S01.E01: Lights Out

[tennisgurl]

That was a massively intense pilot, I am already hooked. I am familiar with the basic premise of the game but have never played, but this is definitely one of the best pilots I've seen in awhile, I hope that the show can keep up its momentum!

Huge kudos to Nico Parker, the actress who played Sara. She was only around for the start of the episode but she got me totally invested in her in a short amount of time, which is necessary for a character that is certainly going to haunt the show for its entire run. 

I feel like I will love anything involving Pedro Pascal as a gruff morally ambiguous man who ends up having to travel around a dangerous world protecting a child who could change the world who has multiple people after them while somewhat reluctantly bonding with them. 

[diebartdie]

13 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Just hoping <SNIP> that they change the ending of the first game, because that was bullshit.

Um...absolutely no spoilers from me but my guy, the ending was the entire point of the whole thing. Without THAT ending, this is nothing, not even The Walking Dead level pointlessness.

Spoiler

I can 100% see where people hate the second game, I know I do because that second game took a giant shit on the first game and made no sense at all. The same story could have been told more elegantly in some other game or media but as it stands, the second game sucks.

 

[magdalene]

I know she did it because the story dictated it but I would never enter a house a dog refused to enter, or at the very least once I stepped into a lot of blood I would leave in a hurry. 

One of my mottos - try not to become a horror movie red shirt.

[Ilovepie]

I don't play video games and I was burnt out by Walking Dead when Glen died, but this show has my favorite Baby (Grogru) Daddy so I was immediately in. And I didn't even realize my girl Olivia Dunham from Fringe was in it! Bonus! But seriously, how they made me care so much about Joel's daughter in one hour was great, yet brutal. Knowing nothing about the video game, I'm excited for this one. With Madalorian coming back in March I'm calling 2023 the Year of Pedro and I am here for it!

[Raachel2008]

On 1/16/2023 at 1:48 AM, peridot said:

It was the early stages of the outbreak, and the soldiers already had orders to kill any civilian they see?! 

I'm not sure they had orders to kill any civillian they saw, it looked to me they had orders to kill the infected and the one Joel and Sarah met radioed someone (a superior, maybe) who clearty didn't believe she had a twisted ankle.

I liked the episode, I like the genre and I knew about the game, so I was full spoiled. But even so, those first 30 minutes were really good. They kept me on the edge of my seat wondering if they were really going to kill Sarah. I didn't catch it was 2003, so soon after 9/11, so her reaction the the owners closed the shop was weird, but not absurd for me since some teens/people are just that clueless. But then the bombings started and I was 'wtf, girl?'. But that being 2003 made no sense at all. I assume any teen who knew what Jakarta was and lived in a house were people watched the news on breakfast would be smarter than leave the house and not follow instructions.  At least she would have searched the web?

On the other hand, Sarah's catatonic state after shit hit the fan was very believable.

I love Bella Ramsay, who was awesome in GoT and every single she has been after. I think she did a very nice job in the première and Ellie's excitmente about being outside the walls for the first time rang very true.

Using the 60's, 70's, and 80's song was a very smart move. 

I didn't know Anna Torv was in that.

The little boy, where did he came from? Is there a settlement outside? Did he scape Boston? Kudos to the actress playing the cop, the officer (?) knew what she was going to to and it was horrible and yet she was the kindest possible to the boy - still awful, though.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Raachel2008

[Ilovepie]

Would like to add that the fungus here reminded me more of The Expanse (proto molecule anyone?) than Walking Dead.

[CrazyDog]

Well, I'm in. I've never played the games, but I've read through the storylines, and watched some clips and compilations on YouTube, so I'm a little familiar with the background.

I don't know much about Pedro or Bella, but I thought they both did a fine job. The other characters (Tommy, Tess, and Marlene) are also interesting enough, and the different threats posed make it interesting. 

(I love the incredible toughness of these characters. I hit my head on a cabinet the other day, teared up, and swore up a storm. These characters are getting their ears blown off and are standing around, debating action items and next steps.)

It was amazing how it seemed like everything went to hell in a matter of hours though. I couldn't make out much of the radio chatter, but sounded like it started in Jakarta, with tainted flour? How would it spread so quickly without some warnings making it around the globe? There was already a military perimeter being set up? Good thing they didn't get the pancake mix, the cake, or eat the neighbor's biscuits.

Sarah's character was fantastic, and losing her right off the bat was heartbreaking. Probably a realistic death for the amount of chaos that was going on. I didn't catch until reading recaps that the student in her class with the light bouncing off her bracelet might have been twitching from early infection.

Mercy obviously joined up with other dogs, and lived a good doggo life in the woods. Or that's my canon at least.

I do hope they find a way to inject a little humor here or there into the story, as it all seems pretty grim. Post-apocalyptical settings are always in interesting in the way of...are these people actually living? Life in the QZs, (or even outside of them) seems so dark and hopeless. What keeps people going every day? Burning bodies and cleaning sewers for little ration cards, in between the public executions?

On 1/16/2023 at 4:24 AM, Haleth said:

This is so much like The Passage.  Makes me wonder if the HBO treatment might have made it a hit instead of squandering a great novel on network tv.

Yes, I'm still slightly bitter about that whole thing. I loved Saniyya Sidney in the role.

[Keywestclubkid]

We are in a world where fungus turns people into spore spreading predators.. if you can accept that then you can accept Nanna being able to get up and kill 

[Constantinople]

I was oddly relieved when we find out Sarah was shot.

When we first hear Sarah breathing with difficulty, I was concerned they were doing the old "lead character's child has asthma and the inhaler has been lost or forgotten" cliche.

[nomodrama]

This was good. I'm a huge fan of zombie lore (even though I quit TWD when Andrew Lincoln left), so I am very excited to see more. I had never heard of the game, so it's all new to me. 

I knew Sarah was going to die based on the fact that she wasn't featured in the promotional images but her death was still tragic and sad. I was expecting that it was going to turn out that she caught the virus from the neighbors which was going to make Joel feel guilty forever since he sent her over there. I don't think the soldier didn't believe them that she wasn't sick, I think it was more orders from the top to contain the spread and therefore not let anyone leave type of thing, which is still terribly. 

It's interesting that their plan was going to be go to Mexico....I can't imagine things would have been going much better there. And that's the question in a situation like this, where do you possibly go. I've always thought in this case it would be best to get somewhere cold. Not sure if that would work here though, since this is fungal. 

On another note, one zombie troupe I can't with is the extremely super humanly fast zombies. That's one thing I always appreciated about TWD, zombies moved realistically. These guys were a bit fast for my taste. Seeing some of the upcoming stuff though, it definitely does not look like these are the typical kind of zombies though....it seems more of a mutation occurs. 

I'm guessing Ellie won't be immune but there will be more to it......again I know nothing about the game so I'm not trying to spoil anything, but I wonder if it's more her body somehow being able to stall the effects or even work symbiotically with the fungi. 

The scariest part of this type of scenario is seeing how terribly people handle these things and how bad society gets. I am sure we are going to see some messed up things (we kind of did already....public hangings and all) being done by people in the name of survival. 

 

[Capricasix]

There’s a brief shot of dust (spores?) floating in the air when Joel is in his apartment pulling his stash out from under the floorboards. Is that shot significant at all, is it a connection to the game? (I haven’t played the game)

[Dev F]

4 hours ago, Capricasix said:

There’s a brief shot of dust (spores?) floating in the air when Joel is in his apartment pulling his stash out from under the floorboards. Is that shot significant at all, is it a connection to the game? (I haven’t played the game)

I think it's mostly part of a visual motif the episode returns to throughout, of light vs. shadow, echoing the Firefly motto that gives the episode its title: "When you're lost in the darkness, look for the light."

Specifically, I think, it's one of several images that suggest people mistaking dark for light—Joel looking for reassurance in his guns and smuggling tools, which are squirreled in a dark hidey-hole but surrounded by dusty shafts of light. Which you can also see in:

• Sara being distracted by the light reflecting off her classmate's bracelet, which is actually flitting around because the classmate is experiencing the early muscle spasms of the infection that will soon blight the world.
• The little infected boy being drawn to the spotlights of Boston, then fixating on the FEDRA badge in his hands, when FEDRA is about to euthanize him.
• Joel still wearing the watch his daughter gave him even though it's broken and her memory is a torment.

And it all sort of culminates at the end of the episode, when Ellie sees Joel's PTSD-induced murder of the FEDRA guard and takes it as a sign that she can trust him to protect her.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Dev F

[Capricasix]

Thanks! I’ve watched the ep four times and it didn’t even occur to me that the classmate was having muscle spasms - I thought he was just twiddling a pen or something.

I did notice a small continuity slip. The teacher tells the class that their homework is due “tomorrow”, but those scenes happened on a Friday. Of course, they wouldn’t be handing in the homework on Monday or any other day!

[smartymarty]

12 hours ago, Capricasix said:

The teacher tells the class that their homework is due “tomorrow”,

I just was bothered that the teacher said the homework would be due "by the end of the class." But you did the work at home? Why wouldn't it be handed in at the beginning of class?

Liked the pilot a lot. Gave a good, deep backstory. I like that we saw Sara's whole story in sequence rather than a series of memories of her father. Had forgotten I'd read that it is based on a video game. 

[diebartdie]

22 hours ago, nomodrama said:

On another note, one zombie troupe I can't with is the extremely super humanly fast zombies. That's one thing I always appreciated about TWD, zombies moved realistically. These guys were a bit fast for my taste. Seeing some of the upcoming stuff though, it definitely does not look like these are the typical kind of zombies though....it seems more of a mutation occurs. 

TWD zombies are dead people. It looks like TLoU "zombies" are still alive. As Geoge Romero said, "I do have rules in my head of what’s logical and what’s not. I don’t think zombies can run. Their ankles would snap!" So dead things are slow things, living things can be fast things.

[overtherainbow]

In the video game, isn't it true the spores are airborne? that doesn't seem to be the case in this series. 

I'm already liking it better than Station 11 though (similar virus-kills-everyone show, minus the fungi zombies)

[Starchild]

Maybe in order to limit mask use, they're going to have it so that spores are only active at the moment an infected person "explodes."

[Danny Franks]

I've been torn on this show, because I absolutely love the game and the performances of Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson as Joel and Ellie. I wasn't sure I'd be able to enjoy other actors playing those roles, and I'm still not. But I'm giving it a go.

First impressions - I love that they used the game intro music for the show. It's so evocative to me, and matches the feel of the game, and now of the show.

I liked them expanding the backstory, showing us more of Joel and Sarah's relationship, introducing us to the neighbours and the peaceful world. The tension before the outbreak is built well, with little glimpses of things that are wrong, snippets of the news, increasing panic as the emergency services and military start to ramp up.

Nico Parker made me really care about Sarah, and dread what was coming even more.  It's a gut-punch. That shot of the old lady showing symptoms in the background? Chilling.

"Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs." That was always the line that suckered me into investing in Joel and Sarah's relationship. They had such a sweet dynamic.

The scene with the dog, Mercy, just made me sad to think about how all those pets must have reacted to their owners turning on them. And the old lady killing her son (I guess) and daughter-in-law was really horrible. But I think I preferred the way the game handled that. It worked better from a suspense point of view.

I've always liked that Joel isn't a saintly person, even before the outbreak. Perhaps he's not even a good person. He cares about his own, and he'll protect his own, but he's prepared to leave people stranded on the side of the road, he's prepared to force his truck through crowds to get his daughter away.

I think the visuals and aesthetics of the show are spot on - the shabbiness and grime of the world, the decay of everything manmade and the renewed wildness of nature. It feels like the game. The idea that society itself was a kind of zombie - dead but still shambling along, acting like it was still alive - came across well in the Boston scenes.

I like Anna Torv as Tess, but I can't see Pedro Pascal as Joel yet. and I can't see Bella Ramsey as Ellie either. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong, but they just don't feel like the characters I love. It's really cool that Merle Dandridge got to be screen Marlene as well as game Marlene.

 

[rhygirl720]

Don't know a thing about the game. I'm here for Pedro and I wasn't disappointed.

[maystone]

I, too, was shouting at my screen when Sarah was going to Nana's house and dragging poor, terrified Mercy along with her. But I accepted it all, because it is a horror movie trope. And this is part horror movie.

Joel was NOT on Atkins. He could see his neighbor stuffing biscuits into his mother's mouth - by hand -while she is simultaneously drooling them out in really kind of disgusting strands. The neighbor was going to hand Joel some biscuits from the tray, but Joel thought fast and said he was on Atkins. I guffawed. Yep, it saved his life, too, but I thought it was a really funny setup to that punch line.

I don't think that Sarah had access to a computer at home. I don't remember seeing one, and a home computer + internet connection would be out of their budget range. But, yeah, kid - turn on the TV or radio.

I didn't hear the news reference(s) to flour being a possible conduit, so thanks to everyone who brought that up. I instead glommed on to the reference to it being rampant in big cities and hospitals, and Sarah mentioning that Nana goes into a big city hospital frequently. (Having contracted C.diff from a hospital where I made frequent trips and had long waits with my partner who was undergoing chemo, I understand how sometimes you walk out of a hospital with more than you walked in with.)

I'm excited for the new episode tonight. It's great to have another Sunday night must-see show.

[Capricasix]

She did turn the TV on, though, when she went downstairs after being awakened by the helicopters - wasn’t it right before Mercy scratched at the window? And there was just the test pattern and emergency broadcast.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Capricasix

[Quickbeam]

Don’t know anything about the game, dislike zombies. I did enjoy the pilot a lot. I was pulled to this by Bella Ramsey who has been excellent in everything I’ve seen her in. My spouse thought the mixed race adult woman was the lead’s daughter grown up. I had to explain she didn’t make it. It was plenty enough to keep me interested. 

[Morrigan2575]

On 1/16/2023 at 12:37 PM, monakane said:

I would add Bella Ramsey who was so good in Game of Thrones to that list.

Was that Little Lyanna Mormont? I didn't realize it until I just read your post 😁

[Lady Whistleup]

Just finished this episode. Will say that Joel and Sarah's relationship got me invested in them right away. What a nice dynamic between father and daughter.

[possibilities]

On 1/22/2023 at 3:30 PM, Capricasix said:

She did turn the TV on, though, when she went downstairs after being awakened by the helicopters - wasn’t it right before Mercy scratched at the window? And there was just the test pattern and emergency broadcast.

There was a warning to stay indoors, after which she immediately went outside and started wandering. Stupid!!

[CarpeFelis]

On 1/16/2023 at 6:10 AM, Hana Chan said:

It's a real thing. It's a family of fungi that attack insects, primarily ants. Basically an ant becomes infected and while the fungus is growing inside it's body, it goes about its normal ant business, That is until the fungus is ready to reproduce and the ant drags itself to a high perch (usually above the ant trails) and the fungus basically explodes out of its body and rains spores all over the place (so more ants get infected). It's genuinely fascinating and horrifying, As of now, people cannot be infected, but in the future...?

https://insh.world/science/cordyceps-attack-of-the-zombie-fungus/

I thought it was an odd choice given that there are cordyceps supplements on the market as nootropics and immune boosters!

[Kel Varnsen]

Watched the first episode tonight after seeing a bunch of internet buzz and it definitely grabbed my attention. I like that the infected people are still alive since the whole idea of zombies being dead seemed dumb to me. I mean on Saturday where I live it was -29c outside. At that low a temperature if a zombie is dead flesh a snowplow could take care of them. I also like that seems to be more about the survivors dealing with the rest of the shit going on and less about them fighting the infected people. 

I am also curious to find out how skyscrapers tip over after 20 years.

[conquistador]

3 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Watched the first episode tonight after seeing a bunch of internet buzz and it definitely grabbed my attention. I like that the infected people are still alive since the whole idea of zombies being dead seemed dumb to me. I mean on Saturday where I live it was -29c outside. At that low a temperature if a zombie is dead flesh a snowplow could take care of them. I also like that seems to be more about the survivors dealing with the rest of the shit going on and less about them fighting the infected people. 

I am also curious to find out how skyscrapers tip over after 20 years.

I’m not sure it makes all that much more sense to me personally. Both zombies and cortyceps ”people” have the issue of needing sugar and oxygen. You are not able to move without energy expenditure, that is bottom line. And I am not seeing these guys get three square meals per day with toilet breaks inbetween.

[possibilities]

9 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

I thought it was an odd choice given that there are cordyceps supplements on the market as nootropics and immune boosters!

There's also a cordyceps that's used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine. 

[paigow]

9 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

I am also curious to find out how skyscrapers tip over after 20 years.

Maybe due to aerial bombing 

[Kel Varnsen]

8 hours ago, conquistador said:

I’m not sure it makes all that much more sense to me personally. Both zombies and cortyceps ”people” have the issue of needing sugar and oxygen. You are not able to move without energy expenditure, that is bottom line. And I am not seeing these guys get three square meals per day with toilet breaks inbetween.

Oh yeah I am sure logically neither really hold up, but in my brain I like that these infected people still seem to be alive and not the rotting dead risen from the grave. Since to me that makes a bit more sense. Plus the old lady with the fungus strands coming out of her mouth looked super creepy. 

2 hours ago, paigow said:

Maybe due to aerial bombing 

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. I thought they were suggesting that these busted buildings were like ancient ruines falling apart even though it had only been 20 years.

I really liked the opening theme music, reminded me of some of the music used in Deadwood which is my all time favourite HBO show. Which makes sense since it was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla and his song Iguazu was used in that show, famously in the scene right after Wild Bill gets killed (so awesome you can watch it on YouTube) and also as the music for the DVD menus.

[conquistador]

1 hour ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Oh yeah I am sure logically neither really hold up, but in my brain I like that these infected people still seem to be alive and not the rotting dead risen from the grave. Since to me that makes a bit more sense. Plus the old lady with the fungus strands coming out of her mouth looked super creepy. 

Don’t get me wrong, I really like it too. Virus plagues have been done, but we haven’t seen fungal infections done like this. It opens up the possibility of a particular type of body horror, while feeling scientific enough to make it acceptable. Just don’t think too hard on how a fungus is supposed to maintain a human’s metabolism for twenty years, lol

[Anela]

20 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

I thought it was an odd choice given that there are cordyceps supplements on the market as nootropics and immune boosters!

I thought of those, too, but this was supposed to have started in 2003. I only remember these supplements really showing up in 2015/2016. 

 

[go4luca]

On 1/28/2023 at 4:29 PM, Morrigan2575 said:

Was that Little Lyanna Mormont? I didn't realize it until I just read your post 😁

She looks so young now as Lady Mormont.

 

[rebel2u]

Just started watching but glad smart ass daughter Sarah is out of the picture.

That is all.

[bethy]

Doing a bit of a rewatch and there are two things from the episode: 

1. I hadn’t realized Pablo Pascal spent some of his growing-up years in San Antonio. As a Texan, I love the hint of Texas you get in his accent early in the episode. Yum. :) 

2. I really like the contrast they set up between Sarah (pre-fungus, innocent, sweet) and Ellie (post-fungus, hardened, almost feral). 

[conquistador]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:39 AM, conquistador said:

I’m not sure it makes all that much more sense to me personally. Both zombies and cortyceps ”people” have the issue of needing sugar and oxygen. You are not able to move without energy expenditure, that is bottom line. And I am not seeing these guys get three square meals per day with toilet breaks inbetween.

Quoting myself here, but somebody pointed out to me that the cortyceps people may be fed nutrients through the hyphen network. So there may be an in-universe explanation this. But even so, the disease burden of carrying a fungal infection of that proportion would be immense. The infected should succumb to super infections and organ failure before long.

[TaurusRose]

On 1/16/2023 at 9:10 AM, Hana Chan said:

It's a real thing. It's a family of fungi that attack insects, primarily ants. Basically an ant becomes infected and while the fungus is growing inside it's body, it goes about its normal ant business, That is until the fungus is ready to reproduce and the ant drags itself to a high perch (usually above the ant trails) and the fungus basically explodes out of its body and rains spores all over the place (so more ants get infected). It's genuinely fascinating and horrifying, As of now, people cannot be infected, but in the future...?

And that makes this premise genuinely scary to me—the who knows factor. We saw how selfish and weird people were during the Covid pandemic. If something like this ever happened...

[rhiamon]

On 2/7/2023 at 7:44 PM, Anela said:

I thought of those, too, but this was supposed to have started in 2003. I only remember these supplements really showing up in 2015/2016. 

 

I also only remember seeing those supplements appear around that time - which was also after I had read / listened to The Girl With All the Gifts. Needless to say I'm not particularly keen to try any of them...