REVIEW #267 The Last Of Us (Season 1)

After a bacterial outbreak wipes out most of humanity, Joel finds himself tasked with escorting a young girl, who is immune to the virus, across a post apocalyptic world. Adapted from The Last of Us video game.

The Last of Us can proudly claim the title for the most successful video game adaptation! I better mention now that I haven’t played the game, so how would I know? Well I’ve watched my fair share of game adaptations and not a single one has had the aesthetics nor the story to compete with a HBO giant such as this. I also believe that in this instance it’s actually benefited me from not playing it prior to the shows release, because I had zero expectations. It is no surprise that I’ve loved this show, the post apocalyptic horror genre is one that I absolutely adore and when it is executed to this level, it’s going to impress! 

The show is very character driven, with a particular emphasis on the two lead characters Joel and Ellie. A relationship that I’ve had so much joy watching over the last 9 weeks. The pair have brought out a joyful, emotional side to one and other and have helped heal each others minds to a point where they feel genuine happiness again. But we also had a contender for the best episode of television ever with episode 3. The relationship between Bill and Frank was one that took me by complete surprise! The writers told a two decade long love story in 45 minutes and had me in a complete mess! The emotion they evoked in that single episode of television will stay with me forever, acting as a measurement to all future attempts at storytelling on this level. So a big shout out to Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett who absolutely killed it! In my opinion, even outshining Bella and Pedro which isn’t to discredit them, they were great. But they had a lot more screen time to bring their characters to life.

The cinematography is what hooked me from the outset, the way they brought this fallen world to life is extraordinary and the array of amazing shots could fill an entire appreciation post! So I have to give credit to the team of cinematographers who pulled this off. But it wasn’t just the impressive lighting, the beautiful organic visuals and the amazing set design that impressed me, it also had a great score that helped establish the atmosphere.

The makeup and prosthetics that they used to bring the infected to life was also amazing, using mostly practical effects to maintain that sense of realism. It also helped create episode 5 which was where we witnessed the biggest action scene in the entire season! Seeing that epic carnage unfold was amazing, I just wish we got to see a whole lot more of that throughout the nine episodes. 

Now the negatives, I must admit I don’t have too many but my biggest criticism would be the action and horror aspects of the show. The game looks freaky as hell and was filled with action so to only have a handful of scenes that represented that was a little anticlimactic. I fully understand why some fans of the game feel a little let down by this! More often than not, Joel and Ellie could just walk around unbothered by any outside forces, no infected in sight. I’d also say that the ending felt a little rushed, it’s like they run out of budget to make an episode 10 so thought right we’ll combine the two last episodes and just give them that. Bring back the days where we had 15+ episode seasons, those were the glory days! But that’s not HBO’s style and that’s fair, but it’s a shame.

So to wrap this larger than normal review up, I really enjoyed season one. It has its faults but all in all, this is right up my street in terms of genre, cinematography and storyline. Of course it helps that it’s led by the amazing Pedro Pascal… I actually think it’s a show that audiences who don’t usually enjoy the post apocalyptic vibe, can really enjoy because it’s so character driven. So please just give it a go, im sure you’ll enjoy it. However, by the looks of it, everyone has been watching anyway because it’s done some huge viewing numbers!

Overall (9/10)

Thanks for reading

Callan