The Last of Us, Now TV
The narrative and stories of The Last of Us games were always their most compelling component and what made the franchise highly anticipated as a TV series.
When Episode One aired and it was able to pay homage to the games at the same time as creating high drama and somehow (somehow!?) providing a slightly fresh take on the zombie genre, expectations were high. Was this the next mega TV series on the level of Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad?
The Last of Us carried this expectation well to begin with. Episode 3 was the perfect episode of television. A heart wrenching love story with subtle twists and apocalyptic stakes that will last long in the memory.
By the end though, this first series will be remembered as a collection of great moments rather than a compelling, coherent series that built a formidable franchise and left us dying to understand what would happen next.
Like a console game, the episodes unfolded as a series of disconnected levels. Each time we tuned back in we found Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) in an entirely new and disjointed situation - irrelevant to their progress or their final destination. It contributed to the series feeling arc-less and fragmented.
Cordyceps made the zombie genre feel more real and was a fresh take, but that didn’t stop The Last of Us constantly reverting to other well-worn zombie tropes. Every fight with the infected ended with human victims staring down at their limbs and seeing bite marks; every episode opened with encounters with new, hostile groups who quickly either established themselves as friendly or otherwise.
The finale was the final nail in an underwhelming coffin. Ellie and Joel abruptly arrived at the hospital destination we had sort of forgotten about. The final action sequence was made to feel like an afterthought and was dealt with with a slow montage. There was only one infected in the entire final episode.
The Last of Us first series, like a Playstation game, was a collection of disjointed moments and failed to leave me clicking for a second series.
