The Last of Us (Season 1) - Cosmonaut Quickie

hey guys sorry if I sound a little weird I'm not recording in my usual setup I'm kind of on the go right now but regardless it is finally time the game that was made to emulate Prestige television has its own television show now HBO is The Last of Us attempts to adapt the award-winning video game for a new audience and honestly it's just about as good as it can be this show very well could have just found it in and people still would have watched it but it goes that extra step and makes for a very well made TV show when I hear of a new live-action video game adaptation I'm usually a little wary when it comes to the visuals but that is definitely not the case with the last of us the sets in CG backdrops create a very convincing post-apocalyptic environment also the lighting and cinematography pushes the show past video game adaptation into a legitimate Contender for one of HBO's most impressive shows but truly what carries the show overall are the performances every performance in this show is amazing Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey encapsulate their characters while still putting their own little twist on things Pedro's Joel is still the brooding loner but he has a little bit more vulnerability he's just a little bit softer the murder hobo version of Joel from the video game makes sense for a video game where you're mowing people down constantly but for a show that for the most part is trying to emulate the real world this version of the character makes a bit more sense and alongside that Bella Ramsay's Ellie is much more snarky to balance against the overwhelmingly dark tone of the show they're definitely pushing the comedic relief a little more than they did with the original Ellie but again it makes sense here because by the time we're introduced to the character in the show things have been pretty brutal and she does provide a lot of much-needed levity and best of all the chemistry between these two characters is perfect they may not be exactly like the original characters but their chemistry is just as good and that's key to nailing this story and when I say the performances are good that goes for everybody even people who are only in a single episode put on a hell of a show I found myself feeling for almost every single character that was shown on screen with a show titled The Last of Us I'm glad that the focus is on the people who are affected by this apocalypse but despite all this praise for me this is the kind of thing that I can never really get very excited for while I can't deny that the show is Well written well acted well directed at the end of the day it's just the last of us I knew exactly what to expect going in and for that reason I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to watch the show week to week this show is truly at its best when it's presenting us new never-before-seen story beats this show entertained me the most when it was presenting stuff that I haven't seen before I like that the first few episodes begin with flashbacks showing us more context behind the outbreak and how people reacted to it I really enjoyed these Chernobyl style scenes and I was very disappointed to see that they kind of just stopped happening after the third episode I was having a much better time whenever the the show was giving me something that I had not experienced before and it's widely believed that the best episode of the show is the one that is made up entirely of original content everybody went crazy for this episode and that is because it's new nobody knew what to expect it's surprising and it's able to hit everybody just as hard because nobody's seen any of this before and the thing is after this episode the show really loosens its grip as the show progresses it sticks closer and closer to the source material and by the time the last few episodes rolled around I knew exactly what I was in for and for this reason I really honestly think the last episode is one of the weakest episodes in the bunch it's not a bad Episode by any means and there's a lot of content that I really enjoyed about it I really enjoyed how the music took center stage in this action scene just to really hit home the emotion of this scene and remind you that this is a bad thing that's happening still blows my mind that there are people who do not realize that but that's okay we'll get to that in season two but other than that it feels like the final episode is paced a little bit too quickly and we don't have a lot of time to see what Ellie and Joel are like between the events of the previous episode and this big action Climax and honestly that kind of context it's really important for their relationship but this episode kinda has to rush through that and get us to the finale as quick as possible because it's only 45 minutes it's just disappointing because the Rapport between these two characters is very important to help us understand Joel's final decision and also it's kind of weird how this show likes to hold our hand through the messages and themes instead of doing things in a subtle way we get like five characters who solely exist to teach Joel his lesson verbally every other episode over and over we get characters who tell Joel outright hey Joel remember you should protect the people that you love it becomes kind of annoying when everybody's sole purpose is to teach Joel that same lesson and it's weird because the game wasn't that want with its messaging I have no idea why the zombie action video game is more subtle than the HBO drama show unfortunately with only 9 episodes it feels like these characters really didn't get enough time to solidify their relationship with one another this becomes extra apparent when I realize that the next episode of the show that comes out is gonna be kind of a big deal Ellie and Joel feel very close to one another but they definitely do not feel as close as they should be by the end of this series also I think if I had never played the game this show probably would hit me much harder I probably wouldn't even have a lot of these complaints overall I think that the ideal way to enjoy the show for all it's worth is to have never played the video game before people compare this show to other video game adaptations like Arcane and for me I will always prefer something that creates a unique narrative over something that I've seen before and that's just me I'm not saying that I'm objectively correct or anything it's just my preference in the kind of media that I enjoy but for what it's worth this is as good as this show could be to keep me entertained I still enjoyed every episode that I watched there's no denying that this is a very well made show I watched it with people who haven't played the game before and it was nice to see their genuine positive reactions and I really do think that the story of The Last of Us is one of the best stories that video games have told and it's worth experiencing outside of the video game it's a rare case where the story is not intrinsically tied to the gameplay so it makes perfect sense that they would make a show based on it I just think that if I had it my way I would greatly prefer to watch a show with a news story and new characters that set in this very interesting world because like I said the best parts of this show are the parts that aren't even from the game and if this series wants to keep going past season 2 without having any video game to adapt I think I would be much more interested to see what they do with it and honestly scoring this show is a little tough for me because while this isn't something that I was asking for I can't deny that it is is a really good show but God help them when they get to season two so I'm gonna give season one of The Last of Us an 8 out of 10. [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: The Cosmonaut Variety Hour

Views: 367,915

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Id: i4mM_E-Zc6s

Length: 7min 29sec (449 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 17 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

"I liked it, but then again I didn't enjoy it, it was however one of HBO"s best shows, they did the bits from the game very well, but the best bits were the bits that expanded on the game, however what I would have really liked would have been a completely different show"