'The Last of Us' - Season 2 Thread (NO GAME SPOILERS!) | HBO | Neil Druckmann stepping away from creative involvement

[Rigby.]

Its fresh in my memory because I just played this level before the finale. Instead of the Scar/Ellie scene on the island, they probably should have included a remix of the mini-boss fight Ellie has with the Bloater in the arcade right before she heads to the Aquarium. Probably would have blown the budget but we at least get one more action scene because there were no zombie scenes in the last 2 episodes of the season. I think a couple of great action scenes of Ellie getting to the aquarium would have tampered some of the criticism of the finale because they pretty much hit all the main beats of the game up to this point.

Going by what Mazin said about season 3, I think we probably get 10 episodes next season with the first 5 eps being from the Abby perspective including alot more of Jeffrey Wright, then we start intertwining them with Ellie and Tommy.

Damn that does make me think. They could do ANOTHER series of flashbacks that are just from Tommy's perspective and do actually show him being a badass and going on the warpath.

Spoiler

The problem is that as dudes mentioned, you actually are told Tommy is doing that during Ellie's time

. But that's just one piece that they can work around.

Whatever they do, it's going to HAVE to be some show-only stuff or cutting room game material that Neil didn't follow through with. Like entire episodes worth of that shyt

 

[Rigby.]

I honestly feel like its partly HBO’s fault, they did the same thing with the last two seasons of thrones and then the 2nd season of HOTD.

maybe they think if they increase the budget then they gotta lower the episode count.

Def part of their general modus operandi with these high budget shows. They pulled what was apparently the premier moment from what was HOTD S2's block of time in the book and it's going to open the first few episodes of S3. So then you got this hackneyed S2 that ended up just feeling like a long ass interlude in the back half. And hell, that's all Season 7 was of GoT like you mentioned.

fukk HBO man, finance the seasons ahead of time

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

I know apple has a problem with marketing and getting people on the service but seeing how much money they put into their sci fi shows and how many episodes they get, makes Me wonder why more people aren’t going to them.

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

The CW has acting, action set pieces, cinematography and production design on the level of 'The Last of Us'? Which shows?

Yeah CW is a terrible comparison. I think they mean AMC

 

[Jazzy B.]

A 2 to 3 year wait to come back with Abby as the lead is asking for disaster as the casual viewer won't care about the game like that or might have an attachment to Joel.

Lots of shows have completely flopped and gotten cancelled due to those types of decisions.

Killing off Joel turned off viewers.

This is a TV show not a video game.

They could do it in the video game because the gamers aren't going to put down the game because they've paid for it.

TV viewers can do the opposite and simply stop watching.

Plus Pedro was the best actor on the show and the Ellie actress isn't good enough to carry the show.

They should have told the entire of the second game in season 2 or simply changed the story.

This is now going to be the 20's version of Westworld.

 

[Sghost597]

Just played the game up till Joel's death to give myself some perspective.

It's beyond frustrating when show does something right when the video game got it wrong. Then, not even the next scene. They show goes horribly wrong. It comes down to writing and maybe Neil/ Mazin just not being high level storytellers.

Abby being built like Bane is sort of ridiculous. They went too hard on her physique.

The whole obtuse nature of Abby in Joel's death scene was just a gimmick plot decice. it was cheap and not compelling storytelling. They fixed that in the show and that was the right call.

But let's spend a milly to bring on O'Hare to play a therapist. Just why?

Wish Jesse death had more impact, but grand opening grand closing in the same season just don't add much emotional attachment.

Still think the right move was to expand upon Jackson leading up to Joel's death into it's own season. So many interesting characters were just left underdeveloped.

If the whole thing with Last of Us is to tell stories like Bill. I just don't see the vision with poorly rushing through the story and changing Ellie's character.

I don't understand this thing with making Ellie a teenage idiot. Maybe an executive thought it would make her more relatable. It's awful.

 

[dtownreppin214]

I think finding another show that will take over my life like GOT did will be a life long quest for me.

Impossible. Once in a lifetime show.

 

[Sghost597]

Impossible. Once in a lifetime show.

The only show that has come close is Interview with a Vampire.

 

[richaveli83]

Got damn I hate Ellie. Selfish bytch getting everyone killed!

 

[HiiiPower]

I honestly feel like its partly HBO’s fault, they did the same thing with the last two seasons of thrones and then the 2nd season of HOTD.

maybe they think if they increase the budget then they gotta lower the episode count.

I can’t speak for HOTD but Game Of Thrones was D&D’s fault, HBO actually wanted a few more seasons at the usual 10 eps each out of them since GOT was their golden goose, I have never seen a show, nor do I think I’ll ever see a show reach that kind of fever pitch following ever again in my lifetime

 

[Beer Drinker]

I'm like 4 episodes behind because I was waiting on my lady so we can continue to watch together. Whelp she's out. Joel dying and her dislike of Ellie's face was enough for her to bail.

She's the regular public non game player. Wonder how many people and like her and just bailed.

Now I gotta watch this shyt alone

 

[Sensitive Christian Grey]

Spoiler

If Ellie didn’t take the map to get to the aquarium, how did Abby find them at the theatre?

 

[King Static X]

Spoiler

If Ellie didn’t take the map to get to the aquarium, how did Abby find them at the theatre?

Abby has convenient plot armor like Ellie.

Anyway, in-universe, it's probably not complicated. Abby has been living in Seattle for over 5 years, so she's most likely familiar with the layout of the city. Also, Ellie and company have the lights on in the theatre, and it's nighttime, so that would be easy to spot.

 

[Volt]

Mazin made his job way harder than it should and in this finale it showed it was the wrong decision to follow the games narrative structure.

Which should be obvious because the narrative structure was dogshyt.

The entire game relies on the shock value moment of Joel dying horrifically, but the issue is that if you're doing a huge swerve, you have to have a solid narrative structure. On the other hand, if you're going for a narrative twist based on facts that characters know but the audience doesn't, you need the plot to be cohesive to hold things together.

Drunkmann said fukk it, we ball, and that's the result. It's even worse in the show because this is clearly supposed to be a mid-season finale, but turns out they only got 7 episodes... for reasons I truly can't understand lmao. The breh who pointed out this isn't a premium show anymore nailed it. Did they spend most of the budget on bots to hype this up or something?

The show makes it so much worse because they at least had the decency of making game Ellie a crashout, Season 2 Ellie only had smoke for Jackson residents. It doesn't make a lick of sense.

Ironically, this was so much of a dumpster fire, that the Abby section might salvage it.

Mazin gotta be kidding about making a whole season out of the last part of the game though, even if they stretch it, how can they make more than 5 episodes out of that?

 

[Jmare007]

Mazin gotta be kidding about making a whole season out of the last part of the game though, even if they stretch it, how can they make more than 5 episodes out of that?

It's HBO, that season could be 5 episodes long