The Last of (Series 1) of The Last of Us

(Some mild spoilers)

I came to this series with absolutely no expectations apart from something along the lines of Walking Dead.  I never played the game that The Last of Us is based on because..... well I don't play computer games*.  I don't mind a zombie storyline but get bored if it is just new ways for zombies to come at the heroes for hours on end.    So, it was all a bit of an unknown.  

 If you have been in an internet free dungeon for the past 9 weeks, the plot is based around a human pandemic from a mutation of the fungus that in the real world turns ants into zombie.   The first episode was all a bit standard apocalyptic fare, but I liked the way the storyline with Joel and his daughter played out differently from the usual, and of course now that makes perfect sense.  From the second episode on, we are dumped into a world 20 years on from the outbreak, with plenty of flashbacks, sometimes taking up a whole episode.

A quest to save the world is the point of the story, but the actual delivery is more of an odyssey through this new world, taking time to look at humanity from all aspects, good as well as bad, and it is that which is the joy in this.  It isn't afraid to spend a whole episode away from the main storyline, which shows character development of course, but it also explores how human beings might respond in different ways.   Episode 3 is the most obvious example of this, spending a whole episode on an incidental character for the plot, and I think the most lovely of the lot.   

I also like the exploration of the moral issues - the baddies always have a motivation - they are not wholly bad, just trying to make choices when every option is bad.  Even the worst character still had a point to make,  even if he chose the worst of all options on every occasion.  

And of course, that final episode which brings the quest to a head with a moral issue in the form of the Trolley Problem.  What was interesting was the shooting sequence was the first time that the game roots were explicit.  It was a smooth shoot-em-up sequence, almost dreamlike in feel, where people were just obstacles to the main goal.  At first I wasn't sure about this, after the series spent so long on establishing the value of every human life, but I have grown to think it makes sense, as how else can you do something so morally dubious, even when you are trying to do something else morally right, than remove yourself from the consequences and stop seeing the real people.    The beauty of this is that there is no right answer, and so my heart bled for Joel even when horrified by his actions.

The production values are high throughout, with detailed rendition of decay, and I loved the way that the fungus is depicted; there's loads of detail for those of us who are a bit picky for holes in a backstory, but also cleverly and thoughtfully rendered by the artistic team.   The lead characters are beautifully brought to life by Bella Ramsey (Ellie) and Pedro Pascal (Joel) but there are lots of lovely performances throughout, with a shout out to  Nick Offerman (Bill).  I only knew Bella Ramsey from Game of Thrones which she played admirably and I didn't know Pedro Pascal at all, but the chemistry between the two is impressive and so I am now on my own quest to look at their other work.

I was expecting Walking Dead, but so far this has exceeded my expectations and I am eager for more.

*Although, I know there are lots of great ones out there that don't involve just shooting random people for hours on end and so I am often tempted to give them a try.  It's more that time is precious and so far I am spending it elsewhere.