HBO has released yet another banger of a show and we are here for it!
Two of the most badass actors of Game of Thrones, Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell) and Bella Ramsey (Lyanna Mormont) team up as leads Joel and Ellie in the post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us and they are legendary. Based on the popular 2013 video game of the same name, the series stars Pascal, Ramsey, Anna Torv, Merle Dandridge and Gabriel Luna.
Recap:
The first two episodes set the scene for viewers as we are introduced to a world ravaged by a deadly based virus that has infected billions of people and killed millions of others. Sound familiar? Yes, we’ve just lived through a similar global pandemic. In fact, we are still living through it.
Pascal’s Joel is a smuggler who lost his only daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) 20 years before when she was first attacked by humans turned into cannibalistic creatures by a rapidly spreading spore-based virus, and then shot by a soldier who was meant to help them. The Clickers, as these zombie-like monsters are now known, are vulnerable to light and have keen hearing. Together with his partner Tess (Torv), Joel has to get Ellie (Ramsey), a teenager used by the government as an experiment to produce a cure for the virus, quietly to safety across a decimated United States. Along the way, they encounter various dangers, including a nest of Clickers, rogue military men and more.
Joel, embittered by grief and hatred for the Clickers, initially wants nothing to do with Ellie because she reminds him of his lost daughter, but is forced to protect her when Tess is infected and sacrifices herself so that they can escape.
Two episodes in and the world is already obsessed with this new series. It has bagged HBO its largest jump in viewership between episodes for any of its series thus far!
Impressions:
You guys know how I feel about post-apocalyptic dramas – I barely got through The Stand while watching it in the beginning of the 2021 lockdown. The only thing that got me through it was my husband Alexander Skarsgard.
Sure, Pascal is providing plenty of eye candy in The Last of Us but the premise itself makes for compelling viewing. Now, more than ever, we as a global society can appreciate these types of shows because we have lived through it. We were wholly unprepared to deal with these kinds of situations and the devastating effects they have on, not just our infrastructure and way of living, but our psyche too.
Pascal’s Joel is a man tormented by his grief for his daughter. Ramsay’s Ellie is the purported “saviour” of mankind and it’s a HUGE responsibility to place on the shoulders of a foul-mouthed 14-year-old who has never been let outside. Think for a second about all of the babies born during our own lockdown and how utterly bewildering it must be for them to now be thrust into a world filled with people other than their parents, to have to experience life and to learn to socialize. Ellie has to deal with all of that AND save the world.
As a GOT fan, I am obviously getting a kick out of seeing Oberyn and Lyanna together onscreen for the first time. Kudos to HBO for playing up that connection with promo videos like this one:
Their chemistry in The Last of Us feels natural and while we know this story will inevitably end with Joel regaining his fatherhood as a paternal figure to Ellie, only to possibly lose her in the fight to save humanity, we can’t help rooting for this awesome duo.
The Clickers are damn scary. A little too close in looks to the demogorgons in Stranger Things for my liking but I appreciate a good scare and the prosthetics the makeup department have designed. Having Anna Torv of Fringe fame back in another quirky series warms my sci-fi loving heart.
My new favourite series feature is creators using 1980s music to add to the plot. In The Last of Us, Joel and his fellow smugglers use hits like A-HA’s Take On Me to indicate when it is safe to move cargo. Pump that music louder, baby!
Filmmakers usually like to base their end-of-the-world action in bigger cities like New York and Washington. In The Last of Us, the big action scenes take place in Texas and Boston and this is refreshing to see. A killer chase and bombing in the last museum in Boston? Yes, please!
For a show based on a video game, The Last of Us is impressive. Hollywood has been running low on inspiration lately, with its production of remakes, reboots and musicals of movies that do not need to be musicals. If fleshing out the backstory of a video game is a new well of inspiration to tap into, and it produces quality shows like this one, I am all for it.
The Last of Us streams every Sunday on HBO Max and every Monday on Showmax.
