The Last of Us - the HBO series

[Duke Togo]

Starting a threat for discussion revolving around HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us. 

Please clearly mark all game spoilers as such. All other spoilers will be considered series-specific.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Duke Togo

[Duke Togo]

So, I'll kick this off. Another top-notch prestige series by HBO. Fantastic adaptation so far. Any changes made to the narrative have been for the better. Loving it.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Duke Togo

[Duke Togo]

For those unaware, this week's episode was released Friday night (10th) to avoid conflict with the Super Bowl on Sunday. So, it can be watched right now.

[505thAirborne]

Since GoT, Walking Dead were always a Sunday night thing, and now with The Last of Us I'll wait until Sunday. Four episodes in & I have really been enjoying this series, Last of Us is proving that if you actually try that you can properly adapt an existing IP into a quality show. It's not a shot for shot remake of the game but when you do seeing something straight from the game, it's a high quality moment! 

Looking forward to episode 5, I do hope it's a longer episode than last weeks and nothing is rushed. 

Side note: My only concern (if it ever happens) will be if they decide to continue the series with the majority if not all of Part II, you can't change my mind on Abby... there's is zero to like or have any empathy for her. Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann would have to do some serious rewrites.

[505thAirborne]

Tonight should be a really a good episode. Besides finding Tommy, it looks like we'll be encountering David & his crew. 

[Duke Togo]

Another excellent episode. I've said it before and I'll say it against: TV and film adaptations of video games cannot be what they were prior to this. The previous level of quality is just not acceptable after what they've done with this show.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Duke Togo

[Duke Togo]

Also, I'd like to note that I haven't heard Bella Ramsey's accent slip once. Or if it did, I didn't notice it. She's done a great job.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Duke Togo

[Convectuoso]

Another great episode. A lot of references to TLOU part 2 

[505thAirborne]

1 hour ago, Duke Togo said:

Also, I'd like to note that I haven't heard Bella Ramsey's accent slip once. Or if it did, I didn't notice it. She's done a great job.

In last weeks episode, when Bella yells to Sam & Henry "Run!!, listen carefully and you can hear her accent. I'm going to be watching this in a few minutes... I've got my popcorn ready! 

[Duke Togo]

Oh, really should mention

Spoiler

how fantastic the scene with Graham Greene and Elaine Miles was. Great surprise seeing them both and they were wonderful.

 

[Duke Togo]

For those who might be interested, I listen to The Prestige TV Podcast quite often and their The Last of Us Deep Dive pods have been really good. They add some game perspective into it, which has been great for me since I played the game a decade ago and don't remember a lot of it.

[505thAirborne]

I truly hope the episodes 8 & 9 are a lot longer than just an hour. 

Episode 7 tonight was fantastic. I've seen Left Behind once on YouTube Via "theradbrad" and this episode felt pretty damn close to the game! 

[Convectuoso]

 

Spoiler

I noticed that Riley pressed the input for Mileena's Surgery fatality, but they showed the Man Eater fatality instead

 

[Duke Togo]

5 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

I truly hope the episodes 8 & 9 are a lot longer than just an hour. 

Episode 7 tonight was fantastic. I've seen Left Behind once on YouTube Via "theradbrad" and this episode felt pretty damn close to the game! 

I didn't realize it was only 9 episodes. My first instinct is to ask if that's enough time, but they have done a dynamite job with this show up to this point, so I'm just going to assume they'll stick the landing in the first season.

[TangledThorns]

Only two episodes in and we're loving it. You know its good when my wife doesn't look at her phone once throughout a whole episode, lol.

I'll also buy the game when its on sale on STEAM again too.

Edited February 27, 2023 by TangledThorns

[505thAirborne]

The use of "Take on me" for the Merry Go round scene was brilliant. 

[Tking22]

On 2/27/2023 at 6:20 AM, TangledThorns said:

I'll also buy the game when its on sale on STEAM again too.

I'd recommend waiting until the 28th for Last of Us Part I to drop on PC, it's the ground-up PS5 remake of the first game. Night and day difference, totally rehauled visuals, it's one of the best looking games on PS5. Same great story and characters, it's just got modern bells and whistles for the visuals. 

46 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

The use of "Take on me" for the Merry Go round scene was brilliant. 

Pulled straight from the DLC for the first game, such a great moment. For me, as someone that's played the first game about 15 times over, across PS3, PS4 and now PS5, I'm really happy with the balance that's been found between new and old for the show. I feel all the best moments from the game are nearly recreated 1:1, and the things that have been changed aren't of any detriment to the show, it's been a really well done adaptation, easily the best game to film/tv series ever, not a high bar to clear, but there it is. 

[sh9000]

[Bolt]

On 3/3/2023 at 12:56 PM, sh9000 said:

The last was a gripping episode. We get to see a glimpse of just how ruthless and bad Joel can be. But holy heck, we get to see what a bad ass Elle is.!

[505thAirborne]

Only one more episode. It's been a hell of a ride so far and tonight was damn near perfection. 

Bella Ramsey was amazing tonight, last week too!

[Duke Togo]

The show has been great, but with the end of the first game/story upon us, I'm really feeling that they should have done two seasons to tell it all.

[Tking22]

Yeah one season for the whole first game is a bit of a rush IMO, there's a lot to cover. I feel they've certainly done their best, but maybe two seasons for Part I or more episodes would've been better.

I just read the finale is 43 minutes? That's pretty slim, once again there's still quite a bit to cover. Excellent season so far, the fact that people are asking for more, or a longer season is a good sign, they've done an exceptional job so far. 

[Convectuoso]

I loved last episode. Great acting by Bella Ramsey. 

[Duke Togo]

I've been rethinking this. Does the story need a full second season to tell the story of game 1, or just a few more episodes? Maybe 10 or 11 episodes instead of 9 would feel better. But damn, still a great show as it Is.

[505thAirborne]

While I don't want this season to end so soon, I'd rather have 9 high quality episodes vs what The Walking dead did by taking 2-3 seasons to take out the bad guy, useless filler episodes, bad writing, etc. 

I'm not a major fan of the second games plot but who knows, maybe the production team will surprise us in a good way a second time.

[Tking22]

I think they should've rounded it out to 10 episodes this season, in particular I think the last episode should've had more to it, one more episode could've helped add a bit more and given a few other episodes more room to breath.
 

Spoiler

In the game David and Ellie are attacked by a group of infected, not only do I think this show could've used at least one more solid infected action sequence, but it was also an important moment for the Ellie and David dynamic. Ellie took David's main weapon, but when she's attacked by an infected David shoots it with a side-arm she didn't know he had, saving her, but also showing he definitely could've killed her if he wanted to. In the game and show it's eventually shown he was willing to let her off easy, all things considered, for what her and Joel were responsible for, we see that's because he's a chimo piece of crap, in the game this is hammered home further by the infected attack, he was willing to go that far for a chance to feed his inner demon.

It was also a learning point for Ellie, she thought she covered her bases for David, she got his primary weapon, but it showed once again, there's no such thing as too safe, she should've checked him more thoroughly, she could've made a fatal mistake if his intention was to just kill her. 

We'll see on season 2, Last of Us Part II isn't my favorite narrative, I don't agree with everything that happened, so it'll be interesting to see if the show-runners will get more liberal with the events from that game. 

[Big s]

On 3/7/2023 at 3:20 PM, 505thAirborne said:

While I don't want this season to end so soon, I'd rather have 9 high quality episodes vs what The Walking dead did by taking 2-3 seasons to take out the bad guy, useless filler episodes, bad writing, etc. 

I'm not a major fan of the second games plot but who knows, maybe the production team will surprise us in a good way a second time.

It’s tough not to try and compare walking dead and last of us, but they’re so different that it’s like night and day. The lady of the house loves Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead, but I really hate both shows. They’re so badly written and more like soap operas. Any time someone gets in a car that works, it’s gonna crash. Anytime there’s a bad guy that’s gonna murder a bunch of their friends, the main characters will give them a second, third , fourth or even more chances. And the worst part is that the zombies are lame. They always fear a horde, but then they seem to get through without much difficulty like a few episodes where they just stood on top of cars and the zombies couldn’t grab or climb. And each season seems designed to waste as much time as possible to fill out another season.

This show makes the infected more of a threat and when they need to put down a bad guy, there’s little to no hesitation. The writing is great and there’s even room for a bit of great lightheartedness without seeming unreal. The actors are great as well. Everything I hate about Walking dead is luckily nowhere to be found here. I’ll take a shorter greater show over a longer pile of garbage any day

[Duke Togo]

The final episode of the first season was the one bit of the story I actually had clear memory of from the game. And it impacted my enjoyment of it.

Spoiler

It's not that I thought it was bad or that it didn't meet expectations. It just played out exactly as I expected, which felt anticlimactic.

This is pretty much why I didn't reread Fire & Blood or The World of Ice & Fire before House of the Dragon came out. 

 

[TangledThorns]

On 3/7/2023 at 6:20 PM, 505thAirborne said:

While I don't want this season to end so soon, I'd rather have 9 high quality episodes vs what The Walking dead did by taking 2-3 seasons to take out the bad guy, useless filler episodes, bad writing, etc. 

I'm not a major fan of the second games plot but who knows, maybe the production team will surprise us in a good way a second time.

Agreed and its why we stopped watching TWD. Too much filler episodes and commercials too, even with the DVR box fast-forwarding as this was before we cut the cable.

[Convectuoso]

The finale was perfectly executed.

Spoiler

Of course, for those of us who played the game there were no surprises, except for the scene of Ellie's mother 

 

[jvmacross]

 

Spoiler

Did Ellie's mother turn or was killed before she did?  Just wondering if Ellie's immunity was hereditary or a genetcic mutation...if hereditary...who is the dad?

As someone who never played the game....the ending did seem a bit anticlimactic...even if others like Ellie are out there...without the existence of the talent to develop a cure....there is no point for any further continuation of the series....as of now....any continuation of the series would be just another TWD

[azrael]

If people thought this season was brutal and gut-wrenching, wait till next season. 😉 If you've played the game or watched the clips, you know what's coming. 😉

[jvmacross]

Other than the existence for a potential cure for the disease portrayed in TLOU....I didn't find any difference, in terms of the stakes involved, with TWD during it's first few seasons....with the "hope" eliminated...I really don't see why I would want to invest any more time in the story....I already witnessed brutality and gut-wrentching in TWD and did not feel the payout was worth the time I spent on the show...which is why I bailed on it mid-series...it was going nowhere interesting...

Edited March 13, 2023 by jvmacross

[Roy Focker]

Never finished the game but I watched a playthrough before I ever played. Finale was how I remembered it.

[TangledThorns]