At the beginning of 2023, HBO Max is back in the city.
As the latest rookie to enter the game and the highest-priced streaming media, in September last year, a "Dragon Family" became more and more popular, and directly won this year's Golden Globe Award for Best Drama.
In January of this year, there was another one, "The Last of Us."
Based on the game of the same name.
The year it appeared, it became the fastest-selling game in PS3 history, and it also won all game awards (more than 240 are said to be there).
From the same platform, it almost has a similar fate to "Dragon Family".
Because of the casting problem, there was a lot of noise before the broadcast.
The reversal is also strikingly similar.
With such a strong IP, it is not difficult to have proud ratings on the first broadcast.
The first episode attracted 4.7 million American viewers, second only to "The Dragon Family." Two days later, it increased by more than 10 million, and 22 million viewers watched the first episode in 12 days.
But the more it airs, the higher the audience satisfaction.
The first season consisted of 9 episodes and is currently on the 5th episode.
Ratings and word of mouth are rising, and the unexpected double 9 at home and abroad.
IMDb gave 9.2/10 to more than 180,000 viewers (the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes and popcorn index are also very impressive), and more than 38,000 netizens on Douban gave 9.1/10. (The rating of the latest episode is already as high as 9.6)
HBO Max also announced a renewal.
It is no exaggeration to evolve from "the best game adaptation of live-action series" to the current year's highest IMDb rating (covering dramas, documentaries and variety shows), "The Last of Us" contributed to the textbook-level demonstration of series adaptation.
It is strongly recommended that all IP adaptations such as comic adaptations and creations be studied at the table (including the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem", which has initially gained everyone's trust).
01
The Last of Us (also known as The End of America) is an action-adventure survival horror game developed by Naughty Dog Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released in 2013.
The game is set in the apocalyptic United States with the theme of fungal infections.
The player controls the bitter tough guy Joel (that is, the male protagonist of the show), escorts the girl Ellie (the heroine of the show) across the United States, fights monsters (various mushroom people who become zombies after being infected by fungi), and defends people all the way.
Don't look at the simple task, after the game is released, it gets praise from the plot, gameplay, visual effects, sound effects, characters, especially the shaping of female characters.
The Last of Us became one of the best-selling games of all time, won multiple awards, and was hailed as one of the greatest video games.
Here's the problem.
Can people who have not played this game follow the drama freely?
Rest assured, no problem.
I'm also very good at non-gamers.
(Already in the pit decided to play this week)
In order to avoid being spoiled, the producers also deliberately let the male and female protagonists not deliberately play games to do their homework, and only focus on the script.
The final success shows that the creator of "The Last of Life" is not unreasonable in his confidence in the script.
Live-action works adapted by IP have always been the creator's Asura field.
Because the chance of pounce is high - there is no intention to poke "Warcraft", "Assassin's Creed" and all kinds of other powder sore spots
。
Compared with novels and anime adaptations, game adaptations are more difficult to do, especially difficult to satisfy players.
Because.
First, the game itself embodies everything;
Second, the player's soul penetrates this tangible game world, and the true feeling walks through.
The power of "The Last of Us" is that it "wants and wants".
It not only restores the game elements to the greatest extent (gamers demand get), but also inherits, develops and flestuates the story and character core (fan demand get).
02
(The following content is as non-spoilers as possible, please slide with caution)
It is also the evil result of human beings not being environmentally friendly.
At the beginning of the millennium, fungi that could only be multiplied at low temperatures (academic stuff aside, you can understand mushrooms, cordyceps, mold, etc.) were forced to adapt to high temperatures by the greenhouse effect.
Once fungi can grow in a high-temperature environment, the human body naturally becomes their parasitic place.
Humans who are occupied by fungi are simply understood as zombies that grow mushrooms from scratch.
They bite when they see a person, with the aim of spreading the fungus to the human body and achieving reproduction.
The infected person will gradually lose his mind within 48 hours, and the stronger the attack ability, it is divided into four levels according to the degree of infection: runner, lurker, sound follower, and Big Mac.
Ahem, this is not the point, no need to remember.
You just have to remember that the first two are good to fight, and the male protagonist Joel can shoot them in the head (turn into a mushroom's head) with one shot.
(Ahead...)
...... Small high energy)
Mutants who have died (with the smell of annihilation)
The latter two bullets hit them, which is equivalent to a mosquito bite, but as soon as they shoot, they can screw the human head off.
In the 5 episodes that have been broadcast, 4 mushroom people have appeared one after another.
Mushroom Man: Don't call me Groot!
Aside from the occasional flashback to 20 years before the outbreak of the epidemic, most of the timeline of The Last of Us takes place now, in 2023.
Society has collapsed like this, and humans are busy hurting each other while avoiding the mushroom people.
Human society is roughly divided into several camps:
Centralist, the official agency Federal Disaster Relief Agency (FEDRA); the unofficial underground civil society organization Firefly; and various armed groups similar to Firefly; Plus non-organizational "passers-by" with their own goals and means of survival.
Joel belongs to the last, unorganized passers-by.
Before the epidemic, he lived an ordinary life in the small town with his daughter and brother Tom. Because of the epidemic, he lost his daughter, who depended on him.
Fast forward 20 years.
He lives off smuggling with his partner Tess in the Boston quarantine area. Joel, who is not weak in force and has a dead heart, is his only concern is his brother Tommy, who has lost contact with him in the next state.
In order to find his brother, he took on a job of "smuggling": Marlene, the boss of the local firefly organization, asked him to deliver a courier.
The express "content" is Ellie, a 14-year-old orphan girl.
Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) who is cold on the outside and hot on the inside, with Ellie (played by La Ramsay), who is a little ghost, will overcome various difficulties along the way to achieve the two goals of saving his life and getting along well with the two.
The standard "belt wolf" story mode, Pedro Pascal is familiar with acting, after all, he has no problem taking Yoda's baby interstellar adventure in "The Mandalorian", and his ability to bring babies is highly recognized.
I just want this cub to appear
Ellie is harder than Yoda's baby.
She has a certain lethality, loves to tell cold jokes, annoying teenagers, Bella Ramsay, who plays this role, played the loli lord of Bear Island in "Game of Thrones" for the first time, and performed well.
The bear girl grew up
In the drama version, Little Bear Girl's performance is also quite vivid.
Uncle Meat really didn't understand those who chewed the root of the tongue with the little girl's looks.
What has a big face and a receding hairline like a Qing dynasty (and unfortunately why it's not Alan Paige during the "Juno" period)...
"Looks like when you play a game", this standard is really overbearing.
If they are drunk by this controversy, there will be Zhao Linger (Liu Yifei) and Li Xiaoyao (Hu Ge) who are now "white moonlight".
03
Finally, speaking of the main play, "The Last of Us" did two things right.
Take it properly, neither succumb to the heat of the game, nor be afraid to delete it.
The strengths of the game, stay.
Gaps left by game restrictions, filled.
The episodes increase the range of the game's story setting.
For example, the opening minutes of episode 2 take place in Jakarta, which expands the original "end of the United States" into "the end of the world".
After the new crown, everyone has seen how powerful the virus is, and the lethality of fungi will certainly not be limited to one place.
The way the fungus first spread, the drama version is also based on the game (similar to the new crown transmission method, respiratory infection), into the latest fungus mixed into rice flour grain, through exports to spread to various places, the embodiment of globalization.
Of course, "The Last of Us" won the award in 2013 for soft genres, including plot, action, visual effects, sound effects, dubbing, and characters.
Therefore, the development of the drama version, cutting into the angle, almost all try to replicate the game.
Even some classic scenes that make players nostalgic are perfectly preserved.
For example, this ruined building.
The picture below is from ElAnalista DeBits
To be "one of the greatest games", the motivation and transformation of the characters is also the most important issue for the "Last of Us" team.
For example, the relationship between Joel and Tess, which was initially designed to be irritable and profane, was later revised into the best partner who could calm down Joel.
The drama version considers the relationship between the characters more carefully, more comprehensively, and has the most changes.
Each episode is 60-85 minutes long, and "The Last of the Survivors" shows the relationship between people, everyone's position and difficulties very movingly.
Let's put it this way, among the characters who appear today, not only Joel and Ellie, but also the rest of the characters have the ability to make the audience worry about their fate and move emotionally with only one or two episodes of the story.
To be able to do this, performance and creator storytelling ability are indispensable.
Uncle Meat especially likes the third episode.
The third episode expands the story of the game's original tool NPC Bill and Frank.
This episode is also the most controversial on the whole network because of its sexual orientation. But Uncle Meat feels that the adaptation is just right, and it can even be called the finishing touch.
I unilaterally declare that without this episode (The Kiss), it does not deserve a high score of 9.6.
Taken from the clip of the B station UP main @Desperate Murphy explaining this episode
Bill, is a survivor.
The people in the town were all taken away and buried alive, and Bill, who was vigilant, hid and survived.
Because of his outstanding survival skills, he laid traps and fences in the town, prepared reorganized ammunition and living needs, and lived comfortably.
Frank, who strayed into the trap he laid down, let Bill, who had never dared to face his sexuality, fall.
The two lived together for 20 years.
In the game, Frank, who loves life, can't stand Bill, who has no interest in life and has the greatest purpose of survival, and finally runs away.
For the relationship between the two, the game does not say explicitly.
(But from that same-sex magazine, players can guess to some extent)
The drama version opened the skylight and said bright words.
Bill is good at saving his life, and he feels good about being alive alone.
But meeting love and protecting his lover's life makes him more satisfied.
That small strawberry field not only made Bill cry, but also moved the audience.
When the two said goodbye at the end, Frank's phrase "Please love me the way I want you to" was also moving.
As the producer says in the podcast, Bill is the protector and Frank is the nurturer; Bill protects life, Frank creates life.
Uncle Meat feels that this is also the key to clearing "The Last of Us".
People who believe in social Darwin's death-or-die-or-die-or-die-you-die doctrine, when they see the scene where Bill plays the piano for Frank, always feel that Frank should single-handedly kill Bill's headshot and occupy the Magpie's Nest.
It's exciting and seems to fit the setting of this doomsday survival game.
But I asked the players around me who played this game, but I got an Easter egg that was not an Easter egg.
In the game, if you always control Joel to fight, it's almost always looking for death.
Fighting, of course, is exciting.
Surviving is the purpose of Joel and Ellie's trip.
To live is not just to "live".
The cluster of love that slowly sprouted between people is the vitality that allows people to breathe and move forward in a desperate situation.
It's like the opening credits.
Tiny fungi are like tentacles, spreading little by little, penetrating and eventually invading the human world.
In the end, standing in the light, there are only TA and TA who rely on each other.
The only thing that can create life is always love.