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What do you all think about HBO's The Last of Us show? - S1E1 Discussion
The Last of Us episode 1 was released on 1/15. The season has 9 episodes total, releasing one episode per week.
The Last of Us episode 1 was released on 1/15. The season has 9 episodes total, releasing one episode per week.
Honestly I think this might be the best adaptation of a video game for TV/movies ever made. They made a few changes, but I think they all enhanced the experience. The choice to remove spores from the lore makes sense - that way the show won't have a ton of scenes where you can't see the actors' faces. I liked the guard character and the additional character development with Sarah in the opening sequence.
Personally speaking I’m uninterested in seeing it. Not because I am imagining it to be a bad adaptation like most video games tend to get, but simply because I don’t really see the value in it even if it were done exceptionally well. When a video game does a good job at telling a story you get into it to a greater extent than if you saw it as a movie. Undertale is a great example because it breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to you the player, though good storytelling will speak to you without necessarily needing to actually break that wall. But to compare movies to games, movies actually can’t break the fourth wall the same way: they can talk to you and they can look at the camera, but they can’t actually take any of your inputs or have a conversation with you like a game can. That interaction gives a level of depth you can’t get outside of interactive entertainment.
As a counterpoint, I think the actual video game elements are the weakest part of The Last of Us (the video game). The narrative, on the other hand, is phenomenal: if you were to replace the plot from The Last of Us with some generic zombie apocalypse story, I doubt it would be anything other than a niche single player zombie game -- certainly it wouldn't be considered one of the greatest games of all time.
You're correct that the gameplay in The Last of Us sometimes enhances the story telling, but for the most part the gameplay is just an excuse to get to the next cutscene; and I will boldly opine that the "cutscenes" are even better done in the show.
That was my experience as well. I didn't enjoy The Last of Us as a game, just not my style. The story seemed interesting, but not enough to keep me going. I am more inclined to see the show than to play the game at this point.
To be honest what you are saying is close to how I feel under the surface. The reason why I used Undertale as the example was because it did a much better job of integrating the gameplay with the story
The thing is that TLOU has a story that is not too uncommon in cinema, and the thing that I felt made it great was how well the story was told. A huge amount of that was in the game’s cutscenes. A film adaptation would need to be fantastically better than the original just to compete with the extra storytelling tools that the game medium has available to it.
Definitely. I play a lot of PC games, but have less than zero interest in consoles, for many reasons. I've heard nothing but good things about the game, and I'm happy there's a TV adaptation as I'd otherwise never experience it.
Oh rad! Thanks for letting me know.
What a time to be alive
Adaptation is not that simple. It is true that games can do things that movies cannot, but it is not true that films are entirely passive experiences, as numerous film theorists argued since the birth of the art form.
Films and TV shows can accomplish some things more easily than video games, much in the same way that books are not necessarily a downgrade from movies just because they lack audio and moving images.
The "aesthetical calculus" to determine the superior version in a given case is personal, complex, and markedly subjective. That said, unless the derivative work is an universal masterpiece (such as The Exorcist or The Godfather), most people with knowledge of both versions seem biased toward the source material.
This seems....weird? If you're that uninterested why even bother joining the discussion? I'm not trying to be an ass and I have never played the game but it seems like you just don't like that they made the show in the first place no matter how it turned out or how people receives it.
An elaboration on why something might be unappealing is a valid contribution to a debate. @Akir is essentially giving you and everyone else a chance to prove them wrong, while providing others with elements to elaborate on their own dislike or disinterest.
Sure I'm definitely not saying it's not a valid point or the commenter shouldn't participate in any way. I just wondered why when it reads like Akir wished this didn't exist at all so why torture yourself by forcing yourself to think about it. Anyway I'm probably reading way more into it than I should so I'm just going to leave it there :)
I frequently write comments for no other reason than a wish to participate in what feels like an interesting conversation, even if it means talking to people that don't agree with me. There are lots of smart, interesting people on Tildes, and it's often rewarding and educational to hear opinions that are contrary to mine, even when they don't lead to a fundamental shift in my own views ;)
I don’t think it shouldn’t exist. I think the reply I got from @Loire earlier does a pretty good explaination: it’s simply not made for me.
Honestly I didn’t think my comment would be this controversial. Personally I was hoping I would have more people offering reasons why they liked it as a result and maybe I would change my mind.
It wasn't - it was just me sorry.
The game was given a pacing and story structure that to me is more movie than game. It’s not that the gameplay is bad, but it takes a back seat to the story. The visual fidelity also gave it a huge portion of its notoriety. Movies/TV do both of those strengths better than games do.
I haven't played the game but knew it was some dystopian zombie kinda deal. That's it. My first thought was that the episode played just like a game and I can see why people who have been playing the game would love it. I don't know if it was because I was more focused on that aspect than usual but it just felt like we we're taken through a story in very obvious stages and cut scenes. Overall I think it's promising and the acting, cinematography and story is decent. I like how they focus on the cause of the outbreak and they actually talk about it (something I really missed in The Walking Dead). I'm curious to see if they can keep the audience interested because there seem to be a bit of a "dystopian fatigue" going on or maybe that's just me.
That's the expression I was looking for. I am tired of zombies, but in reality, I just can't take any more dystopias. Dystopias are grey, boring, and lifeless. They're done. I want another The Fifth Element, another Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a sci-fi version of RuPaul's Drag Race!
oh i am so in
One nice thing about TLoU is most of the world is vibrant and green as nature is reclaiming the American landscape.
I played some of the game and you're very right, the color palette in TLoU is not the standard boring videogame greyness. Did the show follow that?
The first episode takes place in pre-outbreak suburbia (green) and post-outbreak Boston (gray). But the rest of the show should be all back-country.
I can't remember which piece of TLOU media in the glut of coverage after the first episode covered this but I believe Mazin and Druckmann actually talked about this, and it yielded a pretty interesting note on adapting from video game to screen successfully.
Essentially, video games are inherently more bloodthirsty than other media because combat is such a huge part of them. Video game characters go through armies of people from beginning to end, so small acts of killing like that are generally more accepted and ignoreable, and can lend to even things like comedy better.
Their challenge was showing that Joel and Tess are hardened and not messing around while also not making them kill everyone they come across. But it's not just that change, the game actually has more instances of FEDRA soldiers executing people on the street with no response or reaction, whereas that would feel pretty out of place in a TV series. If life is potrayed so cheaply, then it sets an expectation for any other side character you will meet (see the trope of "we met a new character this week, so they're going to die").
So it was a conscious choice to make them kill less people so that the world doesn't seem video game violent, but also show that the characters are not opposed to it at all when they can get away with it.
Chances are they could still have been the ones to kill Robert but that entire scene was mixed into the Marlene/Ellie meeting. With Episode 2 out, it seems that this also may be a conscious change regarding the Fireflies.
It feels so weird that this is becoming so common. Remember when Danganronpa got vaguely popular? My boss’s teenage son was a fan but he never owned any of the games; he just watched people’s playthoughs on YouTube. Though in his defense he didn’t own any of the platforms that it was released on at that time.
Personally I can just about see doing that with games like TLOU but I read fairly quickly so I could never have the patience to wait for the person playing to finish reading. Heck, I practically skip all the voices in these games unless it’s a dramatic moment that I want to really savor.