The Last of Us (TV)

[Julius]

An excellent trailer for Season 2:

Just over a month to go! Anyone else planning to tune in? Particularly curious to hear from those who haven't played the games/Part II 

[FalcoLombardi]

Yep, we'll be watching. I didn't play either game but have a general idea what happens (the big thing) in the second game.

[drahkon]

On 3/9/2025 at 1:22 AM, Julius said:

Anyone else planning to tune in?

Of course.
Can't wait to get a few calls from my mom after she's watched the episodes  

[CrowingJoe79]

If Neil keeps saying a third game is not happening, he is telling you that because it is indeed in production. According to some leaker, at least.

Neil would rather just focus on his other Naughty Dog project first.

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/the-last-of-us-part-3-casting-rumor-filming-ps5/

[Julius]

ASL versions of S1 and S2 are in the works, which is awesome!

The ASL release of S1 will drop March 31st, giving people time to catch up, before the ASL release of S2 drops day-and-date from S2's premiere on 13th April. 

Per IndieWire:

Quote

The "clickers" in the "The Last of Us" are zombies whose fungus has grown so infected, it has both blinded them and made their hearing hyper-sensitive. In the video game on which the hit HBO television series is based, players use stealth to evade them and respond to the sound of the monsters' clicks in order to survive.

For Deaf players, developer Naughty Dog's game is top of the line in terms of accessibility, implementing subtle visual cues to make players aware of looming danger, putting those players on equal footing with hearing players. It's only fitting then that the series adaptation of "The Last of Us" be as inclusive for Deaf viewers as the game is.

Quote

HBO is set to launch an ASL version of both the first season of its hit series "The Last of Us" and the upcoming second season, IndieWire can reveal exclusively. Daniel Durant, one of the stars of the Oscar-winning "CODA," is the ASL performer for the first season of the show, acting through the entire season in American Sign Language to open up a new level of appreciation and comprehension of the series for the Deaf audience.

Quote

The series will be available as a standalone title on Max, and it drops on March 31 ahead of the premiere of Season 2 on April 13. The ASL version of Season 2 will air day-and-date when it becomes available for everyone else, but no interpreter has been set just yet for Season 2.

So great to see that Naughty Dog's best-in-class in-game accessibility is now being applied in some way to its shows, too! 

Edited March 19 by Julius

[CrowingJoe79]

Excuse me. It is Ma'am. ☺️

 

[Julius]

Season 3 (aka Part II Part 2) has been confirmed:

I mean this was obviously coming, but can you imagine if they just left it at half an adaptation? 

[Hero-of-Time]

Well, the golf episode has now happened. I've been sat watching a few videos to see how people reacted to it. Needless to say, there's a lot of angry viewers out there.

[Julius]

21 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Well, the golf episode has now happened. I've been sat watching a few videos to see how people reacted to it. Needless to say, there's a lot of angry viewers out there.

Yeah, I watched the first two episodes the other night after getting back from the PlayStation Concert, and even as someone who knew what was going on, I again find myself a bit puzzled by their approach with the show here. I'll throw my take in a spoiler tag just in case I casually swim into talking about the game too much. 

Spoilers for The Last of Us Part II and S2 (E1/E2)

Spoiler

Much like the first season, it's a fine adaptation at times, and pretty jarring at others – best example of this is what and who they have shuffled around in the first two episodes for certain events/aftermaths, and how that would clearly have a knock-on effect on the rest of the story as seen in the game. I'm talking the genesis of entire character arcs being missing because of what they've shuffled around. Do they have other plans for those characters? Maybe. But it changes things drastically enough for me already to feel similar to how I felt about the finale for S1. 

I think Kaitlyn Dever is a phenomenal actress, and I truly think it was unrealistic to think a mid-20s actress was going to get into the video game shape of a certain someone, anyone that size at that age is going to be dedicated to a whole different career, and I was even more for her casting when we saw in the Grounded II doc last year that Abby was going to look very similar to Ellie in height and stature. She has Abby's mannerisms and intonation down-pat. For me, you can have a smaller Abby who is more adept at other things, such as being an absolute deadeye with any type of gun, or incredibly tactically aware. Instead, they seem to be playing it pretty straight as an adaptation most of the time, and the problem there is that Abby's physicality defines so much of the scene with Joel. It's not just that he was outnumbered and caught off guard, but Abby could probably take him one-on-one outside of this scenario, too. 

Which leads into my next point: I think the simultaneously most kind and unkind thing I can say about the show thus far is that it is an alternative take rather than a definitive one, which for my money is still the game. They're flying too close to the sun with having so many key scenes being 1:1 adaptations of scenes and lines from the game because it invites comparison and side-by-sides, which are better acted by much more experienced actors in the game. Laura Bailey has been a voice actress, I'm fairly sure, nearly as long if not longer than Kaitlyn has been alive. I went back and watched Joel's death cutscene afterwards and the tension and intent is night and day for me, to the point that like with the S1 finale missing the point for me of the game's finale, I once again find myself questioning Druckmann's involvement here because I have to question his input in the show if he's allowing so much to be done so differently and, frankly, to a lesser quality. 

It just feels like they aren't willing to place the same trust in the TV audience as they are the gaming one, such as with how Abby's history and intentions are spelt out via a flashback at the very start of the first episode. I'm not sure if it speaks more to the risks Neil and Naughty Dog take with their games in that space, or just how safe Hollywood likes to play it by comparison, but it makes the story feel so generic and cliche compared to that of the game, which I think is a real shame. Some might argue that it's because the game is already out there and it could get spoiled, but you could say that for the existence of S2 and S3, so it's a non-argument in my book 

As soon as there weren't stairs for Ellie to go down to witness *that* scene, I knew the read would be way off. 

I'll stick with it, because S1 gave us the expansion of Bill and that was an All-Time Top 10 Episode of TV for me, and I'd like to see the route they take with a potentially similar episode focused on a lesser character here. 

If nothing else, though, the show has me wanting to boot up Part II once again, so it can't be all bad 

Edited 4 hours ago by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

I've not watched any of the show but I quite like the look/build of Abby in it and find it more realistic to the narrative I built up in my head.

I always had issues with her in the game. It wasn't the fact that she was built like a tank but more about how the hell did she even get that big? They are living in a post apocalyptic world where food is hard to come by and yet she is able to build herself up to that size. Maybe she had a stash of protein powder hidden away? Always baffled me.

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I've not watched any of the show but I quite like the look/build of Abby in it and find it more realistic to the narrative I built up in my head.

I always had issues with her in the game. It wasn't the fact that she was built like a tank but more about how the hell did she even get that big? They are living in a post apocalyptic world where food is hard to come by and yet she is able to build herself up to that size. Maybe she had a stash of protein powder hidden away? Always baffled me.

It was a big complaint back at launch I remember, too, and honestly it makes the backlash to Kaitlyn Dever's casting even more confusing. There's a lot of overlap between the people complaining back in 2020 that Abby couldn't have possibly been that size that took issue with Kaitlyn not being that same size when cast for the show (not speaking about me or you...you know the type, a lot of bigotry was being thrown around from what I remember too, alongside all the vitriol Laura was subjected to).

For me, watching the show, it's purely because Kaitlyn seems to have been told to carry herself in the same way as Abby in the game – while she captures her speech and acts with her face pretty much perfectly in like with Abby, her being in control of a situation based on her character's physicality falls flat when that same physicality isn't present. Again, not saying that physicality was needed to still portray Abby, but I think they could have adapted the character and scenes accordingly. 

As for Abby being massive, for me, I always read it as Abby (and likely the rest of her crew, but her especially) getting access to the best of the best stuff. It's clear how highly she's regarded by those above her and she's clearly looked at as a bit of an ace up the W.L.F.'s sleeve – she had a high level "apartment" in their complex, and I imagine she probably got access to better training, food, and whatever potential supplements and PEDs they had either lying around (very unlikely, obviously, given the) or concocted themselves. I do think it's probably a step too far with her size in the game for it to be completely believable, though. 

As for the game...

Spoiler

...I think it made a lot of sense for Abby to be built the way she was purely from a gameplay perspective because of how differently it allowed her to feel compared with Ellie. Both times I've played through there's definitely a confidence and swagger I have walking around in Abby's shoes, with her size and physicality as well as how she can push smaller Infected around, which is absent from my very stealth-focused gameplay with Ellie. 

I also think it made finding her in the game's final act much more powerful, how she'd gone from this hulking soldier to a frail prisoner. I struggle to see how the show can have the same impact upon just seeing her.