Spoilers on the events of Episode 2 of The Last of Us on HBO
I can’t say exactly why, but so far I haven’t found the film adaptation of The Last of Us really nice to look at. Everything looks authentic and is close to the game. But the large-scale exterior scenes don’t look completely real, the clicker and runner make-up is technically correct but puts on too much where the fungus liked to leave a hole on its victims. And in terms of camera work and editing, highlights like the one with the grandmother in the background in episode one are rather rare.
It’s not terribly dynamic in look and feel, more solid to good craftsmanship than flaunting great artistry. But maybe that’s just my familiarity with ivy-covered facades and rusting car skeletons? Either way, I wouldn’t want to take a cue from the look of this series anyway, because where it matters a little more, it delivers amazingly well.
It was clear from the start that the cast would not come from bad parents. But that Pascal, Ramsey and Torv would make Joel, Ellie and Tess their own so completely that you don’t even think about the differences to their virtual role models at the start of the second episode, that’s a strong piece. But it is precisely the deviations from the original material that ensure that I would call the series a success up to this point. Another episode of The Last of Us goes way back in time to show us a little bit more than the game. Back to the time just before the pandemic escalated, now to Jakarta, Indonesia.
Joel, Tommy and Sarah had heard about the riots there in episode one on the radio. And where a lesser series would use this flashback to explain the background a little more (and sacrifice a good deal of suspense and desperation in the process), a badly tense atmosphere is set up here once more as a scientist’s first encounter with the zombie -Fungus is faced. And I love that. Even if it’s cheating, of course.
For me, the moments before the outbreak, when everything is still in the balance and the actors are all clueless, have always been the best thing about zombie material and similar doomsday scenarios. Usually a movie or show only has this once, at the very beginning. HBO now flouts this rule, cheats a bit and gets another one of the kind in the second episode. An almost brilliant idea, implemented here in a wonderfully oppressive way — although I don’t think that a scientist would recommend such drastic measures with the little information that is available to her here. Why not consult with international colleagues beforehand? In any case, I hope the rest of the episodes start off in a similar way.
Otherwise, the plot was close enough to the course of the Playstation classic: After the revelation that Ellie was apparently immune to the Cordyceps fungus, there was a lot of mistrust and that two hard-nosed smugglers left all the means open in this situation was here done convincingly. With Tess as a soothing part to a now severely jaded Joel. First you go through the hotel and when it becomes clear on the roof that the short way to the meeting point with the Fireflies in the State House is blocked by infected people, another difference to the game is broken down:
The Cordyceps fungus runs partly underground and “docked” infected people communicate with each other via this root network. And if you think this is far-fetched nonsense, please google “mycelium network” and maybe get a little more creepy in episode three. Either way, the infected now have mushroom Whatsapp and find out about possible new hosts. Not a bad change, actually. As we then go through the museum, television viewers make their first acquaintance with the clickers. A pretty exciting scene for any normal viewer. Savvy gamers and ammo savers will surely go nuts here, wasting as many bullets as Joel and Tess on just two of the monsters.
But maybe they had to, because otherwise it might not have been clear why these beasts should now be more dangerous than the much faster, because freshly infected runners. With the usual means of the zombie film, scenes are actually created here in which you nervously slide around on the edge of the sofa. At the same time, for the first time I missed what sets the game apart from “usual” zombie works: Namely, that it’s not a pounding forced march, but a sneak operation that always keeps an eye on resources and possibilities and requires a talent for improvisation. That side was a bit missing in the final scenes of the second episode and I’m not sure a series can capture that feeling.
In the end, what follows is what we have all suspected for a long time. Tess is coming to an end and I actually liked the way the farewell was handled here than in the game because the nudge Tess gives Joel to save Ellie was a little firmer than in the game. Torv is big here and I’m sad – like the original Tess – that she won’t be there anymore. Her victim’s “kiss” scene was utterly disgusting in a good horror movie sort of way (although, as I said, I did struggle with the infected’s makeup and the bites here and there, but who knows , how mushrooms that grow on humans must look like).
So up to this point, well done! I love how HBO is adding facets to Naughty Dog’s video game world that weren’t there before. A look behind the events that doesn’t provide so many answers that you would lose interest. On the contrary, it injects a little “world on the brink” feel into each episode, which provides an interesting contrast to what Joel and Ellie are going through on the other side. Cool.
