I think they nailed it (Fan Creations)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Thursday, January 19, 2023, 09:21 (674 days ago) @ Beorn
edited by Kermit, Thursday, January 19, 2023, 10:00

My only complaint about the show so far is that the soundtrack seems muted and not as effective. It was integral to the experience of the game. The famous traumatic scene before the title card in the game didn't affect me in the show (it might've had I not expected it), but the same scene in the game still affects me--the difference is the soundtrack.

Finally got to watch the episode tonight. I don't know what to tell you two, but that scene hit me in the gut just as hard as it did in the game. That's one of the few scenes that they had to nail, and I think they pulled it off. To me, the music was balanced pretty well… didn't drown out the scene, but was there. I watch with headphones, so maybe that helped.

Weirdly, watching it a second time, it affected me more. (Could be that I find reactions in reaction videos highly contagious.) The first time something felt off, and I do think it was the music. I think it's a reasonable opinion that the music was overly dramatic in the game, but in this scene it did two things. It established what would become a very important motif, and it told us, before we could see it, that Sarah was gone. I think the show is in very good hands. They don't need the precise tools used in the game because they're doing other smart things, which improve on the game. (I love the soldier's apology before he almost shoots Joel [more effective than the "little girl" line in the game, I think], and apparently the original ending of the first episode was Joel disposing of the child's body 20 years later.) The show runners have proven to me that they know what they're doing.

One other thing is that you've seen it before with almost the exact same imagery. They are straight up lifting literal shots from the game and putting them in the TV show. Not gonna hit the same when it's a literal 1:1 translation of something you've already seen.

I have absolutely no problem with them mimicking the shots. It was exceptionally well-crafted the first time, and I think that in that particular scene, fucking with things as little as possible is the best approach. Otherwise it's just making change for change's sake, and when the source material is as good as it is, that's a dangerous gambit. Also, in a character-building scene that is important to a character's future motivations, shot mimicking helps create a common experience for the two audiences: the people who have played the game and the people who are new to the story. I suspect it's important to give everyone a common foundation so that when the characters do things later on in the story, we don't have a schism in how the viewership experiences the scenes.

Fully agree. I wasn't talking about the visuals--Cody took that up--but I also think it was smart not to mess with what worked. So far, the changes made have been thoughtful and have addressed weaknesses in the game. It's actually underscored those weaknesses for me. (For example, spores were always a problem logically.)

Anyway, I'm hooked. Between this and Andor, I feel like maybe some of the studios are figuring out that writing is important to this medium.

Preach. Good writing always matters, but studios are lazy and risk adverse. I don't think HBO picked up The Last of Us because of the writing. I think it got picked up because of the demonstrated success of the talent that was assembled, and the greatest risk became that another streaming service might pick it up first.