The Last of Us is often hailed as a crowning achievement in storytelling, but that praise is sometimes delivered in a generally disparaging note to many other games.for video gamesCo-run by Craig Mazin of Chernobyl and Neil Druckmann of the game series, HBO’s The Last of Us is a great proof of concept for PlayStation. The history of video game adaptations is a terrible disaster at its worst and littered with lovable family movies at its best. HBO’s The Last of Us feels like the beginning of a new era for live-action video game adaptations.
Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Vera Ramsey (Game of Thrones) play Joel and Ellie in the post-apocalyptic drama series. The pair set off on what was initially marketed as a cargo run, a so-called cargo run by 14-year-old Ellie, focusing on their relationship and the relationships of the other people they meet along the way. ‘s front-line grave setting and broken man rests on the morally gray foundation on which Prestige TV has been built since Tony Soprano first set foot in Dr. Melfi’s office nearly 25 years ago. Sitting comfortably.
Overall, the show is very faithful to the game. As someone who’s played the game more than six times, I wondered how it looked to the fresh eye. Deliver a scene that is a replica. In the premiere episode, when Joel’s daughter Sarah joked to her father that she sold him “hardcore drugs” to afford to fix his watch as a birthday present, she didn’t sound exactly like what players had already heard. Say it the same way. When she later woke up in the middle of the story’s first fateful night, she called out Joel twice in a tone that sounded strange, like her video game counterpart. Each time they appeared, I struggled with my feelings for these near-perfect recreations. With the millions of people who have already played the game, was it beneficial to be so loyal and largely predictable? It was also distracting. Naturally, those who attend the show without any prior gaming experience will not have this problem.
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But even in the first episode, it doesn’t take long for the series to show its willingness to pivot to fit the new format of the story. But partly because it’s TV, The Last of Us shines best when it recognizes and leans into these opportunities. , HBO’s The Last of Us’ crowning achievement comes whenever the story takes a long time to spend with characters other than Ellie and Joel.
Players of AAA action-adventure games don’t expect or even want a long, slow launch with characters who aren’t central to the game or who provide different gameplay features. Character-driven drama on television doesn’t require gameplay expectations to be met, allowing you to soak in for a while. An overarching story is told, but the writers spend more time on good characters.
Each time this happened, it felt new and truly added to the overall story. Guided by great writing that consistently gets to the heart of the series’ longstanding themes, these parts of the show are spectacular and justify the whole effort The strictly faithful series feels limited and can probably only be enjoyed by those without previous experience with the game, but these additions to the story make The Last of Us an adaptation that is both It feels like we’ve found the best-case scenario – reimagined in a faithful and smart way.
One example of spending a lot of time with other characters is actually consuming an entire episode and abandoning the main character almost completely. This is the best episode of the season and the one I thought the most about. It shows that The Last of Us as a TV show can be as poignant, harrowing, beautiful and terrifying as a game. It further bolsters the renewed feeling that movies are not the right format for live-action video game adaptations, and that serialized television is a much better place to take advantage of what games have to offer. After so many forgettable movies, HBO’s The Last of Us, split into roughly nine hours, can feel almost effortlessly great.
Much of that high bar can also be credited to the cast. Pascal and Ramsey are great as Joel and Ellie. In the first episode, he cried twice watching Pascal perform as Joel. The first time, you’d guess if you knew the story already, but his other time was a pretty basic moment with Joel working behind the scenes. of the truck. Pascal’s ability to transform into a character I had in mind for his decade was eye-opening and sometimes awe-inspiring. Before the 2003 collapse and he’s the new Joel 20 years later. What kind of person he becomes can be seen in previous eras, but as the story moves forward, his touch of optimism is gone and his weariness with the ugly world sets in, under the sun. Harden him like the clay left behind.
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To their credit, Ramsey takes Ellie’s vulgar defiance and cynicism in a way that, like the game, is often the show’s comic relief, even though comic relief is rarely witnessed. The show, like the game, is really about these two characters and how their relationship evolves over the months, and it’s all about being a surrogate father and daughter. The pair’s chemistry doesn’t feel like they’ve kept anything important from the 2013 gameāit gives the impression of original actors Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker.
Since it’s HBO, the co-stars face the embarrassment of the rich when it comes to supporting roles. Bringing characters like Anna Torv, Melanie Lynskey, Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett to life, whether you’re meeting them for the first time or seeing an old polygon in a new way, the series is much more than a “fan film”. to be excellent. “Some people worry about how a project like this will feel.
The show also features many of Gustavo Santaolalla’s original and iconic scores. The composer’s work has long been the perfect accompaniment to what Naughty Dog was aiming for, so it was an unforced error for the creators to look elsewhere to set the tone. That’s true on TV, too, including the amazing opening credits sequence that’s a hit with those who haven’t heard it yet.
Again, HBO has long been the flagship of prestige TV. If you were to make a list of the 10 greatest dramas ever produced, almost all of them would have been made on HBO over the past quarter century. I don’t think The Last of Us makes that list today, nor do I think this series is the definitive way to experience a story. I’ll admit, I may have to make the comparison with my inexperienced eye. Given room to grow and tell the full story, it could reach the top tier of HBO shows in time.
It’s no longer possible to look at some of the characters in the game without being reminded of the show’s more expansive arc. is happy to retroactively make the game better, make the characters more vivid, and consider it the canon of Naughty Dog’s games.
But an HBO adaptation doesn’t have to be better than the 2013 game, or better than The Sopranos or Six Feet Under. It boasts as one of the greatest video game adaptations of all time, and is a clear signal that PlayStation is right to pursue a future in which an already well-received video game is reborn on TV. and come to life with a cast and crew that seems to live up to its already stellar reputation. This is a formula that I can repeat with a few other examples, and I’m curious to see how they yield results. I am most excited to see you find new life in such a unique and equally memorable and wonderful way.
