The Last Of Us (Show)

 

    I recently just finished the new show The Last of Us (2023) based on the videogame that came out in 2013, which I have played. Without spoiling too much, the main plot of  Season 1 is that after a deadly mind-controlling zombie fungus breaks out across the world overnight, society is forced to try and rebuild but the government is overcontrolling. A man named Joel, who lost his daughter at the beginning of the outbreak, has to become a smuggler to get the items he needs to escape, find and 'save' his brother Tommy. He is forced to smuggle a girl named Ellie in order to get a vehicle but when things turn bad, he ends up having to become her protector as they try to make their way to the west where doctors are working on a cure.

    What separates this show from other typical Zombie apocalypse films is that it is more about what is happing with the people and less about slashing zombies. The cinematography of the film is focused on keeping everything natural and raw looking. There's no perfect lighting or close-ups of the actors. During filming they opted to use natural ambient lighting or as few sources as possible. This added a much dingier and scarier atmosphere. For example in a scene where Ellie is looking for supplies in an empty gas station, the only light is coming from a small hole in the ceiling of the basement.

    The lighting in this scene exhilarates the intensity of the scene as we feel like something bad is going to happen to Ellie. As an infected is revealed to be trapped under rubble, we expect Ellie to run away but the show plays with our expectations as Ellie approaches the infected with her knife. She cuts the infected revealing the fungus underneath before violently stabbing the infected person to death. What I like about this scene is that it shows that Ellie is not a scared little girl, and wants to be able to defend herself (and others as her past trauma haunts her).

    An element of storytelling that I think is very important is the fact that both main characters Ellie and Joel are both hesitant to trust each other in the beginning, but over time they realize they both need each other. Joel is dealing with the trauma of not being able to protect his daughter 20 years ago when the outbreak began. Ellie is dealing with survivor's guilt and loss after she and her best friend were bitten, but because Ellie is immune she survived. Essentially both characters are dealing with past traumas and they are unknowingly helping each other overcome those feelings of guilt.

In this clip, we can see the trauma of Joel losing his daughter causing him to protect Ellie at all costs.

    Overall I think the directors of this show did an amazing job with both the cinematography and storytelling as it tells the story just as the game did or maybe even better. I have to recommend this show to everyone because it's not some clique zombie show, it portrays themes of overcoming trauma, and father-daughter relationships, and it does it perfectly.