Alone and Forsaken, by Fate and by Man

HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us has been a cultral touchstone for a couple months, on the tip of tongues in lunchrooms, a subject of conversation across social media, with critical acclaim comporable to the adjulation heaped upon the souce game back in 2013. I enjoyed it, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have greviances. To qualify all statements following, I think the show is good. Great, even. A triumph in the endevour of adapting video game to motion picture- although, not the first such example despite what many clickbaiting thinkpieces would have you believe. My issues basically boil down to a handful of points; a disregard of action, additions made beyond the source material, truncation of the story, and a spoon feeding of interpretation to the audience. As such, I will address each individually. There is an amount of overlap between, but I'll weave it together somehow, just give me a minute.

There will be spoilers, by the by. It's been a minute, you've had time to see it.

I. WHERE HAVE ALL THE GUNS GONE?

The Last of Us is an action game. An action game with stealth sequences and a heavy narrative focus, but an action game at it's core. HBO's adaptation nails the story, with excellent performances from The Mandalorian and Lyanna Mormont, but despite it's lofty themes and the mature subject matter handled in the 9 episode run, it delivers a decidedly PG-13 level of combat. Executions, upon rare instances of their occurance, are delivered out of frame or with a quick cut away. The fungal zombies ("infected", if you will), established well in the first two episodes as the primary threat of the world and cause of the apocalypse we are taken along into, could charitably be described as recurring guest stars, the only real large scale encounter with them occuring toward the end of episode 5. From then on out, if an infected is shown, it is alone, and more often than not, in a flashback sequence. For the most part, this can be chalked up to budget restraints that play a considerable deciding role in a live action programme in stark opposition to a video game, but without their presence felt, this may as well have been taking place in a post-nuclear world for all the impact they have. At the onset of our journey, after giving us some world-building backstory, our antagonist, Joel, is made out to be a bit of a hard edged killer. Capable, and deadly. By the end of episode 8, we've had as many big shoot-outs as we've had episodes with Joel on his back bleeding out. There is something to be said for how repetitive it would be to put every action sequence of the game 1:1 onto the screen, and that the central drama of Joel and Ellie's journey should be the focus, as it was, but it leaves me feeling wanting for a scene with a shrapnel grenade made out of that Beefaroni can.

II. CUTTING MEANS SHIPPING

Leading directly off the previous point, there is only so much one can fit inside a 9 episode miniseries, so the discussion must be had on the creative level to decide what makes the cut and what does not. The story of the game has, more or less, made it to the screen unmolested but lacking space to breathe. I've come to accept the days of 26 episode seasons are dead and buried, but even an extra hour dedicated to the journey would have made the destination more poignent. The finale, I feel, is a perfect encapsulation of this problem. Every story beat is hit and rattled through in a quick and clean 40 odd minutes. This is made extra frustrating with episode 3 being an entirely tangental (sweet and poetic, but tangental) love story, and episode 7 serving as an adaptation of the Left Behind DLC for original game. Episode 7 being more excusable as a backstory episode for Ellie, as episode 1 was a backstory episode for Joel, but out of a 9 hour run, you're left with precious little of our duo's cross country escapades.

III: GONE TOO FAR, IN A COUPLE OF PLACES

I'm going to cut the shit here and be direct. The finale really pissed me off. Twice. These instances are what I'm directly referring to in 'non source material additions' and 'interpretation spoon feeding'. First off, the opening sequence to the finale showing Ellie's birth. Totally unnecessary, takes screen time away from the hospital sequence, and cheapens Ellie's character by completely demystifying her immunity. Bullshit. Should not have been written, filmed, or included in the final cut. Get rid of it. Second, the entirity of the hospital shootout was horrible, and it falls entirely on how it was shot and edited together. The slow motion, the extreme closeups, the melodramatic music, and aforementioned PG-13 violence, spells out plainly to the viewing audience a message that this is bad, Joel is in the wrong. Personal opinion nonwithstanding, I'm not even saying he isn't, but as an action sequence in-game, you as the player are the one gunning down the Fireflies, and are therefore put upon to weigh the morality of Joel's actions. In presenting it as they did, the show is leading the viewer to draw a specific conclusion. To reiterate once again, The Last of Us is an action game. There is no catharsis in slow motion footage of cartridge shells bouncing off a tile floor. I don't know if the showrunners thought it would have been gratuitous, or what, but I felt robbed of a true rendition of the climactic gameplay moments.

That's it, that's all I've got. Guess I didn't have as much to say about it as I thought I did.