HBO's The Last of Us Misses The Point

Without a doubt, when it was first released, HBO's adaptation of the game 'The Last of Us' changed the perspective for the better and opened the way for other live-action game adaptations. The first season received critically acclaimed reviews and gained popularity among fans and non-fans alike, and the second season promised a larger cast and a bigger budget. However, failing to adapt the story properly, HBO misses the point of what made the games so promising and what made people care about these pixel characters in the first place.

Spoilers ahead!

The show mostly focuses on the 'cut-scenes' of the game, which are the essential plot points. However, while getting rid of most of the action, such as fighting A LOT of clickers (not just one) and killing bunch of people on their way, HBO might be saving a couple of bucks for the studio but they seem to forget that the quiet and the most powerful scenes of the game happen right after the traumatic display of violence, and without the development of the characters and the world, the ending, Joel's decision to save Ellie which costs millions of lives, loses its impact.

The most outrageous thing in the show is that it 'tells' us everything instead of showing. In the second season, Abby, or any other character, at least ten times tells us Joel killed her dad. Even in the flashback scene where we as the audience, are supposed to witness the crucial part of Abby’s story, finding her dad’s body, we are again not shown, but told that his dad is lying there, dead. Could HBO seriously not afford to shoot a death scene?

The most important scene of the game, Joel's death, is also ruined. The fact that no one knew who Abby was or what her motives for killing Joel were rooted in is what made the second game intriguing. Joel did not know, did not even need to know who Abby is, because he somehow always knew the sins of his past would catch up to him someday. Well, HBO does not give you a choice now; you will be reminded in every episode that Joel killed Abby's dad, and that's why Abby killed him.

Joel killed Abby's dad.

In case you forgot or something.

It's no surprise in a streaming age where people lose focus so easily and writers for any kind of media try to spoon-feed information to their viewers, but it's such a lazy choice. The show either expands too much (as seen in the episode 'Long, Long Time' and 'Left Behind' - as heartbreaking and important as these episodes are, the fact that the series has only 9 & 7 episodes causes problems for the pacing and execution of the show) or does not give its characters justice.

As some of the criticism made against Part II of the game might be understandable, however, Abby and Ellie are some of the most well-written female characters in video games, and that is a fact. They are imperfect, two characters who lost themselves because of grief and pain. In the show, Ellie is written horribly as it is obvious that Mazin is bewilderingly sexist and wants to ruin every single female character. The story of the game relies on the tragedy of guilt, rage and suffering which pushes Ellie forward, she gets so obsessed with revenge it eats her alive. But hey, HBO Ellie did not mean to hurt Abby’s friends apparently. Do you like her now?

Unfortunate to HBO's The Last of Us, the game will always exist (thank god) and the show will always have something to be compared to. The series will continue to pay the price of the existence of the same story being told and written in a much better way in another medium.