Support NeoGAF

[AlexxKidd]

From Deadline,

The premiere numbers were nearly double the season two debut night for Euphoria, which recorded 2.4M last January. That series went on to average 19.5M viewers per episode in the U.S.

HBO said that Sunday night viewership typically represents 20%-40% of the show’s total gross audience per episode.

The series, which is based on the PlayStation game, takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal journey as they both must traverse the US and depend on each other for survival.

 

[feynoob]

 

[nial]

gogogogo

 

[Poltz]

Really impressive.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Gaf is a afraid to talk about the show. You know why. That being said, I'll prolly wait til its over to watch it. Theres nothing new compared to the game so no point. Id rather just replay the games when they both launch on PC.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Season 2 about to be announced i'm sure.

I wasn't expecting this kind of reception, both critically or commercially. Not even in my wildest expectations....holy shit.

 

[mansoor1980]

 

[SilentUser]

Wow this is big, much better than I expected! Going to watch it when the first season is fully available, I'm excited

 

[Jaybe]

Certified hit, well done

 

[remember_spinal]

 

[Nankatsu]

Curious to see how they'll handle Joel for season 2, considering that

Spoiler

He dies earliy in part 2 and many people didn't liked that.

I don't see Bella carrying the series to be honest.

 

[Wandering Leopard]

Queue a lot of endless whining.

I still need to play the games but as I don't watch TV anymore I have no interest the show.

 

[Hobbygaming]

 

[Interfectum]

Curious to see how they'll handle Joel for season 2, considering that

Spoiler

He dies earliy in part 2 and many people didn't liked that.

I don't see Bella carrying the series to be honest.

Spoiler

They could do the flashbacks in normal order and end season 2 with Joel getting clubbed. TLOU2 was filled with Joel during cutscenes. Season 3 could be Abby vs Ellie.

 

[Stare-Bear]

Well deserved. The firs episode was amazing and built on the game with lots more exposition.

 

[leo-j]

Amazing, I want to get TLOU PT 1 soon, waiting for another price cut and to clear my 50 game backlog…..

 

[SlimySnake]

Spoiler

They could do the flashbacks in normal order and end season 2 with Joel getting clubbed. TLOU2 was filled with Joel during cutscenes. Season 3 could be Abby vs Ellie.

Spoiler

Yeah Joel will likely survive for at least three episodes, but beyond that I’m not so sure. They will have to do some rewrites to keep Joel around for longer.

My biggest fear is tlou pulling a game of thrones and finishing before the game. The game is years away thanks to them wasting their time on the remake and Neil on this show. We are likely looking at a 2026-2027 release. Even if they split the second game into two seasons, e we are looking at the show outpacing the game by a full year or two.

 

[Yoboman]

That is crazy for a new show

Normally you'd get a build up over a couple seasons

 

[Pelta88]

"But Bella Ramsey doesn't look like Ellie" haters right now

 

[elcapitano]

Pretty much the best you could hope for for an opening. Really fantastic numbers.

I actually guessed that it would maybe do half of House of The Dragons opening.

Hopefully the numbers only grow from here.

 

[remember_spinal]

The premiere numbers were nearly double the season two debut night for Euphoria, which recorded 2.4M last January. That series went on to average 19.5M viewers per episode in the U.S.

 

[Punished Miku]

Definitely bigger than I expected. I thought it would need word of mouth.

 

[lh032]

every exclusive PS5 game will be narrative game from now on.

 

[Yoboman]

Yeah Joel will likely survive for at least three episodes, but beyond that I’m not so sure. They will have to do some rewrites to keep Joel around for longer.

My biggest fear is tlou pulling a game of thrones and finishing before the game. The game is years away thanks to them wasting their time on the remake and Neil on this show. We are likely looking at a 2026-2027 release. Even if they split the second game into two seasons, e we are looking at the show outpacing the game by a full year or two.

There's nothing that says they need to make season 2 straight away and rush them out yearly

Also no way it takes until 2027

TLOU to UC4 was 3 years
UC4 to TLOU2 was 4 years

We are already 2.5 years since TLOU2 released. Granted they are also doing Factions but they've largely built a new team for that

I could see

HBO Season 1 - 2023
Factions - late 2023
Season 2 - 2025
TLOU3 - 2025
HBO Season 3 - 2027

 

[Punished Miku]

There's nothing that says they need to make season 2 straight away and rush them out yearly

The success of the show starts the train moving. They invested millions in effects and marketing. It's not stopping. The actors age and have strict availability.

TLOU 3 has a strict time limit. I've been saying this for a year. It has to be their next game. Maybe they can throw in a season of Factions content, or new material to stall time, but they only have like 3 years to get it done if TLOU2 is two seasons.

 

[Ronin_7]

US Numbers ONLY.

Curious to see WW now.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

There's nothing that says they need to make season 2 straight away and rush them out yearly

Also no way it takes until 2027

TLOU to UC4 was 3 years
UC4 to TLOU2 was 4 years

We are already 2.5 years since TLOU2 released. Granted they are also doing Factions but they've largely built a new team for that

I could see

HBO Season 1 - 2023
Factions - late 2023
Season 2 - 2025
TLOU3 - 2025
HBO Season 3 - 2027

You think TLOU2 is releasing in 2 years? Yeah dude...no.

Also Factions doesn't even seem to release this year from Neil's words. It only seems like they will show the game "later this year". That doesn't sound encouraging for a 2023 release tbh.
TLOU3 is releasing in late 2026 AT BEST.

People forget Naughty Dog did the Uncharted Collection for PS5, they did basically almost all of TLOU Remake, both PS5 AND PC. Factions is also their main focus right now. There's also rumors about a new IP being worked at Naughty Dog as we speak. The only work done on TLOU3 is basically the main story points i think.

I mean they are clearly busy right now...but we won't be seeing TLOU3 in 2 years.

 

[Hobbygaming]

Gaf is a afraid to talk about the show. You know why. That being said, I'll prolly wait til its over to watch it. Theres nothing new compared to the game so no point. Id rather just replay the games when they both launch on PC.

There's actually added context, more scenes and some scenes have been completely changed

 

[The Cockatrice]

There's actually added context, more scenes and some scenes have been completely changed

Unless they keep my boy Joel alive I dont care about minor changes.

 

[Heisenberg007]

 

[Ulysses 31]

Unless they keep my boy Joel alive I dont care about minor changes.

That would be huge if they did that but I think at best we can hope for a more believable/realistic death scenario than the contrived one we got in the game.

 

[analog_future]

Spoiler

Yeah Joel will likely survive for at least three episodes, but beyond that I’m not so sure. They will have to do some rewrites to keep Joel around for longer.

My biggest fear is tlou pulling a game of thrones and finishing before the game. The game is years away thanks to them wasting their time on the remake and Neil on this show. We are likely looking at a 2026-2027 release. Even if they split the second game into two seasons, e we are looking at the show outpacing the game by a full year or two.

Nah, not really. You're assuming we're going to see one season every 12 months of this show, which is unlikely considering the size and scope of the show, as well as Pedro Pascal's very busy schedule.

I think Westworld is a good template for how TLOU is going to play out, schedule wise. Westworld had season 1 in Oct 2016, season 2 in April 2018, season 3 in March 2020, and season 4 in June 2022.


At that pace, if they split Part 2 into 2 seasons (which they will going by what Craig Mazin has hinted at), we're looking at the show's 4th season debuting in late 2026/early 2027.

 

[HTK]

every exclusive PS5 game will be narrative game from now on.

I doubt it but I do see Neil Druckmann getting better at those narrative scenes and also in writing.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Well deserved. The firs episode was amazing and built on the game with lots more exposition.

Show total run time (all episodes) should be about 15 hrs I suppose.

Thats like length of whole game. And it doesn't have gameplay.

I suspect people will get to know these characters on a whole new level.

HBO makes some exceptional stuff, I would be surprised if it doesn't blow away the game as far as narrative experience is concerned.

 

[Supple]

TLOU is so much better than House of Dragons.

 

[nowhat]

Curious to see how they'll handle Joel for season 2, considering that

Spoiler

He dies earliy in part 2 and many people didn't liked that.

I don't see Bella carrying the series to be honest.

I'm honestly curious how many people "didn't liked that". Like as in Joe Average, not enthusiast forums such as this. Personally I think that

Spoiler

Joel, as a character, was already done with. While I don't agree with all of the decisions in the story of TLoU 2 (mostly due to the pacing, not the content itself), not having Joel as the main character was the only path to take. Whether killing him off so early was the right call is debatable.

 

[Punished Miku]

Curious to see how they'll handle Joel for season 2, considering that

Spoiler

He dies earliy in part 2 and many people didn't liked that.

I don't see Bella carrying the series to be honest.

It's basically the Walking Dead Negan moment. That's when the ratings fell off a cliff for WD. Tons of people instantly left.

 

[H-I-M]

 

[nowhat]

I think Westworld is a good template for how TLOU is going to play out, schedule wise. Westworld had season 1 in Oct 2016, season 2 in April 2018, season 3 in March 2020, and season 4 in June 2022.

I hope only schedule wise, because man. That show was nailing it in the first season. The second season, still good but some moments of "ehh" in there. I quit in the middle of the third because it stopped making sense. But then forced myself to watch the rest of the third and the fourth season because I want to know what I'm hating. And... they really should have stopped at the end of the second season. The first, even.

 

[Just_one]

I'm honestly curious how many people "didn't liked that". Like as in Joe Average, not enthusiast forums such as this. Personally I think that

Spoiler

Joel, as a character, was already done with. While I don't agree with all of the decisions in the story of TLoU 2 (mostly due to the pacing, not the content itself), not having Joel as the main character was the only path to take. Whether killing him off so early was the right call is debatable.

Spoiler

you had to kill him off early in order to make ellie snap and lose her humanity just so that in the end she regrets everything she´s done and lets abby walk away. about abby i can see them in the tv show introduce her during the scene where joel kills her dad just so when we meet her a couple years later and she kills him it all goes full circle .

 

[ANDS]

"Bella Ramsey doesn't look like Ellie" haters right now -

The hallway scene from Episode 1, with her holding her weight with the "adults" in the room, pretty much was where I got convinced. All we needed was a pixie with the mouth of a sailor who will cut you if you pull any shit - and she nails it.

 

[Evil Calvin]

Great! Now we will get another 10 years of sequels.

 

[Coloress_Kafka]

First episode was great and hearing that HBO pushed for the first two episodes to be combined into one massive episode definitely restores my faith in the network to take necessary risks.

 

[Heisenberg007]

I hope only schedule wise, because man. That show was nailing it in the first season. The second season, still good but some moments of "ehh" in there. I quit in the middle of the third because it stopped making sense. But then forced myself to watch the rest of the third and the fourth season because I want to know what I'm hating. And... they really should have stopped at the end of the second season. The first, even.

Westworld's season 1 was so well-written. Some of the best TV I've ever seen.

Too sad it all went downhill from there. What could have been!

 

[TGO]

Curious to see how they'll handle Joel for season 2, considering that

Spoiler

He dies earliy in part 2 and many people didn't liked that.

I don't see Bella carrying the series to be honest.

You mad?
They have 3 season of original content they can do before heading into TLOU2 story line.
And depending on how long they want this show to run they'll do exactly that.

 

[Spyxos]

Just played the game again until the death of a character and it is clearly better in the game. I could not say exactly what is better, but it worked much better for me and you see the character in the game for 5 minutes.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I don't see Bella carrying the series to be honest.

Don't worry. Tom Holland playing Abbie will come to the rescue.

 

[TidusYuna]

Really enjoyed the opener. Great acting put all the worries about the casting to rest.

Not gonna lie though, wish they would've opened up the first episode with.....

Spoiler: spoiler

Joel and Tess going off on Robert and crew to show what they are capable of.

 

[Nankatsu]

You mad?
They have 3 season of original content they can do before heading into TLOU2 story line.
And depending on how long they want this show to run they'll do exactly that.

Not at all, but I'm not a fan of what they did to Joel either.

 

[GhostOfTsu]

They must regret TLOU2 story now that they have Pedro Pascal on board. They have to rewrite the whole thing (it was a mess anyway).

Abby actress will be the most hated actress in the history of the medium. Good luck to they/them.