I backed off this thread (but kept up with the show) because I didn't want to be just a thread crapper.
My final opinions are that it was an interesting enough premise but not a very well-told tale. The casting/acting was great. And the production looked like a million bucks.
But, for me, the idea of telling this story in ways that often mimicked the way it was told in the video game was a bad idea. Just as film treatments of classic novels (or other different source materials) require adjustments, more adjustments should have been made here. In the finale, as one example, Joel shooting up everyone in the hospital (except those two nurses) to escape with Ellie was long and drawn out and looked just like a first-person shooter video game. It was brutal and yet dull at the same time. The early scenes of the finale featuring Ellie's mother were tremendous. I thought the actress (who I realize is the actress who voiced Ellie in the game) mimicked Ellie's American accent perfectly. But, I think I would have been much more vested in Ellie's (and Joel's) journey if I had known those details much earlier on.
Imagine if the time spent on the shoot-em-up in the hospital was used to expose more of Ellie's psychological trauma of what she went through in the prior episode. That might've been a little more interesting to us viewers.
I am reminded of how much I hated the wonderful story of Little Women when I watched the 2019 version. Changing up the timeline in the way that familiar tale was told really made no sense for me towards improving the understanding of the motivations of the characters. I found it confusing. And I think with a more straightforward script without all the side stories (however compelling they may be) to build more of a traditional "buddy film" with all the wonderful underpinnings of Joel's and Ellie's sense of failure and loss in their previous relationships, this could have been a truly epic series.
So while there was MUCH to like, I feel like when matched to its potential, it fell short.
My final opinions are that it was an interesting enough premise but not a very well-told tale. The casting/acting was great. And the production looked like a million bucks.
But, for me, the idea of telling this story in ways that often mimicked the way it was told in the video game was a bad idea. Just as film treatments of classic novels (or other different source materials) require adjustments, more adjustments should have been made here. In the finale, as one example, Joel shooting up everyone in the hospital (except those two nurses) to escape with Ellie was long and drawn out and looked just like a first-person shooter video game. It was brutal and yet dull at the same time. The early scenes of the finale featuring Ellie's mother were tremendous. I thought the actress (who I realize is the actress who voiced Ellie in the game) mimicked Ellie's American accent perfectly. But, I think I would have been much more vested in Ellie's (and Joel's) journey if I had known those details much earlier on.
Imagine if the time spent on the shoot-em-up in the hospital was used to expose more of Ellie's psychological trauma of what she went through in the prior episode. That might've been a little more interesting to us viewers.
I am reminded of how much I hated the wonderful story of Little Women when I watched the 2019 version. Changing up the timeline in the way that familiar tale was told really made no sense for me towards improving the understanding of the motivations of the characters. I found it confusing. And I think with a more straightforward script without all the side stories (however compelling they may be) to build more of a traditional "buddy film" with all the wonderful underpinnings of Joel's and Ellie's sense of failure and loss in their previous relationships, this could have been a truly epic series.
So while there was MUCH to like, I feel like when matched to its potential, it fell short.
