• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

HBO Original | The Last of Us | Part 1 OT | Endure & Survive

honey boo boo dancing GIF
Yeah I should never doubt the guys who did Chernobyl. It's really fucking good.
 

Macattk15

Member
Hmmm.

I want the opinion of people who never played the games.

I enjoyed it (played the games) ... girlfriend did not (has not ever heard of).
 
Holy shit this was everything i wanted...and more! Holy fuck!

The added bits added so much to the characters...the Sarah bits in the beginning...the fact you spend the first half an hour with her instead of 5 minutes was amazing. The added bit with the neighbors, and basically what she did earlier in the day before she gives the watch were good, since you spent much time with the character. The PTSD at the end was also a nice touch

edit: Also...the actor that plays Tommy...his voice sounds exactly like the videogame actor, lmao. When he was talking to Joel over the phone and i wasn't looking at him i really thought it was him.

edit 2: I forgot...the talk show at the beginning was great and it set the tone so well, specially for new people who never played the game.
 
Last edited:
I thought the handicam was a poor choice and they rushed or dragged nearly every scene.

Expected changes, but the changes they made did not enhance from the game. Yeah, overall I'm going with a 6/10 but hoping the show finds its pace.
 

Jaybe

Member
Liked it a lot. Prologue was great. Especially Sarah and the neighbour bit. Bella and Pedro will take a bit for me to get used to since the original voice actors are so engrained in my head. I’m sure an episode or two more it will hit was they have a lot more dialogue and scenes. The reveal scene was well done and a good closure to the episode, a nice hook. Some of the preview scenes of future episodes looked great, but I hate having too much spoiled so turned it off.
 
I think the digital actors in the game were able to convey subtle and powerful emotions in a way the actors in the show couldn't.

Whatever, though. Show was still good. Though it felt less "HBO" than I expected, more "CBS". Couldn't tell you why, really.
 
I think the digital actors in the game were able to convey subtle and powerful emotions in a way the actors in the show couldn't.

Whatever, though. Show was still good. Though it felt less "HBO" than I expected, more "CBS". Couldn't tell you why, really.

The handicam and pacing of the scenes. Definitely a better budget and higher production than a CBS show though.
 

kyliethicc

Member
You're not wrong, but most HBO shows don't really go that long.




Where did he say that?
Was in an interview.

"And then, the story that remains, that continues forth in the work that Naughty Dog’s done on the second game, is a lot." Mazin added, "Probably the amount of remaining story would take us more than a season to tell. But definitely, I don’t see this as something that runs on and on and on. We don’t have that ambition. Our ambition is to tell the story that exists, as best as we can, in a different medium."

 
The handicam and pacing of the scenes. Definitely a better budget and higher production than a CBS show though.
I think that's it. Maybe the framing of the actors, too? Felt weirdly mid-range instead of closeups and wide shots.

Again, I liked it. Just not quite what I expected
 
Last edited:

kyliethicc

Member
episode 1 was excellent. great cinematography, writing, and performances by the whole cast. loved the bits of the game's music too. Druckmann don't miss

Holy shit this was everything i wanted...and more! Holy fuck!

The added bits added so much to the characters...the Sarah bits in the beginning...the fact you spend the first half an hour with her instead of 5 minutes was amazing. The added bit with the neighbors, and basically what she did earlier in the day before she gives the watch were good, since you spent much time with the character. The PTSD at the end was also a nice touch

edit: Also...the actor that plays Tommy...his voice sounds exactly like the videogame actor, lmao. When he was talking to Joel over the phone and i wasn't looking at him i really thought it was him.
yeah I swear that phone bit was Jeffrey Pierce lol
 

TIGERCOOL

Member
thought bella did a better job nailing her character than anyone which really surprised me. Pedro is fine so far, his pitch is just too high for Joel and his accent comes and goes. It doesn't feel like an easy fit for him, even the physicality of Joel. Tess's actor was very solid. With Tommy it's almost an uncanny valley thing where he sounds so much like him but the actor looks nothing like the original character. It's distracting, but certainly not his fault.

Otherwise no glaring issues with it so far, which is more than I can say about most television these days. Enjoyable enough and expect it to get better from here.
 
parts of it were great. parts of it seemed like a bad Walking Dead spinoff. and kinda hokey. So i wish they could kinda keep the quality even. Which they didn't.

Pedro was decent. The little girl was good. I don't feel like they are the exact ppl from the game tho. They def put their spin on it a little. whatever. I don't like the game anyway.

the adult woman with the black eye was the best actor in the episode. She was very believable. the leader of the firefly boston chick who was bleeding out was the worst actor in the episode
 

Jaybe

Member
Though it felt less "HBO" than I expected, more "CBS". Couldn't tell you why, really.
Interesting. Something that jumped out to me relative to other HBO shows is the dialogue in TLOU is very plot focused and doesn’t seem to have the same idk depth, banter, nuance.. hard to describe. And maybe it doesn’t need to with the story being told and the characters involved. And perhaps it changes know we mow foreword and see other characters and Joel and Ellie relationship advances. The prologue part did dialogue best but in the QZ it became more good than great.
 

Jaybe

Member
the adult woman with the black eye was the best actor in the episode. She was very believable. the leader of the firefly boston chick who was bleeding out was the worst actor in the episode
She was really good in a Netflix show called Mindhunter. I knew she was familiar but couldn’t place her while watching.
 
Interesting. Something that jumped out to me relative to other HBO shows is the dialogue in TLOU is very plot focused and doesn’t seem to have the same idk depth, banter, nuance.. hard to describe. And maybe it doesn’t need to with the story being told and the characters involved. And perhaps it changes know we mow foreword and see other characters and Joel and Ellie relationship advances. The prologue part did dialogue best but in the QZ it became more good than great.
They really had to cover a lot of plot in 90 minutes, if you think about it. I'd bet upcoming episodes have more room to breathe
 
What i had to put up with and hear for 10 years: "This game's story is nothing special. if this was a TV show or movie no one would care...this story has been told millions of times and better. People only talk about this cause of its presentation as a videogame."

The real world NOW with a TV show out there:


Haters just can't win with this IP and it's amazing to witness, lmao.

Sorry but i waited a LONG time to make a post like this and it's here!
 
Last edited:

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
A show that actually kept my girl awake, she fell asleep through Avatar 2, goddammit.

The scene in the truck and chaos around town was phenomenal... the plane crash. Beautiful.

Acting is on point. I like all the little extra things they added to the show.

Looking forward to the next one. HBO has another one. Druckmann and Mazin make a beautiful team.

I bet money Pedro will have an acting role in TLOU 3 as some new character.
 
- The decision to have Tess' character saved by an explosion rather than her killing the guys who jumped her, herself, diminishes her character. It seems like they wanted to streamline the element of Robert, but this was done haphazardly
- More to the point, the decision to replace guns with a battery and that Joel was trying to get out to find Tommy, is a really poor one. As a result it diminishes the relationship and prioritization of Joel and Tess. That Tess would feel as concerned with finding Tommy as Joel makes no sense, whereas they were both keen on getting the guns for their business.
- Sarah going to the neighbors' house gives us more time with Sarah, but less overall time with Sarah and Joel, which is what we needed to have more connection with her. The time spent with her at school and to a degree at the repair shop did not add to things.
 

kyliethicc

Member
Interesting. Something that jumped out to me relative to other HBO shows is the dialogue in TLOU is very plot focused and doesn’t seem to have the same idk depth, banter, nuance.. hard to describe. And maybe it doesn’t need to with the story being told and the characters involved. And perhaps it changes know we mow foreword and see other characters and Joel and Ellie relationship advances. The prologue part did dialogue best but in the QZ it became more good than great.
They really had to cover a lot of plot in 90 minutes, if you think about it. I'd bet upcoming episodes have more room to breathe

worth nothing that many critics who have seen the whole season say episode 1 is the weakest episode. and its because it was a bit of a mess production wise

this 1 episode is long becaude it was originally 2 episodes, and the original director for episode 1 left, then the next director they hired left, and so they merged episodes 1 and 2 together and Maizin had to direct it all. Maizin was originally directing episode 2 when it was going to be 10 episodes.

I'd guess Sarah's death was originally going to end episode 1. bet they realized this episode's end point makes for a much better end of 1st episode than end of 2nd episode. less waiting to get to the real journey. several critics say episode 2 onward gets better and better
 
Last edited:

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
is this supposed to be an OT for all of season 1 or just episode 1?

way the title says part 1 could mean either one

btw, endure & survive seems to be the name of episode 5
this is the OT for the whole season
What i had to put up with and hear for 10 years: "This game's story is nothing special. if this was a TV show or movie no one would care...this story has been told millions of times and better. People only talk about this cause of its presentation as a videogame."

The real world NOW with a TV show out there:


Haters just can't win with this IP and it's amazing to witness, lmao.

Sorry but i waited a LONG time to make a post like this and it's here!

its our time
wow.png


might change my avatar to a photo of neil druckmann
wow.png
 

Jaybe

Member
worth nothing that many critics who have seen the whole season say episode 1 is the weakest episode. and its because it was a bit of a mess production wise

this 1 episode is long becaude it was originally 2 episodes, and the original director for episode 1 left, then the next director they hired left, and so they merged episodes 1 and 2 together and Maizin had to direct it all. Maizin was originally directing episode 2 when it was going to be 10 episodes.

I'd guess Sarah's death was originally going to end episode 1. bet they realized this episode's end point makes for a much better end of 1st episode than end of 2nd episode. less waiting to get to the real journey. several critics say episode 2 onward gets better and better
Thanks for the background and that makes sense. They definitely made the right call ending it there. More upbeat and interesting hook and getting the QZ part over with to focus on the adventure ahead.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom