The Last of Us Could Learn Something From Andor

before I start this show is good and no matter how harsh my language gets what the [ __ ] is that this is easily top three adaptations ever and it started very strong but as soon as we left the safety of bills Burly Embrace we got smacked with lame weightless action of Breakneck pace and an overall structure that felt more like a revolving door of storylines on the weekly Adventures of Joel and Ellie which is how the game is structured but without that 15 hours of bashing and beating with my own thumb muscles you got this snack show us how it's done the story just doesn't have the same connective tissue now that it's a TV show obviously more episodes would have helped alleviate the situation but there is a show that introduced and dropped storylines like Joel drops End Game Gear there's a wall of them I show unrecognizable from one Arc to the other without the lone Outlaw at the center I mean I'd say his name but you read the title already it's Andor is not just the single solitary reason to own a Disney Plus account it's also the blueprint for riding semi-serialized television because whether it's prison Ryan it's a bank heist or neighborhood riots this show never takes the focus away from cassian's character Arc the adventures may be different but every step along the journey from space hobo to Noble pile of Ash on a beach is earned and logical which is why watching Joel go from a stone so cold he'll break his knuckle bone on your cheekbone to reluctantly accepting his Hero's Quest at the end of act 1 is easily the best part of the show for me hard cut to the worst part of the show cause it's bad enough to delete Joel's double kill streak but for a second act that should be all about developing Ellie's growing attachment to Joel it definitely feels a bit underdeveloped mostly because we only get two episodes before the big heart to heart in Jackson and it sure doesn't help that Kathleen over here needs time to monologue about living in a [ __ ] box [Applause] you know we could have used that time to get a zombie chased through the tunnels as setup to the big fungus bukaki payoff at the end but no I guess they'll just spawn out of the [ __ ] pocket Dimension instead I really don't think I'm the only one who thought that line fell a bit flat and honestly I think the best way to restore some impact would be to move the Left Behind episode up to the timeline of Henry and Sam's funeral which truly would not be that hard since there are literally two and one half minutes of Joel and Ellie in the entire episode we could just chop that off in Premiere and replace it with scenes of the funeral [Music] now we have the added context of the friends Ellie's lost emphasized Joel as the one constant in her life and since last episode we saw Henry Mercer kill Sam I think it's pretty clear how Ellie's night out with Riley probably ended and I'm sorry people but Joel telling Ellie he cares as early as episode 6 is like Rey beating his Santa kylo in the force awakens you just ended an entire Trilogy one movie in and you've also robbed the Cannibal Holocaust episode of its best moment this is not just the moment Joel sees Ellie's kid it's also the first time they express their compassion for each other to each other up until now Joel had only been expressing that to other people [Applause] this line out of episode 8 and save it for this moment in episode nine but that's just between you and me you know don't tell the other Gamers I said that not to mention three episodes ago Joel is crying to Tommy about being slow and being deaf it's like you don't [ __ ] hear anything in this game but here in the hospital he could just turn the difficulty down and tear through this place isn't the whole reason to have vulnerable characters to make us think that they might actually lose at the end and again there is a lot to like in the show and compared to this Wubba lubba dub dub it is a [ __ ] Masterpiece but with such little time to tell such a nuanced story this show desperately needs a three-act structure each dedicated to progressing specific character arcs like restructure the second act to believably get Ellie to that emotional moment in Jackson and give us more patience more measured character writing in act three to fully deliver that cathartic coming together of father and daughter which means careful deviation from the game in some cases but strict adherence to it in others and come on man we can't have Joel kill a couple more guys in the University let Pedro crack somebody on the head after you blast this guy before come on man [Music]

Channel: Danny F

Views: 549

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Id: qzj52UpuCSQ

Length: 4min 46sec (286 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2023