Why The Last of Us is PERFECT | Video Essay

foreign [Applause] The Last of Us is finally here and yeah well a quick side note on spoilers I will talk about everything that's happened in the first two episodes but I'm not going to be spoiling anything from what is going to happen from here on out so if you haven't played the game but are watching the show don't worry you're safe in this video anyway I'm honestly a little Blown Away by how good this show has turned out so far again so far this could evolve into one big dumpster fire and go off the rails but given how strong this Series has started I just don't see that happening to be honest for a couple episodes in now and normally I'd wait until the show was finished it's run before I make a video on it but I just couldn't with the last of us because this show is doing something incredible now let me preface this entire video by saying I have played both Last of Us games and I love them in fact I played both recently back to back within the space of About a Week the first game which season one of the show is based on is a masterpiece in every sense of the word it's a an incredibly Simple Story on the surface level but the Crux of the game is within the characters and the relationships they form and the changes that these extremely flawed and damaged characters go through and how characters like Joel ReDiscover their Humanity that's where the magic of The Last of Us comes from yeah the world is cool but it's nothing you haven't seen before but the characters Joel and Ellie are everything in this story and as we know the first season of The Last of Us which of course brings us to this video is covering the entire story of the first game and then the next season we'll go on to the events of Last of Us Part 2 presumably which is the most polarizing game I have ever played I don't know whether to love that game or absolutely hate it there were things in part two that yeah I mean if you know you know but there were things on the other hand that made me absolutely love it never had I played a game that had me so conflicted in my life moral of the story I'm a massive fan of the game so naturally I was incredibly excited for the show I mean Pedro Pascal gone going on a journey across dangerous lands with a child as cargo sounds really damn familiar doesn't it the trailers for this show looked great elements of the world looked like they were copy and pasted straight from the game and you could tell which character was which pretty easily from just trailers alone and it looked super faithful but the thing that got me really excited to see how this show was going to turn out was because of Craig Mason the showrunner who of course was behind HBO's Chernobyl which is an absolute Masterpiece and you can see elements of what made Chernobyl so effective front and center in the last of us not to mention Craig Mason is actually a massive fan of The Last of Us and played the games several times take note Halo showrunners if you actually liked the source material you might have made a good show instead of a documentary on Master Chief's ass not to mention Craig Mason would actually be working alongside Neil drachman who created The Last of Us it was also said to have a budget That rivaled Game of Thrones so this this thing was destined for greatness from the start but from what we have seen so far has it lived up to the hype can it break the video game curse has it added to the Masterpiece that was the first Last of Us game let's get to the bottom of that the first episode of this show is one of the best and most compelling episodes of TV I have watched in a long time look this pilot had endless amounts of pressure on its shoulders and was going to have to pass a pretty high bar to get fans on board it was truly a make or break opening episode if this didn't land this show was done before it started but not only did it clear that bar it soared so far above it that I was genuinely surprised this was one of the best and most suspenseful First episodes to a series that I have ever seen despite the fact I knew what was gonna happen I couldn't help but feel this sense of incoming dread mixed in with the surprise of what I was seeing like I was genuinely surprised with detours they made from The Source material and at no point did I feel like any of the changes were unnecessary because not only did they manage to pull off replicating exact moments from the game with various scenes being virtually identical but it managed to strike up balance of doing what the game had already done but also adding more around it in some areas actually surpassing what was in the game now it was well known that this show was going to be cutting a few things from the game but also adding a lot more as well one of the most notable emissions from the game is spores now this isn't a spoiler because spores aren't going to be in the show but spores were essentially an Airborne way to become infected with spores being common in areas littered with dead infected and I really like what the spores brought to the game but obviously again no spores in the show I didn't originally like this when I first heard about it but after seeing the first two episodes I am completely fine with spores not being in the show in the game it spreads through biting and saliva but it also can spread through the air through spores while that works in a video game environment in real life spores move around everywhere and it's just harder to buy into the notion that Sports localize and don't spread this is just highlighting that Craig Mason and new have thought long and hard over what to keep and cut from the show it is working and they've made the right decisions so far but let's dive into the nitty-gritty let's get into the specifics of the first episode because there is just so much here that we could just dive into now the game obviously starts pretty much as Joel and Sarah have their exchange on the couch which we of course see in the show but what we didn't get in the game was the 10 to 20 minutes of character work before that which the show has just gone and done seeing Sarah go to school more of the dynamic Joel and Sarah have even Tommy gets a scene before the outbreak starts this was a perfect addition to the source material it fleshed the world out pre-breakout the opening interview scene is a perfect scene in the context of people new to The Last of Us this was an expertly done scene in that it creates a real life connection to the outbreak most post-apocalyptic shows with zombie breakouts are usually the exact same thing test subject escapes military facility boom zombie outbreak but this show introduces cordyceps which is a real-life fungi that affects ants in real life but poses the question what if that affected humans what if this very real thing affected humans the answer the last of us it's a smart way in creating a real-life connection with the outbreak in the show which just makes things even more terrifying knowing that this is a very real thing and if it found a way to infest humans this is the Grim reality that we could face it was a perfect way to start the show and added something that wasn't explained in great detail in the game it's a prime example of the show adding something to help increase the power that the source material already has that's something that we see a lot of in this show especially when it comes to the characters the show fleshed out more of Joel saris and Tommy's relationship so when we go through the not punch of Sarah's death we feel it so much more than we would have otherwise take nothing away from the game the game showed what it needed to for the medium and it worked perfectly for that but when adapting to a show you get the chance to do more most of video game adaptations don't do that they're so insistent on paying homage to the game that they forget that video games and film and television are not the same thing how we connect with characters is different how we as the viewer invest ourselves in the story is different in films and shows it's much more of a passive experience where things need to be shown in a game though it's more Hands-On with the gameplay obviously bridging gaps between cut scenes it's an active experience as opposed to the passive experience of film or TV Mason and druckman knew that and finally done what so many video game adaptations failed to do and it's a major reason as to why the first episode code was so effective the first episode does something incredibly smart to help the viewer feel like they are a part of the breakout and they do it without them actually getting hands on with it like in the game essentially the entire breakout sequence is shot handheld this creates the feeling that we're right there with the characters there's no massive wides of the planes crashing no drone shots have infected flooding the streets it's all ground level even at times replicating Sarah's point of view from inside the truck this in a way supplemented the active experience of a video game it made us feel like we were there despite the fact we're not controlling anything this is why 30 minutes into the opening episode I knew that this show was going to be something incredible because it showed straight away that Craig Mason understands the translation of media now that brings me on to one of my major points as to why this show is so great and it comes down to the fact that the show justify is its own existence a lot of people when the show was first announced said things like why do we even need this the game is a masterpiece you can't possibly top it why even bother and you know what that's absolutely fair I even to a degree completely agree with that notion but the first two episodes spoon feed the answer to you on why we did in fact need this adaptation because it builds on the Perfection of the game it used a different storytelling medium to shed new light on pre-existing characters it uses the filmmaking medium to create World building that is simply harder to do in video game format the addition of Joel drinking his misery away was an amazing addition that the game intentionally avoided in the game Joel denies a drink from Tess that one no I don't want more in the show however Joel drinks himself into a little nappy nap we also get an extra peek behind the curtain of how the smuggling business Works in this world it all expands on the source material but in terms of pure character we see more for each individual as stated previously we see a lot more of Sarah in the show than we do in the game we see more of her bond with her father despite the fact that Joel is not exactly the world's number one dad he's a good father sure and he cares about Sarah but he makes a lot of mistakes Joel himself I'd argue they actually made him even more likeable pre-outbreak than he is in the game we see more of his downsides but we also see just a little bit more of the closer side of his and Sarah's relationship even Tommy gets more to do in the show's opening sequence and he even gets locked up in a county jail as opposed to just being the guy that saves Joel and Sarah a couple times like in the game and even once we skip ahead 20 years we see more of Tess and Joel's relationship in the game it's alluded to that they're together but the show goes no we aren't beating around the bush here they are together and given how things pan out for this story that's an incredibly smart decision that again justifies why they're telling this story in the first place we even get to see more of Ellie and Marlene which was skimmed over in the game I didn't really give a [ __ ] about Marlene in the game but in the show One brief moment made me 10 times more invested in her as a character that is when Joel has his gun pointed at Ellie nodded her pointed at me this was a really clever way to add more depth to the character than was present in the game and it's done very briefly yet it's done very effectively it's these small moments that The Last of Us excels in with adding more depth to pre-existing characters but we gotta talk about Ellie as I mentioned before I had some small concerns for the show before it came out one of those concerns being no spores the other was Ellie from what I saw before the show released I was like I don't know about Bella Ramsay as Ellie she just didn't really look like Ellie whereas I see Pedro Pascal as Joel and I completely buy it like that is Joel but with Bella Ramsay I just didn't see that don't get me wrong I'm not one of those idiots that didn't know anything about the actress I knew she was talented I'd seen her in Game of Thrones and she was great but she just didn't give me that Ellie Vibe initially but I was blown away by how despite looking nothing like Ellie from The Games bill Ramsey completely embodied the very essence of Ellie in the games Ellie she's a smartass she acts above her years she's got a foul mouth but she's really likable Bella Ramsay embodies that side of Ellie so well that the appearance literally just does not matter it's completely irrelevant I will say I still prefer Ellie from the games a lot more than I do in the show but that could of course change as the season goes on I will say though I think Pedro Pascal's Joel I might actually just come out and say I think I actually prefer Joel in the show than I do in the game I know that's going to get people really pissed off with me but I don't know bring the pitchforks out man I'm ready but as for Ellie I was very surprised how Bella Ramsay fully embodied the character her take on the character Nails the major beats of Ellie in the game but the show's version is slightly rougher around the edges with a lot of room to grow now look we often see in video game adaptations that car characters just aren't what they are in the game they try so hard in replicating what's in the game with these characters that they just feel nothing like them at all on rare occasions this works but most of the time it doesn't take 2021's Mortal Kombat for example Kano they really tried to make him feel like he was straight from the games and it worked the dude was great and he stole the show top knot the end what's his name Kung Pao past us a [ __ ] egg roll would you virtually every other character maybe except for a few it just didn't work at no point watching that film did I go yep that is Liu Kang yep that Shang Tsung yep that's Raiden no the last of us has no such issue and it all comes down to one word balance balance is something this show does incredibly well it doesn't try too hard to bring these pre-existing characters to life like so many video game adaptations try to do instead it feels like they've struck a great balance of what made the character so endearing to those who had played the game but also injecting something new that works for this interpretation a lot of people originally criticized Craig Mason for asking the actors to not play the game so they don't imitate the characters that they're playing but his method you can't really argue with it now at no point did I ever feel like Pedro Pascal was trying to replicate Troy Baker at no point did I feel like Bella Ramsay was trying to replicate Ashley Johnson it all feels natural it feels new but it also feels the same it's honestly remarkable the balance that they struck bringing these characters to life the changes they made with the characters don't feel like change for the sake of change every alteration feels meaningful and serves the characters for this version of the story when it comes to The Last of Us character is the most important thing the story of The Last of Us is incredibly simple and something you've probably seen before with some exceptions but the strength and magic of that game was never the story itself necessarily it's not exactly a groundbreaking story a very good one yes absolutely but that's not what made the game so great it was the characters within that story if they couldn't translate the characters from the game to the screen then this show was never going to work thankfully though there is no such issue with the Last of Us show the characters are just as strong as the game episode 2 essentially follows up and complements the first in every single way I'd argue the second episode is actually better than the first and it helps the show continue on its way of an arguably Flawless adaptation we spoke earlier about how this show uses its flashback scenes to incredible effect the episodes interview sequence was a perfect addition to the adaptation the second episode however I'd argue done it even better the flashback 2 Jakarta which was briefly referenced in the pilot this gives us 10 times more insight to this world and the fungus itself than the game ever did again that's not a knock on the game it's just an example of knowing what to add and take away from an already perfect Source material who was pretty intense seeing all this play out because let's be honest whilst not to the same degree this sequence sort of gives us kind of flashbacks to 2020. obviously I'm being a little dramatic here but that same sense of dread was evoked from the show detailing ground zero for the outbreak as mentioned earlier the Chernobyl Vibe of the show's Creator is once again prevalent here everything down to the camera movement even the color grading recaptures that feeling of dread Terror and impending doom for so many people the final scene of the Jakarta flashback was masterfully created from start to finish the slow push in of the camera as the dialogue becomes increasingly disturbing it perfectly captures the sheer Terror of the moment from the start of the scene we go from relative hope of a cure to the certain Doom of humanity all of that in a near unbroken push in toward the doctor easily one of my favorite scenes of the show and this was never in the game to begin with again it's addition that's actually surpassing what came before again it just proves that Mason and drochman knew what to add to this story and it's a prime example of conveying messages to the audience through cinematography like these flashback sequences in this show man perfect but masterful flashbacks aside we still have an equally incredible show building around it much like the first episode the follow-up continued with its near identical adaptation but had so many moments that send the story in a slightly New Direction and also moments that just help build the world around it more than the game ever did the show continues where the pilot left off with Joel and Tess still incredibly and understandably cautious of Ellie now as the audience we can probably sit here in armchair expert the situation and be like oh of course she's not going to turn it would have happened by now like relax the Joel and Tess are still very cautious of Ellie for good reason this is 20 years after the outbreak Joel and Tess are still alive for a reason there's the idea that in this world you can hang on to your morals and die or do what you need to do to survive so most of the people left in this world are not exactly good people they're people that have murdered stolen done everything they can to survive no matter how morally bankrupt they've become no matter how far they've distanced themselves from their own Humanity these people are alive for a reason so I loved the small detail that Joel and Tess weren't so quick to drop their guard toward Ellie until further into the episode now we gotta talk about this hive mind idea that the show takes on because for those of you who haven't played the game this is not in the game this is an entirely new idea for the show in a way to supplement the omission of spores you know as if this world wasn't already terrifying enough Mason and drockman decided that the fungus grows everywhere even underground so if you step on cordyceps in one place infected a mile away can know which apparently plays into a real-life aspect of fungus that Mason and Drake been researched and incorporated into the show and the way this plays into the climax of the episode and the death of Tess I'm just gonna say it it was better than it was in the game Tess's death in this show is better than the game although her dialogue is virtually identical the idea that it's a horde running toward them as opposed to humans just adds more dioness to the situation plus it gives extra insight into the infected how they work as well as creating one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen now on the subject of Tess this was another aspect of the show that I think actually surpassed the game anatov overall crushed this role and the small dialogue editions given to Ellie and Tess hope to create some form of an attachment to one another this helped add more weight to the situation at the end of the episode when it's revealed that Tess is infected both Joel and Ellie have stakes in the goodbye and this perfectly illustrates the dichotomy of Joel and Ellie Joel despite being Incredibly Close to Tess handles the situation like let's be honest an absolute Chad whilst he's visually Disturbed and clearly uncomfortable with the idea of leaving her behind to die he's incredibly cold about it and understands that it has to be done whereas Ellie despite knowing Tess for all of one day seemingly struggles more with leaving her behind this helps highlight how morally bankrupt Joel is what this world has done to his Humanity whereas Ellie has the benefit of growing up in the qz she's had the benefit of a child's innocence and doesn't really understand what it takes to stay alive in this world it really is great to see that the show is staying true to key character beats that made the game so great in the first place but it's still using the medium to build on what was already there and I have to mention the small details that just open up so many cans of worms with these characters the blink and you'll miss outline of Tess telling Joel that he never asked him to feel the same way she felt ask you for anything not to feel the way I felt not too well you shut the [ __ ] up because I don't have time this basically tells us that although Joel and Tess are close and like together he never really let his wall down after Sarah's loss not even for someone that he grew that close with this just again expands Joel's character and to be honest I didn't even pick up on it the first time I watched it there was just so much value in the small moments in this show that can be easily overlooked there is an attention to detail and element of care in this show that so many major shows and films these days just lack it's honestly refreshing let's stray away from that for a second and let's talk about clickers these things had to be adapted perfectly and they were the incredible design was essentially copy and pasted from the game as well as the audio so although visually the clickers are identical to the way they look and sound in the game they've been slightly changed to fit in with the more realistic approach of the show in the game you can walk into an area with six clickers and five Runners and walk out alive it seems that approach has been changed in the show with two clickers being almost too much for Joel and Tess and as I touched on earlier the sound design of this show was on full display here the sound design in the game was probably the best of maybe any game I've played and the show has clearly gone out of its way to make sure that it's up to par it's not just the sound design though the production design is just as Stellar the look and feel of this world is so well translated to screen the first episode had incredible moments from the game directly translated into the show but the second episode kicked it up a notch the hotel scene I mean just look at this now I have to touch on fan service there is a lot here for fans of the game whether it's locations dialogue specifically with Ellie boyfriend I'm an orphan and uh no Honestly though these first two episodes overall were simply perfect the worst thing about this show is that you know there was maybe one shot where the green screen wasn't great but honestly the true worst thing is that I have to wait a week for the next episode overall though The Last of Us is just absolutely destroying the competition of video game adaptations so far the incredibly faithful yet fresh adaptation is shaping to be one for the ages after the garbage of Uncharted last year it's great to see this IP treated so well we live in a time where established IPS are absolutely shut on by its creators because they just refuse to actually tell a good story but I mean it's just refreshing to see an established IP come along get treated right that puts the story and characters first that has something to say but does it in service to the story and its characters not to the detriment of them it feels like Mason and drockman really wanted to tell you this story and tell it right not drag Legacy characters through the mud not to alter things that completely defeat the purpose of telling the story in the first place this is just a perfect adaptation of what is arguably the greatest video game of all time and is well on its way in not just breaking the video game curse but burying it for good The Last of Us is without a doubt as it stands right now the best video game adaptation we have seen across film and television and I know people are going to make a case for animation being the best whether it's Arcane or something like that but live action Wise It's Undisputed I think the attention to detail the emphasis on character over fan service granted there is again plenty of fan service but it doesn't beat you over the head with it it's Tastefully done in a faithful retelling that isn't afraid to change elements to fit the medium that it's telling the story in The Last of Us feels like a show made with care a high quality drama that takes itself seriously and doesn't treat its audience like children if the last of us can keep this up it can absolutely be one of the greatest shows of recent memory which is impressive given that dark shadow that tends to follow video game adaptations now just before I end this video I don't normally do this but I just want to say if you guys are new around here feel free to subscribe to the channel for more in-depth video essays like this I've got some pretty cool announcements that I'll be rolling out over the course of this year as we hit certain Milestones the channel has gone from nothing to Something in the course of four to five months and this is just the beginning so be sure to subscribe to the channel as we gear up for a massive 2023 but until next time thanks for watching

Channel: Movie Overload

Views: 572,717

Keywords: the last of us, last of us, 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, craig mazin, 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, joel and ellie, the last of us game, last of us remake, hbo last of us, hbo max, movie overload

Id: FfefwJfNq60

Length: 27min 3sec (1623 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2023