HBO: The Last of Us

[chrisstbh]

Why are they so afraid of showing violence? It's like they let the talky bits play out like the game but every time there's a violent, action heavy bit, they rework it into something sanitized for tv, despite being on HBO.

Did you miss the guy getting his head ripped off in the last episode? Or Henry shooting his little 8 year old brother in the head, on screen?

 

[JAWS]

So I watched episode 3 and 4

Episode 3 was pointless right??? Accept that it had an obvious agenda. I mean I would be saying the same thing if they were straight. Really pointless. They even wrecked the truck and supplies they got from him. So really just an agenda driven hour.

Coming from someone who has not played the game so maybe there is more to come with the point of that episode.

 

[chrisstbh]

So I watched episode 3 and 4

Episode 3 was pointless right??? Accept that it had an obvious agenda. I mean I would be saying the same thing if they were straight. Really pointless. They even wrecked the truck and supplies they got from him. So really just an agenda driven hour.

Coming from someone who has not played the game so maybe there is more to come with the point of that episode.

Pointless to the story of Joel and Ellie, yes, but not really pointless overall. Shows another perspective on this world and how people get by.

Was kind of “pointless” in the game too since they also lose the truck.

 

[ironwez20]

Looking at how rushed some of the scenes are I do feel they could have trimmed episode 3 down a bit. It was a nice story but we didn’t really need to focus a whole episode on them. Idk of course I’ll get called out for saying episode 3 should have still had had aspects from the game but idk. I still liked it.

 

[BeefEaster]

Did you miss the guy getting his head ripped off in the last episode? Or Henry shooting his little 8 year old brother in the head, on screen?

That's exactly the kinda stuff I'm talking about. There's a little blood with most of the actual impact obscured or out of focus. I've seen more graphic blood and gore scenes on shows like Supernatural on CW, a station for teenage girls.

 

[chrisstbh]

That's exactly the kinda stuff I'm talking about. There's a little blood with most of the actual impact obscured or out of focus. I've seen more graphic blood and gore scenes on shows like Supernatural on CW, a station for teenage girls.

Do you need it? In the game the violence is pretty gratuitous and in the show it's used sparingly when it's necessarly. I don't really see an issue. I've not seen many shows or movies that will show an 8 year old getting capped in frame.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Didn't like this week's episode. The core brutality of the game has been gutted.

Again, cramming the Dam and university into one episode felt cheap. Quick montages of the road, and Joel gets stabbed by a bat instead of falling 20 feet onto a metal rod? Really poorly done.

 

[BeefEaster]

Do you need it? In the game the violence is pretty gratuitous and in the show it's used sparingly when it's necessarly. I don't really see an issue. I've not seen many shows or movies that will show an 8 year old getting capped in frame.

I don't really need anything. It's just something I would have enjoyed. When I heard they were making a last of us show, the thing I was most excited about was seeing the game's brutal violence in live action. I keep hoping they're saving the good stuff for certain parts of the story but now it seems like they're not interested in pursuing that aspect of the game. I'm enjoying what they've done so far for the most part, but I'm also very disappointed because it could have been so much more.

 

[chrisstbh]

I don't really need anything. It's just something I would have enjoyed. When I heard they were making a last of us show, the thing I was most excited about was seeing the game's brutal violence in live action. I keep hoping they're saving the good stuff for certain parts of the story but now it seems like they're not interested in pursuing that aspect of the game. I'm enjoying what they've done so far for the most part, but I'm also very disappointed because it could have been so much more.

Fair enough. I don't think it's really necessarily, the main appeal of this story is the bond between the characters and the things they go through together. The gore etc. keeps the gameplay moments exciting but it's not really the focus of the experience imo.

 

[ArtDamage]

Very much agree with the sentiments that pacing and the time spent on Joel and Ellie is an issue. It's funny because the moment they're arguing feels like such a painful rift between the two characters in the game.

In the show, Joel and Ellie almost feel like acquaintances because they've time jumped so much and spent too much time on other characters like Kathleen and Bill/Frank. Just doesn't hit nearly the same.

Now with next week being the "left behind" episode we're taking the time to meet yet another side character.

This whole show just feels very unfocused and uneven in a way that makes me wonder if they'll be able stick the landing on the winter section or even the finale.

 

[Lejuan]

So I watched episode 3 and 4

Episode 3 was pointless right??? Accept that it had an obvious agenda. I mean I would be saying the same thing if they were straight. Really pointless. They even wrecked the truck and supplies they got from him. So really just an agenda driven hour.

Coming from someone who has not played the game so maybe there is more to come with the point of that episode.

Nah, wasn't pointless. By delivering an ''Up'-style montage of a life of devotion and purpose it set up Joel's motivation for giving a toss about Ellie, demonstrated how life can have meaning in an apocalypse and foreshadowed what lay ahead.

 

[Asta]

I thought the "I'm not her" scene was played very well. There's been too little of that kind of emotional interaction between Ellie and Joel, since their story has been partly submerged by that of other characters due to the focus on world building.

The series is rattling along so fast, and with so few episodes left, that the promise I felt at the beginning is starting to look a bit thin. That's why I see it as 'augmenting' the game, as you need to know the game to get the full picture. The series expands on the world through other characters, and only gives edited highlights of Joel and Ellie's experiences. Not really even the highlights at that, because they missed out parts such as meeting Bill, and the exploration of his ****y-trapped town (at the expense of filling in Bill and Frank's backstory).

The dam, Jackson and the university in a single episode felt too condensed.

 

[Mandible]

And of course Joel is now scared and has mental health issues...

"But it adds so much to his character development."



This show is like watching Dunkirk, whereas the game was Full Metal Jacket.

**** off show.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Joel was fully developed in the game. These new tics only make him into one thing: weak.

 

[JAWS]

Nah, wasn't pointless. By delivering an ''Up'-style montage of a life of devotion and purpose it set up Joel's motivation for giving a toss about Ellie, demonstrated how life can have meaning in an apocalypse and foreshadowed what lay ahead.

Hmmm. Well I didn’t get that from that.

I figured the attachment and “giving a toss” about Ellie is the fact he had a daughter and all that.

Just don’t feel it required a whole episode. It was well made but ultimately just was an agenda show. Director seemed to say as much.

“During an interview withInverse, episode three director Peter Hoar explained how he deliberately “tricked” viewers into watching a gay love story without necessarily making that clear straight away. He explained:….

….. “Sometimes you have to sort of trick the rest of the world into watching these things before they’re like, ‘Oh my god, it was two guys. I just realized.’ I think then they might understand that it’s all real. It’s just the same love.”

Again I don’t really care if it helps serve the show. It did not hurt the show but again, as an episode, it was more pointless than it needed to be. IMO anyways. Granted watching too hairy guys cuddle had made more uncomfortable than anything else on the show lol

 

[Asta]

That's enough about Dunkirk.

I deleted all the related posts so normal service can be resumed.

 

[R_R_X]

Joel was fully developed in the game. These new tics only make him into one thing: weak.

Precisely, all the comments online saying "the show is humanizing Joel" or that he is a "more nuanced" character are extremely telling and only serve to expose who actually played and paid attention to the narrative of the games and other acted media in general, Pedro's Joel is anything but nuanced the writers have him literally spell out everything that's going on inside his head through tears after having another anxiety attack, if anything the approach they've taken to his character is a more idealized version of what people want men to be and not how the majority of men, including Joel in the game, deal with their demons.

I also think Joel crying and begging Tommy to take Ellie because he is too afraid and weak to take care of her was not as deep as him wanting Tommy to take her because he does not want to admit to himself that he is seeing this girl as his own family, in the game he even lashes out at Tommy when he says he won't take Ellie, he is deeply afraid of continuing this journey with her not because he's too weak to protect her but because after all these years he might finally have something worth living for and that terrifies him since he knows who he is and what he is capable of becoming to not lose her or even worse, if he loses her, it directly ties into the narrative of Part 2.

In my opinion it was also more satisfying seeing Tommy realize what's going on when Joel check's up on Ellie after the bandit attack on the dam and decide he will take Ellie for him, he knows Joel is perfectly capable of delivering her to the fireflies and that he has less to lose than Tommy himself but despite all the bad blood between them he still recognizes the pain his brother carries, when Ellie realizes Joel is going to drop her off at Tommy's she runs away and they have the iconic confrontation and after they ride back to Jackson it is Joel who decides he is taking Ellie, that he cannot hide from his feelings anymore and that he needs her just as much as she needs him, there's no trying to mask his decision by giving Ellie that choice no HE chooses they are going to stay together and for me that was way more impactful and rewarding than the show.

 

[R_R_X]

On the topic of Ellie's character I'm honestly confused with what they're doing with her on the show, she was more brash, less likeable and carried a darker side to her in the first episodes but now they've sort of shifted from that by allowing her to be more vulnerable like that game, it's like they're taking her development backwards and I don't know if anyone has noticed but she hasn't killed anyone yet at this point in the story she is supposed to have already killed several people to save Joel and herself, her innocence is supposed to be fading not blossoming as the journey nears it's end maybe they're doing that in the hopes that the winter chapter is more impactful but then it also completely removes that complicated aspect of her relationship with Joel and the dark influence he had on her.

It honestly seems like they're just rushing Part 1 of the story so they can reach Part 2 which is what they really want to adapt and they're trying to add easter eggs and foreshadowing for Part 2 but then completely missing the narrative decisions and scenes that retroactively play into the narrative of Part 2 and how Ellie behaves when it comes to killing and violence in general mirroring Joel but lacking the emotional fortitude and coldness he has which takes a huge toll on her.

 

[ScoutingForToys]

Well I'm caught up with the show now but I don't think I'll make it to the end of the season.
I keep reading from people who played the game how a great bit is coming up or Ellie and Joel's relationship is going to be amazing but I'm still waiting for the show to get good.
Where are these great scenes and moments?
When Ellie was talking about the doctors wanting her blood and how her blood is medicine, it made me think (not played the game, don't know how this ends so I could be totally wrong) that her and Joel think they'll find these Firefly doctors, they'll just take a bit of blood and they'll be on their way again.
I think it's not going to be that simple, that actually they're going to need to completely dissect Ellie because a bit of her blood isn't enough.
Joel will need to choose between saving Ellie but dooming the world, or letting her die so the doctors can make a vaccine.
And then I realised I don't care what he does or what happens to the characters in this show.
I gave this show a very fair chance but I'm not just getting invested in it.
It's decent enough, not a bad show, just run its course with me I think.
I give it points for going for interesting mushroom men zombies over the done to death viral based undead zombies and its a nice looking show, but to me it's just a less violent and less gory TWD.

 

[R_R_X]

Well I'm caught up with the show now but I don't think I'll make it to the end of the season.
I keep reading from people who played the game how a great bit is coming up or Ellie and Joel's relationship is going to be amazing but I'm still waiting for the show to get good.
Where are these great scenes and moments?

That moment was in the latest episode but since you haven't played the game you had no idea it was supposed to be that moment because the scene falls flat in the show, like I predicted for the people who only watch the show that scene is forgettable but in the game it's the tipping point of their relationship and where the whole game comes to a halt so Joel, Ellie and the player can sit there in silence and process what happened before a decision gets made.

I think it's not going to be that simple, that actually they're going to need to completely dissect Ellie because a bit of her blood isn't enough.
Joel will need to choose between saving Ellie but dooming the world, or letting her die so the doctors can make a vaccine.

No way you haven't at least checked some synopsis or something lol

And then I realised I don't care what he does or what happens to the characters in this show.
I gave this show a very fair chance but I'm not just getting invested in it.
It's decent enough, not a bad show, just run its course with me I think.
I give it points for going for interesting mushroom men zombies over the done to death viral based undead zombies and its a nice looking show, but to me it's just a less violent and less gory TWD.

People said this would be a TWD killer, I always found it funny since TWD killed itself but still, at this point it's become painfully obvious the show is not a fan of violence or displaying the ugly brutality of the world the characters are meant to be living in, we have people living out there completely unbothered by the dangers that lurk outside and it just completely breaks the immersion of how dangerous the world in The Last of Us is supposed to be, hell even the bandits, raiders or rebels are completely incompetent morons, if I don't feel the world is absolutely ****** beyond belief to the point people would rather starve in QZs than go outside then I should I care about the moral dilemma the story will present to me? If an elderly couple can live peacefully out in the wild then is the world really that doomed?

To me the show has failed in all the major aspects of what made the simple story of the game work so well, it failed in selling the danger of the world, it failed with the pacing, it failed in the characterization of the lead characters and most importantly it failed in building the relationship between Joel and Ellie in a fully realized arc because they were too busy with side characters and stories that don't matter.

It's a real shame too because the pilot was so good but after that it's just been downhill for me, I know that for most it hasn't but episode 6 really set it in stone for me that The Last of Us is an overall better, deeper and more rewarding experience if you play/watch the game, the show just doesn't capture the lighting in the bottle like the game did all those years ago.