Ready Steady Cut was the first to publish a review of The Last of Us Season 1.
There are no spoilers in our review of the first season of The Last of Us on HBO.
The Last of Us received some of the finest reviews of any game ever upon its PlayStation 3 release in 2014. HBO finally revealed in November 2020 that it had been given the all-clear for a series after many years of trying to get it made into a movie or television show. Is the adaption as good as the hoopla suggests? Or is it yet another feeble effort to bring a fantastic video game to life? Let’s start now.
The Last of Us Season 1 Review and Plot Summary
In The Last of Us, a 14-year-old girl who may be humanity’s last hope for survival is followed after a plague decimated civilization.
As a huge fan of the video game, I was concerned that this would fall into the trap of attempting to “Hollywood-ize” it like they do everything else or that it would try to overdo some aspects of the tale. In general, the producers did a tremendous job of attracting new viewers who either had never heard of the game or were invested for various reasons, as well as creating an universe that allowed the game’s devotees to feel comfortable seeing their favourite game elegantly translated onto the small screen.
I talked to a tonne of people on both sides of this issue, and everyone commended the fact that you don’t need to play the game to understand it, or that you can play the game and enjoy it. I think it’s one of the more effective video game adaptations in recent memory. It also brings optimism that some of the other beloved games that we all wished would be shown in this fashion could someday materialise in a similar manner to The Last of Us.
The two people that worked the hardest on this series’ production were set decorator Paul Healy and production designer John Paino. It must have been difficult to bring some of the most exquisite ideas for the video game to life. But this group of folks deserves all the praise since I had the same level of world-immersion when watching as I did while playing the game. Their efforts completely astounded me.
Pedro Pascal’s casting was another wise decision made by the show’s producers since it allows us to see a much softer side of Pascal than we had previously. You see a guy struggle to demonstrate empathy early on in the development of Joel and Ellie’s relationship, but with each succeeding episode, you see this evolution, and Pascal’s small portrayals of this character, even down to his laugh, make for the ideal Joel. Bella Ramsey deserves a lot of praise for her performance as Ellie.
Is The Last of Us Season 1 Good?
Indeed, it’s good. I’ve heard people call The Last of Us one of the best TV shows ever, and I just tell them to watch more television. The series had many elements that I thought succeeded, but I didn’t think episodes 2 and 3 were quite as strong as the others, preventing me from calling it one of the best. However, the work done both in front of and behind the camera demonstrates that everyone involved in this project understood how crucial it was to get this right. I can’t wait for season two because it’s without a doubt one of the best video game adaptations we’ve ever seen (the bar is low, though).
