Since I need a new post-apocalyptic show to watch since The Walking Dead finally ran its course, it’s looking like ‘The Last Of Us’ will be my new fix. Honestly, I think that if ‘Jericho’ hadn’t had to work within the constraints of network television and instead could have had the brutality and harsh language that TWD and TLOU are able to emply it would have made things a bit more real. Because, lets face it, the apocalypse is not going to be clean and free of harsh language.
I should also mention that I think it would be quite a hoot if they could get Lennie James to guest star on Last Of Us. Given his predilection for end-of-the-word projects like Jericho and The Walking Dead, he could wind up being the new Charlton Heston (“If its bad and its the end of the world, Charlton Heston is there!”)
My plan was to wait until the entire season of Last Of Us was done and then watch the whole thing in one enormous binge session. So, it’ll be time to order some pizza, grab a few Cokes, fire up the TV, and let the bad times roll.
I have, however, watched a few highlights of the show on YouTube and what I’ve seen so far looks pretty good. There’s definitely some dark and grim undertones, and I’ve no doubt it’ll be rather gritty in spots. But….wouldn’t you think the end of the world would be?
And, of course, even though it’s fiction it is still a nice opportunity to wargame a bit and imagine what you’d do in similar scenarios and what your gear choices might be.
Anyway, if I can steal the time this weekend I’ll watch Season 1 and see how it goes.
I watched the first four episodes, but the woke agenda and messaging ruined it for me. Like TWD, another wasted opportunity that turned into a PC soap opera.
I dunno…its my understanding theres a strong anti-government theme throughout.
So does BLM and Antifa
Common ground!
BLM and Antifa are not anti-government, they are anti-Constitutional government. However, they are 100 percent Socialist/Marxist style of government with them in charge!!!
Agree 100% I was really looking forward to the series but the woke messages…nope. Can’t do it.
I always thought that The Way Back (escape from a Soviet gulag) would have made a terrific series. Alas, it was only a movie. Check it out if you haven’t yet.
Just watched it, thanks for the recommendation!
It was overall good, but there were two wasted episodes with Woke storylines that really added nothing to the overall story.
Agreed – those two episodes did not advance the story line. But they did fill in some details. Imo, this show is better than Jericho (especially season 2).
Here the thing, after an event like this there will be many different stories. Not everyone who survives will agree with you or like you, they may even try and eat you. They probably will not even share your values or religious beliefs. The post-apocalyptic world will look just like this one but with fewer people and modern technology.
Episode 3 took one sentence from the game and expanded it into a woke storyline. Episode 8 flashback is from the game.
There’s very little swearing in The Walking Dead
https://www.cbr.com/the-walking-dead-drops-f-bomb/#:~:text=The%20Walking%20Dead%20Dropped%20More%20F%2DBombs%20in%20Season%2011&text=According%20to%20FanFest%2C%20AMC%20had,The%20Walking%20Dead%3A%20World%20Beyond.
Lennie James during a mini-interview on-set of TWD: “I’ve done Shakespeare at The Nat! I’ll be remembered for a zombie show on tv…”
My favorite scene: post-apocalypse, he’s sitting on the can reading a magazine in a convenience store that looks pristine. It’s too good to be true. A shotgun pokes through the door. Sigh. “Can I at least finish this article?”
I’m more into pre-apocalyptic non-fiction so I’m watching Bloomberg report live on the collapse of our banking system. Credit Suisse has been very bad for a long time and the chickens are coming home to roost. The bad news is it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRjxlPK_Qs
At the time of Jericho, I had a good friend whose cousin was Executive Producer. One major reason for the downfall was that CBS ( and probably all networks at the time) had no way to measure viewership. It was the beginning days of cord-cutting and time shifted viewing. But the networks only measured the viewers who watched the original broadcast.
There are some “Woke Agenda” parts, but the things that are “Woke” are the same ones that are in the game. The one that was developed beyond what the game had in it, was the details of the relationship between Bill and Frank. There were two things about that episode (#3), that surprised me. First, Hollywood didn’t make it into an “In your face”, gay love fest. You knew what the relationship was, but there was very little in the way of Hollywood “Gay” depictions. Hell, except for the few kissing scenes, they could have just been best friends, riding out the apocalypse together.
The second thing that surprised me, was when Joel asked Bill if he was a Prepper before the SHTF, and Bill responded, “Survivalist.”, and from what we see of Bill, he was, because there is a difference. I spoke of this in last week’s post, https://masondixonsurvivalistassociation.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/distractions-and-the-difference-between-preppers-and-survivalists/
Overall, the show was well done, realistic beyond what Hollywood usually is, and actually depicts Survivalists in a favorable light, for a change, instead of making them look like paranoid nuts.
JC Dodge
I thought it followed the game pretty well. They added way too much info on Bill’s gay lifestyle that wasn’t in the Game. The ending was the same. Hopefully season two will not follow TLOU II. There will be howling and gnashing of teeth if they do.
While the collapse in the storyline takes place in 2003, there seems to be a lack of representation of modern sporting rifles, but plenty of hunting rifles. I think there is actually a very simple reason for this. The series is actually being filmed in Calgary, Alberta and not in the US. Just my 2cents, which actually worth about 1/2 cent now with inflation.
The collapse in the storyline took place in 2003, and the storyline takes place twenty years later. Id imagine that after 20 years of use, wear, tear, and regulation by come-and-go replacement governments the supply of AR’s may have thinned.
Possibly, but I think it is more about logistic of filming in Canada and their restrictive gun laws. I also found a stat that said only 100,000 MSR were produced in the first year after the ban expired in 2004. Kicking up to around 500,000 a year in 2008 and 2,000,000 a year in 2013. So, it may also be a reality in 2003 that there were not very many people, percentage wise that owned Modern Sporting Rifles. Just a theory. What we do know for sure, there were no Magpul magazines (2007) yet!! lol
I politely disagree, although its a interesting thing to think about. Canaduh’s movie industry is burgeoning as it is cheaper to film there than in the union-run environs of places like California. There are several prop houses in Canada that specialize in providing guns for movies and they have plenty of stuff that would normally be off limits to your average Canuckistan resident. Head over to Forgotten Weapons on YouTube and Gun Jesus periodicall does a video from the prop houses up there with full-auto machine pistols and things like that. Despite living in a country entirely made of Nerf, the Canadians are smart enough to want those American Hollywood dollars.
But, as I think about it, the show takes place 20 years after the apocalypse. I think its safe to say that once the apocalypse started, niceties like right to bear arms got shut down pretty quick in the name of national emergency. So, we are starting from a position of a ban or prohibition on new acquisitions in 2003. SO, whatever didnt get confiscated or turned in has had to do rough service for twenty years. Thats a pretty long time for an aluminum and plastic gun. Looking at scenes from the show on YouTube, the non-.gov people with AR’s are almost uniformly carrying very well worn guns. I wouldn’t be surprised if some AR get aged out and then salvaged for parts to keep he other ones running.
All this to say, while there may be a lack of representation of the MSR platform on TLOU, I don’t think it has anything to do with the filming venue.
The wear and tear shown on the rifles in TLOU is kind of odd. Bare metal in spots that don’t normally get scuffed a lot. They look like the very popular pre-distressed jeans with holes in them.
For some unexplained reason, the L.A. politicians, in the late 90’s, decided to hobble Hollywood. They passed laws that made it financially unfeasible to film anything that required weapons with normal magazines. The local film support businesses were going to be taxed astronomical fees for each magazine they had in stock. There may have been taxes on the weapons themselves, also.
They proceeded to divest themselves of everything but cowboy type equipment. I think the biggest closed their doors a few years later. This is what really drove the film business to Canada. The overall lower costs was an additional benefit.
This political agenda by L.A. was deliberate, apparently. When the impact of their anti-gun moves would have on Hollywood was brought to the attention of the county commissioners, their response was to double down and increase the financial hit.
I’m unaware of any blowback on them for the huge hit against the rank and file of Hollywood workers. I’m guessing that those people couldn’t see what the impact would be across the board, and it took a while for it to become obvious. By then, it was probably too late to close the gate, the business was gone to Canada and other States.
IIRC, the tax on a magazine was $500/year.
TWD was pretty good the first three or four seasons. Small unit dynamics and leadership. After that, I don’t know. I kind of got bored with it, just kind of turned into murderporn. Should I have stuck it out another season two?
Jericho, I remember seeing the first few episodes and then was interrupted by a deployment. I seem to recall a scene in the local bar where people were casually ordering and paying for drinks. No one had a visible weapon. It seemed just a bit too civilized for after an attack on a major US city. Perhaps I should try it again, but it just didn’t seem very realistic.
The Last of Us paid some attention to detail on some of the location scenery shown (albeit it’s CGI). I have been to a couple of the places shown and the rendering was spot on.