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The Last of Us (HBO)

Depends on how old someone looks. Some people just naturally look young for their age and casting them as younger doesn't pose a problem. It's more of a problem if an actor is in their mid 20's or 30's posing as a teenager. It then start to look a little ridiculous. Had started watching a recent series on netfilix where the character was supposed to be a teenager, but the actress was in her 30's and she came away sounded way more experienced at life than she should have been. The part of the teenager didn't come across as convincing at all.
 
For a few weeks this summer, TLOU was being shot right outside our office building. Got to chat with Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey's dog (didn't meet Ramsey), and a number of cast and crew.

Kind of wish I had applied to be an extra.
 
Owain Taggart said:
Depends on how old someone looks. Some people just naturally look young for their age and casting them as younger doesn't pose a problem. It's more of a problem if an actor is in their mid 20's or 30's posing as a teenager. It then start to look a little ridiculous. Had started watching a recent series on netfilix where the character was supposed to be a teenager, but the actress was in her 30's and she came away sounded way more experienced at life than she should have been. The part of the teenager didn't come across as convincing at all.
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What TV show was it on Netflix?

In Wednesday they also cast an older actress for a teen role. Is this some legal issue they are trying to avoide, by avoiding casting teens in the teen roles?
 
Starbrow said:
What TV show was it on Netflix?
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Now you've got me trying to remember what it was. It was a recent show about a chef. I think this goes to show how unmemorable some of Netflix's shows are. :lol:

I'll say that in addition to an older actress playing a teenager is the part of the parents looking no older (sometimes even younger looking) than said actress, which I find really off-putting and distracting. I think there's an example of that in that series from what I remember. In my opinion, that's just bad casting.

I don't think it's a legal issue, rather maybe it's less common to find the right ages available when they could be in school. In the 80's and 90's, Degrassi cast teens of the right age in their show, which was a school drama, with kids facing real issues of the day. It made it more believable and relatable. Not once did they look or feel older than they needed to be. They also didn't start out as actors/actresses, but real kids that were learning as they went along, and fit the acting schedule around their school schedule.
 
The whole thing with casting older actors as teens is kind of a legal issue, there are very specific rules setting limits on how long underage actors can work, but once they're 18 those rules are gone.
 
Review embargo lifted. RT score sitting on 100% w/ 29 critic reviews counted so far.

Link

I only skimmed a couple of reviews - no shortage of praise for Bella Ramsey, with one critic describing her as 'electrifying'.

After finishing Chernobyl last week I had little doubt the show was in safe hands. Looking forward to next week!
 
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There are in fact legal restrictions that impact whether or not a television series casts age-appropriate actors to play child or teenage characters, particularly in a starring role.

By law, actors under the age of 18 can only work for between 8 to 9 hours per day (3 of which must be automatically aside for educational purposes during the months of August/September to May/June, which limits the number of hours that a television series can actually shoot underaged actors to 5 per day during that period of time) and 40 hours per week.

It is therefore far more time-and-cost-effective for a television series to look towards casting adult actors to play these types of roles unless there is no other alternative but to cast age-appropriate underaged actors.
 
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I enjoyed that. Very faithful to the game so far. Though IIRC they should have already had to fight zombies by now, it made sense pacing wise to end the first episode exactly where they did.

Also being a person who lived near Boston most of my life I’m excited to see the post apocalyptic version of various parts of it.

The 1968 scene felt a little forced. The idea that any fungal infection would be incurable felt like a reach because we cure fungal infections all the time. Just this particular one must resist those medicines. And the explanation that just a little bit of warming would necessarily cause this adaptation was also a reach.
 
It’s been a long road getting from there to here… As a decades-long resident of Alberta it’s been fun seeing them transform not-small parts of the cities in which I grew up into post-apocalyptic vistas. I didn’t do any extra work in this one, but know plenty of people who did, and it’s a great payoff for them and the local film industry.

I played the game in the lead up to the show, and watched it with my wife who did not. We were both more than satisfied with the results! I’m very impressed on all fronts and look forward to a great first season.

Mark
 
I actually thought the 60's scene was the best part of the show, especially with the casting in it.

The airplane crash was nuts.

I thought the present day stuff was the weakest bit of the episode, but it's setting up the series so that's not unexpected.

Nice to see Gina Louise Phillips in a little role. When I saw her I figured the show was filmed in Alberta. Googled it, and yup.

Anna Torv seemed miscast to me. She was fine in Fringe but I've never really liked her in anything else. Pedro Pascal was excellent, unsurprisingly. Didn't really see enough of Bella yet. Seems to be taking the character in a bit different direction than the video game version.

I'm wondering how far they will go in the show vs video game plot. Definitely not the whole way for for a couple seasons.
 
wayoung said:
I'm wondering how far they will go in the show vs video game plot. Definitely not the whole way for for a couple seasons.
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They are covering the first game's entire plot, plus the Left Behind DLC, in this first season.
 
Which is a shame, you could easily get two seasons out of the first game. Feels like getting through it all in one is rushing it a bit.
 
Seems pretty solid after one episode. Doesn’t feel janky like so many game adaptations and I think it should appeal to a viewer with no experience with the game as well as those who have.

BTW, there's a nice commentary "podcast" in the extras for the show where they explore and explain the hows and why of changes made adapting the game to another medium that I found worth a listen, and hosted by Troy Baker which is a nice touch.
 
Skywalker said:
Which is a shame, you could easily get two seasons out of the first game. Feels like getting through it all in one is rushing it a bit.
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Not sure how many episodes this is going to be, but you can finish the game in like 10 hours. So won't be much more rushed than that, if it all.
 
My one niggle is that I wasn't that familiar with the ending song, I assumed it was 80s but I think a more universally known song might have been better. I looked it up and that one only cracked #63 in the US Top 100 and doesn't look to have hit too high overseas either.
 
Mr. Adventure said:
My one niggle is that I wasn't that familiar with the ending song, I assumed it was 80s but I think a more universally known song might have been better. I looked it up and that one only cracked #63 in the US Top 100 and doesn't look to have hit too high overseas either.
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It’s Depeche Mode. If you know, you know and if you don’t then you should probably listen to more Depeche Mode

Was very impressed with the first episode. It hit on so many levels and most importantly made me excited to see how it all plays out. Very well done
 
Best Tv show since Rings of Power.
Seriously, the pace, the setting, just perfect build up for the tragedy.
So many interesting character besides the 2 main, Tess especially.

And the ratings - wow:
a_rating.jpg


HBO did it again. Lets hope it doesn't ends like GoT.
 
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