The Last of Us Episode 1 Recap Breakdown Review

[Music] foreign [Music] guy I'm Wes Chatham and this is my good friend Ty Frank say hello Ty hello Ty today we're going to do an episode we're going to try something a little bit different we have not done a current show and where we talk about it week to week like scuttlebutt like hanging out by the water cooler and having a conversation which is a thing that I love and I miss about the old days when you wouldn't just spin shows you would watch a show and then you would talk about it all week with your friends and but I don't think that we've really cared enough about a show up until now to do a week-to-week discussion and the show that we are going to discuss is a show called The Last of Us Tai is a big gamer and Ty I just want to you know start off and talking a little bit about the game and what your thoughts are I've never played the game last of us but like do you remember like the first time or when you heard about it and how you got involved in the game and what your thoughts were I mean when it when it first came out this was back in uh I believe the police station four days is when I first played it but when it first came out um or maybe even the PS3 it might even be even been the PS3 man a while ago it had a lot of hype it already had a lot of hype when when the game was coming out the early trailers for it had been very good it was it was one of those games that made a splash right out of the gate and uh I remember I remember buying it Brand This is How old it is I went to [ __ ] GameStop and bought it on a physical disk and played through the opening sequence there's kind of a little prologue that you play through do you remember what year this is I don't remember I don't remember what year it was like 2013. probably yeah it actually 2013 and it was the PS3 yeah yeah okay so so it was PS3 yeah and and playing through that little prologue and I got done with it I was like this might be the most cinematic video game I've ever played and it was it had real emotion to it it like like there's a gut punch at the end of this little I don't know half hour hour-long prologue that you play that really like it hit me I like I I you know I mean I play video games all the time and most of the time the supposed emotional payoff in the game kind of just bounces off of me but this actually worked and I remember as I was playing through it thinking this is like playing a movie or a TV show the story is is that good that you know where you're as you're playing through you're like this is a [ __ ] great story and wondering if anybody was like planning to do like a tie-in novel or any of that kind of stuff based on it so you know like uh I guess it was like a year and a half ago I saw in the trades that somebody was developing last of us as a TV show it was like so obvious like obviously they're making it a TV show it already was a TV show the game is a TV show and when I saw it was HBO doing it and especially Craig mazzin I was like this is going to be [ __ ] great because he he also made probably my favorite thing that has ever been on HBO so I was like when you take that talent and you combine it with that property something great is going to come out of that I remember you and I having a conversation one time and you were telling me what you love about games and you said that your love of games is really just your love of story and it's just another expression of story and so Last of Us was like a heavyweight story on top yeah weaved into a video game did it change the way video games were made from the going forward did they all feel more cinematic not really I mean I video games have have been becoming more cinematic anyway just because the graphics power is getting better and better and so you can really graphically make a cinematic moment in a way that older games couldn't so that's already true but what Last of Us did that was so unusual and I'm not saying they're the only game that's ever done this other games have done this too so I'm not I'm not trying to say that but the what Last of Us did is it it was very much a story first kind of game that that the most important thing about Last of Us was the story you were inhabiting and there's upsides and downsides to that the the downside to it is that player agency is tends to be low you know and a lot you know people always talk about like sandbox games like it's a Sandbox game you could do anything you want you could play any kind of game you want in this thing um I tend to get bored very quickly with those guys other people love them other people I love that Grand Theft Auto like but yeah that kind of game where it's like they give you a world they give you a set of rules to that world and the kind of character you can play and then you just do whatever you want uh you just run around and do whatever and and those games always also have a story but if you ignore that story you totally can like the game doesn't care if you just ignore the story I tend to get bored very quickly with those games because when the game tells me that nothing is important then I stop caring about the game um then there's the other end of the Spectrum which is very very heavily narrative games which uh Gamers will call games that are on Rails where you're playing through it you're inhabiting the character but most of the important decisions have already been made for you you know that that the important decisions happen in cut scenes where you have no control over the character Last of Us definitely is very far into the narrative driven type Story the thing that makes it work the thing that makes you care about it even though most of the important decisions in the game are not decisions that you are making is the story itself is so good that you don't care you just want to go along you just want to be there you want to see what's going to happen next you want to inhabit those characters and then the parts that are gameplay are interesting enough that it keeps you interested gameplay wise as well it was a it was an unusual combination of things that were both done extremely well and I almost everybody I know who played Last of Us loved it loved the [ __ ] out of it did you love the [ __ ] out of it oh yeah I I played through the game three times in spite of the fact that all three playthroughs were basically at exactly the same because you can't really change anything that happens in the larger story yeah I didn't care I just loved the game I'd love to play it through it now was the opening to the video game very similar to the opening of the movie was it as I mean the show was the show was the video game is fleshed out as the show was yes uh with one big difference so they added a scene at the very beginning of the first episode where there's these scientists in 1968 on a talk show talking about the dangers of mold as an infection yeah that's the only scene that they added yeah um the the way the show starts with it you know Joel going to work and his daughter Ellie giving him the watch as a present and you know his brother the character of his brother and uh everything going to [ __ ] and and what tragically happens to Ellie at the end of at the end of that little prologue thing that's all straight from the game like straight from the game wow how fleshed out I mean so before you start playing you watch the whole story play out or can you like skip it if you want to get to the action you can but I don't know anybody that does yeah I mean you get it because it's so good you know you talk about the 1968 you talk about the talk show when they talk about that fungus I think Craig Mason said the reason that they had that is really to kind of he was interested in the idea of like these pandemics are are there it's just the right conditions and like now everybody's more sophisticated in their understanding of uh pandemics and so we wanted to give a little information about that but those um quadriceps so have you ever heard of a man called uh Paul stamets the name is really familiar but I don't know why so I'm uh you know I'm uh you know I like the mushrooms right yeah I know on this podcast you have talked about almost going to prison in Puerto Rico right uh Costa Rica but I am a uh you know so I'm a fan well I read this book of um called how to change your mind by Michael Pollan and in the book he talks about this man named Paul stamis so then you get curious about this guy Paul stamets and this guy is is a man a brilliant man who's dedicated his life to the study of mushrooms and fungi and things that he has discovered and the way that he talks about mushrooms it blows my [ __ ] mind and one he tells the story this is how he fell in love with mushrooms he tells the story that when he was uh growing up he had a bad stammer he wasn't able to to finish a full sentence especially when he was talking to a girl and it really bothered him and he was in college and when he was in college he um bought for the first time a bag of mushrooms he was by himself and he didn't know how much to take or whatever so he ended up taking a heroic dose you know eating he ate the bag of mushrooms right wow and he said I ate all of his mushrooms uh by myself and there was a thunderstorm on the horizon so I climbed to the top of a tree like I completely lost all uh faculties of reasoning in the sense so he decided he wanted to risk getting hit by lightning yeah like he wasn't thinking what his thought was is everything is so beautiful right now that I want to get a closer look at the storm so he claw he climbed to the top of this tree during this massive thunderstorm and he watched the the thunderstorm from the top of a tree and he was he said it was it changed my life it changed the way I saw the world it changed everything next day at school he's walking to class and this girl comes up to him and this is a girl that he found particularly attractive and that he um and he started talking to her and he realized halfway through the conversation that his stammer was completely gone wow and it and it never returned and it did something to a synapse of something to his brain and so then he became obsessed with mushrooms well in that in his books or reading about his story is where I heard about these ants and the fungus and the cordyceps and the Ants and I remember there was like a BBC uh nature show like a long time ago that [ __ ] terrified me yeah it was like it's terrifying and they would get infected with this fungi the fungi would control the ant's mind yep and make them crawl up to the top of trees and then and and and it showed on the video the answer like like they're they're walking like they're zombies like zombies yeah their eyes are clouding over and everything and they go to the top of the trees and then they explode out of their heads and the spores then infect other ants and they all kind of do the same thing and there's other there's like hundreds of other uh insects species that are affected by different cordyceps yep you know and what's interesting is like if because wherever this I don't know um exactly where this was but ants were like out of control and so winds it's like Nature's Way of like calming things down right like so when there was other like highly successful insects that were getting to be much then they would have their own specific cord set because they these cordyceps specialize in one insect so it would be like a cricket one or a butterfly one it wouldn't be the ant one and I'm like Jesus Christ like that is that is a [ __ ] horror movie and what's crazy is these ants when they identified that there was an affected ant they would grab that affected ant and haul ass away from the other ants and like discard yeah so it wouldn't it wouldn't affect the other hand so I'm like that's their own zombie movie yeah right there like yeah living through a zombie apocalypse and it's it's it's [ __ ] spooky and it's fascinating but the fungi like he talks about that the intelligence of fungi that that when they build real uh Subways and stuff like that they study the way that fungi like move around certain obstacles and how they you know in the biggest living organism on Earth is fungi so it's just fascinating so that opening scene with this thing that I'm already terrified about because of course when you watch that as a kid and you're like why the [ __ ] do they what's stopping them from doing that to human beings and it's just body temperature and it's Joe's body temperature yep and you know one of the things that like one of the theories is is that when you eat those magic mushrooms and the psilocybum the shrooms are are letting you see the world as it is like as the world see as the as the shrooms and the fungi see the world you're seeing the world as that and so you know but what if it's just like all things where they just want to control your brain uh in in some ways so like I'm living my life now for mushrooms but I have no idea that I am so it's it's uh pretty pretty um pretty fascinating so I thought that was a great setup and I love the Retro in the 60s and everything like that I felt like because I've heard other opinions you know like other people played the game like why did they add that scene we didn't need that whatever I actually felt like it was a good addition I I agree if you played the game you don't need that scene but I think there's a lot of people obviously HBO wants this show to be watched by a lot of people who haven't played the game and I think the scene does a nice job of saying this crazy thing that's about to happen is not that far off from a real thing that could happen like it's just placing because things are about to go nuts things are about to go crazy and they're saying look this isn't that far off from from what really could happen it it's just it's putting the horror right next to you and I think that was a smart move I think I think placing it in the space like that was a really a smart writing move and it doesn't surprise me because this is the guy who wrote Chernobyl my favorite thing that has ever been on HBO is true so the way that he was able to make the Chernobyl disaster understandable because I for me Chernobyl is a horror movie and and the way he's like he's like look this is gonna feel like a horror movie this [ __ ] is [ __ ] real and and gives you all of the little details that you need so that when the horrific things the unbelievable things happen you go oh my God that really happened that's a real thing that can happen and it was so cleverly done in Chernobyl that when I when I knew he was the one who was who was doing last of us I was like I felt very safe I felt like I was in safe hands right and that opening scene it felt like him just saying I'm just going to give you just enough detail that you understand that this horror is real and now we're going to go and now we're gonna go watch the horror yeah yeah I thought it was really well done yeah I mean anything that sets up mystery and suspense because the scene within itself has has an arc that's interesting within itself I think the uh the danger of doing something like that is if you're just giving information yeah right but to see the Arc of the audience and yeah the the host go through of holy [ __ ] you know like it and it totally shot to their soul and the fear that they had within it it makes you realize and it's [ __ ] true and it's real and that's what kind of what it resonated me but Craig Mason has you liked it because wouldn't you have preferred that to just be a text crawl at the beginning yeah why why couldn't they just they could have done that in 1968 yeah they could have done that in a truck scroll they could have done the whole prologue in a text crawl but uh Craig Mason has like one of my favorite podcasts him and a guy named John August uh they have this podcast called Script notes and I think that they are so you know it's a it's a podcast for screenwriters and people that are interested in everything that screenwriters are interested in so everybody you know listens to it but it's like a specifically about story and screenwriting and things like that but uh when they're so smart when they talk about story and they discuss story and um correct one of my favorite episodes of The Script notes podcast and by the way like that's why like you know I was so looking forward to Chernobyl or certain shows because I'm a big fan of them uh Craig Mason and John August they have the podcast before Chernobyl oh they had the podcast I mean they've I think that podcast has been around over 10 years oh my God I did not know that I need to check this out oh the podcast has been around forever I mean this podcast was around like when Craig Mason was doing comedies like when he was doing a knock uh or uh hangover yeah [ __ ] like that and and he continued even through through you know Chernobyl like they they continue to do it it's a it's a thing that they do but one of my favorite episodes is he because so every now and then they'll like break down movies and they did a Die Hard episode which I highly recommend but one of the ones is he did um Finding Nemo and he kind of did he and they'll go through and break down from a story perspective from a writer's perspective of why this thing works but one of the things he talks about is that you know like he says you know people talk about save The cat or they talk about these you know books where they have screenplay structure he says but the thing that all the all these stories Miss is the why why okay so you do this here but why is he doing this there what is this at and really to truly motivate a character when you create a character them the obstacles are tailor made to hit the weakest Point within the character that you create created so like in Finding Nemo you start off with his father gets his whole family wiped out and now is this whole family wiped out he has one surviving son and that surviving son has a little fin so not only is this whole family wiped out this is this little fence so there's a guy that's already has like a bit of insecurity and a bit of sense of safety and then you have this and so now you have a true understanding of what's motivating him and why he's behaving and that Sparks like the cause and effect the behavior of him throughout the whole thing of what he's trying to protect and what he's trying to do you and then what ultimately is his journey and and how he lets go at the end and that's what the the movie's about or what the movie's trying to say anyway all that is to say that this prologue really fits into what he's talking about because you know you see like I truly felt um you know as a father you know with with kids and and you know obviously you talk about writing all the father uh you know kids relationships parents relationships and the expanse but his relationship to like their relationship to his daughter and what happens to her I don't know if like obviously spoiler spoiler alerts but what happens during the prologue [ __ ] broke my heart dude because I didn't know anything about the the game I didn't know anything and I really just loved what was the actress's name I thought she did such a great job she was so adorable oh the one who plays the daughter yeah she was really good yeah um uh Nico Parker and I just I just really enjoyed her and when and and I I enjoyed the whole like world coming apart I think one of the greatest zombie opening movie uh scenes Evers like in Donna the Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead when um I agree I agree that that gets me every time when when they wake up in bed and the little girl's standing in the hallway yeah oh my god daddy I I so like Zack Snyder gets a lot of [ __ ] and and some of it is very Justified but the guy knows how to frame a shot the guy knows how to shoot a scene that that thing with her waking up and looking down the hallway and the little girl standing there with blood on her face they and the and the characters do exactly what you or I would do what anyone would do in that circumstance like are you okay honey like that's what you would do right you'd be like oh my God there's this this little girl she's hurt I should call but they don't see her at first they see her in the shadows and see the thing is is like one of the things that my kid parents they always talk about one of the things that my kids does is at night time he wakes up in the middle of the night and he comes and stands over my bed and just watch it because he's scared or whatever and he watches me I don't know if he's like hesitant to wake me up and I'll set somebody there and I wake up out of the sleep and I just see this figure just staring at me I'm like Jesus Christ what do you want like it's like I almost don't trust him so it is like that scene when he wake so you know what I love is how it's set up right it's like the the mundane main house and the alarm clock goes off and he's cuddled up with his wife yeah and we know in horror movies like you know we get a little bit of a relaxation time before the the [ __ ] goes down and then his daughter comes up and you see her silhouette in the door and he's like well anyways I was like what's wrong baby what's going on and then she walks into the rooms it's not their kid it's like the neighbor kid oh oh I didn't know that yeah in in the Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead yeah it's not their kid it's like the neighbor kid is in their house and they're like are you okay like because it's so weird that like the neighbor's daughter is standing in their hallway I thought it was there no it's not their kid there yeah it's that weird moment of like are you okay and then she's got like blood on her face so it's like yeah are you hurt do you need help yeah and then when she just starts running at him she just runs and attacks him and then when she you know then the wife comes and throws him off and the way that she leaps off her back onto her feet and it's like animal-like and you're like oh it's this kind of zombie movie these zombies are aggressive she locks the door but the guy so when she's on the phone call 9-1-1 and you see the guy stand up behind her and he's moving kind of awkward so when she gets out of the house and you see from her perspective the world just going [ __ ] to [ __ ] and the guy has a gun owner and the ambulance coming [ __ ] wrecks him and it's like it is a Thrill Ride because it just doesn't stop like she gets you know she drives she gets stuck behind a bus it goes from zero to a hundred in about five seconds and it lasts I mean it's a good it just keeps going I mean and then the cameras zone out and there's just little stories everywhere like people chasing eating somebody over there [ __ ] exploding [ __ ] exploding and when her husband was chasing her like just [ __ ] sprinting and then he looks over and sees somebody in the yard and he just breaks yeah and he just curves up you just kill yourself you're like Jesus Christ all that's to say is like I really enjoyed seeing the trans transition of into the apocalypse through the little girl's eye and well and I think it's and I think it's well staged and this was done in the game too so this is both the game and the show do this very well oh this happened yeah where with the old lady changed behind her and all that uh well a version of that a thing like that happens but um with a neighbor who has changed and and them not understanding what's going on but the thing that the that they do very well is the confusion because the characters don't know what's going on they just know something terrible is happening right and and that confusion that comes from like what the [ __ ] right so I I mean I've I've been in circumstances where you go from I'm in a nice normal safe moment of my life and then suddenly something dramatically dangerous happens and I'm a person who's pretty quick on my feet like thinking like I I react very quickly to stuff in general but there is a moment of confusion because it's so not what your brain is like your brain is always kind of thinking of what the next things that are going to happen are it's already it's already thinking of that it's like yeah it's always doing that and so when something's so wildly out of place happens your brain has a moment of like what and and like it forces you to kind of like back up and and and start over again and I've had that happen where like I was in a moment and then something really out of place happens and you there's that moment of like what the [ __ ] and so when I see that happening to characters in in situations like this it feels very real to me yeah we're like the dad is like get in the truck we gotta go and she's like what's going on he doesn't know he's just like some [ __ ] is going down he's with his brother they're just and they have that instinct just get as far away from other people as possible yeah which is but they're yeah but their energy coming into it was like the mystery of what happened to them on the road yeah they're bringing they're bringing that with them yeah so the brother already has a gun he's ready he's like get in the car get in the [ __ ] car and you're like what did they just go through like what they go through to get here and he comes out and he's covering with the gun he's like what do we do man what do we do yeah and you're like Jesus Christ and you're because you're with her so you're experiencing this thing with her is that was that you know that's so interesting and the thing is like the so The Walking Dead I feel like in some ways Kick the Zombie horse to double dead right like it's like we've you know and so you've explored something for 20 seasons and so I was like how are they going to but there was a lot in this that felt fresh yeah even when he's holding his little girl in that zombies chasing him yeah like there was something fresh about first of all I'm terrified of these mushroom cordycep things and the fact that they come out of your mouth like they do that dance like they come out of your mouth and they feed on the things that was [ __ ] gross and scary and the scene where he's running with his little girl and he's like look at me don't look anywhere else look at me and and the zombie is on his ass and that zombie is like it's not the slow zombie it's like like [ __ ] bouncing off walls and [ __ ] yeah are they like that in the game are they fast like that in the game well no okay so so here's the thing and I don't want to get into spoilers because I I think you're really going to enjoy the the revelations that will come later so when the ant gets infected by quadriceps there's a progression to that that at first you can't tell from the outside that it's infected it's just got the fungus inside of it but you can't see that it's infecting its brain and starting to take over but there's no visible thing and then slowly you begin to see visible external signs of that that include like the skull cracking open in the the fungus coming out that there is going to be that progression with the people who are infected and it's [ __ ] horrifying so there's different levels of infection so you say are are they like that in the game some yes some know but the ones that aren't like that are horrifying in their own way there's some pretty horrifying [ __ ] that comes out yeah but how how sophisticated we can't control somebody's brain like that like how sophisticated are these cordyceps where they can control an ant's brain like how how are they doing that you know I mean that that your brain is all just your brain is all just chemicals and so obviously these things have evolved to pump the right chemical into the ant's brain to make it behave the way that that propagates because everything is like everything yeah everything in nature is about how do I make the most number of babies and have them survive right everything is in nature is that and this fungus as if co-evolved with the ants so that it pumps the right chemicals into the ant's brain so that the ant does the thing that makes the most fungus babies yeah I mean it's just it's it's it nature man nature is [ __ ] terrifying it is terrifying but it's like even I mean to evolve to the point where you're pumping in right chemicals to control eight legs and the body to make it do what you want to do like that's something that if we tried to model I don't think so I don't think we could do that like if we took you know like we tried to monetize I think we could I think if that was a thing we were trying to do that's a thing that we probably could do the reason that designs so often mimic things in nature you know like the the shape of submarines or the the shape of airplanes or you know that kind of stuff we so often wind up mimicking things that already exist in nature is we've got years or say decades to design something Evolution has millions or billions of years to design that thing and and the when we designed something and it doesn't work we just go back to the drawing board when something changes in nature and doesn't work it just dies every single member of that species just dies so the the stakes are so high yeah and there's so many and and nature tries over and over and over again you wind up with some pretty amazing stuff that comes out of that process yeah yeah that is true like mimicking the world around you you know and then like even mimicking bubbles for deep deep um submarines like that's what you know John Cameron like they they built their submarine just on I mean James Cameron they built their submarine off the off of the uh the design of a bubble right to be able to withstand that that tension yeah you know and one of the things that I think is uh what I think is kind of fresh I only watched The Walking Dead for like two or three seasons but the zombies were the obstacle in the beginning and then it kind of went into the apocalyptic world and then people and they kind of had all that stuff but this one kind of like it jumps ahead right it's like it jumps in 20 years later yeah and not only is there this fungi uh zombie virus that's out there that's like you know turning people but you now have a military dictatorship that is like trying to control and run everything you got this group called The fireflies is the uh and obviously the fireflies are in the game right yeah yep and what is their mission exactly so they they are the ones who are trying to end the military dictatorship that there are certain elements of society that have used this apocalypse to gain control over over everybody right and they're the ones who are like look we can we can protect ourselves from this and we can have a society and it doesn't have to be a military dictatorship um so they're kind of a rebellion terrorist group and their goal is they want they want a different system yeah they want a different system a non-non military dictatorship system or surviving the apocalypse and that's sort of happening concurrent with the story of Joel and Ellie and the and the uh you know this this apocalyptic world that they're living in so those those are kind of those elements all kind of mixed together but the the thing that I find interesting about so David benioff who was one of the two writers who wrote Game of Thrones the original one he wrote a book called city of Thieves have you ever read that you told me about that so city of Thieves and and the the writers of Last of Us credit city of Thieves in when they're in in the game they talk about like they're not in the game but in the the interviews they've done they talk about the things that sort of influence them as they were designing last of us and one of the books they mentioned is city of Thieves so I I actually knew David benioff at the time so I was like hey have you ever played last of us they talk about your book they talked about how they were influenced by your book and he hadn't he he was not a gamer but the the thing with with city of Thieves is it's about Stalingrad during the worst of the Nazi invasion of Russia and how there was a war going on between obviously between the the the Soviet Army and the German Army in Stalingrad and there were still people who lived there right there there were still people who just lived inside one of my favorite versions of that is the movie uh Enemy at the gates yeah enemy in the game yeah um where like you go out and you fight a battle with some Nazis and then you go to some lady's house and she cooks you soup yeah and she just lives there she's living in the middle of a war zone and and so city of Thieves is about how people regular people not soldiers survived in Stalingrad during the worst of that Invasion how everybody turns into a thief because that's the only way to survive so you're constantly stealing from each other and from the armies and from everything to try to just get enough to survive during this battle right because obviously every every mechanism of social order has broken down you know they're not making deliveries to grocery stores in the middle of a Nazi invasion right is it is this uh fiction it uh well it's it's fiction based on real stuff yeah and did he write this before like the Game of Thrones I think he published it I think he did publish it before the first season of Game of Thrones I think I think that's right my the point of this is that Joel's story after the 20 years later jump is where you really see the influence of city of Thieves because the city that he's living in after that time Jump is Stalingrad it's it's the city that is that is currently at war with an invading Force right and and an occupying Army that's trying to defend it and all of the social orders have broken down like there's not like there's not like trucks full of grocery store supplies showing up at that city right so where do you get the stuff that you need to live and so there's this thriving underground of just black markets and thieves and all of that stuff and Joel's involved in that part of that world which I find very real and very interesting I I really liked that part of I did to the world I really like that and and uh the the his partner played by anatore that character was one of my favorite early characters in the game so I was really I was really happy with the way animator played that character in the show I think she's doing a great job with that character she's a great character in the game I assume she's going to be a great character on the show too but that sort of tough Survivor who is living in the middle of an apocalypse but finding a way to scrape by by just being tougher than everybody around you yeah that all of that stuff is really well done in both the game and the show I'm really excited now the prologue takes place in the game at 2013 and uh in the in the show it takes place in 2003. do you know why they I know they did that I don't know why they did that yeah it's interesting because it's you know what's funny is like it's a period piece and it's an alternate history but you go back and you look and you're like it doesn't seem that long ago when George Bush was president but you're like when you really think about it you're like dude that was a long time that was a long ass time ago that was a long ass time ago and so then when you see that Nokia phone and you see that thing come on you're like Jesus Christ like how much time has passed you know yeah and uh but I love that [ __ ] I love that alternate universe and uh in in time period And I loved the 1968 like the Retro thing because what's what really kind of freaks me out is like when there are threats that have always been there and that are realistic and that we've always known them so when they happen it's not like an in a flying saucer comes to Earth and this thing that we don't speak it's like this thing was always here and they warned us about it you know and a long time ago well and that's and that is the terrifying thing about pandemics which obviously what's happening in Last of Us is a version of a pandemic there are so many diseases that we are aware of I mean we knew about covid or at least that family of diseases before we had the covet pandemic um that family of diseases has been around in a lot of other versions that we've known about them and we've had brief scares you know like bird flu and all that kind of stuff so we know about these things and we know that airborne viruses are very dangerous and especially airborne viruses with high fatality rates that kind of stuff very dangerous but like they will have a little scare and 20 or 30 people will die and then it doesn't happen and we go oh okay well that's not a big deal and then we forget about it the the idea that one of these things instead of like you know covet had like a one percent fatality rate uh let's say like you know if if that was even 10 like another novel coronavirus comes out and instead of one percent fatality rate it's got a 10 fatality rate the devastation that that would cause on us as a species but it's happened before I mean the Spanish flu killed you know like what more people than than the war that preceded it had killed it's happened before and we and we forget like it's like you know we we're aware that the Spanish Flu happened but we just kind of forget about it have you ever read about books about the plague in Europe oh yeah I mean you know to think about half of Europe's population just gone just dead just dead yep you know and it it's hard to wrap your head around like what was going on in their mindsets and everything back then especially like with like steeped in that kind of you know old school religion uh Christian mythology of like for sure this is the end of the [ __ ] world but yeah there's no there's no other explanation for it but to you to lose half of the population um just blows my mind I mean there's so many people that you know the whole the whole power structure fell apart right because now everybody can own land like you know as much [ __ ] land as you want because it's like everything because everybody else is good because everybody's [ __ ] dead you know and those kind of things scare scared the [ __ ] out of me you know and that's the the thing that lasted the world that last of us is playing in is a thing that absolutely can happen happens and and and now we're in that world right yeah um it's it's the Bubonic plague it's uh you know it's it's Ebola it's all these things that we know can happen yeah and we we just kind of cross our fingers and hope they don't yeah it happens and now we're in a world where most of the population is dead and people are living in Walled cities and it's [ __ ] terrifying yeah whenever you have a love story at the center of these terrifying things like I think like if there's a love story uh in any horrific horror situation or movie it always brings me in because you see that like you that opening scene like if you when you come to really love their relationship between father and daughter and you really care about her and when the zombies chasing her and he's like just look at me just look at me it's so you're so involved you're involved with them and you're like geez the terror that he wouldn't be feeling because if he was by himself it cut that tension in half oh yeah you know like if I was fine even if it was just him and his brother or yeah even if it was just him and even if it was just him and his brother yeah like me and my brother would be trying to trip each others by get us time if I can get it take him out but I feel like uh whenever there's something like that it just pulls me in so much more because if I'm by myself and I I you know nothing really like it's not a big deal but when I have my kids with me I'm so much more heightened so much more aware and the fact that you know she died and I was listening to this interview with Craig Mason he talks about like there's a that love is a beautiful thing but it also can be a horrible thing because when you love somebody it it can be Primal it could be uh intense violence that comes from that love so when his daughter is murdered that unresolved trauma is going to be passed on to this new relationship it can't not and so now you see where his mindset is like if like if the Last of Us started in the 20 years when he's in the town and you see that as an actor he would do that work that work is something he would do that prologue to get him to that place emotionally to then have his resistance to the girl when he first meets her he you know he's not going to want to feel anything for her he's not going to be emotionally involved and then when he does it's going to be uncontrollable except like the kind like his uh his desire to protect her and the need to protect her by the way Bella Ramsey you know I really enjoyed her I think she is a really talented oh yeah I mean if there's a reason why she was everybody's favorite character on Game of Thrones when she came on she's she's she's a she's a really good actor um there's no doubt about that but there is a force to her there is like this strength this strength this this this angry belligerence that just sort of boils under the surface of of every scene that she's in in Game of Thrones so when they announced that she was going to play Ellie I was like that's a great choice she's got because Ellie the character in the game she's very vulnerable but she but she hides that vulnerability with this angry belligerence and I'm like yeah that kid from Game of Thrones is going to be able to pull that off she's going to be able to pull off that anger that is that is the armor she wears around her her vulnerability and and in the first episode absolutely Nails it absolutely Nails it yeah she's great and Pedro Pascal can we talk about how great that guy is because yeah I remember when when he came on Game of Thrones as The Red Viper I don't think a lot of people like he'd been around before but I don't think a lot of people knew him that well before that part and he absolutely nobody knew him that was his absolutely exploded after that part yeah absolutely exploded he did narcos and things like yeah he did so much stuff in and has been great in everything that he's done I I actually he was at a party that um uh there was a premier party in Santa Fe for one of the seasons of Game of Thrones I forget which one and a few other people who worked on the show came out and Pedro was one of the people who came out and and my sister happened to be in town so I took her to that that party and she's a big Game of Thrones fan big George RR Martin fan and she and and so she and I went and talked to Pedro what a nice guy have you met him have you ever worked with him I haven't met him no um lovely guy like I was so I was I was like man like not only are you incredibly talented and you're great in this part but you're just a [ __ ] nice guy yeah and he was super nice to my sister and very like you know how like sometimes you meet an actor and they'll they put on the the nice face and then try to get out of the conversation as quickly as possible yeah he he was like just being himself and then went up standing there and chatting with my sister for like half an hour and never seemed like he was trying to get away never seemed like he was like trying to get get to the next person yeah yeah which is great he listened I mean think like Ty you don't get to I mean you've been around long enough to like have a [ __ ] detector you know when somebody's like you know so but that translates to him on green that's his presence there's a gentleness and a kindness but a strength and a toughness like that combination is is really attractive to see on screen yeah and I've I remember him on Game of Thrones narcos and I've always was drawn to him I thought I always thought he was an interesting actor and he has a presence that always pulls me in talk about I think this is perfect casting for him I think it is you know and um and I think you know this is like finally this is going to kind of launch him into the mainstream Eric because this is a [ __ ] hit I think he is I think he's already been launched into me I mean he obviously played the Mandalorian yeah probably yeah Mandalorian but this is like launch launch you know um I think I think this is gonna get mainstream recognition the way that HBO shows often do and I yeah and I think I think it's going to be huge for him yeah yeah like I think he'll get shots at like you know starring in big Studio movies after this uh so you know I've always been a fan of his and I'm thankful for you know I feel I'm happy for him and he's fantastic in it but he you know what's funny is it's kind of like that lone wolf cub story like the road like Cormac McCarthy the road or whatever I I love these stories Mandalorian is is like the lone wolf cup so I would say that the Mandalorian is much more Lone Wolf and Cub than last of us is and and you'll see as you as you go through the show you'll see that Ellie is not a helpless she's not helpless the difference between sort of the Mandalorian and Lone Wolf and Cub and Other Stories like that that have the older protector and the younger ward in these dangerous circumstances is Ellie is is a surprising character in her own right and one of my favorite segments in the game and I I mean I obviously I don't want to do spoilers for the show so I'm not going to get too into it but but there is a sequence in the game where you have to play as Ellie and it's one of my favorite sequences in the game and she's a [ __ ] badass in her own right um so I I'm very excited to see that part of the story play out where you get to where you get to see that she's not just Ellie is not just luggage she is not just a thing that he carries from place to place she's got her own agenda well and you get that sense from her and you know like I love her little feisty attitude in the beginning she's like give me these [ __ ] cups and then you know and she's like gives her knife and she stabs through the leg so but obviously she's special somehow right she she tested positive for the uh the infection um and she's like but it's not affecting me you know I've been in positive for however many days so maybe there's some kind of connection to a cure through her or something like that and I love those I love those like chosen one kind of stories and where it's like you're more important than us and and how great was that scene when she's like you don't have a [ __ ] ear on your head you know during the shootout and uh and you know and and when when they had to take them or whatever but uh yeah so I really enjoyed it did you enjoy like did it live up to your expectations being a fan of the game it actually I it I expected it to be good because as I said I'm a huge fan of the writing and directing talent that they've got working on the show Craig Mason is a fantastic writer as I said Chernobyl is one of my favorite things that's ever been on HBO so I was I was already had a high expectations and then as I watched the show everything felt right like I felt like I was falling into this world that I had been in before when you're a kid and you read a book and it's like your favorite book ever and then as an adult you reread it and it's just as good as you remember it being when you were a kid it felt like that I was like oh this feels just this feels just as good as it did the first time yeah yeah Craig Mason directed it too yeah uh good for him thank you guys for hanging out I hope you enjoyed us talking about uh Last of Us hopefully you guys are watching it too I I enjoyed it did you enjoy it Ty no I hated it that's terrible worst thing I've ever seen no the conversation that's what I'm talking I'm talking about the show was great this conversation is the worst thing I've ever been part of per usual say goodbye Ty goodbye Ty [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] to be back [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Ty & That Guy

Views: 14,405

Keywords: The Expanse, Wes Chatham, Ty Franck, Ty & That Guy Podcast, Ty & That Guy, Amazon, Podcast, Ty and That Guy, Amos, Amos Burton, James S.A. Corey, Expanse, ExpanseOnPrime, Attershow, Expanse Aftershow, the expanse season 1, Film Critic, Film Review, Film Reviews, Movie Critic, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, movie explained, cinephile, The Last of Us, HBO max

Id: 1PCoRG98xXU

Length: 51min 46sec (3106 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 23 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/hoos30]

We need them to review Andor.

[u/saleemkarim]

I hope these guys keep reviewing shows to the end of time.

[u/bigmacjames]

Just watched this and I plan on watching the rest now. Didn't know Wes was a mushroom fan haha

[u/Vlaks1-0]

This is pretty cool. Last of Us feels like a perfect show for them to review. Now that they're reaching the end of Expanse episodes to talk about (hopefully just for now lol), I think it could be really cool if they do this sort of discussion for other shows too. I see they're talking about this possibility in the chat a bit, so hopefully this video does well and it happens.

A House of the Dragon one for example could be really cool, considering Ty's connection to that series. Although I'm not sure if he actually ended up watching it.

[u/TheRealSpaldy]

I had no idea this podcast existed so thanks for sharing.

[u/kathryn13]

This is fantastic. I'm going to watch it now.

[u/ChronicBuzz187]

Hearing Ty geek out about the games is confirmation that he's a nerd, just like all of us :D

[u/kabbooooom]

For those of you that haven’t seen the Last of Us: this is how you make a fucking good video game adaptation. It’s damn near perfect.