The Last of Us: When You're Lost in the Darkness   Books Included 
January 16, 2023 6:39 AM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe

We meet Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) just as the world begins to end. Twenty years later, Joel and his companion Tess (Anna Torv) are in Boston, making ends meet through legit jobs and on the thriving post-apocalyptic black market, trying to make their way to find Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) when they are roped into a smuggling operation, transporting Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to a rebel Firefly outpost near Boston.

"Books included" here means the video game(s) the series is based on.
posted by dis_integration (33 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Nothing profound to say, but I enjoyed it. Solid acting, set design was immersive. Doesn't look like they pinched any pennies.
I was a bit confused by a couple of things. Like when they showed up at the place of the guy who had ripped them off on the battery and they'd been a gunfight. I guess he was ripping off the Firefly people too?
And where did Ellie come from? Maybe that's explained later. And why did they call her Veronica?
Anyway, looking forward to second part.
Are they all going to be over an hour or was that just a one-off?
posted by conifer at 6:51 AM on January 16, 2023


Are they all going to be over an hour or was that just a one-off?

Per the schedule on HBO.com, Ep2 will be 55 minutes, Ep3 will be 80 minutes, and Ep4 will be 50 minutes. That's as far out as it goes right now.
posted by Etrigan at 7:25 AM on January 16, 2023


Conifer - Ellie was giving a fake name out of pure stubbornness. That was my take, anyway.

I thought the decision to push the onset of the plague back ten years, from 2013 to 2003, was kind of brilliant. It gives the show-runners the ability to depict a world *clearly* frozen in amber at the moment of outbreak, in a way it would be harder to do with the 2013 date. We see a man in 2013 wearing a Gore/Lieberman shirt, and we’ll certainly never see a smartphone or flatscreen TV. It gives you an instantly *different* material culture.
posted by Mr. Excellent at 7:41 AM on January 16, 2023 [11 favorites]


Also: My god, the euthanasia scene was amazing. It could have been played as “oh, look at this callous and brutal government,” but instead it shows that there are non-monstrous people serving the military dictatorship for non-monstrous reasons. That woman’s heart is clearly *breaking*, and she’s doing her level best to hide it. Because, after all, what else can she do? What else could anyone do?
posted by Mr. Excellent at 7:44 AM on January 16, 2023 [10 favorites]


One thing I thought was really well done was the slow buildup to Joel's first outburst of violence. While I'm sure we're going to see a lot more of him coldbloodedly murdering people in the future, by this point in the video game you've already stacked up more confirmed kills than prince harry. But for dramatic purposes, that delay was much more effective, and worked to connect Joel's penchant for unrestrained violence with the trauma of the losing his daughter on the first day of the apocalypse. Overall I think this show will actually be good?

You can tell HBO is really counting on it though, with the series titles being basically the cordyceps version of the Game of Thrones opening titles. I'm really hoping we get the entire "part 1" arc in this series and don't have to wait a year for the conclusion.
posted by dis_integration at 8:07 AM on January 16, 2023 [6 favorites]


The opening framing device/scene of the talk show from 1968 was a clever touch, too. Gave an overall explanation in a fresh way that felt menacing. So far, so good. Though I was also briefly confused by the battery subplot. I knew the seller was corrupt and ripping people off, but it still wasn't very clear why there was a bloodbath scene associated with it. I imagine it was an editing issue for time.
posted by SoberHighland at 8:37 AM on January 16, 2023 [2 favorites]


Never played the game, and I don't have much interest in zombie/apocalypse stories right now, but the pilot was excellent. Maybe the Pedro Pascal time jump age thing doesn't quite work for me -- he seems to have gone from well-preserved guy in his mid-30s to slightly less well-preserved guy in his mid-40s -- but if that's the suspension of disbelief I must swallow to actually see Pedro Pascal's face in something, I'll take it.
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:05 AM on January 16, 2023


The Last Of Us Fungal Outbreak Is Terrifying, But Is It Realistic? [Vulture / Archive] Posting this in here as it has spoilers for the video game, but interesting article!
posted by ellieBOA at 10:03 AM on January 16, 2023 [1 favorite]


I thought the decision to push the onset of the plague back ten years, from 2013 to 2003

Man Bush really was an awful president, wasn't he? /s
posted by nathan_teske at 10:45 AM on January 16, 2023 [3 favorites]


One of the really small things that I appreciated a lot: when they're outside the wall at the end of the episode, they're clearly in the dark...but you can see what the hell is going on. A lot of recent TV shows seem to have forgotten that a TV loses a lot if you can't actually see the action.

Also, that guard not only pissed Joel off by demanding all of his profits and free pills, but also (unwittingly) triggered his daughter-related PTSD. He couldn't have been more a dead man walking if he'd just bought a boat and announced he was three days from retirement.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:40 AM on January 16, 2023 [6 favorites]


I got this game for free a couple of years ago when I bought my kids a Playstation. They're far too young for it, but I gave it a go, but didn't get very far as it was the first game I'd played in about 15 years. If they'd made this based on my attempt to play the game, Pedro Pascal wouldn't be able to move his head and walk at the same time, and there'd have been a 30 minute long sequence of him staring at a ladder with no earthly idea how to climb it. But it seemed like a great game, I was very disappointed that my ineptitude meant I just had to bail on it.
So, I'm delighted they've made a "prestige" TV show of it, with some serious talent in front of camera and behind it, it has a lot of promise. I'm not sure how in keeping it is with the rest of the game I never played, but I really like having a "zombie"/"infected" show that had hardly any appearances from the infected. I have serious "Walking Dead and associated properties fatigue", where they seem to think they have to have the characters inexplicably walk in to a field of zombies a couple of times each episode, so this was a nice change.
posted by chill at 11:48 AM on January 16, 2023 [4 favorites]


The Last of Us Levels Up Its Opening [Vulture / Archive]
posted by ellieBOA at 1:06 PM on January 16, 2023


The bit when a truck crashes into theirs and Tommy says “I’ll meet you at the station” before they split up and go into a linear combat encounter had me LOLing, pure videogame shit right there.
posted by adrianhon at 2:52 PM on January 16, 2023 [5 favorites]


I watched my partner play both of these games, and they were absolutely riveting. They sit in my mind like tv shows already. As they were sneaking around outside the wall, he pointed out that this was basically the game - sneaking around and avoiding stuff.
posted by jeoc at 4:12 PM on January 16, 2023 [2 favorites]


I thought this was really well done (as someone who didn't love the games and barely remembers the story outside of the big moments) -- lots of thoughts but first of all spoilers if you consider "next on" trailers to be spoilers:

spoilery bit
I'm really hoping we get the entire "part 1" arc in this series and don't have to wait a year for the conclusion.

pretttttty sure there's a small bit amid the "in the coming weeks" montage that is from the scene where Joel "rescues" Ellie from the fireflies at the tail end of things


anyway. am I the only one sort of surprisingly thinking this story works better when it's not a video game? for one thing, bursts of violence (from Joel but also from anyone/anywhere) are much more impactful when they're not tied to Naughty Dog's combat/gameplay loops.

the casting is just so excellent all around that the story attains a near-instant verisimilitude both in the prologue and when it transitions to 2023. any show that gives even a small and gruesomely-ended role to Brad Leland wins my heart by definition.

the euthanasia scene was a highlight to me, too -- quiet, genuinely human and humane, but utterly awful.

knowing where this goes and also the premise itself all give the whole thing a funeral-march vibe that I don't love in my televisual entertainment, but the love and care is evident everywhere in the production, enough so to make me imagine this show succeeding in exactly the way I thought Walking Dead failed with every episode after its stunning pilot. like TWD before it, even where it's a straight adaptation it still feels well-built enough to succeed (or fail) on its own merits and not by virtue of the quality of the source material
posted by Kybard at 6:04 PM on January 16, 2023 [2 favorites]


So far it's been a little of "I remember this scene and died 20 times" and a little of "that's interesting how they did that".
posted by fiercekitten at 9:24 PM on January 16, 2023 [1 favorite]


All of it is good and all of it has avoided the obvious pitfalls of so many bad video game adaptations of the past. But I was certain that would happen, because Neil Druckmann is involved — and because, even if all they did was recreate the game's cutscenes shot-for-shot, they'd have the best video game adaptation of all time.

And, in fact, there have been a couple of uncanny similarities, most notably the whole escape scene in 2003 in the pickup truck. Why mess with what works, I suppose? Unlike other parts of the 2003 prologue, that scene (and the stuff thereafter) didn't need to diverge from the game at all, so there's no reason not to treat the game as a high-fidelity storyboard.

I was wondering how they were going to handle the gunfight sections. You forget the extent to which they're a gameplay crutch, because Naughty Dog is in charge of this entire world, and one of their goals is to create a situation in which it is highly rational and commonplace to need to shoot at things all the time. But without saying too much, I'm glad that Joel and Tess come across the aftermath of a gunfight rather than participate in one. It bodes well for the body count of the entire season.
posted by savetheclocktower at 10:12 PM on January 16, 2023 [4 favorites]


What does everyone think of the shift from spores to tendrils?

I haven't played Last of Us, but I understand that they used spores as the main transmission vector in the game. Also that's how Cordyceps function in real life.

I can see how making spores work cinematically would be tough, and honestly I don't see how anyone could logistically avoid a pathogen that is not only airborne but also sticks to clothes and skin.

A mask wouldn't cut it, and I think I'd be taken out of the show if people were able to avoid spore clouds by wearing gasmasks.

Spores are more horrifying, but I guess running, clicking zombies are scary enough as they are, without clouds of spores poofing out of them.
posted by ishmael at 10:15 PM on January 16, 2023


Hi, quick overall question and I'm looking for a yes or no answer, not details, because I've never played the game.

But is it every explained in the game how this disease/pathogen/whatever started? Yes or no would be a totally fine answer, thanks!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:27 PM on January 16, 2023


> is it every explained in the game how this disease/pathogen/whatever started?
A newspaper that you can find at the beginning of the game (screenshot) implies a likely answer, but it's a very minor and missable aside. The topic is never a focus of the game's narrative.
posted by Syllepsis at 11:04 PM on January 16, 2023


I really enjoyed the first episode: I've never played the game, but have watched the entirety of Andy Gilleand's excellent "Last of Us movie", a playthrough recorded and edited to run as a smooth narrative.

Perhaps most of all I'm enjoying recognizing sets and streets. Most of the episodes this season were filmed where I live, including some scenes shot at my workplace. It's nice to see Calgary stand in for Texas and Boston, much as I'm sure Torontonians get a kick out of seeing their city stand in for other American burgs.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 11:39 PM on January 16, 2023 [1 favorite]


I thought it was a very good opening episode. Acting and world were above expectations, the story thoughtfully stayed true to the game (which I love, for so many reasons) while making this series a new thing. I was very worried this would ruin the game. Now I’m much more confident I can enjoy both, which is a gift.

Regarding tendrils vs spores: In interviews they hinted it made better sense for TV. In my opinion, the creators are thoughtful people and I firmly believe they didn’t want a hero type character (Ellie) who doesn’t have to wear a mask like everyone else after all we’ve been through the last few years. I have played the game multiple times, and changing the idea around breathing-in-spores vs tendrils getting you isn’t super impactful (except for one or two scenes which they can work around).

Bravo and great start.
posted by glaucon at 9:19 PM on January 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


Tess is my favorite character in the game. (So I might not be watching long lol.) She's one of my favorites in any game, but that's a low bar.

I don't think Joel from the game could have thrown the dead girl into the fire but I guess it's worth it for the shot of him holding her the same.

In the game, to me, Joel seems less functional, more broken, and I get the sense that Tess carries him, a lot. The show does make it clear she has to handle him, but IDK, showing Joel making moves and functioning without Tess I think weakens her dramatic importance later. And just replacing it with generic bonding doesn't work. In the show, he notices Tess's shiner and immediately wants to do some killing. In the game, he only mentions it after he's done bitching at Tess, accusing her of screwing up a deal, a deal he should have been at but wasn't because he was too broken. He asks her if the guys who jumped her are still alive and she laughs and says, "That's funny." He does warm up, and show concern, only after that. IDK it feels realer to me.

And IIRC in the game it's more clear that Joel does NOT want this little girl around, and it's clear why, and Tess has to manage him then, too...

This is probably the only game > show complaint I'm going to make or care about though, because I think the intro + first scene back from the time skip are just amazing.
posted by fleacircus at 10:28 AM on January 18, 2023 [3 favorites]


Also I gotta say, the scenes of "look at this horrible authoritarian government trying to enforce quarantine rules, they're the bad guy cops and should be blown up by cool noble heroes" sure hits different in 2022.
posted by fleacircus at 10:37 AM on January 18, 2023 [5 favorites]


I agree, Fleacircus. I’m giving this adaptation a lot of leeway because of how true to the original story intent it has stayed so far, but the character relationship developments did happen quickly in episode 1 without adding a lot of emotional weight. Ellie went from immediately being found by Joel/Tess to being outside to being caught by the guard. The quick defense of her and care by Tess felt all too quick. I’m hoping they build some bonds in the next episode because it’s been a little forced.
posted by glaucon at 11:08 AM on January 18, 2023 [1 favorite]


How ‘The Last of Us’ Turned Its Terrifying Outbreak Day Into a ‘Period Piece’ [IndieWire]

Also I read somewhere I’ve now forgotten that if you feel like you recognise Nico Parker who plays Sarah, despite not having seen Dumbo, it’s because she’s Thandiwe Newton’s daughter!
posted by ellieBOA at 2:07 AM on January 19, 2023 [2 favorites]


Also I read somewhere I’ve now forgotten that if you feel like you recognise Nico Parker who plays Sarah, despite not having seen Dumbo, it’s because she’s Thandiwe Newton’s daughter!

That was what was contributing to her giving me spooky vibes that I couldn't put my finger on. She looks just like her!
posted by ishmael at 6:35 AM on January 19, 2023 [1 favorite]


I've now watched the movies spliced together from game play and cut scenes, and I have to say: The craftsmanship of the first HBO episode is undeniably quite good, but I hope they don't follow the game's plot too closely in later episodes. It's so bleak, especially part 2. Bleak in a way that is neither redeeming nor satisfying. Too much violence and revenge porn.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 3:51 PM on January 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


It's so bleak

I imagine one of the key influences on the game must have been Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel The Road? If so, bleakness would have been baked in right from the start.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:40 PM on January 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


qxntpqbbbqxl: "I've now watched the movies spliced together from game play and cut scenes, and I have to say: The craftsmanship of the first HBO episode is undeniably quite good, but I hope they don't follow the game's plot too closely in later episodes. It's so bleak, especially part 2. Bleak in a way that is neither redeeming nor satisfying. Too much violence and revenge porn."

I am torn about this. I've read enough from Craig Mazin to understand that the body count will be way lower, and deaths will be more meaningful, so it'll be less bleak in the sense you fear. But I've also seen shots of characters that I recognize, and some of those characters… oof. One of the bleakest subplots from the game appears to be present in the series. I don't think that's a bad thing, but it'll be a hard-to-watch episode. I won't say too much until it actually happens.
posted by savetheclocktower at 9:44 AM on January 22, 2023 [1 favorite]


Tess is my favorite character in the game. (So I might not be watching long lol.)

Feelin' bad for the folks in the show only thread who were all "Oh, Anna Torv! Yay!"
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:35 AM on January 22, 2023 [5 favorites]


I bloody love Anna Torv and I think she was grrreat (omg lil-spoon Joel!) and will miss her to bits. But yea, I feel like I know what the Game of Thrones bookwalker folks were about now.
posted by Iteki at 1:11 AM on January 25, 2023 [3 favorites]


Also: My god, the euthanasia scene was amazing.

I just now realized that wasn't a younger version of Ellie. Makes me wonder if they maybe have killed off dozens of Ellies because protocol is "red means you're dead."
posted by pwnguin at 4:57 PM on September 4, 2023


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