The Last of Us show was...

Better than I expected! 

Obviously, this is going to contain spoilers for The Last of Us as a show and as a video game, and I will touch a tiny bit on the second series without going into giant spoilers: But bear that in mind. So it's been over for a while now and I think people have really had their chance to digest all that The Last of Us was in it's body; and I have to come away and compile my own thoughts here today in order to unwind from it all, because that's just the way that I am. Whereas I have had my ups and downs with where I think this show has gone, given the overall quality of the efforts of the team those peaks and valleys have been more like tiny bumps atop a giant sloping rollercoaster. By and large The Last of Us was the highest quality video game TV show that has ever existed and all over game-to-TV projects have been put on notice because of it's greatness. But it wasn't perfect, nothing ever is.

First of all, it must be said that although I originally had some scant reservations about the choices made in casting, everyone pretty much lived up to exactly who they needed to be- I was also a huge fan of the two cameo's from Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson's unexpected cameo's in the final few episodes; as well as the restraint of the show runner to make them characters that could have easily been brushed aside instead of central plot points. Okay... Ashley did literally play the mother of her own character, (and did so using her 'Ellie' voice, which was a weird choice) but it was a role that could have feasibly been played by anyone, they just happened to make it her. It could have undermined the show, but instead it really played to what this show gets right most of the time- it's respect for the source material.

I don't know if any other video game adaptation has had nearly as much respect for the product it came from as The Last of Us did. Halo was famously led by people who were staunchly proud that they never played the games, or spoke to anyone who did, Resident Evil could have been based off a poster for one of the games for all it had to do with any of them- but The Last of Us had showrunners who weren't embarrassed of where they came from. In several key moments of the show you'll have lines borrowed directly from the game, as well as scene compositions and in one instance an entire third person sequence from the back seat of Joel's truck. It's performed tastefully, such that only one familiar with the games would notice. It's a great way of actually keeping the good graces of that core audience you inherit everytime you adapt a story. (Maybe that will be a lesson to all those copycat adaptors who are sure to come.)

And what's more, in the instances where the show decided to do it's own thing; I think a lot of the additions were either great or better than anything the game had created in it's place! I think that the episode which told the story of Bill is probably the show's best, encapsulating the theme of the first series and the heart of the show in general- showing us the history of the character and breathing more life into him than was ever present in the game, all without actually pushing the events of the story along for more than an introduction and a finale. By most traditional standards of storytelling that would be considered 'filler'; but the wreath of emotional importance, as well as the dark tie with the ending choices, really made it a standout must-watch!

Some concerns I had at the beginning of the show was how Joel's depiction was going to be handled, as a character he really did exist as gaming's answer to 'ludonarrative dissonance'; where dissociation and 'rampant murder' really ended up setting the man on the path to do all he does for the finale sequence. And yet... there was a softness to his character that extended beyond his relationship with Ellie. In the games that is his saving grace, his light in the darkness he holds on to in order to justify the person that he is and the things he's done. In the show, without that connection of actually being Joel, more effort was put in to show the human side of Joel. His panic attacks and his injury- all weaknesses that softened the edges of who he was, but which came at a bit of a cost.

The final action sequence, where Joel turns on the fire-flies, sat odd both with me and those I've asked who never played the games. For them they felt they weren't adequately fed the information for what he does to be believable, thus there was an aura of alienation. For me, I just didn't believe the same man who struggled to fight for his life against a trio of bum hicks a couple of episodes before just wiped out an entire hospital of armed rebel insurgents. I mean the guy is brutal- but I never got the sense he was that one-man army who could take on the world if he wanted. The Last of Us as a game didn't need to justify that aspect of Joel, by natural extension of being the player- anything he could feasibly do was in the hands of the player's own skill- but the show was left a little naked without that dressing and didn't quite hit it's notes in the final moment.

And then there was the episode with Kathleen. Already, in a show that was struggling for episodes, planting an entire episode as being dedicated to introducing a plot thread that was going to be resolved in the immediate next episode was a bit scandalous. Making that whole episode a thematic division of the original vision of the series, however, causes a schism that I cannot justify. As all the rest of the show seems to have no problem understanding, the thematic heart of 'The Last of Us' is based around love. Every major plotpoint comes back to love, Riley and Ellie, Joel and Ellie, Bill and Frank, David and... well you see... David has a weird relationship with his emotions, we don't need to get into that. But Kathleen... all she represented was hate. Hate fuelled vengeance, as the show itself admits rather plainly. Which would be fine, colliding the concepts of love and hate as sides of the same coin- but that is literally was Chapter 2 is supposed to explore. What's the point of throwing her out of order and placing a hate-themed story point in the first series? It was a time waster, and a ill-fitting chapter altogether.

However, that is merely one blemish on an overall incredible product that managed to tell the vast story of The Last of Us pretty well in only 9 episodes and only feeling slightly rushed. Ellie could have done with a little more characterisation in the middle episodes so she doesn't feel as bizarrely rude to everyone she first meets, and there could have been a few more Clickers... at all. After the Kathleen episode there was literally not a single one, just boring old infected- and who cares about them, right? Overall, the show was a great adaptation of a classic masterpiece of a video game, and whilst I don't think it's quite replaced the game as the definitive rendition of the story, it has justified in my mind it's own right to exist as a piece of media. For now. I don't rate shows on this blog, so I can only say that I hope the team live up to this example in Season 2 which I guess will be as soon as Bella Ramsey's injected growth hormones start to kick in?