How to Make Sure the Last of Us TV Series Doesn't Suck
It’s been a hard road for fans of The Last of Us as a lackluster sequel split the fanbase and put the future of once great developer Naughty Dog into question. To put it plainly, a lot is riding on the success of the HBO series. But many wait with bated breath to see if the show will be a return to form or like The Last of Us Part II another death march into woke politics, clumsy writing, and “subverted expectations”.
But first, a quick review of the facts. In March last year the Hollywood Reporter announced that the show was in the works at HBO with Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin. Little has been revealed about the plot, only that it will follow the story of the first game in season one. Then there’s the casting. Coming hot off of his success in The Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal has been cast to play Joel.
Rounding out the cast is fellow Game of Thrones alum, Bella Ramsey (Lady Mormont) as Ellie. Gabriel Luna will play Tommy, Joel’s brother. You’ll remember Luna as the bad guy from Terminator: Dark Fate. Or maybe you won’t because nobody saw that movie.
The casting has been solid so far and it’s great performances by great actors that’s really going to help buoy up a show with as many potential problems as the game’s troubled sequel. Now, here’s what might go spectacularly wrong and how, if by some unlikely chance someone at HBO reads this, to avoid it.
Beware the Blowback Effect
There’s something called “the blowback effect” in psychology. Basically if you believe something and are then shown undeniable proof that you’re wrong, something strange happens. Rather than correct yourself, you doubledown on your belief. This is like showing a flat-earther a photograph of our planet from space and then getting a lecture about how Photoshop is a thing.
We’re dangerously close to this happening with the Last of Us HBO series. You see, creator Neil Druckmann hasn’t exactly taken the criticism of Part II with much grace. He’s written off people who don’t like the game as everything from haters to bigots. He doesn’t seem to have internalized any of the legitimate feedback about Part II and that may find a way to express itself in the show.
Druckmann may attempt to justify himself by dog whistling with references to Part II. This has happened elsewhere in popular culture when creators give in to spite. Paul Feig, director of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, inserted a scene into the movie where the characters read YouTube comments disparaging the all-female team’s ghost hunting efforts. This was after the trailer was buried beneath an avalanche of dislikes on YouTube in real life (1.1 million as of this writing).
When creators lash out like this they imagine they’re dunking on internet trolls that everyone hates anyway. What they’re really doing is showing how their bruised ego won't allow them to internalize real criticism. If you need more proof this is a risk go ahead and watch Neil try and explain away literally one of the dumbest things from Part II:
If you read this Neil, many people disliked Part II because it’s a poorly written, depressing slog. You need to focus on good storytelling rather than attempt something very unlikely to work, say, oh, I don’t know, making the bad guy the hero of the story? Which leads to our next point.
Joel is the Hero of the Story. Period.
One of the most controversial changes in Part II was the transformation of Joel from redeemed father figure to selfish, murdering louse who got what he deserved. This retconning did not go down well with fans as the game spends more than half of its playtime trying to justify his killer, Abby.
Forcing you to play as Abby after she brutally murders Joel will likely be remembered as one of the worst creative decisions in gaming history. It boggles the mind that anyone thought this could work given what Joel means to the fans. It’s not unlike seeing Luke Skywalker, a hero some of us grew up loving and admiring, reduced to a bitter, mean, and nihilistic old man in The Last Jedi (another famous recent attempt to “subvert” audience expectations).
Joel needs to be played straight. There’s no reason to mess around with his story arc from the first game because it’s absolutely perfect: a man broken by the loss of his daughter takes a road to redemption and learns to live again. It will remain one of the greatest achievements in game storytelling long after Part II is consigned to the bargain bin of history.
Druckmann may be tempted to go back and fiddle with things to include some bad behavior by Joel. If this happens expect to see an ultra-violent, cruel, and mean Joel. I’m calling it now, this is the most likely thing to make it into the show. You can also expect to hear “Joel was never a hero” from Druckmann in interviews if this comes to pass.
For the Love of God, No Politics
The temptation is strong given the times we live in but there is absolutely no need to inject current politics into a show about mushroom zombies. If they pull some nonsense like there are online trolls posting that the zombie infection is fake news, I will launch my limited edition Last of Us II Collector's Edition golf club through my television screen like a freakin’ javelin.
Not only that but Druckmann has tried his hands at telling a political tale with Part II and failed miserably. If you haven’t played the game, a good chunk of the story is about a paramilitary group called the WLF fighting against their regional rivals the Seraphites. It’s apparently supposed to be a metaphor for Israel/Palestine but falls utterly flat.
Druckmann likewise too plays into gender politics with Part II by including not only a lesbian romance but a female character with muscles like The Rock and a female-to-male transgender child. Let me be clear, the problem is not that these themes and ideas are included in the game but rather how poorly they’re handled. What began as an attempt at “representation” ends with a muddled, confused, and ultimately pointless exercise in wokeism.
Druckmann does not conceal his fondness for the work of Anita Sarkessian, a radical activist who spends her days arguing that there is unequal treatment in how male and female characters’ butts are shown in video games (yes, she really has argued that).
But the poison-pill of face-value leftism drains all the nuance and art from fictional characters the same way as if they were sculpted by the political right. Characters need to be more than shallow stand-ins for ideological points of view, they need to be real people.
Add More but Not Much
It’s encouraging that Craig Mazin is involved because Chernobyl is one of the best shows ever made. If you haven’t seen it I can’t encourage you enough to watch it. Mazin is in a way the perfect person for the job because like the tale of the doomed Ukranian nuclear reactor, The Last of Us is somehow even more apocalyptic.
What Chernobyl really achieved was pulling back the iron curtain on the systemic failures of communism. As the disaster unfolds it’s revealed that political struggles, bureaucratic incompetence, and shielding the Soviet Union from international embarrassment seriously compromise the efforts of the rescuers.
In the world of The Last of Us we never really got a sense of where the cordyceps came from or how governments around the world fell. There’s an opportunity to weave more of “the system has failed” into Last of Us’ drama. What’s more is that Mazin may be able to contain some of Druckmann’s excesses that were let loose on Last of Us Part II.
In the first game there was director Bruce Strayley to act as a bulwark against those excesses. Bad ideas could be filtered or outright removed. An original draft has the character Tess hunting Joel cross-country on a revenge quest (sound familiar?). Tess ultimately tortures Joel to death in this version of the story.
We’ve seen what happens when Druckmann has a free hand creatively and the results are not pretty. Bottom line, the show will succeed if it’s faithful to Last of Us Part I and an embarrassing spectacle if it emulates Part II. To spare us all a cringey disaster, and a loss for everyone involved, let’s pray this does not come to pass.
No Abby
No to Abby. Just no. If she shows up then this show will bomb. End of story. Abby is banished to the shadow realm.
Abandon Part II
An offshoot of no Abby is removing Part II from any future plans for the show. If done right season one will be a success and HBO will want to keep it going. But rather than take another crack at shoring up where Part II fell short it’d be better to just wipe the slate clean.
No Abby, no WLF, no Seraphites, no Seattle, just let the thing die. The last thing most people want is to suffer through Part II again and this time as one long, unskippable cutscene. Neil should look at this as an opportunity to do the Part II the fans wanted and deserved, one that expands on Joel and Ellie’s relationship rather than nuking it from orbit.
In Conclusion
If the show can embrace what made the first game great and play it straight then it will be a success. There’s no reason to try some experiment to “subvert expectations” in order to burnish up some imaginary bonafides for Druckmann as a provocateur or to address the criticism of his past work.
It seems to me he revealed too much of himself with Part II and in the aftermath hid behind bad choices cloaked in the idea he, or the game, are somehow “controversial”.
The only controversy I can see is how someone with so much time and creative power could have mishandled both so badly. There isn’t much of a conversation to be had about The Last of Us Part II because it can’t be argued on its merits, only its ideology. And I think we’ve all inadvertently found that that is exactly what bad art is made of.
If you’re reading this Neil, this show is a test to see if you can first of all, write, and second if you’ve actually taken any criticism to heart. It’s an opportunity to rehabilitate your image, which like it or not has taken a huge hit over Part II. This is your chance to try and fix it and there are no more chances after that. Don’t blow it.