 After nine gripping episodes, the first season of The Last of Us is done. I'm gonna give you my thoughts in this spoiler-filled review so if you haven't seen it or played the game and know what to expect, I would walk away from this. If you don't care about spoilers, then by all means, carry on. Initial impression? Needed more clickers. Let's begin. This may come as a shock to none of you, but The Last of Us TV show is based on a video game, a very popular one, a very successful one, and the reason why is not because there's zombies in it, not because it's a survival horror. There was lots of those already. In fact, the zombie thing was already very played out when The Last of Us hit the video game market. No, it was entirely because of the story and mainly the connection between our two leads, Joel and Ellie. When the show was announced and casted, I was hesitant to thought Pedro Pascal, not my first choice, but he kind of looks like Joel and he definitely acts like him. Then I saw Ramsey as Ellie and I thought, okay, this is a little bizarre. She almost looks like the character, but there's this uncanny valley thing going on. Almost feels more like a cosplay of the character. Now that the season is done, I'm happy to say that they won me over. Full stop. These are not quite the characters from the video game, and this show is not quite the game either. And by that I say, obviously with a game or with a book, you have more time to dive into things. You have more time with the characters that you like. And the game connects to even more than a book, because you're actually controlling these people. You're playing as them. You're seeing things through their eyes, making some of the actions. So while the show is not as good as the video game, it is truly something special, mainly because most video game movie adaptations are just horrible. But besides that, this is also a very fun companion piece to the game, because it explores different things the video game didn't, or just kind of alluded to, such as how the spores communicate, how these clickers and these creatures work together to talk about threats. Of course, they don't really do much with it in season one. You have to imagine they're just kind of setting a foundation going forward. Where the first few episodes started really strong, and we got a sense of the danger and everything going on in the new world, it kind of fizzles out halfway through. The clickers disappear. There's no bloaters. There's no infected running around. It felt like it was missing two or three key moments from the game that were really powerful, such as the school attack and Joel being impaled with the rebar. It's in the show, but it's very much downplayed. I get they're going for more gritty realism. I get it's going for gritty realism, but then it's not, because in that final episode Joel is very much doing the Call of Duty Bro-tastic killing spree around the hospital like you do in the game. He takes out like 40 fireflies. It's odd, but the criticism I have for this first season is like the polar opposite of what I usually do. I wanted more of season one of the game. I needed them to take more time with it before we rushed to the ending. It really felt to me like Neil Druckman was done with that first game and he wanted to immediately get to the part two that he built. It felt like a band member that's sick of playing the greatest hits and he wants people to see the new stuff, which is part two, which won a bunch of awards and people love. It's very polarizing. I didn't like the story and I will get into that in a second because I remember the last time I talked about this show, I mentioned how I didn't like the second game story and people were like, what? It's a masterpiece. What is wrong with you, Adam? I'll get there. I just want to point out that Druckman tends to focus on things that seem almost inconsequential, such as the Bill episode, which was episode three. Don't get me wrong. That's a fantastic episode. I love it. It's one of the best of the season, but if you're going to spend that much time fleshing this character out, why not spend the time on the iconic moments from that first game, such as the school, such as the sewer sequence where there's all those infected coming after Ellie and Joel. He did a lot of things right, but then he quickly rushes through other things that would have been really fun to see. And I think having only nine episodes to tell the first game story was just kind of foolish. This could have expanded to two seasons at least. And you would have had time to breathe with some of these storylines. And it would have made Joel and Ellie's journey even that more tiring, like, okay, look what these guys went through together. We would have had more time for them to get connected, because that's another aspect where I thought it felt a little rushed. They seemed to hate each other for the seven episodes. And then the last two they finally connected. The worst episode of season one for me was left behind. It was based on the DLC, which was like two or four hours long. You could get through it pretty quickly if you knew what you were doing. And that again speaks to my earlier criticism where Druckman seems to be interested in the things that aren't that interesting, such as that prequel storyline with Elle and her girlfriend at the mall. It just felt really tiring to get through that episode. But then he quickly speeds through other things that should have taken time. And the same goes for when Joel is injured. In the game, when this happens, that is the moment when I played, I thought, holy shit, this is not your standard run of the mill survival horror game. This is like something deeper. This is a profound game. It's going places most games don't think to. We're now killing off the lead character, and I'm playing as Ellie, the helpless younger girl who has to fend for herself, find medicine, maybe save the lead. I don't know if he's gonna live. Of course, that tension is gone from the show if you've played the game, but I still don't think it was as powerful as it was done there. And that brings us to the final episode of the show where once again, it goes a little too fast. We don't have time to breathe or sit with some of these choices that Joel makes. I know that people on Twitter and other places on the internet are like, oh, people are finally realizing that Joel's an asshole, bad guy. He's not the good dude that they thought he was. That's a weird take. I never once played the last episode and thought, oh, Joel's the bad guy. He's horrible. He's a terrible person. We're living in a world where most the people are bad because that's how they survive. It's not the world we're living in right now where things are comfortable. This is a world where you can't trust anyone. And so when they see Joel kill a doctor that's unarmed, Joel does this not because he's evil or demonic or something or just wants to watch someone die. It's because he is worried the doctor is going to go hit some panic button or yell for him to get back up or the doctor has a gun somewhere that he doesn't see. Joel is all about surviving. He's about getting this girl out of the situation. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you didn't watch this final episode. Well, here's what breaks down. Ellie is the cure for this virus supposedly that's going around because she's immune. She was infected at birth. Ashley Johnson's the mother. That's an actress that did the voice of Ellie in the games. It was really cool seeing her in the show and she did a fantastic job. And it was really funny because when I saw her, I didn't recognize it was Ashley Johnson at first. I thought, Oh my God, did they, did they put Ramsay and make up and make her look older? Because she looks a lot like Ashley Johnson. And that got me thinking maybe they didn't cast Ellie based on the video game model, but on Ashley Johnson's character because the mother daughter similarities are so good. So that was just brilliant. I love that casting choice. It worked really well. That was a great scene that wasn't in the video game. And anyway, they get to the hospital. Joel's knocked out. He has no idea where Ellie's at. Well, he finds out that they have to cut in her brain to get the cure out or something. Like it's all kind of nonsensical. The Fireflies clearly don't know if this is going to work. It's an experiment. They're hoping it does, but nothing's set in stone. They also didn't ask Ellie permission to do this, which is a huge red flag. Now we have learned from the second game that Ellie absolutely would have done it. It wasn't Joel's choice to make, but in that moment he didn't know. And I think it's a little unfair to put that on him. But then on the other hand, Joel would have done the same thing regardless because he's very much in a protector state. He lost a daughter years earlier. He looks at Ellie as his new daughter, the new cub that he has to take care of. Any father would do the same thing. That's the other part about this whole Joel is an evil bad guy. If you're a father, I find it very hard to believe you wouldn't do the same thing he did, but that's an entirely different debate we don't have to get into. The bottom line is no one is in the right here. Ellie's the victim in the situation and Joel's going to get her out of it. And the only way he knows how to do so is by killing everyone in his way. And that's what makes The Last of Us such a brilliant piece of storytelling. Joel isn't your goody two shoes hero. He has a lot of baggage. He's very rough around the corners. He's selfish. Is he all right? Evil though? No. Most people are nuanced. There's gray. It's not all black and white and that's the story that they're telling us. At the end of this though is where it really kills and the game is brilliant about this of course. And that's the moment when Ellie Point Blank asks him if he's lying and he says no. He lies to her face and she kind of convinces herself, all right, I'm going to hitch myself to this wagon. I've come this far with the guy. I have issues with him. I don't know if I believe him, but I am choosing right now to put my faith solely in him. He has not let me down. And that's just great writing. It really is. This is going to take me into my thoughts about the second game storyline. Now if you haven't played it, you don't know anything about it, you want to keep it under wraps, this is a good time to walk away. Give me a like if you want. Please subscribe if you haven't. I post tons of movie, TV show content all the time on this channel. We'd love to have you stick around. I really liked The Last of Us. They did a great job with season one on HBO. I hope to see more of it coming forward. Here are my issues with the second game. I think the storyline could have worked very well. I have no problem with Joel Dian. I think it was inevitable. I think most people thought by the end of the second game he was going to die. What we weren't expecting, a lot of us, was for him to die in the first hour. And then never really be seen again outside of that great flashback sequence. It also sucks that it ended on such a sour note between these two characters. And what really sucked about this was not only did they kill off the guy that we all grew fond of and really loved the relationship between these two characters, but they did it in such a violent, ugly way with a character we didn't know of and then were forced to play as her. And not only that, we're going to switch off between her and Ellie and her girlfriend who I have no interest in either and is kind of like not on board with this mission. So I'm already now playing a game with two sets of people that I'm pissed at. It's a very weird dynamic and one that never really works. Now, narratively speaking, this is actually very smart. I think the idea behind it is sound. Seeing the fallout of Joel's rampage in the first game and what it did to real people. Abby is a victim. She's the same age as Ellie, roughly. And her dad was one of the doctors I believe or mom. I think it was dad who died by Joel's hand just because he was there at the wrong place at the wrong time. Abby's pissed. She wants revenge. The whole second game is about revenge. Abby wants revenge on Joel. Ellie wants revenge on Abby for killing Joel. It just goes back and forth a few times. It gets exhausting. I get that that's the point. But it's just kind of sloppy how it's presented. Had the game maybe started with the ending of the first and then we see Abby and what she's going through and we get to like her and we get to understand her pain and anguish at Joel. And then we get on that revenge path. It would have worked so much better. Plus we also would have had more time with Joel and Ellie. Let us have the damn game together with them. It's what we signed up for. And then at the end of this thing we could have had it come to a head. That could have been the final stuff. People would have been pissed of course still. But I think it brings the narrative together better. We don't have to be with these people and sit with them for hour upon hour. Another thing that always annoying me about the second game is Joel's brother Tommy is obviously pissed. And he's on this revenge mission before Ellie even is. So often you're going to locations that Tommy's already been to and taken out huge swaths of people. And Ellie's like oh man this must have been crazy. How about I play as Tommy then? That looks like the game that would have been more exciting. What was special about the first is Joel and Ellie found joy in the minutiae. In the pain and anguish. There would still be this bright light from Ellie. Turning her into this bitter weathered hate filled monster. Just like Joel used to be. Why? Like that was too soon. It was too abrupt. And you don't have anything to latch onto. Now it's just sitting in this misery with these characters. It's not pleasant. The game won a ton of awards. Story being one of them. Neil Druckmann loves it. It's his baby. He's not going to change a thing. I don't think. The only reason I bring this up is I think he does have an opportunity to use that time more wisely and maybe lay things out differently than this back and forth jumping in the future and in the past. It was very messy. He can tell a more linear story. And I wouldn't honestly be surprised if we start season two the way I'm suggesting where we do see Abby witness her dad die. And then we keep checking in on her as the season progresses. And then by three or four is when that revenge plot kicks in. Because as much as Druckmann loves his story, it's not going to work on TV the same way. It's why it took so many years on The Walking Dead to kill off key characters that died in the graphic novels way earlier. Because people have attachments to characters. If you kill off Pedro Pascal in the opening of season two, that's game over for your show. I can tell you right now, you will lose a huge amount of audience members to that. He's a big star. He's one of the reasons people tune in. You can't rip it away that quickly. Well, there you have it. My thoughts on the second game and more importantly season one of the show. Thank you for sticking around if you did. This was a longer video, but I think it I think it had some weight to it. Hopefully, let me know in the comments your thoughts on the game story in the second one or your thoughts on the show. Please again like the video and subscribe if you haven't and hopefully catch you next time. Take care.