The Last of US TV Show

[Blackcyclops]

I figured we needed a space to talk about the show.
I love it...episode 3 is probably going down as one of my all-time favorite single episodes of any TV show ever.

[EphemeristX]

A critique I've encountered and one I'm not sure I agree with, is that roles for women have been nerfed a bit. Specially, they cited Tess as being softer and some of her agency being taken away, and Ellie being innocent and naive when she shouldn't be. Personally, I don't agree with these critiques, but I thought I'd get other viewpoints and see if it's a shared problem and I'm just being dense. Being male, I'm certainly not positioned to see this as much as a woman might, so I thought I'd get some feedback.

Otherwise, I have to say I'm enjoying this adaptation so much. Episode 3 left me a sobbing mess for all the best reasons. Episode 4 is an interesting remix of that part of the game, and I'm intrigued by these revamped antagonists.

[Blackcyclops]

I never played the games but so far, it legit feels like the only really uber-competent person was Frank...otherwise, even Joel is kinda really a dude who just barely gets by. He's way more human than Rick Grimes was in the beginning of TWD. So if that means Ellie and Tessa come across as more compassionate...then I guess I don't see the problem. But like you said, I'm a dude so maybe I missed it.

I like how the show spends enough time tending to very real things like a woman having a period, deodorant, people being smelly, etc...all things that really ground it. And from there I like how kinda not-efficient everyone is. Like when Joel says that people miss alot when shooting at each other, it just adds so much realism to the show that normally Idc about but really makes all the stakes feel so real.

[Anna Raven]

A critique I've encountered and one I'm not sure I agree with, is that roles for women have been nerfed a bit. Specially, they cited Tess as being softer and some of her agency being taken away, and Ellie being innocent and naive when she shouldn't be. Personally, I don't agree with these critiques, but I thought I'd get other viewpoints and see if it's a shared problem and I'm just being dense. Being male, I'm certainly not positioned to see this as much as a woman might, so I thought I'd get some feedback.

Otherwise, I have to say I'm enjoying this adaptation so much. Episode 3 left me a sobbing mess for all the best reasons. Episode 4 is an interesting remix of that part of the game, and I'm intrigued by these revamped antagonists.

Also haven't played the games, also am male, but that criticism seems misplaced to me, I would not have characterized Tess as soft or Ellie as naïve at all. I have some specifics I could point out to in spoilers if necessary, but considering you and I seem to be on the same page on this, and also from the same background I don't think it's necessary. I'm happy to listen to different perspectives though. And like BC says, its more that Joel is a broken man, a hard-blooded killer, not that the women characters are soft.

Oh and also I don't know if you have watched through episode 4 or not, but this new female character seems to have a lot more in common with Joel than Ellie or Tess, not that its necessarily a good thing.

[P-90]

A critique I've encountered and one I'm not sure I agree with, is that roles for women have been nerfed a bit. Specially, they cited Tess as being softer and some of her agency being taken away, and Ellie being innocent and naive when she shouldn't be. Personally, I don't agree with these critiques, but I thought I'd get other viewpoints and see if it's a shared problem and I'm just being dense. Being male, I'm certainly not positioned to see this as much as a woman might, so I thought I'd get some feedback.

Otherwise, I have to say I'm enjoying this adaptation so much. Episode 3 left me a sobbing mess for all the best reasons. Episode 4 is an interesting remix of that part of the game, and I'm intrigued by these revamped antagonists.

I've not played the games nor have I read many comments about the show, that said of the handful of comments I've read only a few have been negative and even those haven't been nasty, more disappointment at straying from the source material. At least one was of the opposite opinion about Ellie, the commenter stated that Ellie in the games is shown to be far more naïve and innocent than she is portrayed in the show (though she becomes lees so as the story goes on). A couple said they were unhappy that Frank was killed off because they like the character in the games and wanted to see more of him (which we may get in flashback I suppose) and one said that they had family who had committed suicide and so they felt unhappy about suicide being shown in a romantic manner.


I've seen many comments saying the second game was terrible and that the hope is the show stays closer to the first.

[Blackcyclops]

I just showed my wife episode 3 and she cried so hard…she pointed out how the episode treated their love story so fully and their ending as so touching.

[Cable]

. Episode 4 is an interesting remix of that part of the game, and I'm intrigued by these revamped antagonists.

Boo for replacing Pittsburgh with Kansas City! Lol

[Blackcyclops]

I don’t know if I can endure this show. This week really messed me up.

[EvilMonkeyPope]

Every episode should end with someone shouting "You haven't seen the last of us!"

[Cable]

I watched it and I'm so glad I did. I was worried they wouldn't do the perfect ending of the game but they did down to the last detail. Such a fantastic story and they did it justice.

[Gremlin]

This was a good show and rather faithful to the game in B-road strokes. The last episode was particularly good with how they kept the plot points of the game.

Overalls I enjoyed the series but feel that many media outlets were blowing too much smoke up its whatever. I feel there were pacing issues with entire episodes being dedicated to side stories that were nice but slowed the pace.
Also, I understand budget reasons probably factored into this, but the show’s sparing use of the infected bugged me a bit. I know sometimes “less is more” but they reallly dialled back on the infected.

Overall though this was a great show and I look forward to season 2, which I assume is coming. I hope they deviate from the games a bit to flesh out the world.

[Blackcyclops]

All my favorite episodes are the side story episodes though…

[P-90]

This was a good show and rather faithful to the game in B-road strokes. The last episode was particularly good with how they kept the plot points of the game.

Overalls I enjoyed the series but feel that many media outlets were blowing too much smoke up its whatever. I feel there were pacing issues with entire episodes being dedicated to side stories that were nice but slowed the pace.
Also, I understand budget reasons probably factored into this, but the show’s sparing use of the infected bugged me a bit. I know sometimes “less is more” but they reallly dialled back on the infected.

Overall though this was a great show and I look forward to season 2, which I assume is coming. I hope they deviate from the games a bit to flesh out the world.

I've seen/read similar comments. Marc Bernardin (who I know of through Kevin Smith on YouTube) is a huge fan of the games, his only real negative of the show was that he felt some of what little time the show had was wasted not showing us more of the relationship between Joel and Elle. They start off in the game not wanting anything to do with each other and you have almost the entirety of it (something like 14 hours) to see that relationship build to the point where they're like father and daughter. The entire season of the show was only being 9 hours long so he found giving up entire episodes to focus on relationships other that the two main characters took away a a huge part from what made the game so popular.

As I said before I never played the game so I can't comment on whether that's a fair assessment or not, if it is maybe it would've been better if the season had a few more episodes.

[Cable]

Overall though this was a great show and I look forward to season 2, which I assume is coming. I hope they deviate from the games a bit to flesh out the world.

I don't want to go into all the plot details about the second game as some haven't played, but in general I will say I assume they won't be nearly as faithful to it as they were to the first because Joel isn't a main character in that game and they are going to want to keep Pedro Pascal in a starring role.

[sambadaemon]

I never played the games, but

Spoiler: show

was her origin in the games also a complete copy of Blade's?

[Gremlin]

I never played the games, but

Spoiler: show

was her origin in the games also a complete copy of Blade's?

The reason for her immunity was never explained in the games.

All my favorite episodes are the side story episodes though…

Don't get me wrong, the stories were done well, it's just now I look back at the nine episodes we spent a bit too much time fleshing out the sidequest characters, which detracted away from the journey of Ellie and Joel bonding. I really noticed it in episodes 8 and 9 that Joel had suddenly devloped a fatherly attachment to her, however in some respects it felt a little rushed. I know their journey took a lot of time, but when we spent an episode in a flashback about Bill, and another detailing Ellie's origin, we essentially lost a fair bit of screen time from the main plot.

What I did like about the final episode were the subtle nods to the games. Like how Joel boosted Ellie up so she could push a strategically left ladder down to him. My other half didn't get why I was smiling, but the amount of games where you do some version of this, it was funny to see it recreated in a game.

[Jindianajonz]

I thought I posted here before, but I guess not. The show was fine, but it felt like a Cliff Notes version of the game. I've seen complaints that there wasn't enough action with the infected, and I'd agree- they felt like a periodic annoyance instead of the ever-present threat they were in the game. Still, the show was competent in how it approached the material, and I can empathize with most of the trade-offs they made.

The story of the second game blows the first out of the water, though. I'd urge anybody interested in this series to find a way to play it and make it their first exposure to the material. Without getting spoilery, the way the game puts you in control has an emotional impact that a TV show can never hope to replicate.