HBO's The Last of Us thoughts.

 Hi, it's been a while. I still intend on posting here.

Saw the Last of Us TV Adaptation

It was mostly good.

The series changes details from the game. I feel most of these changes are beneficial. It’s successfully adapting the story using the strengths of the TV medium as opposed to merely copying the video game. There is a lot of material to discuss.

However, firstly, the ethics behind it need to be discussed. The co-writer of the original game was not credited. This is wrong.

I dislike Neil Druckmann’s inclinations as a writer and his unethical activities as someone in charge. He made his employees watch traumatizing videos from Liveleak to be more accurate, as well as having crunch in his studio.

Onto his shortcomings as a storyteller, he really likes situations where the perspective goes between perpetrator and victim, and both sides view themselves justified. This itself is fine, but he reuses the same tropes again and again with little change.

In Episode 4, Episode 7, The Last of Us 2.

It seems like he thinks he’s saying something incredibly profound, but all he’s saying is “revenge bad”.

In these scenes, I’m more frustrated than compelled.

I feel like people should be able to explain that it was just self-defense; that they could at least try. I understand that communities are tightly-knit, but given the desperate nature of the apocalypse, people should be at least open to not going scorched-earth.

I felt Attack on Titan did a better job of showing the moral myopia, characters getting revenge not realising that they’re just continuing a cycle.

It’s worth noting that his original story for The Last of Us was Tess getting revenge on Joel forcing Ellie to kill her, before it was replaced with someone else’s much better idea of Joel taking Ellie from the Fireflies.

Onto the show itself and its many positives, Pedro and Bella are exemplary as Joel and Ellie. Both are slightly different from their game characterizations (Joel allows himself to be more vulnerable and his initial motive is more heroic (he wants to find Tommy in the show as opposed to his motive in the game of wanting more guns) and Ellie is more impulsive), but they still capture the spirit of the characters.

Cinematography-wise, the series is gripping and well-done.

I enjoy the added scenes from the opening of the first two episodes. They further elaborate on the impact the Cordyceps pandemic had globally.

I liked that the show elaborates a bit more on the source of the Cordyceps pandemic; that it was from food sources. It’s terrifying in its mundanity.

People trust the places they get their food from to protect them. It showcases the unavoidable vulnerability of the everyday person. It’s similar to how Freddy Kruger speaks to the vulnerability that people are in when they sleep.

Also, that Joel and Sarah are so close at certain parts of the first episode to eating the contaminated food further exemplifies the utterly random nature of lives lost in such a catastrophe. It pronounces the truth that they were just lucky; that was all that there was to them initially not getting infected.

On a more general note, I’ve always loved how The Last of Us reimagines the zombie genre through the Cordyceps fungus. It’s a unique and creative take on the genre. Cordyceps fungus is real and that makes the horror of the story extra powerful.

In this series, Bill’s role is changed. He is in a committed and healthy relationship with Frank. This is opposed to the game where Frank left Bill on bad terms and gave him a scathing suicide note after he got bitten.

In the original game, Bill is a foil to Joel, showing what Joel could become; an isolated paranoid man, successful at survival, but completely unsuccessful at human connection. Someone that survives, but does not live.

The adaptation, through what it changes, loses this reflection of Joel’s state. It also loses the funny banter between Bill and Ellie.

At the same time, this change makes up for that loss by adding more substantial content.

Despite the change from the source material, I love episode 3. I think I prefer it to the original story of Bill and Frank. It’s beautiful. An unexpected love story. And it’s fantastic LGBT representation.

There’s a scene in The Boys I thought of. Annie and Hughie, after all the messed up things happening in that season, they listen to a song on the radio and…at that moment they have a great time singing together. It’s a beautiful idea; in a screwed-up and fucked-up world, people can still find joy. I thought of that idea in this series too. Like in the moment where Ellie tells Joel the joke about diarrhea and they both laugh. If just for a moment, there is this positive feeling.

On an additional note, I feel that the television story plays to the strength of the television medium, while the video game story plays to the strength of the video game medium. The television story is made to be observed, with one watching the relationship between Bill and Frank. The video game story is made for interaction, where the player interacts with Bill as you fight off infected together.

It’s such a powerfully sad scene when Joel is being read Bill’s letter and it mentions that Joel will protect Tess, who is at this point dead. It mentions Joel as a protector, which is a concept that amplifies the ending.

The ending’s moral dilemma is one where Joel chooses to protect Ellie at the expense of a potential cure and the lives of several Fireflies; he chooses to still be a protector to Ellie despite the circumstances.

Speaking of, it’s a fantastic moral dilemma.

I do think that the Fireflies were being idiots though. With such a valuable person, someone that’s immune, you want to be absolutely sure before making any permanent decisions. It almost undermines the Trolley problem component.

On negative notes, 

I didn’t like Kathleen. I thought she was useless.

I don’t think that she’s a tragic character, a competent leader tragically undone by one fatal flaw. I think that was what she was supposed to be. I think she’s just an idiot, someone who got everyone who was stupid enough to follow her killed.

I thought her speech on how some kids need to die to be something that makes her into a kind-of one-note character.

I feel she also ties into the trope of characters who do have a point (her overthrowing Fedra) committing atrocities to convince the audience that they’re bad guys. I will note however, that her overthrowing of Fedra is not seen in a negative light, her other actions are, making this trope less egregious in this case. I also don’t think the actress gives a good performance. She comes across as more of a Karen rather than a leader.

I felt David was done better in the game. In the series, he’s coded as a villain from the beginning. In the game, he seems like a decent enough guy until he reveals his true nature. It makes the twist more effective.