Topic: The TV Show Thread

See now we're getting into "who is mowing the grass" territory that many did with TWD. Me, some things you just gotta roll with. 20 year old chef boyardee? Meh, it's plausible. Air tight and chock full of preservatives... I can suspend disbelief on that one. Also coffee. Like I just can't imagine 20 yr old coffee tastes very much like your morning Folgers but oh well, it's fiction and fungus doesn't work like that anyway.

Episode 5 was really good, but especially the second part. I don't think (trying to) give depth to Kathleen did anything for the story. Those scenes felt more like they belonged in The Walking Dead. A lot of the best changes the TV series made from the game were when they changed perspectives. I think fully focussing on Joel and co would have made this episode better, but...

That second part of the episode, now that was something. Amazing action scenes and very gut-wrenching drama. Probably the strongest bits in the series so far.

Currently I'm replaying The Last of Us Part One. I'm a bit behind on the tv series, but that's purposely so, so the scenes in the series hit harder. I'm really enjoying the remake, and against my expectations feel like I'm getting my money's worth rebuying this game... again! But that was not the point. The point was that I notice the series has also increased my appreciation of the game.

I have already noticed so much dialogue, scenes and shots that were recreated one by one. Just goes to show how great direction and writing for The Last of Us really was. With regards to Ellie though, I am now fully convinced of my (minority) opinion: Bella Ramsey is the definite Ellie for me. As a teenager, but also as a 'survivor' Ramsey is so much more convincing to me than the game's character. Ellie in the game is kind of written like an adult sometimes.

@PegasusActual93 Believe me, the meat industry is still plenty disgusting. In any case, I can believe that hermetically sealed food that's full of all sorts of modern artificial preservatives would still be edible after just 20 years given this real world evidence. It's not a massive stretch. I always wondered where Dennis Hopper's gang of marauding pirates got all their perfect filter cigarettes from in "Waterworld". Work that one out.

@PegasusActual93 Sterilised water would be fine (minus plastic pollution), but water bottles aren't sterilised. Canned food is. It won't spoil because nothing is able to grow in it. Dried stuff like grains and jerky would also be fine after that many years, assuming it didn't get hydrated.

@Kidfried YES! That's it! Her character felt like something out of TWD, that's why it felt like a bad fit.

@zupertramp “fungus doesn’t work that way anyway” - haha! yeah, it’s been another point of difficulty for me in the show. In the video game it seems like they explained just enough to make cordyceps jumping host species kind of believable…, but when the show has tried to double-down a little more on the science of it, it’s come across a wee bit unbelievable. Not to the detriment of the show at large, but a couple times I’ve had internal eye-roll moments. It’s mostly a ‘me’ problem though.

For me it tends to be a common issue in movies and shows — There’s a fine line with trying to explain too much about the technology, the science, or the magic. But I am unfortunately the kind of viewer who does wonder about the little details. I guess it’s part of my obsessive personality. I have to actively turn off some of the critical thinking because, yeah — who the heck is mowing the grass?! 😂

@Th3solution hey, I see what you did there. Bringing that back around. I believe that's known as a "call back."

But yeah, just about anything zombie related is a bit iffy in my opinion. I guess the most plausible cause would be something more like Toxoplasma where it's known to cause increased aggression even in humans. Even then though, slightly more aggressive is a far cry from brain craving undead.

So like you, I shut my critical thinking off and go with it.