The Last of Us: The Show!

[scottcr]

My son and I really enjoyed the first episode - I'm in the 'Last of Us' was a good game, but felt like it wanted to be a film more than a game and reckon that as a programme, it'll be better. 

 

However - the quality on the stream on Now, even with their HD option, was Fucking Awful.  Makes me want to get Sky Stream instead (and part of me wonders if that's the part of Sky's plan).

[iknowgungfu]

I'll give Now TV a miss - last time I checked they couldn't handle 5.1 audio either.

 

I'll just wait....

[Thor]

Yeah, no one should pay for Now TV, its a pathetically shit low picture quality service charged at a premium price. Sky are wankers. 

[Stig]

SkyGo isn't much better. I used SkyGo on the PS5 and there were notable drops in quality. I also watched an episode of House of the Dragon on the PC app last year and it was atrocious. Like DVD quality. 

 

You'd think these huge multimedia companies could produce decent apps to watch stuff on.

[mexos]

16 minutes ago, Stigweard said:

SkyGo isn't much better. I used SkyGo on the PS5 and there were notable drops in quality. I also watched an episode of House of the Dragon on the PC app last year and it was atrocious. Like DVD quality. 

 

You'd think these huge multimedia companies could produce decent apps to watch stuff on.

 

I started watching it on my PS4 (Sky Go) I have in the living room. Picture quality was very good but it was choppy as hell like the bitrate was too high for the PS4 to handle.

 

I have a PS5 in my cave, plugged that into living room TV and yup, no choppyness.

 

 

 

[Harrisown]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

Yeah, no one should pay for Now TV, its a pathetically shit low picture quality service charged at a premium price. Sky are wankers. 

I remember Gooner telling me something about it.

When they take the Bills games for their NFL channel I have to pay them £11.99 for a day pass to watch it and then they have the fucking cheek to ask me to pay more to boost my stream to 1080p.....I just watch it in 720

[Pob]

Just read that Marlene is played by the same actor in both the game and the show, which I suspected as I watched it.

[iknowgungfu]

I’ve watched it now. Decent.  Took me a while to recognise Anna Torv. 

[Pob]

16 minutes ago, iknowgungfu said:

I’ve watched it now. Decent.  Took me a while to recognise Anna Torv. 

 

Bloody hell, this is Tess!?

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

52 minutes ago, Pob said:

Just read that Marlene is played by the same actor in both the game and the show, which I suspected as I watched it.

She's also Alyx in the Half Life games.

[LaveDisco]

1 hour ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

She's also Alyx in the Half Life games.

 

That's blown my mind. Like how can that be true? They are so different. Sometimes my brain really struggles to understand what acting is.

 

(See also: Encanto's Mirabel being Rosa for B99. It's just a conspiracy and can't be true. They are completely different).

[Pete]

The worst crime of Now TV is that you have to turn on subtitles every time.

[Keyboard Koala]

5 hours ago, iknowgungfu said:

I’ve watched it now. Decent.  Took me a while to recognise Anna Torv. 

 

I did a double take when I recognized John Hannah in the opening scene. Fucking hell. Old age sure sucks and is going to suck even more

[Isaac]

On 17/01/2023 at 12:44, makkuwata said:

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from skimming YouTube reactions it’s that the writers have grossly overestimated the cultural impact of Depeche Mode.

 

There's no accounting for your average gaming nerd's taste, is there.

[IR354Lifeqhybot]

https://talksport.com/uncategorized/240130/two-mikes-tuesday-february-3-parry-steals-mgs-coat-150203134921/

 

As recommended by Sidney Govu. He now lives in Droitwich. 

[jonamok]

On 18/01/2023 at 17:06, LaveDisco said:

(See also: Encanto's Mirabel being Rosa for B99. It's just a conspiracy and can't be true. They are completely different).

The amazing thing is that Stephanie Beatriz sounds and acts waaaay more like Mirabel IRL, and nothing at all like Rosa.

[Ry]

If you have sky then check out Sky VIP (which is a free service btw).

 

They are giving 4 months of UHD HDR (4k) for free. (I activated it via the actual sky box menu)

 

I know this show is in 4k but there's no way to find out the other channels and shows which are. I will be cancelling it as soon as I'm done with the show anyway. 

[Waggo]

57 minutes ago, Ry said:

 

I know this show is in 4k but there's no way to find out the other channels and shows which are. I will be cancelling it as soon as I'm done with the show anyway. 

Just say UHD into the voice control feature, and it will display the UHD content available.  
 

Also make sure your playback settings have been amended to show 4K content.

 

 

 

[Paul3704]

Another good episode. Follows the plot of the game again with some excellent showpieces.

The clickers are perfect.

[Jamie John]

Yup, another excellent episode. Production values and art design are off the charts.

 

I like how they're expanding on the game lore:

Spoiler

That stuff with the fungus growing beneath the ground acting as a sort of alarm system for other infected if you tread on it was cool; if they ever do make a third game then I can see that being pinched and adapted as a mechanic.

 

And the bit towards the end of the episode when

Spoiler

Tess gets her cordyceps snog was proper boak, but in a good way. 

 

Am I right in thinking that episode 3 is when we're going to meet

Spoiler

Bill, or did I read that ep 3 was supposed to be a bridging one, without an equivalent in the game?

 

[NecroMorrius]

I'm not sure I buy the claim that Bella Ramsey didn't play/watch the game in depth, because she's got Ellie to a fucking T. She's not emulating Ashley Johnson's performance, she's a little more childlike on account of being younger in real life, but she's got that scrappy-doo shithead-kid-out-of-their-depth-and-overcompensating vibe from the start of TLOU absolutely spot-on. She's a devout Christian in real life, and recently came out as non-binary (but still using she/her pronouns) so it'll be interesting to see her talk about those things in future.

 

Everyone's perfect really. A+ casting. I was a little unsure about Anna Torv as Tess, possibly because Anna Torv and Annie Wersching are two very distinct actors in my head (not sure why they didn't cast her to be honest, probably tied up doing Star Trek Picard, shudder). However I read or heard somewhere that Tess's first scenes were the first they shot and Torv was very nervous on set that day, I think Craig Mazin himself said that. She's settled into things by episode 2.

 

Spoiler

Not that it really matters lol

 

 

[makkuwata]

I thought they were supposed to be softening Joel a bit for this?

 

Spoiler

He didn’t exactly have any words of comfort for Tess in the game, but I almost laughed out loud when he wordlessly just turned around and bolted out of there with Ellie.

 

[Gambit]

Spoiler

Really liking these "before the outbreak" prologue segments. Gives some nice additional backstory to the world. Hope they continue with them throughout the season. God speed Anna Torv. 

 

[Majora]

1 hour ago, Jamie John said:

Yup, another excellent episode. Production values and art design are off the charts.

 

I like how they're expanding on the game lore:

  Reveal hidden contents

That stuff with the fungus growing beneath the ground acting as a sort of alarm system for other infected if you tread on it was cool; if they ever do make a third game then I can see that being pinched and adapted as a mechanic.

 

And the bit towards the end of the episode when

  Reveal hidden contents

Tess gets her cordyceps snog was proper boak, but in a good way. 

 

Am I right in thinking that episode 3 is when we're going to meet

  Reveal hidden contents

Bill, or did I read that ep 3 was supposed to be a bridging one, without an equivalent in the game?

 

 

Episode 3 spoilers 

 

Spoiler

I believe it focuses primarily on Bill's relationship, which is only fleetingly hinted at in the game, and that Ellie and Joel feature only briefly. A lot of reviewers cited it as the stand-out episode. 

 

[Stevie]

Great episode. 
 

I really hate the mouth tendrils. It’s revolting. Kill it with scissors and fire.
 

 

 

 

I’m having big issues with the high pitch shrieking. I really wish they stopped using it in movies/games. They use the same type of shrieking for dinosaurs and infected people and demons and the Nazgûl. Basically anything that’s supposed to be scary= high pitch shrieking and it’s gotten really old. It really ruins the immersion. 

[NecroMorrius]

It's the same performers from the game who did the clickers reprising their roles. Plus some dry ice slowed down and other bits and pieces chopped up. I love it
 

The only thing that annoyed me a bit in the second episode is the typical hush-hush not telling Ellie anything for the sake of audience surprise. In reality you'd prep that person with as much information as you can - they look like this, they do this, there are these types you need to worry about, you need to do this, if anything happens you do this and we'll do this etc. Rather than being all mysterious about it for the sake of the audience. That's a real bugbear of mine in so much media. The audience surrogate role works perfectly as a storytelling device but you can still tell them what to expect offscreen when it's a life or death situation and you have time to prepare before going in. They can still be surprised in the moment or frozen in fear, so nothing really changes. But it's unrealistic to drag someone into that situation without telling them what to expect first. Ooh it really grinds my gears.

[Popo]

The cinematography of this show is incredible. They’ve completely captured the lighting and texture of that world perfectly. Consistently impressive. 
 

Great episode, too. When I said earlier in the thread that I was keen to find out what they meant about the tentacles, well, now I’m thinking ignorance is bliss. 🤢

 

Spoiler

The choice of having the infected connect through what is effectively a kiss is quite interesting. Grim, but interesting. I wonder if they’re going in an ‘infection is love’ direction with the cordycepts. That to be part of the mycelia network is to be in rapturous bliss. Or - even worse - a way to grow and reproduce?

 

[Majora]

The final shot of Ellie in front of the building didn't look quite right to me but I can't tell if it's just NOW TV's crappy picture quality or not. She looked weirdly soft and the way she was lit didn't seem correct somehow.

 

Good episode though. I do wish I didn't already know all the beats because it inevitably just isn't hitting as hard as I feel it should but it's fascinating even from just an adaptation standpoint regardless.

[NecroMorrius]

No you're right, there's a bit of a mismatch in the lens distortion/chromatic aberration/depth of field when they're mixing real and CG objects at times. There's another shot where a CG clicker is fairly far down a corridor and the depth of field doesn't quite match, the clicker is too sharp for the surrounding DOF. But it's really, really, really nitpicky.

 

3 hours ago, Popo said:

 

  Hide contents

The choice of having the infected connect through what is effectively a kiss is quite interesting. Grim, but interesting. I wonder if they’re going in an ‘infection is love’ direction with the cordycepts. That to be part of the mycelia network is to be in rapturous bliss. Or - even worse - a way to grow and reproduce?

 

 

Spoiler

Any bite can infect, we've already seen it multiple times in the show (including a chart showing which body parts cause the quickest infections) and this particular episode. We also saw some people with amputated limbs in episode 1 suggesting it's possible to survive a bite, which I don't think was the case in the game. This particular kissing sequence seemed to be there purely to ick the audience out, I'm not sure it entirely worked. Surely mouth to mouth without breaking any skin is a rubbish way to enter the bloodstream. But maybe the idea is that there's some tiny semblance of humanity in there (he was recently turned, still had half his face) and the human understood she was infected and wanted to make it painless. It doesn't really track with anything else we know though. If she's already infected, why bother in the first place? Maybe because infected have a connection to each other, and he felt weirdly connected to her as both a human and an infected, so he opted to show affection in a way which combines the two. And she was infected enough that she consented, feeling a strange pull to him too. I'm not sure I got what they were going for there other than "gross!" Hopefully there's a podcast explaining what they were going for.

 

it's also the first live-action thing Druckmann has ever directed (apart from mocap sessions!) so hats off to him really.

[Popo]

10 minutes ago, Moz said:

No you're right, there's a bit of a mismatch in the lens distortion/chromatic aberration/depth of field when they're mixing real and CG objects at times. There's another shot where a CG clicker is fairly far down a corridor and the depth of field doesn't quite match, the clicker is too sharp for the surrounding DOF. But it's really, really, really nitpicky.

 

 

  Hide contents

Any bite can infect, we've already seen it multiple times in the show (including a chart showing which body parts cause the quickest infections) and this particular episode. We also saw some people with amputated limbs in episode 1 suggesting it's possible to survive a bite, which I don't think was the case in the game. This particular kissing sequence seemed to be there purely to ick the audience out, I'm not sure it entirely worked. Surely mouth to mouth without breaking any skin is a rubbish way to enter the bloodstream. But maybe the idea is that there's some tiny semblance of humanity in there (he was recently turned, still had half his face) and the human understood she was infected and wanted to make it painless. It doesn't really track with anything else we know though. If she's already infected, why bother in the first place? Maybe because infected have a connection to each other, and he felt weirdly connected to her as both a human and an infected, so he opted to show affection in a way which combines the two. And she was infected enough that she consented, feeling a strange pull to him too. I'm not sure I got what they were going for there other than "gross!" Hopefully there's a podcast explaining what they were going for.

 

it's also the first live-action thing Druckmann has ever directed (apart from mocap sessions!) so hats off to him really.

 

Spoiler

Yea, no, I don’t think the ‘kiss’ was meant to pass on infection, if that’s what you’re saying, I suspect it’s what infected individuals are drawn to do with each other, to be part of the mycelia network. 

 

There is a podcast, though! You’ve reminded me to listen, which I’ll do now while cooking.