Telling a captivating story, especially when it comes to post-apocalyptic and infected creatures, is really difficult: it is today, with TV series, comics and video games that deal with these now very widespread topics – especially after what happened with Covid -19 – but it was also in the past when works like The Walking Dead were born. Yet in 2013, a not too hot summer, a game by the name of The Last of Us, a narrative title released the same year as Beyond: Two Souls (by Quantic Dream), a survival horror game that arrived at the same time as BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider, a product that revolutionized the way video games were made. 10 years later, with a sequel underway, a multiplayer title planned and rumors related to a possible Part 3, The Last of Us arrives on TV, exclusively on Sky and streaming only on NOW from 16 January , and we tell you about it in our review.
Before talking about the series, let’s try to understand the product well: The Last of Us starts from a very simple concept, linked to a pandemic caused by the evolution of a mushroom, the Cordyceps, capable of mutating people, contaminating them and making them become piles of flesh (and not) with the sole purpose of feeding on others and infecting. In the series, as in the video game, we follow the story of Joel, a man who has experienced dozens of traumas during the onset of the pandemic (which in the video game starts in 2013, while in the series in 2003) and Ellie, a young girl who proved to be immune to the bite of the infected.
I am murderous
In a world where salvation is the only goal, the few cities left without infected inside have been renamed Quarantine zones, and within it a control regime of the FEDRA (Federal Disaster Response Agency) has been established, which in exchange for work gives slips for rations. Joel and his business partner Tess live in one of these, struggling with more or less legal jobs and smuggling, one of the fastest ways to make money and fix things. Not even the QZs are safe, especially considering the faction of terrorists called the Lights, who offer salvation and hope in a world where it seems difficult to get to the next day.
As we explained, The Last of Us it is not an innovative series for its incipit, but for its development: each character within the series, as it was in the video game, is multifaceted and characterized. Joel has his traumas, he tries to live day after day and unfortunately in doing so he becomes violent capable of killing when needed (and even when not needed), Ellie instead shows herself older than her age, uses profanity and aggression to show herself strong and trying to figure out what to do with his future.
But like the two of them, every single character is a set of information that will immediately enter your brain, making you empathize with each of them: this means seeing a totally gray world, where violence is not an option and every single choice can find its motivations, even when really brutal. We discover it in the main story, which unfolds in its 9 episodes, but also in any flashbacks and parallel stories that show other characters who are part of this devastated world.
Let’s clarify immediately: the series is not lost in talk. The Last of Us by HBO extension concludes, in its 9 episodes, the entire plot of the first game (including the Left Behind DLC), proving to be concrete (sometimes even too much). Obviously this doesn’t make everything quick and fast, but on the contrary it finds its calmest moments in some parts of the series, playing with the viewer thanks to the times.
A hope
The duo formed by Pedro Pascal (Joel) e Bella Ramsey (Ellie) works now like they used to Troy Baker And Ashley Johnson as interpreters of the two characters in the game, with a more human Joel and capable of making mistakes and an Ellie who will immediately enter the hearts of the spectators. The interpretation of is also excellent Gabriel Luna like Tommy, Joel’s brother, Anna Torv as Tess E Merle Dandridge as Marlene of the Lights. Even the other actors lend themselves perfectly, following a script worked together by Craig Mazin, screenwriter of Chernobyl, and Neil Druckmann himself, Creative Director of video games.
Perhaps the script is sometimes followed too literally: some scenes could give you a false sensation linked to a copy paste, for better or for worse. It means to have identical lines of dialogue, shots and effects like those of the video game and a sense of reproduction that those who are not used to could fall into the trap of being faced with a fan-made series. Obviously, it is enough to see the quality behind it to immediately change your mind: every joke finds new life in the words of the actors, in order to be able to evoke feelings in those who have never played video games, and memories in those who have already experienced this adventure. Expect some small program changes, some different choices in terms of details, but otherwise don’t worry: HBO’s The Last of Us is a TV series not simply inspired by the video game. It is the TV series of the video game.
Clickers
For those who are not accustomed, the infected of Cordyceps they are divided into stages: the first, called Runners, they are very agile human beings who in this TV version also find fungal filaments coming out of their mouths (to be able to eat). Then we find the Clickers, where the fungus has now taken control of the upper part of the face making the being blind (and capable of using echolocation) and the Bloater, a sort of bigger and stronger Clicker. In the video game, much of the contamination is due to the spores, which in this series are abandoned as a concept in favor of a neural network system linked to the mushrooms themselves, a cue that gives that little twist to the initial concept without however altering its foundations.
As we have explained, it is difficult to make one post-apocalyptic tv series. Unless you have in your hands a script capable of creating realistic, dividing characters, and The Last of Us is a work of such magnitude. There is no such thing as good and evil, black and white – everything is a giant scale of gray. However, let’s not talk about those fake moralisms that are often seen on some productions, where it is easy to feel sympathy for the villain of the moment but deep down we all know that the bad guy is the bad guy, and the hero is a hero. Here the hero is a survivor, a villain to someone else’s story, the father of a girl who had his life ahead of him, and the brother who is easy to blame. Because basically the power of The Last of Us, as it was in the video game and as it is on this series, is to make us think for a few seconds what we would have done in their place, only the incipit that does is not interesting starting the question, but the reactions that it triggers.
The Last of Us will be available exclusively on Sky and streaming only on NOW from January 16th
Review
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The Last of Us HBO
9.5Final vote
A carbon-copy series of the video game (with some minor changes), HBO’s The Last of Us, with this first season, fulfills the promises made by Naughty Dog and the game at the time, bringing them to a medium that will open the door to another type of user. All the strengths and weaknesses of the original work are present, on a par with all those lines of dialogue that thrilled all gamers 10 years ago. Perhaps the push towards replicating the original work is sometimes too obvious, but it is a price that one willingly pays to have a final product that manages to make one think, excite and empathize as much as the first The Last of Us
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