[HBO Series] The Last of Us (beware spoilers)

After the first episode I was on board with raving about this show.

Having completed the game four times I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation.

As the (very short) season progressed, the feeling of 'ehhh' towards the show just grew and grew.

Glad it's over now, probably would give it a 6/10, and am hugely disappointed with it.

The post from last page which suggests Part II will be split into multiple seasons is just further salt in the wound that Part I was only '9' episodes - but really just 7. This should have been made much longer and that way included so much more of the awesome moments of the game that weren't even included.

Literally one interaction with a Clicker. Righto. I'm not counting the emerging from the hole as an interaction because they were never in danger.

Each time I finished the game the same gut wrenching feeling was there every time Ellie emotionally turns her back on Joel knowing he's lying about the hospital. In the show there is none of the emotional connection since there's been a bare minimum for the viewer to see of the experiences Joel and Ellie go through in the game.

Before the season started I said to a couple of friends who aren't gamers but were eager to watch - there were about 5-6 instances in the game I cannot wait to see how they bring to life on the show. Exactly zero of them happened - LMFAO, what a joke.

I suppose I should be grateful it only took 9 episodes for the true representation of Joel to be shown - an absolute unit and killer. Although kind of out of character and makes no sense in the show since for the previous 8 episodes they were building him up as a weak person.

Glad it's over.

 

Or - buckle up for this because it's going to blow your mind - maybe they're a big fan of the game and cannot understand why an already incredibly short episode run wastes an entire episode on something that never happens in the game, whilst also at the same time completely eradicating arguably one of the top five moments of the game, AND doesn't progress the story whatsoever.

But you know - you must be right! Common sense be damned.

 

Oh shut the **** up lol. I'll add your dumb ass to the ignore list with the other bigots.

 

Criticisms of episode 3 and 7 are totally valid. It's essentially filler material. Episode 3 was well done filler. There's nothing wrong with filler material if the show hits on all aspects. But with the limited episodes and length, the showrunners missed on a lot of key elements to spend time on filler.

 

Alright guys, you're getting what you wanted.

 

Hahahaha. Tell us you're low IQ without telling us you're low IQ.

Don't reeeee too loudly now your neighbours already hate you.

 

They should have done it right the first time around instead of boring hot garbage like episode 3.

 

Geesh how much does an infected cost?

 

Good translation but you definitely lose a lot of the impact when you aren't in control of the characters through the long journey.

 

Finally watched the season finale last night and it was ok, I was hoping for more knowing that it was the last episode. I like the character development but yea, more interaction with the infected would have been good. My biggest gripe is why such a short season, if I knew it was this short I would have binged it over the weekend.

 

That's most series these days though. They are barely 8 episodes or 10 sometimes if you're lucky. Agree on the infected though, would have been nice to see more of them.

 

I know you will never get over episode 3, and I'm not even sure how serious you are at this point. But I think it should be pretty obvious that they basically nailed the show based on viewers, reviews, buzz, etc. Everyone's opinion is valid, but I'm pretty sure if they actually did what any of us wanted (including me), it *probably* would have been worse off. Sure, we can complain about Grogu in Mandalorian or Stranger Things being too 80s focused or [insert your random criticism about popular show/movie/game/book], but I think these guys generally know what they're doing.

On a sidenote and to riff on something the showrunners said on the podcast, I'm amazed at how many people seemed to play the game, enjoyed it dearly, and yet they're completely wrong about what it was all about.

Yeah, I don't really get the complaints about the short season either. 9 episodes is pretty standard (maybe even long) for most modern TV shows (especially this type of show, which is basically a long movie). In fact, I feel like most of the more valid complaints about the show are basically "we want more," which I guess is a good thing to deal with as a showrunner (that's better than "meh whatever").

 

Some opinions are less valid than others .

 

Eh, I don't think it's too much about the running time by itself (although, of course it's a factor). I think it's more about what the show is actually covering in that time. What is the pace of the show. What's included or not included. How economical are the creators being with narrative choices, etc. I think the poster above nailed it when he mentioned that without the gameplay it just doesn't seem like much of a journey, and it sounds like the creators didn't really seemed concerned about that.

Some others, even those who have liked the show a lot, seem to readily acknowledge the underlying story/plot is sparse and it's really just about the two characters with action, suspense, and plot/story taking a back seat. As the show went on, even the world-building aspect became completely uninteresting/nonexistent. I was simply hoping for more.

 

I actually don't *really* agree with that, though sure people can have their own opinions. To me, the show generally feels like if you took the game, took out the action/heavy gameplay sequences (which IMO are super boring if you're watching them, not playing), kept every (IMO) major narrative/story sequence, then tweaked/added scenes to replace anything lost from the action sequences. The show runners involve a man who clearly adores the game, and the guy who wrote and co-directed the game (as well as the sequel and various spin-off content), so I'd imagine they know which parts to focus on. It is a ~10 hour game with like 3-5 hours of story/narrative sequences, so there's really not much more in the game that isn't present in the show IMO. In the game, they don't stop in 2-3 more towns, shenanigans occur, then they move on, so the journey can feel more epic. They do pretty much exactly what they do in the show (at least IMO, quibbles aside).

I do think the game did a better job of making you feel more connected to Joel and Ellie, though I think that has more to do with games in general doing a better job of that (after all, "you" are Joel and Ellie). I think the show generally did better with the "NPCs" though (I think I like Sarah/Tommy/Bill/etc more in the show....though I did like David in the game better for reasons I mentioned before). They could have spent more time building that up, though that would have either come at the expense of this other stuff or it would have resulted in a (much?) longer total runtime. Maybe that would have been for the best (again, I won't complain about getting "MOAR"), though I also worry that adding some of that might have made the show seem like it was dragging on too long.

From an adaptation standpoint, I've seen lots of people who never played the game basically have the same reactions, emotions, debates, understanding of characters/themes, etc., as what happened with the game, so it is hard for me to fault the creators too much. Ultimately that's the main goal of doing this adaptation (i.e., can we reproduce the reception of the game as a TV show?), and given its reception, I think they did a pretty good job. I'll quibble about things as much as the next person, but realistically, I don't think they're going to want to change much about how they handled this.

Well except more infected I guess.

I disagree with those ideas (outside of semantics), but like I said earlier, that's fine. Everyone has their own opinions. You didn't like it and hoped for more. Other people (myself included) couldn't have hoped for more (I expected The Last of Us: Uncharted Boogaloo).

Not a surprise that different people have different opinions of course. My only point now is that if you were one of these folks who didn't like this, I doubt the creators will change things too drastically. They're basically getting feedback that says "yes please do more of that again," and outside of some tweaks here and there (especially those involving budgets), that's what I'd expect from upcoming seasons of TLOU.

 

I can get behind this opinion, well argued, unlike some of our bigoted posters.

 

Another well argued point. I wish other posters had your high quality level of posting towards others who don't agree with their opinion. Alas, can't expect everyone to actually be smart.

 

Looking towards the future, I think a great season 2 casting for Abby would be Katy M. O'Brian.

 

Let's hope for more gay love stories

 

Let's hope for better stories than episode 3, gay or not.