HBO: The Last of Us

[R_R_X]

Never though of it influencing Logan, imo the best Marvel movie ever for so many other reasons. But yeah, the dynamics are clearly there. Good call.

About your other comment, it’s true that they’ve gone for an episodic scheme which feels kind of similar to TWD in some ways. They even commented on it in one of the podcasts as one such thing the series let them do, instead of the games linear narrative. But at the same time, it’s not the horrible “bad guy/gal of the week” style of series TWD ended up being. Things as episode 3, and this last episode 5 definitely show us that they want to talk more about the sorrounding world and people (good people too). I’ve got nothing against that.

I do hope Kathleen was a one-off thing… I mean if you are willing to give me a bad guy/gal give me something better. Kathleen was badly written. Too archetypical for such a character-driven series. Even seemed to want to sell us the archetype (talks about the brother: “he was good… I’m not” / ”We are with you” ). I hope it was a bit of a miss-step.

We know what’s about to come so… let’s see how they opt to develop that part.

Really seemed pretty obvious to me not just in terms of writting and setting but the character designs and way it was filmed.

I'm not against showing more about other people too as long as it's done well and Kathleen wasn't, the fact she had more screen time than Henry and Sam is a crime and honestly mind boggling I hope they don't mess up with you know who.

 

[R_R_X]

2027 Oscars nominees for Best Picture:

Sonic The Tragic Years

Call of Duty Tragedy of War

Street Fighter Rage and Honor

The Lots of Us

Metal Gear Espionage

Grand Forza Turismo The Unity

Pffft, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is going to win best picture next year just you wait.

 

[Mr.NoCredit]

It was a grand move from HBO to produce this series. It’s at the right time in “life” for it and is a wonderful show. Good for ND as well. It will bring a lot of people to the game and bring a bunch of people to HBO.
It’s entertainment and quality programming. Too much dissection of episodes is silly. It’s a TV show created to entertain us which is exactly what it does.
Zombies are make-believe. The show is too. I found nothing wrong with “how she holds the gun” or the huge bloater, “hoard”scene. I loved the episode. I don’t pick on silly things “I think are done wrong” I just enjoy the show for face value. I’m not a critic nor am I a director. I’m only a viewer and enjoy things the way they are.
There’s much to be enjoyed if you allow yourself the pleasure of it, or, be a critic, pick the show apart and hate it… that’s up to the individual who’s watching. Personally I prefer to enjoy things the way they are. They’re spending tall dollars to entertain my sorry ass and I’m grateful for it! It’s a really cool show made just to entertain. Enjoy it or don’t. That’s up to you. I think it’s a totally cool show and love the people chosen to play the parts. Excellent casting as far as I’m concerned and really enjoyable. Good stuff! Thanks Naughty Dog and HBO for putting this together. Awesomeness!

 

[JAWS]

Finally watched the first episode. That first half hour was brilliant. Looking forward to watching more.

Don’t care for the casting of the main girl though. She looks weird lol

 

[jye4ever]

It was a grand move from HBO to produce this series. It’s at the right time in “life” for it and is a wonderful show. Good for ND as well. It will bring a lot of people to the game and bring a bunch of people to HBO.
It’s entertainment and quality programming. Too much dissection of episodes is silly. It’s a TV show created to entertain us which is exactly what it does.
Zombies are make-believe. The show is too. I found nothing wrong with “how she holds the gun” or the huge bloater, “hoard”scene. I loved the episode. I don’t pick on silly things “I think are done wrong” I just enjoy the show for face value. I’m not a critic nor am I a director. I’m only a viewer and enjoy things the way they are.
There’s much to be enjoyed if you allow yourself the pleasure of it, or, be a critic, pick the show apart and hate it… that’s up to the individual who’s watching. Personally I prefer to enjoy things the way they are. They’re spending tall dollars to entertain my sorry ass and I’m grateful for it! It’s a really cool show made just to entertain. Enjoy it or don’t. That’s up to you. I think it’s a totally cool show and love the people chosen to play the parts. Excellent casting as far as I’m concerned and really enjoyable. Good stuff! Thanks Naughty Dog and HBO for putting this together. Awesomeness!

Well said.

I also much prefer the fungus version of zombies than the traditional Romero/Walking Dead version although the post apocalyptic formula of humans vs zombies vs humans regardless of zombie type can easily become stale and predictable if new dynamics aren’t quickly introduced.

That genre has been done to…..death….tudum lol

They really need to combine the The Mad Max / Road Warrior genre with the zombie genre.

 

[RandomHero]

This thread is so wild haha.

There has never - NEVER - been a perfect 1:1 adaption of a movie/show from it's source material. Everything from Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, to Marvel and Resident Evil, have all had deviations from the source material, be it big or small. I have absolutely no idea why people still get mad that changes are made to stories, as opposed to just expecting there to be changes from jump street and letting things play out a bit.

I have never minded changes as long as they keep within the spirit of the story, and enhance the story, in some way. For example, the Elves coming to Helm's Deep in the Lord of the Rings films absolutely kept within the spirit of the story, and made the battle a lot more believable, so even though it didn't happen in the book, I was fine with it.

In regards to The Last of Us, I can't recall a video game adaption that has kept within the spirit of the story more than this one has, and it's hopefully going to set a new standard for the way games are adapted in the future. Yes, there are plenty of things that both me - the lack of spores and not enough infected/killing infected being chief among them, but as the showrunners have mentioned, those are gameplay elements that don't necessarily translate to a new, non-gaming audience in the long run. I understand those changes.

Kathleen was ridiculous - not because she wasn't believable. It was established her brother was the leader of the resistance in Kansas City and people were following her after Henry got him killed. I don't think a story like that is all that farfetched, Henry did work with FEDRA and those fighters wanted everyone tied to FEDRA dead, so I can see scenario where people would follow her to hunt him down. The amount of screen time that she got was just stupid, Sam and Henry were too important of a story to keep taking time away from them. They should have fleshed out things with them a little more instead of trying to give a group of enemies a name.

The really ridiculous part was Kathleen coming to hold a gun at the group as they were escaping when her people were being obliterated by the infected. That was a dire situation and you'd expect a leader would be tryin to rally her troops, not get caught up in vengeance in that moment. It was just forced and pointless. I guess they wanted the moment with the child clicker eating her after her disregard for children, but still, it was just stupid.

Overall, the show has been great, it captures the spirit of the game and for the most part the casting and performances have been excellent and while I would change some things, I think there are some criticisms here that are legitimately unfair.

 

[darth dennis]

It was a grand move from HBO to produce this series. It’s at the right time in “life” for it and is a wonderful show. Good for ND as well. It will bring a lot of people to the game and bring a bunch of people to HBO.
It’s entertainment and quality programming. Too much dissection of episodes is silly. It’s a TV show created to entertain us which is exactly what it does.
Zombies are make-believe. The show is too. I found nothing wrong with “how she holds the gun” or the huge bloater, “hoard”scene. I loved the episode. I don’t pick on silly things “I think are done wrong” I just enjoy the show for face value. I’m not a critic nor am I a director. I’m only a viewer and enjoy things the way they are.
There’s much to be enjoyed if you allow yourself the pleasure of it, or, be a critic, pick the show apart and hate it… that’s up to the individual who’s watching. Personally I prefer to enjoy things the way they are. They’re spending tall dollars to entertain my sorry ass and I’m grateful for it! It’s a really cool show made just to entertain. Enjoy it or don’t. That’s up to you. I think it’s a totally cool show and love the people chosen to play the parts. Excellent casting as far as I’m concerned and really enjoyable. Good stuff! Thanks Naughty Dog and HBO for putting this together. Awesomeness!

Spot on. I watch what helps me turn my brain away from the complexities of work and life and this show does a good job. I mean, so does Family Guy, so understand who you're dealing with Seriously though, I think it's a cool show with a different take on the Zombie situation. Ultimately, these shows are always going to boil down to more human versus human as that's the most compelling and honestly probably the most realistic if something like that were to ever actually happen (I am NOT saying it is scientifically possible, so don't come at me ). I hope TLOU does what TWD failed to do, and that is be concise and move on from plots once they've served their purpose. I love TWD but it's about six seasons drawn out to 11 seasons for the sake of dollars. The Whisperers and Alpha was a good example of something I thought went on way too long...for example.

 

[jye4ever]

This thread is so wild haha.

There has never - NEVER - been a perfect 1:1 adaption of a movie/show from it's source material. Everything from Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, to Marvel and Resident Evil, have all had deviations from the source material, be it big or small. I have absolutely no idea why people still get mad that changes are made to stories, as opposed to just expecting there to be changes from jump street and letting things play out a bit.

I have never minded changes as long as they keep within the spirit of the story, and enhance the story, in some way. For example, the Elves coming to Helm's Deep in the Lord of the Rings films absolutely kept within the spirit of the story, and made the battle a lot more believable, so even though it didn't happen in the book, I was fine with it.

In regards to The Last of Us, I can't recall a video game adaption that has kept within the spirit of the story more than this one has, and it's hopefully going to set a new standard for the way games are adapted in the future. Yes, there are plenty of things that both me - the lack of spores and not enough infected/killing infected being chief among them, but as the showrunners have mentioned, those are gameplay elements that don't necessarily translate to a new, non-gaming audience in the long run. I understand those changes.

Kathleen was ridiculous - not because she wasn't believable. It was established her brother was the leader of the resistance in Kansas City and people were following her after Henry got him killed. I don't think a story like that is all that farfetched, Henry did work with FEDRA and those fighters wanted everyone tied to FEDRA dead, so I can see scenario where people would follow her to hunt him down. The amount of screen time that she got was just stupid, Sam and Henry were too important of a story to keep taking time away from them. They should have fleshed out things with them a little more instead of trying to give a group of enemies a name.

The really ridiculous part was Kathleen coming to hold a gun at the group as they were escaping when her people were being obliterated by the infected. That was a dire situation and you'd expect a leader would be tryin to rally her troops, not get caught up in vengeance in that moment. It was just forced and pointless. I guess they wanted the moment with the child clicker eating her after her disregard for children, but still, it was just stupid.

Overall, the show has been great, it captures the spirit of the game and for the most part the casting and performances have been excellent and while I would change some things, I think there are some criticisms here that are legitimately unfair.

Well since she knew her death was imminent I guess she wanted to fulfill that revenge before she died kind of makes sense.

Your criticism of her holding a gun is solely based on the fact that her group possibly had a chance of surviving that horde attack which they clearly had no chance.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Christ remember all of season 2 was stuck on Herschel's farm

Thank God for Jon Bernthal.

 

[chrisstbh]

This extends to the game as well but why do they infected just straight up kill people instead of trying to infect them? The only thing that the infection wants is to spread.

 

[R_R_X]

This extends to the game as well but why do they infected just straight up kill people instead of trying to infect them? The only thing that the infection wants is to spread.

I think in the game it's at least shown that infected will kill and eat other humans and even infected to stay alive and they also don't need to directly infect humans thanks to the spores but yeah it doesn't really make sense especially in the show at the end of the day these are still "zombies" so they will have them act like typical zombies I suppose.

 

[glitch1044]

As far as choices of direction… I’d say they have risen to the task way beyond my and most people’s expectations. Part of the story told and how the characters impacted you in the game is drive by gameplay. Game minus gameplay doesn’t make for a good series, changes need to be made.

It’s different media… I still don’t get why every difference is discussed as in was it better or worse. The changes made mostly make in the long run the same impact on newcomers. Those of us who played the game are not newcomers, thus are biased not only for the differences on the writing or story telling but on the badassery we deployed while gaming that helped us connect with Joel so much. And those 2 cannot be disconnected that easily. Btw, series is not over yet. Character development is one such thing that changes between media types.

There’s also different targets, time and money constraints… it’s such a difference, that the fact it’s being so successful is in itself nothing but extraordinary for a game adaptation. If it’s good enough for those who played the game (most say it is, some think it’s even brilliant as do I), if it’s really good for newcomers (again, they are succeeding there), they’ve chosen wisely I’d say. Not perfect for sure. But way better than any game adaption prior to it I shall say.

The remarkable impact this series has had will open the doors for more AAA high budget adaptations. And even for those who don’t like this series, that’s good news for what might come next imo.

I honestly don't even care how much they change things anymore, I've already accepted that this isn't anywhere near what the game was - or ever will be.
But my point was this: why replace parts of a great story with mediocre side stories and lazy writing instead (B&F? Kathleen?) that don't help progression for the main character's in any way, shape or form? If they would have dedicated Kathleen's part with Sam and Henry instead, what happened would have had such a bigger impact.
I'm trying real hard to at least enjoy the series, but the writing just seems to be all over the place. Like they're adding actors into the show just for the sake of being able to say that they had them in there.
And what they did with the bloater truly was a shame as well. It took that actor most of the day just getting that suit put on for a crappy 2 second scene....that happened in the background while being blurred out. Like wtf? How can anyone defend this?
They've been purposely taking every horror element out the show for some stupid reason I don't understand. Does anyone here even remember how intense the game could get at times? This show has created none of those moments.
It's like they're dialing it down because they're afraid most of it's audience are 90 year old farts that would have a heart attack otherwise. lol

I know it seems like I'm pissed off, but really, I'm not. It's just that the game gave writer's great content to expand upon. But instead we get an hour B&F episode, with an "exhilarating" story afterwards featuring Kathleen? Even if we were to take TLoU name off it entirely, the show just seems to really enjoy taking these weird, mediocre forks in the road story-wise. lol

 

[Biojex]

Don’t get me wrong i’ve been playing video games ever since my childhood days with the Atari 2600, my parents were not gamers though because there were none in their time lol

I’ve owned every single console.

But I have never went searching for quality story telling in a video game that’s just ridiculous and embarrassing I play to blow **** up no matter the game I just want to blow **** up, that simple.

My parents bought me Atari 2600 Adventure on release day god I loved that game lol

Hold on let me go searching for deep philosophy in Call of Duty i’ll be right back!

I have never been more disappointed in you than I am now…

 

[jye4ever]

I have never been more disappointed in you than I am now…

Bio where dafug have you been!!!!!!!!!’

Like HOLY CRAP!!!!!!

Just to see you posting again i’ll take back everything I said lol

 

[Biojex]

Bio where dafug have you been!!!!!!!!!’

Like HOLY CRAP!!!!!!

Just to see you posting again i’ll take back everything I said lol

I was in a coma… but I heard Jye was talking yang so I woke up

You better be nice. I’m still sleepy

 

[jye4ever]

I was in a coma… but I heard Jye was talking yang so I woke up

You better be nice. I’m still sleepy

Dude like seriously just last month I was thinking about you I was wondering if you had died or something lol

 

[Biojex]

Dude like seriously just last month I was thinking about you I was wondering if you had died or something lol

In a manner of speaking I did… I have two kids now

 

[Wor-Gar]

Kids. Bloodsuckers. All of them. And then they hate you for it.

Hopefully you have girls -- at least they'll take care of you when you're old and feeble.

 

[e30ernest]

So as a character in this series, I do not dislike Kathleen. I think she served her purpose. I really do not understand why people would whine about her not being leadership material, when it was pretty obvious from the last few episodes that she was never a good leader. She was basically riding the coattails of her dead brother.

In our country, we had something similar back in the 80's. Where our then president (who is the father of the current one we have now) ordered the assassination of a senator who was also his main political rival. That senator's wife who was a housewife then, had no political background then became the face and leader of the resistance that eventually overthrew that president.

If you made a film about her now, she'd probably not strike anyone as someone who could lead the resistance, because she was softspoken and was actually considered as a weak leader. But people followed her.

I kinda remembered her with Kathleen mostly because of the circumstance (an oppressive regime kills the leader of the resistance so his "partner" takes over). She on the other hand, was ha horrible person and I felt the show portrayed that well enough.

In the span of a few episodes, we saw the lost humanity in Joel, how humanity can thrive through love with Bill and Frank and now how lost people truly are. Ellie and Joel are both undergoing a good arc too as their relationship grows. Ellie saw how easy it is to end up alone again (her fear), and Joel can see how fast it is he can lose someone important again (Henry and Sam).

I am really digging the series. I can't wait to play the game after.

 

[Rayman]

I honestly don't even care how much they change things anymore, I've already accepted that this isn't anywhere near what the game was - or ever will be.
But my point was this: why replace parts of a great story with mediocre side stories and lazy writing instead (B&F? Kathleen?) that don't help progression for the main character's in any way, shape or form? If they would have dedicated Kathleen's part with Sam and Henry instead, what happened would have had such a bigger impact.
I'm trying real hard to at least enjoy the series, but the writing just seems to be all over the place. Like they're adding actors into the show just for the sake of being able to say that they had them in there.
And what they did with the bloater truly was a shame as well. It took that actor most of the day just getting that suit put on for a crappy 2 second scene....that happened in the background while being blurred out. Like wtf? How can anyone defend this?
They've been purposely taking every horror element out the show for some stupid reason I don't understand. Does anyone here even remember how intense the game could get at times? This show has created none of those moments.
It's like they're dialing it down because they're afraid most of it's audience are 90 year old farts that would have a heart attack otherwise. lol

I know it seems like I'm pissed off, but really, I'm not. It's just that the game gave writer's great content to expand upon. But instead we get an hour B&F episode, with an "exhilarating" story afterwards featuring Kathleen? Even if we were to take TLoU name off it entirely, the show just seems to really enjoy taking these weird, mediocre forks in the road story-wise. lol

Sam and Henry were perfectly depicted in the series imo, people really did feel for them. Bella had a big role in that too, her acting is spot on. They needn’t more screentime, we just needed less Kathleen if you ask me haha.

All in all though to me it’s about Joel and Ellie and I see no issues there. Bills story to me felt like a nice derail that added something to the world, Kathleen did not. But in the great scheme of things… I’m mostly there with what I remember feeling in the game (which I played a few months back), just without the adrenaline of being Joel.

I understand your point of view though, even if I disagree. Since I’m not into horror stuff because I’m unable to get scared… I’m not feeling that as a big difference.