“I'm taking a ride with my best friend” - The Last of Us on HBO (2023)

Watched the first episode of this last night and saw several comments saying there should be a thread but nobody actually making one, so, here.

Have never played the game myself but have seen my husband playing it & may finally start it. Thought it was very easy to follow regardless of how you knew the game beforehand, which is top of what an adaptation needs to do.

Superb cast as well.

Last of Us and Skinamarink have opened to wild success this year bc their style of horror doesn't rely on jump scares or gore but simply on showing audiences what it would be like to live in Alberta

— Ibaka Shinji (@Cam_Oflage) January 18, 2023

lol

Anyway, it's an interesting quandary: if you know where the (game) story is going, does that blind you to what the show may or may not be doing well? That's what make me interested in hearing from people that have never played the game; as far as this specific story goes, it's hard to convey what makes it different without, well, conveying what makes it different.

To that point, I read something on I think Kotaku that was more or less comparing in real time the game's progression to the show's, with a focus on the shocking episode one death. The author, iirc, called it manipulative, at least in the game, which ... yeah, of course it is! But it's also the game's prime mover, so it's got to be powerful. As far the TV show goes, though, I think the event serves a slightly different purpose. In a lot of these shows, from "The Sopranos" to "The Walking Dead," "who is going to die?" becomes a sort of ghoulish weekly parlor game. I find *that* manipulative and honestly kind of tired. In the show, as in the game, getting that over with in a big way in the first episode is kind of like ripping the bandaid off, but it's a trick that only works once. The rest of the game, and I imagine the rest of the show, is or should be about character (in every sense), and in this regard I suspect people that think they know where the story is going might be surprised at where it ends up.

Or maybe not! I know the game has its seen-it-all-before detractors, too. But there's a humanity beating at the heart of "The Last of Us" (the game) that many games of its ilk lack, just as (imo) "Children of Men" achieved more than the average post apocalyptic picaresque.

I played approximately two hours of the first game before getting distracted so the tv pilot was almost exactly what I'd already seen

This editorial makes the case for watching the show first and playing the game second, since playing the game second expands on the show (which, plot-wise, reportedly sticks to the game) with exploration, stealth, combat and other more interactive/world-building aspects. I can see that. As I noted, playing the game first makes the show more of a curiosity.

https://www.avclub.com/should-you-play-the-last-of-us-before-watching-the-show-1849998022

The only video games I play are Tetris and Mario Kart. I'll stick to watching the show as a TV show and stay away from what video game people say or think.

Jesus Christ

I'd argue this game is one of a handful that shifted the line between "video game people" and general consumers/critics of quality art/entertainment. A helpful example I've cited for a few folks is the game "Red Dead Redemption 2," which reportedly made over $700 million its first weekend alone. That's huge, and definitely positions "video game people" as a pretty big block comparable to or sometimes exceeding more familiar old people audiences for books, movies, music, etc. At a certain point, "not video game people" become kind of the outlier, and ignoring or avoiding games akin to someone in 1980 still talking shit about rock and roll or someone in 2000 deriding hip-hop. It's a huge, integral part of contemporary culture and entertainment. 

Or just acknowledge what a ludicrous opinion it is that the source material should never be mentioned, lol?

At a certain point, "not video game people" become kind of the outlier, and ignoring or avoiding games akin to someone in 1980 still talking shit about rock and roll or someone in 2000 deriding hip-hop. It's a huge, integral part of contemporary culture and entertainment.

That's inarguably true. And as someone old enough to have played games on an Atari 2600, I recognize that being totally out of touch with game culture makes me the minority. All I really mean is that if the show can't stand on its own, then it fails. So far, it very much does stand on its own, and I'm interested to see where it goes (much more than I was interested in/by The Walking Dead, for example), but I don't need to know what's different about this version. I own all six Resident Evil movies on Blu-Ray and have never played that game, either. The movies are their own batshit thing.

you can always ignore when people complain something's not faithful to the source material if you're uninterested in it!

I did lol at "video game people" though when that's like... 40% of the population that's not retirement age

Who knew the world’s new oldest person was here and posting on ilx?

Anyway, I was one of many who completely missed that there was a clicker on the roof of the building in the closing shot of the opening ep

(Mild spoiler because it's something in the game that hasn't come up in the show yet).

it took me more than 10 minutes of watching her character to realise that Anna Torv is in this. I'll watch just about anything with Anna Torv and Pedro Pascal in it as long as it isn't some Star Wars spinoff.

glad the people responsible for video games' leap into the realm of quality art/entertainment are finally getting a chance to work in the medium they're interested in

^^^ the world's second oldest person

their pants legs dried awfully fast after wading through the lobby pond

I think the line about having to climb ten flights of stairs afterward was supposed to cover that.

wet clothes instantly becoming dry is a scrupulously authentic video game trope tbh

Lol. I appreciated the mgsv thing where you have to shower constantly or else you remain smelly and covered in blood for this reason. Only bit of realism the whole game.

I just assume everyone in video games is constantly filthy and damp. Except Arthur in RDR2, who takes a lot of baths. But he gets filthy again pretty quickly.

Once again some shots and scenes that are exactly like the game; great sets/virtual sets/however they do it. Also some changes and tweaks that are noticeably different from the game, like the Indonesia stuff and the way the fungus spreads/communicates. The latter is imo less effective than in the game. In the game, the fungus largely spreads via spores. I get why they changed it here, but at the same time now it's less passive, more like the aggressive hive-mind creature in "The Thing" that wants to spread and survive at all costs; iirc they even gave the fungus spreading a scary sound. I don't know if this is meant to play up the threat, but I think it makes the clickers seem more like conventional zombies, which of course we've seen a lot. What I like about the game is the way the spores and slightly more aimless clickers are depicted pose a kind of constant ambient threat; they're dangerous obstacles as much as anything else. Here they're portrayed as more predatory than environmental.

i am really digging this so far

love how the creatures are so grotesque but weirdly beautiful, like a del Toro movie

and the tone of the show isnt just action/survival but this intense underlying sadness, it’s v good and i am into it

i wanted to yell at anna torv “aaaaah omg jfc who gives a fuck abt the stupid lighter just pull one of the 20 fucking grenades on the ground”

love u anna

Honest question, why is everyone so into Anna Torv? She's fine in this, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of her before, and don't recognize her from anything else. Was she in a popular movie or show that I've never seen or something?

She was in Fringe and Mindhunter, two shows a lot of people liked. (Me included, though I wasn't raving/passionate about either.) She's got that kind of business-domme thing that lots of nerds go for.

I don't know what Fringe is, but I have been meaning to start Mindhunter, so I guess I'll see her there!

She’s Rupert Murdoch’s niece apparently

oh ffs!

will always be olivia to me

otm

I still maintain that the dual universe plot in Fringe is the best sci-fi series stuff in decades. And yeah, the part of Olivia that isn't in any way at all and couldn't possibly be Rupert Murdoch's niece still rules!

I watched something where a zeppelin made an appearance recently and was disappointed anew that the alternate universe in Fringe didn't get more time/attention.

anna torv shouldn't be judged by her aunt's terrible life decisions!

She's got that kind of business-domme thing that lots of nerds go for.

...

Anyway, weird sexual dimension now with how the infection spreads, which is appropriate because that's how fungus reproduces.

dumb question here

but wouldn’t the best place to avoid infection be the coastline? like that kinda fungus wouldn’t thrive/spread in a coastal environment right? or no?

Anna Torv left her phone unattended. She returned to this photo. pic.twitter.com/iMg6xiWJQx

— Bella Ramsey (@BellaRamsey) January 24, 2023

Veg, how do you mean? I think that fungi can grow anywhere (even *in* the oceans).

I'm curious what people thought of the museum sequence (if they thought it was tense) and if they've played the game or not. I felt kind of bored by it even though in the game it's pretty stressful, I think because the stakes and outcome of the latter are actually up in the air and depend on my active interaction with it.

Just felt like Jurassic Park kitchen sequence. It was entertaining but needed to be a little more creative to actually be exciting.

I'm curious what people thought of the museum sequence (if they thought it was tense) and if they've played the game or not. I felt kind of bored by it even though in the game it's pretty stressful, I think because the stakes and outcome of the latter are actually up in the air and depend on my active interaction with it.

Standard horror trope. We're moving through the empty house/haunted hospital/abandoned military facility...when (not if) will the creatures attack? I thought it was a little less tense than some other iterations I've seen but generally fine. And the fungus-headed monsters were kinda cool-looking. The best part of the episode was the Indonesia prelude, though.

horror games are always scarier than other horror media bc of the level of immersion. i found the scene very stressful though!

fungus makeout is the kind of ridiculous and awesome visual i needed to send this show home for me, having a great time

Made the mistake of checking what the internet at large thought of that scene. Not surprisingly there's tons of confusion. Seemed clear to me? Tess trying to stand still so the zombies don't swarm her. She's infected and about to kill herself. She can't light the lighter. Oh god they're running right by now, it just won't light. Stay still. One is walking up to her. No sudden movements, just light it. In her face now. The spores are coming out of the mouth and reaching toward her. They would have attacked by now but something's different ...because it's also inside her this time. Kissing? No, not exactly... might look that way maybe, but no. Horrible. Doesn't matter, don't move, just light it.

However seeing lots of "what's the deal with the KISS?! wtf?!" comments

Yeah sure it didn't actually have to happen at all, but it was cool shock value but made in-universe sense to me!

and*

I don't know what Fringe is, but I have been meaning to start Mindhunter, so I guess I'll see her there!

Fringe is available on HBO Max. I just re-watched the pilot and it's fucking bonkers.

i love Fringe so much, even when it confused me utterly

I found the museum stalking scene writhingly terrifying (non gamer here btw).

Yeah clickers are as freaky in the game as they were depicted in the museum!

I Photoshop paddington into a movie, game, or TV show until I forget: Day 688 pic.twitter.com/GAYYrNbGRr

— Jaythechou (@jaythechou) January 26, 2023

horror games are always scarier than other horror media bc of the level of immersion.

Definitely this. Had plenty of tense moments watching horror movies but nothing that compares to playing say Dead Space or Silent Hill 2.

The cold openings for this show are stellar.

The sets rule. For what it's worth, in the games (sorry) spores are the primary way it spreads, but the showrunners knew they couldn't have everyone running around unrecognizably in gas masks. It's like watching an alternate cut of the show, anyway, so here is the sequence in the game with the masks where Ellie reveals to Dina that she is immune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pGY3t6AAmE

I think I might leave this show to its own devices. I'm just not sure I'm in the right mental state to watch people in precarious situations viciously clobber the shit out of each other over tiny differences rather than banding together to clobber the shit out of zombies. (I also bailed on The Walking Dead at the start of the Negan years, for similar reasons.) Like, there's a certain kind of dystopian/post-apocalyptic struggle that I can handle, and I'm not sure this is it. The most recent episode just made me depressed.

I can see that take for sure.

It's also a bit like... people would be evil and cruel I'm sure in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but maybe there are ways of existence that don't just mirror other shows, even within that.

I guess I am watching this for the spectacle, to an extent.

loved this episode, cried a lot (as per usual)

Feels like a mistake to have not spent more time in the town tbh. I'm way more interested in the sardonic psychiatrist than the scar cult.

Fun fact, this episode (and apparently the next one will as well) brought in the co-writer from the second game, Halley Gross, and I suspect her presence made a big difference (for the positive). The game's director and other writer Neil Druckmann directed this one, too, which might have further helped. There were also some things I think it once again needlessly belabored, which makes me think that's what Craig Mazin is bringing to the table. However, if that's what attracts top notch day players like Tony Dalton, Joey Pants and O'Hara, that's fine with me, even if I think their characters are unnecessary.

Season finale next week. I haven't been watching the scenes from next week, but I suspect I know what will go down. I also suspect, based on what season 3 must entail, that we may get a season 4 as well after all.

what did we gain by this episode coming as the penultimate one? feel like it would have been even more powerful and devastating if this was just ep2 then events transpired after.

seven episodes feels so short for this season, kinda mad it'll be two and a half years before more.

seven episodes feels so short for this season, kinda mad it'll be two and a half years before more.

Didn't realize either of these things and taken together they're gonna make it very easy for me to walk away.

fairly sure i read 2.5 years anyway.

This season has moved a lot of things around a lot from the game, with no appreciable gain, imo, including this episode (as much as I liked it), which in the game arrives allllll the way at the end, to devastating effect.

was certain it was going to be 'space oddity' when he handed her the tape in the shuttle, but i guess they eventually exhausted their 'rock classics' spotify playlists.

how good would it have been if joel played limp bizkit 'break stuff' when she asked for a birthday song?

And indeed, Mazin just said in a new interview that the second game requires three seasons, that he can't finish the story by the end of season 3, so a season 4 is all but a sure thing. They better get cracking.

I usually hate sombre acoustic covers of upbeat 80’s pop songs (like I have been ALLERGIC at least since Chris Cornell did Billie Jean) but this was a really layered, beautiful performance that really served the story and provided a little bit of extra (and needed) catharsis.

I liked how much time they gave the scene too.

I do like it when a show gives you the chance to say, *out loud*, "Why the fuck am I still watching this shit?" So thanks, THE LAST OF US. All done with you now.

The only episode of this season I'm going to remember in a month is the Jackson flashback.

idg the point of the last scene

The last scene of ep 6 or 7? Some game and possible light season 3 spoilers, but the last scene of ep 6 is the closing scene of the game, and it's curious if not a bit disappointing that it's been bumped up and presented here, but I can understand it - but it leaves one to wonder how they'll close the show. Last scene of the season is basically the opening scene of the 2nd half of the game, where you actually play as and see the perspective of Abby and see what he does over the course of the 3 days in Seattle when Ellie is there

and I meant to type "she" there. oy

xxp meant to show that S3 will mostly be the timeline of S2 but from Abby's perspective

xxxpost I assume by the last scene in episode 6 you mean the scene on the porch with Joel, not the scene after that where Ellie walks back to the theater?

xxp meant to show that S3 will mostly be the timeline of S2 but from Abby's perspective

thx murgatroid for the explanation

that makes more sense!

Honestly I think I will like this show much more if Kaitlyn Dever becomes the lead

Yeah that’s stupid

i am not so anti-Ellie as to be really all that heavily invested in that, i guess.
Like I’m interested but i’m not all like oh fuck yes finally. And i get that that all ties to the game. Fine, sure whatever.

but that leads me to my biggest ongoing rant about this season & this show in general: i fucking hate the way that the show is so heavily idk, “policed” by gamers like UGH THATS DIFFERENT THE CHARACTERS CANT BE DIFFERENT ITS NOT INTENSE ENOUGH ITS TOO GIRLY ITS TOO Y-A IT SHOULD BE X Y Z? as though the tv show cant be its own thing is truly endlessly exhausting

like have these ppl ever read a book adapted to a movie? THEYRE DIFFERENT MEDIUMS GUESS WHAT IT LETS YOU TELL DIFFERENT STORIES

like were you just born?

shut! up!

it has been exhausting in this way since the Bill & Fran ep in s1

and tbh if i stopped watching the show it wouldnt be because of characters or story choices in the show itself it would be bc the discourse is fucking! stupid! and tiring! (sorry to ppl itt who played the game, i’m not lumping you in w that)

The gamer reaction is kind of the producers' fault though - they're hewing close to the game rather than taking "shroom zombies" as a starting point. When it's 90% the same (to the detriment of the show) that 10% is going to get some nerds riled up.

The nerds are driven by being misogynists. Let’s just not pretend they have a point, ok? They’re upset because Bella Ramsey doesn’t look like the character they wanted to fuck.

There are some of those game difference nerds here and I haven't seen their criticism being about Ramsey's fuckability.

VG otm

This season has been a big drop off in quality from S1 though. A lot of episodes wouldn't have been out of place on The Walking Dead

the fall of a cliff each episode this season has been vast tbf. never played the games, it's just got worse and worse. the writing is terrible and that hangs the acting out to dry. and bella ramsey isn't a good actress anyway, nothing to do with the game, but they aren't helping her here at all. one minute she's feeling bad about shooting the people who were part of the group that killed joel, the next she's furiously remembering oh yes must kill abby.

also for a second season that took about two years they managed to bodge together about a ninety minutes longer than a film by the time you take all the ads out. and even within that they still built to a 'finale' where someone gets on a boat, goes somewhere, gets into trouble and has to drive away again. the writing is unbelievably slapdash by now. couple that with them folding in characters we've seen say about ten lines each as the final cast, and it makes it even worse.

it's frustrating because the show had potential. even first few eps this season i thought were really good. but i genuinely was close to turning this off before the end.

I do like it when a show gives you the chance to say, *out loud*, "Why the fuck am I still watching this shit?" So thanks, THE LAST OF US. All done with you now.

p much otm.

off*

A lot of episodes wouldn't have been out of place on The Walking Dead

and yep, this.

There are some of those game difference nerds here and I haven't seen their criticism being about Ramsey's fuckability.

even within that they still built to a 'finale' where someone gets on a boat, goes somewhere, gets into trouble and has to drive away again

That scene had me internally shouting "What the fuck was the point of that?" as it ended. Five minutes (maybe longer) that could have been spent on literally anything else. Oh, but I bet that matriarch character will return in Season 3 and we'll be expected to remember her, and give a shit.

we've prob all watched enough fail prestige tv now that it becomes really apparent really soon when they haven't a fucking clue what they're doing, and this season/this finale have felt more and more like that. this episode, for a final episode of a show that prob cost more than nearly any other tv show that exists, was just completely shambolic bullshit. the minute the opening scenes were like oh hello, welcome back love triangle part three, it was obvious the whole thing is going nowhere. also like, it seemed like ellie would progress through the hospital basement at one point, and things were moving that way, but repeatedly everyone just goes back to the cinema, over and over.

also the big siren when ellie was captured and they're like 'leave her', even tho they were about to kill her, presumably fairly swiftly. like 'nope we don't have time now, let her get back on the boat which she learned to drive in a storm a few minutes ago, and also got hit by a wave in but didn't die cos we thought why not keep making this character die so often that it is even more clear they will not die'

Abby is a monumentally uninteresting character at this point, and the actress seems bad. Maybe people like her from some other thing she was in?

Also, could they have hung a bigger THIS CHARACTER WILL DIE BY EPISODE'S END sign around Jesse's neck? "Oh boy, I'm gonna be a dad!" is up there with "I've got a week till retirement" as a harbinger-of-doom cliché.

Kaitlyn Dever was in Justified - she played a good character but it wasn't really an acting tour de force.

i said ellie above, but i mean abby.

no wait, i don't.

Also, could they have hung a bigger THIS CHARACTER WILL DIE BY EPISODE'S END sign around Jesse's neck? "Oh boy, I'm gonna be a dad!" is up there with "I've got a week till retirement" as a harbinger-of-doom cliché.

'got myself a new boat, it's called the live forever'

The hill on which I'm willing to die is that they should have had an entire season at Jackson - the love triangle (pregnancy in general) has little weight because the show had to tell you all of that.

Jesse, the ex-cop bartender, the angry shrink, Joel's brother, Joel's brother's pregnant wife, Joel's nephew (or niece, whichever) - just zipping on past so we can find the only mint condition Martin acoustic after 25 years of 98% humidity.

Yeah agreed really. Season one was given so much leeway they did 90-minute bottle episodes, and really good ones. This season they somehow cobbled together seven 40-minute ones, and even at that just burnt characters away as you say.

And locations

A lot of us who played the game are taking that discussion to the game thread and I think that's the best place for it.

At least on this board a lot of us who are criticizing the show are coming from the perspective where it felt the game was better at presenting the story and characterizations of the ensemble (if it ain't broke, etc).

That said I feel the last two episodes were the best so far this season but perhaps not coincidentally they were the only ones not wholly written by Mazin.

Excited to see how they handle the next season. As has been remarked above, the set pieces are incredible!

it wouldn't be an HBO genre show if everyone online hated it but somehow returned each week/season (see also: Game of Thrones) (see also: True Blood) (etc.)

Abby is a monumentally uninteresting character at this point, and the actress seems bad. Maybe people like her from some other thing she was in?

can confirm re: Kaitlyn Dever acting (and whoever was downplaying her perf in Justified upthread is high, she was so fucking good in that season!)