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Boris Galerkin posted:This might be the first zombie movie where they seem to be “smart” about it? I mean the opening scene set up the fact that the (Indonesian) authorities did the smart thing of executing the infected people they were quarantining when it became obvious that it was too dangerous to keep them alive, and the fact that they immediately went to “nuke this place into the ground” to prevent this from spreading. Shaun of the Dead had the zombie apocalypse contained within a day and change.
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Jan 23, 2023 05:20
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I liked Joel's little hop in the water to show it wasn't deep. They did great casting with him and Ellie. They have immediate chemistry even though it's sort of antagonistic right now, but you can see the cracks where they're already warming to each other.
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Jan 23, 2023 05:20
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Arc Hammer posted:Shaun of the Dead had the zombie apocalypse contained within a day and change. In Return of the Living Dead the authorities took pretty decisive action within the first day of the outbreak. Didn't quite work out tho.
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Jan 23, 2023 05:28
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Yeah I’m absolutely on board with Ellie’s casting now. That cult episode towards the end is going to be brutal, assuming they keep it, and I can’t imagine they change it.
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Jan 23, 2023 05:52
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I just hope her acting improves a bit over the season. I mean she’s pretty good but sometimes her lines feel too much like lines.
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Jan 23, 2023 06:57
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I burst out laughing at Pedro’s “You’re one weird kid, you know that?” Something I noted that the podcast re-emphasized was how good Pedro’s little step back when Tess revealed she was infected. Just great really subtle acting. And yeah Bella is crushing it as Ellie. Just the right mix of earnest and annoying while still being identifiably a kid. Also she swears good.
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Jan 23, 2023 07:07
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This is a really excellent adaptation. The most important details there, but willing to differ to make effective TV and respect the difference between the mediums
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Jan 23, 2023 07:08
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Really shines a light on crap like the Witcher and Rings of Power dont it
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Jan 23, 2023 08:11
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Fantastic episode. Ramsay is really somethin’ else in this role. One plothole I noticed: Joel did a dodge away from a zombie but they don’t learn how to do that until the second game!!!!!!!!!
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Jan 23, 2023 08:35
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That zombie kiss thing was weird lol. Really no idea why that needed to be in there. Overall another good ep though. Not sure how I feel about the whole "zombies communicate through the ground" thing they added. The changes to Tess' death was surprising but I think it worked fine. The museum was spot on but I was a bit bummed they pretty much hand waved the skyscraper. I guess that was mostly a gameplay part though. I'm still mixed on these pre infection openings. The Indonesia part was actually pretty cool and well done, but once again felt like it was tmi that is trying to over explain it.
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Jan 23, 2023 08:54
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I guess the “kiss” was meant to communicate the tendrils doing a thing and tie in to the end of the cold open but without actually knowing what it’s doing it just looks weird lol
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Jan 23, 2023 08:56
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I went to rewatch the corresponding game scene immediately after finishing the episode, and drat does it feel like Craig Mazin is freestyling all over Druckmann's old dialogue. The whole flow of the scene was much better, and the little details on the dialogue like "I never asked you to feel like I felt" did a much better job at highlighting their relationship. Also Ellie's reaction was far better, unlike in the game where she's like "oh okay let's go then" and then a cutscene later she's all "wait why did we leave her alone?! We gotta go back!" Ignis fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Jan 23, 2023 |
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Jan 23, 2023 08:59
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Arc Hammer posted:Shaun of the Dead had the zombie apocalypse contained within a day and change. Hell, the original Night of the Living Dead had the zombies defeated by National Guard losers the morning after. The trope of zombies immediately overrunning civilization is pretty modern, and I am glad that Last of Us moved away from it. The military isn't overrun; they just slowly fall apart over the next 20 years.
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Jan 23, 2023 09:08
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veni veni veni posted:
I agree with this sentiment. The only reason I am okay with them so far is that they are well done. Although the scientist just telling the soldier to bomb the entire city was a little much. It will really depend on how much information they try to convey through those openings. It might be kind of interesting if each opening takes place in a different part of the world where we see the reactions of different societies/scientific experts at the very beginnings of the outbreak. It will be less interesting if they start diving too much into the "science" behind it.
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Jan 23, 2023 09:25
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It's not even that they aren't interesting, it's that they have nothing to do with the things that matter in the story. Trying to move mountains to make the mushroom thing believable was a never a thing in the game and it was the right play. The show on the other hand seems terrified that people won't take the mushroom thing seriously, or just wants to do everything in it's power to distance itself from zombie media, when I'm sorry, but you don't get to do that when you make a zombie thing. I'd rather they just own it instead of trying to make it super believable because it's TLOU, not Contagion.
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Jan 23, 2023 09:47
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I don't really think that's what the purposes of that scene are, or the intro scene from the first episode. It's about the only people who really grasp the gravity of the situation (people who have studied fungus) are just entirely like 'yeah we're hosed'. It's more about the inevitable, impending end of all things and that inexorable push towards the foregone conclusion and letting that sense of doom and 'it's all over' lay heavy, rather than trying to scientific-validate anything. It's been pretty loose. Heat resistance, can survive in a human body, transmitted via wheat products, uses humans as both a substrate and vector to spread. It's just laying out the rules for it's own in-universe stuff along with the oppressive tone of civilization and humanity being on the brink of crumbling.
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Jan 23, 2023 09:53
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What does it add to the overall story though? The story of TLOU isn't about the zombies and it's especially not about the details of the ant mushrooms, so I just don't see how it contributes anything other than a lore dump no one needed.
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Jan 23, 2023 09:59
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veni veni veni posted:What does it add to the overall story though? The story of TLOU isn't about the zombies and it's especially not about the details of the ant mushrooms, so I just don't see how it contributes anything other than a lore dump no one needed. It's just an attempt to lend a grander sense of scope to the fungus zombie apocalypse. I agree that they seem extraneous at this point, but maybe the prologue scenes will pay off later on. Killer episode. I was initially lukewarm on the Bella Ramsey casting but now I'm all in. She's really good (watched the new Lena Dunham movie afterward and she's excellent in that, too). Also, I like the addition of the underground tendril network. I will miss Anna Torv, though. Haven't played the game in awhile and thought Tess might last another episode.
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Jan 23, 2023 10:12
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I really like the addition of the underground fungus communicating with each other. It makes sense when you look at it already existing in nature: https://www.nationalforests.org/blo...her%20minerals.
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Jan 23, 2023 10:13
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veni veni veni posted:What does it add to the overall story though? The story of TLOU isn't about the zombies and it's especially not about the details of the ant mushrooms, so I just don't see how it contributes anything other than a lore dump no one needed. It's about establishing rules, along with the sense of feelings I mentioned. It's like horror or supernatural stuff - there needs to be rules, that are established, and the threat largely sticks to them (I say largely to account for well done twists). If you don't know what any of the rules are, it undercuts the horror aspects. SyRauk posted:I really like the addition of the underground fungus communicating with each other. It makes sense when you look at it already existing in nature: https://www.nationalforests.org/blo...her%20minerals. There was a pretty hosed up X-Files episode about such things.
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Jan 23, 2023 10:14
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I think it helps establish that there's no way to rebuild without developing a cure first and it can't ever be a matter of just wiping out the infected or it'll just pop up again from underground. Ellie is THE solution. The only one. Plus I got chills when she told them to bomb the city and then asked for a ride home instead of an evac.
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Jan 23, 2023 10:17
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ok but it's barely taken 10 minutes to convey all that stuff, sometimes worldbuilding and set-dressing is nice. Will you be upset next week when we spend a good 5-10 minutes detailing how Bill and Frank meet and develop their relationship? Someone earlier mentioned Ish and the kids hunkering down in the sewers (who we only know about if we read the notes in the game) and I have a feeling that if they want to explore that doomed party, we will probably get a 10 minute cold open or something to contrast them reaching Tommy's commune
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Jan 23, 2023 10:20
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You can tell it is a videogame adaptation because it uses videogame logic of gatekeeping resources from the player Tess could have easily given her bag to Joel, or Joel could have picked up some ammo or grenades or a different gun which was just lying about. Some good set pieces though.
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Jan 23, 2023 10:50
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I tried working out a loose breakdown of the episodes and was left thinking they don’t have time to do Ish’s story (they barely have time for Sam and Henry), which is a shame because Ish’s notes really stuck out for me more than most. Just chilling out on a boat for the initial breakdown, then holing up in a ‘comfy’ sewer like a survivalist goblin before realising it ain’t worth surviving if you’re alone and forming a sweet little community…poor dude. I wish Tommy were in the story more, Gabriel Luna nailed it so well in the few scenes he had in the pilot, really looking forward to seeing him again.
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Jan 23, 2023 11:18
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DaiJiaTeng posted:I agree with this sentiment. The only reason I am okay with them so far is that they are well done. Although the scientist just telling the soldier to bomb the entire city was a little much. Yeah it’s bizarre that a mycologist would jump there.
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Jan 23, 2023 11:19
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Jan 23, 2023 11:34
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Like, you can't hire the Chernobyl dude and expect him not to add a bunch of scenes where scientists and military officials calmly discuss how hosed the situation is.
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Jan 23, 2023 11:52
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Nameless Pete posted:Like, you can't hire the Chernobyl dude and expect him not to add a bunch of scenes where scientists and military officials calmly discuss how hosed the situation is. 3.6
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Jan 23, 2023 11:59
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The game has all the little notes for you to read to learn about the world and the early days of the pandemic, the little opener kind of takes their place. It was an engaging scene and teaches new viewers more about the rules. The episode was great. Fully sold on Bella now and they nailed the decayed overgrown beauty of the game. The shots of the collapsed towers with the birds flying against it rules. Tess’s final moments were great. The subterranean tendrils are creepy as hell, the way the infected react to already infected Tess by trying to just expand the connection with the creepy kiss instead of tearing apart is upsetting in a great way.
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Jan 23, 2023 12:13
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Bugblatter posted:The game has all the little notes for you to read to learn about the world and the early days of the pandemic, the little opener kind of takes their place. It was an engaging scene and teaches new viewers more about the rules. Yeah I agree with this. I do hope they’re not all pre-pandemic though and we get some fleshing out stories in 2023
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Jan 23, 2023 12:31
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navyjack posted:Careful. I was just going to play the prologue to get hype for the first ep and Ellie and Joel just escaped from the University. poo poo sucks you in. Yeah, I planned on playing each episode's content after I had watched them. Somehow after the first episode, I carried on playing upto what will be the 6th episode...oops!
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Jan 23, 2023 13:44
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The clickers look so good. I wonder if they ripped the sound straight from the game because the stealth sequence in the museum sure was.
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Jan 23, 2023 13:44
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Shneak posted:The clickers look so good. I wonder if they ripped the sound straight from the game because the stealth sequence in the museum sure was. They used the same voice actors that were in the game. I don't know how i feel about them changing Tess' death scene. Part of me prefers her going down taking out some of Fedra but then I kinda like the infection tendrils welcoming her to the family. The tendrils are giving me 'hive mind' feels, straight from Stramger Things.
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Jan 23, 2023 14:02
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Good ep but why did they even go into the museum in the first place? It was some real videogame logic 'well there are waist high fences on either side of it so' stuff unless I missed something.
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Jan 23, 2023 14:36
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Am I the only one who doesn’t like the underground tendril network idea? Really seems unnecessary, and it’s only going to get used when it can move the plot forward (such as when Joel is sniping from the house and Sam gets infected by the swarm). But otherwise I guarantee they’ll just ignore the network when it’s convenient to do so.
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Jan 23, 2023 14:37
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Nottherealaborn posted:Am I the only one who doesn’t like the underground tendril network idea? Really seems unnecessary, and it’s only going to get used when it can move the plot forward (such as when Joel is sniping from the house and Walt gets infected by the swarm). But otherwise I guarantee they’ll just ignore the network when it’s convenient to do so. Yeah, it does kind of change the infected from a present threat that need to be negotiated into creatures with plot-activated floor buttons. I really like the aesthetics and idea but thinking about how it will be used has some disappointing possibilities, much less engaging than the direct and present danger signal from spores.
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Jan 23, 2023 14:38
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Costco Meatballs posted:Good ep but why did they even go into the museum in the first place? It was some real videogame logic 'well there are waist high fences on either side of it so' stuff unless I missed something. The implication is that you can't really access the State House directly, all the buildings around it have fallen and cut off the roads from the QZ, at least that's how I read it. Though as a Bostonian the geography felt all over the place.
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Jan 23, 2023 15:31
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Mooseontheloose posted:The implication is that you can't really access the State House directly, all the buildings around it have fallen and cut off the roads from the QZ, at least that's how I read it. Though as a Bostonian the geography felt all over the place. I remember posting about this when Geop LP'd it a while (9 years?) ago about how weird the geography was. I had to detach my personal knowledge from how it works visually (really well!) from how innacurate it is. I'm posting from 2 blocks down Beacon from the statehouse now, and it's a huge wide open run down Washington all the way to the harbor, with a pretty famous park in middle. It takes me 10 minutes to walk from State St to work.  This is the museum they used, it sits right on top of the State St. T station that they visit in the game. The view from atop it was pretty neat, giving you the clock tower at the Custom House, plus a Perfect Shot of Fanieul Hall/Quincy Market. I presume their long way would take them through the open shot from wherever the QZ is through Faneiul, into Govt Center plaza then up Beacon to the State house. I don't get exactly where the QZ is supposed to be, it felt like the North End, but they end up going up the 93 to the pike from what looks like South Boston instead? It's very disorienting for a local. The Statehouse itself is incredibly well done, the exterior and interior are spot on, minus the geography:  
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Jan 23, 2023 17:05
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veni veni veni posted:What does it add to the overall story though? The story of TLOU isn't about the zombies and it's especially not about the details of the ant mushrooms, so I just don't see how it contributes anything other than a lore dump no one needed. It's science fiction, so science lends to it by the nature of its genre. You have to connect the setting to the story, otherwise the setting is pointless. In the video games you don't care because you're focused on the gameplay and emergent story, and the zombie serve the purpose of being a threat to you, personally. A TV show doesn't have that so it has to make up the difference with things like background information and foreshadowing. The video game isn't about that, yes, but a video game is a completely different medium from scripted drama. Without interactivity, the audience has to be convinced to invest into the world. Xombie fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Jan 23, 2023 |
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Jan 23, 2023 17:11
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I live in the city they filmed the Boston scenes in and even I have to laugh at the contrived nature of getting to the state house (or the legislature building as we call it here  ) because there's so much road access and none of the skyscrapers nearby are tall enough to really take that much access away
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Jan 23, 2023 17:17
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