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[Ulysses 31]

Still haven't seen the series... is it worth wasting my time watching it or is it like most over-hyped crap on TV nowadays?

Depends if you're kind of a purist of the game, you might find a lot of the changes for the worse.

 

[WoJ]

Episode 3 sucked. Has nothing to do with the romance specifically. It was just a pointless filler episode that did nothing meaningful to advance the story. The show would have been the same without it. Seeing how rushed most everything else was this season really made me dislike it more.

I'd say personally episode 8 was my favorite.

 

[Neff]

I'm stunned people think episode 3 is good.
Filler all around and ruined a character from the games.

I wouldn't call it filler as such, it was a good episode and well-written, and an intriguing slice of life outside the game we never got to see.

That said, Bill was far more interesting and memorable in the game. I didn't like Frank at all, I thought he was an asshole.

 

[Fbh]

Still haven't seen the series... is it worth wasting my time watching it or is it like most over-hyped crap on TV nowadays?

The best episode according to GAF is an 80 minutes love story that features non of the main characters, main plot or central themes of the rest of the show.

Take that as you want.

As for my part I thought it was ok. Its enjoyable to watch, specially to share the story with people who don't play games. But overall I think the game is the far superior experience.

 

[DForce]

Nah, unless it came from Ellie's mouth in that period, there's room for doubt and when there's any doubt, you don't go something irreversible like killing. In your worldview people are allowed to take the life of others without asking when they believe it's what the other would've wanted and that's horrible.

If there was no time in the story to confirm with Ellie then that might change things but when there's plenty of opportunity to confirm for yourself but you don't, it makes the ones taking choice away more evil and Joel responded appropriately to that evil.

And it didn't weaken my points about the competency of the Fireflies.

I'll gladly admit I'm wrong in light of important new details that I didn't know of, so far the corrections I made don't change my overall points.

Note quite, Marlene hints at that the others left her no choice but to approve the surgery.

The others wanted to kill Joel but Marlene intervened, so it's not strange I don't think of the Fireflies as a general force for good in the world.

There's no room for doubt. We saw how the story played out. This is why Joel lied to her and that's why she was upset after asking Joel the question. They asked to kill Joel after their conversation with Marlene. Using thing as proof doesn't help your point.

How many tests could he have done in a couple of hours realistically? To come to the conclusion to kill their only living specimen so soon is not confidence inspiring.

This isn't realistic, this is a video game. Joel literally recovered from an injury fast after taking antibiotics. That's unrealistic. This is why the story is fictional.

It's confirmed what she wanted to happen in a scenario she was never in, years after the fact with a lot of built up bitterness and resentment. I don't see how that proves what TLOU1 Ellie would've wanted to happen.

It was confirmed based on Part II. Trying hard to deny this doesn't change the fact

Nop, Joel and Marlene might believe they know what Ellie wants but without confirming in the moment there's room for doubt. Joel and Marlene have different stakes whether Ellie lives or dies that might be clouding their judgement, only Ellie could've cleared it up back then.

They knew it was written that way and confirmed in the end.

Not to me, she finally wasn't "alone" anymore and making a big contribution to helping cure the world is also important for her. Those 2 things become at odds at some point in the story and to just assume one trumps the other I find doubtful which is why Ellie should've had the final say when there was the opportunity.

"Not to you"

The story is straightforward, but you tend to go against it because you cannot accept what happens in the story. This is why you try to separate Part I and Part II's story.

I don't want to waste any more time because you have a strange habit of doing this.

 

[Ulysses 31]

There's no room for doubt. We saw how the story played out. This is why Joel lied to her and that's why she was upset after asking Joel the question. They asked to kill Joel after their conversation with Marlene. Using thing as proof doesn't help your point.

Joel lying and not owning up to what he did is a separate issue. It played out that the Fireflies rushed the operation without getting informed consent and thus I feel Joel is justified in stopping it.

This isn't realistic, this is a video game. Joel literally recovered from an injury fast after taking antibiotics. That's unrealistic. This is why the story is fictional.

So both those things are unrealistic.

It was confirmed based on Part II. Trying hard to deny this doesn't change the fact

Nah, part II doesn't retell the whole story and so Ellie is making judgements based of an incomplete picture.

They knew it was written that way and confirmed in the end.

And that's where I think the writers dropped the ball a bit in the story.

"Not to you"

The story is straightforward, but you tend to go against it because you cannot accept what happens in the story. This is why you try to separate Part I and Part II's story.

It is straightforward about a father protecting a daughter from delusion child killers in the end but I feel that the writers were aiming for something more morally complex which is why I think they dropped the ball a bit.

 

[VulcanRaven]

Still haven't seen the series... is it worth wasting my time watching it or is it like most over-hyped crap on TV nowadays?

I would definitely watch it if you are a fan of the game. Its the best game adaptation in my opinion. People who don't know the game seem to enjoy it too.

The best episode according to GAF is an 80 minutes love story that features non of the main characters, main plot or central themes of the rest of the show.

Take that as you want.

As for my part I thought it was ok. Its enjoyable to watch, specially to share the story with people who don't play games. But overall I think the game is the far superior experience.

What about

Spoiler

Bill's letter to Joel? I think it had a lot to do with the central themes of the show.

 

[penguininthesun]

I would say that I enjoyed the series, but as someone who has played both games multiple times, I didn't find most of it revolutionary or anything. The acting performances were all great, with a couple of exceptions. Pedro Pascal is a great Joel, but Bella Ramsey is the standout. Weirdly, the guy who played David is the only downgrade from the game imo, in terms of acting. Marlene too, although I know it was the same person. I feel like she just didn't have the chops to bring it back on screen so yeah...sorry if that's harsh. Production design on this show was insane, just the incredible details they had in the sets alone. Makeup deserves all the awards. VFX needed a bit more help though...

There were some pacing issues for sure. Yes, the third episode is a cinematic masterpiece, and just hits on every single level, but it was also quite jarring within the context of the rest of the show. In a perfect world, Bill and Frank's story, and the DLC story with Riley, would be shown as filler episodes released between the first and second season, and we would have a couple more episodes to flesh out the relationship between Joel and Ellie. But I get it. It's their first season and they had to do what they had to do. I just felt like the second half of the series was very rushed, and by the end, I'm not sure I totally buy into the relationship between Joel and Ellie as portrayed on screen. Other than that, the only thing I hated about the show was the stupid Kathleen storyline. Don't get it. Didn't need to see it. It didn't add anything to Sam and Henry's story from the game and actually distracted from it imo. Overall, it was well done, and I'm just glad that more people get to see this story now, but there's definitely room for improvement. There's a whole lot more story to explore in Part II, and I'm really excited to see how they tackle that monumental task in future seasons.

1. Episode 3
2. Episode 2
3. Episode 1
4. Episode 8
5. Episode 7
6. Episode 9
7. Episode 5
8. Episode 6
9. Episode 4

 

[Gone]

It doesn't feel like an HBO show. There's something missing.

It's good but I expected a way better final product.

 

[WoJ]

I would definitely watch it if you are a fan of the game. Its the best game adaptation in my opinion. People who don't know the game seem to enjoy it too.


What about

Spoiler

Bill's letter to Joel? I think it had a lot to do with the central themes of the show.

As someone who dislikes episode 3 I think falling back on Bill's letter as some saving grace of that episode is weak sauce. For one, I think 99% of viewers don't even remember it by the end of the series and don't attribute that letter as having anything to do with Joel's relationship with Ellie.

I also don't think the letter is meaningful because it's made pretty clear Joel and Bill aren't exactly besties. They had a relationship out of necessity in a bleak world and had mutual interests in helping provide each other with things they couldn't otherwise obtain. I don't think it is terribly realistic that Joel would read that letter and would have a change of heart. Plus at that point in their journey Joel and Ellie haven't even grown attached to each other. I don't find it particularly believable that the letter would have stuck with Joel for the duration of their journey.

I know I'm in the minority, but nothing about that episode works. I'd have found it more believable of they cut the love story in half and spent half the episode with Joel and Ellie having some type of actual interaction with Frank and Bill (or just Bill) and then had some event occurred where Joel actually saw the impact of Frank on Bill and/or vice versa. As it stands it just isn't believable to me.

 

[The Fartist]

Episode 3 could've used more sex scenes, maybe showing it actually go in, but yeah it was the best episode, 9 out of 10 penises, for me.

 

[MackeyHA]

Is this poll serious? Episode 3?

 

[Spukc]

Is this poll serious? Episode 3?

tell us all about it

 

[normalguy09x]

Episode 7 for me. But to my absolute shock, episode 3 has the most votes. Not that episode 3 was bad. But it didn't follow the events of the game as well as all the other episodes did.

 

[VulcanRaven]

I would say that I enjoyed the series, but as someone who has played both games multiple times, I didn't find most of it revolutionary or anything. The acting performances were all great, with a couple of exceptions. Pedro Pascal is a great Joel, but Bella Ramsey is the standout. Weirdly, the guy who played David is the only downgrade from the game imo, in terms of acting. Marlene too, although I know it was the same person. I feel like she just didn't have the chops to bring it back on screen so yeah...sorry if that's harsh. Production design on this show was insane, just the incredible details they had in the sets alone. Makeup deserves all the awards. VFX needed a bit more help though...

There were some pacing issues for sure. Yes, the third episode is a cinematic masterpiece, and just hits on every single level, but it was also quite jarring within the context of the rest of the show. In a perfect world, Bill and Frank's story, and the DLC story with Riley, would be shown as filler episodes released between the first and second season, and we would have a couple more episodes to flesh out the relationship between Joel and Ellie. But I get it. It's their first season and they had to do what they had to do. I just felt like the second half of the series was very rushed, and by the end, I'm not sure I totally buy into the relationship between Joel and Ellie as portrayed on screen. Other than that, the only thing I hated about the show was the stupid Kathleen storyline. Don't get it. Didn't need to see it. It didn't add anything to Sam and Henry's story from the game and actually distracted from it imo. Overall, it was well done, and I'm just glad that more people get to see this story now, but there's definitely room for improvement. There's a whole lot more story to explore in Part II, and I'm really excited to see how they tackle that monumental task in future seasons.

1. Episode 3
2. Episode 2
3. Episode 1
4. Episode 8
5. Episode 7
6. Episode 9
7. Episode 5
8. Episode 6
9. Episode 4

I thought the effects were great. There were some odd looking green screen shots here and there but I was very impressed. I didn't liked the bloater scene and I wish they didn't replace the practical suit with cgi but it was well done.

 

[VulcanRaven]

I rewatched episode 7 and it was better this time around. I think I might rank it above episode 5 now. Its a perfect adaptation of the Left Behind DLC. It did have some bad cgi when they were jumping on the rooftops.