HBO/Sky Atlantic: The Last of Us

[Bread]

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.