It has to be the most successful video game adaptation to date, right? I guess the original basically being a cinematic zombie thing already helped
It being zombie-esque is single-handedly the reason it was allowed to not only exist as a well funded show, but also be able to use its own story.
Film/TV production historically have not trusted videogame fiction... that is unless it is a survival horror/zombie theme or fighting game (Think of how many Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat adaptations there are). Any other game is immediately ignored and bastardized by a bunch of suits that have no respect for the source material. They believe anything else has to be "significantly adapted" for a cinematic experience, and thus they essentially throw the story (regardless of how good it was) in the trash and always manage to make a worse one. This happened again with Halo.
While yes, this is already primed to just be re-enacted in live action, it was also seen as a near "sure thing" out of the gate, which is why they were willing to give it the production value and the respect it has.
I for one am appalled that we don't see Joel constantly opening up drawers and cabinets to scavenge resources, and we never once see him combine Raid and brake fluid with a handful of nails and an empty can of beans, in order to make a grenade with his bare hands that he then throws at someone engaging in canned ambient dialogue to set them on fire.
I was particularly disturbed when he didn't have his Jerry-rigged flamethrower on his back at all times.
It has to be the most successful video game adaptation to date, right?
Silent Hill will always have a special place in my heart. Double Dragon will have a separate place, because it was the 90s and we did things differently back then.
They were bragging about 19M viewers being a 3-year high watermark.
:shrug-outta-hecks:
I didn't even like the games that much (the first one didn't appeal to me at all because the zombie cliche was already exhausting and it also had tiresome "grizzled middle aged man with violent tendencies and toxic masculine hangups must violently 'protect' daughter figure" chud ideology) and I've been considering watching this show.
The show is OK, though slightly horrible. I haven't watched the finale yet but every episode was either sadder or more shocking than the one before. Apocalypse and zombie stuff are almost a pretext for hard drama, honestly. All the actors are great but it's not something I'd binge watch, it's rough.
There's 7 times as many HBO subscribers as TLOU owners, and they don't need to generate new IP, but it's also not a "remake" or "reboot"
It's not amazing but it's not bad. It's heartfelt, at least. I do enjoy lots of little details in it. For instance, someone on Twitter pointed out that the old native couple in episode 6 reminded them of their own native grandparents, with the kind of matter-of-fact way they address each other, and I loved the fact that
spoiler
the old lady made soup for the two people holding her hostage because it was cold out and she wanted them to be warm.
Like commiewithoutorgans said, the Dunkey sum-up is best. Nothing super complicated going on here, but that gives the characters room to grow and show off their texture and emotional depth.
It does do a much better job of getting across that, objectively, Joel is a fucking psycho at this point. Ice fucking cold sometimes. Pedro Pascal's pretty damn good.
I think Videogamedunkey gave the best description of this game story dynamic: simple story, complex characters. The story is BS you can see in every version of a zombie and/or drama series, but the characters are really well created and complex and complex sympathy follows quickly. Not to say good people, but complex. "It's the opposite of Kingdom Hearts". I'd reocmmend it for this reason. It's rough, and you're right that he's pretty Chuddy, but still.
For anynoe who watched the last episode already:
spoiler
I think the final episode is the first where the character developments were not earned. I did not think it'd been developed enough to rampage a whole fucking hospital and village by that point. there were like 5 minutes of emotion about his daughter and then boom, he's murdering hundreds of people wanting to help because he cares. Unearned
I think you might be right about the last episode. It's harder for me to view the show objectively after playing the games and having that experience color my perception of Joel and Ellie's relationship.
It's alright. The "angry dad out for vengeance" angle isn't as bad as Taken
i will NEVER like moviegames, you can't make me
make a star fox adventure movie, i dare you
:lathe-of-heaven:
Starring Chris Pine, as Captain Star Fox
Samuel L. Jackson, as Peppe Rabbit
Gillian Jacobs, as Slippy
And Rob Schneider, as Falco
