There had to be a 20 year jump since the outbreak and I guess they wanted to set it in the same year its airing, 2023.

It ain't that deep, bro.

In the games the outbreak occurs in 2013 and the “present-day” take place during 2033. So probably they made that change so the present of the story would be happening now, in 2023. I don't know for sure, this is just a guess.

I think it's more to help you see the show's "present day" as near our own present day.

Station Eleven's "present" is in the 2040s and it did create some intuitive weirdness to see a 2040 civilisation that's essentially regressed, even given their pandemic. It's a little stranger again with TLOU, because there is some semblance of functional government and technological development, so if you set it mostly ten years in the future, you have to try to work out what cultural and tech development might happen in those intervening years under these exceptionally odd circumstances.

Making their present line up with our present solves that, and it's just plain neater to present the audience with a parallel 2023.

that's when global warming made the earth hot enough for the fugus to cross over to human.

>Maybe people would be upset if it took place in the Obama years. The idea of the world falling apart in his tenure is too much for some people.
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>The idea of the government being unprepared, turning corrupt and killing innocent people seems to more acceptable if it took place in an era where Republicans ruled such as the Bush era.

...it's not that deep, dude.

At no point in the show does it even remotely make the implication that the pandemic got out of control or FEDRA started killing people because George Bush was in office. Maybe I could understand your gripe if there was a scene with Donald Rumsfeld talking about "known unknowns" at a press conference before being attacked by infected, but that's clearly not the case.

some people are so brainwashed they see politics everywhere

Cars from 2003 are dirt cheap compared to cars from 2013.

Bonus points for 2023 being present day.

> Is there a political angle to having the TV show outbreak happen in 2003 ?

No.

Things have changed a lot in the last 20 years. I wonder if the show will have characters with the same opinions and values as they had in 2003? Time has passed but I can't see things like Me Too, BLM, etc having occurred during the outbreak.

Conspiracy thinking at it's purest, missing the completely obvious fact the show is set in 2023 and instead going down some bat-shit rabbit hole looking for a political angle.

It’s not that deep bro, I’m pretty sure they answered this too- it’s because of smart phones

They didn’t want smart phones, or tech like that, to be a factor at all in the story

If they wanted to do this, it would be under Trump. They would show Trump touring the cereal plant and tell you that it came from there 100%.

If you want politics. The State of the Union just happened. Here is Beau of the Fifth Column's take on it. https://youtu.be/SYeB7fPCK5I

This is too political, man. Nobody was thinking like that when they wrote it.

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Because HBO and Druckman are woke unhinged liberals. It's intentional and aligns with their politics. Did you notice the "Not today you New World Order jack boot fucks" and 'Don't Tread on Me' poster from Episode Three? How Bill is a Qanon, bigoted, closeted conservative until saved by an enlightened liberal gay man? HBO is great but you have to accept most of their stuff is loaded with woke garbage points of view. It's been especially egregious since 2016 when Trump broke them but it's always been present. You learn to ignore it as long as it's well written and produced. When HBO is "on" they're the best in the business

stop being so naive. It's HBO, of course it was on their mind

The infection started in Indonesia. The lead scientist of the situation told her government to bomb an entire city. By the time the Americans got around to it humanity already lost. No president would have been prepared. The world ended in a weekend.

well... in 2003 we invaded this country called Iraq because it had WMD's. It had chem and bio weapons and used them freely in 1988 before we invaded. Maybe they said that one of the bio weapons got loose because Murica and bull in the china shop syndrome.

>The game took place in 2013 then it jumps 20 years in the future.

The game was released in 2013, yeah? There's nothing special about that year otherwise. So the outbreak started in present day, and the main story takes place in an alternate future.

With the show, they decided to set the main story in an alternate present. So they just subtracted 20 years from 2023.

Had they set the outbreak in 2023, then it might invite unintended logic questions related to the world's prior pandemic experience (Covid). Best to avoid of all of that and do the opposite of what the game did.

You weirdo, using logic and stuff... Conspiracy is way more fun, said OP.

Sure thing Alice.

I like your tin foil hat!

They have explained its because they want the show to take place in 2023. That's it. Thats the answer.

This a good practical theory too

Plus they don’t have to explain social media’s reaction to the outbreak either