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Let The Last of Us TV Show Be Different From Games

Let The Last of Us TV Show Be Different From Games

Denmiv,

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.

the last of us is part of an ongoing craze for faithful video game adaptations with traceable roots all the way back to the original Silent Hill movie. However, adapting a game like The Last of Us Part II is a little different from adapting its predecessor, not only because it has a more complicated and fractured narrative, but also because it is a (phenomenal) game with much more dramatic content to explore, both in terms of length and the thornier dimensions it draws from its characters. To make a show that lives up to its inspiration, you’ll most likely have to make some major departures from the source material. While die-hard fans may complain, it might be the only way this adaptation can feel as vital as the game.

It’s something co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who is also creative director of The Last of Us games, agrees with. talking to Variety Regarding the adaptation process, he noted that a common mistake is “staying so close to the original material that is constructed, designed and written for this other medium that has strengths and weaknesses, and trying to translate it as it is, without changes.” another medium that has different strengths and weaknesses.” Looking at the newly released first trailer By season 2, we can already see the first signs of how Druckmann and his creative partner Craig Mazin may have altered the original story to adapt it to the television medium.

Different media, different priorities

With so many artistic mediums mixing together these days, it can sometimes be difficult to remember that video games and television are two very different things. Every storytelling medium has pros and cons that are practically inseparable from the form. Narrative techniques that make perfect sense in interactive fiction when it comes to scene geography, atmosphere, environmental design, and use of player expression often don’t translate into something with a set runtime and without viewer participation.

Narrative techniques that make perfect sense in interactive fiction often don’t translate into something with a set runtime and no viewer involvement.

That doesn’t mean you can’t try. The first season of The Last of Us meticulously reconstructed many moments from the game’s cutscenes, sometimes literally frame by frame. But what is that really for? The story worked excellent the first time, the game is available in its best form with The Last of Us Part I Remastered and the cutscenes are available on YouTube. If people want a truly faithful version of the story, it’s available now and has been for years. If anything, taking this cutscene-cloning approach, rather than allowing the show’s direction and cinematography to present the story’s most critical moments in an entirely new way, only highlights the ways in which the original games often deviate. They moved away from the strong points of interactive narrative. And it’s developer Naughty Dog’s adoption of a non-interactive storytelling technique that makes such scenes so easy to drop straight into a TV show.

I say this as a huge fan of both games: in some ways they were already HBO shows. They use the possibilities of interactive storytelling to their advantage, but in terms of basic construction and scene direction, even during the playable segments, there is liberal use of the techniques and stylistic conventions of prestige television. So it’s not just ironic that the games were eventually adapted as an HBO show; it was so easy to Adapt them because the games already did a lot of the work. This doesn’t rule out any of the contributions of the show’s directors, writers, or artists, but the blueprint for a hit TV show was already built right into the game. So if the next season wants to give its best, it would be nice to find a new way to present the story that many of us already know.

Expand and explore

Even with its fidelity to the original game, the first season of The Last of Us often benefited from the deviations it made. The hiring of Latin actor Pedro Pascal gave a strong new vision to main protagonist Joel by adding a softer, father-like quality compared to Troy Baker’s rough edge, adding new characters such as Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen expanded the post-apocalyptic world explored in the original game. and dedicating an entire episode to the unseen story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and his lover Frank (Murray Bartlett) led to what many considered the season finale. best entry. Unlike a video game, which typically requires some sort of consistency in the player’s perspective across the controllable character, television offers the opportunity to shift focus more easily, and the show made great use of that in key areas.

The second season should use that technique to greater effect. One of the main structural conceits of Part II is to replay the same three days from Ellie and Abby’s perspectives. Their separate paths don’t really cross until the end of the three days, both going through intense personal journeys of revenge and rebirth respectively, meaning that each main character essentially disappears from the narrative for around ten hours straight each. This makes sense in a video game because jumping back and forth between the protagonists of each level would be jarring for a player, and would never allow them to truly settle into the peaks and valleys of power and equipment that a 3D action game is supposed to encourage. survival. But do we really want to watch four or five episodes in a row without Ellie or Abby showing up?

Intercutting their journeys and finding ways to draw thematic parallels between Ellie and Abby even when they are not in the same physical space would help maintain emotional continuity and the viewer’s investment in both characters. After all, the whole point of the long lead-up to their confrontation is that it’s a battle we don’t want either side to “win,” because we’ve come to empathize with their experiences. It’s hard for an audience at home to go through that if a character is absent for several weeks from television. We also know that season 2 will not adapt the entire from Part II, giving the creators plenty of breathing room to add or expand characters, subplots, and world-building concepts that could give the series a fresh feel. If the trailer is anything to go by, we may have already seen hints that the show is heading in this direction.

Trust the process

It’s a small detail, but the trailer hints at what could be a major departure from the original game’s setting: It looks like Abby will be spending time in Jackson with Joel and Ellie. After seeing Abby’s first encounter with Joel and Tommy, where they save her from the infected who were trying to get to her through a chain-link fence (a scene taken directly from the game), we then see a shot of the three fleeing on horseback before . what appears to be a horde of infected slamming into Jackson’s perimeter wall. There is also an early shot of a large group of infected being seen through binoculars as they run through the snow, indicating that they are heading towards Jackson, the only area in the game where snow appears. All of this suggests that there could be a sequence where Abby and Joel return to Jackson and have more interaction than in the game (perhaps even involving Ellie) before Abby kills Joel. Such a sequence would be a great opportunity for more character drama, as well as giving us more scenes with Pascal before he’s relegated to flashbacks.

The trailer hints at what could be a major departure from the original game’s setting.

Ingratiating Abby into the Jackson community (a story thread concept art for the second game confirms that the developers considered this) and perhaps even introducing her as an ally who helps them overcome an infected attack would give us more context and internal conflict. , giving the scene in which she finally reveals her true motives a greater sense of dramatic weight. We get little time with Abby before she kills Joel in the game, which is a shocking scene in its original form, but viewers at home may feel a little lost if someone they assume is one of the two protagonists of the series dies so abruptly. in the first two episodes. Getting us into Abby’s headspace early so we know exactly what she’s planning and why is the kind of change that would help smooth out the plot development. And let’s face it, Kaitlyn Dever is never a bad thing (See? no one will save you? She was very good at it.)

Ultimately, we don’t know exactly how The Last of Us season 2 will play out, but based on the first season, it’s fair to say that a little trust can be placed in the creative team behind the show. There’s a lineup of killer talent involved in the production, and while a beloved game series like this can engender strong protective feelings from its fans, it can be rewarding to let an adaptation of a story you already know surprise you. The game is not going anywhere. History will always exist in that form. So let’s have a little faith and see what the differences in the new season will add to the story, instead of assuming they will only subtract.

Carlos Morales writes Mass Effect novels, articles, and essays. You can follow his fixes at Twitter.

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