The Last of Us

[Murdoch]

I caught the first episode of The Last of Us. I'm not that invested in it since it seems to just be aping cutscenes from the game, which begs the question of what the point of adapting such a cinematic game was in the first place? To see actors cosplay? HBO will likely make bank with this but it just comes across as lazy to me.

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The apocalyptic car scene, the death of Joel's daughter, the 20 year time jump, the game characters, they're all here. There are tweaks to plot points but it feels like a 1:1 adaptation of the game most of the time.

As video game adaptations have become more prevalent, the cynic in me sees each one as simply a hollow marketing tool. Even something as distinct from the typical Mario and Sonic fare as this comes across as a hollow exercise in fan service, but we'll see how things progress during the season.

[Roger Ryan]

Not having played the game (yet - it's actually sitting on my shelf, but I'm a notoriously slow gamer), I didn't have the kind of familiarity with The Last Of Us as others may have. Still, while I found the set-up to be dynamic, once the show settled into the main action, I felt like "Your Mission" text hints were going to start appearing in the upper left corner of the frame. I, too, hope that the promise of strong character interaction comes to the fore in future episodes, but I'm worried the show won't embellish much on its video game origins.

[Murdoch]

I caught the first episode of The Last of Us. I'm not that invested in it since it seems to just be aping cutscenes from the game, which begs the question of what the point of adapting such a cinematic game was in the first place? To see actors cosplay? HBO will likely make bank with this but it just comes across as lazy to me.

SpoilerShow

The apocalyptic car scene, the death of Joel's daughter, the 20 year time jump, the game characters, they're all here. There are tweaks to plot points but it feels like a 1:1 adaptation of the game most of the time.

As video game adaptations have become more prevalent, the cynic in me sees each one as simply a hollow marketing tool. Even something as distinct from the typical Mario and Sonic fare as this comes across as a hollow exercise in fan service, but we'll see how things progress during the season.

With the first season concluded, I'm more positive on the show than I was at the first episode. The love story centered around Bill was perhaps the most remarkable thing on television this year.
Still, the writers fear deviating from the source game due to fan backlash. This is in spite of how the show often excels when it does deviate, and the source material's rather hollow center (a generic post-apocalyptic United States populated by the umpteenth reimagining of zombies) only makes this strict adherence to the source all the more frustrating.

During one post-credits interview regarding an emotional scene between Ellie and Joel, the showrunners discuss how closely they tried to ape the cutscene from the game, out of concern that the game's fans would be scrutinizing every little detail. It's been recurring in their interviews to talk about the domineering presence of the fanbase as if they hold a veto power over the series.

This of course is nothing new when it comes to adapting stories across different forms of media. There are always fans ready to criticize any deviations the adaptation takes from the source But here it just feels, for lack of a better term, boring where you can play a cutscene from the game and a scene from the show side by side and see little difference.

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Thankfully the first season is the first game, so the showrunners will not have their hands as tied with the next season.

[Roger Ryan]

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Thankfully the first season is the first game, so the showrunners will not have their hands as tied with the next season.

But aren't they going to slavishly follow the sequel game "The Last Of Us Part II" for the second season?

I agree that they pretty much made a success out of the series despite wanting to adhere to the story points in the game. In fact, I'd say that elements that are standard operating procedure in a video game...

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... such as shooting multiple people to remove obstructions to reach a destination...

... carry much higher psychological baggage when presented in a televised drama. Ultimately, I found the episodic nature of the series to be fairly appealing, but the digressions (and the deviations from the game) were always the best parts.

[bearcuborg]

It wouldn’t surprise me if more than half of the audience ever played the games, or even know they exist. Without spoiling anything, if they follow the sequel, a large majority of the viewers will turn it off after episode 1…they’re not prepared for what’s coming.

For what it’s worth, I thought the series was better than the first game, which was above average, at best. The sequel however is a flat out masterpiece, superior in every way. I have no idea how it can be adapted, and how Bella can portray Ellie…

[therewillbeblus]

Just about everyone I’ve talked to lately has been watching this, and of that pool, I know exactly one person who’s also played the game- plus even if one has played it, they may be watching it in a household with others who haven’t (as is the case with a few colleagues of mine and their gamer partners). I’d be surprised if more than a small percentage of the show’s audience is familiar with the video game

[The Curious Sofa]

It's been announced that The Last of Us II will be adapted over two seasons apparently because there is too much plot to cover. As Bella Ramsey was 17 when they shot the first season, she will be closer to Ellie's age in the coming seasons, where will be 19.

I haven't played the game but I enjoyed the first season, most of all for Ramsey's performance, who adds some levity to the grim subject matter. I too felt slight zombie fatigue for the first couple of episodes but as the series carries on, I was impressed how character based this show is. I'm not sure there were more than ten minutes featuring the fungal zombies in the entire season.

It's striking how closely this resembles The Girl with all the Gifts, which I found to be one of the more underrated horror films of the 21st century.

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Both take place decades into a fungal zombie apocalypse, with visually similar depictions of post-apocalyptic cities, both centre on precocious young girls who get transported across dangerous terrain and both girls may hold the key to a cure, whose extraction requires their sacrifice. In both cases the girls immunity/adaptation to the parasitic fungus came about in the same way.

The sources for both adaptations (a game, a novel) where in the works at the same time.

[Murdoch]

But aren't they going to slavishly follow the sequel game "The Last Of Us Part II" for the second season?

I don't think there's the same vocal fanbase for the second game as there is for the first. I recall the second actually being received fairly poorly by the first's fans, and I feel like the showrunners, if they do follow the sequel's story, will be more willing to take liberties with a story not so dear its viewers.

Twbb, I'll have to check out the sequel game. The mixed response and description of its rather dour storyline piqued my interest, and the backlash seemed largely motivated by those disappointed it wasn't a retread of the first.

[Gregor Samsa]

But aren't they going to slavishly follow the sequel game "The Last Of Us Part II" for the second season?

I don't think there's the same vocal fanbase for the second game as there is for the first. I recall the second actually being received fairly poorly by the first's fans, and I feel like the showrunners, if they do follow the sequel's story, will be more willing to take liberties with a story not so dear it's viewers.

Twbb, I'll have to check out the sequel game. The mixed response and description of its rather dour storyline piqued my interest, and the backlash seemed largely motivated by those disappointed it wasn't a retread of the first.

I'd say it had a divisive response more than anything. Plenty of people see it as a masterpiece or a more interesting game than the first (myself among them), but a loud part of the fanbase was angered at the story direction.

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More specifically, just before the game came out, it was misleadingly leaked that Joel's killer was trans. People looked at Abby's build and wrongly assumed she was a trans character, which inflamed right-wingers.

[ianthemovie]

From my anecdotal experience, both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2 are hugely popular titles within the gaming world. They were major releases and went on to win lots of acclaim and awards. It seems many folks were divided on some of the directions that were taken in Part 2, but even the gamers I know who had issues with that still retain a strong investment in the game series and watched the show with hawk eyes. One person I know really wanted the show to be a "one to one" adaptation and was most happy with the episodes/moments that matched the game most closely. So I would say there is a large contingent of viewers who are coming to this as fans of the game, and a good number of them want to see something very faithful to what they are already familiar with.

Also anecdotal, but a number of other people I've talked to about the show who are not interested in watching it seem to dismiss it out of hand precisely because of its source material ("oh, it's based on a video game with zombies? I don't want to watch that"). HBO has definitely tried to mount this as a prestige drama, in part by making it very character-driven and downplaying much of the zombie/action scenes, and has mostly succeeded in doing so, though some viewers will probably not take a chance on this because of their pre-existing bias against video games.

In short, my sense is that far more viewers of this show are familiar with the video game to some degree than those that are not. I'd be curious to see more measurable data on this, though.

[domino harvey]

I found the first season moderately entertaining but exceedingly familiar and predictable and absurdly overvalued by people building it up as the next prestige popular sensation (which only reinforces my hesitancy to indulge in these rotating cause celebres anyways). I suspect the producers were so insistent on not falling into the languid pacing of the Walking Dead that they overcorrected in the other direction and every interesting locale/set-up is summarily left behind by episode's end, so there's no use trying to tie any emotional investment into anything we see. The best thing in the series by faaaaaaar was the self-contained episode with Nick Offerman, and it gives us a peek at how much better this show would be as an anthology of how people dealt with the outbreak before, during, and after (which it seems to want to be anyways) with Joel/Ellie stuff used as bookends rather than a focal point. I also tired of this show's instance on stacking the deck. It's not enough that a cult leader has to be tyrannical and

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a cannibal, he has to be a 'phile who tries to rape Ramsey in the middle of a burning building too. It's not enough that Pascal "rescues" Ramsey at the expense of the Fireflies, he has to execute thirty of them with absolute precision and in cold blood

and so on. I already know where this story goes, so I wasn't surprised at the series trying to prepare viewers for what's to come by showing the glaring flaws of one of the protagonists, but it felt like another bludgeon to the head.

Spoiler for second video gameShow

Everyone thirst watching for Pascal, which is not a small fraction of the audience, is going to stop watching once he exits next season, so I think HBO has miscalculated in being overly faithful to the source material if they want to maintain their ratings/zeitgeist

[DarkImbecile]

[therewillbeblus]

I liked this more than I anticipated - though I tempered expectations significantly (I generally find new 'premium' TV these days to be mediocre material disguised in lavish production design, so I think starting from a place of 'this is probably overrated' helps). The focus on the human side of things instead of the monsters is always welcome, but the most refreshing aspect is best kept in a spoilerbox, even if it's not content-related, since I enjoyed being gradually exposed to this surprising structural deviation from the norm, evolving with the realization that the artistic choice wholly reflects the ethos of the show. And if that comes from the video game, maybe more video games should be adapted.

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I appreciate the episodic anthology nature of this show a lot, specifically how big names/familiar faces show up for just one episode rather than becoming characters with longer, expansive roles. The strategy of cameo-ing actors who have been main cast members in popular series before fits with the post-apocalyptic journey narrative, more than most shows that cover such expansive territory and yet force concurrent arcs in attempts to boost the show's prosperity a la GoT. The Last of Us proves something that movies already have: that characters can be rich and impactful in small doses, contributing to the tone and spirit of the context without necessarily developing slowly over the course of a season or six. All it takes sometimes is a few minutes to an hour to leave a memorable mark, on audiences and the lives of the core principals.

It's not that Bill and Frank don't deserve an entire show to themselves - they do - but the humble relativity to one's significance in this milieu aids our comprehension of where to turn our attention. Joel - a compelling and brave protagonist - is certainly deserving of a narrative arc as an actionable man willing to traverse dangerous terrain rather than stow away in a gated community, but I think it's interesting to ponder if perhaps he is only worthy of being the 'main character' here because of his world-changing cargo in tow, instead of any assets of personality.

[domino harvey]

[Never Cursed]

I already know where this story goes, so I wasn't surprised at the series trying to prepare viewers for what's to come by showing the glaring flaws of one of the protagonists, but it felt like another bludgeon to the head.

Spoiler for second video gameShow

Everyone thirst watching for Pascal, which is not a small fraction of the audience, is going to stop watching once he exits next season, so I think HBO has miscalculated in being overly faithful to the source material if they want to maintain their ratings/zeitgeist

Spoiler for both games and presumably both seasons of this showShow

Even that description is lowballing the impact it'll have on that contingent - it isn't just that Pascal is gonna go, it's that, presuming they keep in line with the game, his face is gonna get smashed in by a complete stranger. The online fans will go ballistic, especially since the reactions of theirs that I saw to the hospital massacre were of complete approval (in turn demonstrating how nothing has been learned from HBO's previous megahit fantasy show).

On an unrelated note, glad to see you back!

[colinr0380]

I've not seen the series yet (do they re-do the Jurassic Park referencing scene from the game in which Ellie gets introduced to a wild giraffe?) but if anyone wants to be brought up to date on the first game and where it fits into the "Babychild-Bigfriend" trilogy of 2013 (comprising The Last of Us, Walking Dead Season 1 and Bioshock: Infinite) I would recommend the Action Button video dedicated to it, particularly the plot synopsis done in the style of Cormac McCarthy!

[therewillbeblus]

(do they re-do the Jurassic Park referencing scene from the game in which Ellie gets introduced to a wild giraffe?)

Yep

[Murdoch]

.

SpoilerShow

It's not that Bill and Frank don't deserve an entire show to themselves - they do - but the humble relativity to one's significance in this milieu aids our comprehension of where to turn our attention. Joel - a compelling and brave protagonist - is certainly deserving of a narrative arc as an actionable man willing to traverse dangerous terrain rather than stow away in a gated community, but I think it's interesting to ponder if perhaps he is only worthy of being the 'main character' here because of his world-changing cargo in tow, instead of any assets of personality.

I don't see Joel as particularly compelling, at least no more so than any of the countless other iterations of the strong, silent type that appear in nearly every post-apocalyptic action movie. To me, the only captivating part about him is his relationship with Ellie and his transition from reluctant protector to substitute father figure (a relationship also done countless times before but I think done particularly well here since both Joel and Ellie are imbued with a vulnerability typically reserved for the child in the relationship).

[therewillbeblus]

You're right, he's not really. I think there are elisions that could've made him more compelling, and that I was reaching for and hoping would come into fruition, but didn't and likely won't - and the end of the season significantly numbed any complexity offered for both his character and the ethical dilemma at hand

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The show could've explored Joel's trajectory more in-depth, but instead we watch him go from an active drug addict/alcoholic to cold-turkey savior without even the mildest symptoms. So all consequences of trauma, including but not limited to physiological addiction = nullified by presence of purpose.. got it! And the end set up something very interesting: The idea that through becoming a surrogate parent again, Joel has regained a sense of existential merit, and that his subsequent mass murdering of the Fireflies was actually more in service of his own selfish psychological self-preservation than it was a 'heroic act' coming down on the 'right' side of the Leftovers' scientist's question about sacrificing one human being to cure disease for all. But even if it was a moral action, which I don't think it's being necessarily pitched as, that eliminates or at least softens a crucial philosophical arc from emanating. The climax would've worked better if Joel and the dilemma were fleshed out a bit more, but any greyness achieved here falls a bit flat by the show not being explicit enough that it's not siding with Joel as 'hero'. At least, until he lies. But that also diffuses a lot of what could've led him to become compelling by now making his trajectory orbiting around contending with this lie. I'm already a bit irritated going into S2...