“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.

https://i.redd.it/4sssjzhx34we1.jpeg

Last season, right outside of SLC Ellie says (paraphrasing), "It can't all be for nothing," meaning that she doesn't want all the deaths that accompanied her along the way to bringing her to the Fireflies to be for naught. This on the heels of an assault by a cannibal with pedo overtones, so heap another layer of trauma on top of that.

Once again not entirely convinced by the choices and changes being made by the show, but again, it's well made and acted so I'm curious where (or really how) they take it forward.

Started playing the Last of Us II video game this week and boy is it boring. I don't get this trend in video games of having 90% cinematic animations and 10% gameplay. Two hours in and so far I've strummed a guitar and ridden a horse.

Give it time!

Looking forward to pressing the square button to open a can of beans in hour four!

Spoiler alert.

Maybe it's like the Scandinavian slow TV thing. 90% of life is waiting for the next wave of zombies

Ingmar Bergman's Ghost Recon

Ingmar Bergman's Ghost Recon

Not as boring as all the talk of discrepancies between the TV show and the game in this thread xps

really enjoying this season, was surprised to see so few comments.

yeah i am into it, a little bit jarring to whip ahead in time after everything that happened in ep2 but: i go where the show takes me!

even it means going to Seattle, a tank-equipped heavily armed CITY, on a lil horsey with (waynes world voice) ~A~ GUN with two teen girls who are surely trotting merrily to their doom like this is a terrible, horrible no good very bad idea but also AVENGE JOEL

Grunge was responsible for cordyceps

lol, i know like realism is not the point of this show but i read today the distance they would have had to travel is 900 miles. pity the horse.

i am enjoying this season's balance from episode by episode after the mini-movies or varying lengths last time, though i liked that as an intro to the world too.

i worry for dina, maybe because i find it hard to root for or trust ellie. for basically the main character i feel there isn't much charisma there. or much acting besides eye-rolling, but idk.

xpost

Part of me wondered if the big bigoted Christian conservative militant asshole supporting her at the town hall might give her pause ("fuck, THIS is the only guy on my side? Maybe I'm wrong"), but Ellie is too headstrong.

Enjoyed the ep but I always love the shots of foliage growing over former cityscapes to be my favorite bits in any of these shows

yeah that poor fuckin horse having to walk all that way lol ugh

lol localgarda i kind of am the opposite! i worry for ~ellie~ that ~dina~ is going hurt her, like she’ll catch all ellie’s feels and just stomp them or laugh at them or change her mind & go off with a dude or whatever
she can feel unserious at times which sets off my introverted trust no one klaxons lol

warning, spoilers

Ellie is the protagonist now that Joel has died, and fwiw she has her own charisma. I don't think Dina will hurt her, I think she loves her. I do think it's going to be a whole new ball game when they get to Seattle

In the game, Dina and Ellie stumble into Kurt's grave and if you manage to play Teen Spirit without mistakes, they reconsider their vengeance quest and go back to Jackson.

Is there a video of this? Haven't heard or seen anything about that as a possible ending...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

The episodes so far haven't been short but they feel a bit narrative-light? Like a video game where you're just moving from cutscene to cutscene on rails.

xp 😑

bob marley

really enjoyed the very specific and almost perfectly typical 'actor doing a monologue' vibes of jeffrey wright's french cookery youtube

a combination of 'actor acting a monologue' and 'writer writing a monologue to be acted in the style of an actor doing a monologue'

not trashing it here it just exuded this quality.

I can't believe there are only three episodes left this season.

That subway scene was so tense

I desire them fancy embossed copper bottomed saucepans just as much as jeffrey wright's character did!

$3k for a 10-piece set iirc

I can make some magnificent bhunas in my dirt cheap aluminium pans, but fuck, they looked like some good kitchenware!

i've seen those around on the odd kitchen site for sure. tho when he said they need hardcore cleaning i was a bit like fuck that.

i'm really enjoying this season, but i have to say it's a bit weird how stupid the 'plan' for ellie and dina is. i know it's been established they're brash or whatever but just wandering through a city when it is fairly clear they are massively outnumbered, not to mention bashing through places filled with infected, it doesn't really tally with them being intelligent as well as effective. i don't really care about some deeper plot realism or whatever, it just makes them seem really dumb, which they clearly are not supposed to be.

separately i also felt a bit like 'acoustic cover version revealing the heart behind the electronic pop song' was a bit 2005, even if it was a nice moment. especially with 'take on me', like one of the most exuberant pop songs imaginable reduced to we are all going to die but i love you.

not to take away from the heartfelt and tearful vibes of the scene in question

For some reason it really bothered me that she didnt put the guitar back in its case.

It was a nice guitar, too!

separately i also felt a bit like 'acoustic cover version revealing the heart behind the electronic pop song' was a bit 2005, even if it was a nice moment. especially with 'take on me', like one of the most exuberant pop songs imaginable reduced to we are all going to die but i love you.

"This character is a teenager in an alternate future America, but she has the pop-cultural tastes of a middle-aged, mostly white, mostly male writers' room. Because shut up, that's why."

Hmm, I wonder if she had an influential white middle-aged man in her life, a mentor or father figure, who might have introduced her to a few musical things. Maybe we'll meet him in a future episode?

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.

Joel was a contractor from Texas, she should have been playing “Jesus Just Left Chicago” or “The Road Goes On Forever.”

Ellie picks up guitar

“MOM GOT DRUNK AND DAD GOT DRUNK/
AT OUR CHRISTMAS PARTY/
WE WERE DRINKIN CHAMPAGNE PUNCH/
AND HOMEMADE EGGNOG…”

I did like this episode overall, and Ellie saying "I'm gonna be a dad!" was great.

i know they deeply love each other and obv dina is pregnant but the instant pivot to wanting kids felt odd to me, aged 19 or whatev in a zombie apocalypse.

on the music, reading the posts upthread and when you consider that joel taught ellie how to play the guitar, the idea of him recounting his love for aha is fairly amusing and weird. reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4aD_dZzYpI

The A-ha thing always made perfect sense to me. After all, here we are in 2025 and people still really like the song. Anyway, I figure, hey, you've got unlimited time and probably limited listening choices, who knows what you might come across in the apocalypse. There's also the possibility that Joel, after striking out teaching Ellie the classic rock standards he loves, picked that one in an attempt to bond. Or that Ellie picked it as an act of rebellion.

It's also a callback to the first season, where an '80s song on the radio meant trouble.

For some reason it really bothered me that she didnt put the guitar back in its case.

Yep. Why wouldn't you put it back in its case? Not least for security reasons. You don't want to leave a sign that you've been there, surely?

just wandering through a city when it is fairly clear they are massively outnumbered, not to mention bashing through places filled with infected, it doesn't really tally with them being intelligent as well as effective.

I keep wondering the same thing as they're ambling along on their one horse. Which was also a decision that didn't make sense to me. To save resources? Do you see all the greenery around for the horses to eat? What if something happens to your one horse?

And now that they love each other and Dina is pregnant but the decision is "wow this incredible moment of revelation and human joy and connection against the odds really makes me want to double down on a doomed mission to murder someone in which we both might die"

Those silica gel packets really earned their keep. 20+ years of Pacific NW humidity cycles in one of those cases that's barely an improvement on cardboard lined with carpet, the neck wasn't completely fucked and the strings weren't even tarnished.

Like would it not already be even more screamingly obvious that their town is incredibly superior to anything else out there?

xpost

They've done a pretty poor job depicting both how driven Ellie is, and also how they are both but particularly Ellie hardcore killers.

The guitar being left out may be setting up the final shot of the show.

I think what would have cleared it right up for me would've been one incident where they dispassionately and easily despatched some infected without anyone getting bitten or anything. But right before Joel was killed, they ran into some whole new type of infected that seems smart, and yet they're like "oh well, no problem, nothing to worry about here, off we go."

Anyway, I do still really like the show. Just having a little whinge about it.