HBO's The Last of Us is BAD

back in 2020 when HBO and Neil cuck I mean druckman announced that a live-action adaptation of the popular video game franchise The Last of Us was officially in the works a good amount of the internet immediately began to think will this road also lead to Abby but in all seriousness the majority of us figure that even in the modern era of messing up adaptations the story and characters of The Last of Us translate so well that there can't possibly be a way that they could screw it up right don't give me hope the Last of Us starts off in 2003 and introduces us to Joel Miller played by the ever Dynamic Pedro Pascal a blue collar worker and single parent to his daughter Sarah despite mom being out of the picture for reasons we never learn the pair have a close relationship and one that the writers attempt to make play off each other but all is not well as in this same episode we learned that America as 2003 knows it is about to collapse with the breakout of the fungus apocalypse or fun apocalypse as I like to say and everyone as they know it is turning into weird zombie-like beings controlled by cordyceps in their attempt to escape along with Joel's brother Tommy Sarah ends up getting shot by a young Soldier tragically fast forward 20 years and a harder looking jewel is working in a somewhat totalitarian society and encounters Ellie a 14 year old girl played by Bella Ramsey who he's asked to escort across the country to Boston in an attempt to literally save the world this basically sums up the plot and introduction to our main characters Joel and Ellie The Last of Us the game was memorable equal to Gamers for its beautiful exploration of the complex father-daughter relationship that blooms unintentionally between Joel and Ellie as they endure and survive in the mushroom infested world around them hell it was so memorable that they remastered it twice in less than a decade through some extrenuous missions scavenger hunts and life or death situations the pair come to realize that they fulfill parts of each other they didn't know were missing Joel his ability to fulfill his obligation as a father which was cut short by Sarah's tragic death and Ellie finally having someone who genuinely cared for her well-being as well as providing her with the type of strong parental role model she desperately needed and never had HBO's adaptation attempts to mimic this relationship but in the most half-assed way possible in moments that should have had a stronger impact the TV show rushes through instead in order to meet a shock value quota so that audiences will stick around immediately but probably not through to a second season the first two episodes of the series established the world fairly well including a few trickles of nuances that the game didn't have like the cordyceps being able to connect through a fungal Network much like actual fungus 2 in the real world hey that's actually a really cool idea it's a shame they used it for one episode and never visited it again in one of many plot conveniences that plague this show despite small details like this HBO seemed to be on a roll and then episode 3 happened was episode 3 bad not really it had some inconsistencies that didn't make sense to the characters but it wasn't bad did we care that it was a homosexual couple no not really did the hour and a half flashback episode following the love story of two never to be seen again characters progress the plot at all [ __ ] no are you serious episode 3 marks where HBO and cuckman lose the mark completely as it becomes overwhelmingly Apparent from here on out that the showrunners have absolutely no idea what they're doing after episode 3 we're gifted with another one and a half episodes worth of flashbacks that check a bunch of boxes but offer no significance to the journey our protagonists are on in fact the plot becomes so obscure and awkwardly paced that you wouldn't catch on to the fact that Joel Nelly have spent the better part of five months together on the road by the time the nine episode season ends instead of choosing to develop the relationship between these two characters in a way that actually makes your audience give two farts shock value takes the front and center for each episode of this show alternatively the the game graced us with factions settlements and minor characters that were introduced and adequately explored before being built up enough to leave a lasting impact on Joel and Ellie as they continued East furthermore each interaction developed their relationship further having the duo recognize that they are more alike than they realized and that there is a deep-seated love in there as they shoot Smash and fight their way through various adversaries the television adaptation adopts all those game nuances and shallow ingenuine ways and while we do witness Joel and Ellie encounter infected weird grapey cult leaders and militia factions the impact of all of those are never felt episode over episode well Vex what the hell do you mean hell you talking about Remember The Walking Dead hold on let me rephrase remember the first three-ish seasons of The Walking Dead every time Rick Grimes the protagonist would encounter something or someone that affected him or the group he held on to that and it would influence the decisions he made as the show progressed he went from a confused albeit soft man to someone so hardened that he began to lose his moral compass Carol did the same after the loss of Sophia her daughter and the abrupt realization that her Meek demeanor offered her no survival advantages she buffed up and became one of the series most loved and badass characters HBO is The Last of Us paints our protagonist as automatic badasses erasing what backstory we could have seen that would have better shaped our protagonist and would have helped us connect to them on a far deeper level than just well what happens next every dive into either Ellie or Joel's history ends extremely superficially while Jules helps paint at face value a better reason why he became a harder person Ellie's backstory doesn't explain how she jumped from what we see as a troubled Outcast to a kid who likes to poke people in the forehead with knives to a kid who suddenly can't deal with trauma despite the several instances of trauma we see her directly experienced throughout the series by the way between episodes 5 and 6 we learned that Joel and Ellie had been on the road for three months and in that time their relationship hadn't evolved like at all she didn't explain how the events of episode 5 affected her until conveniently three months later in episode 6. they don't bond over those they lost on their journey together nor bother to learn about each other to be blunt we don't know why these two characters would still bother giving a flying fart about each other it's only over the course of the final two episodes of the Season where we get a glimpse of it and it's so absolutely rushed that we as the viewer are HID with an Abrupt Whiplash from it and I say that not just as someone familiar with the game but as someone who appreciates television that does more than just score a pluses on visuals as the season draws to a close Joel ends up suffering from a fatal stabbing which should have helped both realize that they should probably accept that they have a familial fondness for each other but instead divulges into Ellie weeping about how she can't do this alone how she can't survive on her own how Joel can't die on her because she would die again would you buy that these characters spent three months day and night alone on the road together with everything they've experienced to act like this in the time that we got useless flashback episodes where missed opportunities to build up our protagonists in a way that the video game medium was unable to there were times in between the foes they encountered and there were many that we as the viewer could have learned more about the worlds of The Last of Us like why did Joel become an alluded to militiaman why did people become the way they did why did certain cordyceps evolve in ways that others didn't yeah that last point we learned that there are varieties but aren't given much of a reason as to why and see clickers so infrequently that you forget their threat in a zombie apocalypse show and so do Joel and Elliot seems the season finale adds even further Credence to all this giving Joel legitimately three character 180s and introducing us to a Meek Ellie that is completely uncharacterial of the girl we saw for an entire season prior then we have druck the cook talking Non-Stop about how the next season Willer won't follow the games wheeler won't adapt characters in new ways and will maybe give us more of the fun guys all of which don't offer a taste of what to expect but that nobody has a Clear Vision of what they want to do with this IP HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us was really disappointing not for what the mainstream critics allege but instead for its shallow exploration of an IP that deserved better especially when it was given to a network known for its Exquisite storytelling and character studies anyways that's all I have to say on it thanks for stopping by and stay frosty friends

Channel: Vex Electronica Gaming

Views: 11,899

Keywords: The Last of Us, TLOU, The Last of Us Part 1, The Walking Dead, HBO, TV Show, Television, Gaming, Playstation, The Last of Us Review, TLOU Review, Unbiased Reviews, Character Analysis, The Last of Us Gameplay, Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, The Last of Us HBO, The Last of Us Show, The Last of Us Reaction, The Last of Us Series, TV Series, The Last of Us Game vs Series, The Last of Us HBO Trailer, The Last of Us Game, HBO Max, Pop Culture

Id: OF_vCKypa3A

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2023