Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)

[Johnny Novgorod]

I mean, in this episode we literally have Joel say 'Because I love you' to Ellie; a thing that I'm sure nearly everyone watching ISN'T confused about.

A thing that Ellie wouldn't be confused about either. It's not a revelation anymore than Joel telling her what "really" happened at the hospital.

The whole episode exists to reinforce stuff that both Ellie and the audience - gamers and non gamers included - already know about them. In the game the porch scene happens near the end and works as a final twist on the nature of Ellie's rampage.

I feel like the show isn't working towards any kind of emotional oomph anymore.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I feel like the show isn't working towards any kind of emotional oomph anymore.

It can't, because Ellie's section is very lacking in plot. Once they enter Seatle it's really just looking for some people, Dina revealing she's pregnant, and Jessie showing up. It's then capped off with Abby paying a surprise visit and shooting Jessie. The reason they put Ellie and Dina's romantic build-up in Seatle instead of before is to have somekind of plot progression, because without it there would've seriously not been anything that happened, even if they included Jordan and that one dead girl they find at the TV station.

The next season will likely fair much better since Abby's section actually has plot.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It can't, because Ellie's section is very lacking in plot. Once they enter Seatle it's really just looking for some people, Dina revealing she's pregnant, and Jessie showing up. It's then capped off with Abby paying a surprise visit and shooting Jessie. The reason they put Ellie and Dina's romantic build-up in Seatle instead of before is to have somekind of plot progression, because without it there would've seriously not been anything that happened, even if they included Jordan and that one dead girl they find at the TV station.

The next season will likely fair much better since Abby's section actually has plot.

I mean both "have plot", it's just that Abby's half feels busier because her goals keep changing.

At first her goal is to find Owen, which she does. Other than a rather subdued love triangle between her, Owen and Mel, and the Israel-Palestine thing in the background, I'd say she's firmly back in plotless territory - she's not really trying to do anything - until she decides to go back to help out Yara and Lev out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

In a continuation of that, she now has to go find meds for Yara.

Then she decides to go rescue Lev before he wins a frankly long overdue Darwin Award.

Then she decides to go avenge Owen/Mel.

Then she decides to co-opt Owen's original plan of sailing to Santa Barbara with Lev in tow.

Compare Abby's checklist of fetch quests and changing priorities to Ellie's Gotta Kill 'Em All campaign, which isn't exactly plotless - she too has a love triangle of her own, and the show amplifies the IDF/Palestine thing in her background too - it's just she's more focused than Abby. Her plot "progresses" by spiraling into anger and misery, which we haven't seen because she has yet to kill more than two people - one in self-defense - or alienate Dina from her. I think the show's also missing a trick by either ignoring or deleting Tommy's rampage.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I mean both "have plot", it's just that Abby's half feels busier because her goals keep changing.

At first her goal is to find Owen, which she does. Other than a rather subdued love triangle between her, Owen and Mel, and the Israel-Palestine thing in the background, I'd say she's firmly back in plotless territory - she's not really trying to do anything - until she decides to go back to help out Yara and Lev out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

In a continuation of that, she now has to go find meds for Yara.

Then she decides to go rescue Lev before he wins a frankly long overdue Darwin Award.

Then she decides to go avenge Owen/Mel.

Then she decides to co-opt Owen's original plan of sailing to Santa Barbara with Lev in tow.

Compare Abby's checklist of fetch quests and changing priorities to Ellie's Gotta Kill 'Em All campaign, which isn't exactly plotless - she too has a love triangle of her own, and the show amplifies the IDF/Palestine thing in her background too - it's just she's more focused than Abby. Her plot "progresses" by spiraling into anger and misery, which we haven't seen because she has yet to kill more than two people - one in self-defense - or alienate Dina from her. I think the show's also missing a trick by either ignoring or deleting Tommy's rampage.

I'm not saying it's a good plot, but things happen, Abby meets with characters, goes to places with a specific goal. Even Owen and Mel feel like they have more agency compared to Dina and Jessie who just follow along with whatever Ellie wants. Abby also benefits from meeting new characters and having a new relationship form (depended on how the adaptation handles it), and between enemies, which while simple tends to create a nice engaging foundation.

And Ellie's spiral into anger and misery pretty much begins and ends before she even leaves Jackson, what with her going on a suicide mission and taking Dina along. Nothing honestly happens with her descent wise other than being mad at Dina a bit for being pregnant, hitting Nora with a pipe, and not going with Jessie to help out Tommy. As for her only having killed two people in the show so far not adding to this spiral, in the game she'll only have killed three people by this point (Jordan, Vita Girl, and Nora) if you don't count everyone she merced during gameplay, which the game surely doesn't. Somehow her killing Nora and Mel impact her greatly(ish) within the sea of bodies she left in her wake for some reason. Almost like the game needed to account for every non-scripted encounter in which you can just sneak by or run away from enemies.

And not having Tommy there might get rid of that pretty good sniper scene, though knowing the show they'll probably find some way of having Tommy taking potshots at Abby in Season 3. I never cared for Tommy being stupid and leaving his wife anyway, so them changing that is no great loss to me. I'm not expecting every setpiece from Abby's section to make it in the season though, which is honestly a large part of what made her section as good as it was, and the ones we do get likely won't look as good as they did in the game.

 

[Samos205]

Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 7
Wish World

This episode was pretty good, overall. It was weird, but the good kinda weird for the most part.
There was some sub plot about disabled people not being seen or something. Idfk, I found those parts boring and didn't really pay close enough attention, not that it matters because they seemingly had no bearing on the plot other than saying "Conrad doesn't like disabled people", but that doesn't even really go anywhere or do anything so I don't know what the point was other than try make him seem 'evil'?
Oh yeah, Conrad's back. Unfortunately. I'll be honest in the 10-15 minutes between finihshing the episode and writing this, I've already forgotten what the whole point of him being the person making the wish, was.
There was something about bringing back Omega, but like the Rani, I'm not familiar enough with classic Who to really know enough about who he is and why he's the big bad.
They brought back Rogue from the 'totally not Bridgerton' episode from the previous season. I didn't watch that episode, and I don't like what little I saw of Rogue outside the episode. I didn't like him then, and I still don't like him now.
I also don't care for the doctors gay romance.
I still don't care for Belinda.
I still don't like Mrs. Flood.

But what did I like?
The Rani's leather jacket is kinda cool. And her wedge boots.
The weird bone creatures were pretty cool.
We finally get to see a proper sonic screwdriver and not the doctors flip-flop remote.
The visuals towards the end were great, and likely explain where all the Disney money ended up. Maybe they should have use it to hire some good writers instead though.
And we finally got some sort of pay-off to the doctor sprinkling salt at the edge of the universe during the anniversary specials. At-least indirectly, and maybe it's just my interpretation of her choice of words
Side tangent; We still don't have any pay-off for who took the Toymakers golden tooth containing the master, at the end of the anniversary specials.

The only relevant video on TLoU Season 2.

I like how Shimmers disappearance, and subsequent fate, has become interesting than the show itself
#SaveShimmer

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Finished Andor Season 2. I'd say it retains the same level of base quality as the first season, but lacks the same highs. The heist, the prison break, the escape from Ferrix. There's not really anything in season 2 that comes close to those payoffs.

But man is it fucking good to see some actual fucking effort put into Star Wars again. The sets, the VFX, the costumes, the props. Fucking fantastic. OldHunter mentioned that he couldn't see the show having so much praise if it wasn't a Star Wars property. Which is true in a way, but I argue that you can't just wave away the fact that this is in the Star Wars universe. There was so much effort put into not compromising on this being set in a science fantasy universe, which leads to an experience that not many other shows can compare to.

 

[laggyteabag]

Finished Andor Season 2. I'd say it retains the same level of base quality as the first season, but lacks the same highs. The heist, the prison break, the escape from Ferrix. There's not really anything in season 2 that comes close to those payoffs.

But man is it fucking good to see some actual fucking effort put into Star Wars again. The sets, the VFX, the costumes, the props. Fucking fantastic.

I feel the same way about Season 2. The moment-to-moment was still really good, but I feel like it is definitely missing a lot of those really powerful moments, aside from Ghorman.

If I had one major criticism though, I think it is pretty sad that Bix was just kind of relegated to being a housewife this season.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I feel the same way about Season 2. The moment-to-moment was still really good, but I feel like it is definitely missing a lot of those really powerful moments, aside from Ghorman.

If I had one major criticism though, I think it is pretty sad that Bix was just kind of relegated to being a housewife this season.

I agree we could have seen more of her and Cassian doing a big espionage. She was an active member of Axis for like 10 minutes on screen, probably less.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Last of Us S2 Finale

I have only two things to say about the final episode.

1) As Ellie's sailing towards the aquarium, the show invents a scene where a tidal wave throws her off course and, rather incredibly, ends up washing ashore Scar Island instead, where a bunch of Seraphites capture her, set her up for a good old fashioned lynching (like the one Abby survives) and then abandon her when the village falls under attack... all this so Ellie can go back to the boat and carry on to the aquarium like nothing happened. Because nothing did.

I guess this was the episode's ironic answer to earlier when Ellie angrily confronted Jesse about the WLF murdering kids. Here it's a Scar kid that gives her away. And when Ellie pleads with them, the kid basically signs off on her execution. But I don't believe this alone accounts for such a pointless sidetracking.

2) I just don't like how sterilized every aspect of the show feels next to the game's. The story requires Ellie to do some horrendous things and go down some very dark places. The show follows the same beats but every step has been sanitized and sterilized so Ellie will maintain a moral high ground that she definitely couldn't claim in the game.

We start off by having her clarify she didn't personally kill Nora - bullshit she didn't - which lessens even further the impact of actually watching her torture, and resets the body count to just that one dude at the radio station.

Then she gets all high and mighty to Jesse about stepping in to save a random Scar they see getting captured by half a dozen WLF. Jesse talks sense to Ellie and stops her from getting herself killed over a rando, which she would, going by the fact the show depicts her as rash, stupid and mostly inexperienced in combat. But more importantly, why would she give a shit?

Later Jesse buries the axe and tells Ellie he went back for her because she would go back for him in a heartbeat. Uh, no she wouldn't. Not if she's hunting down Abby. Which she was, around the time Jesse went back for Tommy. You know who didn't go back for him? Ellie.

When she finally makes it to the aquarium there's no doggo for her to slaughter, because that would be it for the character's likeability. In the game by now you've been killing dogs for days and of course it's sad but you get tricked into getting over it because it makes combat encounters significantly easier. No such trickery here.

Then we get to the triple kill scene, which unfolds in the meekest way possible: Owen reaches for a comically obvious "hidden" gun and Ellie fires a single bullet in self defense that somehow goes through both Owen and Mel (and the locker behind them). As Mel lies dying she reveals that she's pregnant and tries talking a weeping Ellie into carving the baby out of her belly. Ellie doesn't, Mel dies, same difference - but crucially, Mel's death is now a freak accident, and Ellie makes a weak attempt at saving the baby.

So in a nutshell, the show makes every possible effort to lessen the impact of every moment, absolve Ellie of just about all of her actions and refuses to compromise her moral superiority - while also trying to tell the same story about people doing horrible things for the right reasons. Everything is softer, lighter, sterilized, sanitized.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 7

Defintely one of the better episodes, though a lot of that is the production value of the storm scenes. And that's honestly one of the main reasons that makes both seasons of this show just never hit as well as it should - the fact that visually it always looks a little flat and cheap. But in this episode you really feel the size of this storm as it's beating down on the whole city. Whenever the show decides to go full CGI it ends up looking far better than most of the live-action. Maybe this is my gamer brain, or maybe this is the show generally being very mid at actually shooting live-action.

As for the rest of the episode, I do like how pissed off Jessie is at Ellie most of the time, and how it's revealed he actually voted no at that council meeting. In the game the dude is such a fucking doormat, but here he actually stands up for himself and doesn't let Ellie walk all over him.

We get a scene that I thought was going to lead to a very significant change, and I was extremely eager to see where this went. We see Ellie get in the boat to get to the aquarium like in the game, and then we see a giant wave pitch her over like in the game, but then we see her boat (with her in it) get swepped all the way to the Seraphite island... NOT like in the game. And Ellie gets captured by the Seraphites and prepared to be hanged. I was anticipating maybe Abby showing up or someone, something that would really change up the events from the game... but then they just let Ellie go when the village alarms go off and Ellie returns to the boat and heads to the aquarium again. What the fuck was even the point of that?! You went somewhere show, somewhere different. You had actually genuinely peaked my interest for the first time this season, and then you piss it away. *sigh*

I actually think the whole scene at the aquarium works well enough. Ellie doesn't kill Alice the dog (the dog doesn't even show up), but then that scene in the game was handled very poorly anyway - You are forced to kill it in a QTE, afterwards Ellie says "stupid dog". Eventhough Ellie killed dogs before this without any remarks from her at all, NOW she says something to highlight how bad it is she killed this dog, because it's a plot dog. It was dumb. The show could've fixed this, I guess, but as is I didn't miss it.

The scene with Owen and Mell... Again, the game did it so stupidly that it's hard for me to judge this adaptation as a downgrade or an upgrade. I'd say it's at the same level quality wise, it just depends on whether you really wanted the viciousness of the game or not. I will say it makes more sense in the show that Ellie is upset she killed a pregnant woman seeing as she doesn't have a body count nearing a hundred yet. In the game she's all distraught eventhough she probably killed a few pregnant women already (not to mention the dozens of people who had families and children), but now it's too far?

Ellie trying to cut the baby out of Mel I thought was going to get actually nasty, Fury Road style, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Them actually ending this season on a cut to black as Abby seemingly fires a shot at Ellie is either really ballsy or really desperate to keep people watching. I know technically it ends with Abby Day One, but that might as well have been an end credits scene - People are going to remember that cut to black.

Overall this season was quite weak, but then without the production value and gameplay of the game all it had to go on was the story, which is shit, and in Ellie's campaign was very light in plot as it is. So unless they had someone like Alfonso Cuarón directing every episode, this was always going to flounder.

 

[Casual Shinji]

We start off by having her clarify she didn't personally kill Nora - bullshit she didn't - which lessens even further the impact of actually watching her torture, and resets the body count to just that one dude at the radio station.

Considering Nora was infected and in a nearly completely secluded place with broken legs, I don't think Ellie leaving her alive is supposed to make Ellie look better than if she had killed her. The people who turn into zombies in this world don't actually die, so Nora is going to be spending the next couple of decades zombifying in a basement. And I'm sure Ellie knows this.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Considering Nora was infected and in a nearly completely secluded place with broken legs, I don't think Ellie leaving her alive is supposed to make Ellie look better than if she had killed her. The people who turn into zombies in this world don't actually die, so Nora is going to be spending the next couple of decades zombifying in a basement. And I'm sure Ellie knows this.

I know it's a fate worse than death and all that, it just annoyed me that she felt the need to clarify that at all. In the game she's too horrified to go into specifics, and we never find out how exactly the torture went or how the hell did she get Nora, who has nothing to lose, to betray her friends. Explaining that she got two loose nonsense words out of her "because she was turning" feels out of character - Ellie wouldn't feel the need to clarify - it also makes it sound it was that more than anything Ellie did to her. It also means that she had some measure of control over herself as she was beating Nora to death, which is definitely not what it looks like when we cut away from her in the game. But then again the show doesn't and gives us a look just long enough to lessen the intensity of what's going on.

It's a nitpick and it wouldn't make the cut in a Top 20 Adaptation Betrayals (You Won't Believe Number 6). Just another thing that took me out of the moment and made it weaker in comparison.

The show can fumble something as simple as a cut to black. Having the POV switch with Ellie screaming for her life and throwing in a gunshot sound is the kind of cheap I'd expect from an 80s telenovela. Again, little things like that show the people making the series don't trust their own thing. I also don't think rewinding three days and ending on Abby is the cliffhanger that will bring audiences back to the show.

Speaking of which, apparently the intention is to make three seasons out of Part 2? Are they supposed to drag out Santa Barbara for a final season?

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Rehearsal season 2

Your resident Nathan Fielder fanboy is here to report that after a wonderful takeoff, the second season sticks the landing better than I could have hoped.

WAKE ME UP INSIDE

The last scene haunted me. The big reveal of the last episode was one of the all-time great TV history moments. Fielder is an insane genius.

edit: oh yeah, Last of Us. It's fine- not as good as season 1 IMO but I "blame" the games for that, and I say this is the last person who loved the second game. It's just that the nature of the plot or the structure made the second season feel more like I'm watching myself play the game again, where the first season mostly felt like just a damn good TV show, and I always prefer adaptations to be their own thing. Season 2 was still a fun watch.

> Everything is softer, lighter, sterilized, sanitized.
Yeah well maybe they subconsciously listened to everybody whining about how the second game/season story was all about misery porn or whatever? One of those common complaints I never understood or agreed with, but if I'm in the minority here than perhaps the show runners were sensitive to that.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Started Poker Face. A young woman with an impeccable ability to tell when people are lying inexplicably finds herself entangled in multiple murders whilst roadtripping and effectively living out of her car.

I'm along for the ride, but after episode 3, I'm firmly in the camp that anyone who finds themselves stumbling upon murders at every stop on the road, and they're not a detective being paid to do it, I'd settle somewhere and stay away from everyone. Recommended if only because I can't explain the attraction I have to Natasha Lyonne and that signature mop of red hair; she is text book "friends with benefits" material.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I know it's a fate worse than death and all that, it just annoyed me that she felt the need to clarify that at all. In the game she's too horrified to go into specifics, and we never find out how exactly the torture went or how the hell did she get Nora, who has nothing to lose, to betray her friends. Explaining that she got two loose nonsense words out of her "because she was turning" feels out of character - Ellie wouldn't feel the need to clarify - it also makes it sound it was that more than anything Ellie did to her. It also means that she had some measure of control over herself as she was beating Nora to death, which is definitely not what it looks like when we cut away from her in the game. But then again the show doesn't and gives us a look just long enough to lessen the intensity of what's going on.

It's a nitpick and it wouldn't make the cut in a Top 20 Adaptation Betrayals (You Won't Believe Number 6). Just another thing that took me out of the moment and made it weaker in comparison.

This for me falls into 'criticizing an adaptation of something that already didn't make much sense'. Like most of this season, really. In the game, why does her torturing Nora, which seemingly consists of Ellie hiting her with a pipe, shock Ellie so much after having already slaughtered dozens of people? Why is Ellie still in shock after having made her way back from the hospital? (Remember how long it took for Ellie to get there from the theater?) Why is Ellie still covered in presumably Nora's blood after having trekked the whole way back through the rain? The game has so much of these 'the character is now here, because the plot demands it' moments.

There's been a lot of criticism this season of Ellie not behaving the way she should for someone who wants revenge, but then it never made sense for Ellie to even set out for revenge to begin with.

The show can fumble something as simple as a cut to black. Having the POV switch with Ellie screaming for her life and throwing in a gunshot sound is the kind of cheap I'd expect from an 80s telenovela. Again, little things like that show the people making the series don't trust their own thing. I also don't think rewinding three days and ending on Abby is the cliffhanger that will bring audiences back to the show.

Speaking of which, apparently the intention is to make three seasons out of Part 2? Are they supposed to drag out Santa Barbara for a final season?

It should've obviously been one long season encompassing the whole game, but I'm guessing they weren't given the budget and/or release window for that by Warner.

If they're only given 7 episodes again for Season 3 I can understand wanting maybe a 4th. Because it would mean needing to do Abby's entire campaign, Ellie and Dina at the farm, Abby and Lev getting captured, and Ellie finding Abby in Santa Barbara all with those 7 episodes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

If they're only given 7 episodes again for Season 3 I can understand wanting maybe a 4th. Because it would mean needing to do Abby's entire campaign, Ellie and Dina at the farm, Abby and Lev getting captured, and Ellie finding Abby in Santa Barbara all with those 7 episodes.

I think if they had the money and quarterly reports weren't the lodestar of the streaming business model they could absolutely adapt the remainder of the story in another season. Maybe make it one or two episodes longer and with a 70-80 minute finale.

I also think waiting 2 years just to experience season 2 again from a different perspective, now with even less Pedro Pascal and only to end back to where we left off 2 years ago, is not going to be an exceedingly handsome proposition for most viewers, and ending that on another cliffhanger is not gonna play well either.

I realize most of these issues are inherent to the game's story/structure, but the streaming model only exacerbates them. And without even getting into the writing, I think the mocap actors delivered a better, more nuanced performance than their live-action counterparts.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I realize most of these issues are inherent to the game's story/structure, but the streaming model only exacerbates them. And without even getting into the writing, I think the mocap actors delivered a better, more nuanced performance than their live-action counterparts.

If we're only talking Joel and Ellie, it makes sense since Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson have a lot of experience shaping their voice to match a character. Though Bella Ramsey also did the voice of Hilda in Hilda and they were pretty good there. I think they also have some experience in singing. With Ramsey I feel them trying to suppress the extremely thick Bristish accent they have resulted in a lot of pronunciations to fall a lot heavier than they would've otherwise. You hear them speak in interviews and heir voice sounds a lot more melodic. I know it wouldn't have made much sense, but something tells me Bella Ramsey's Ellie would've worked better if they were allowed to act in their original accent.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Murderbot, first two episodes

Wife and I checked out a couple episodes of AppleTV's new sci-fi comedy. Alexander Skaarsgaard is a security android at a research colony where the humans are this universe's version of crunchy granola libs. Murderbot gives himself that name after he figures out how to override the programming that forces him to obey humans. So it's kind of an I, Robot situation I guess, but played for laughs and the presumable learning to be human arc.

It relies very heavily on his internal narration and so far a lot of this humor is around his disdain for and confusion about human behavior. Unfortunately, there really aren't strong jokes per se so it's relying on vibes, whether on purpose or as a result of the weak material, and the vibes just aren't enough for us right now. I think a sci-fi comedy should also have some strong visual gags and this one doesn't, really.

Similar to AppleTV's other sci-fi comedy Sonny, also with a robot. Both are decent ideas, good casts, strong potential, but just not really delivering on something hah-hah funny or genuinely interesting.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

‘The Last Of Us’ Season 2 Created A New Ellie Out Of Thin Air

HBO’s The Last of Us has invented an entirely new Ellie for season 2 that didn’t exist in the (much better) season 1 and certainly did not exist in the games at all.

www.forbes.com

By this point, it’s deeply weird that show Ellie has killed barely anyone. One guard, I think. She left someone to die and accidentally killed two other people this week. Yes, it’s true that in a video game, you’re murdering dozens and dozens of people in levels, and while that’s not necessary here, this Ellie has lost almost all teeth outside of maybe the Nora spore scene that was the one instance she felt like game Ellie for about 90 seconds. Ellie did not kill Owen and Mel by accident in the game. She shot Owen dead and stabbed Mel in the neck.

Again, it didn’t have to be this way. There was footage released before this season showing Ramsey in intense ballistic fight training, and even if that extra height wasn’t happening, Ramsey could have been unleashed in a much more game-like fashion instead of being forced to bumble through this storyline like it’s the Goonies.

Because Ellie is the way she is, that’s also had a ripple effect on the characters around her. Jessie is not a huge jerk to her in the game. When Dina learns what Joel did she still supports Ellie, and doesn’t turn away from her. The exact opposite of what happened here.

The show has been obsessed with keeping Ellie likable as a lead when the game is supposed to be much more complicated than that. They have also made her come across as impossibly dumb, an idiot kid setting out on a stupid revenge quest relying on Dina to make it less stupid as she’s incapable of planning anything. And she’s not even good at the actual revenge part.

 

[Bartholen]

After watching all the comments here and some postmortem analysis of TLoU season 2, I'm glad I didn't pick up HBO for it. This was a unique chance in the history of adaptational storytelling to fix the mistakes of the original, and in doing so not only eclipse it, but possibly redeem it as well. And they just didn't. Since I haven't watched the season, all I can say is this: why is everything and everyone so goddamn clean!? Merely watching out of context clips between the show and the game the issue is glaring: buildings have immaculate paint, clothes look fresh off the rack, people look well groomed and washed. Compare that with the game and the difference is night and day, and dare I say core to the atmosphere of absolute misery it aims to create. In the game people are bruised, dirty and unkempt, their clothes are worn, faded and have holes in them, and the environments are in total ruin. Environmental storytelling is key in any post-apocalypse story, because that's what those stories are ultimately about. And if you fail to sell the environment, you're just left with people bumbling around a tourist attraction set.

This is a high-budget, high-profile HBO show about one of the biggest and most infamously controversial games of all time. Whyyyy does it look this cheap?

I'm truly taken aback by what I'm about to say, but I'm not kidding: this season is making me want to replay the game to experience the story again. What. The. Fuck?