HBO's The Last Of Us First Impressions
Even though most video game adaptations don't go that well, the fact that, in recent years, we've had many success stories to tell us otherwise, AND, this adaptation was of one of my favourite games ever, I had no choice but to be as excited as I was sceptical for HBO's reimagining of The Last of Us. Excited, because I could experience the brutal world of The Last of Us, this time, through a TV show perspective and Pedro Pascal was representing one of the best-written characters in decades. Sceptical, because A) it's live-action and those kinds of adaptations never go well and B) given the legacy this series has (something that not even its sequel could fulfil), the expectations could very well crush themselves.
I updated this post with my first impressions (nearly) every week, shortly after the episodes have aired, thus my first impressions of each episode may use very similar vocabulary.
#1: When You're Lost in the Darkness
The first episode is nothing short of brilliant. It's a very strong adaptation of the game and does the best possible thing an adaptation could do: change barely anything. The Last of Us, with its intro alone, stands to be in the Hall of Fame of the greatest games ever. Any drastic changes to the intro would dishonour not only the game but also ruin the rest of the show. Honestly, if this level of quality remains for the rest of the 8 episodes then this could easily win TV show of the year and maybe be up there with the best video game adaptations (alongside Arcane and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners). The first 81 minutes of this show are quite nearly beat for beat with the game. The biggest changes they made were adding context for some scenes, changing a couple of lines of dialogue and redesigning a couple of inconsequential aspects of the game.
First of all, the added context is brilliant. For example, in the game, you wake up as Sarah (Joel's daughter) and walk around to find out the apocalypse is breaking out and Joel isn't home before being rescued by him in the nick of time. In the show, they explain why he's not home then. This small nice addition felt great and I appreciated it a lot. Secondly, the writing and acting combined are phenomenal. As a diehard fan of the game, I could tell who most of the characters were by their mannerisms and dialogue before it was revealed (especially Tess). Because of that, it feels like they brought the characters from the game and just dropped them into this show. The highlights of this were the soon-to-be-beloved-duo Joel and Ellie or going by their actors' names, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, respectively. They left a strong impression for the first episode and perfectly emulated their videogame counterparts. It's still too early to tell if this greatness will stick or if it's a one-time thing, but I do have my hopes up. Finally, they changed small things about the source material. For example, in the show, the outbreak begins in 2003 instead of 2013 making the present-day 2023 instead of 2033 like in the game. Another is something we've seen briefly in the episode but has been spoken about in interviews and that is that the Cordyceps virus gives tendrils or something of the like to the infected host. All of these very, very, very small changes definitely seem harmless and kind of unnecessary in my opinion.
So far, the first episode has been faithful enough to make me proud as a fan but engaging and new enough for me to be hyped and excited for the next episode.
Verdict - 8/10
#2: Infected
The second episode was a great continuation of the first. The fact that it's adhering to the source material well, making changes only to entice old fans without polluting the original storyline or character dynamics is a marvellous sign for the show. I can see myself getting more comfortable and less anxious with every episode coming out, knowing that this level of quality isn't a one-time spike, but a constant flow. With episode 2, the show has slowed down a considerable amount which is quite common for any other show that has such an intense and jam-packed pilot episode. For this week's 55-minute run, episode director Neil Druckman (Creative Director for The Last of Us games), focused more on the exposition and growing the relationships between characters out. As much as I enjoyed this format, it did feel like there was very little development in the narrative, something that was otherwise balanced out in the previous episode and will most likely be made up for in the second 80-minute episode next week. The highlights of this episode, however, are quite grand with my favourite moments being the tense museum section and the growing dynamic of Tess, Joel and Ellie (more specifically, Anna Torv's performance as Tess).
First of all, the museum section was as brilliant as I suspected it'd be from what I remember of the game and how good the pictures of the scene looked when they surfaced online. For the show watchers, it's the first introduction of the Clickers, one of the most terrifying videogame enemies out there and their portrayal in the show is as eerie as the game. That's probably due to how the original actors for the Clickers in the games reprised their roles to fully nail down the authentic yet unsettling movement and twitching. The silence, the minute jumpscares, and the well-choreographed action that takes place are all fantastic. For the characters, Pascal, Ramsey and Torv do excellent jobs with their roles of Joel, Ellie and Tess, respectively. While Ellie's continued snarky wit is enjoyable and Joel's slow but growing attachment to Ellie is good, Tess stole the episode for me as she was able to convey and portray all the emotions needed to make her dialogue fun, powerful or captivating. For the previous episode, I was sceptical about the Cordyceps virus changing from a spore-central disease to a weird, tendril redesign, but this episode assured me it was a good change. Even though the spores would've made the infection more severe or dangerous, just like in the game, the tendril makeover allows the virus to function as a fungal network making the characters approach scenarios differently from what we fans remember from the game. Overall, this redesign works quite well (except for the final scene where it was weird more than anything) and I hope that this isn't a one-off gimmick that the showrunners forget about. Lastly, the cold open was awesome once again. It seems the show will (hopefully) follow a trend of exploring the infection's origins and its global effect since, in the last episode, we saw a deep dive into its properties and how it functions. Now with this episode, we saw the effects of it in Indonesia.
So far, it seems like the show will follow Neil Druckman's writing style of "simple story, complex characters" given how deep the development of the characters went in this episode, and I'm all for it.
Verdict - 7.5/10
#3:Long Long Time
With the third episode of the series, HBO manages to pull out a heavy uppercut to everyone's expectations and drop the best episode yet. It's not narratively driven as I expected and it's possibly the biggest departure from the source material thus far, but it excels in every other aspect. The episode follows Bill, a hateful, bickerish side character from the game, and his partner, Frank. The fact that 60 out of these 80 minutes take place advancing and developing these two characters, who barely appeared in the game, stands as a fantastic showcase of how far the show is willing to expand the context and world that players were immersed into, back in 2013.
The whole episode, even with small segments of Joel and Ellie bonding, is greatly wholesome and heartwarming which is a 180 flip from what I, like many others, expected. The highlights this week definitely stem from the writing philosophy of 'complex characters, simple story' and it's arguably done better here than in Neil Druckman's own episodes. From Joel and Ellie's growing relationship taking the form of a sidekick-esque duo to Bill and Frank's loving relationship and just how tightly bound they become over the show's years, it's all amazing. A standout performance for me was Murray Bartlett as Frank as he was able to capture perfectly the essence of a character that definitely belongs in the world of The Last of Us, without actually having one to imitate as Frank is a character that gets no more than a mention in a letter in the game. Pedro Pascal's acting in this episode also feels phenomenal as his strongest scenes this season have been the ones where he relies on his emotive responses rather than verbal ones.
The only actual criticism I'd have to mention is that you'll have a better time with this episode if you've played the game as the episode slightly depends on your pre-existing knowledge of Bill, otherwise, the episode would feel a bit redundant and almost as a filler when it definitely isn't - its an episode about growth and enriching the world. A criticism you might hear is that the episode was weak and empty. Trust me on this, it wasn't, as a majority of the people who say that, follow up their "criticisms" with the fact that there is a gay couple, mirroring similar homophobic criticisms that The Last of Us Part 2 received.
Definitely the best episode thus far, with the best character growth that I've seen in a while, however, I do hope for a deeper dive into the story as I'm beginning to miss seeing the story beats play out.
Verdict - 9/10
#4: Please Hold My Hand
We're now approaching the halfway point of the story with the 4th episode and it upholds the quality that has been presented thus far. This episode adapts the difficult situation Joel and Ellie get in with the bandits from the game as its predominant tale and takes some creative liberty, in a similar fashion we saw in the previous episode, with an introduction to a new character, Kathleen and sets her up with a villain-type narrative for the next episode.
This episode continues to grow the chemistry between Joel and Ellie and their emotive power as a duo. The actual story takes a backseat in this episode, lending the spotlight to Joel and Ellie to progressively establish a father-daughter connection between them while also uncovering their own persona and identity that we've barely seen up to this point. This all happens while the story decides to brew up the events for the next episode, prioritising a build-up over a payoff. The show writers do this by introducing a new menacing force that Joel and Ellie are bound to go up against in the form of Kathleen who is a new and original character designed for the show. Mazin and Druckmann felt the casting was unusual for Kathleen as she has a "sweetness" that conflicts with her position in the episode, an intentional decision to intrigue the audience. Melanie Lynskey wanted to play the character as "soft-spoken and delicate" to juxtapose her violence and that's a pretty cool idea but the execution wasn't that apparent as we barely see her in the episode and she has only one mild sign of violence that felt justifiable. As a whole, she was interesting to watch and to see what route her character, where her motive will take the story and how far it'll diverge from the source material. She doesn't intrigue me that much as a character and thus didn't really set the bar high enough for me to be excited about the next episode, however, Neil Druckmann was correct when he found that following antagonistic characters made the story more interesting, allowing an understanding and justification of their actions, as opposed to being seen as "obstacles" like in the game, making me quite fascinated as to how they'll interpret the following storylines from the game. The word-for-word reenactments of certain scenes, like Ellie finding the magazine, were performed as great as they were in the original and I'm glad about that, even if they replaced Joel's iconic "Oh he ain't even hurt" line. The highlight of this week's episode was probably my realising of how deeply the show delves into themes of humanity as subtle things like Joel's reluctant "no" when Ellie's trying to connect with him via puns, or Ellie's tearful reaction to the fate of the bandits, had me root for the characters even more as I started to embrace them as such rather than moving cogs for a story.
This episode was quite decent but probably my least favourite thus far. It mostly stems from how it focuses on the next episode more rather than on itself, which is fine, as long as next week doesn't disappoint.
Verdict - 7/10
#5: Endure and Survive
Episode 5 serves as the climactic finish to what Episode 4 set up previously. For those 59 minutes of the week, I expected to see greater development of the new, original character, Kathleen, while seeing some faithful adaptations of Henry's and Sam's great relationship as brothers and maybe a reveal of the horrors that they kept hidden last episode. What I received was possibly the weakest episode thus far.
It's not to say this episode was bad, but instead, I found it quite mediocre compared to what we've received already and how much it set itself up the previous week. There were a couple of highlights: the phenomenal dynamic between Henry and Sam flourished possibly better than in the game, the final, daunting scene and the climax of the episode with the appearance of the Bloater. Firstly, Henry and Sam were amazing and making Sam deaf, strengthened the bond the two had, more so as a guardian of the other rather than a brotherly connection. There is something so literary about how it reflects Joel's and Ellie's growth together. Secondly, the final scene was one of my favourites of the show because it demonstrates just how brutal and unforgiving the apocalypse is, and I was anticipating it a great deal, having played the game. A void of music, filled with nothing but desperate, short phrases from the actors greatly built the tension in this short segment of the episode and the end to it was bittersweet in the best possible way. Lastly, the Bloater scene was as dramatic and intense as I pictured it after seeing the trailers for the show and episode. The monstrous juggernaut was depicted as fearsome, possibly even more so than its high school introduction in the game. The action in the scene also worked great as everyone is in some form of predicament, either being close to death or meeting it - once again showing the tough survival needed in the apocalypse. Other than those 3 components of the episode, everything else felt messy and not as cohesive as the other episodes. In addition to this, Kathleen ended up being an incredibly disappointing antagonist. She had so little screen time to flesh out her character, a hinted-at ferocity that was still nowhere to be found and her whole plotline with Henry should've either been developed more before reaching a conclusion or, treated as off-screen history rather than a focal narrative.
In conclusion, this had to of been the worst episode so far, all due to its lacklustre finish to a story that had 2 episodes to be developed but still came out as half-baked.
Verdict - 5/10
#6: Kin
After how disappointing I found the previous episode, I'm glad the quality has picked itself back with episode 6. This episode is quite slow-paced and more focused on the interactions between characters rather than proceeding forward with action sequences or a moving narrative. In a way, this next chapter is reminiscent of episode 3, however, unlike episode 3, I'd argue this 58-minute experience is the first proper breather that the show has received and quite perfectly placed after the emotionally intense predecessor.
This episode finds Joel and Ellie discovering Jackson where Joel's brother, Tommy, is found with his wife, Maria, and a thriving community. It's easy to argue that this is Pascal's and Ramsey's best performances thus far with how beautifully they portray their characters. While I think Ramsey's Ellie is the MVP of the episode, being able to balance emotion with comedy quite effectively, I've seen people say that Pascal's Joel is at his best so far, which I don't fully agree with. The reason I say this is because the relationship between Gabriel Luna's Tommy and Joel feels so inconsistent and jagged. It really is sweet when they bond or argue, but the switch between the two modes is too spontaneous a feeling, removing some of the evocative power in one of their shared scenes, no matter how phenomenally the actors performed. What undermines this further is how rapidly their dispute is settled, to just about fit into the concluding moments of the episode. However, even with this nitpick of mine, I cannot deny how great Joel and Ellie function together. Pascal's and Ramsey's chemistry is undeniably fantastic. While initially, I thought their shared scene of the episode was a tidbit too soap opera-y, in hindsight I can recognise how strong that moment was for both the characters, the episode and the whole show, and without a doubt, I can see that bond grow even stronger. Overall, the episode was quite minute in terms of what happened so I don't have much to comment on that aspect, however, I can say it was a good watch with some brilliant acting accompanying it.
Now that we're 2/3 of the way through the show, it's clear to see what the overall quality of the whole season will be like, even if we're delivered either a magnus opus ending or a disappointing finale. As a whole, I really do recommend this show, especially with this episode being taken into consideration. It starts off stronger than it continues, but much of the essence and spirit that was in the game is greatly emulated in a television format.
Verdict - 7/10
#7: Left Behind
For this week's episode, the storyline breaks away from adapting the main game and takes a whole episode to explore the narrative that takes place in the DLC, under the same name as the episode - Left Behind. If you haven't played the game, a brief rundown of the expansion is that while Ellie is surviving on her lonesome, she thinks back to when she was first bit and discovered her immunity. The whole story then follows the events leading up to the life-turning moment as she explores a mall with her best friend.
While this may seem not engaging to watch for an hour, it's similar to episodes 1's and 3's exploration of the characters' backgrounds and past, and seeing how good those episodes were, this no doubt follows in their steps. The component that I appreciate the most is how we're finally seeing the individual growth of Ellie and it's as great to see her past as building blocks to her fear of loneliness, the same way we saw Joel's building blocks to his bitterness. Just like the DLC, we get to witness a new character, Riley, played by Storm Reid, as Ellie's best friend and potential love interest. The way the two bicker with heavy topics like the Firefly's 'terrorism', or how they react eccentrically to small moments of joy like when they played at the arcade, all demonstrate how natural their relationship is. Even during the sombre moment of getting bitten, the two characters share a strong chemistry that feels as impactful to the characters as it is to the audience. While the episode will remain fantastic to all the long-time fans of The Last of Us, first-time viewers may witness this episode to be filler content, in a similar fashion to which episode 3 was orchestrated. It doesn't feature extensive action, except for one close-quarters encounter with an Infected, and it doesn't propel the narrative forward, but it's an incredible showcase of character development, paying greater homage to "simple story, complex characters".
As the show starts to reach its finale, it's great to see it pause ever so slightly to further expand our understanding of the characters, in a faithful adaptation of the source material. In fact, I'd argue that the whole episode did better than the DLC, in nearly every aspect.
Verdict - 7.5/10
#8: When We Are In Need
Picking off of the cliffhanger that episode 6 introduced, 'When We Are In Need' is the penultimate episode of this amazing show and quite possibly my favourite episode thus far. It continues with what we know from the game, Ellie is surviving on her lonesome while treating a comatose Joel, before bumping into some bad trouble.
This whole episode is very stuck to the source material with only slight moments of drifting away from the game's story. In these moments, we encounter some contextual exploration of David, the antagonist of the episode, and his community that we otherwise didn't see in the game due to how glued we were to Ellie's perspective. These contextual additions demonstrate David as a religious fanatic who uses terror to establish a "loving community", and that is incredible from a storywriting point of view. Because of this uncomfortable horror that David puts himself and everyone else through, he works much better as a villain than Kathleen from episodes 4 and 5 could ever dream of. There is a sense of evil that is justified by survival, there is a sense of violence justified by a sense of protection, and he's human enough to understand why he does them, but twisted enough to not root for him, whereas Kathleen never reached these heights. I'm not sure if I discovered a niche preference or if The Last of Us excels in this, but the brutal apocalyptic survival sense is phenomenal in this episode and might be why I love it so much. Not only is David great (mostly thanks to Scott Shepard's spectacular performance), but the desperateness that Joel and Ellie have as survivors, either separately or together, is phenomenal. Ellie trying her best to use what Joel has taught her to either hunt prey or deal with other survivors is quite exquisite to see how far she has matured. Meanwhile, Joel being an absolute menace to anyone standing in his way from protecting Ellie is immaculate and gets me hyped for how the final episode will deal with the hospital scene. The only genuine flaw that was near-detrimental, was the pacing in the final moments of the episode, as it felt rushed with how rapidly they tried to resolve the conflict. But hey, at least Troy Baker makes a guest appearance as David's lackey and does a pretty good job at it.
Overall, I have gained a greater respect for Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as actors because this episode just proved to me how much they can shock me with their performances. It's not their strongest performance of the show, but it's the episode that made me acknowledge it with how neatly presented the storyline, camera angles, music and writing were.
Verdict - 8.5/10
#9: Look For The Light
The finale is now upon us. 2 months ago, HBO and Sony presented to the world a TV show adaptation of one of Sony's greatest exclusive IPs. The Last of Us is officially renewed to have a second season that will most likely adapt the game's sequel, however, until then we have this first season and whether this episode sucked or not, it'd be a safe assumption to say that this show was great and managed to achieve precisely what I hoped it would, ever since its pilot. I think the biggest shock that I've had with this episode is how short it is. The finale is short 43 minutes despite telling the most significant aspect of the whole narrative - the conclusion.
Before I pile my thoughts and first impressions of the episode into this "review", it should be said that if you haven't played the game then the ending will be quite lacklustre and might even feel rushed. However, this is exactly how it ends in the game, and when I mean exactly, I mean exactly. It's not even the final scene that is so close to the source material, it's the whole episode, excluding the cold open. Just like in the first episode, I think they made the correct decision with this as the bittersweet ending is what makes the game whole and I appreciate the showrunners replicating that feeling, beat for beat. The cold open that is unique to this show presents Ashley Johnson (the original voice actress for Ellie), as TV Ellie's mother and gives birth to her, making sense of Ellie's overall immunity. It isn't the most impactful contextual scene we've received, either to the narrative, audience or characters, but it is a good effort of the show ever so slightly developing Marlene's significance past her pilot appearance. For the moments that are near-identical to the game, they happened to be the highlights of the 40-minute experience. The two main standouts for me here are the hospital scene and the conclusive stage of the duo's relationship. Firstly, the hospital scene, it's incredible and one of the best scenes in the show. Joel's selfish yet protectively sweet nature is beautifully orchestrated here with muffled sound effects of the horrors being committed, overlayed by a sombre soundtrack. Pascal perfectly presents Joel's kill-or-be-killed nature being utilised as a protection method, through his acting and the great camera shots. Secondly, the developed dynamic is also incredible. Joel and Ellie's final stage of their relationship, being so protective of each other like father and daughter, yet as open to each other like friends, tremendously shows their growth as a duet. This is all that I hoped the show would do ever since its announcement. The only real problem I had with this episode was that the pacing was much more rapid than it was in the game due to the lack of gameplay sections. Because of this, there is a lesser emotional impact compared to the 2013 masterpiece, but not to a degree where it damages itself.
The final episode is great. It's similar to the first episode in how it uses a cold open to expand any contextual information that feels relevant while remaining heavily true to the source material. It's faithful enough to make new fans understand the shock and emotional value of these scenes that gamers experienced a decade ago while being different enough to engage returning fans. This is how you create an immaculate adaptation.
(Episode) Verdict - 8/10
I'm by no means a professional critic of either TV shows or even video games, despite spending the last 2 years reviewing the latter. I am aware I missed many crucial elements in this overview, such as cinematography or soundtracks, even if they are first impressions, I shouldn't've and I do apologise for that. Will I review another video game show or movie? Probably not since The Last of Us is too special of a medium for me to avoid but if you walk away from this absurdly long list of first impressions with something, then I hope it's that you should watch this show.
(Show) Verdict - 8/10
