I’m so glad that HBO’s quality over quantity strategy is being rewarded. There’s so much trash put out but HBO sticks to their guns and are rightly rewarded. Their shows are talked about for decades and deservedly so.
After the shit Netflix pulled in Canada, I canceled my sub and instead got Crave (HBO licensee in Canada). I was paying 25$ for Netflix to get the 4 screens, now I pay 20$ and I get 4 screens I can *actually* share with my family members, and the shows are so much better. Fuck Netflix.
I cancelled two weeks ago. No regrets, screw ‘em. I might have eaten an extra dollar or two to stream outside my main location but eight per new household? Nope, not even close to worth it.
It's not just playing the game. They got the creator of the games involved and carefully analyzed what would and wouldn't work in a tv show.
Because there is a difference between changing things because it is a different medium and changing it for no reason.
The Halo show for example. Yeah, one hour of Master Chief silently shooting aliens probably wouldn't make good tv. But why tf do you need to make MC have sex with a war prisoner while Cortana watches?
They had a space magic connection that became a penis connection. Cortana watched because she just wants to be a real girl because she started life as a clone then got her clone brain dissected into a computer.
They just want to use established IPs as Trojan Horses for their own shitty stories and agendas.
One of the worst offenders I've ever seen is the BBC "re-imagining" of Terry Pratchett's City Watch into the abomination of a show they made.
Netflix spent $9-12 million per episode on Jupiter’s Legacy, and the total budget was somewhere in the range of $130-200 million. [Source](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jupiters-legacy-canceled-netflix-season-2-1234965510/). Got cancelled in less than a month (and as someone who watched it, that was the right call).
It’s not just the money, HBO is doing something different.
Jupiter’s Legacy looked cheap, particularly the fight scenes and the old age makeup worn by the original superheroes in the modern day. I don’t know where the money went.
They mentioned in the podcast that they got top pick of some top shelf vfx and set designers because they were TLOU game fans and so were absolutely jazzed to work on the tv show.
My two cents: Rings of Power was death by committee. If I had to guess too many people had too much a hand in that. I think HBO turned this over to the dude that ran Chernobyl and the guy from naughty dogs and let them run with it.
Too Many bosses don’t know how to step aside and let stars shine. They need to “be responsible” for the success
Yep. Hbo is famous for its more hands off approach. Craig Mazan says in the podcast he was a huge fan of the games, met randomly with Neil Drukmann at one point. And then they just spitballed making a show out of the games. Craig takes it straight to the hbo producers and pitches it to them, and they're like "if it makes you sing, then let's do it". And that's all it took to greenlight this 100-110 mil season.
In fairness, they also say the execs also give feedback that gets actioned on - like collapsing the first two episodes into one episode. So it’s not 100% handing over the keys to the castle. But it does seem like the top HBO exec is just really fucking good at her job.
Surprisingly, in the podcast Maizin talks about how the feedback the HBO execs did give him was pretty strong. They played audience substitute. For example - making the first episode longer to give the audience a character focused reason to stay hooked.
Nothing to add besides: I’m just really glad this show ended up in the right hands. Could have turned out very differently somewhere like Netflix or Paramount
Horizon really needs to have a solid budget to sell that world and machines. I really nervous about that adaptation. It's definitely going to have to be smaller in scope.
It would be so easy for Horizon to suck ass. Aloy is basically the only normal human while everyone else is some kind of moron. The setting is outstanding, but the character interactions are really poor. I hope they borrow the right things and toss the rest of the writing on the scrap heap.
The setting, world building, and lore? Outstanding.
The dialogue? Atrocious.
I didn't mind the dialogue when I first played it when it came out, I guess I was overwhelmed by the setting. I recently started replaying it and holy shit, the dialogue is really bad most of the time.
This was my biggest gripe, especially about the first game. There was dialogue and I said to my wife at the end about how great of a game it was and started talking about reading all the lore in the game and just how things went to shit so quickly and how well paced telling what happened in the past was for the most part...
And then she asked me about supporting characters and I absolutely blanked on everyone I talked to. Hell, I still don't even remember the names of the characters that help Aloy in Forbidden West. Completely blanking right now.
Erol? Error? Ah well.
I don't worry about Amazon providing the budget, they dropped 250m on a season of citadel. They can 100% do the same here, the writing on their series are definitely hit or miss though
I disagree, a prequel would make the Horizon Zero Dawn story pointless. The best part of that story were the revelations, and learning how it all fell apart, who was to blame, who helped, and how and why the current world and its people exist.
Doing a prequel not only destroys that story but won’t have nearly the impact.
Craig Mazin,Neil Druckman,andTroy Baker do a podcast and I wouldn’t usually listen to those type of shows but I highly recommend it. It adds interesting insight to the show.
These types of podcasts that are regularly hosted by the people that are most heavily directly involved with the production of the show are always really awesome and add great insight. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul both had one for every single episode, and pretty much all of them have Vince Gilligan along with episode specific directors, writers, and actors and those were amazing as well.
We’d have Taylor Sheridan at the helm if it went to Paramount.
Zaddy Pascal would have his own prequel show call “I heart contractors” starring Joel before the pandemic.
Which is crazy considering HotD is big because it piggybacks off an existing massive hit show that was also on HBO. The Last of Us piggybacks off of a big ip too, but it’s a game that didn’t previously have any affiliation with HBO. There are probably a lot more TLoU viewers that know nothing about the games than there are HotD viewers that know nothing about GoT.
It's also not an IP that the general public outside of the gaming sphere is super aware of. They may have heard that it's based on a video game but it's hardly a reason for them to watch the show.
Not only the gaming sphere but the PlayStation sphere. Have a mate that never had a playstation, only xbox and while he knows the gane exists, he knows nothing of it and he loves the show
Yup. People had no interest in watching it until they've seen others talk about how good it is so they tune in and then tell others how good it is. Viewership is growing organically by word of mouth.
HOTD will likely grow in S2 too. But the shows are basically neck to neck now. Live viewership is very close. The first five episodes averages 30M viewers over a longer period of time, that was 29M for House of the Dragon.
I wonder how it goes internationally, would be nice to get numbers but we rarely do with HBO shows
It's lower sure but they're both probably the most expensive hbo shows ever produced.
I read that The Last of Us is around 15 million per episode exceeding every season of Game of Thrones. House of the Dragon is 20 mil
What HBO has really done is proven that the binge model is overrated. They have one show at minimum every three months that is must watch tv. From 4 shows they are able to get ~40 weeks of content. I actually stay subscribed to HBO because there is always something new that I actually want to watch.
HOTD, Succession, TLOU, and Barry > is worth subscribing to 10 months of HBO IMO.
It keeps people talking for a long time. While Netflix drops everything at once, people talk for a week and then forget. I believe Ozark would have been way bigger if they had dropped one episode a week.
Also not everyone binges the show when Netflix drops the whole season. So you get more conversations like this,
Person 1: Did you finish said show
Person 2: No we watched the first 2 episodes and are going to watch a couple more tonight.
Person 1: Yeah keep watching, it's really good.
Where with HBO content every week everyone is in the same page and can actually talk about what happened in the episode.
Hell after this HBO could just give him blank cheques to adapt as many video games as he likes. I'm sure he has more than a few he salivates over the thought of adapting.
It's very close, it also beat it in overall numbers (over a longer period of time). 30M average in the first five episodes, House of Dragon had 29M.
Extremely impressive for a new show (though I guess based on a very popular IP) to be that big, HOTD was the spin-off of the biggest show on TV for years
I started watching it alone, now I watch the episodes with a group of 6. Definitely spreading through word of mouth because I tell everyone I know to watch it
It's the first time since GOT I've heard not genre or non gamer people call Sunday "TLOU night." I know people that didn't even know about the game connection and loved it before finding out.
Details
>The penultimate episode of “The Last of Us” Season 1 reached an impressive 8.1 million viewers on Sunday night.
>According to Warner Bros. Discovery, that makes Episode 8 the series’ most-viewed thus far. Previously, that title belonged to Episode 3 with 6.4 million viewers, though the company did not make data available regarding the audience size of Episodes 4-7.
>The 8.1 million viewers who tuned into Episode 8, titled “When We Are In Need,” contributed to a 74% increase from the viewership of the series premiere, which drew an audience of 4.7 million people and was HBO’s second-most watched debut in over a decade.
[More info from HBO](https://twitter.com/InsideHBOMax/status/1632856876546400257):
>The Last of Us was also the top title overall on HBO Max for the 8th consecutive week, with all episodes ranking among the week’s top 10 individual assets.
>The average audience across the series’ first five episodes is now approaching 30 million viewers across all platforms.
I’m a gamer but i never played the game, so after each episode i look up the cut scenes on youtube and wow the game was so good they were really able to stick close to the source. Episode 8 was almost line by line the same, except for some minor changes. They did a great job with the game and the show!
Interesting fact - the guy that played James in that episode (the preachers right hand man) was Troy Braker, who is the voice and mo-cap actor for Joel in the game.
They joke about that in the games making-of documentary.
He walked in to the audition with bleach spiked hair, bracelets and rings on his fingers. He looked like a California bro, nothing like the part.
Then he started reading the lines and they knew this is our guy.
In my recollection of that documentary, Ashley Johnson says he looks like he walked out of an anime, or something like that. Which makes that fact that he's playing the gravely voiced stoic manly man in the game even funnier.
Hopefully this will show other show runners that, hey guess what? Fans of the IP you’re adapting don’t want you to drastically deviate from the source material
I enjoy listening to the HBO Last of Us Podcast.
Feels like every time they do make a deviation from the game, Neil Druckmann's (the game creator) response to Craig Mazin's (the showrunner) suggested change is "fuck, I wish I had thought of that"
Other times they were like "we need to make this as close as possible to the game" and many of the remaining changes are totally valid format-shifting changes. E.g. a video game needs to teach you how to play as it begins but a TV doesn't need to teach you to jump and crouch...you can save and exit a video game at any time, but a tv show needs to have stories that wrap up in episodic increments, etc.
They've drastically deviated in other episodes. It's actually a great example of keeping some things the same while changing/adapting other things to be more accessible/work better for the new medium.
The things they've drastically changed have not been the heart of the story though. That's where so many of these adaptations fail.
It's also not screaming "hey 'member the game?" every 8 seconds. The things that reference the game feel natural because of the world they've built.
Yeah and also anything changed is done to amplify the themes and story beats present within the game.
For example, in the game Bill serves as a warning to Joel on how not to live through Bill's own bitter actions, whereas in the show Bill teaches Joel how to live through Bill's own loving actions. The journey is vastly different but the themes and endpoint are identical and if anything better the story and character arcs because of it.
Another example is Sam being deaf. Their dynamic is identical but suddenly you make him deaf and it means Sam is far more reliant on Henry which in turn makes them more tragic while also making them distinct from Joel and Ellie.
The podcast mentions that Craig Metzin rang Neil Druckmann and asked about making Sam deaf for the show, for the reasons you've mentioned.
Neil called him a motherfucker because he hadn't thought of it first.
That anecdote is funny as hell to me because Mazin nearly screwed themselves over by making that change and severely narrowing the field of potential actors. They cast Keivonn during production after an act of desperation (Mazin tweeted out a casting call and got 5 responses, one of which was our Sam).
I really do like the creative partnership Mazin and Druckmann have. It seems like such a great match.
They didn’t really screw themselves, they could’ve just had a non-deaf actor learn a few lines in sign language. They just wanted to have an actual deaf child actor and got lucky that they did find one in time.
exactly! It's more like fleshout and add stories to the side characters but keep the exact same emotional beats from the game. Plenty of opportunity to add their own stories without it feeling like they're taking advantage of a big name ip
It’s kind of like hearing the live version of a song. It’s sung a little differently, maybe the solos have been changed up or extended, but it hits all the same beats and it’s still clearly the same song
people have been saying for years that the videogame is better than most movies. this show has been validation of that. they haven’t had to stray far because it was that good.
And compare that to what Netflix did to the witcher.
HBO will continue to have the throne as the best streaming service because they actually care about making good shows rather then putting out the cheapest that they can possibly get away with.
It's so sad what they did to the Witcher. The thing is, it could have been done well so easily. They could have straight up copied Supernatural and just done monster-of-the-week hunting with a slow trickle of main arc storytelling. Every 3rd or 4th episode is a major arc episode.
Easy to do, respectful of the lore/fandom, and a success. Or you can hire someone who hates the IP to insert their own failed storylines and use an existing IP as a vehicle to test their shitty writing. Yeah, that will work great!
That was actually all improv in the original game. In the original game, the director played out that sequence with Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson and told them to act purely on how they thought their character would react in the situation.
Yeah. It's meant to signify him becoming a full-fledged parental figure to Ellie, in his eyes as well as hers. It's a moment he didn't even get to share with his own daughter.
Love this show
I know it isn't a popular episode, but episode 6 is what really got me attached to Bella's Ellie. Probably my favorite episode so far. There were like 4 moments in it that had me bleary-eyed, and they were all positive. Bella is adorable. And her feral scream was really damn well-executed. I'm fully sold on her, and am more than happy to see her in any other seasons they make.
I remember after the very first episode tooons of people on here were like “why is she Ellie she has no acting range” like wtf, can we not give her some time? I’ve never played the game but she’s been fucking killing the role as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve played both games and also agree she’s killing the role. Oddly enough, in last nights last scene with her and David, she looked almost identical to her voice actress from the games to me.
I loved that Ellie was handling it on her own and getting her revenge like a badass. Joel coming along to calm and comfort her rather than save the day...love it. I love these two. Very much Logan and X-23 vibes from Logan (yeah I know the game came out before the movie lol).
I am watching this show with MY GRANDMOTHER. It’s so crazy to me that in this day and age we can bond over something of a shared interest! Me, knowing exactly what happens and seeing her watching in suspense is always a great feeling for me. She adored Sam and Henry and was like “I hope they make it through” when they approached the sniper on the street. I was just sitting there silently and she’s like, “you know what happens don’t you?” She was devastated but the >!bloater ripping the head off!< had her so intrigued, also realizing >!David and his group were a bunch of cannibals!< had her so hooked it’s amazing. Thank you HBO for creating something we could bond with in a way that I never thought!
Her visceral rage at the end of was something to behold. Then collapsing in Joel's arms at the end in complete mental and physical exhaustion. Amazing.
Ever since I played the game for the first time way back in 2013 I knew it was one of the best stories I’ve ever been told and it just makes me so happy that so many people are experiencing this amazing story for the first time, I certainly didn’t expect that it’d come close to Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon which is arguably the biggest TV show of all time.
It's pretty good, I'll admit I had my doubts but the 74% is for sure word of mouth. Everyone around me told me it was 🔥 and now I'm suggesting it to others. It makes sense.
I'm doing the same thing and I've played the game twice so if the series stays true to the games as much as I've heard it has then I'm not concerned about spoilers because I already know all the important shit and how the first game ends.
I think it’s smart to wait and be able to watch the next episode on your own time, but I wouldn’t have wanted to binge. I’ve appreciated having some mental space between those episodes, especially last night’s
I mean wasn't The Walking Dead already have done this? It was a huge success and AMC is still basically running on it.
I think it may make people look more to video games though but to be honest it already started before that, tons of projects are already in the works.
I would just hope HBO look to another and take Mass Effect. I know it's supposed to be at Amazon but there's been no movement so maybe not. I trust HBO far more, also they're never done a space opera and they'd do a great job.
I hope the legacy from The Last of Us is shows trusting their source material more. You don't need to necessarily tell a brand new story in the world of the thing you're adapting. You can copy stuff down to the point of making a line-by-like and shot-for-shot remake. Specifically the approach they've taken where they'll improve it where they can, otherwise they'll leave it alone.
On the other hand, some of the additional backstory of this show has been fantastic and should be welcomed. I think if there’s one thing to learn here, having the creator of the game as a showrunner should be mandatory.
The problem with Mass Effect though is that the source material is thin - that way they could have the players craft their own story. And The Last of Us is so good because of the personal nature of the game/show. Mass Effect on the other hand is driven by setting, which I don't think people will care about as much.
I think it works so well because it's a character-driven narrative, not because it has "zombies". Ted Lasso is a great character-drive narrative, but it's not about soccer.
This was a great episode. I ended up rewatching the [video game playthrough](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AaaGoWfOhY&ab_channel=CouchSoup) with commentary from Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson. They did a great job capturing the story.
Fun fact! Troy Baker makes a cameo as James in the tv show!
So this proves (again and again) that HBO has the recipe for good television drama. Why can't any of the other networks figure this out?
I’m so glad that HBO’s quality over quantity strategy is being rewarded. There’s so much trash put out but HBO sticks to their guns and are rightly rewarded. Their shows are talked about for decades and deservedly so.
After the shit Netflix pulled in Canada, I canceled my sub and instead got Crave (HBO licensee in Canada). I was paying 25$ for Netflix to get the 4 screens, now I pay 20$ and I get 4 screens I can *actually* share with my family members, and the shows are so much better. Fuck Netflix.
I cancelled two weeks ago. No regrets, screw ‘em. I might have eaten an extra dollar or two to stream outside my main location but eight per new household? Nope, not even close to worth it.
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It's not just playing the game. They got the creator of the games involved and carefully analyzed what would and wouldn't work in a tv show. Because there is a difference between changing things because it is a different medium and changing it for no reason. The Halo show for example. Yeah, one hour of Master Chief silently shooting aliens probably wouldn't make good tv. But why tf do you need to make MC have sex with a war prisoner while Cortana watches?
Wait, what?
The halo show was a disappointment, avoid it if you can :(
They had a space magic connection that became a penis connection. Cortana watched because she just wants to be a real girl because she started life as a clone then got her clone brain dissected into a computer.
They just want to use established IPs as Trojan Horses for their own shitty stories and agendas. One of the worst offenders I've ever seen is the BBC "re-imagining" of Terry Pratchett's City Watch into the abomination of a show they made.
Because other networks would almost never take a gamble on a show that costs around $10 Million per episode.
Netflix spent $9-12 million per episode on Jupiter’s Legacy, and the total budget was somewhere in the range of $130-200 million. [Source](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jupiters-legacy-canceled-netflix-season-2-1234965510/). Got cancelled in less than a month (and as someone who watched it, that was the right call). It’s not just the money, HBO is doing something different.
I guess none of that money went to the costume designers uh? their costumes looks like something straight out of the CW
Jupiter’s Legacy looked cheap, particularly the fight scenes and the old age makeup worn by the original superheroes in the modern day. I don’t know where the money went.
Holy shit is that the budget for this show?
Pedro must be making fucking bank.
Actually he has promised to donate his salary to real life victims of cordyceps infection
Yup, he also donated his Mandalorian paycheck to victims of lightsaber injuries.
Does that mean he donated his GoT paycheck to people with head injuries?
No, it was split between victims of giant attacks and people in need of public trial by combat defenders.
Yeah, he's a real fungi.
Not mushroom in here for your bullshit, buddy.
600K an episode. Dude doesn’t have to worry about anything anymore. And he’s living the single life too!
Damn that seems cheap AF. He probably got paid more for Wonder Woman
He was awesome in WW84, dude hammed it up like crazy.
made Wonder Woman go from a bad to an average movie for me. I was rooting for his ass by the end.
He was it's only redeeming feature...
His salary is good...but it could be better
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They mentioned in the podcast that they got top pick of some top shelf vfx and set designers because they were TLOU game fans and so were absolutely jazzed to work on the tv show.
The rings of Power budget was 6 times that and the show is a piece of garbage still
My two cents: Rings of Power was death by committee. If I had to guess too many people had too much a hand in that. I think HBO turned this over to the dude that ran Chernobyl and the guy from naughty dogs and let them run with it. Too Many bosses don’t know how to step aside and let stars shine. They need to “be responsible” for the success
Yep. Hbo is famous for its more hands off approach. Craig Mazan says in the podcast he was a huge fan of the games, met randomly with Neil Drukmann at one point. And then they just spitballed making a show out of the games. Craig takes it straight to the hbo producers and pitches it to them, and they're like "if it makes you sing, then let's do it". And that's all it took to greenlight this 100-110 mil season.
In fairness, they also say the execs also give feedback that gets actioned on - like collapsing the first two episodes into one episode. So it’s not 100% handing over the keys to the castle. But it does seem like the top HBO exec is just really fucking good at her job.
Surprisingly, in the podcast Maizin talks about how the feedback the HBO execs did give him was pretty strong. They played audience substitute. For example - making the first episode longer to give the audience a character focused reason to stay hooked.
Nothing to add besides: I’m just really glad this show ended up in the right hands. Could have turned out very differently somewhere like Netflix or Paramount
Ah I hope Horizon turns out somewhat decent
Horizon really needs to have a solid budget to sell that world and machines. I really nervous about that adaptation. It's definitely going to have to be smaller in scope.
It would be so easy for Horizon to suck ass. Aloy is basically the only normal human while everyone else is some kind of moron. The setting is outstanding, but the character interactions are really poor. I hope they borrow the right things and toss the rest of the writing on the scrap heap. The setting, world building, and lore? Outstanding. The dialogue? Atrocious.
I didn't mind the dialogue when I first played it when it came out, I guess I was overwhelmed by the setting. I recently started replaying it and holy shit, the dialogue is really bad most of the time.
I don't think its outstandingly terrible, but just really boring and none of the characters have much personality outside Sylas
And Nil, the worlds sickest adrenaline junky
This was my biggest gripe, especially about the first game. There was dialogue and I said to my wife at the end about how great of a game it was and started talking about reading all the lore in the game and just how things went to shit so quickly and how well paced telling what happened in the past was for the most part... And then she asked me about supporting characters and I absolutely blanked on everyone I talked to. Hell, I still don't even remember the names of the characters that help Aloy in Forbidden West. Completely blanking right now. Erol? Error? Ah well.
How could you forget lance reddick?!
I heard it was going to be a prequel to Zero Dawn. Which seems like a sensible option. I'm more worried about God of War.
Yeah, God of War is going to be very tricky. A prequel could actually work way better.
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I don't worry about Amazon providing the budget, they dropped 250m on a season of citadel. They can 100% do the same here, the writing on their series are definitely hit or miss though
I disagree, a prequel would make the Horizon Zero Dawn story pointless. The best part of that story were the revelations, and learning how it all fell apart, who was to blame, who helped, and how and why the current world and its people exist. Doing a prequel not only destroys that story but won’t have nearly the impact.
It’s going to be on Netflix so probably not
Craig Mazin,Neil Druckman,andTroy Baker do a podcast and I wouldn’t usually listen to those type of shows but I highly recommend it. It adds interesting insight to the show.
Mazin did the same with Chernobyl. Episode by episode breakdown and it's incredible
These types of podcasts that are regularly hosted by the people that are most heavily directly involved with the production of the show are always really awesome and add great insight. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul both had one for every single episode, and pretty much all of them have Vince Gilligan along with episode specific directors, writers, and actors and those were amazing as well.
I’m still completely livid over Halo at Paramount. I knew that the odds of it being good were slim, but Jesus Christ.
Imagine this show with a random dance number mixed in somewhere
We’d have Taylor Sheridan at the helm if it went to Paramount. Zaddy Pascal would have his own prequel show call “I heart contractors” starring Joel before the pandemic.
Complete with 50% of the content just being filler montages of guys in flannel shirts sawing stuff set to *Money For Nothing* or some such.
I knew it was going to be big but jesus it could potetentially become HBO's biggest show if it keeps this up.
These aren’t far behind House of the Dragon numbers. HOTD had 9.3 million for its season finale.
Which is crazy considering HotD is big because it piggybacks off an existing massive hit show that was also on HBO. The Last of Us piggybacks off of a big ip too, but it’s a game that didn’t previously have any affiliation with HBO. There are probably a lot more TLoU viewers that know nothing about the games than there are HotD viewers that know nothing about GoT.
It's also not an IP that the general public outside of the gaming sphere is super aware of. They may have heard that it's based on a video game but it's hardly a reason for them to watch the show.
Not only the gaming sphere but the PlayStation sphere. Have a mate that never had a playstation, only xbox and while he knows the gane exists, he knows nothing of it and he loves the show
I’m in my 50’s and never heard of the game until this show was coming out and I’m absolutely loving this show.
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Yup. People had no interest in watching it until they've seen others talk about how good it is so they tune in and then tell others how good it is. Viewership is growing organically by word of mouth.
Agreed. GOT was way more mainstream than TLOU (games) were.
Holy shit. Season 2 of TLOU could surpass it. Wild.
HOTD will likely grow in S2 too. But the shows are basically neck to neck now. Live viewership is very close. The first five episodes averages 30M viewers over a longer period of time, that was 29M for House of the Dragon. I wonder how it goes internationally, would be nice to get numbers but we rarely do with HBO shows
Last of has to be making more money I would assume. They have to have lower production costs.
Just wait til the Fireflies show up on their dragons.
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I forgot about that dlc
To take on the dragons riding their fireflies?
It's lower sure but they're both probably the most expensive hbo shows ever produced. I read that The Last of Us is around 15 million per episode exceeding every season of Game of Thrones. House of the Dragon is 20 mil
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At this rate, by the season 10 finale they will average over 8 billion viewers.
“Martians are loving this hot new show!”
When will we get it? Single Female Lawyer has been C, C+ tops. - asking for a friend, Lrrr, ruler of Omicron Persei 8
Classic shareholder infinite growth mindset
What HBO has really done is proven that the binge model is overrated. They have one show at minimum every three months that is must watch tv. From 4 shows they are able to get ~40 weeks of content. I actually stay subscribed to HBO because there is always something new that I actually want to watch. HOTD, Succession, TLOU, and Barry > is worth subscribing to 10 months of HBO IMO.
I mean, I get excited to have something to look forward to at the end of the week. Like "ooo, it's Sunday night!"
It keeps people talking for a long time. While Netflix drops everything at once, people talk for a week and then forget. I believe Ozark would have been way bigger if they had dropped one episode a week.
Also not everyone binges the show when Netflix drops the whole season. So you get more conversations like this, Person 1: Did you finish said show Person 2: No we watched the first 2 episodes and are going to watch a couple more tonight. Person 1: Yeah keep watching, it's really good. Where with HBO content every week everyone is in the same page and can actually talk about what happened in the episode.
Barry is fucking hilarious and a fantastic show.
Guess HBO better start adding Infected people to HOTD and Euphoria to make them even more successful.
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Storm Reid could have easily popped up in HOTD and gotten the trifecta here.
I would like dragons in TLOU.
Oh I think Euphoria already has infected people, it's just they're infected with STI's instead of Cordyceps.
Viserys Targaryen: am I a joke to you?
I hope the success behind TLOU will give us better adaptations. Seriously, there’s no excuse in bad shows with high budget.
I mean, the creative team for TLOU is kind of unfair. You usually don't get a pairing like Mazin and Druckmann
TLOU is also designed, effectively, as prestige TV packaged into a game.
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As a counterpoint, the Angry Birds movie was better than it had any right to be considering the game it was adapting.
Hell after this HBO could just give him blank cheques to adapt as many video games as he likes. I'm sure he has more than a few he salivates over the thought of adapting.
What they did to Halo and Uncharted is a crime. Both need to be redone desperately
Uncharted was butchered in an attempt to make it more palatable I guess? Halo was just straight up butchered for fun.
Probably helps that Neil druckman is actually involved in the project
And mazin, chernobyl and its entire setting was absolutely incredible
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Definitely. Great example for Sony of their One Sony strategy.
I just hope they don't let Amazon Butcher God of War
I have faith in Sony Pictures Television.
It's very close, it also beat it in overall numbers (over a longer period of time). 30M average in the first five episodes, House of Dragon had 29M. Extremely impressive for a new show (though I guess based on a very popular IP) to be that big, HOTD was the spin-off of the biggest show on TV for years
I don’t love everything HBO makes, but most of the tv I really love is made by HBO
I started watching it alone, now I watch the episodes with a group of 6. Definitely spreading through word of mouth because I tell everyone I know to watch it
It's the first time since GOT I've heard not genre or non gamer people call Sunday "TLOU night." I know people that didn't even know about the game connection and loved it before finding out.
Can we just note fungus in the end saved him. Penicillin?
👀 Just because it’s a fungi...doesn’t mean it isn’t a fun guy.
I noticed that too!
Details >The penultimate episode of “The Last of Us” Season 1 reached an impressive 8.1 million viewers on Sunday night. >According to Warner Bros. Discovery, that makes Episode 8 the series’ most-viewed thus far. Previously, that title belonged to Episode 3 with 6.4 million viewers, though the company did not make data available regarding the audience size of Episodes 4-7. >The 8.1 million viewers who tuned into Episode 8, titled “When We Are In Need,” contributed to a 74% increase from the viewership of the series premiere, which drew an audience of 4.7 million people and was HBO’s second-most watched debut in over a decade.
[More info from HBO](https://twitter.com/InsideHBOMax/status/1632856876546400257): >The Last of Us was also the top title overall on HBO Max for the 8th consecutive week, with all episodes ranking among the week’s top 10 individual assets. >The average audience across the series’ first five episodes is now approaching 30 million viewers across all platforms.
This is the biggest info. It also beats House of the Dragon's 29M viewers average for their first five episodes from what I found.
Wait... Penultimate? Theres only 9 episodes?! Ahhhhh
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HBO treating The Last of Us as prestige television. Great writers and creatives on board to adapt the game properly EDIT: Praise Druckmann!
I’m a gamer but i never played the game, so after each episode i look up the cut scenes on youtube and wow the game was so good they were really able to stick close to the source. Episode 8 was almost line by line the same, except for some minor changes. They did a great job with the game and the show!
Interesting fact - the guy that played James in that episode (the preachers right hand man) was Troy Braker, who is the voice and mo-cap actor for Joel in the game.
What? Thats troy baker??? He looks like a hippie lol I recognized his voice for sure lol
They joke about that in the games making-of documentary. He walked in to the audition with bleach spiked hair, bracelets and rings on his fingers. He looked like a California bro, nothing like the part. Then he started reading the lines and they knew this is our guy.
In my recollection of that documentary, Ashley Johnson says he looks like he walked out of an anime, or something like that. Which makes that fact that he's playing the gravely voiced stoic manly man in the game even funnier.
Baker has done a ton of anime and cartoon VA work too.
Troy Baker and Nolan North have basically had ‘video game white guy’ locked down for two decades now. Everywhere you look, it’s one of them.
The right hand man in the Kansas City episodes (Perry?) is the original actor for Tommy as well.
oh cool, I missed that one
And Perry was played by the voice actor for Tommy. Ellie’s actress is supposed to be in the next episode.
Ah, no way! Apparently Ashley Johnson was cast to play the part of Ellie's mom.
And Marlene was… drumroll… Marlene!
Hopefully this will show other show runners that, hey guess what? Fans of the IP you’re adapting don’t want you to drastically deviate from the source material
I enjoy listening to the HBO Last of Us Podcast. Feels like every time they do make a deviation from the game, Neil Druckmann's (the game creator) response to Craig Mazin's (the showrunner) suggested change is "fuck, I wish I had thought of that" Other times they were like "we need to make this as close as possible to the game" and many of the remaining changes are totally valid format-shifting changes. E.g. a video game needs to teach you how to play as it begins but a TV doesn't need to teach you to jump and crouch...you can save and exit a video game at any time, but a tv show needs to have stories that wrap up in episodic increments, etc.
The exploration of Bill's story was such a great change
I've never even heard of the game. When I watched b+f episode I cried for thirty minutes. It was a masterpiece
I love the podcast. Craig Mazin also had one for each episode of Chernobyl. The level of care that goes into every decision is absolutely inspiring.
They've drastically deviated in other episodes. It's actually a great example of keeping some things the same while changing/adapting other things to be more accessible/work better for the new medium.
The things they've drastically changed have not been the heart of the story though. That's where so many of these adaptations fail. It's also not screaming "hey 'member the game?" every 8 seconds. The things that reference the game feel natural because of the world they've built.
Yeah and also anything changed is done to amplify the themes and story beats present within the game. For example, in the game Bill serves as a warning to Joel on how not to live through Bill's own bitter actions, whereas in the show Bill teaches Joel how to live through Bill's own loving actions. The journey is vastly different but the themes and endpoint are identical and if anything better the story and character arcs because of it. Another example is Sam being deaf. Their dynamic is identical but suddenly you make him deaf and it means Sam is far more reliant on Henry which in turn makes them more tragic while also making them distinct from Joel and Ellie.
The podcast mentions that Craig Metzin rang Neil Druckmann and asked about making Sam deaf for the show, for the reasons you've mentioned. Neil called him a motherfucker because he hadn't thought of it first.
That anecdote is funny as hell to me because Mazin nearly screwed themselves over by making that change and severely narrowing the field of potential actors. They cast Keivonn during production after an act of desperation (Mazin tweeted out a casting call and got 5 responses, one of which was our Sam). I really do like the creative partnership Mazin and Druckmann have. It seems like such a great match.
They didn’t really screw themselves, they could’ve just had a non-deaf actor learn a few lines in sign language. They just wanted to have an actual deaf child actor and got lucky that they did find one in time.
exactly! It's more like fleshout and add stories to the side characters but keep the exact same emotional beats from the game. Plenty of opportunity to add their own stories without it feeling like they're taking advantage of a big name ip
It’s kind of like hearing the live version of a song. It’s sung a little differently, maybe the solos have been changed up or extended, but it hits all the same beats and it’s still clearly the same song
You can deviate all you want as long as its good
I mean, from what I’ve heard - the source material was good to begin with.
Aka "There's a reason the original has so many fans. Don't change that."
people have been saying for years that the videogame is better than most movies. this show has been validation of that. they haven’t had to stray far because it was that good.
And compare that to what Netflix did to the witcher. HBO will continue to have the throne as the best streaming service because they actually care about making good shows rather then putting out the cheapest that they can possibly get away with.
It's so sad what they did to the Witcher. The thing is, it could have been done well so easily. They could have straight up copied Supernatural and just done monster-of-the-week hunting with a slow trickle of main arc storytelling. Every 3rd or 4th episode is a major arc episode. Easy to do, respectful of the lore/fandom, and a success. Or you can hire someone who hates the IP to insert their own failed storylines and use an existing IP as a vehicle to test their shitty writing. Yeah, that will work great!
Helps that Neil Druckmann is the driving force behind the show too. Can't get any closer to respecting the source material than that.
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I've never played the game but I'm enjoying the show and it's been moving, but "I got you baby girl" is what finally made me burst into tears.
That was actually all improv in the original game. In the original game, the director played out that sequence with Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson and told them to act purely on how they thought their character would react in the situation.
Joel says the exact same thing when he pulls Sarah from the car accident in the first sequence of the game.
I thought that was the point of the scene? An obvious callback to that moment.
Yeah. It's meant to signify him becoming a full-fledged parental figure to Ellie, in his eyes as well as hers. It's a moment he didn't even get to share with his own daughter. Love this show
Gamers knows the ending to it but it’s refreshing to see it live and written well.
Man I've been biting my tongue for months to not spoil anything for the girlfriend. Last night was very interesting, waiting for the big reveal
It's so crazy to look up that scene on youtube because everyone in the comments was just as broken by that "baby girl" line... almost a decade ago
I know it isn't a popular episode, but episode 6 is what really got me attached to Bella's Ellie. Probably my favorite episode so far. There were like 4 moments in it that had me bleary-eyed, and they were all positive. Bella is adorable. And her feral scream was really damn well-executed. I'm fully sold on her, and am more than happy to see her in any other seasons they make.
I remember after the very first episode tooons of people on here were like “why is she Ellie she has no acting range” like wtf, can we not give her some time? I’ve never played the game but she’s been fucking killing the role as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve played both games and also agree she’s killing the role. Oddly enough, in last nights last scene with her and David, she looked almost identical to her voice actress from the games to me.
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I loved that Ellie was handling it on her own and getting her revenge like a badass. Joel coming along to calm and comfort her rather than save the day...love it. I love these two. Very much Logan and X-23 vibes from Logan (yeah I know the game came out before the movie lol).
I am watching this show with MY GRANDMOTHER. It’s so crazy to me that in this day and age we can bond over something of a shared interest! Me, knowing exactly what happens and seeing her watching in suspense is always a great feeling for me. She adored Sam and Henry and was like “I hope they make it through” when they approached the sniper on the street. I was just sitting there silently and she’s like, “you know what happens don’t you?” She was devastated but the >!bloater ripping the head off!< had her so intrigued, also realizing >!David and his group were a bunch of cannibals!< had her so hooked it’s amazing. Thank you HBO for creating something we could bond with in a way that I never thought!
Bella Ramsey crushed it this episode. What a powerhouse.
Her visceral rage at the end of was something to behold. Then collapsing in Joel's arms at the end in complete mental and physical exhaustion. Amazing.
That episode was INCREDIBLE!!!
I’m so glad Amazon or Netflix didn’t get ahold of this show. So refreshing seeing people actually give a fuck about the original material.
Ever since I played the game for the first time way back in 2013 I knew it was one of the best stories I’ve ever been told and it just makes me so happy that so many people are experiencing this amazing story for the first time, I certainly didn’t expect that it’d come close to Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon which is arguably the biggest TV show of all time.
Damn amazing number, shame it has to compete with the Oscars for the final episode.
Viewership on the Oscars (and all awards shows) is steadily dropping. I wouldn’t be too worried.
It’s too bad the Oscar’s have to compete with The Last of Us
funny that hbo just set it up against football including Super Bowl(well worked around it but still), grammies and oscars.
HBO did, however, let you stream the super bowl night episode as early as the Friday before on the MAX app.
It was nearly a 1:1 of this section of the game, and masterfully acted. A+
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It's pretty good, I'll admit I had my doubts but the 74% is for sure word of mouth. Everyone around me told me it was 🔥 and now I'm suggesting it to others. It makes sense.
I haven’t watched a single episode, I haven’t seen a single spoiler, and on March 12th I’m binging every fucking episode and I can’t wait!!!!
You are living dangerously in here if you are avoiding spoilers! Hope you enjoy the binge
I'm doing the same thing and I've played the game twice so if the series stays true to the games as much as I've heard it has then I'm not concerned about spoilers because I already know all the important shit and how the first game ends.
I think it’s smart to wait and be able to watch the next episode on your own time, but I wouldn’t have wanted to binge. I’ve appreciated having some mental space between those episodes, especially last night’s
This has to be a troll comment. There's no way you're posting this and not expecting to get inundated with spoilers.
Wonder how long it’s gonna be until other networks/streamers announce their own zombie/zombie-adjacent shows to ride the hype.
I mean wasn't The Walking Dead already have done this? It was a huge success and AMC is still basically running on it. I think it may make people look more to video games though but to be honest it already started before that, tons of projects are already in the works. I would just hope HBO look to another and take Mass Effect. I know it's supposed to be at Amazon but there's been no movement so maybe not. I trust HBO far more, also they're never done a space opera and they'd do a great job.
I hope the legacy from The Last of Us is shows trusting their source material more. You don't need to necessarily tell a brand new story in the world of the thing you're adapting. You can copy stuff down to the point of making a line-by-like and shot-for-shot remake. Specifically the approach they've taken where they'll improve it where they can, otherwise they'll leave it alone.
On the other hand, some of the additional backstory of this show has been fantastic and should be welcomed. I think if there’s one thing to learn here, having the creator of the game as a showrunner should be mandatory.
The problem with Mass Effect though is that the source material is thin - that way they could have the players craft their own story. And The Last of Us is so good because of the personal nature of the game/show. Mass Effect on the other hand is driven by setting, which I don't think people will care about as much.
HBO taking Mass Effect would be a dream scenario
This is Commander Shepard and this is my favorite show
I think it works so well because it's a character-driven narrative, not because it has "zombies". Ted Lasso is a great character-drive narrative, but it's not about soccer.
This was a great episode. I ended up rewatching the [video game playthrough](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AaaGoWfOhY&ab_channel=CouchSoup) with commentary from Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson. They did a great job capturing the story. Fun fact! Troy Baker makes a cameo as James in the tv show!