The Last of Us' First Episode is an Apocalyptic Delight
Television and film adaptations of videogames don't have a great track record when it comes to quality. From the declining Witcher show to the dull World of Warcraft movie and the straight up bizarre Mario Bros film from the 90s, adaptations have often struggled to find their feet. In the past few years, this so called curse does seem to be lifting, however. We've already seen stylish delves into the worlds of Cyberpunk and League of Legends in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Arcane respectively, but a big budget, live action show based on a videogame has so far eluded us. Well, until now it seems. With Pedro Pascal (Joel) andBella Ramsey (Ellie) absolutely killing in the opening episode, the fear of disappointment is quickly bubbling up into breathless anticipation for the next chapter in the story.
Of all the games to adapt into a movie or TV show. The Last of Us seems an obvious choice. Releasing for the PlayStation 3 in 2013. the game was critically acclaimed for its themes, atmosphere and (of course), its storytelling. While it seems an odd decision to create a film out of the FPS Doom or the hundred-hour JRPGs of the Final Fantasy series, a 10-hour show based on a 10-hour game seems almost perfect. However, for the same reasons it could have been great, it was also very dangerous. Being such a well loved game, any small mistakes made by the show could turn into huge issues that many fans may blame as ruining the source material'. For example (slight spoilers), a simple race change for the character of Sarah has led to dozens of 0/10 reviews from apparent purists of the series. Just wait until they find out that Bella Ramsey (Ellie's actor) is non-binary. Oh wait- they already have. Oh, and they're review bombing the show before even watching it because of this? To be honest, that's not too much of a surprise.
Ignoring the, quite frankly, wacky complaints from a small (but unfortunately loud) sector of the fanbase, most people- critics and public alike- seem to be loving HBOs twist on the Last of Us' classic story. While only one episode has been released so far, the additions to the show are already an improvement in many ways. For example (mild spoilers), we get to see some of Ellie before we meet her as Joel. What makes this great is that it fleshes out her character at the beginning of the story rather than just being considered a side character or ‘cargo by viewers. On top of this, the decision to make Joel want a car battery to seek out his brother is immediately more interesting than him and partner Tess wanting a vague number of guns. It was never really explained all too well what they wanted those guns for anyway.
This way, players of the game are given something different to be invested in rather than this just being a beat for beat copy of the game's cutscenes. This intrigue is also present in the case of an 80's music track (earlier deduced by Ellie as meaning danger) playing in the background as the episode comes to a close- being drowned out by thunder and the iconic clicks of clickers. The show manages to stay faithful to the videogame whilst adding key narrative beats that doesn't feel like filler. The first couple hours of the game include a shooting gallery on the way to find Joel and Tess's guns- which is why it makes sense as to why the writers would want other stories and characters to have their moment without taking too much away from the core narrative.
That's not to say that there isn't action, however. With the iconic attempted escape from Texas, the burning truck has been upgraded to an entire crashing plane. If it wasn't clear enough with Game of Thrones, HBO certainly isn't one to skimp on production value. Every part of this first episode is well tuned to cover the most important aspects of the initial hours of the game while still introducing new ideas and themes that only serve to add to the original story.It feels that this was (in a form, anyway) how Naughty Dog wanted to tell the Last of Us’ original tale in 2013, but technical constraints of the time tied them down.
From what we've seen of HBO's The Last of Us, this is shaping up to be one of the greatest video game adaptations of all time- alongside the fantastic Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Arcane. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are doing a fantastic job of bringing these characters to the silver screen in a gripping way- and I, for one, am very excited to see them reenact some of the biggest scenes from the videogame. Of course, there is a lot of time for things to go downhill (with a total of nine episodes coming weekly), but, if the first episode is anything to go by, this may have the potential to be far, far more than just another mediocre adaptation.
