The Last of Us 1xo1 review: the event series of the year begins with an excellent first episode that shows all the potential of the series
ORIGINAL TITLE: The Last of Us. GENRE Action, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic. NATION: United States of America. CREATOR: Craig Marin, Neil Druckmann. CAST: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey. DURATION: 9 episodes. DISTRIBUTOR: HBO. RELEASE: 01/16/2023.
After a long wait, it’s finally here. The Last of Us has officially started Monday 16 January 2023, with the first episode broadcast by Sky and NOW simultaneously with the United States. The series is the highly anticipated live action adaptation of one of the most popular video games of recent years and, also considering the disappointing precedents in terms of transpositions of beloved video games, the curiosity to watch this very first episode of The Last of Us was skyrocketing . The result is nothing short of outstanding.
Review The Last of Us 1×01 – La trama
In this first episode of The Last of Us we witness the spread of the pandemic which, as we will see, will bend the whole world and which then acts as a context for the story. We see the life of the protagonist, Joelshaken right during the outbreak of the pandemic and then resumed twenty years later, when the world learned to live with what happened.
Review The Last of Us 1×01 – Il trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9RokZaHazk
A start with a bang
As mentioned, the debut of The Last of Us was highly anticipated and expectations have not been disappointed at all. Even before the official release, the first episode of The Last of Us had convinced everyone, collecting incredible reviews and scoring a resounding 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. The reality is that the incipit of The Last of Us is just perfect. The episode is long, an hour and twenty which takes us into Joel’s life, completely shaken by the arrival of the pandemic and the tragic death of his daughter. Twenty years later we find Joel again, tired and disillusioned, but still eager to keep the closest ties to him. Because of this, Joel agrees to carry Ellie, a girl apparently immune to the virus, outside the quarantine zone. It is the beginning of an epic adventure.
The long preamble that leads us to the explosion of the pandemic and Sarah’s death is extremely functional in introducing us to the character of Joel, played by an excellent, as usual, Pedro Pascal. Narratively, the first episode of The Last of Us does nothing wrong, keeping its own constant rhythm, without exaggerating accelerations or slowdowns and marrying well with the solemn and post-apocalyptic tones that will inevitably dominate the series. Also visuallyObviously, the work is impressive, from this point of view there is no surprise considering the canons of HBO. Last but not least, this first episode of The Last of Us distorts a big one fidelity to the video game, an element that should certainly not be underestimated.
In short, the first installment of The Last of Us is fully promoted. It wasn’t easy to introduce both narrative and action context so effectively, but this debut for the HBO series was simply great. With the hope that these levels can be confirmed over the next few weeks.
Broken curse?
The enthusiastic review of The Last of Us 1×01 immediately raises a question: will the HBO series be able to break, once and for all, that curse that seems to hover around video game adaptations? Many have failed in this regard, most recently Netflix with its Resident Evil, canceled after just one season. The first installment of The Last of Us is instead a triumph, which bodes well for the future. Perhaps it is still too early to talk about a broken curse, but the premises are all there.
Plus points
- Constant rhythm and context introduced very well
- Protagonists well placed in the roles
- Loyalty to the video game
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