[Brad]

Originally Posted by turtle Anyone watching Last of Us?

Originally Posted by Brad The spoiler-free summary is that I'm pretty sure you still have nothing to worry about.

The Last of Us season one just concluded. As anticipated, no sexy times. Also as anticipated, and I don't think this is a huge spoiler, there are lots of shades of grey with few or no true heroes and mostly no 100% black-and-white good guys and bad guys. Well, when it comes to humans, at least. Yes, there are lots of pew-pews and chases and murders, but generally people aren't just one-dimensional monsters. The Last of Us presents a very believable albeit bleak and depressing world.

The only thing holding me from calling the show a true masterpiece is that the pacing felt a little uneven at times, and I think a few scenes could be tightened up a scooch, but that's hardly worth mentioning compared to the much bigger failings of most other recent big productions. I'm looking at you, most of modern Star Trek. Otherwise, ten outta ten right here.

And also like most other recent big productions, The Last of Us can't resist planting just a little teeny tiny (or maybe not so tiny) thought/question in your head at the very end to keep you hungry for the eventual season 2, but I would say that if the show ended here, it has a satisfying enough conclusion to the main story arc. The creators stuck pretty well to the source material, with a few necessary changes to make for better passive watching, and there is a second game that they will likely follow for season 2. The second game takes place five years later; so, don't expect an immediate followup in terms of plot if/when season 2 arrives. Also, I'm pretty sure I read that the creators still want to stick to the story of the games and aren't interested in expanding a TLoU universe, which I think is good and I hope they stick to it. The way the story is told in TLoU Part II the game is… hmm… unique, to put it without spoilers, and will probably be very challenging to adapt for television but could be great if they can pull it off.

Needless to say but I'll say it anyway: put this show on your watch list.

P.S. Pedro Pascal is a treasure, both on and off the screen. Don't let anything happen to this man!

P.P.S. I found a source for that comment about future developments:

Druckmann and Mazin hint — but don’t outright say — that their second season will cover the table-flipping narrative of Naughty Dog’s bold Part II sequel (“I don’t like filler,” Mazin says). Part II cannot be described without spoilers, but it caused such an uproar that Druckmann received death threats. Likewise, Druckmann cannot reveal whether a rumored Part III game from Naughty Dog is coming, but says: “I think there’s more story to tell.” Either way, Druckmann isn’t worried about falling into the same trap faced by Game of Thrones, when the HBO drama famously surpassed author George R.R. Martin’s source material. “We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games,” he says. “We won’t run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.”