:40
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Bugblatter posted:On one hand, cordyceps surviving being cooked is ridiculous. But so is cordyceps being able to manipulate a central nervous system (it only works because of the unique way insect nervous systems work). And then there’s the fact that it somehow confers superhuman strength and echo location abilities over time… None of this stuff needs to be spoiled (for people that are spoiling), it's speculation and not in the games, so everyone is speculating on the same level about the show's source. The idea seems to be, given the opening, that melting icecaps released fungus that lived on an entirely different, older earth. These can survive a ton of heat, can infect humans, etc. First episode shows everyone non-infected avoiding wheat based products by luck, and one that was infected specifically being fed a wheat based product by her husband (who wasn't infected, but attacked). In reports, they list outbreaks happening in a major wheat-producing country. The inference is pretty much there. They'll probably never address it again, either - it's just enough that people paying attention can infer a source and so the show can move on.
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Jan 19, 2023 16:37
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muscles like this! posted:I thought the girl who played Sarah looked vaguely familiar and that's because she is the daughter of Thandiwe Newton. Yeah, the film / TV industry is somehow staying ahead of the generational nepotism curve of the rest of modern society. Pretty much any young actor is going to be the kid of some other actor. It really sucks.
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Jan 19, 2023 16:46
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FLIPADELPHIA posted:Yeah, the film / TV industry is somehow staying ahead of the generational nepotism curve of the rest of modern society. Pretty much any young actor is going to be the kid of some other actor. It really sucks. There's other stuff going on there too, in that kids of actors have access to some of the top acting coaches of the planet and are trained to do so from a toddler, which gives them other huge privilege-based advantages on top of their connections from their parents.
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Jan 19, 2023 16:54
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Boris Galerkin posted:In the intro scene Joel was wearing his t-shirt backwards which you could tell by the seams being wrong, but I also noticed that his shirt had the size/laundry tag flipped inside out along his left(?) side near his stomach. I can't speak to whether this was a thing back in the early 2000s (outwith Bill Murray doing it in Lost in Translation!) but Sarah actually points it out to Joel so I took it more as a character moment between the two of them.
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Jan 19, 2023 17:00
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spankmeister posted:The fungus is the thing that makes the zombies unique and interesting, it'd just be another zombie show otherwise. Yeah, although I agree that "explaining" the science of zombies is generally stupid, the gross fungal bloom zombie people are a striking image that makes this setting at least a little different. It took me a few days to watch the premiere. It's well-made, I think it's a good show, but goddamn is it a struggle to watch. I think I may have hit a wall for bleak dystopian misery stories. It's been over a decade now of Walking Dead, Handmaid's Tale, Y: The Last Man, Station Eleven, etc. etc. etc. I think I'm all set on fictional portrayals of panicking people stuck outside quarantine lines or military guys gunning down civilians in collapsing cities. I get plenty of that vibe in real life at this point. At least something like Fury Road managed to make a post-apocalyptic hellscape feel animated and lively. Not just depressed, unshaven people drinking moonshine to forget their dead kids or whatever. Maybe I'll love Fallout when that comes out.
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Jan 19, 2023 22:23
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I definitely need to get around to watching Station Eleven, since you brought it up. I think I'd like it and I even own the book (but haven't read much of it). I find most of this "type" of show too much for me and I doubt I'd be watching TLOU if I hadn't played the game because of that, but Station Eleven seems a bit different from what I've heard and I'm intrigued.
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Jan 19, 2023 22:36
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It is. Station Eleven is definitely miserable and depressing in parts (certainly the flashbacks to the immediate aftermath of the pandemic) but the future storyline about the acting troupe has a more nuanced purpose than the usual "surviving despite the nihilism" feeling other apocalyptic fiction gives me. It's also not zombie or horror fiction and isn't really about cannibals or warlords or whatever. Just people trying to regain a sense of purpose and community after society collapsed. It's not an exhausting exercise in big boy cynicism, which elevates it over most apocalyptic fiction IMHO.
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Jan 20, 2023 00:02
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Station Eleven is definitely the odd one out in that bunch because (while not without conflict and danger) it's a much more positive, optimistic view of human society after the collapse as opposed to the TWD-esque hypothesis that without an existing overarching social order, every single stranger you meet will try to kill/torture/rape you. I didn't actually like it overall because it turns out that across-the-board excellent casting, acting, directing, set design, cinematography and soundtrack still isn't enough to salvage a reeeeeeally melodramatic script. But I don't regret watching it at all and still recommend it, purely because it's refreshing to see a slightly different take on the genre. (And as I said, writing aside, there's some really good performances in there.)
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Jan 20, 2023 00:04
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Arist posted:I definitely need to get around to watching Station Eleven, since you brought it up. I think I'd like it and I even own the book (but haven't read much of it). I find most of this "type" of show too much for me and I doubt I'd be watching TLOU if I hadn't played the game because of that, but Station Eleven seems a bit different from what I've heard and I'm intrigued. Too much of a bummer for me to finish. Well made though. There's one point in particular that made me bark out loud and say, gently caress this loving children suicide bombers wtf
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Jan 20, 2023 00:15
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e: apparently i have avatar dyxlexia
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Jan 20, 2023 00:17
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freebooter posted:Station Eleven is definitely the odd one out in that bunch because (while not without conflict and danger) it's a much more positive, optimistic view of human society after the collapse as opposed to the TWD-esque hypothesis that without an existing overarching social order, every single stranger you meet will try to kill/torture/rape you. the TWD tv show was so bad at this, Fear the Walking dead had the army basically give up on day 1, raid LA and then have a band of survivors, who we are supposed to like sick the horde on the only functional defense point hospital. God i hate what TWD became.
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Jan 20, 2023 00:48
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spankmeister posted:The fungus is the thing that makes the zombies unique and interesting, it'd just be another zombie show otherwise.
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Jan 20, 2023 03:33
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Tiggum posted:It is just another zombie show. Changing "magic" to "an infectious agent functionally indistinguishable from magic" doesn't actually make any meaningful difference, and is certainly not a new idea in 2023. 28 Days Later, which I think probably kicked off the trend, came out in 2002. I feel like it would actually be more novel to have actually magical zombies at this point. I am interested to see how much it makes a meaningful difference in live action compared to in the game where I feel it genuinely does. It being a naturally occurring fungus in nature and the scenery of people merged into the nature having overgrown human civilization look and stuff really did give the game a different feel to me from other zombie stuff. But obviously you won't have long stretches of just wandering around this stuff with barely any action or dialogue happening like what happens in chunks of the game. But the way they changed the time period of when it starts and the prologue about how it starts and how they differentiate a fungus loving an organism up compared to "just" a virus, like depending on the writing they can do a lot of cool stuff with this. The tone with how the fungus takes over and changes people over time and how that's worked into points with both the scenery and those (admittedly very few) designs) really did give is a unique feel to me. Like more slow active apocalypse still going on rather than post-apocalyptic. Much sadder and doomier vibe closer to like Annihilation or Children of Men which was one of the inspirations for it. Basically I'm hoping this follows in the footsteps of the games where yeah no one thing in it is original but they executed it so well it's hard not to love. The fungus thing makes the zombies unique and interesting because of how the game rolls with that.
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Jan 20, 2023 07:52
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Mooseontheloose posted:the TWD tv show was so bad at this, Fear the Walking dead had the army basically give up on day 1, raid LA and then have a band of survivors, who we are supposed to like sick the horde on the only functional defense point hospital. It may be venturing a little too far into armchair psychology for me to note that while TWD is an American narrative, Station Eleven is a Canadian one. Though I suppose there's probably a big difference in survivor psychology between an apocalypse that just kills off 99% of everyone and leaves behind a bunch of empty supermarkets and warehouses full of tinned food, and an apocalypse where 99% of those dead people are dangerous reanimated corpses.
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Jan 20, 2023 08:54
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As somebody completely new to the franchise, i watched and enjoyed it! It was kind of funny noticing the bits that were obviously video game logic set pieces and plot points. I feel it actually might tighten up many tv shows, if they were kept as clear cut on a linear progression of story as video game plots are. Good show, chaps! If anybody is looking for more 'the apocalypse is just beginning' vibes and hasn't seen it, i recommend Black Summer on netflix. If you want to add even more chaos, watch all the episodes in random order to add to the insanity.
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Jan 20, 2023 10:33
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Tiggum posted:It is just another zombie show. Changing "magic" to "an infectious agent functionally indistinguishable from magic" doesn't actually make any meaningful difference, and is certainly not a new idea in 2023. 28 Days Later, which I think probably kicked off the trend, came out in 2002. I feel like it would actually be more novel to have actually magical zombies at this point. The big difference is we'll get big set piece midboss zombies to fight. Can't wait for Pedro Pascal to dodge roll around while throwing molotovs lol.
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Jan 20, 2023 11:12
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Lampsacus posted:As somebody completely new to the franchise, i watched and enjoyed it! It was kind of funny noticing the bits that were obviously video game logic set pieces and plot points. I feel it actually might tighten up many tv shows, if they were kept as clear cut on a linear progression of story as video game plots are. Good show, chaps! Watching Black Summer episodes in random order would probably make it less insane.
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Jan 20, 2023 11:42
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Man, Black Summer started fantastic and then threw out all the meta realism for the ending. I absolutely loved the scene where everyone trapped in the diner comes together to beat one zombie's head in and it takes everyone's exhausted efforts because of course it's not as easy as media makes it out to be.
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Jan 20, 2023 11:52
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I’ve just finished the first episode and as someone who is halfway through the video game I really enjoyed it. Also, Depeche Mode are my favourite band of all time (see avatar) so I am really really happy about this attention they’re getting from what is one of their top five songs.
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Jan 20, 2023 13:48
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You just know there’s gonna be some big scene where they’re all sealed off in a room and a survivors eyes gloss over as he murmurs “awwwwgh I shouldn’t a fuckin ate them flapjacksssss”
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Jan 20, 2023 14:37
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Thundercracker posted:Man, Black Summer started fantastic and then threw out all the meta realism for the ending. I absolutely loved the scene where everyone trapped in the diner comes together to beat one zombie's head in and it takes everyone's exhausted efforts because of course it's not as easy as media makes it out to be. Reading zombie media growing up I always thought slow zombies would probably be pretty trivially easy to overcome, then it was playing the Last of Us that made me realise just how hard it would be shoot something in the head if it's moving even slowly (and that's before you even factor in tight urban spaces, the shock/horror factor, multiple zombies etc)
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Jan 20, 2023 23:27
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Thundercracker posted:Man, Black Summer started fantastic and then threw out all the meta realism for the ending. I absolutely loved the scene where everyone trapped in the diner comes together to beat one zombie's head in and it takes everyone's exhausted efforts because of course it's not as easy as media makes it out to be. I only scene of Black Summer but its when the armed survivors are at the stadium and it basically shows gun nuts what would actually happen to them in a real shotting situation and its amazing.
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Jan 21, 2023 00:06
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freebooter posted:Reading zombie media growing up I always thought slow zombies would probably be pretty trivially easy to overcome, then it was playing the Last of Us that made me realise just how hard it would be shoot something in the head if it's moving even slowly (and that's before you even factor in tight urban spaces, the shock/horror factor, multiple zombies etc) That's only because LoU infected don't take damage the way a human would. Even if you miss the head, limbs and stuff would often make them pretty useless if they can't walk properly or grab anyone. That's what a ton of zombie media ignores. What made me realize that slow zombies would work is how people reacted to Covid and how dumb people would end up screwing everyone else over.
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Jan 21, 2023 00:41
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Darko posted:What made me realize that slow zombies would work is how people reacted to Covid and how dumb people would end up screwing everyone else over. Nah, Americans would react very differently to a pandemic that could be tackled with guns as opposed to one that could be tackled by severe restrictions on personal freedoms for the 12-18 months it took to develop and distribute vaccines. I reckon a lot of the CHUDs who refused to do so much as ever wear a mask would think a zombie outbreak is the best thing that ever happened and throw themselves into fighting it with gusto.
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Jan 21, 2023 01:42
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Late to BreadCHat, but I'd just like to add that contaminated grain/flour is a significant vector, since people handle the stuff with bare hands before it gets cooked.
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Jan 21, 2023 01:48
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