The Last of Us: Season 1
Based on: 2013 video game of the same name by Naughty Dog
Written & Created by: Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
Starring: Pedro Pascal (Joel) & Bella Ramsey (Ellie)
I was pretty interested in this series based on the hype around the video game, and wow, the hype was so right!
I'm not usually into zombie shows, so I'm glad I knew very little of this series going in. I only knew that people loved it and that it dealt with apocalyptic fiction. That's about it. I might have been more trepid if I knew from the beginning that it was a zombie show, but going in with much more open arms, I quickly came to understand that it actually deals little with the zombies. (At least, the show does. I've read that the game has more action, but that's appropriate for the different platform.)
The show is about Joel, a smuggler, who's tasked with delivering Ellie through dangerous wilderness to another group. Things obviously go wrong, and Joel ends up stuck with Ellie, no clear destination, and a need to simply survive together. Additionally, the nature of a condition Ellie has makes their situation unique and affects their approach to different groups of survivors around the country.
The series had a strong unpredictability to it that I really admired. A lot of zombie shows/movies I've been exposed to before focus on a surviving community that's trying to defend a stronghold and a very common plot device is a close friend or family member becoming infected and the emotional plight of the revelation and their death before or after turning. I've found any aspect of that to be very old and will lose my interest, so I was very happy that The Last of Us had very little of that, and if any aspect of it did happen, it only lasted for a single episode.
Instead, the only predictable thing I could count on was that both Joel and Ellie would survive and continue on together, and that actually served to provide an emotional safety net that helped keep me going. The show would lose its appeal if they separated and would lose its entire crux if one of them died. Everything else was 100% dynamic. The two of them traveled long distances every episode, so I never knew where they would end up, who they would come across, or the dynamics of any people or community they encountered. That kept things very fresh.
I suppose another unfortunate predictability was that almost every episode focused on the two of them--only the two of them. There were a couple instances when people they encountered were a good fit for their team and they attempted to travel together. However, I learned almost immediately that this was never to last; any third or even fourth member would have to die. The duo would remain just that.
The thing I admired most about the series was how little it focused on zombies and fighting. There were two or three that certainly did, and necessarily so. But the most hard-hitting episodes didn't. There was one backstory episode that just focused on two best friends living in a human colony, with almost no zombie interruption. There was the famous episode 3 (which was covered by national news outlets for its artfulness and impact, like the NYT, CNN, and Forbes) that simply utilized the apocalyptic setting as a backdrop for an incredibly and deep love story almost entirely isolated from the rest of the plot. There was an episode that focused on a the deep corruption and desolation one human colony had fallen into. And even the season finale did not need to include zombies.
All of these plot points, from the focus on Joel & Ellie's duo to the lack of necessity to include zombies, serves point in one singular direction: the deep and hugely moving relationship formed between this pair. Joel, who lost his daughter at Ellie's age, and Ellie, whose family we know very little about. (Other than a brief flashback in the season finale.) The incredible and harsh trials these two weather together forges a bond that has formed the strong following both the game and TV series have earned.
The events of the season finale are likely to have a strong impact on this relationship. I can't wait for season 2 to continue taking Joel and Ellie across the country and to unpack the circumstances and choices in the finale, and undoubtedly ugly-cry even more as they're forced to endure some of the worst of humanity together.
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