HBO's The Last Of Us Wastes So Many Opportunities | Video Essay

The Last of Us TV show is here and it's okay now don't get me wrong I love parts of this show it does a fantastic job on building on the lore of the game and add some amazing backstory and moments in fact I think the first two episodes on the Empire and yet for all of this I really believe it misses opportunities to not only remain more faithful to the game but to build the tension on how desperate the characters are to do anything to survive as well as build on what made the first game so memorable and fun to begin with the relationship Joel lately have together I mean there is a reason the second game got so much backlash and it's because of the relationship these two have in the first game it's one of the most important things the show has to get right and it almost did but I think it fails to build their relationship and because of that it stops the show from being the perfect Masterpiece I believe it could have been going forward I will be talking about spoilers for both the games and the show so you've been warned first off I'm going to start by saying that the first two episodes of the show and their Flawless pieces of Tableau version and they needed to be these episodes were pivotal the drawing in fans the game and new viewers it had the difficult job of establishing the world pre-outbreak as well as giving us a believable reason for why everything happens but damn it didn't have to go this hard this had to be one of the scariest open a few minutes for a zombie show I've ever seen and the fact that it's based around the very real cold seps infection makes it that much better or worse seriously look up ants with Cordy Services gross additionally I don't know if it was done on purpose but during this whole scene where the audience looked like Mindless infected I think just adds to the atmosphere with the message at the end tell us exactly what this show is about and what's in store for Joel and Ellie going forward spread the infection to every last human alive by any means necessary and there are no treatments for this no preventatives no cures they don't exist it's not even possible to make them so if that happens we lose the first episode starts by telling us how cold steps could evolve to infect us and the second episode starts with just as terrifying a scene by showing us where the start of the infection took place this whole scene Jakarta is amazing the Indian easy and expert going from disbelief to concern to a sexually Acceptance in just a couple of minutes is masterfully done and all of this accumulates when the military officer tells her that 14 people are still missing we see the utter horror that she experiences as she starts to shake and break down as the officer asks her for a vaccine she delivers the news that there is no vaccine there is no cure and the military should bomb the entire city it's a chilling moment that really shows the audience the severity of the virus the second episode gives us time to learn more about this new environment we found ourselves in post-outbreak it familiarizes us with fedra the government's response to the outbreak additionally it also shows us more about how the black market work within this world and the trades that are made between the civilians the guards the show introduces us to Tess and allows us to spend more time with her and get to know her better something the game wasn't able to do it shows Joel and Tess's relationship and how much they care about each other and so when Tess gets infected we feel Joel's pain there's one thing this show does amazingly it's that it makes us care about the people that end up dying the first two episodes are pretty much a perfect start to any television show they flushed out the background and made me care about the characters that we've currently seen I just wish it had been able to carry this trend on going forward I think episode 3 is the start of a slow decline for the show and it's not because this episode isn't good in fact it tells a beautiful story between Bill and Frank a story of love and loss and enjoying the small things in an apocalyptic world but it also misses out and tells the story from the game it's the first departure that I actually think hurts the series The episode takes the focus away from Joel and Ellie to tell Bill and Frank's Story the episode starts with Bill watching his town be evacuated and then him setting up his perfect survivalist town we see him set up traps grow food stalk the gas needed to cook and his Armory are weaponry and then we meet Frank who's just passing through to start with but offers to feed him the two become intimate the episode continues showing us their life together and then meeting Joel and Tess and setting up a trade route eventually we see Frank get sick and he decides he wants to end his own life we see Bill help with this but also make the decision to join him like I said it's a beautiful story of love with a tragic Romeo and Juliet ending but the entire time I kept wondering when are Ellie and Joel going to show up I guess maybe I wanted to have my cake and eat it too the episode felt like a missed opportunity to continue exploring Joel and Ellie's dynamic in the game Bill's town is one of the highlights of it having to navigate around the infected and all of Bill's traps we also get to see Ellie and Bill have some of the best banter and it fleshes out who Ellie is it's also one of the first times we get to see Joel risker all to keep at least safe in the show Joel Only just turn up at the end and take the working car we don't get to see any more of their relationship in them as characters I feel like the show could have had it all I wish they'd shown us the pass with Bill and Frank as they did and how their love grew but then showing a slightly less sick Frank decide that he wants to end his life and take himself into an unsafe part of Bill's town as bill notices Frank is missing Ellie and Joel show up looking for a car bill agrees to help if they help find Frank this way we can see the Dynamics with Bill and Ellie in the fight at the school once they find Frank and get the car battery Joe and Ellie leave and Frank tells Bill what his intentions were with Bill having just thought he'd Lost Frank forever he decides to join him we still get that Romeo and Juliet ending I just think this would have kept the tragic love story but also provide us with great character development for Joel and Ali in the end it just feels like I never missed opportunity episodes four and five focus on Joel and Ellie and Kansas City dealing with the rebels there and in the game this is where we learn a bit more about Joel before his time with Ellie he talks about having been on both sides of the conflict and as such knew that the guy was faking being hurt to Rob them we learned that Joel has done some pretty terrible things to stay alive over the years and he is not afraid to hire people for him to stay that way this is shown to us as Joel and early then have to fight their way out of the city and we kind of get that in these episodes but something just feels off Joel just doesn't really feel like the Joel We Know from the games the Joe from the games is a walking killer machine and Ellie becomes the same in the next game Joe is supposed to be kind of an Angel of Death he comes along and kills everything in his path he's basically Kratos from God of War with a gun and whilst the show may want to try and stay on the side of realism Joel's reputation is what gets him into trouble in the next game and as such is a very needed part of his character instead Joel just kind of feels like a regular old dude and it just feels like a never missed opportunity to explore all the Joel we know and additionally actually use some of the amazing graphic moments that made the game feel terrifying nowhere is this more apparent than with the use of the bloater in the show in the game we fight the blowtry in Bill's town but in the show they moved the bloated to Kansas City and whilst I wish they'd kept it in Bill's town the idea I had I also don't hate it turning up here we get to see just how horrific the bloater is as it easily moves through some of the city's Rebels but Joel and Ellie don't have to fight it or even navigate rounder they just kind of run away from it and as such all the tension the bloated brings instantly disappears and this pattern of Nerf and Joel continues into episode six Ellie and Joel get to Jackson and Joel seems pretty intent on passing Ellie off to his brother Tommy and this isn't a complete departure from the game in the game Joel is trying to get Tommy to take her the rest of the way but more to do with the fact that Joel just doesn't want to have to look after her anymore she's a constant reminder of Sarah and he's starting to get close to Ellie he doesn't want to have to lose someone like that again in the show it's played out the Joel isn't capable of doing it anymore that he's too old and anxious to continue and The Showdown Double Downs on this point when y'all get stabbed taking out one guy when he him and Ellie get to the university the entire time Joel is portrayed as this weak individual who isn't able to look after himself or anyone else and I can't help but wonder if this is all the setup for season two and his meme with Abby and justify why he gets taken down so easily this was one of the major criticisms for the last first part two and I think the show is trying to get ahead of that it feels like the show is purposely altering Joel We Know in service of the alien Abbey story that's going to come later and personally I think that's extremely disappointing especially because we've barely spent any time with Joe and Ellie episode 7 again takes the story away from Ellie and Joel with Joel bleeding out he tells Ellie to leave and as she does we get a flashback of the last time Ellie had to watch someone else she cared about die the entire episode focuses on Ellie's story with Riley it's another beautiful queer story of Ellie and Riley not knowing how to navigate or talk to each other about how they feel before eventually going into their feelings only for her to be quickly dashed and taken away from them as they both get bitten by a runner as both of them mourn the loss of their lives they decide to spend more time have to enjoy each other's company like I said it's a beautiful story but it's one we've seen before literally a few episodes back in episode three you have to ask what is the purpose of this episode we already know that Ellie got bitten in the abandoned mall so it's not that and the only purpose to tell this story is to show that Ellie doesn't want to lose someone how she cares about and it kind of does that but badly this episode feels painfully slow and I feel it would have told the message better if they'd had Ellie out looking for medicine or food for Joel with flashbacks in between that way we could have seen why Ellie was fighting so hard to keep Joel alive and not lose him with a better paced episode to go with her and I know I keep saying it but it just feels like missed opportunities Joe and Ellie feel like they barely know each other but you want me to care about them and believe that they're willing to die for each other and it's just kind of hard to do that the last of us has always been a character story first with the zombies to the side it was never meant to be The Walking Dead and yet the show misses on the most important character story of all the one of Joel and Ellie it continues to take the story away from them and with only a 9 episode run too many episodes Don't focus on this Additionally the show takes away from the character of Joel instead we have a Joel that's anxiety ridden and seems incapable of looking after himself or be the protective figure of Ellie additionally whilst the game primarily focuses on the characters in their story it also is time for some amazing action set pieces which the show pretty much ignores some of the later episodes feel increasingly slow and tedious because the tension builds and builds and builds with very little payoff it's like waiting for the bass to drop and it never comes I guess ultimately what I feel is that the show is good but there are so many missed opportunities to make the show great

Channel: Big Fudge

Views: 7,020

Keywords: the last of us, the last of us part 1, the last of us part 2, video essay, the last of us tv show, the last of us video essay, the last of us show, the last of us analysis, joel, ellie, the last of us hbo, naughty dog, pedro pascal, bella ramsey, neil druckmann, video game adaptation, video game curse, the last of us series, the last of us hbo show, the last of us series hbo, hbo, the last of us game, last of us remake, hbo last of us, hbo max, movie overload

Id: u6wzVEUXpZ8

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 06 2023