Review 696: The Last of Us (Season 1)

  

Based on the video game the The Last of Us by Naughty Dog; In 2023, 20 years after a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which causes its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures and society collapses. Joel (Pedro Pascal) is a smuggler living in a military quarantine in Boston Massachusetts, managed by the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA)

The season starts in a world that we are familiar with and then by the end it's twisted that world into something unrecognisable.  Amazingly, Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (the creator of the game) have turned the game into a rousing, very intense, brutal and sometimes spectacular season of television. 

The third episode Long, Long Time is an outstanding and surprisingly standalone episode that serves a refreshing bit of happiness in an otherwise bleak and  world  The parallels between Joel & Ellie and Bill & Frank are subtle but apparent. Bill & Frank managed to beat the zombie outbreak and find something worth living  The episode itself is a beautiful love story and takes a break from the 

Ep. 7: Left Behind acts as an origin story for Ellie, set over the course of a single night  we see the events that shaped Ellie as a character  Storm Reid and Bella Ramsey have excellent chemistry and  makes for a beautifully touching showcase of Ellie's childlike innocence which is especially poignant considering she's a kid who's grown up in a post apocalyptic world.

All of which culminates in the heart wrenching finale Look for the Light; which is almost impossible talk about without going into major spoiler territory.  Joel goes full Terminator/Punisher mode as he mows down Fireflies in a desperate attempt to save his "Babygirl." It's a conclusion that packs a major gut punch and one that feels entirely earned. Much like the game, it's sure to raise a lot of discussion: Was Joel right? Was Joel wrong? Speaking for myself, I don't hold it against Joel for doing what he did. He did what any father would do if they were in his position. 

At the core of the The Last of Us is the question: What in humanity is actually worth saving?     

The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous,  a scene in episode 7 where the malls lights are turned on and Ellie is framed against the backdrop has a wonderful dreamlike quality with beautiful colours  and the moss covering the neon lights creates a fantastic contrast between what was and what is. 

Pedro Pascal & Bella Ramsey are an inspired pair  and Game of Thrones fans, myself included, will get a kick out of seeing Oberyn Martell & Lyanna Mormont in an HBO show together.         The premiere episode established everything we need to know about Joel as a character: A loving, hard working single father with a great relationship with his brother Tommy (Gabriel "Ghost Rider" Luna) and his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker).                                 

As the show goes on, they start to become more comfortable with each other, they start to trust each other and ultimately will do anything for each other. Joel & Ellie work so well together because they're both the puzzle piece that the other was missing. Ellie is looking for someone to get close to, to lean on,  Joel, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of   whereas Joel is pessimistic, cynical and puts up a wall so she won't become attached to him, Ellie's youthful enthusiasm melts away his closed off nature.   Their relationship is the emotional core of this Season. 

Joel is a broken man who lost his daughter at the start of the outbreak and is now afraid to open himself up to anyone again. He is completely frozen in his trauma, he's still stuck in that one moment and opening himself up to Ellie is the hardest thing he's ever had to do. He's awakening a part of himself that he thought was lost forever, the part that he's tried to keep buried for 20 years and like thawing out from the cold, regaining that feeling is painful. The loss of his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) has allowed Joel to slip into being a product of this post-apocalyptic world and he seems comfortable in his misery in that world. There's no reason to return to normal for him because he doesn't care for life without Sarah. Instead, he seems perfectly content with surviving this harsh world until the day comes where he doesn't. He starts to slowly build his humanity back up through the very cargo that he was tasked to transport; he rediscovers something worth fighting for in Ellie.

Ellie, however, has only known life within the apocalypse, she's fascinated by the world that existed before the outbreak  Ellie carries a massive burden on her shoulders - her immunity. She feels the need to be the suvior of humanity because everyone around her has either left her or died by the very thing she's survived. 

Much like The Mandalorian, Joel and Ellie encounter a bunch of one-off, colourful guest characters that filter throughout the show  Gabriel “Ghost Rider” Luna, Nico Parker, Anna Torv from Fringe, Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett, Melanie Lynskey, Lamar Johnson, Jeffrey Pierce (who previously played Tommy in the games), Retina Wesley (whom you may recognise as Liza Warner from Arrow), Graham Greene, Storm Reid, Scott Shepherd. This season makes great use of all of these characters around Joel & Ellie to strengthen and flesh out their relationship further. Wether it's Riley, Tess, Marlene, Bill & Frank, Henry & Sam, Kathleen, Perry or even David, each of these guest stars has a major role to play in the development of the main characters. No time is wasted with any of them. 

Sarah is almost the protagonist of the first episode until disaster strikes. She is very much what Joel lives for at the beginning, without her, he has no purpose. Sarah