The Last of Us (TV)

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Shorty said:

This is a damn fine TV. Not sure how that happened.

I was confident going in that it would be the first great video game adaptation, and I was expecting an 8/10. So even with my relatively high hopes compared to what's come for it, it's blown even my expectations away. 

I think, simply, it's a case of Sony actually understanding the value of their IP and giving it the resource it thoroughly deserves. Neil Druckmann is a great creative in his own right, but given this is his first crack at television, he was paired with the right man in Craig Mazin, who wrote and created Chernobyl, and it's not hard to see why that was a smart decision. Gustavo Santaolalla returned after his excellent work with the two Last of Us games to compose the show's main theme and worked alongside David Flemming in composing the rest of the show's music. The licensed music so far has evidently been carefully selected and they've nailed it every time so far, the CG so far has mostly been limited to wide background shots and there's been a bunch of practical effects throughout, and, three episodes deep, I don't think they've put a single foot wrong in terms of casting. 

It's not a 1:1 adaptation (even if the first episode definitely leaned into that and made it seem like it would be close to one), but it's also not doing the video game adaptation thing of using the same characters but just making something up. They're adapting a universally excellent story in a way which suits the medium they're adapting it to - the flashbacks so far have all been brilliant so far and it's a technique put to great effect in television, but one that simply wouldn't work nearly as well in a game - and that, to me, shows how much care has been poured into it. 

If it keeps going at this rate, I really think it stands a chance at opening the floodgates to storytelling in video games finally getting more the praise it deserves from a much wider audience. It's been brilliant, and with my favourite parts of the story still to come, I'm having a hard time imagining how they could be made better – but I'm confident they'll take a good crack at it. 

[drahkon]

When my mom calls me to talk about the show and ask me how it differs from the game, you know it's incredible.

Edited February 11 by drahkon

[Julius]

With one episode left, the show has continued to be great...but, Episode 3 aside, I think almost everything else was handled just as well - if not better - in the original game. Still killing it in terms of viewership, unsurprisingly: the show's audience has grown 74% from Episode 1's premiere to the premiere of the most recent episode, Episode 8. 

I'm sure I'll talk about it more once the show is over, but there's just been weird moments and choices for me in the show throughout which means it doesn't quite hit the heights of the game for me, despite still, by far and away, being the best adaptation of a video game to date. Just weird moments of dialogue shuffled around from one place to another, staying shot-to-shot and line-to-line faithful in some scenes but then making new and original content for others (which has strangely trailed off? Think there were some great uses of this for flashbacks/Day Zero stuff), and some weird musical choices too (we got the credits music for Part I playing at the end of Episode 5 or 6, can't remember which? And a certain climactic moment in the last episode didn't have music which served as a great callback and arc closer in the game). There have also just been moments where they spell things out for you in a way that they don't in the games, and my eyes roll into the back of my skull – are writers really that nervous about subtext in their scenes these days? 

The biggest kicker for me - and the most puzzling - is just how little we've seen of the Infected throughout the show; it's felt less survival horror and more, well, survivor with zombies occasionally thrown in. Super weird choice, because we've only had one or two moments of true tension related to the Infected as a result (the rest has kind of been them going full Hollywood, to an almost distracting degree at times), so yeah, there's that. Can't help but wonder if their budget was capped for some silly reason, because even though I loved Episode 3 and think it was much better than the content we got in the game for that part of the story, it being so different to the game seems to be a result of needing to cut corners and run away from using the Infected. It's really bizarre. They've straight up cut two of the most memorable encounters with the Infected in the entire game! 

On the flip side, there's been some great acting in this, I think Bella Ramsey has been great as Ellie, occasionally there'll be a line stolen from the game verbatim and I'll just be like "well, Ashley Johnson definitely did that better", but it's only been distracting once or twice (and I think that just comes about as a result of this Ellie feeling weirdly younger at times than she was in the game). It's also just nice that this is already brilliant story continues to show that with time, patience, and the right people spearheading a project, video game stories can be told well in other formats. 

Oh, and I nearly forgot: I wish people would just give up on shaky cam, I think it was Episode 7 where I suddenly got nauseous and needed to check the bitrate of my stream because the camera was jittering about all over the shop. There's a time and a place for it, and that's not a shot with two people stationary either side of a table just talking to each other 

I don't personally think I can consider this more than a 9/10 adaptation of a 10/10 game and story, despite one episode still being left, but if nothing else, it was worth it for Episode 3 and to see how it was handled. I can't help but wonder if them adapting Part II could help fix my main issues with it (pacing and structure), whereas their adaptation of Part I has made an already lean and mean story into an even leaner story, and I do think that's come at a cost to the quality of the adaptation. 

[drahkon]

Loved the first season.

Two criticisms, though: A few more infected encounters would've been great (not so much for my mum ) and the show occasionally didn't make passage of time clear enough. It wasn't a big deal for me as I know the game, but my mom was confused at times and I had to explain stuff to her.
Speaking of, she still has to watch the final two episodes. Whoooo boy, can't wait to hear her thoughts on how it'll all play out.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I'm on episode 4 and ... meh. I'm not in a rush to watch the rest. I was expecting more infected killing action, not a series about running between waist high walls avoiding everything. It's been a long time since I played the game, but there's a difference between the doing it and being involved as opposed to just being passive with no control.

[MindFreak]

I'm done with episode 4 as well and want to watch the rest. It's a lot more about the feelings and persons than zombie action which is good, and I really like Joel and Ellie. The acting is great and their chemistry is awesome. 

When The Walking Dead was the shit my wife and I watched some episodes but about halfway through (or maybe all the way through) season 2 we quit as it was just depressing, no hope or light in the show at all. If the same happens here, we will probably quit as well. As of now, they haven't really got a goal except finding Joel's brother somewhere which isn't really that interesting. 

[MindFreak]

Episode 5 done. We're not really feeling it that much. Its alright but not outstanding. There isn't really much happening is there? 

My wife is really bored, I'm still interested but mainly because I like Joel and Ellie. The other stuff doesn't really work well and it could easily have been cut down a few episodes, especially the stuff in Kansas. It also seems a bit aimless.

Also, my wife pointed out that zombies are really boring enemies as they don't have a plan or ulterior motive or anything. They are just there. Eating stuff. There is nothing to wonder about, nothing to figure out. 

[MindFreak]

Finished it now and the last three episodes were a lot more enjoyable than the previous 4 episodes.