Didn’t play the games. Not a huge fan of the genre. Season one was good enough to hold my interest. I was all nestled in for a tension-building typical episode 2 of a prestige series. HBO did it again. I was floored by this episode. It was jaw-dropping. The cutting back and forth between the zombie battle, the scout team characters, and finally Joel and Ellie worked perfectly for me. My thought process went like this:
“Joel with another leg injury, I guess they will wheel him around for the rest of S2… wow, his leg is really messed up, does he get a prosthetic leg?… ok, i guess he’ll be in a coma for the rest of the season, maybe wake up in the finale?… damn you HBO, you got me again.”
I enjoyed it too. Never played the games. I enjoyed the Jackson scenes. Perhaps it’s because I’m a parent to a small child, I really felt for the towns people in a way I never really did in any other story - like Helms Deep. I felt the vulnerability of the entire town and was genuinely worried it would be entirely destroyed, along with any hope of society being able to come together and resist such a horrible situation.
As someone that did not play the game, I was extremely disappointed that Joel died already in episode two. I know they’ll probably be flashbacks in the future, but knowing his demise so early on, it was really disappointing. Pedro and his acting was a major draw for me. The town is demolished. I was so down at the end of the episode not really looking forward to next week.
I'm a bit more charitable with the idea of adding in the battle, that it softens the blow of the shows conclusion, that they can't draw out our desperation for things to be otherwise and mobilize us to go kill Abby like in the original. But Hardhome is a good counterpoint. Maybe some recognizable side characters dying would have fixed the stakes.
I think they have a narrative problem moving forward that you alluded to. The threat of the zombie invasion didn’t play nearly as threatening as Joel and Ellie because we really aren’t invested in Tommy or the other characters.
This puts the emotional weight of the series solely on Ellie going forward, presumably in some kind of revenge plot. I assume they will try to build up Tommy more, possibly foreshadowed a bit in their opening patrol scene, but can that reach the levels of the Joel relationship?
This is where the format of a game may not translate verbatim to a tv show. Story is story, but a lot gets clouded over within the participation of a game that you can’t ignore when passively watching the same story play out. And the absence of an actor like Pedro Pescal far outweighs the loss of his digital counterpart.
I will stick with the show as I feel their approach to the material is genuine and empathetic. But I fear their dedication to the source material will hinder them.
Didn’t play the games. Not a huge fan of the genre. Season one was good enough to hold my interest. I was all nestled in for a tension-building typical episode 2 of a prestige series. HBO did it again. I was floored by this episode. It was jaw-dropping. The cutting back and forth between the zombie battle, the scout team characters, and finally Joel and Ellie worked perfectly for me. My thought process went like this:
“Joel with another leg injury, I guess they will wheel him around for the rest of S2… wow, his leg is really messed up, does he get a prosthetic leg?… ok, i guess he’ll be in a coma for the rest of the season, maybe wake up in the finale?… damn you HBO, you got me again.”
lol
I enjoyed it too. Never played the games. I enjoyed the Jackson scenes. Perhaps it’s because I’m a parent to a small child, I really felt for the towns people in a way I never really did in any other story - like Helms Deep. I felt the vulnerability of the entire town and was genuinely worried it would be entirely destroyed, along with any hope of society being able to come together and resist such a horrible situation.
As someone that did not play the game, I was extremely disappointed that Joel died already in episode two. I know they’ll probably be flashbacks in the future, but knowing his demise so early on, it was really disappointing. Pedro and his acting was a major draw for me. The town is demolished. I was so down at the end of the episode not really looking forward to next week.
I'm a bit more charitable with the idea of adding in the battle, that it softens the blow of the shows conclusion, that they can't draw out our desperation for things to be otherwise and mobilize us to go kill Abby like in the original. But Hardhome is a good counterpoint. Maybe some recognizable side characters dying would have fixed the stakes.
Didn’t play the games but am aware of them.
I think they have a narrative problem moving forward that you alluded to. The threat of the zombie invasion didn’t play nearly as threatening as Joel and Ellie because we really aren’t invested in Tommy or the other characters.
This puts the emotional weight of the series solely on Ellie going forward, presumably in some kind of revenge plot. I assume they will try to build up Tommy more, possibly foreshadowed a bit in their opening patrol scene, but can that reach the levels of the Joel relationship?
This is where the format of a game may not translate verbatim to a tv show. Story is story, but a lot gets clouded over within the participation of a game that you can’t ignore when passively watching the same story play out. And the absence of an actor like Pedro Pescal far outweighs the loss of his digital counterpart.
I will stick with the show as I feel their approach to the material is genuine and empathetic. But I fear their dedication to the source material will hinder them.