I think there is truth in the conspiracy that Druckerman deliberately pandered to the Emmys with some of the episodes being the way they are. Especially the third one. I felt some of the run time should've went to Tess in the earlier episodes, and more interaction with Joel and Ellie in others, Henry and Sam, David's group, and the Fireflies. More tense action sequences in general. I initially was extremely disappointed that OG Joel was absent, but after the sixth episode, which I consider to be the best episode of the series, I accepted that this was both a mentally and physically broken Joel and enjoyed the series better afterwards. I also hated the mouth tendril things that the runners had. That was cheezy. I think Druckerman was hoping that the flashbacks with the infected in the 8th and 9th would count to us as infected making an appearance. But if you played the game, both infected sequences were crazy in comparison to what we got, and weren't flashbacks (well I guess Left Behind depending on when you play it COULD be considered a FB).
I didn't mind the lack of infected tbh because in both the game and in zombie narratives in particular it is almost always the other humans you have to worry about. In the game I found them to be more of a nuisance than a challenge. Usually I would get them to chase me and have them run right into a bomb or hit em with the molotov. In OG grounded when you literally had nothing I hated having to sneak past all of them or choke them all out. Though sneaking past bloaters was pretty tense, the constant bricking/bottling or choking them was boring. The human enemies were much more interesting to encounter.
Still maintain that it was a pretty solid narrative for a live action adaptation. I think it is EASIER to make more faithful adaptations in animation like Edgerunners and Castlevania because there is way less overhead. If you miss the mark on those shows you don't lose your ass to the tunes of millions like you do with film or a mini series.
Druckerman pandered a little bit, which to me hurt the narrative, but it didn't hurt their production any because it is one of the most popular shows that HBO has had that isn't GOT related.
Quote from: ralfy on Mar 18, 2023, 02:08:52 AMIt's not so much that she's a teen but that the second game essentially becomes melodrama, with revenge, various affairs, betrayal, etc. Not that story writers could have done better as the context is already slim in terms of content, and there's not much to do in a post-apocalyptic world except tie that melodrama with adventure and encountering more weird groups. Also, with a TV show, melodrama is inevitable. And because she and the rest are mostly young, then it becomes like a teen drama, which makes it even goofier in light of its post-apocalyptic content, e.g., need to include dances and parties, gossip, boyfriends and girlfriends, etc. The implication is that that world has become normalized, with intrusions via various cults, fears of shortages, forced labor, etc., getting in the way.
Given that, I would have allowed that to a point, and then show things falling apart, until we have something like the ending of On the Beach. That'd probably shock the dickens out of viewers expecting redemption.
Abby and Dina are the only ones about the same age. The WLF members all vary in age,
Spoiler
but the fireflies that the WLF took in are older than Ellie and not part of the same group
. The age gamut runs from kids to old adults in both Jackson and the WLF camps, but all characters you meet in the periphery are inconsequential. Aside from that, when you see parties at Jackson and people eating in a cafeteria at the WLF compound.........I don't think that is very atypical behavior. Humans will try to normalize just about every situation they are in. If you had a secure compound would you not eat in it? Just because everywhere else was struggling would you run past the secure perimeter and become a caveman to? I hate it when media STOPS portraying humans as human. Just because the world is miserable and barely holding on doesn't mean that all hope and sense of security dies with it. Even demons dream of getting out of hell.
TLOU2 had hella pacing issues, and was an unstructured mess, that ruined a greatly improved combat system over the first game with a story that was almost unplayable because of what they did to characters of the first game. It wasn't because there was a teenage melodrama happening.
I think you can argue the ellie being a mary sue part more convincingly than you can that point.
