The Last Of Us - HBO ***No Game Spoilers***

[Xenos]

56 minutes ago, Acgott said:

I’m not sure what your data entails, but the last episode got 8.1M viewers, it’s best.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-last-of-us-episode-8-ratings-viewers-1235544609/

Sorry I misread this portion of the article and thought they meant average. But probably meant overall. I also need to find the article where someone stated that it had better numbers than S1-S6 GOT.

https://deadline.com/2023/03/the-last-of-us-episode-8-8-1-million-viewers-new-series-high-ratings-1235280886/
 

Quote

The average audience for the series’ first five episodes is now approaching 30 million viewers across all platforms, according to HBO.

 

[Acgott]

21 minutes ago, Xenos said:

Sorry I misread this portion of the article and thought they meant average. But probably meant overall. I also need to find the article where someone stated that it had better numbers than S1-S6 GOT.

https://deadline.com/2023/03/the-last-of-us-episode-8-8-1-million-viewers-new-series-high-ratings-1235280886/
 

 

Yes, GOT’s 1-6 had a high episode of 8.89M and averaged 5.5M for the first six seasons based on just the tv viewing. The TLOU readings combine the tv with streaming so it’s not a straight forward comparison. This episode shows up as just 1 million viewers when accounting for just tv. You’ll need to dig deep to get the actual numbers. The studio always pumps up the ratings when they give them to the trades.

[Ty21]

I went from agreeing that limiting the clickers in some episodes made their appearance more meaningful when they do come on, but they’ve made them such a small part of the show it’s hard to remember at times that they’re even a part of the show. I think they dropped the ball rushing through the show and cutting out so much. How many episodes have they been featured in? 3? Not including the singular clicker in the basement Ellie took out lol 

[beekay414]

I feel like I'm pretty unique here. I never played the game so I don't have any connections to the storyline or whatever. When I watch stuff, I'm 100% about character development and acting. The storyline and action are almost always secondary to me. I'm enjoying the hell out of this because it's focusing so heavily on the characters and not the "zombies" or whatever. 

[Leader]

1 hour ago, beekay414 said:

I feel like I'm pretty unique here. I never played the game so I don't have any connections to the storyline or whatever. When I watch stuff, I'm 100% about character development and acting. The storyline and action are almost always secondary to me. I'm enjoying the hell out of this because it's focusing so heavily on the characters and not the "zombies" or whatever. 

Yes. I agree with this entirely and had the same thought just days ago.

I also never played the video game, I'm not encumbered by constantly comparing the two platforms and I'm enjoying the fact these storylines (or the overall production) isnt some never ending zombie assault but instead is dealing with the characters as they deal with the collapse of their lives and society as a whole.

[Mox]

On 2/20/2023 at 9:59 AM, Bullet Club said:

My biggest gripe so far is how little of these infected there have been. They've only popped up in like half the episodes. Seems like the threat has been overstated with how easy it is to avoid them.

Episode 8 was good but this has not changed. It's not a coincidence all the highest rated episodes have a heavy infected presence.

[MikeT14]

This actress playing Ellie’s mom is her voice in the game, correct?

[Acgott]

I hated the finale. Such a disappointment. The show started off amazingly and just couldn’t stick it. They couldn’t even make the gun fight dramatic.

[Mox]

WHERE ARE THE INFECTED

[BobbyPhil1781]

48 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

This actress playing Ellie’s mom is her voice in the game, correct?

Yes, Ellie gave birth to herself

[Ty21]

•interesting casting for Ellie’s mom. She’s totally believable as her mom in looks and voice, but to reuse the game voice for such a similar/dissimilar role is interesting 

•they ****ing rushed it too much. Too much filler can be annoying but no filler whatsoever sucks. The sprint to the finish cheapened it. If we’re only accounting for this being a miniseries that needed to exist in this frame, it couldn’t have been much better than it was, but it wasn’t, so rushing it just…sucks… they could’ve done so much better

•having no infected throughout the show sucks. Having them not explore through broken down areas and collapsed skyscrapers and flooded sewers and tunnels sucks. 
•Pedro is a tremendous actor but I do wonder if Troy Baker is a better voice actor than Pedro is an actor. The final line “you’d just come after her” was ice ****ing cold in the game. Not so much in the show. 
•the finale, I expected them to dodge him erasing hordes of fireflies. They didn’t. But they filmed it as if he was in a fugue state and it lost the intensity it needed. 
•I will say, in the game, Joel is a monster but almost no one that played it and loved him could condemn him for what he did. In the show it felt totally different, that he was a monster on a rampage for something so fleeting and selfish. Ellie fully would’ve chosen to sacrifice herself for the cause. 
•the show was better overall than I expected, both actors did considerably better than I’d hoped. They kept a lot of the original source material, which I didn’t quite expect I guess. It did a lot of things right but dear god they dropped the ball with rushing it, not allowing the story to flesh out more. 3 more episodes and we could’ve gotten to the same spot and had so much more key pivotal moments added to add depth and intrigue. 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Ty21

[BobbyPhil1781]

I really wish this was two seasons. I know we've gone over it as to why it's not and I get it. Very much enjoyed the show but we needed more time, more run-ins with infected, more time for everything. 

At least we know we're getting this with S2 and S3 unless they have a ton of content we're not aware of which is why they plan on making the second game two seasons.

[Mox]

Imagine how much more impactful that final decision would have been if the infected actually mattered. Instead, who cares? Why should Joel give up his new daughter for a cure that might not work for something that barely matters in show.

[Ty21]

1 minute ago, Bullet Club said:

Imagine how much more impactful that final decision would have been if the infected actually mattered. Instead, who cares? Why should Joel give up his new daughter for a cure that might not work for something that barely matters in show.

That’s part of why I still think it was a significant mistake to make transmission and infection based on bites (and flour lol) instead of spores in the air like in the game. If you see spores, you need to put a mask on or you might breathe it in and get infected. Makes traversal in tight spaces infinitely more claustrophobic and makes infection not contingent on coming across the infected. Most of the infected even shown in the show were just laying down, dead to the world 

[BobbyPhil1781]

3 minutes ago, Bullet Club said:

Imagine how much more impactful that final decision would have been if the infected actually mattered. Instead, who cares? Why should Joel give up his new daughter for a cure that might not work for something that barely matters in show.

This is a good point. In the game, it obviously works bc you're traversing this land while constantly fighting them and they're always present and a threat. In the show, they get talked about and are rarely seen. Those who haven't played the game don't know this so it's all kinda pointless to save humanity from something that's not really a threat lol.