The Last of Us, Episode 1 Review – When You’re Lost in the Darkness
Reviewer Disclaimer: I am not a gamer. Let me rephrase that, I’m not a modern gamer. If anything, I could be classified as a retro gamer in that I still have an original Nintendo Entertainment System hooked up to a tube TV and a stack of game cartridges that I play regularly. I bought a Playstation 3 in 2012 to use solely as a blu-ray player and when I got adventurous 10 years later and picked up a used copy of Batman Arkham Asylum, I couldn’t get past the first level. As a result, I resigned myself to 20th century video game technology once again. All that is to say, that I definitely have not played The Last Of Us video game or it’s sequel. I’ve heard it praised and debated in the general pop culture, but know very little of it’s plot, other than it is a game that could be classified as a post-apocalyptic, cinematic experience.
I thought it was important to set the stage for the reviews to come as I cover each movie length episode of The Last Of Us on HBO Max. So if you’re looking for a comparison of the game to screen and the artistic license taken by the show runners, you’ll want to look elsewhere. What I will be offering is my take on The Last Of Us as a science-fi adventure drama series and how it may compare to other productions of its ilk. There’s certainly a lot to explore, so let’s get this show on the road.
First and foremost, the impressive practical production values of this series are all on screen in a very tactile way that deserves to be celebrated. From the opening segment that sets the stage for the the crisis to come, you can see that HBO and Sony definitely didn’t use CGI shortcuts to bring this video game world to life. Not that much was required to re-create a 1960’s talk show that opens the first episode of The Last of Us, but it’s refreshing to see period costuming and set design that doesn’t feel like the Party City equivalent of a bygone era.
As far as expositional data dumps go, John Hannah’s opening monologue about the dangers of a potential fungal invasion of the human body could very easily have been melodramatic and hokey, but instead, Hannah’s delivery makes the scientific facts absolutely chilling with his matter of fact delivery. As the cheery talk show host slowly loses all hope for humanity’s chances of success in a hypothetical future fight against fungus, the viewing audience instantly understands the stakes and is caught in the grip of the show’s very talented writer/director, Craig Mazin.
Of course the locked down sterility of the 60’s set piece is shaken loose when the time period changes to 2003 and we’re introduced to the daily life of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker) through a more naturalistic handheld camera style. This technique s very effective as the camera work gradually becomes more erratic as the constructs of society, taken for granted as predictable routine, slowly begin to unravel around the characters without explanation.
Mazin’s patience in letting the main plot creep into the scenes of this father-daughter relationship, like a slowly growing fungus, is refreshing. The story is obviously in no rush to get to a big action set piece in order to to grab the audience with a cheap thrill. Instead, a news report in the background or off-handed dialogue provide the occasional hint of something chipping away at the comfort of daily life in a way that subtly sets the stage for the mayhem to come. And when it does, the effect is a visceral spectacle.
Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds and it’s scenes of fearful, violent mob mentality in the face of invasion are some of the most nerve-racking moments of cinema I’ve experienced in the last few decades and I have to admit to being reminded of that 2005 Tom Cruise disaster film when commercial airplanes begin falling out of the sky into crowds of suburbanites running panicked their once peaceful downtown streets.
The distinction here is that in the first 20 minutes of The Last Of Us, the endearing performances of Pascal and Parker have completely trumped the very well staged horror of elderly next door neighbors transforming into unnatural parasitic invaders, causing the audience to care only about one thing, this family’s survival. The casting is so strong that when these characters are in peril, the thought of losing any one of them to the madness enveloping their world, feels like an emotional loss that the series would be lesser for. Unfortunately, the script has a cruel twist in store for it’s main protagonist.
Having never been compelled to watch them, I can’t compare The Last Of Us to other long running dystopian TV series like The Handmaid’s Tale or The Walking Dead, instead I find myself reminded of the world building in cinematic fare like Soylent Green and A Quiet Place. As the episode flashes forward 20 years after the breakdown of society, we finally arrive to the 2023 timeframe in which the bulk of the story will take place.
Much like the Charlton Heston classic, the uninfected remnants of humanity are attempting to hold the remaining pieces of society together, with new forms of currency, jobs that involve burning bodies infected with the fungus or joining the military ranks of FEDRA that is maintaining order through public executions for minor infractions. It is here we finally get a glimpse of what our main character Joel has become during the two decades during which the human race has been confined to a quarantine zones, like the one in what’s left of Boston.
The Mandalorian didn’t grab me in it’s first few episodes, so my familiarity with Pedro Pascal is solely from his goofy turn as Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984. I must admit though, that Pascal was the standout performance in that disappointing film for me. Here he plays the complete opposite side of the coin, portraying Joel as a blue collar man’s man, bottling his emotions beneath the surface to hide the pain of the loss of his daughter when the breakout first occurred. In the decades since, Joel has found himself a new partner, if not a family, in the hard edged, Tess (Anna Torv) with whom he deals in contraband on the black market, sometimes to sympathetic FEDRA soldiers, who share the same dream of escaping quarantine to connect with family and friends that have dared to venture outside the confines of the city.
The relationship between Joel and Tess is a fascinating one, in that any romantic liaisons are merely implied. It’s a business partnership more than anything, with the affection for one another always kept below the surface. The way Tess guides Joel’s emotions after she is attacked by a fellow black market dealer and his thugs, would feel manipulative, if it wasn’t so abundantly clear that she simply wanted to channel his rage into an outlet that was mutually beneficial to their situation. Putting both characters on equal footing in both ability and status plays against expectations in a refreshing way.
The most satisfying part of this dystopian setup is that Mazin continues to make each scene about the characters and not let the ever unfolding mysteries of the plot direct our attention. The introduction of Merle Dandridge as the revolutionary leader, Marlene adds an engaging touch of passion to the tense proceedings, but it is Bella Ramsey as Ellie that truly steals the show with her youthful energy and attitude. It could be simply that Ellie is the only character allowed to utter snide, sarcastic dialogue with a much needed tinge of humor, but Ramsey’s slightly off-kilter performance definitely adds life to each scene, making her more than a macguffin that needs to be smuggled outside the quarantine zone for mysterious reasons.
If I have one criticism of The Last Of Us, it’s the overuse of the “F-word” in a way that seems like it’s taking advantage of the freedom afforded by the HBO platform. It’s nowhere near Kevin Smith or Deadwood territory, but the language sometimes feels excessive, as opposed to a punctuation to dramatic dialogue. It’s not that I’m squeamish, it just starts to stand out over time and take away from the performances on screen with its repeated use. That being said, the dialogue overall is very natural, with each character having their own consistent voice throughout, so the abundance of coarse language can be ignored as a misguided flourish.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the scares and discomfort created by the “Infected” during their brief appearances in this first episode. While the out of control, fast zombie style movements are nothing new, the fungal tendrils that protrude from the mouth when infecting new victims are truly upsetting. It’s like the next generation of the hair in the mouth trope from the Ringu films and is very effective at making the creatures disgusting, as well as menacing.
The final act of the episode, When You’re Lost in the Darkness, finds Joel and Tess accepting a mission to smuggle Ellie out of the Quarantine Zone of Boston through a chance encounter. Motivated only by the promise that the rebel faction of Fireflies would provide the pair with the supplies necessary to survive in the wild, it’s obvious that taking on the role of caretakers for a teenage girl is not a welcome scenario, especially for Joel who seems unwilling to relive his own failure to save his own daughter 20 years prior. This is especially clear when Joel ends up violently releasing his inner-turmoil in a vicious takedown of a FEDRA soldier who opposes their escape, as jarring flashes to the soldier who gunned down Sarah on orders from his superior are interspersed with Joel’s fists beating the FEDRA guard to death. A catharsis for both the protagonist and the audience, that stirs some uneasy emotions.
With its inaugural episode, The Last of Us is off to a strong start, setting the stage with emotional investment, intrigue and for those seeking a good scare, the promise of more terror to come. For those who have played the game, you know how this ends, but for those like me who are experiencing the world of The Last Of Us for the first time on HBO Max, the adventure is just beginning. In the ever-growing sea of streaming content, The Last Of Us is certainly a standout for 2023.
Look for my reviews of each episode here on POPGEEKS as the series continues it’s weekly release schedule.
17 replies
Loading new replies...
Join the full discussion at the PopGeeks.com - Books, Film, Video Games, Animation Discussion →