The Last of Us 1x03 Reaction
Added 2023-02-27 23:50:13 +0000 UTCouch
Comments
It's actually ridiculous how well made this episode is. To bring this much emotion out of me from two new characters is crazy.
Trent_88
2023-03-07 16:16:22 +0000 UTCWhat's funny is that all of Orr's nonsense arguments hold very true for Episode 4. Episode 4's budget is very small in comparison to other episodes - maybe 20% of Episode 3. It's more of a classic filler and advances the plot very little. And the production crew specifically moved the location from the game (Pittsburgh) to Kansas City, for the specific reason that it would cost much less to recreate Kansas City on film. Their shoot location of Calgary would have had to have been heavily digitally manipulated to be a believable Pittsburgh.
Michael M
2023-03-01 14:24:43 +0000 UTCYou're not giving the creators enough credit. These are professionals with decades of experience under their belt. They knew what they were doing and they knew beforehand what the reaction of the audience will be and they prepared to counter it accordingly.
Orr Malus
2023-03-01 08:21:05 +0000 UTCExactly! It’s silly to say the writers are focusing on gay characters to avoid criticism when this episode is actually the worst rated on most sites because of hate review bombing, the business insider article literally said “But the second-largest share of ratings — behind a perfect 10 — are a 1.” And you can clearly see it too! Besides you have to admit there’s no good reason to give this episode a 1/10 no matter how much it ‘bored’ you
BNichols1235
2023-03-01 06:38:55 +0000 UTCMy guy, I'm not sure why linking to articles pointing out that some people are review bombing is supposed to prove your point. Like, a ton of the comments in the first link are people crying over the gay aspect of it. I didn't even have to scroll down to see them. There literally are plenty of homophobes getting mad, so I'm not sure why you think accurate calls of homophobia are meant to be "dismissing criticism". You're assuming that the episode was *written* to save money (despite having no way to know that), and assuming that the writers are using the fact that Bill is gay as a way to dismiss criticism. Which, again, makes *no* sense, and is a statement you cannot possibly back up. Like, all you're claiming to know about why something was written makes it sound like you were in that writer's room. Did you hear Craig Manzin clap his hands together and say: "I know how to save money and escape criticism! An intimate and more character focused episode where Bill and Frank are openly gay instead of that just being alluded to through letters and vague dialogue! You know no one out there will be mad seeing two men kiss, there's no vocal hate groups online or anything. Oh and make sure to have a whole sequence with fire and an attack by raiders in this episode that we're saving money on too. And a really big and detailed set while we're at it. OH, and an actress whose character already died even though that means we will have to pay her for another appearance." All of these assumptions about the writing and why it happened, instead of just accepting the much simpler truth: that the writers saw an opportunity to show and not just tell us about Bill and Frank's relationship. That they considered what they wanted this to say thematically, and how it connects to Joel and Ellie's relationship, and made changes that felt right to them. That yes, it's less action and more character focused than what we saw with Bill in the original, but that's okay because unlike an action video game, the whole point of this show is its characters and themes. You don't have to like it, but don't make shit up about why it was written to justify it. Unless you were a fly on the wall, you don't know and can't claim to. And hell, even *if* this was intended from its conception to be an episode that was structured to help save money...why would that matter? Every show has to allocate their budget.
cosmotron
2023-03-01 01:29:48 +0000 UTC@Myeh, What makes you think that I haven't watched this show? I did watch this reaction, not sure why I have to prove wherever or not I've watched this episode? Seems bizarre. Either way, Malus is right - all of you are just unnecessarily salty. The man didn't like the episode, and everyone's having a meltdown over it and trying to force him to conform to your views / install the idea that he SHOULD like the episode - it's absolutely cringe. Can't some of you Anime fanatics get over the fact that not everyone enjoys the same episode as you? Also, he's absolutely right about the budget being surpassed - this is just some tribalism culture going on here with everyone trying to gang up on the bloke for him having some alternative views - it's pathetic. Damn, there's some straight up salt in this comment section - keep up the good work Malus.
Dustywood
2023-03-01 01:06:16 +0000 UTC@cosmotron audience reaction from people who played the game: https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-last-of-us/season-1/episode-3-long-long-time/user-reviews?dist=negative press reaction to the reaction from people who played the game: https://www.businessinsider.com/hbos-the-last-of-us-episode-three-review-bombed-homophobic-2023-1 cosmotron's hot take: "(...)And that’s a ridiculous statement to make, with absolutely nothing to back it up." To reiterate: this is a filler episode, it was done to save money, they completely went off script from the original action-packed, intense, and dramatic, introduction of Bill (which I was looking forward to), they worked in the filler with Bill's character because he's gay (as it was already canon) and they knew they could just dismiss any criticism as "homophobia". If you played the game, expect more deviation from the source material in the future.
Orr Malus
2023-02-28 22:56:51 +0000 UTC@Myeh To evangelize us savages about how to properly argue on the internet. Lol, the dude is straight Looney Tunes.
Michael M
2023-02-28 20:40:11 +0000 UTC@Dustywood Why did you even insert yourself into this conversation, you haven't watched the show...
Myeh
2023-02-28 19:47:35 +0000 UTC@Dustywood Original comment says: It's the "we ran out of money because of the first 2 episodes so let's just show 2 dudes play house on a repurposed set" episode. "You see, because they're gay, if anyone complains or compares it to the terrible season 2 of The Walking Dead we just call them homophobic". That second part absolutely implies that they are saying the focus on gay characters was done to avoid criticism/call anyone who criticizes this episode homophobic. And that’s a ridiculous statement to make, with absolutely nothing to back it up. So yeah, we’re calling them out on saying shit like that, because it makes no sense.
cosmotron
2023-02-28 17:58:11 +0000 UTC@Joe H Bill was gay in the game as well. The part where we meet Bill is pretty action packed. He lived in a decrepit large town full of infected. He needed Joel's help to cut through all the zombies to get to Frank.
Orr Malus
2023-02-28 17:52:15 +0000 UTCI don’t want to throw the whole fandom under the bus, most of my experiences with it are very much great, met a lot of my online friends through it and it’s overall a great community to be a part of…but as always it only takes a small group to just completely ruin it and give it a very bad reputation (which honestly i can’t argue against because as small of a group as the toxic part of the fandom is the harm they do is very much evident)
Kara the gamer girl from Mars
2023-02-28 13:07:23 +0000 UTCMan people really suck sometimes it’s like you’d have to be intentionally missing important parts of the game to ignore that Bill is gay, sure originally it wasn’t clearly written that he was but William Earl Brown’s performance was very much as Bill being a gay man, Neil Druckmann talked about it in the game commentary (you can find it on YouTube). It’s really disappointing to see the shity and homophobic side of The Last of us fandom is still as active as ever, i remember back when the Left Behind DLC came out and the reaction for Ellie being gay was just incredibly similar to what happened with the reviews to this episode and episode 7 (which I haven’t seen yet but I assume it adapts theLeft Behind part of the game). That was almost 10 years ago tho and I foolishly thought that things may have gotten better since then but apparently not 🤦♀️
Kara the gamer girl from Mars
2023-02-28 12:56:10 +0000 UTCSuch an amazing episode 😭
Cody Pavy
2023-02-28 12:43:36 +0000 UTCJust watching the intro where Lola says how this episode will not be "emotionally exhausting" ........ 😂
Yic17
2023-02-28 07:11:27 +0000 UTCWhat makes their marriage even more beautiful (and tragic) is that gay marriage wasn’t legalized in Massachusetts until 2004, which means the apocalypse happened before Frank and Bill could have legally married. With society gone, what are laws anyhow? I’m glad they got married at the end
My Toasty Toast
2023-02-28 05:42:59 +0000 UTCExcept, that's not what he said at all Joe - talk about completely misinterpreting his comment in order to justify your manifestation of an imagined scenario. Your quote "that the creators deliberately put gay characters in the story to avoid criticism", where did he say this? I mean seriously, scroll up and re-read what he wrote - at no point he said what you're implying here. Did he say that the show has gay characters to avoid criticism? No, that's just you creating a scenario out of nothing in order for you to justify your emotional stance. If anything, he's implying that criticism of this episode has resulted in people accusing others of being "homophobic" in order to dismiss other people's criticism - that's what he was saying. So, basically, you've generated this entire opinion / rant because of your initial misinterpretation of a comment that you could EASILY re-read if you had bothered - instead you're choosing to double down in this argument rather than confronting your self generated confusion so you can lash out insults without consequence.
Dustywood
2023-02-28 05:05:12 +0000 UTCIf you don't like the episode that's fine but so far the only actual points that have been made is that it didn't cost enough and that the creators deliberately put gay characters in the story to avoid criticism, neither of which are reasonable arguments to me. Anyway I'm done with these comments and won't be responding further.
Joe H
2023-02-28 05:00:32 +0000 UTC@Joe H - I looked it up myself, there's plenty of sources breaking down the expenses of the episodes, but if you compare it to shows like Breaking Bad that have had their episode expenses documented indepthly over the years, it's not a stretch to take those numbers at face value. However, on the same token, you have defended someone else's numbers which could also be arguably "thrown together", so I'm sensing a bit of hypocrisy within your comments. In terms of your second question, this is an open forum of comments, if you're upset by my comments then you have the ultimate choice to choose wherever or not to engage them, if you can't control your emotions then please don't use me as your vessel of blame. Again, my previous comments were only merely intended to try and encourage people to lay off the insults and just argue the subject matter separately.
Dustywood
2023-02-28 05:00:16 +0000 UTC@Hollow - Nothing wrong with it being a filler episode, and there's plenty of filler episodes out there that are considered high tier. For example, the fly episode of Breaking Bad was incredibly well written despite it being an absolute filler, but it doesn't mean the term "filler" is a bad thing. You can easily enjoy an episode while identifying that it's a filler, I think people perceive the term "filler" as a bad thing.
Dustywood
2023-02-28 04:54:28 +0000 UTC@Dustywood Except he hasn't, he's just thrown together some numbers completely unverified which you have taken as gospel, doesn't sound like a very intelligent approach to me. Also any chance you can stop acting like you're the teacher here? Nobody is under any obligation to explain anything to you and nobody asked you to (poorly) treat this as a teachable moment.
Joe H
2023-02-28 04:52:35 +0000 UTCIf you think this is a filler episode you 100% are missing the entire point of this story.
Hollow
2023-02-28 04:45:06 +0000 UTC@cosmorton - Earlier you lashed out at Malus here saying he's "talking out of his ass", but it appears he's brought up a reasonable argument so I'm curious wherever or not you've looked into the figures yourself here? According to online sources it's estimated each episode is almost 15 million per episode, so it's not a stretch to imply the budget was surpassed. Do you have any evidence to counter his claims other than suggesting he's talking out of his ass etc? Or are you going to acknowledge you overreacted a little prematurely here?
Dustywood
2023-02-28 04:38:48 +0000 UTCBut either way, they ran out of money because of episode one and two, they still nailed it with the 3rd.
Ulfway
2023-02-28 04:32:25 +0000 UTCThere we go, now we're back on the topic lads. To me it feels insane that they're spending upwards of 15 mill per episode. The average episode expense of a TV series is 2 mill per episode in the US. Breaking Bad for example according to online sources was roughly 3 million per episode. Considering the level of quality of Breaking Bad and being $3 mill per episode really does indicate some poor use of resource management from the producers of "The Last Of Us" if they're breaking 15 mill per episode. I can't wrap my head around those figures.
Dustywood
2023-02-28 04:31:07 +0000 UTCThey did well though with this episode. Truly is a shame that the only reason anyone could dislike this episode is either lack of action, and all the homo, I do think this ep was done well inspite of budgeting considerations. I understand scripts do revolve around the budget, it was the case with the game where the one of the devs himself stated they wanted to go this way but had to go the other way. But I want to believe they really wanted to take this direction caused I really do love this episode.
Ulfway
2023-02-28 04:28:37 +0000 UTCAlso love his anecdote about having a scheduling conflict he'd have to choose between. And his wife read the script and said something like "well, obviously you're going to Canada for this one!"
RocktSurgeon
2023-02-28 03:30:35 +0000 UTCEp3 is absolutely a drastic change from the game, but it's very much for the better. The game version is... Messy... Yes he's absolutely written to be gay in gamebbut it's in a way that it can be ignored by people that prefer to find reasons to hate. They tend to not believe in nuance or subtlety anyway. The game fans I've seen pretty unanimously seem to adore the change.
RocktSurgeon
2023-02-28 03:28:29 +0000 UTCI feel like mentioning repairing the furniture store is a kid to Offerman's woodworking. Also, in the strawberry scene Offerman was trying hard to make Frank break character- he's apparently very ticklish.
RocktSurgeon
2023-02-28 02:51:17 +0000 UTCThis was a beautiful episode. It's not a 'filler' episode. It's a self-contained one. There's a difference. It's one of my favorite episodes of any show I've seen in recent times.
Camzeee
2023-02-28 02:25:40 +0000 UTCyes, they sadly review bombed ep 7 too. actually i was wrong, ep 7 is now the lowest rated one with a 7'9, ep 3 is an 8. the other episodes' rating is a 9 more or less. with ep 3 they have the excuse it was not in the game (though i've seen videos and please, clearly bill was gay af in the games too). with ep 7 now they say the acting was mid, writing was bad and the pacing was off... they are just hateful for the sake of being hateful at this point.
sand_fl
2023-02-28 02:03:35 +0000 UTCReally, review bombing the 7th episode too? Hadn’t seen that yet but yeah I guess it’s yet another “shocked but not surprised” moment. Sickening. Episode 3 I saw the negative reactions coming but they are no less disgusting. It’s such a great portrayal of love, and honestly perfectly relatable for me as a straight cis guy to appreciate it.
RocktSurgeon
2023-02-28 01:53:32 +0000 UTCanyway, just finished the full and as expected my eyes hurt from crying again. but omg, someone give lola some fluids to keep her hydrated, she cried even more than i was expecting her to. lola needs a break, i feel like i've seen her cyy in 3 out of 5 videos lately 😂 not many scary moments this episode but i still laughed at milena's little jump and scream at the beginning.
sand_fl
2023-02-28 01:50:06 +0000 UTChahahahah I admire the commitment to pissing this Patreon community off no matter what show people are watching, honestly respect
Myeh
2023-02-28 01:32:35 +0000 UTCIt's the "we ran out of money because of the first 2 episodes so let's just show 2 dudes play house on a repurposed set" episode. "You see, because they're gay, if anyone complains or compares it to the terrible season 2 of The Walking Dead we just call them homophobic". You have to admire the brazenness.
Orr Malus
2023-02-28 01:25:55 +0000 UTCpoor lola :(, but yeah this episode was a masterpiece
Sebastian Ayala
2023-02-28 01:25:36 +0000 UTCYeah they're review bombing the last episode (7th) as well for I'm assuming "similar" reasons. Fuckin people... For the 3rd episode they were hiding behind the excuse of "reee it's different from the game" (even though it's a bullshit reason, it was an improvement upon the game). But what is their excuse for the 7th episode this time? As far as I know it's inline with the DLC.
enchantertim
2023-02-28 01:23:07 +0000 UTCYou could always use a thermos if you're worried about dropping your coffee because of a jump scare.
Zeiss
2023-02-28 01:04:20 +0000 UTCIn an interview Nick Offerman (Bill) said that "Frank is the flowers and Bill is the soil." I particularly like that analogy.
Michael M
2023-02-28 00:57:56 +0000 UTCThis episode is like a film.
うどん
2023-02-28 00:45:05 +0000 UTCthat song is by max Richter who did the music for the leftovers as well
T0ast
2023-02-28 00:29:45 +0000 UTC@RocktSurgeon yeah, i agree. they really know how to place the music in this show, i'll give them that. the soundtrack is amazing. on the nature of daylight has a special place in my heart and omg, i'm not exaggerating, the second i recognised the song i started ugly crying. the arrival scene is also perfect and aleays makes me cry too @Yic17 it's sadly true because so many people are saying it's about "the gay agenda"... sad to see. you go to imdb and see the ratings of the episodes. you see which ones are the ones that have the lower ratings? yeah, explains everything. and people have the audacity to say it's about the pacing, the acting or the writing when the truth is just they prefer to watch things without gay characters.
sand_fl
2023-02-28 00:28:28 +0000 UTCOn the review bombing note: Sad world we live in. Too many people still believe in some BS doctrines. Hopefully in 100 years that will no longer be the case.
Yic17
2023-02-28 00:21:57 +0000 UTCokay, i'm not that bright so i ended up pressing play and i'm already laughing about the "what could happen" bit and how they thught now they don't have to worry about it being emotionally exhausting, just about the horror.
sand_fl
2023-02-28 00:18:06 +0000 UTCOuch but also god I want this for me.
Anto
2023-02-28 00:15:38 +0000 UTCThat song… every time it’s used well it adds weight. For some reason I can’t really place I was thinking of Arrival just before it started and just dissolved when I did. I’ve seen that movie many times and it’s always just as heartbreaking. And this episode it was just as well used.
RocktSurgeon
2023-02-28 00:12:41 +0000 UTCOh boy, here we go. Been waiting for this.
Yic17
2023-02-28 00:11:19 +0000 UTCi have pms, i don't think i should watch this right now. my eyes would probably fall from crying. the first time i watched this i cried so much it gave me a headache. the second i heard the first note of 'on the nature of daylight' (the song that plays during bill and frank's last day) i started sobbing. now that song has made me cry horribly twice. first in arrival and now this. i can't believe this amazing eosiode got review bombed and is the one with lowest ratings on imdb.
sand_fl
2023-02-28 00:04:15 +0000 UTCHaha love the caption. The episode we've all been waiting for, we knew this one was gonna hurt ya.
Bryce
2023-02-27 23:53:16 +0000 UTC
