Remove ads

The Last of Us Coming to HBO from Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin

I was surprised by how good this was. I did legit cry during Ep 3. A solid prestige TV show and goes to show video game plots can be adapted with care quite well, if with changes of course.
 
A lot more like the game (which isn't praise or condemnation) than the last episode, kept the joke about Bill's Magazine and Ellie's pun book, though that said they are doing some very different things with this part of the story, Really good stuff between Joel and Ellie this episode.

Also next episode is on Friday due to the Super Bowl.
 
Loving the show so far, but one thing I do dislike is the idea that any group, no matter how much they might respect their leader, would go through so much trouble looking for one person who has no connections and is a total non-threat just because the boss dislikes him.

I feel like they'd override it and tell her to let it go.
 
I didn't care for the ending of this episode. The part from the game was handled very well, but the other bit felt kind of dumb and the overall effect is that it strikes me as a very middle of the road episode. Especially since, accidentally or not, the overall narrative ends up being that revolting against FEDRA is bad and wrong as the city doesn't even last a fortnight afterwards. IIRC, the same section in the game has everything collapse over a long-ish period as a result of the revolutionaries being forced to implement many of the same policies as FEDRA once they win. I might be getting confused with TLOU2, though.
 
Last edited:
prometheus110 said:
I didn't care for the ending of this episode. The part from the game was handled very well, but the other bit felt kind of dumb and the overall effect is that it strikes me as a very middle of the road episode. Especially since, accidentally or not, the overall narrative ends up being that revolting against FEDRA is bad and wrong as the city doesn't even last a fortnight afterwards. IIRC, the same section in the game has everything collapse over a long-ish period as a result of the revolutionaries being forced to implement many of the same policies as FEDRA once they win. I might be getting confused with TLOU2, though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't think the takeaway was that they were wrong to rebel against the KC FEDRA Regime. It's made quite clear those guys deserved to go. The takeaway is that the current leader of the rebels, Kathleen, was never really interested or primarily motivated by any sort of ideals, principles, or concern for the KC populace. Her only priority is vengeance against the guy that turned her brother in. And she ultimately leads them to their doom because of this. When they had chance to decide how to deal with the infected underground on their own terms after they got a warning, instead Kathleen insists they ignore it in favor of pursuing her vengeance. And, unlucky for her, that means her people were completely unprepared to deal with the infected that stormed them, and they then lost everything. The takeaway is leaders shouldn't have selfish priorities and ultimately blind loyalty isn't a great idea.

If there's a flaw with this episode, it's that I don't think much was done to demonstrate just why these rebels are willing to push their very reasonable concerns aside and instead stay loyal and do all the unreasonable shit Kathleen says they do. I guess it's only been 10 days or so since they won. Maybe they would stop being so loyal if this kept happening. But yea, either way that's the main flaw I noticed.
 
Last edited:
In light of the upcoming adaptation of TLOU2 for the next season(s?) of the show, I think the show is laying down the bones for its overarching "revenge is bad" thematic throughline. Kathleen explicitly brings up the story of how her brother (who is the genuine revolutionary leader whose movement Kathleen subsequently inherits) asked her to forgive Henry, and she soundly declares her inability to do that. Given the established parallels between Joel and Henry, it's very obvious where the writers are going with this.
 
Very solid episode

Can't say I expected the town where Tommy settled down to be literally, and directly called, communist. So that was surprising.
 
Joel: "Tommy's a joiner and I need to look out for him"
Tommy: *Desert Storm veteran* *Fought for democracy in the face of US military dictatorship* *Joins a communist town that is the most successful settlement we see in the post-apocalyptic US*

You know, I think Joel doth protest too much.

Edit:
lol, the episode really makes it clear that he does.

Everything Joel said about Tommy was presented as a narrative that Joel felt forced to create so that he could avoid confronting the fact that he basically died 20 years ago. He might have survived the apocalypse, but he sure as hell didn't live through it like Tommy did. Honestly, it's equivalent to episode 3 in my mind.
 
Last edited:
Didn't get a good look but
Girl that was staring at Ellie, Dinah maybe? She doesn't have to look like her game counterpart but it would be nice foreshadowing to tLoU2.
 
This post has spoilers for TLOU the show and the video game! Be warned!

I really want to like this show 100% and Pablo Pascal and Bella Ramsey are killing it, but it also feels like they're basically carrying the show. The pacing feels all over the place to me (episode 3, while fantastic television, feels really out of place when we spent 80% of an episode without the two main characters) and we haven't spent enough time with Joel and Ellie actually, like, building a relationship for a lot of the moments that hit hard in the games to feel earned.

Like, in the last episode the whole section at the university felt rushed as hell. Like they stopped to let Ellie say her line about the monkeys and have the two of them look at a map, then some bad guys spawn somewhere and Joel gets stabbed and it all takes about five minutes. It's disappointing because the tension and intensity of that part of the story in the game is great and features some really cool stuff where Ellie is basically bullying Joel into keeping himself on his feet while they fight their way out of the university to make their escape.

I get the impression the show isn't interested in Joel and Ellie as characters so much as a vehicle for worldbuilding/a story about the end of the world.

It also feels like the show is afraid to really let Joel be fucked up in a threatening way? The only instances we've got of him really being messy are when he has a fucked up PTSD flashback and kills a dude (which the narrative justifies because he's clearly still dealing with grief/trauma from his daughter being dead) and when he finishes off a guy who was probably going to die anyway after Ellie saves Joel's life. And that doesn't even happen on-screen.

I'm hoping we get to see him do some messed up shit as we go into the Winter chapter from the game and deal with David and his cannibal cult but at the same time I'm a little concerned that the show will frame his brutality in, say torturing a couple guys to death to find where Ellie is will either be downplayed or framed as completely justified because of the danger Ellie is in. Not to mention the end of the story where Joel murdering a bunch of people and then lying to Ellie about it is supposed to be a big, fucked up moment that really shows off Joel's fucked up grief that's been sublimated into misanthropy because he can only really care about one person.

We'll see but I'm not feeling super confident about it so far. Fun show, I guess, but I can't say that I really love it?
 
Are there any calcs here?

Someone claimed that Jackson should have been still expanding outwards beyond the wall in the seven years since they got the power plant back on. I was wondering about the veracity of that.
 
Last edited:
Artificial Girl said:
I'm hoping we get to see him do some messed up shit as we go into the Winter chapter from the game and deal with David and his cannibal cult but at the same time I'm a little concerned that the show will frame his brutality in, say torturing a couple guys to death to find where Ellie is will either be downplayed or framed as completely justified because of the danger Ellie is in. Not to mention the end of the story where Joel murdering a bunch of people and then lying to Ellie about it is supposed to be a big, fucked up moment that really shows off Joel's fucked up grief that's been sublimated into misanthropy because he can only really care about one person.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean how was any of that NOT justified? The guys he tortured were cannibals intent on making him and Ellie into food, and the Fireflies were going to kill Ellie without her knowledge or consent to be sacrificed for a Hail Mary cure, and almost certainly him as there's no way they'd let someone who knows where they are and knows about Ellie live no matter what Marlene said, the guy would just have shot Joel when they were outside where no one can hear the shot.
 
One episode left...
www.hollywoodreporter.com

TV Ratings: ‘The Last of Us’ Hits Same-Day High Ahead of Season Finale

The HBO drama snagged more than 8 million cross-platform viewers on Sunday.
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com
Sunday's episode, titled "When We Are in Need," delivered 8.1 million viewers across all platforms, according to HBO. According to Warner Bros. Discovery, that makes Episode 8 the series' most viewed thus far. Previously, that title belonged to Episode 4 with 7.5 million viewers, though WBD did not make data available regarding the audience size of Episodes 5-7.

... The 8.1 million viewers who tuned into Episode 8 contributed to a 74% increase from the viewership of the series premiere, which drew an audience of 4.7 million people.

Given the show's continually growing audience, "The Last of Us" looks likely to hit yet another series high with Episode 9, which will be its Season 1 finale. The episode is set to air on March 12.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
variety.com

‘The Last of Us’ Will Adapt ‘Part II’ Video Game Into ‘More Than One’ TV Season, Creators Confirm

SPOILER ALERT: This contains spoilers from the Season 1 finale of “The Last of Us,” now streaming on HBO Max. “The Last of Us” was officially renewed for a Season 2 by HBO in Janua…
variety.com variety.com
... [T]he creators of the HBO adaptation, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, confirmed in an interview with GQ Magazine that the events of "Part II" will span more than one season.

When asked if Season 2 will include the entire "Part II" story, Mazin said, "No. No way." Druckmann added, "It's more than one season."

The creators wouldn't reveal if the "Part II" story would get two or three seasons to fully tell it, but Mazin said, "You have noted correctly that we will not say how many. But more than one is factually correct."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
I mean if it's a good adaption (ha ha ha) then the series will be intercut between Abby and Ellie equally on both stories until they finally meet each other in Seattle but.

We'll see.
 
I seriously doubt that just the act of adapting it for a TV format won't cause drastic changes to the story. Biggest reason for this is that there's pretty distinct differences between the story structure of the first game, which is more focused on slower burn of the journey and taking time to explore the characters. And that of the second game, which to a degree is more interested in skipping parts of the journey so they can get the characters in the right places for the plot to happen.

And a show can't really be doing that shit. Television shows like this can't really fuck with the story structure too much, lest you basically just end up making a different show. Especially with the greater degree of time difference between game one and game two and seasons of a television show. I suspect the TLUO seasons will have to be written to be more in line with the first.

Honestly, the longer shot development I'm looking forward to is the Ellie/Abby teamup. I think some works sometimes hurt themselves by rejecting certain tropes and conventions in the name of narrative realism and TLUO2 is one of them. If you have two characters who are nemesis but neither is 'the bad guy', it's effective to create a situation in which they have to cooperate.
 
Ford Prefect said:
TV audiences are absolutely not going to lose it in the way that gamers did lol
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, they just drop the show quietly for the most part, and most of them don't usually go online to go "girl with biceps bad" like a bunch of chuds.

edit- I'm just saying that as a fundamentally different media, people who didn't experience the character through the game first will probably engage with the character differently than someone who did. It's hard to say if those people will be able to empathize with her actions in the same way as a person who took a more active roll in participating in them.
 
Last edited:
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top