HBO's THE LAST OF US starring Pedro Pascal (2023) 4 4

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 2/23/2023 at 4:08 PM, fantastic_four said:

I'm still catching up and just saw Episode 5 last night.  Why was that bloater so big?

I looked up the actor and see that he's a 6' 6" bodybuilder--why did they need a dude that big in the suit?  Are we supposed to think that something about cordyceps sometimes causes humans to grow, or should we be assuming that it was coincidence that a rare and uncommonly-large human just happened to become a bloater?

It took me out of the show for a bit because all I could think was "welp, there's the boss for this level."  

 

On 2/24/2023 at 2:25 PM, Zonker said:

Someone who has played the game can tell us for sure, but from what I've read, the in-game explanation is that when the fungus infects an unusally buff (or obese) human, that body mass provides a fuel source for hypergrowth of the fungus, leading to the bloater effect.  

Bloaters have nothing to do with body obesity. It is a Stage 4 growth of the infection, typically an infected that has remained undetected or at least not killed for years, and during that time the infection has mutated.

Various stages of infection are revealed and discussed in Game 1, with Game 2 revealing other forms of mutation.

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 3/1/2023 at 7:24 PM, Zonker said:

Yes, at the risk of becoming this thread's nitpicker-in-chief, I wonder how the Fireflies thought it was a good idea to put their teenaged newbie recruit in charge of single-handedly guarding their bomb stash, without thoroughly sweeping the place of Infected and taking some measures to secure it against new arrivals?  They're not so short-staffed that they had a problem with planning to ship out Riley to the Atlanta QZ, right?

It's also interesting to note that the bombs shown were pipe bombs which don't appear in Game 1, but are prevalent in Game 2.

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

I'm enjoying the show, probably because I've been a devotee of the games, with my grown up kids for 10 years now. There are few surprises in the TV show for me, as I know what's coming all the way. I enjoy the various twists and deviation from the source material, and that keeps it fresh for me.

The acting is first rate, particularly Bella.

The mall episode was decent, but not great. It is based on DLC which can actually be played in sequence with the main game.

Last night's episode I enjoyed more, the pedophile David episode, that was pretty faithful to the game but felt a tad rushed to me.

I can see how people who have zero knowledge of the games might struggle to commit to the TV show, and that it might come across as a tad shallow and unsatisfying.

All I can say is that the games are incredible, very satisfying to play, extremely violent, and very, very emotional and heartwarming.

For those who don't know...David's assistant, James was played on screen by the incredible Troy Baker, who plays Joel in the games.

Expect to see Ashley Johnson, who plays 'Game Ellie' next week.     

 

[WolverineX]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:58 PM, Paul © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

I'm enjoying the show, probably because I've been a devotee of the games, with my grown up kids for 10 years now. There are few surprises in the TV show for me, as I know what's coming all the way. I enjoy the various twists and deviation from the source material, and that keeps it fresh for me.

The acting is first rate, particularly Bella.

The mall episode was decent, but not great. It is based on DLC which can actually be played in sequence with the main game.

Last night's episode I enjoyed more, the pedophile David episode, that was pretty faithful to the game but felt a tad rushed to me.

I can see how people who have zero knowledge of the games might struggle to commit to the TV show, and that it might come across as a tad shallow and unsatisfying.

All I can say is that the games are incredible, very satisfying to play, extremely violent, and very, very emotional and heartwarming.

For those who don't know...David's assistant, James was played on screen by the incredible Troy Baker, who plays Joel in the games.

Expect to see Ashley Johnson, who plays 'Game Ellie' next week.     

 

And I always thought Ellie was based of Elliot Page

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 3/6/2023 at 9:35 PM, Paul © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

They are not Zombies. It's not a zombie show, nor a zombie game. They haven't come back from the dead a la TWD,

They are infected. 

Zombies, I says

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 3/7/2023 at 4:55 AM, WolverineX said:

And I always thought Ellie was based of Elliot Page

The facials of the character were, I've actually heard stories that it was coincidental,  but all the motion capture, physical acting and voice acting is Ashley Johnson in the games.

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 3/7/2023 at 6:50 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Zombies, I says

Then you says wrong. 

The word zombie is actually banned on the set amongst the cast and crew during filming, because the creator Neil Druckmann wants focus maintained that shows deals with the results of  post viral pandemic apocalypse and not a zombie apocalypse.

True story.

[drotto]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:12 AM, Paul © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

Then you says wrong. 

The word zombie is actually banned on the set amongst the cast and crew during filming, because the creator Neil Druckmann wants focus maintained that shows deals with the results of  post viral

 

pandemic apocalypse and not a zombie apocalypse.

True story.

True story, most of the public see them as a different kind of zombie. 

 

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 3/7/2023 at 6:22 PM, drotto said:

True story, most of the public see them as a different kind of zombie. 

 

Then most of the public are wrong, and indeed misinformed, and missing the entire point of the show.

[Transplant]

On 3/6/2023 at 9:04 AM, drotto said:

That is a issue, I have with the show premise in general. So this is supposed to be how many years after the apocalypse (15 or so)?  I can understand society going to hell, but I not buying the all knowledge would be lost implications.   The show seems to imply there are a significant amount of survivors.   I would think that some level of manufacturing for basic necessities, like some drugs, car parts, batteries, etc would have been brought back online. When in reality, the manufacturing abilities, raw materials, and knowledge is all still around.  It just always seems to me like society would recover (to some degree) quicker, and we would adapt to the fungus.

 

 

Not to quibble, as I don't think it's explored much in the game either, but the first or second episode has one FEDRA talking about pills being made (Atlanta maybe) and coming in on shipments.  I would imagine supply chain issues are bad.  You can know how to build an EV, but it won't do much good without all the components.  

[Dr. Love]

On 3/7/2023 at 11:22 AM, Paul © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

Then most of the public are wrong, and indeed misinformed, and missing the entire point of the show.

Hmm. Are you saying that "infection" has an allegorical spin? I hadnt thought of it that way

[s-man]

Episode 7 showed all the reasons why I love this show and to me was the best ep so far.  The acting was very strong, especially from Bella.  I rooted and cheered for her when she finally escaped and actually cried a little when she fell into Pedro's arms.  The final look on her face really conveyed the emotional trauma she had just been through.  Can't wait to see the finale!

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 3/7/2023 at 11:26 PM, Dr. Love said:

Hmm. Are you saying that "infection" has an allegorical spin? I hadnt thought of it that way

The whole point of the infection point of the story, at least in the game franchise, is that mankind reached a tipping point in terms of what a global pandemic could do.

The game was released in 2013. Lo and behold we had a global pandemic for real in 2020, which of course did not kill billions, unlike in the game, but which did kill millions and caused global disruption.

The cordyceps virus is real and does affect insects in more or less the same way that the cordyceps virus does in the game, inasmuch as it takes control of its host through the brain functions.

I don't know about allegorical tales and whatnot, all I was saying is that zombies are for voodoo and supernatural/sci-fi tales. This story is about the effects of a viral/fungal infection.

The infected are not 'zombies'. They are human beings who have been transformed by a fungal infection originally transmitted thru' spores , not a zombie in sight.

[Dr. Love]

whatnot!

too bad, it would have been more interesting to me that way.  Although cordyceps and insects is always cool

[the blob]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:04 AM, drotto said:

That is a issue, I have with the show premise in general. So this is supposed to be how many years after the apocalypse (15 or so)?  I can understand society going to hell, but I not buying the all knowledge would be lost implications.   The show seems to imply there are a significant amount of survivors.   I would think that some level of manufacturing for basic necessities, like some drugs, car parts, batteries, etc would have been brought back online. When in reality, the manufacturing abilities, raw materials, and knowledge is all still around.  It just always seems to me like society would recover (to some degree) quicker, and we would adapt to the fungus.

 

 

20 years. Someone is making pharma in atlanta. Fedra drives cars and such. It just seems that a few quarantine zones have collapsed (they referenced Pittsburgh last episode). The western town has solar. Boston has plenty of electricity. It is all pretty precarious if Kansas City survived just because they drove the shroomheads underground and they were waiting to get out. Once they attack en masse they are hard to fight. We don't know how much industry is going on. All you need is one infected person to get inside and they could cause hundreds of others to get infected.

 

[Dr. Balls]

On 3/7/2023 at 4:47 PM, s-man said:

Episode 7 showed all the reasons why I love this show and to me was the best ep so far.  The acting was very strong, especially from Bella.  I rooted and cheered for her when she finally escaped and actually cried a little when she fell into Pedro's arms.  The final look on her face really conveyed the emotional trauma she had just been through.  Can't wait to see the finale!

100%. I was really happy that Joel didn't bust in and save her. I really wanted her to save herself in that situation. I don't know how the finale will end (I'm not familiar with the game) - but I like that this episode resolved with them being back together.

[thegiftedone45]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:58 PM, Paul © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

I'm enjoying the show, probably because I've been a devotee of the games, with my grown up kids for 10 years now. There are few surprises in the TV show for me, as I know what's coming all the way. I enjoy the various twists and deviation from the source material, and that keeps it fresh for me.

The acting is first rate, particularly Bella.

The mall episode was decent, but not great. It is based on DLC which can actually be played in sequence with the main game.

Last night's episode I enjoyed more, the pedophile David episode, that was pretty faithful to the game but felt a tad rushed to me.

I can see how people who have zero knowledge of the games might struggle to commit to the TV show, and that it might come across as a tad shallow and unsatisfying.

All I can say is that the games are incredible, very satisfying to play, extremely violent, and very, very emotional and heartwarming.

For those who don't know...David's assistant, James was played on screen by the incredible Troy Baker, who plays Joel in the games.

Expect to see Ashley Johnson, who plays 'Game Ellie' next week.     

 

That was my one big problem with the episode.  Joel goes from not moving for days to taking out at least 3 people within a span of a couple of hours.  Ellie's situation felt rushed through.  This episode was still a lot better than the last one (mall) which unfortunately helped me fall asleep.

[fantastic_four]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:39 PM, Paul © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

On 2/23/2023 at 11:08 AM, fantastic_four said:

I'm still catching up and just saw Episode 5 last night.  Why was that bloater so big?

I looked up the actor and see that he's a 6' 6" bodybuilder--why did they need a dude that big in the suit?  Are we supposed to think that something about cordyceps sometimes causes humans to grow, or should we be assuming that it was coincidence that a rare and uncommonly-large human just happened to become a bloater?

It took me out of the show for a bit because all I could think was "welp, there's the boss for this level."  

 

On 2/24/2023 at 9:25 AM, Zonker said:

Someone who has played the game can tell us for sure, but from what I've read, the in-game explanation is that when the fungus infects an unusally buff (or obese) human, that body mass provides a fuel source for hypergrowth of the fungus, leading to the bloater effect.  

Bloaters have nothing to do with body obesity. It is a Stage 4 growth of the infection, typically an infected that has remained undetected or at least not killed for years, and during that time the infection has mutated.

Various stages of infection are revealed and discussed in Game 1, with Game 2 revealing other forms of mutation.

The body obesity doesn't explain why a bloater would be so tall anyway.

I didn't think there would be a good explanation when I asked, but I held out (and still hold out) hope it wasn't just that they wanted the bloater to be bigger than life...but that's still my guess as to why they did it.

It's a nit-pick, and not one that destroyed the show or anything.  Just a momentary eyeroll in an otherwise-awesome series.  

[fantastic_four]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:02 PM, Paul © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

On 3/7/2023 at 6:26 PM, Dr. Love said:

Hmm. Are you saying that "infection" has an allegorical spin? I hadnt thought of it that way

The whole point of the infection point of the story, at least in the game franchise, is that mankind reached a tipping point in terms of what a global pandemic could do.

The game was released in 2013. Lo and behold we had a global pandemic for real in 2020, which of course did not kill billions, unlike in the game, but which did kill millions and caused global disruption.

The cordyceps virus is real and does affect insects in more or less the same way that the cordyceps virus does in the game, inasmuch as it takes control of its host through the brain functions.

I don't know about allegorical tales and whatnot, all I was saying is that zombies are for voodoo and supernatural/sci-fi tales. This story is about the effects of a viral/fungal infection.

The infected are not 'zombies'. They are human beings who have been transformed by a fungal infection originally transmitted thru' spores , not a zombie in sight.

I agree that the distinction is not trivial between infected and zombies.  Using cordyceps as the zombification device also changes the genre that the story falls into.  Zombies are fantasy because there's obviously no known way for organisms to survive anything you do to them aside from destroying the brain, but a cordyceps infection brings essentially the same story into science fiction since we can imagine a species like cordyceps existing since it already exists in nature.

Having said that if we drilled down into how a cordyceps infection would work with humans in real life it wouldn't be much like what we're seeing in the show, so I suspect the idea falls apart pretty quickly.  A quick example--in insects by the time cordyceps is visible on the ant's body he's dead, whereas with humans obviously we see MASSIVE body transformations.  Hard to see how cordyceps could keep a human body alive for as long as it does given that cordyceps in nature kills the ant after a relatively short time.

To be fair they've said that most humans do die pretty quickly after infection, but still, we've got all of these different types of transformations that have no parallel with the real fungus.  We could probably come up with explanations, but I'm not totally sure there's a completely satisfying one that would allow a human to stay alive as long as they do.

Edited March 9, 2023 by fantastic_four

[fantastic_four]

Question for those who have played the game--have they ever touched on the subject of how much of the human's consciousness remains after infection and for how long it remains?  The body horror of the infected is bad enough, but if there's a human trapped in there either in constant agony or screaming to be free then that's a whole new and higher level of horror.