HBO's The Last of Us from the Chernobyl producer and Neil Druckman (warning: spoilers)

My kids have been hyped about this for months. I watched the first episode and loved the premise, especially the global warming aspect. They have played the game and said a lot of the first episode is word for word, shot for shot from the video game.

My first reaction was, oh so this is The Stand/Walking Dead?

 

I enjoyed it for the most part. I still think that Bella Ramsey was
an odd choice. I thought that Pascal's daughter was an engaging
character....so she's gone now?

 

Yeah Pascal’s daughter is dead, too bad I liked her and would rather watch her than Bella Ramsey.

They don’t really say how the fungi spread so quickly (because it seems all hell breaks loose all of a sudden) but I guess it’s airborne like COVID was and just spreads (though even COVID took months to reach everywhere).

Doesn’t it seem all these end of the world movies/shows have the sudden onset of craziness that seems to happen overnight (like World War Z or the remake of Dawn Of The Dead)?

Also the show reminds me a bit of the movie Annihilation (2018).

 

I haven't watched the show yet, but I have played the original game, which came out in 2013, quite a few times. It's really good. In fact, I think it's better than the show The Walking Dead; however, I never really liked the show because I felt it adapted the comics pretty poorly and didn't really do anything interesting. I don't know how relevant my opinions are, but from clips I've seen, they seem to be doing a completely faithful adaptation. I really do think when people who are watching this should probably keep the date "2013" in mind when watching this, because what came out after that date might make it feel redundant. Too bad this couldn't have come out years ago.

 

The real fungus spreads with spores and they are airborne, it's that way in the game too. It wasn't really feasible to do for the show because they'd be wearing gas masks all the time. Instead they are saying the infection spreads through saliva via bites and mycelium, the tendrils you see coming out of their mouths that also connect them all together.

My son said it'd be funny if this show is what convinces people that climate change is a real issue. This fungus had to adapt to warmer environments because the planet's average temperature rose a couple degrees...which allows it to live in humans.

 

Caught the first episode. Looks OK, I guess. A bit too glum for my tastes.

I'm not saying it should be a comedy, but people often survive terrible situations by laughing in the face of adversity... so a little levity wouldn't just be welcome, it might also be considered realistic.

 

Ellie's humor is sarcastic gold...as for glum...well...just wait.

 

Last night's episode included some of the backstory regarding the fungus spread. I expect a bit more will be revealed in future episodes.

 

Good episode, not as good as first but things are moving along

 

Spoiler

Seems last nights episode revealed it began as a bite and spread as people bit each other but that would take a long time to spread. Interesting they thought of mass bombing an infected city. Our hero does say it worked to some degree in Boston but not other places

Thought ep 2 was strong especially the Museum sequence. Scary.

 

I’m not sold on this show just yet. I like the premise and find it interesting but the wise-cracking kid is just an annoyance.

Spoiler

In the first episode I was thrilled when the character’s kid died, thinking we wouldn’t be burdened with the cliche tropes whenever there’s an adult and kid as the main characters. But nope, she’s dead for a few minutes of screen time and then - lo and behold - another kid pops up, 10x as annoying as the first.

 

Yeah, "adult+child survive the zombie hordes" is literally the entire premise of the game and show, so if that's not for you...

 

In the game the girl isn’t annoying. And the premise I was referring to is that a fungus takes over humanity - a unique way of introducing the living dead!

 

Watch the first episode. Started out great with the scientists on the television show circa 1960s. Then it devolved into the usual cliches in a post apocalyptic world. I’ll continue but skeptical. Had high hopes this would be something different and wonderful. Don’t play video games and no idea what the video game was about.

 

Spoiler

Well episode 2 had the disappointing moment of killing off Anna Torv . I could swear that IMDb had her listed as being in 5 of the 6 eps this season. However, today it only shows her being in 2, and ep 2 credits show her as a "guest star". Misdirect!

 

The show is not afraid to kill of characters.

 

And some will, of course, return in flash-back sequences.

 

As I said in the OP, this was a highly anticipated show for my daughter and me. We bonded over the first game, which I still consider the best written and directed game ever made. Thus far, I don't think the show is nearly as good. But there is plenty of time to redeem itself and excel over the game if the right choices are made and some head-scratching casting choices are overcome.

I took the spoiler tags off because I think it should be fair game to discuss what happens in the first episode of a show--particularly since it's playing out like the game, which has been well known for a decade. The gameplay starts with you controlling Joel's daughter (who is a blonde-haired gal) as she wakes up with Joel gone and walks around the house by herself. Through her you interact with some things in the house and see the TV reports of the initial effects of the pandemic. I thought the show rushed that to get to the more sensationalized neighbor's house, which wasn't in the game at all. But Druckmann handled it well.

Part of the genius of the game is the way Joel initially sees Ellie as a burden and resents her because she reminds him of his daughter--without it needing to be said. But the gameplay forces Joel and Ellie to start relying on each other more and more in interesting ways and it builds this psychological bond in the player as the events of the game unfold. I hope they can reproduce the feel of that in the show, although it will be a tough challenge because of the casting. Druckman was able to direct exactly what he wanted in the game, but I sense all sorts of TV business motivations behind some of the decisions and casting choices thus far. And it seems very rushed.

The game is contemplative and encourages the player to take his time. That seems analogous to many scenes in Chernobyl where the camera lingers on a certain landscape, raining debris or fallout, or characters immersed in silence. So far there has been little of that in the show. In two episodes they have only slowed things down to drive up the horror factor. The pace far exceeds the gameplay speed and they've left out details while adding in a few that have not impressed me as much. The backstory in particular serves to dehumanize the events of the story, which is defined by the relationship between Joel and Ellie. They had better start working more earnestly on that, or the show will not hold a candle to the game.

The most fascinating element of the show not in the game is the mycology of the infection where fungi tentacles protrude from the mouth and rhizomes can alert infected across town of your presence. It's horrifying and interesting, but the reason they didn't get into that level of detail in the game is because it takes away from the story. And they have even less time and no interactive material in the show to build out the story, so I don't get why they're indulging in it. Hope it pays off. In any case, Druckmann's skills as a game writer and director translate very well to working on other productions for screen. I just hope he gets the support he needs to realize his vision.

 

Great episode tonight. I don't think this was in the game?

 

Terrific episode tonight. Nick Offerman gave a great performance same with Murray Bartlett.

 

I enjoyed the episode and got a bit of a chuckle out of the first "10 miles West of Boston" scene that depicted terrain in no way like 10 miles West of Boston, like Lexington, Waltham and other densely populated, relatively flat towns without clear mountain streams and rocky precipices and hills abounding. They did do a decent approximation of Lincoln, MA. Nick Offerman gave a great performance.

 

Ditto, Ramsey is annoying.

 

I was really enjoying the start of last night's episode with Joel and Ellie finally having some valuable character dev that mirrored the game experience and falling into a bit of a groove as they traveled in the woods. Then as you say unreality sets in as you notice the scenery is nothing like 10 miles from Boston. I don't know where they were filming, but it looked a lot closer to the west coast than back east.

But the real problem I had with it was when we got into flashback territory. What seemed to trigger it was the baby's clothing in the mass grave. Immediately you see that the baby and mom appeared to be immigrants from Africa that were caught up in the pandemic and military genocide that ensued. But then the flashbacks started to focus on the Bill character.

This is where the pacing and flashbacks really drove the show off the road and crashed it into a ditch. As Druckmann said in the post-episode comments, he really needs to have very good reasons to diverge from the game. He then goes through a checklist of reasons that would justify it. None of those reasons were paid off with the divergence in last night's episode and Druckmann certainly didn't explain why he thinks that checklist is legit in terms of what happened in the episode.

Of course in the game, Bill is a survivalist type of guy. So the character is easily identifiable and I agree that Offerman did an admirable job...until they brought in Murray Bartlett as Bill's gay partner, Frank. The game subtlely hints at some such relationship when Joel, Bill and Ellie discover Frank's body; he hung himself after being infected. That is certainly not how the show goes.

Basically the choice to diverge from the show and wreck the pacing and bonding between Ellie and Joel (as I said before I believe this will be the key to the show working or not) was done to divulge in the gay relationship. Like the forest that was said to be near Boston, nothing about this relationship seemed believable or natural. It was shoehorned in, forced for no reason.

There was a nostalgic moment, during and after Ellie read Bill's suicide note to Joel, that I realize was supposed to justify the divergence and bulk of what we saw in last night's episode. But it didn't pay off the decisions in the show. There is limited screen time in each episode to develop Ellie and Joel and this kind of decision making process--however it's justified--really hurt's the pacing and legitimacy of what Druckmann is trying to do.

I want to comment on Druckmann's fascination with indulging in same sex relationships that don't ring true whatsoever, but I'll refrain as I'm not an expert on those relationships. I'll just leave it with the characters not ringing true to me. That is too bad in a show where all other elements are made up. The least they could do is make sure they get the dynamics of relationships right -- not to mention the landscape settings.