[HBO Series] The Last of Us (beware spoilers)

I used to check this thread for meaningful discussion about the show, but now it's more fun seeing how much episode 3 is living rent-free in their heads. The show being an overwhelming success and episode 3 being universally acclaimed by critics and general audiences alike (except the Ben Shapiros of the world) makes it all the more hilarious. The obtuse criticisms about irrelevance prove these guys don't even understand the story they are watching and are incapable of comprehending anything more than high level plot points.

 

Calling an episode boring is subjective criticism. Calling it garbage when the vast majority of viewers enjoyed it (and only an insignificant and inconsequential minority didn't) is basically the definition of hating, especially when your criticisms of the episode (it was irrelevant / pointless) are objectively wrong as has been pointed out already in this thread. If you stuck to subjective views like it was just boring then you'd be on safer ground bc nobody can argue that you weren't bored; but talking about irrelevance just exposed your lack of comprehension.

 

Not sure how this portion of the show was presented in the game, but as far as a TV show goes, it's far easier to have the main characters fight a primary antagonist in the form of a singular person, than have that antagonist be the entire group of people. It's also easier to push a singular person's motivations (wanting to find Henry and Sam because they're a thorn in her side) than it is to try and have the audience figure out who the primary antagonist is.

Your logic even works when applying it to the video game. A new mini-boss / boss that the main character(s) have to vanquish and beat...and then that boss is gone for the rest of the game because you beat them. Main characters then continue to to fight other bosses that spawn later in the game.

 

Just because a character is dead, doesn't make them irrelevant to the show. Sarah died in the middle of episode 1 - if it wasn't for her death, Joel would not be as angry at the world and have a negative worldview, the way he does now. She was integral to the character development of the main character.

Bill's eventual speech about how Frank was his purpose and his note on how Joel should focus his efforts on saving Tess (who then became Ellie) was really the catalyst in Joel slowly coming around on protecting Ellie and how much it would have meant to Tess. It was even alluded to in episode 4, with the whole "Tess was like family" dialogue with Ellie. Bill and Frank's relationship was integral to the character development of the main character.

The pre-hype for video game TLoU was the premise of a survival horror zombie-like infected game, but instead, it became one of the greatest games of all time because of how the game explored relationships and humanity.

The pre-hype for TV show TLoU, for non-gamers, was the premise of a survival horror zombie-like infected Walking Dead show, but it's looking like one of the best shows of the season because...of how the show is exploring relationships and humanity.

 

But it is irrelevant.

 

They don't need an hour plus to demonstrate that connection. Make their love story 15-20 minutes, and space it out in flashbacks, add some more action and keep the episode length in a sweet 60 minute range. Bam, much much better episode that would hav accomplished the same. What they did instead was boring garbage. Episodes 1, 2, and 4 were awesome though.

 

I got really good news for you if you liked episode 3, there is an entire movie just like it and its even close to the same run time. Well, the movie is longer but hey you get to enjoy more of what you like...

 

Probably because they subconsciously relate to Bill and don't even know it.

 

The whole point of the episode was that it gave Joel something to fight for in his life. He and Bill have one role in their life and its to try their best to protect others. Bill showed him that through his letter and the backstory of their lives was to enhance that meaning of that letter in the end. It's really not that hard to understand. It's probably the most important episode so far in terms of character development for Joel.

 

Bill would have hated Episode 3, too, before he met Frank.

 

15 minutes needed tops to create that meaning for their relationship. All you really needed plus the letter. Honestly, everyone talks like two men he only dealt with (and didn't even like each other) in his travels adds more meaning than his own daughter's death. Now, that's what gave meaning, the connection between failing to save his daughter and his ability to save Ellie, like episode 1 demonstrated. His daughter's death, THAT was integral to the story and it didn't get the amount of run episode 3 got for Bill and Frank. Honestly, episode 3 being the most important is bull and instead is relegated to irrelevance in the big picture of things. You can literally skip episode 3 and get that meaning you mention from all the other episodes.

 

Damn this argument is still going on....

 

Yes , pre established characters that existed in the game, vs a new villain that I was comparing to, or Joel’s baby mama from pre apocalypse that no one would care about. What’s next- you want a war montage with Joel’s brother from Desert Storm?

The montage of a prepper surviving and bringing in his trapped wanderer as a guest was 10-15 minutes alone. Yeah, we get it that you don’t like the uncomfortable touchy stuff

Then it shows how their network began and their coded radio cues. All of that was important to Joel and Tess over a 10+ year period. And then the letter was a gut punch and another reminder that he failed to protect someone again.

1-4, all good episodes. Kathleen seems like the weakest character by the writing team so far. That’s my not so absolute fan opinion that I don’t need to die on a hill on

 

I'm ignoring Salvy as I'm assuming he's trolling like he usually does (at least similar to previous threads I've followed, especially gaming ones).

I've largely ignored your posts as I'm not sure if you're trolling at this point as well, though I think I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. You have a more legit point than "teh gayz!", though I still think it is way off.

I don't think there's any way you could do anything like they wanted to do in 15 minutes (it usually takes at least a few minutes to even establish a single new character, the environment they're in, etc., let alone demonstrate the emotions/interactions between those characters). If you wanted to quibble about the total run time (think it was ~80 minutes), and say it could have been in the 40-60 minute ballpark, that would be more reasonable, though I think I still preferred the total runtime they dedicated to this story (arguably might have been better with a longer runtime). I also can accept it being "boring," though yeah TLOU isn't about non-stop action anyway (especially when you remove it from the video game setting).

I might have skimmed things, but I don't know if anyone said that this was more intregral to the story than his daughter's death. That was important too! Turns out, there are a *lot* of important scenes, dialogue, interactions, etc., that ultimately contribute to the overall themes of TLOU. Honestly every episode is a integral contributor. They're all important. Sure you can maybe remove a bit here and there, and hopefully people still grasp the main message, but in this case, I think they're doing a fine job (similar to the game).

The game version attempted to do something similar to episode 3, except sorta the inverse (yet still generally the same idea), and IMO it ultimately didn't do nearly as good of a job as episode 3...which is largely why I felt it was somewhat forgettable, outside of some gameplay sequences. Perhaps that's a lesson that Neil learned, and this was their attempt to improve on what they did in the game. And *most* people think they nailed it.

It sucks you didn't like it. That's OK. I thought Super Mario Galaxy was a meh game because the story sucked. We all have our weird opinions from time to time.

 

We just all need a Frank in our lives. Wait...

 

I just went back and looked at episode 3 time stamps, they spend less than 30 minutes from the moment they acknowledge there was no girl to the moment they drink the wine and go to bed.
33 minutes in until the 1:02 marker:
29 minutes.

flashback begins at 16/17 minutes, Frank found around 24 minutes, dinner/piano scene ends at 33, bedtime at 1:02, Joel/Ellie return to present day at 1:03, credits at 1:15

 

You just ruined @Salvy day. I hope you're happy.