Submitted by yeahigotnothing t3_118m6fx in television
I’d like to watch the series but my wife is not a fan of violent shows, especially involving animals. Is this something I should just watch alone?
Edit: thanks to everyone for all the input - we will try it this weekend. It’s more a concern for gratuitous violence, but the story more than justifies and redeems it. We are looking forward to starting it!
A guy gets his head torn off
Way to spoil the whole thing.
Almost all of these apply to the first half of the first episode. They asked if it was violence and they gave them clear examples without directly spoiling a damn thing.
If you consider this a spoiler then you should just avoid clicking anything that has “The Last of Us” in the title
It’s much tamer than the game. I’m watching it with my wife and she seems to be enjoying it. There’s a lot more character development than the game can achieve. My wife usually refuses to watch post apocalyptic shows or films but this is so well written she’s got past that.
Awesome, thanks! I’ll run it past her. I know it has a highly rated storyline so that should help.
I suggested watching it to my wife and she pulled the usual “urgh I hate apocalyptic stuff” and refused but then her friends said it was good and she showed interest. Go figure. Good luck, it’s an awesome show.
I had almost the exact conversation with my wife. I suggested the show to her but she doesn't like gore and extreme violence, which I told her was in the game, but we watched the first episode anyway and now she's hooked.
The game is much worse when it comes to blood and gore imo
The game makes it personal, a TV show isn’t even third person since you’re passive so events that can be quite horrible in the game could be shown from a more distant perspective as they did with the bloater.
I agree that it's a lot tamer than the game, but I'd also put in the caveat of "so far". There's definitely some stuff from the second game that could be pretty bad.
I would say however that the violence is not gratuitous the way that a lot of other zombie-based media is. There are plenty of times when the show could have easily been more graphic or taken things up a notch and they've decided not to. I think it's a good choice though, it keeps the focus on the characters rather than making a spectacle out of the violence. But I also think they may be doing it so that some other particularly violent moments later will hit harder.
Yep, the game has some seriously scary bits and as you say, Part 2 has some awful parts they’ll need to cover. The large set pieces with huge numbers of infected don’t necessarily move a story forward but they’re great fun in a game so I’m not surprised we’re not seeing those very often. The first appearance of the bloater was excellent and shows they can do it, they’re just moving through the story more quickly than the game does. I was a little disappointed at the loss of the section working through the toppled buildings in Boston but it really wasn’t necessary. The bit I’m somewhat dreading is how they handle David…..
My wife is the same, it's not particularly violent, most episode have zero graphic scenes. There are however a few very intense horror moments that would be a lot for some but it's only a few minutes total of the whole show.
>!I'm talking the fungus coming out of people's mouths, those scary scenes with the clickers and the creepy little zombie girl!<
Every episode has graphic scenes, they just don't take up the run of the episode.
Episode 1 has the outbreak and everything in the QZ
Episode 2 introduces the clickers
Episode 3 has the raiders
Episode 4 has the entry into Kansas city
Episode 5 I shouldn't even have to explain
Episode 6 has a skirmish with raiders
People being shot hardly counts as graphic that's stuff kids can almost watch.
I'm going off stuff my faint-hearted wife couldn't watch, the creepy scenes. She can't watch graphic violence either but imo there's not too much of that.
Well when OP said that his wife doesn't like shows with violence, I figured maybe people being shot counts as violence
Fair enough
Oh, and don't forget the raider skirmish doesn't just have people being shot but also burned alive and electrocuted...
And also some of the people being shot in other episodes are children, which is a line for some people.
>People being shot hardly counts as graphic that's stuff kids can almost watch.
what.
Kids part is obviously exaggerating, people being shot is absolutely ubiquitous/mundane on screen. Most of the time all you see is people falling over.
In what kid shows..?
> Kids part is obviously exaggerating
Murica
I'm not American, people being shot is such a mundane thing when it comes to TV/movies.
Awesome, thanks! We will give it a shot.
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A bloater ripping someone's head off would also probably freak some more sensitive people out
Not as violent as the game so while it is violent, it’s not super graphic and the violence tends to have a purpose to the story of that makes sense.
Yes, there's not much of what I would consider "gratuitous violence"
Less violent than game for sure.
> Is this something g I should just watch alone?
Yeah probably
The show overall is very violent. Lots of killing, blood, people getting ran over, shot, stabbed, zombie on human violence. Some episodes have no violence at all, others can get pretty brutal. Watch the first episode alone and see if it's something you think she can take. If not, then continue on alone. Amazing show though, all around, don't miss it!
Most deaths are off screen, and theres very little gore compared to the game. I would say Its fairly «light» considered Its rated m compared to other hbo shows like Game Of Thrones and Euphoria.
I'm actually surprised by home much they are leaving to the imagination when it comes to the violence. Not that I mind but after seeing what Joel will do to NPC's and what they'll do to him it all feels pretty tame compared to the game.
Yeah Im actually pretty dissapointed by the lack of gore and violence. It takes away some of the gritty, dark and realistic atmosphere that was in the game. I think they also pretty much butchered the horror element of the games leaving it after the first two episodes.
You're absolutely right about it not being as horror focused as the games were at times. I think the tones are slightly different, the show seems a tad more optimistic and tbh more soft than the game. Not a complaint, just an oberservation. Cant wait for the last three eosidoes.
i think you should try to gauge it yourself if you don't care about spoilers.. read the "parental reviews" this is not "slasher" - but there's violence for sure - appropriate. not gratuitous IMO.
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i don't like it when the dog dies either..
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https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/the-last-of-us
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not sure what you're expecting (did you play the game)?
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this is not a zombie show like Walking Dead or Black Summer...
it's amazing - the game won awards for writing, acting and directing.. not gameplay (mechanics).. go look at some of those reviews to see what the show might be about.
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she'd probably be missing out, TBH.
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https://www.vulture.com/article/the-last-of-us-recap-episode-3-long-long-time.html
“Long Long Time,” the third episode of The Last of Us, shifts the focus from Joel and Ellie for much of its running time. Still, it’s deeply connected to one of the show’s central concerns with the sort of connections that can survive the cordyceps apocalypse and what it takes to sustain those connections in a world defined by dehumanization, only some of it caused by mind-controlling fungus. It’s also, in the purest sense of the phrase, a very special episode, the best of the series so far, and an extraordinary hour (and some change) of television by any standards.
Thanks! Seems like the story value more than offsets the visual graphicness. We will probably start watching this weekend. Appreciate your feedback!
My wife is a pacifist vegan, my mom is a 72 year old, neither generally watches anything violent, yet both of them love this show. My wife has cried almost every episode. It’s not a show about zombies. It’s so much more than that, the story is incredible. Which is one of the reasons why it is so good. I got them through episode 3 and then they understood. That’s what I would do. Episode 3 is a game changer and probably going to win several awards
I’m curious too. How does it compare to game of thrones?
I don’t think it’s that close to GoT/HOTD, I feel like the brutal brutal stuff has been over quickly (and pretty infrequent) compared to some long and tough scenes in thrones.
Somewhere in between Saving Private Ryan and There's Something About Mary.
It's tame for HBO standards. Compared to GoT anyway. Not as brutal, but still violent
It's less violent than The Handmaid's Tale.
The violence overall is pretty tame for an HBO show. The odd standard person getting shot, getting mauled, etc. But never to gratuitous lengths. A lot of the "violence" is off-screen, or we see the aftermath of it.
Give it a go, I say.
I say watch the first ep by yourself first to gauge the level of violence/graphic nature of the show. You know your wife best so if you feel she can handle the first ep, she can prob handle the other eps.
I do feel like I should warn you that The Last of Us game series does have violence against animals. Especially in some pivotal scenes that I do expect to show up in the series. Not a bunch but at least one scene for season 1.
There's a website called doesthedogdie.com which is a database of sorts where people can enter in violence towards animals that occurs on shows to give others a heads up, which might help researching other shows as well
That’s a super helpful resource, thanks!
If it’s not extremely cruel or drawn out, and doesn’t break the story, it’s somewhat ok. Gratuitous violence or cruelty is more a trigger.
It’s got a decent amount of violence but the show doesn’t seem to just revel in violence.
Most of the more violent scenes are plot related and there a few times where violence is shown off screen so that you know it happens but there’s no need to show it.
Nothing extreme. Also they do kill some rabbits.
The show runner said the series is going to focus on the characters' stories and not on gratuitous violence. So no TWD shit.
You should play it. No one ever dies. Not much blood. Great kids game.
I guess it's relative. I personally do not find it gratuitous, but your wife might.
Like average the walking dead level violent
Pretty violent but I think it could be more violent.. there’s times they’ve held back and they’d rather focus on only what’s necessary for the plot.
I’ve never played the game so idk how it was there but. Yeah. It’s not GoT (which I enjoy) levels of unnecessary
theres like almost no violence to be honest. that could change though but up to episode 6 there's very little violence.
Unfortunately not very violent at all. It’s my only real disappointment about the series so far… The games are brutal.
Tell your wife to be an adult and watch something good for once.
reddig33 t1_j9i1ol5 wrote
It’s violent. People get shot and bitten and eaten. Characters commit suicide. Children get infected and have to be put down.