04-15-2025, 06:16 AM
Started watching The Last of Us.
Just finished the Big Gay Al episode and, while it is definitely above average TV as you would expect from HBO, what exactly is it bringing to the table that The Walking Dead didn't already bring?
Not sure we needed another bleak zombie show, even if it's a well made one like this.
Pedro Pascal is wonderful as always, and Bella Ramsay is sufficiently annoying as Ellie, but what it is doing for me is putting a massive spotlight on how awful video games are as a storytelling medium for this type of character-driven drama.
I played The Last of Us on PS4 and none of the characters had anywhere near the sort of emotional pull that those same characters had for me after one episode of television.
It's also really highlighting the ridiculous dichotomy of the theme of the value is human life vs the reality of the wanton butchery of other human beings necessitated by the video game format.
Every time Joel kills someone in the TV show, there's a clear emotional impact on him and on Ellie. He might be a cold-blooded killer when necessary, but you can see he's losing a part of himself in the process. In the game, you go from brutally killing hundreds of people to scenes where they try to impart some humanity into the characters.
I know this is a well-trodden criticism of videogames as a medium, but the contrast is stark here.
Anyway, I'll keep going because it's good enough to keep me interested.
Just finished the Big Gay Al episode and, while it is definitely above average TV as you would expect from HBO, what exactly is it bringing to the table that The Walking Dead didn't already bring?
Not sure we needed another bleak zombie show, even if it's a well made one like this.
Pedro Pascal is wonderful as always, and Bella Ramsay is sufficiently annoying as Ellie, but what it is doing for me is putting a massive spotlight on how awful video games are as a storytelling medium for this type of character-driven drama.
I played The Last of Us on PS4 and none of the characters had anywhere near the sort of emotional pull that those same characters had for me after one episode of television.
It's also really highlighting the ridiculous dichotomy of the theme of the value is human life vs the reality of the wanton butchery of other human beings necessitated by the video game format.
Every time Joel kills someone in the TV show, there's a clear emotional impact on him and on Ellie. He might be a cold-blooded killer when necessary, but you can see he's losing a part of himself in the process. In the game, you go from brutally killing hundreds of people to scenes where they try to impart some humanity into the characters.
I know this is a well-trodden criticism of videogames as a medium, but the contrast is stark here.
Anyway, I'll keep going because it's good enough to keep me interested.
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