The Last of Us

[wilwhite]

I was actually surprised on how good this first episode was. (I have some trust issues with HBO)

I'm looking at the character Sarah Miller ...and i can't place where I have seen her before ..she look so familiar
I said to my wife that she looks a clone of Thandie Newton ...and Boom... It's her daughter.

.

I thought the same exact thing. Huh.

 

[Mebert]

I am surprised at how much I am enjoying it. They are really sticking to the story. That also cements that I won't be watching season 2.

 

[wilwhite]

Weird storytelling. I don't know the game but watched the first episode with someone who knows a lot about it. He was very excited about how true the shots were to the cut scenes, but when the character we were following dies after a half hour and then it's ten years later, there was no reason to watch.

What differentiated this show was the relationship between daughter and dad and then they killed her smack in the middle of the first episode. I'm sure they develop some new thing with the other girl actor, but I stopped caring right there and after being bored for five minutes in Boston Walking Dead redux territory I turned it off.

 

[broncosmitty]

Weird storytelling. I don't know the game but watched the first episode with someone who knows a lot about it. He was very excited about how true the shots were to the cut scenes, but when the character we were following dies after a half hour and then it's ten years later, there was no reason to watch.

What differentiated this show was the relationship between daughter and dad and then they killed her smack in the middle of the first episode. I'm sure they develop some new thing with the other girl actor, but I stopped caring right there and after being bored for five minutes in Boston Walking Dead redux territory I turned it off.

I’m at that exact moment right now.

The Red Viper has sold some pills and a lady has been arrested for being outside?

If the Clip Joint wasn’t up 20 in the third I’d already be watching that.

So all I’ve done is hit pause.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Been a nearly spot on video game adaptation. The actors have really done a good job.

The Last of Us was already probably one of the best video game stories (especially in production design) of all time... not a lot needed to be changed to be honest in a series/movie. Also, the fact the original creators (writing, sound effects, producers, etc.) were involved really makes it a faithful adaptation. There's scenes out of the series that literally look like a PS5 remake.

The actors look a little different (obviously) but their mannerisms and voice are freakishly spot on.

I'll be interested to see where they take it. Do they turn it into Walking Dead 2.0 (where eventually you just got bored because it dragged ON AND ON) or do they plow right through the first video game and move to the 2nd?

Either way holding my interest so far. I heard there was a pretty high budget for this which makes me think they'll look for 5+ seasons... but maybe not.. they've moved through Episode 1-2 pretty quick in alignment with the game.

 

[Comeds]

I am surprised at how much I am enjoying it. They are really sticking to the story. That also cements that I won't be watching season 2.

Surely they cannot follow the second game so closely can they? lol

Weird storytelling. I don't know the game but watched the first episode with someone who knows a lot about it. He was very excited about how true the shots were to the cut scenes, but when the character we were following dies after a half hour and then it's ten years later, there was no reason to watch.

What differentiated this show was the relationship between daughter and dad and then they killed her smack in the middle of the first episode. I'm sure they develop some new thing with the other girl actor, but I stopped caring right there and after being bored for five minutes in Boston Walking Dead redux territory I turned it off.

I get it. And I can see why I hear some people thinking the first 35 minutes was a waste of time. It's not though. Its important overall.

 

[wilwhite]

Surely they cannot follow the second game so closely can they? lol

I get it. And I can see why I hear some people thinking the first 35 minutes was a waste of time. It's not though. Its important overall.

I imagine it is, but just from a storytelling/audience-engagement perspective it's brutal.

There's always something unresolved about the early death of a character the audience cares about, and that's why you keep watching - hoping for vengeance, or the solving of a mystery, or knowing the survivor has to break the news to somebody, or is wrongly accused and on the run, or guilty and afraid of being found out.

Here they didn't do any of that, and that's because a game doesn't need it. This is where being too faithful to the structure of the game burned them.

 

[Comeds]

I imagine it is, but just from a storytelling/audience-engagement perspective it's brutal.

There's always something unresolved about the early death of a character the audience cares about, and that's why you keep watching - hoping for vengeance, or the solving of a mystery, or knowing the survivor has to break the news to somebody, or is wrongly accused and on the run, or guilty and afraid of being found out.

Here they didn't do any of that, and that's because a game doesn't need it. This is where being too faithful to the structure of the game burned them.

I disagree. The narrative of the story was so important to the game it wasn't that the game's story didn't need those elements. Its that like the show, it was a purposeful exclusion. It might seem jarring, unresolved, or even a waste of time to begin a series like that - but it's by design and integral to the story.

Though to be fair, they probably do run the risk of annoying/losing part of their audience right away by doing so.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

I imagine it is, but just from a storytelling/audience-engagement perspective it's brutal.

There's always something unresolved about the early death of a character the audience cares about, and that's why you keep watching - hoping for vengeance, or the solving of a mystery, or knowing the survivor has to break the news to somebody, or is wrongly accused and on the run, or guilty and afraid of being found out.

Here they didn't do any of that, and that's because a game doesn't need it. This is where being too faithful to the structure of the game burned them.

Well MANY games don't need it... The Last of Us really wasn't at all about the 'gaming' elements of it... Yah you move around with a joystick, throw some bricks, stealth around, smash a couple quick time events, solve some minor puzzles, and shoot some stuff (with nothing revolutionary AT ALL in terms of gameplay)... but the 'game' was literally 100% about the story and development of the characters.

Look at Until Dawn. Nobody played that game for the 'gaming' elements... you played that game 100% for the story. It was an 'interactive movie' if you will... which Last of Us basically was as well. Both games are in the horror genre but they are both some of the best games in the market in terms of a story, which is really all a movie is... actually I'll take that back, movies nowadays are completing forgetting the story just to throw in bullshit FX sequences and PC/SJW agendas 24/7 while the story is left on the backburner.

I get where you're going with your "Because a game doesn't need it." Well no, this game (and a minority of others) DEFINITELY needed it. Nobody plugged in the Last of Us to get a Days Gone, Dying Light, etc. experience. Hell even Resident Evil had a pretty good story which is also what the game heavily focused on. Most of us are skipping through the cutscenes in games like Elden Ring, sports games (career modes), RTS, FPS, etc. because the story sucks ass and we just want action. The aforementioned games you never skipped the cutscene/story (unless you never wanted that to begin with in which case you're putting the game down).


Unresolved about the death of an early character? What was unresolved? There was a massive spreading infection which the 2nd episode covered from the scientist who basically told the military to bomb the city... the girl was cut or had a leg injury, they knew very little about the infection, etc. So yes, the order was sent to kill them. While brutal, it's more realistic than you think and probably what our military would do today if there was an infection like this (hell look at how government reacted to COVID which was nothing compared to the severity of this).

So yah, 20 years later. What do you want Joel to do? Go kill all the military soldiers? Mystery of what? An infection started - the mystery of "WHO GAVE THE COMMAND DUH DUH DUH!" Pan to EVIL WHITE MAN who said to kill his daughter. Oh yah that'd make sense... lol, which actually some cheeseball movie would do.

I really don't get your comment at all or what you were expecting. You realize children and men/women die all the time in war/crisis situations, right? And sadly a large majority of the time there's nothing really beyond: "So be it." And yah, the depression and toll that takes on the surviving family member/loved one is HUGE, which the series (and game) portrayed VERY well (at least for now).

 

[wilwhite]

I disagree. The narrative of the story was so important to the game it wasn't that the game's story didn't need those elements. Its that like the show, it was a purposeful exclusion. It might seem jarring, unresolved, or even a waste of time to begin a series like that - but it's by design and integral to the story.

Though to be fair, they probably do run the risk of annoying/losing part of their audience right away by doing so.

If you don't want to insert an unresolved element to her death, another way to include that earlier stuff would have been to build that back story through flashbacks while the current story moved forward, which would have been mysterious and interesting.

I may go back and pick it up again at some point. I like the actors and the first segment seemed pretty naturalistic for this kind of show.

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Games, Books, Movies are all separate versions of a story.
You compare games to games, books to books & Movies to Movies.

But don't torture yourself by trying to squeeze a square Movie peg into a round book or game hole.


.

 

[wilwhite]

So yah, 20 years later. What do you want Joel to do? Go kill all the military soldiers? Mystery of what? An infection started - the mystery of "WHO GAVE THE COMMAND DUH DUH DUH!" Pan to EVIL WHITE MAN who said to kill his daughter. Oh yah that'd make sense... lol, which actually some cheeseball movie would do.

My point is that they didn't add an unresolved element. Easy to build one in with what was there already. I don't know enough about the rest of the story to say exactly what you could bring in without doing damage to important plot points. But there are a hundred ways to do it; I'm sure something would fit. Even him just promising somebody he would keep her safe.

 

[wilwhite]

Games, Books, Movies are all separate versions of a story.
You compare games to games, books to books & Movies to Movies.

But don't torture yourself by trying to squeeze a square Movie peg into a round book or game hole.


.

You absolutely do, though. You ever read The Godfather? There's a sub-plot there that would have ruined the movie and they left it out.

Sometimes adaptations go overboard and destroy the source material. It's tricky.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

My point is that they didn't add an unresolved element. Easy to build one in with what was there already. I don't know enough about the rest of the story to say exactly what you could bring in without doing damage to important plot points. But there are a hundred ways to do it; I'm sure something would fit. Even him just promising somebody he would keep her safe.

Ugh I hate that crap sometimes. Just get it over with and rip off the band-aid.

"Flashbacks" "Will he ever see his daughter again!?" "What happened to his daughter?" And then you get some cheeseball reunite or some 'resolution' that happens later where he finds out she's dead and he cries and cries and then the show is like, "K we resolved it, moving on." and it nullifies the emotional impact.

It's been done a MILLION times before and it's been played out. I actually applaud a movie like this for having the guts to just go for it.

"There a huge infection. That sucks. This main character is trying to escape with his daughter. She ends up dead." Done, resolved, let's move on... the more important thing is how the character is 20 years later, how has he coped with it? That was the character development in the game... Joel was very distant, stand-offish, resourceful, distrusting, ruthless, detached, he cares about Tess but wont get too close... Everything you need to know about his character is based on that event. It wouldn't work if he believed his daughter was still alive... So you say a game doesn't need this... no, it did. And I can say there's far more character development in Joel (in the game, let alone series) and I can add more descriptions about his character (I just did) than let's say Ray "Mary Sue" Skywalker.

 

[Payton]

My point is that they didn't add an unresolved element. Easy to build one in with what was there already. I don't know enough about the rest of the story to say exactly what you could bring in without doing damage to important plot points. But there are a hundred ways to do it; I'm sure something would fit. Even him just promising somebody he would keep her safe.

I’d submit that the “unresolved element” is actually so obvious that it smacks you in the face. You alluded to it in your first comment. It just isn’t a concrete item to be “resolved”. It’s a “personal journey” so to speak (Sounds corny, but any father can relate to some degree, I’d imagine?)

 

[MilkSpiller22]

Games, Books, Movies are all separate versions of a story.
You compare games to games, books to books & Movies to Movies.

But don't torture yourself by trying to squeeze a square Movie peg into a round book or game hole.


.

movies and books sure... but tv shows and books should be closer adapted... both have the time to give all the details and evolve the story and develop characters

i really hate comparing books and movies... how long does a book take you to read?? how long does a movie take to watch?? such a significant difference... of course NOT EVERYTHING will be told in a movie...



with that said, we have to get past the outcry about who is casted for a role... who cares if the book depicts redhead, and this character has brown hair... unless it was a weasley... then i would have been upset they didnt have red hair...LOL

 

[Payton]

movies and books sure... but tv shows and books should be closer adapted... both have the time to give all the details and evolve the story and develop characters

i really hate comparing books and movies... how long does a book take you to read?? how long does a movie take to watch?? such a significant difference... of course NOT EVERYTHING will be told in a movie...



with that said, we have to get past the outcry about who is casted for a role... who cares if the book depicts redhead, and this character has brown hair... unless it was a weasley... then i would have been upset they didnt have red hair...LOL

Triss is a redhead… PERIOD!

 

[wilwhite]

I’d submit that the “unresolved element” is actually so obvious that it smacks you in the face. You alluded to it in your first comment. It just isn’t a concrete item to be “resolved”. It’s a “personal journey” so to speak (Sounds corny, but any father can relate to some degree, I’d imagine?)

It's a sadness you would carry for the rest of your life with no particular desire to get rid of it.

No dramatic tension, which is why I could turn it off at that point without the slightest curiosity about what would happen next. I have no particular desire to see him get over it, and it wasn't even his story.

 

[Comeds]

My point is that they didn't add an unresolved element. Easy to build one in with what was there already. I don't know enough about the rest of the story to say exactly what you could bring in without doing damage to important plot points. But there are a hundred ways to do it; I'm sure something would fit. Even him just promising somebody he would keep her safe.

If you see a Batman movie where Bruce's parents are killed in the first 5 minutes - do you want to hang around with 10 year old Bruce or OK with jumping to adult Bruce and seeing what effect that had? It's the same thing, its an event that shapes a character.

The Last Of Us is not Sarah's story. It just isn't.

 

[Comeds]

and it wasn't even his story.

Yes it was.