A near-perfect season of television, and dare I say one that sets a new standard, not just for video game adaptations, but for adaptations in general.
The Last of Us is a breath of fresh air in this oversaturated genre. While many may take issue with the fact that the infected in this show are relegated to the back seats, I think it's a brilliant and welcome change. The Last of Us is not a 'zombie show', it's a show about love and loss; a show that aims to display a brutal, bleak, and heartbreaking world where these characters are forced to cling onto whatever they can get hold of to justify their continued fight to survive. The relationship between Joel and Ellie is brilliant, and their chemistry as a father/daughter type duo is second-to-none.
I've seen a lot of fans of the game complain that there's not enough action, and while it's certainly true that there's very little action in comparison to the game, I don't think that's a bad thing. This is not an action show, and video game fights do not translate well on screen. The game version of The Last of Us often sees the player (controlling Joel) mow down dozens of enemies at a time, and as a game, that works. It's necessary to have all those enemies, as action is a big part of the experience when playing a video game. But for a show, fewer action sequences make much more sense. The show feels much more grounded and realistic than the game ever did, and that's in part due to the action sequences being both far fewer, and also much more of a struggle for the characters involved. In this show, Joel is not a superhero, not like he is in the game. He can't take three gunshots and still take down five armed men, three runners, and a clicker. No, in this show, Joel is very much human; when he gets in a tussle with even one opponent, he struggles; and when he gets stabbed, he goes down and spends a long time recovering back to full health.
As far as the plot goes, the show hits every major beat that the video game did, and almost all of the major scenes are word-for-word identical to the video game counterpart. This was fantastic to see, as the game had already done a perfect job of hitting certain emotional scenes out of the park, and the show is no different. However, there are a bunch of times when the show does make some plot changes. One of the main changes is the entirety of episode three, 'Long, Long Time', which details the story of Bill and Frank's relationship. While this episode might be one of the most beautiful love stories ever told on television and was an easy 10/10 for me, it was also a huge departure from the game's plot. In the game, we never get to meet Frank; we only meet Bill. We meet Bill while playing as Joel, accompanied by Ellie. Bill is a bitter man who hates pretty much everything in the world, and his 'partner', Frank, is already gone. The show making the decision to never have Bill meet Joel and Ellie in the present timeline was a huge change, and while I was disappointed that we never got to hear the banter between Bill and Ellie in live-action, I actually think it was a very smart, and well-executed change; and one that gave us what will likely be considered by many to be the best episode of television this year.
There were other, much smaller changes throughout the show too. One example is that in the game, we never went to Jackson to find Tommy, in fact, we never get to see inside Jackson until the second game. Instead, Joel and Ellie meet up with Tommy and Maria at the hydroelectric dam. Another, even smaller change, would be how in episode eight when Ellie is hacking David to pieces with that knife, the game's equivalent scene actually has Joel find her during that, and he physically pulls her off of David to comfort her. Whether or not you like these changes is obviously going to be entirely subjective, but I will say that I found almost all of the changes to work well and make a lot of sense considering the change in medium.
Nothing will ever be an exact 1:1 adaptation of source material, that's just how things are. It doesn't matter if it's a book, a video game, or a comic book - there have to be some changes to make it work better for television. I don't agree with people who want as many changes as possible and who think that a 1:1 adaptation would be boring - I think that's silly. But I also don't agree with people who complain about every time there's a slight change to something and who then go on and complain about the show not being true to the source. This show is objectively one of the greatest adaptations ever put to screen, and I think we have the involvement of the game's original writer, Neil Druckman, to thank for that. The show hits all of the major story beats and character moments that the game does, while also expanding on various points in order to flesh things out a little more than they did in the game. If you genuinely think that this is a bad adaptation, then you must never have seen any other adaptations of other materials. You must never have read a book that was made into a movie, or any other game that was made into a show. Take 'The Witcher', for example, a show that received a lot of praise, especially for its first season. That show is literally one of the worst adaptations of source material that has ever been put to screen. The main plots literally changed and were abandoned in favour of the showrunner's own original content. Characters literally behave in ways that they never would in books or games. How about the recent Halo show? That was a bad adaptation. The Uncharted movie? Awful adaptation. But The Last of Us... this show is the furthest thing from being a 'bad' adaptation. The characters are true to themselves, the tone is a match, the plot is a match, the emotional impact is very, very close too.
I think the only thing that comes to mind when I think of things I didn't like about this season, was probably the stuff with Melanie Lynskey's character of Kathleen in episodes four and five. It wasn't that she was poor in the role or anything, but her entire character just felt entirely unnecessary, and it felt as though we spent too much time with her when we could have been spending it with Sam and Henry.
For me, the weakest episode of the season was probably episode seven, 'Left Behind'. It was still a good episode, and Bella Ramsay was great in it, but I felt as though the time spent in that episode would have been better suited elsewhere, maybe giving us more time with David's group to help flesh that plot out a little more.
Overall, this was a damn near-perfect season of television. The pacing is fantastic, the characters are compelling, the tension is fantastic, and the emotional payoff is brutal. Season two will no doubt be controversial, just as the second game was. Though, from what I read, it seems that they're planning on splitting the second game across two seasons rather than just one, so that will be interesting to see.
Overall: 9.4/10
When Apple TV launched (with The Morning Show, See, and Dickinson) there was only one show that was tolerable out of their limited selection: For All Mankind. Anyhow, after its meh first season, the series immediately turned itself around in its second year where we finally see how speculative the concept of the Russians reaching the Earth would look like.
Anyways, this season creates some amazing dynamics and merges the real historical events with the whole nukes and guns on the moon concept. In the beginning of the season, you notice these characters have changed drastically, and they develop even further once the finale ends. One critic I love stated this is similar to another show that lifted up until its second season, that's Halt and Catch Fire. The reason for that series's turn of quality was that the writers discovered the women of the series were the driving force, not the men. The outstanding performances came from Shantal VanSanten as the astronaut wife turned bar owner Karen, Wrenn Schmidt as the headstrong and heartfelt Margo, Jodi Balfour as the closeted and conflicted Ellen, Krys Waller as the undermined yet loyal Danielle, Sarah Jones as astronaut turned celebrity Tracy and Sonya Walger as the badass Molly (who is most likely Starbucks ancestor). Don't who would be up for lead or supporting, but if the Emmy's at least picks one of these women, they'd be doing something grateful. I'd even say Michael Dorman steals the show with his character arc that has us root for the once jerk astro jock to the now pot bellied dead beat drunk.
I gave this an 8, which means there are flaws. There's a storyline between Karen and Gordo's son, that's best to forget about like Landry killing a guy in Friday Night Lights. But all in all, this is a sophisticated season of TV with one of the most thrilling and heartbreaking episodes to appear on the small screen (the finale, which I praised about on its TrakTV page). But there are some terrific ways in which history is intertwined with this alternate reality, such as the Korean Airflight 007 which results in a terrific two episode arc in which the characters interact with their Russian foe (or friends?). Even how they discuss placing nuclear weapons on the moon, and requesting astronauts use artillery is done in a very serious manner that doesn't have viewers roll their eyes, but ask what if the Moon turned into the next colonialist site.
Anyways, S2 concludes with two major cliffhangers that will have you requesting S3 ASAP. It'll be interesting to see how much the science of this series develops as the creators question how far human technological advancements would have gone had we stayed in the sky. When the series was first pitched, the concept sounded so limited and could only work as a miniseries like The Plot Against America, but Ronald D. Moore and company show there more to speculate beyond the moon. So much to think about, though it is sad from the very ending, you know some characters won't be coming back or they won't be playing as big of role as they did in the first two seasons. And if the characters haven't grown on you after S1, they will here. Damn good TV!
