I’m getting hit with some major whiplash
going from Velma to The Last of Us because it’s from the absolute bottom of the barrel
to the peak of entertainment. The Last of Us Episode 1 blew away my expectations
because it elevates the source material which was already outstanding on its own. In this day and age great adaptions are rare
because it requires the writers of the show to have a thorough understanding of what made
the source material great and how to properly translate it to the new medium. Craig Mazin, who is the showrunner, is doing
an amazing job so far and The Last of Us may have the potential to rival Chernobyl which
was his last project, and that is an insane statement on its own from how perfect that
miniseries was. Also since they have Neil Druckman helping
with the scripts, it really goes to show that they want to be as respectful to the source
material as possible and to be authentic. For the show, it’s able to build off of
the rich world of the game and add in scenes that further flesh out the world. Along with having more scenes dedicated to
character development and altering perspectives that you can’t really do in a game because
you are tied to a singular point of view. As an example, we have more scenes with Ellie
to build her up a little more and to allow us to sympathize with her quicker. On top of great world building like the meeting
with the fireflies and them briefly going over their objectives. This scene was technically exposition driven
but it didn’t feel boring at all because the writers are putting a lot of emphasis
on the characters. These people, despite being in only a couple
of small scenes, have more personality than most other main characters from other shows. These additional scenes that aren’t in the
game really standout to me and is what impressed me because of how much. Like the first scene alone was actually one
of my favorite scenes from the episode. Besides obviously the tragic fate of Sarah
which was just as good as it was in the game, but I want to first appreciate the new content
within the show. This cold open is a masterclass of a scene
within itself. Something that Craig Mazin does really well
is instill a sense of dread within the audience. There’s a lot of different factors that
goes into this like the cinematography getting tighter and more claustrophobic by pushing
in on close-ups as the scene progresses, shots focusing on the audience to reveal their scared
reactions to us, and the music slowly building and permeating in the background to make you
feel uneasy. Along with the monologue that the scientist
delivers being expertly written. A small detail I loved was how the scene first
starts out with a bit of comedy, but as the doctor goes through his speech he even rattles
the interviewer which is really rare and makes this occasion even more unsettling. I also just found the whole fungi revelation
really intriguing and is honestly one of the most believable reasons for a zombie outbreak. In the game, I don’t remember them explicitly
explaining the reason for the outbreak and you know it has to do with fungus. But for the show, it further fleshes out this
aspect within the world and adds to the source material. So right away Craig Mazin creates a tense
atmosphere and writes an original scene with so much weight and expertise that it instantly
engaged me and made me excited for what’s to come. Because this show offers more than just a
carbon copy of the original game. The cold open was also followed by a great
opening title sequence. In particular I love how it looked like the
fungus was spreading through the America. And I’m really glad that they are using
the original score from the game. Checking IMDB, it’s nice to see that they
are bringing back the original composer to work on the show. Another original scene or scenes that I loved
was Sarah’s relationship with her neighbors. This again elevates and builds upon the game
since the opening of the game quickly throws you into the outbreak and the car sequence. For the show, they were able to build more
suspense through this development and one of my favorite shots from the first episode
that achieved this was when Sarah was looking at the DVD’s and the old lady behind her
started having facial contortions. Just an excellent shot that is very creative
through its usage of hiding a subject with focus. It gives of this feeling of discovery within
the frame and further scares you as a viewer when you notice what is happening in the background. Along with not really getting a detailed view
as to what is happening so it further gets under your skin. And the shot after this where Sarah’s positioning
within the frame blocking the door behind her creates the feeling that she may get approached
from behind. Just through these two shots alone, I’m
already in love with the cinematography. Which the cinematography overall for the first
episode was beautiful. The design of the show is also just immaculate
and allows the cinematographer to get some incredible footage. The production design is filled to the brim
with detail and there is so much storytelling being done with just the environment alone. This makes me really excited for the next
episode to see how the set-pieces look when they are in the run down city. This atmosphere with the guitar centric score
playing in the background is so god damn good and gives me great memories from my playthrough
of the game. Since I was already gushing about how good
the writing is, I want to further acknowledge how intelligent the script is. There’s so many moments that don’t hold
your hand in terms of what’s happening and allows the viewer to fully engage with the
show. Moments like the child going through the Boston
checkpoint and us figuring out that he or she is infected. At this point we don’t know exactly how
the tests work, despite it being red, so ironically this girl officer confirms through overexaggerated
kindness what the fate of the kid is. Also to point out a brilliant edit, the end
of the scene hard cuts to the bonfire of bodies, which to me implied that the kid died, but
they did bring him or her out so that we could punctuate how far gone and detached joel currently
is. Another clever moment in the writing was the
ending with the radio. Through a bit of character development in
showing that Ellie is sharp and observant, she tries to fill in the missing piece for
the radio code and figures out that 80’s music means trouble. So since we retained that bit of information
it turns on again playing a song from the 80’s which then builds and climaxes at the
end of the episode. This rewards the viewer for paying attention
and gives them that moment of “ahhh I get it”. Even the dialogue for the characters feels
very natural and likeable. An example I liked was Joel and Sarah having
breakfast and joking about how there are egg shells in the eggs. It becomes a quick re-curring joke for them
in this scene and builds their close relationship. In the game, it starts with Sarah giving Joel
his birthday present. So the show is able to further build the relationship
between them and that thus makes their ending even more devastating because they have a
stronger bond. It’s kind of surprising really how much
new content there is within this first half hour because it all perfectly fits into the
source material and feels like a natural extension that aids it. Like looking at the game, that prologue only
lasts about 15 minutes and in the show we don’t get to the time jump until the 35
minute mark. Then for the escape in the truck it was perfectly
done. The sense of dread by this point was built
up so much to the point that even if you played the game you probably felt some form of anxiety. Me and my girlfriend played through The Last
of Us together and even she was getting nervous through this scene despite knowing their outcome. Also the execution of this scene was as close
as you could possibly get to the game and if anything I think they actually improved
it with the plane crash. Those planes looming over the characters and
deafening them further increased the tension and made the scene even more frightening. So when one finally crashed it was a literal
great explosive climax. For the game, they end up just getting hit
by a car which then flips their vehicle. So for the show, I think this was definitely
a step up to a degree. Also in the game, this entire sequence is
done without cutting the camera, so it was nice that they kind of matched this within
the show by utilizing long takes. When Joel eventually runs into the infected
it was absolutely metal how crazy they were and how they were running full tilt into things. It makes the stunts for that scene very impressive
and it reminded me of World War Z. Which this then leads into the death of Sarah
and it was as emotionally pungent as it was in the game. Pedro Pascal is a perfect Joel and his heartbreaking
moment with Sarah left me floored and on the verge of tears even though I’ve already
played through this moment. Then Bella Ramsey so far is doing a stellar
job as Ellie. Her opening scene quickly establishes her
character and was a funny bit of writing. Her and Joel are an integral part of what
makes the Last of Us so amazing and so far from the brief moments they’ve shared together
it’s pretty promising. If anything there’s one small change they
made in which the circumstances Joel and Ellie meet are a bit more negative like how Joel
constantly has a gun trained on Ellie. While in the game she does come at them with
the knife, but she opens up a bit more to them. So in the show I like how there’s a bit
more starting friction and I’m excited to see how their relationship blossoms. So overall the first episode of The Last of
Us essentially blows any other video game adaption out of the water so much to the point
that there’s basically no competition. I’m just really happy they didn’t try
to turn this into a movie and are actually dedicating an entire series to telling the
story. Thank you for watching and right now I’m
leaning towards covering this show weekly. Given that it’s actually really good and
probably has some carry over from the game of thrones crowd since both shows are on HBO
Max. If I do cover the show weekly, I’ll also
try to fit in some other videos so I’m not just doing the Last of Us for the next two
months.
