Welcome to “I’m Watching!” This is a series where I post my thoughts on shows I’m following as the episodes air. These write-ups are more like in-depth reactions than full-on “reviews”, so expect it to be a little unrefined.
This time I’m watching HBO’s The Last of Us, the long-awaited adaptation of the beloved video game (which surely has the best game story ever told). The show was co-created by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann, the writer and director of the original game. It is airing every Sunday from January 15, 2023.
This article will be updated as new episodes air every Sunday.
Episode 1: “When You’re Lost in the Darkness”
I can't express how exciting it feels to actually be part the audience for an "event" series for HBO - especially one where I already know and love the original IP. I missed the boat on following both Westworld season 1 and Watchmen week to week when they came out (and hadn't read the Watchmen comic at the time the show came out anyway). But The Last of Us has one of the best stories ever written for visual media, and I'll never forget the impression it made on me back when it released in 2013. Ten years later, it's such a joy being able to anticipate and now experience this adaptation along with everybody else. And god, did they deliver.
The production design and worldbuilding were freakishly good, and easily the show's most impressive feat so far. They've really recreated the world of the game with every bit of loving detail as they did with Chernobyl, and I was completely immersed the entire time. Mazin was also smart about choosing when to directly mirror the game, such as the POV shots in the car when Tommy is driving them through the carnage.
Nico Parker as Sarah was definitely my favorite part of this opening episode. Such a natural, adorable, heartbreaking performance. We got to spend a lot more time with her than in the game, which made her death scene that much more wrenching to watch. That scene never fails to bring tears to my eyes, and though the moment here obviously didn't carry the same shock as the game, it was every bit as devastating, if not more painful just because we got so much more time to fall in love with Parker’s Sarah. Hope she gets a Guest Actress nod for this. (Side note: in the behind the scenes snippet, it's crazy how similar she sounds to her mother, Thandie Newton.)
They also smartly used the extended intro to not only prolong the sense of calm that would accentuate the chaos that came later, but also give the virus outbreak a bit more necessary buildup. The scene where the nana "turns" behind Sarah, out of focus, was fucking chilling. Very reminiscent of It (2017).
We didn't see any full-blown clickers yet, but they still did a very effective job showing how the fungus turns living humans into the mindless "puppets" mentioned by the scientist in the cold open. The way the one guy chasing after Joel and Sarah would just run headfirst into every surface without stopping illustrated this perfectly.
Pedro Pascal is excellent as Joel so far, and very much eases into the character. He really knocked it out of the park with Sarah's death scene. There were parts of his performance that still felt a bit muted at times, though this has more to do with the stage of the character in the story more than anything. The thing I remember most about the game's Joel is that Hugh Jackman-esque, white-hot intensity and passion to the character, and the closest thing I've seen to that onscreen is Jackman's own character in Prisoners. I'm not looking for Pascal to be doing a Jackman impression, but I'm excited to see him get sent through the ringer in the coming episodes.
The scenes after the time jump did feel exactly like the intro of the game, but I'll admit it's also where the episode sagged a bit pacing-wise. This section in the game mostly exists to acquaint you with the main gameplay mechanics and provide a little mission to kick off the action, so when translated to a piece of film, it did feel a little "functional" and expository compared to the emotional highs of what came before. (Especially since it was the second piece of lengthy world-building done within this one episode.)
Lots of really striking visuals throughout the episode, like the planes flying overhead foreshadowing the crash later (the use of a plane crash instead of a traffic accident to incapacitate the car was a brilliant change.)
The shot of the fungus-infested corpse on the wall reminded me quite a bit of Annihilation.
Not as many quotable lines so far compared to Chernobyl, but I got a good laugh out of "not you, Kim, you don't have a fucking ear on your fucking head!"
Merle Dandridge is superb as Marlene. It's amazing seeing a video game performance brought to life in real life by the same actress (in an HBO prestige series, no less). I was a little less sold on Anna Torv as Tess when we first met her, but her performance eventually settled into something more reminiscent of Annie Wersching's portrayal in the game (which I adore to this day.)
And then we have Bella Ramsey as Ellie, who is absolutely wonderful and immediately convincing. It's quite remarkable how much she feels like Ellie despite looking nothing like her. The episode really sprang back to life in the last 10 or so minutes as soon as she and Joel were brought together, and gave us the first sparks of what this story is really about: a tender and lifelong emotional and parental bond formed amidst unforgiving chaos. Most of this episode was dedicated to setting up the colder, post-apocalyptic context in which that story takes place, and did its job marvelously. But I think episode 2 onwards is where the lifeblood of the show will really start to pour in.
I'm absolutely PUMPED for the next 8 weeks!! That preview at the end of the episode looks incredibly promising. The clickers for one look spectacularly grotesque, and I can't wait for the show to delve into all the rich drama around its cast of characters (such as Bill and Frank). This was clearly made with an absolute labor of love from the best people involved, and it's an honor getting to watch it in real time.
Episode 2: “Infected”
Brilliant episode! I was very impressed with how well the premiere recreated the look and feel of the game, but it did seem pretty heavy on exposition just because of how much work it had to do to establish the show's post-apocalyptic setting. This episode I feel accomplished that same thing even more effectively while propelling the narrative thrillingly forward, in ways that felt fresh and surprising even after knowing this segment of the game very well.
The production designers and VFX artists need all the awards. The environments in this episode were just an absolute marvel to look at - all the overgrown foliage and toppled buildings. It really felt like you were physically there: this open, sunlit, decaying playground of hell. The image of literally everything in sight being destroyed was really quite oppressive and terrifying.
The clickers, my fucking god. Perfection. When Tess explained how the tendrils worked it initially seemed a lot like the Upside Down in Stranger Things (the clickers also look quite a lot like the Demogorgons, and Barrie Gower the prosthetic makeup artist worked on Stranger Things as well), but I guess I'm just unfamiliar with the biology of fungi, because as the behind the scenes clip explained, this is how they really work. With that in mind, it's actually a genius change, especially given the improbability of "localized" spores as Mazin mentioned.
I'm honestly digging all the changes from the game, because they make logical and narrative sense, and in many ways pack an even bigger punch. The way they paid off the terrifying image of the sleeping infected with that climax was brilliant, and Anna Torv gave Tess a lovely sendoff. I also love how they etched out Tess and Joel's relationship through subtle dialogue cues like in the game (here we got "I never ask you for anything, not to feel what I felt..." which tells you even more with less lines!)
That cold open was pure brilliance. Seriously evoked the same sense of existential terror as Chernobyl, which I've been rewatching (again) at the moment. Having seen it, I could immediately feel the weight on that doctor's shoulders as she ordered the city bombed. It evoked the same feeling as when Legasov asks Gorbachev for "permission to kill three men," but a 100x worse.
Honestly the characters I feel we know the least right now are Joel and Ellie, largely because everyone is forced to move from point to point and there's not as much room for introspection. This episode was a wonderful showcase for Bella Ramsey as Ellie, though, and she's really doing a great job evoking her voice and personality. This Ellie feels more like a small child who swears a lot rather than a teenager, but it's probably more true to how an actual 14-year-old would act. Movies tend to exaggerate the maturity of teenage characters, often because the actors themselves are years older and can't help but come off that way, but this is an actual authentic portrayal.
Absolutely pumped to meet Bill and Frank next week!! Everyone could use some Ron Swanson in their lives, but I especially adored Murray Bartlett in The White Lotus and it's great to see him land another high-profile HBO project in such short time. Looks like Frank is still alive by the time Joel and Ellie reach Bill, so I'm curious how that'll play out. The game's Bill was a paranoid wreck embittered by losing his partner. Nick Offerman on the other hand just exudes so much warmth through the gruff exteriors of his characters that I can't help but feel we're gonna get a friendlier, more multidimensional Bill, which I'm sure will be a treat to watch. Reviews are calling episode 3 a standout, so I can't wait to see that come true.
Episode 3: “Long, Long, Time”
Ho-ly FUCK. I am sold. Up until now I was largely watching the show out of my love for the original game, and while the first two episodes were both excellent recreations of what we saw in the game (episode 2 in particular), I can't honestly say I found them all that groundbreaking as episodes of television. Either the preexisting context of the game was too distracting, or it's because we've seen many zombie apocalypse stories like this on TV before, but the feeling I got was that while the show felt incredibly competent, it didn't quite feel fresh. Not yet. This, though. Just... WOW. This is how you take advantage of a change in medium to do things with the story and world that you couldn't before. I always found the flashback scenes so far to be the most interesting and novel parts of the show, and now the show not only recognized that strength but crafted an entire episode around it. And boy, did it deliver.
Nick Offerman was fucking born to play Bill. No shade at Con O'Neill, whom I loved in Chernobyl, but I simply can't picture him or anyone else inhabiting this role, in this specific story, as perfectly as our very own Ron Swanson. And what I found remarkable was that even though Bill outwardly resembles Ron in pretty much every aspect, Offerman's performance still gave him so much of his own dimensionality and texture that it still felt like an utterly unique character. By far the best performance of his career, and I'm a diehard Parks & Recreation fan.
And how about a stadium-size round of applause for Murray Bartlett?! I'd only seen him in The White Lotus, where he was far and away the best character, but this performance was both leagues removed from that and completely mesmerizing in its own right. Pretty much the entire episode was built on how beautifully he was able to give Frank so much humanity, history, and personality in the spaces between Mazin's already wonderful script. He undoubtedly deserves another Emmy for this. Just astounding work.
I was actually shocked when Bill revealed he poisoned his own wine at the end. I figured the episode would deviate quite a lot from the game, but basically removing an entire "level" of the game from the story and replacing it all with flashbacks takes serious balls to do, and it just goes to show the Mazin and Druckmann's confidence in their own material (and in each other as writers) that they were willing to go that far. The entire time I was expecting Frank to die a tragic death and leave Bill to be this miserable husk of a man like in the game, but perhaps Druckmann realized in the years since he wrote the first game that that kind of story has been told ad infinitum, especially when it comes to gay couples on movies and TV. But that being said, this there's absolutely nothing about this episode that felt like a self-congratulatory bid at "representation" from the writers. The narrative they went with not only made the story more original and engaging, but it added an ocean of depth to the world and characters that a video game cannot realistically do. It was simply an achingly beautiful, deeply human portrait of pure love.
I immediately recognized Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" during the final montage between Bill and Frank. Perfect music choice.
Between the usage of Max Richter, the post-apocalyptic setting, and the raw, palpable emotional intimacy between the characters, this episode felt the most like The Leftovers so far, and that's a very good thing. The appeal of the game is how it was able to wring such potent emotionality and deep storytelling out of the unlikely medium of an "action video game", but the show on the other hand is operating under no such constraints. I suppose that's why the shot-for-shot recreations of the game have felt like the least interesting parts of the show. Stories like this episode are what the medium of television can accomplish that video games cannot.
It was quite jarring seeing Nick Offerman completely clean-shaven in that behind-the-scenes clip after an entire episode of him in full bear mode.
Perhaps the most unusual part of this show is how slowly and incrementally it's fleshing out its two protagonists. So far, Joel and Ellie feel like the least realized characters so far, and if I didn't know who they were from the game, I'd probably feel like I know the two main characters the least out of anyone in the show. I can't tell right now whether that's a flaw, a symptom of adapting the game, or a deliberate creative choice, but after this episode I'm leaning more towards the last option. Despite the extensive focus on Bill and Frank, what we did see of Joel and Ellie in this episode gave them the most texture and humanity we've seen of them so far, and gave Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey the most opportunities to actually, well, act rather than merely be yanked between action sequences. I was especially sold on Pascal, particularly during the flashback scenes to when Tess and Joel first meet Bill and Frank. Joel came off like a grizzled badass simply from that one conversation with Bill, and it paid off beautifully at the end when he quietly mourns him while also lamenting his failure to protect Tess. (He also sounded noticeably more like Joel in this episode, maybe because the quiet indoor scenes brought out that bassy husk in his voice that Troy Baker perfected.) Ramsey also seemed to ease into Ellie more after this episode. Her attempts to seem "cute" and "childlike" felt a little forced and unnatural earlier on, but it felt more authentic here, especially once they got in the car.
The flashback where Bill and Frank meet Joel and Tess (RIP Annie Wersching </3) also felt a lot like The Leftovers, where the first time we see Kevin and Nora in season 2 is through the eyes of the Murphy family, whom we've just met. Brilliant way to introduce the protagonists from another perspective, in a way that served the plot.
Looks like we're gonna meet Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen next episode! I remember that she's the leader of some rebel settlement and is hunting another character over some grievance, but I forgot what specifically and I honestly would rather just find out next week. It would be fantastic if most of the episodes from here on followed this same model of delving into the "side stories" of other survivors and how the apocalypse has impacted their psyches and relationships. It makes the world of the show feel so much more expansive and lived-in, and gives the writers the opportunity to do so many fresh and original things rather than just mechanically rehash the events of the game.
Either way, what a masterpiece of an episode this was.
Episode 4: “Please Hold to My Hand”
That was a decent episode. Weakest of the four so far, but still solid, which is a testament to the show’s quality. Didn't give us nearly as much to chew on as last week's standout, but it's evidently setting up a multi-episode arc and was therefore a little heavier on exposition than usual. I liked how physical it felt, between the long scenes of Joel and Ellie trekking and cooking and sleeping, to the brutal action sequences and the gritty, war-movie aesthetic of Kansas City. You could feel the weight of all the action involved, which is a big plus. Some thoughts:
I really enjoy how the show allows us to just spend time with Joel and Ellie as they travel around and find the means to survive. Those grace notes really give the show this meditative calm that I think sets The Last of Us' depiction of the apocalypse apart from other works in the genre. It also does a great job of letting you feel the length of their days and the sheer distance they travel.
If there's one thing this show is doing exceptionally well, it's the depiction of the post-apocalyptic US. I was somewhat worried that the show's sense of scale and grandeur would be limited by its TV budget (even if it's HBO), but to my pleasant surprise, it's the opposite. The environments look stunning, detailed, and visually distinct, and gives the series a tremendous sense of place. Really evokes season 1 of True Detective and its haunted, decaying vision of Louisiana, as well as Mazin's own Chernobyl and its freakishly immersive recreation of Pripyat (which is certainly the most "post-apocalyptic" place on Earth today.) Everything looks beautifully broken.
This was the episode that let us spend the most time with Joel and Ellie, and finally began planting the seeds of their bond, and it's... a little hit or miss. Some of the scenes really land, and Pascal in particular is increasingly taking stronger command of his performance as Joel, but I still can't help but feel an overbearing awkwardness in their interactions. Scenes that are supposed to register as tender or heartwarming often feel clunky and rehearsed. You could argue that some of this is plot-related, since Joel still sees Ellie as "cargo", but four episodes in, I'm honestly starting to feel that the much-touted "chemistry" between Pascal and Ramsey just... isn't all that. Of course, we're at the halfway point and I want to withhold judgment, but the Joel-Ellie relationship is the beating heart of this story and I don't think it's wise for the show to "hold out" on its audience for quite this long.
To continue the above point, the other glaring thing I'm still not quite sold on is Ramsey as Ellie. I already feel bad saying this since she's gotten way too much unfair shit from the worst corners of the fanbase, but I do feel there's an inconsistency to her performance that's becoming harder and harder to shake. Mazin clearly wants Ellie to come across as a child forced to grow up too fast because of her repressed trauma, but whether it's the way he writes her scenes or the way Ramsey performs them, the end result feels sort of tonally jarring and rarely effective. Ellie seems to swing between the extremes of coming off like an immature kid and a hardened trauma victim, and Bella's scenes with Pedro don't always navigate those shifts as gracefully as I would like to see.
The show's attempts at making Ellie seem endearing and "cute" also routinely fall flat for me because of how forced and artificial they seem. This week's episode had her annoy Joel with a book of puns, which started feeling like a gimmick very fast. Joel's dynamic with her overall reminds me more of a toddler than a teenager. I always felt Ellie's defining characteristic in the game was a maturity beyond her years, which made me as the audience member immediately drawn to her and want to see the hardened Joel come around to loving her as well. The show is instead going in the other direction - making Ellie seem more childlike (and in some cases, actively annoying) - which I think destroys the "magic" of their bond in the game. I'm hoping this changes in the coming episodes.
I don't remember the Sam and Henry sections of the game all that well (other than the ending of course) since I haven't rewatched it recently, but adding this layer of them being hunted by a rebel group is an interesting way to take the story. I do hope we learn more about this rebel group overall and what their broader goals are, because it does seem a little preposterous to introduce this entire armed movement just as antagonists for two scared teenagers.
Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen is an interesting character. I also found her acting choices to be a little... unexpected, given the kind of character she's playing, but based on the behind-the-scenes info, I think it's more of a deliberate choice. Lynskey, whose voice is already pretty high and soft, said she purposely played Kathleen as "sweet and soft-spoken" to contrast her violence, so as to suggest she was forced into being this hardened warlord because of the death of her brother (whom Mazin described to her as some kind of "Jesus figure" in their community - I hope they expand on this.) Kathleen does come across as incredibly vulnerable and full of pain, and the episode seemed to make a point of showing how she has to convince herself to commit acts of cruelty and violence, like killing her doctor. Some would argue this makes it hard to believe her as the leader of an armed movement, but my guess is that this is a community of people who all knew each other before and were forced to take up arms to survive. Maybe Kathleen's "Jesus" brother was the former leader and the respect they had for him has now been transferred to her. I don't know what changes they're gonna make to Henry and Sam (other than Sam being deaf), but Kathleen's arc so far seems like a self-contained take on the "ethics of revenge" theme that Part II is all about. So far they've not given us much to go off of, though, and I'm getting a strong Walking Dead vibe from this whole group.
So so so fantastic seeing Jeffrey Pierce in this show!! The guy has a magnificent voice and an even more magnificent beard. His character so far is just a henchman, but his eyes carry this quiet gravitas that just makes you want to know more about him. I was resisting the urge to call him "Tommy" the entire episode.
I'm guessing that "earthquake" that Pierce's character shows Kathleen is where a bunch of bloaters are gonna break free next episode. It's gonna be glorious.
I'm sorry, but "Bryan" was just not a very good actor. We're supposed to feel bad for this scared, naive kid who yells for his mom when he's about to die, but it struck a false note for me.
Bill's porno mag made it into the show! Of all the comedic moments between Ellie and Joel, this is one of the few that I definitely enjoyed. I also chuckled when Ellie says her sleeping bag smells good, and Joel immediately retorts "must be Frank's." Man, I miss Bill and Frank already.
The writing in the scene introducing Kathleen with her doctor was unfortunately the clunkiest exposition in the script so far, but the actors sold it quite well even so. John Getz is always amazing in these small roles. I loved him as Mark's lawyer in The Social Network, and he's cropped up here and there in bit parts in stuff like Better Call Saul (as the judge in the Chicanery episode.)
The ending of this episode was very well-done. An incredibly evocative horror moment that involved no zombies at all. I'm curious why they decided to make Sam deaf (I really hope it isn't just to make him seem more "innocent" so that is death is more painful), but I can't wait to see what they do with that story next week. In part because I'm very curious to find out why this rebel-group plot was included in it. I presume it was for a less hacky reason than "we need more action in the middle episodes", but we'll see.
Next week's episode looks like it's gonna be a doozy. If Henry and Sam's arc is contained within that one episode then we're getting a punch to the gut, but then we're getting a fucking bloater too!!
Episode 5: “Endure and Survive”
Oh my god. Best episode yet. I still have a soft spot for the Bill and Frank episode, but that felt more like a self-contained anthology entry set in the story's world (a "Tales from The Last of Us", if you will) rather than a key link in the show's narrative continuity. This, on the other hand, was a propulsive, thrilling, heartbreaking hour that packed every emotion the game made us feel into a single episode. It wasn't without its flaws, but fuck, if it wasn't the most utterly riveted I've been watching this show so far.
Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Woodard were absolute revelations as Henry and Sam. They accomplished the same thing Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett did in episode 3 - in that they gave us significantly different, original takes on well-known characters from the game that felt every bit as natural, fitting, and in some cases better than the source material. Henry here was given a lot more fear, guilt, and overall dramatic baggage than in the game, which I felt was justified for the show. As Neil said, the two exist in the game as "mirrors of Joel and Ellie", but they can't function as much beyond that because it's a game and it's impossible to draw that much focus away from the playable characters. The show is operating under no such limits, and hence embraced the freedom to give Henry and Sam more fleshed-out backstories and identities of their own, and boy, did it work. It's pretty incredible how deeply they brought these characters to life even within such a dense and plot-heavy episode that didn't enjoy the same leisurely pace as episode 3.
As for Sam, I was concerned last week that they made him deaf simply to emotionally manipulate the viewer into feeling worse about his death. That is... kinda what they did, honestly, but as weird as it sounds to say, it worked. And I think it did because all the changes to Sam's character sort of worked in tandem to serve the character arcs in this episode. Most importantly, Sam was made younger to look up to Ellie more, which in turn provides Ellie the arc of a "failed savior" that mirrors Joel's trauma and brings them closer together. Sam was also made deaf to depend more on Henry, which lends further credence to the notion that Henry literally has nothing to live for without Sam. I think the game's depiction of their relationship as one of pure brotherly love worked plenty fine on its own, but the layers they added in the show didn't hurt the story, and in my opinion made this portrayal feel richer and more authentic.
Given the episode's themes of guilt, fatherhood and protectorship, I can understand now why they decided to introduce this whole thread of Henry being hunted by the freedom fighters. It also gives more dramatic heft to the hunters, who in the game are nothing but baddies for you to kill. But I feel the execution of this whole subplot failed to make it seem like anything more than a narrative contrivance. It felt more like a series of tropes assembled to push the story in a desired direction rather than an organic and inherently compelling development upon the show's world.
And I think the main reason for the above failures was the character of Kathleen. But more on that later. This episode (initially) shed a bit more light on the nature of her character, in a way that explained the casting of Melanie Lynskey: based on Kathleen's monologue to Perry, it seems like she's sort of stuck in this childlike state of both adulation towards her brother and a feeling of inferiority to him. And his death basically trapped her in that childlike stasis. I think this aspect to her character is why Lynskey consciously chose to play her as "soft-spoken and gentle", so as to suggest her violence as a visceral, lashing-out response to a traumatic loss rather than something ingrained in her. They also reveal that the brother was the original leader of the resistance movement - I suspected as much last week, but it's nice to have it confirmed, because it explains how someone as petulant and impulsive as Kathleen is able to command the respect of this army. It's the respect they had for the brother that's been transferred to her. (There's also Perry's apparent romantic interest in Kathleen according to Jeffrey Pierce, which I think is a somewhat lazy explanation, but whatever.)
But then the episode's second half undid all of this interesting characterization by turning Kathleen into a campy, mustache-twirling villain. Her "kids die all the time" speech to Henry is probably the weakest-written piece of dialogue this show has had so far, and while it was intended to convey the extent of Kathleen's broken moral code, it made her seem more like a one-note, cartoonish psychopath than anything. (And no disrespect to Lynskey, but her acting there didn't help much either.) And for that I think that Kathleen was ultimately a weak and unconvincing antagonist, and that the show did little to justify her inclusion in the story as anything more than a plot device. I think Mazin and Druckmann were faced with the dilemma of having this great, poignant Henry and Sam story being couched in the middle of what's essentially one big stealth/combat mission, and so they came up with Kathleen to build up the dramatic stakes of the overall chapter to make it play better for television. It's not a terrible strategy, but it could've been executed a whole lot better.
But all that said, godDAMN did that climax make it all worth it!! The way they directed the arrival of the infected couldn't have been more perfect. We all knew it was coming, but the way they just gushed out of there in an instant (instead of a cheesy slow-mo shot to kick it off) was startling and supremely effective. And that bloater was all the evidence one needs that HBO is the only place that could do a Last of Us adaptation justice. Grotesque, terrifying, and utterly glorious to watch.
This episode gave us not one, but two horrifying depictions of children getting infected. The little girl clicker during the climax was obviously the bigger shock since we all knew what was coming with Sam, but also because of the multiple layers of horror at work there. When she lands inside the car she almost looks like an ordinary, frightened child, and the physicality of her performance had that same sense of innocence to it. Your first impulse is to feel sorry for her rather than terrified. But then it quickly registers that this thing can no longer be called a "child" at all, and we see its brutality on full display with Kathleen (the way it ate her reminded me of the Russian Demogorgon in Stranger Things season 4.) It was just so many layers of context violation at once. Easily the freakiest image this show has produced.
I really have to hand it to Bella Ramsey for this episode. I've felt her performance so far has been good but lacking in tonal consistency, swinging between the extremes of seeming childlike and battle-hardened, whereas in the game, Ellie's trademark characteristic was a maturity beyond her years. With this episode, though, everything about Ramsey’s performance was just perfect. She and Keivonn Woodard played off each other so wonderfully as Sam brought out both Ellie's youth and her protective instinct, and even the smaller, liminal moments of her performance felt so much more natural and at ease. And her look of completely blank shell-shock when Sam dies was downright haunting.
Pedro Pascal was also excellent during the Henry/Sam death scene (I mean, everyone in that scene knocked it out of the park, let's be clear) but I did feel that with this episode, the monotony of his performance as Joel is starting to wear on me a little. What I loved about Troy Baker's Joel is that even amidst his stoic, hardened exterior, his performance was still incredibly expressive and textured, and his voice had this... musicality, this soul to it that communicated so many shades of Joel's personality as a human being. Pascal's take on the character feels incredibly muted by comparison, and while he's doing a tremendous job at wordlessly showing the pain Joel carries behind his eyes, there's not as much variation to his delivery and mannerisms, and sometimes I feel like he's still in "Mandalorian" mode with the quasi-robotic way he recites some of Joel's lines. It's not enough to hurt the authenticity of his performance, but five episodes in, I do feel it's time for Joel to be at least a little more expressive. I think what's missing is that sort of subtle folksiness he had in the game. He feels a bit too much like a "soldier" in the show.
Ellie using her own blood as "medicine" for Sam's bite was such a heartbreakingly naive and sweet gesture. And the way it mirrored Henry painting Sam's eyes like a superhero was a chef's kiss. (Or, well, bite.)
As much as I wish the episode ended at the moment of Henry's death to preserve the shock, I quite liked what they did with the ending. With Ellie being the one to gulp down her pain and tell Joel to keep moving, while the relentlessly stoic Joel is the one who can't help but feel something. This also comes back to why the change in Sam's characterization worked so well - whereas in the game he was the same age as Ellie and more of just a friend to her, in the show he's someone she feels a protective instinct towards, and so losing him is just like Joel losing Sarah. I think this parallel is an excellent piece of character development that elegantly paves the way for Joel and Ellie to become closer in the episodes to come. What I don't like, though, is Mazin bluntly spelling out the intent of these Joel/Ellie scenes in the aftershow snippets. I feel like some of the scenes he describes register too ambiguously on their own, and the specific intent he attributes does not come through enough in the episode itself. (The other example is his assertion that Ellie "enjoyed" watching Joel beat up the FEDRA guy in the pilot - in the episode itself she looks mostly startled/horrified, and Mazin's intent with the scene isn't readily apparent.)
Looks like next week is gonna take us into winter! And finally we see Tommy again! Gabriel Luna absolutely nailed the character in the brief time we spent with him in the pilot, so I can't wait to see him return. Looks like David is also introduced next week. Given that episode 7 is the Left Behind episode, I think next week's will end on a cliffhanger (supposedly involving David) that gets resolved only in the eighth episode, after we spent 7 delving into Ellie's backstory. I'm eagerly waiting to see how the show lands the "oh, baby girl" scene after David's death, because it's the one moment in the game that reliably brings me to tears every single time.
Episode 6: “Kin”
Wow. A bit uneven but largely excellent episode that finally injected some introspection and human drama among the leads that has been missing from this show up till now.
So they skipped fall and folded those sections into winter. I suspect this had solely to do with the filming location, just like the shift from Pittsburgh to Kansas City. But boy did they make good use of the Canadian wilderness in this episode.
The cinematography throughout this episode was fucking stunning. Many shots that made me realize how much this story owes to the Western genre. The winter setting finally freed them from that jaundiced color grading and everything looked clearer and prettier.
The show's take on the Jackson commune heavily resembled Jarden, Texas from season 2 of The Leftovers, and I think the change worked very effectively. Tommy's town in the game always felt a little... sparse-looking, and resembled a military base more than a place where people could live and build a society. I think the change also worked on a thematic level because it gave Joel and Ellie the closest glimpse at what "ordinary life" looked like before the outbreak, which provided a neat canvas for all their suppressed emotional baggage to resurface.
The couple at the beginning of the episode were fucking hilarious, especially the wife with her excellent deadpan humor. Told you so much about their dynamic with so little, and felt almost Coen Brothers-y in the quirkiness and remote setting. And nice nod to the actors' Native American heritage with the "we've been here before you, sonny" line. Graham Greene is an amazing actor who I loved in Wind River, which this episode visually resembled in many ways. His character even mentions the Wind River Reservation, which I do hope was an Easter egg.
Joel's monologue to Tommy was Pedro Pascal's best piece of acting... ever? I was completely transfixed on him the entire time. I'm glad the show is delving more into Joel's PTSD, which was curiously absent from the game. I think it also gave a much stronger and more convincing rationale for why Joel asks Tommy to take Ellie, and I particularly liked the line about Tommy being able to "bring his child into a better world". The dialogue in that whole scene (and the preceding one with Joel and Tommy) was superbly written. Great job Craig Mazin.
Gabriel Luna is absolutely fantastic as Tommy. He has such a reassuring presence onscreen and his voice sounds freakishly similar to Jeffrey Pierce's performance in the game (RIP Perry, literally.) If the show adapts Part II I can't wait to see more of him in action. I think both he and Pascal look rather young to play the aged, "grizzled" versions of the brothers we see in the second game, but this show has pretty obviously prioritized acting ability over physical resemblance, much to its benefit.
I warmed up to Rutina Wesley's Maria more and more as the episode went on. I feel like at the start she was presented as a bit too intense and almost antisocial, but that quickly dissipated by the time she and Ellie had their wonderful one on one scene. I was wondering how they'd depict Maria telling Ellie about Sarah and I think they slipped it in there elegantly. I like that they wrote her as a lawyer before the outbreak too. Maria's characterization in this episode reminded me quite a bit of Tess from the game - she had that cool, casual confidence about her that the show's Tess was missing outside the flashback with Bill. I also liked listening to Wesley in the aftershow interview - she has that aura of what people call "quiet intelligence" about her, and the way she described her experience on the show was both down-to-earth and full of wisdom.
Unfortunately, the weakest parts of the episode were the ones taken straight from the game, particularly the word-for-word reenactment of Joel and Ellie's argument. It underscored the dilemma this show as a whole has faced, which is "how do you adapt an already perfect story?" I'm glad they cut out the bit where Ellie takes a horse and runs off, which always felt a bit out-of-character and thrown in just to pad the gameplay, but as sincere as Pascal and Ramsey's performances were in the argument scene, it lost a lot of its power by us knowing exactly what they were gonna say next. Maybe it'll play better on rewatch, but it felt quite rote, even if the scene is crucial to the Joel-Ellie relationship.
Two other game scenes they sort of bungled here as well were Maria's introduction and Joel's decision to stay with Ellie. They made Maria's introduction needlessly awkward - I absolutely loved the "you're my brother-in-law" scene from the game, and given how closely Maria's personality ended up mirroring the game's version I don't see why they didn't leave in that shift from adversarial to witty and playful when they first meet. Joel's decision to keep Ellie also felt sapped of its warmth and tenderness from the game, where he decides at the last minute and tells Ellie to get on his horse. You can even see this adorable look of appreciation wash over Ellie's face as Joel talks to Tommy. Here, the scene felt flat and almost comedic, which didn't quite work. I suspect they really want to show Ellie being given a choice to go with Joel, but she had already made that choice before, hence the whole argument. It was Joel who needed to come around.
I get that they wanted to include the University of Colorado section in here to give the episode more suspense and end on a cliffhanger, but that whole sequence felt incredibly rushed and not nearly as exciting as in the game. Everything about the environment itself was very well-done - the abandoned campus in the winter resembled Pripyat from Mazin's Chernobyl, and seeing that they kept the monkeys was a nice surprise. But that raider action scene ended way too fast, and having Joel merely get stabbed by the first guy he encounters felt so lame compared to the way he gets stabbed in the game. They also should've simply had Joel bleed out and collapse there itself and ended the episode, instead of that abrupt and awkward ending. It's a shame because Ramsey's acting in the end there was quite good, and hearing Ellie implore Joel to "please get up" was a painful echo of Part II.
Ellie had some great lines this episode, especially "are you trying to shoot this thing or get it pregnant?". I also loved "just a reminder that if you die I'm fucked", because it pointed out something I always found weird in the game: the number of times Joel leaves Ellie by herself and then puts himself in risky, often deadly situations. Really liked the whole "Contractor" banter, too, very heartwarming.
The first campfire scene between Joel and Ellie with the northern lights reminded me visually of a similar scene between Jimmy and Mike in Better Call Saul's "Bagman".
Next episode is covering the Left Behind DLC, which is bound to be fantastic. Storm Reid is everywhere these days and I've loved her in everything, particularly Euphoria and even her small scene in The Suicide Squad where she and Idris Elba got to yell curses at each other. They're also delving into Ellie's life at the FEDRA school, which is a very smart move that's ripe for compelling drama. And damn does that clicker look great, looks a lot like Vecna!
Episode 7: “Left Behind”
Goddamn, what an incredible episode. And a lovely successor to episode 3, once more about how love and kinship in their purest forms can transcend even the apocalypse itself. I wouldn't call it quite as powerful as that one (or as much of a gut punch as Henry and Sam) mainly because it lacked the element of surprise - this was a far simpler episode that made it quite obvious where it was headed - but nonetheless, it did its job effectively and beautifully.
Storm Reid was amazing casting as Riley. She's kind of in everything nowadays (Euphoria, Invisible Man, When They See Us, The Suicide Squad) and I've loved her in all of it, but this was the first time she really got to own the spotlight and man, did she own it. And her chemistry with Bella Ramsey was effortless and simply wonderful. It's really quite remarkable how they've nailed it with every single guest character on the show, and made them feel so authentic and richly rendered within just a single episode. (Well, everyone except Kathleen, but eh)
The kiss between Ellie and Riley and the moment that followed ("I'm sorry." "For what?") might have been the best and most natural piece of acting I've seen on the show. I forgot I was watching actors because of how gorgeously real their reaction felt. It's like the entire weight and purpose of this story could be condensed into that moment and still register completely. Beautiful, beautiful acting.
Of course, I went from giggling like an idiot to absolutely horrified moments later. Huge kudos to this episode for taking an otherwise very predictable narrative arc and drawing it out with such authenticity and texture that you couldn't help but be invested. It was clear as day that it would follow the structure of cold open > flashback > tender and wholesome emotional bond > gut punch > return to present, and yet each of those moments landed so well that I felt exactly what the episode set out to make me feel, even while being aware of it. The sense of dread that crept in halfway through was palpable.
I also think the jarring arrival of the clicker was perfectly done. The way this grotesque creature ruined such a pure and touching human moment was an excellent allegory for what the outbreak as a whole did to the world. Millions upon millions of Ellies and Rileys who had their happiness snatched away like that.
Some great uncanny-valley horror going on with the clicker as well. He wasn't quite a full-blown clicker yet and you could still see his human face amidst all the fungal growth, which truly drove home the idea of the infected as "humans without any humanity left". Quite an terrifying image.
This episode was of course a huge star showcase for Bella Ramsey, and she really did beautiful work with the hefty range of material given to her. There's still something that slightly irks me about her line readings in the more casual scenes - it tends to sound very "rehearsed" and breaks my immersion a bit - but when it comes to the more tender or charged emotional moments, she's absolutely marvelous, and the last 2/3rds of this episode gave her plenty of room to shine there. Both the kiss with Riley and their final conversation together were just fucking incredible on both a writing and acting level.
Serious hats off to Neil Druckmann for his tremendous script on this one. It's the best writers who can weave something profound out of the smallest and most mundane human moments, and Neil really has a gift for this. The fact that he's not only such a talented writer but a game director who runs one of the biggest development studios is just unbelievably impressive, but I sincerely hope he continues writing for more film and TV projects. He rivals only Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers) in being able to mine such intimate humanity from fantastical scenarios. Genre fiction seriously needs more of this.
The scene where the mall lights turn on is an amazing piece of cinematography on its own, but the context for it made it an even sweeter moment. I didn't clock that Riley giving Ellie instructions in the dark was a setup for this shot, so I was every bit as pleasantly surprised as Ellie herself.
I'm glad they stuck with making Riley's fate ambiguous, which I feel is more chilling and preserves a certain enigma to Ellie's character. I thought Ellie would be forced to kill Riley, but that would've felt too much like Henry and Sam. Now it's more of an open question as to what she meant when she told Joel earlier that she's killed someone. Did she have to personally kill Riley, or did she feel responsible for her death somehow? Either option is devastating, but I just hope Riley didn't suffer.
The music at the end of this episode was fucking kickass!! Not sure if it's from the game score but I want more of it!
I'm quite disappointed with these aftershow segments, they feel like such missed opportunities. All it is is Craig and Neil recapping the episode we just watched and blatantly pointing out parallels and explaining all the subtext. It feels tacky and inelegant. They could instead be giving us more interviews with the set designers and other crew, or talk more about the process of translating the moments from the game into TV form. I'm aware there's a podcast where they go into all that in detail, but they could be taking much more advantage of the video format for behind the scenes stuff than just retelling the most obvious things about the episode.
Holy shit I am absolutely PUMPED for next week. David, baby!!! Even the trailer makes it look like a nail-biting, snowcapped survival thriller and I can't wait. I think my lasting memory of this show may hinge heavily on how well they nail the "oh, baby girl" scene. That moment in the game reliably brings me to tears every single time, even if I'm watching it on my phone over breakfast. Can’t wait to see Scott Shepherd’s take on David as well, that guy is always good at these sleazy roles.
Episode 8: “When We Are In Need”
Ehhhh, I don't know you guys. I've been absolutely loving the show so far, and while it clearly seems to be offering its own take on the game rather than merely trying to replicate it, its choices have almost always landed well and made for some excellent TV, especially episodes 3 and 5. But this was the first one that I felt really dropped the ball with its handling of the source material, which is a shame because this is definitely the most gripping chapter of the game. It's as if they failed to recognize what made it work so effectively in the original, and turned it into a fairly predictable and familiar affair. Sure, it hit all the required notes and was very competently directed, but it didn't feel nearly as original or even as emotionally affecting as the game's version.
I'll start by noting where the episode did succeed - it completely delivered on its premise as a grisly, snow-capped survival thriller in the vein of films like "The Grey" and "The Revenant". Unlike the rest of the story, which mostly pits Joel and Ellie against either the infected or the harsh realities of staying alive in a destroyed civilization, this chapter is all about good old-fashioned human evil and the monsters that were already lurking among us before any infection came along. Big kudos to the team for not holding back on the absolutely brutal violence and outright horror that characterized this section, because it's certainly the apex of the story's "survival" element.
I also think this episode serves as a fitting "yin" to episode 6's "yang", which was also set in the winter (as opposed to autumn like in the game). What's great about the snow is that it unavoidably makes the physical environment a character. It can evoke both the coziest and harshest experiences: a hot cup of cocoa while snuggled by the fireplace, or unrelenting freezing air slicing through your skin and lungs. If episode 6 represented the former, this threw us facefirst into the latter, to great effect.
Unfortunately, the directing is about as good as the episode got, because pretty much everything else about it felt inferior to the game. It felt simultaneously truncated and dragged-out - there were parts that felt somewhat rushed and underdeveloped, while other parts felt extraneous and overwritten. This was particularly the case with the cult element - I previously thought it had a lot of potential as something the game wasn't able to explore, but now I wish the episode didn't go into it as heavily, because it was 1) predictable and unoriginal, and 2) took away from the mystique of David's character and role as an antagonist. I mean, how many creepy Christian preachers have we seen on prestige dramas now, particularly on HBO? And why drag out the reveal that they're cannibals if you're already presenting them as weird and unsettling from the start? I felt the game handled the escalation of David's villainy in a far more chilling and elegant manner, and that less-is-more factor was significantly lost in this episode.
I got the same "overcooked" quality from Scott Shepherd as David, who I previously thought was a great fit for the character given the number of sketchy guys he's played in the past, but I was pretty disappointed in his performance here. As much as I'm striving to see the show as a distinct take on the game's material rather than an attempt at mimicry, I strongly feel the David character in the game felt original and authentically menacing whereas Shepherd's felt like a smattering of tropes. The game's David had this soothing, audiobook-narrator voice and a sort of wisdom about him that made him feel convincingly like a leader that people could trust. He was still creepy from the get-go, but there was an internal calm and stoicism to him that made his villainous turn way more frightening. Shepherd's David on the other hand came off way more insecure and internally unstable, and his face-off with Ellie made him seem more like some cliche Netflix serial killer with grandiose delusions. His dialogue also felt incredibly overwritten and his creep factor laid on too thick compared to the game's chillingly subtle approach.
The one thing I did find compelling with David was how he seemed to worship the Cordyceps fungus itself, talking about it like a theistic god. There's a lot more that could've been done with that, but he ended up seeming more like a discarded villain from True Detective (which is ironic given that Scott Shepherd played a great bad guy in TD season 3.)
The other scene the show disappointingly bungled was the "oh, baby girl" scene after Ellie kills David, which is the one moment in the game that reliably brings me to tears every single time. The kill scene itself was pretty fucking awesome and satisfyingly brutal to watch, but I'm afraid the show itself decided it was awesome, because between the way it was filmed and Craig's comments in the aftershow about Ellie's "violent heart", they seem to have made it some cathartic/heroic moment of rebirth for Ellie, rather what it really was, which is a horrific and traumatizing act that Ellie was forced into committing out of survival. I say this because in the game, Joel stops Ellie while she's hacking away at David and comforts her in part from her own violence, essentially telling her that it's all over now and that she's safe. In the show, Ellie is allowed to finish slicing the absolute fucking shit out of David and herself leave the place, and only then be found and comforted by Joel. Of course, she was every bit as traumatized and the scene fulfills the same thematic purpose, but I think the game did it a whole lot better, particularly the "baby girl" line and the overall delivery.
The above speaks to a broader issue with the show overall (which may or may not even be an issue), which is that it appears to be prematurely making Ellie the protagonist of the story. There are a number of moments that in the game seemed to afford both Joel and Ellie equal weight and agency, that have now been pretty firmly centered on Ellie's perspective. Of course, Ellie will go onto become the only protagonist of the franchise and is undeniably the focus of this chapter even in Part I, but aside from that brilliant monologue in episode 6, I'm afraid Pascal's Joel hasn't been given nearly enough interiority and focus as Ellie, to the point where he feels a little secondary right now.
As for Ellie herself, by now I've pretty much accepted/realized that the show is clearly going for an altogether different take on the character. A lot of even the earlier moments in the show that seemed like "inaccuracies" in Ramsey's performance now come off more like conscious deviations in service of painting a very different Ellie from the one we know from the game, and this episode only continued to prove that. What always stood out to me about the game's Ellie was her quiet maturity - she too had a sort of "internal calm" about her that came from having been born and brought up in the post-apocalyptic world and not having to watch it fall apart. She also seemed fairly capable of befriending and connecting with people. The show, meanwhile, seems to be placing the most emphasis on Ellie's rage, which the games only put into focus in Part II (indeed, for a very good reason.) The whole time she's been a very impetuous, if not outright abrasive character, and the Left Behind episode seemed to confirm this portrayal of Ellie as a sort of "weird" kid who had trouble fitting in with others, is prone to picking fights, and clings onto whatever close connections she's able to find. This is definitely a reasonable route to take the character given the circumstances of the story, but eight episodes in and I still struggle to see anything about the show's Ellie that places her anywhere above the game's. Ramsey is doing largely great work as the character, but as bad as it sounds I can't shake the feeling that she was slightly miscast, because her acting lacks that precision that Ashley Johnson's iconic performance was so full of. It's not just the appearance/mannerisms/surface-level things that are different about Ramsey, but it feels as if the entire spirit of the Ellie character has been fundamentally altered for the show.
Fuck me, the rabbit lived! If there's one thing about this episode I liked more than the game, it'd have to be that.
So, so so wonderful finally seeing Troy Baker in live action. There's no way they didn't deliberately style him to look exactly like Joel, too, and hell he even seemed to be putting on a Joel voice for this.
"I'm a shepherd", said Scott Shepherd.
So far I haven't been one to complain about the lack of infected in the show, but I really do wish they left in the section where Ellie and David have to fight off the clickers (+bloater) together. I understand the game is obliged to throw in some combat into every moment while the show isn't, but I think Mazin and Druckmann's evident embarrassment and aversion to the "zombie show" label has led them to diminish the presence of the infected a bit too much for my liking. The game uses the bloater encounter to build a fleeting sense of trust in David before the subsequent scene snatches it away, but in this episode, David just comes off as sketchy from the get-go, and that push-pull about his intentions just isn't there. Adding more infected isn't gonna turn this show into The Walking Dead.
These aftershow segments are seriously frustrating to watch now. I said it last week too, but rather than use the opportunity to show more behind-the-scenes footage, it's just Craig explaining everything about the episode in this over-affected manner, as if he's reading a children's book. We don't need to be told the meaning of every single scene, especially when it's blatantly apparent to anyone paying attention to the episode. I know the podcast exists for them to go more in-depth about their creative process, but there's a lot they could do with the video format that they just don't for some odd reason.
Alright folks, finale time! This has by and large been an incredible piece of "event" television that I feel honored to have been able to follow from day 1. Can't wait to see how (and, suffice to say, whether) they stick the landing. I think people who've not played the game are gonna be especially stunned by how the story ends.
Episode 9: “Look for the Light” (Finale)
...Damn. That was well done. The way they executed it was pretty much exactly as I expected them to, and did they did their jobs quite well. I can't say I feel any of the same shock or surprise or even tenderness that I felt watching this in the game for the first time, because replicating that feeling is almost impossible in such a direct reenactment, but I'm pleased to say they did indeed stick the landing the way it was always destined to be stuck. I think the strongest parts of the episode were the new elements they added in, all of which worked marvelously and gave some much-needed freshness to this now-very-well-known conclusion to the story. It also filled me with thoughts about what the show overall did and didn't do well, which deserves its own post, but here are my first reactions:
That cold open was fucking grisly, holy shit. Felt a lot like a similar scene in Children of Men, which is of course a huge inspiration for this story. It was both surreal and deeply satisfying seeing Ashley Johnson onscreen, and having her play Ellie's mother couldn't have been a more perfect tribute to the iconic, irreplaceable work she did to bring the character of Ellie to life in the first place.
As much as this show seriously could've used more infected, I gotta say they do NOT fuck around in the moments where they do appear. Pretty much every scene involving the infected has hit like a train to the face, and this one especially so.
I cannot express how wonderful it is seeing Merle Dandridge quite literally bring Marlene back to life onscreen. She's just fucking incredible in the role and has given an even more impressive performance in the show than in the game. This episode ended up being an unexpected showcase for her, and I'm so glad they added that opening scene between Marlene and Anna. As someone who's seen the game ending a million times now, it was this opening sequence that I found to be the most poignant and hard-hitting moment in the episode. It also gave some much-needed weight and empathy to Marlene's actions that the game could only communicate verbally. As much as I loved the line "whatever you're going through right now is nothing compared to what I'm going through", the series took the chance show rather than tell that, and it absolutely worked.
That giraffe scene, man, just beautiful. I heard they filmed at a zoo, and that giraffe certainly looked plenty real to me, so if it was indeed real then that just adds an extra, meta layer of beauty and pathos to it, given how conditioned we are to seeing CGI for everything nowadays. The Vulture interview with Craig Mazin very astutely compared this scene to the green inchworm scene from the Chernobyl finale, and it's true that both fulfill a similar narrative purpose. A fleeting, arresting sign of life in a dead and destroyed world.
I liked that they kept Ellie a little shell-shocked in the first half of this episode after the whole David ordeal. It accomplished a lot of things: 1) it felt more realistic, 2) provided a neat little role-reversal where it was Joel being all playful and animated to get Ellie's attention (and more explicitly take on a parental role to her), and 3) gave the giraffe scene even more weight, because it also snapped Ellie out of her shaken state. To have her then express the resolve to finish their mission felt ever more poignant because of it. I think that scene was also one of Bella Ramsey's best acting moments so far - I liked her gentle delivery and the way her eyes were almost searching for the words.
Another excellent new scene was Joel telling Ellie about the time he tried to kill himself. The games hardly examined the period before the time jump, and I've always been curious to hear them address how Joel processed the grief of losing Sarah. The whole exchange was very well-written, and I already know "it wasn't time that did it" is gonna become a famous line. I liked Ramsey’s wide-eyed, almost dumbfounded stare while Joel was speaking, because it looked like she was hit with the weight of both Joel's pain and his love for her, the latter of which is something the show's Ellie has been overtly clamoring for in a way the game's Ellie wasn't. It was a change I found a little grating in the earlier episodes, but they paid it off quite nicely with this whole moment.
I'm not bothered that they omitted the sequence with the infected attack and the near-drowning. That whole bit always felt like an excuse to throw in one last piece of combat and platformer gameplay into an otherwise story-driven section, and I expected the show to remove it. I do still think it was a purposeful section in the game because it gave us the image of Joel kneeling over an unconscious Ellie, which mirrored Sarah's death and set up his actions in the hospital very effectively, but it was definitely pretty on-the-nose. Which is ironic because this show has by and large been a lot more on-the-nose about things than the game, often to its detriment.
The direction of Joel's rampage in the hospital was interesting. It worked for sure, but I feel director Ali Abbasi should've swapped his approach between David's death and Joel's massacre. The Joel scene was filmed as more of a morose, sad moment, which is what Ellie's killing of David represents in the game. In the show, it's treated as this cathartic, brutal release for Ellie, which felt tonally off to me. Joel's hospital rampage, meanwhile, is wracked with paranoia and desperation in the game, which was missing in the show given how swiftly Joel is shown plowing through the Fireflies.
Very, very glad they left the final sequence pretty much untouched. The cross-cutting between Joel's words in the car to the reveal of Marlene's death is absolutely masterful and they clearly realized they shouldn't fix what ain't broken. Same with the "okay" at the end. I liked how Ramsey described it as Ellie "forcing herself to believe Joel", which is very apt.
I think my biggest issue with the ending, which is more an issue with the show overall, is that I didn't find the chemistry between Pascal and Ramsey to be all that convincing. I think both actors did amazing work in their own right, but their approach to the characters felt like the opposite of the game's characterization. Pascal is absolutely nailing his portrayal of Joel as a broken shell of a man, but I often find his performance a bit too muted and monotone, whereas Joel in the game feels more expressive even if he's carrying the same pain. The game's Ellie, meanwhile, is defiant and sassy for sure, but there's also a strong sense of internal calm and quiet maturity to her, whereas Ramsey’s Ellie has been a much more abrasive, standoffish character with more overtly childlike qualities. The show has done a good job running with these shifts in characterization, but it feels as if the essential spirit of particularly the Ellie character has been fundamentally altered, in a way that ultimately undermines the bond between Joel and Ellie. At this point in the show I have no trouble seeing Ellie as a kid Joel cares for and wants to protect, but I still struggle to see her as his "daughter", whereas this quality came about effortlessly in the game. It's been a recurring gripe I haven't been able to shake, despite how much else the show is doing exceptionally.
Some weird and stilted dialogue during the final hike where Joel "lists out" how Ellie is different from Sarah. It also underscored the drastic changes to Ellie's character for the show, because I honestly feel Nico Parker's Sarah in some respects resembled the original Ellie's demeanor and personality much more than Ramsey. If there's one thing holding Ramsey back significantly, it's her line delivery. It's resulted in an inconsistency to her performance where she's quite amazing in many moments (several in this episode alone), but awkward and unconvincing in others. I'm still debating whether it was really a "miscast" given how much the writing itself has altered Ellie's character, but I do think she's a very talented young actress with a ton of potential.
Overall this show was an absolute blast to tune into every week, and it's so great to know there's a new generation of Last of Us fans who are connecting with this incredible story. Comparison is certainly the enemy of joy, but I also struggle to compare the show to the game, since there are parts the show did vastly better, and parts where the show fell short. At the moment, I unfortunately feel the portrayal of Ellie and her bond with Joel was indeed one of the show's shortcomings, but I also think it was a mistake for me to rewatch the game while seeing the show, because my memory of the game became more distracting and detrimental than anything. I definitely want to rewatch this show again with fresh eyes, because I of all people don't believe adaptations should be solely judged on their fidelity to the source material. If I have any issues with the show's faithfulness, it's only when I feel it failed to recognize what in the game made it work in the first place. By and large, though, this has largely been what I hoped for when I heard HBO was adapting this show, and I can't wait to see them take on the behemoth that is Part II.
Thank you for reading!