I'm surely not the only one watching this? Always curious to see a video game adapted into TV/film, and The Last of Us so far has been a runaway success with casual TV audiences.
2 episodes into Season 2 now.
Spoiler:
Joel's death still hits like a ton of bricks. Wasn't sure how I felt about Abby monologuing (which she doesn't do in the game) but was eventually sold on it due to Dever's stellar delivery. Be interesting to see whether they follow the same structure going forward or deviate again
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(23-04-2025, 09:41 PM)Bread Wrote: I'm surely not the only one watching this? Always curious to see a video game adapted into TV/film, and The Last of Us so far has been a runaway success with casual TV audiences.
2 episodes into Season 2 now.
Spoiler:
Joel's death still hits like a ton of bricks. Wasn't sure how I felt about Abby monologuing (which she doesn't do in the game) but was eventually sold on it due to Dever's stellar delivery. Be interesting to see whether they follow the same structure going forward or deviate again
Spoiler:
I had the same thoughts about Abby and how they're laying all the cards out with her right away, where as in the game it was kept a mystery until the halfway point. But then I reasoned that they're probably doing it because they're splitting up the events differently. So instead of the first half of the season being Ellie, and the second being Abby, they might cut between both of their stories more frequently
But overall, S2 is quite good so far, I liked 1 a lot but I feel like the fumbled it a bit in the second half. First half of S1 was great but after they meet up with Tommy it felt weirdly rushed for the rest of it
(23-04-2025, 09:41 PM)Bread Wrote: I'm surely not the only one watching this? Always curious to see a video game adapted into TV/film, and The Last of Us so far has been a runaway success with casual TV audiences.
2 episodes into Season 2 now.
Spoiler:
Joel's death still hits like a ton of bricks. Wasn't sure how I felt about Abby monologuing (which she doesn't do in the game) but was eventually sold on it due to Dever's stellar delivery. Be interesting to see whether they follow the same structure going forward or deviate again
Spoiler:
I had the same thoughts about Abby and how they're laying all the cards out with her right away, where as in the game it was kept a mystery until the halfway point. But then I reasoned that they're probably doing it because they're splitting up the events differently. So instead of the first half of the season being Ellie, and the second being Abby, they might cut between both of their stories more frequently
But overall, S2 is quite good so far, I liked 1 a lot but I feel like the fumbled it a bit in the second half. First half of S1 was great but after they meet up with Tommy it felt weirdly rushed for the rest of it
Spoiler:
I can't help but feel like they're really trying to avoid the same backlash (which I felt was unwarranted fwiw) from 2020 by properly priming the casual audience for Joel's death. Not only introducing Abby and her backstories much earlier, but also really going to town on the breakdown of Joel and Ellie's relationship, which I feel is a pretty common death flag.
Suppose when Laura Bailey's getting death threats by losers on the internet, it's wise to try and make sure that it doesn't happen with Kaitlyn Dever. Though I generally feel that TV audiences are more mature than gaming audiences.
(23-04-2025, 09:41 PM)Bread Wrote: I'm surely not the only one watching this? Always curious to see a video game adapted into TV/film, and The Last of Us so far has been a runaway success with casual TV audiences.
2 episodes into Season 2 now.
Spoiler:
Joel's death still hits like a ton of bricks. Wasn't sure how I felt about Abby monologuing (which she doesn't do in the game) but was eventually sold on it due to Dever's stellar delivery. Be interesting to see whether they follow the same structure going forward or deviate again
Spoiler:
I had the same thoughts about Abby and how they're laying all the cards out with her right away, where as in the game it was kept a mystery until the halfway point. But then I reasoned that they're probably doing it because they're splitting up the events differently. So instead of the first half of the season being Ellie, and the second being Abby, they might cut between both of their stories more frequently
But overall, S2 is quite good so far, I liked 1 a lot but I feel like the fumbled it a bit in the second half. First half of S1 was great but after they meet up with Tommy it felt weirdly rushed for the rest of it
Spoiler:
I can't help but feel like they're really trying to avoid the same backlash (which I felt was unwarranted fwiw) from 2020 by properly priming the casual audience for Joel's death. Not only introducing Abby and her backstories much earlier, but also really going to town on the breakdown of Joel and Ellie's relationship, which I feel is a pretty common death flag.
Suppose when Laura Bailey's getting death threats by losers on the internet, it's wise to try and make sure that it doesn't happen with Kaitlyn Dever. Though I generally feel that TV audiences are more mature than gaming audiences.
I had that feeling a bit too, I think you're right
I also think you're right that TV audiences will react to it more reasonably than game audiences. I know a lot of people from work who watched the show but never played the game
Hell, my parents really liked it and they didn't even know it was based on a game until I told them
5 episodes deep now. My opinion on it is starting to shift slightly. This is one of those where non-gamers are probably enjoying it more than those that have played the game.
Game spoilers too:
I can't say I'm enjoying the changes to Ellie's character. I liked her as the vengeful, tunnel-visioned hothead, and I liked her arc of her obsessive fixation on Abby turning her into a monster. Here, she's very happy-go-lucky and quippy, and I'm not seeing that Joel's death has ultimately affected her psyche as much as we're meant to believe it has. They've also dumbed her down significantly and given all her agency to Dina. The tone is too light. "You're a burden" being swapped to "I'm going to be a dad?" when she found out Dina was pregnant absolutely floored me.
Absolutely nothing to do with Bella Ramsay mind, who I think is brilliant and unfairly targeted. This is on Mazin
I’m really enjoying it. I think both seasons have been really good. I’m a little confused at how they are setting this up though, I assume they’re introducing Abby’s story and Lev next season? That’s risky IMO
I'm tending to agree with Bread about the changes to Ellie. Maybe I'm wrong but I think the Part II game is a bit harder to movie-fy than the first. In game I feel like Ellie was angrier in Day 2 because she was on her own for long periods of time and allowed her hate to fester and grow without anyone to bring her back down to Earth. In Day 1, Dina was the one grounding her a bit even though she was still determined to get revenge.
In the show I feel like they were between a rock and a hard place with how to do Day 2. They probably opted to make the change to have Dina go with Ellie instead of being alone so that Bella has another actor to act off of, I imagine it might've been a bit weird to see Ellie sneaking around and stuff around Seattle on her own for a while where it works just fine in a game. But having someone for Ellie to bounce off of made her seem less angry and vengeful.
The show is still quite solid but it feels a lot clumsier than the first season
I thought Season 1 was OK, it was kinda saved by the Nick Offerman episode, but Season 2 just didn't work for me. I think Bella Ramsey is a great actress but her Ellie is just not it. I also don't like how fast they went through the first half of Part 2's story.
I might like Season 3 more, though, because Kaitlyn Dever has been pretty good so far.
Finished S2 the other night and yeah it's a pretty sloppy retelling of the first half of the game. I think some of the changes they went for made the story worse imo, I get some things from games don't translate to a show as well but I feel like they changed some stuff just for the sake of it.
I assumed they shot S3 back to back with S2 but if that's the case and they make us wait 2 years for it, it'll be pretty ridiculous