The parable of Joel and Ellie, protagonists of The Last Of Ushas made millions of gamers in the world fall in love and bewitched, giving life to a real cult object that has continued over the years and in the controversial sequel The Last Of Us – Part II.
Now attention remains fixed on one screenwhere sequences programmed on the PC no longer pass, but flesh and blood actors who give voice, body and expressions to those same characters.
The Last Of Us – La Serie produced by HBO is finally reality and, thanks to SKY who gave us the opportunity to preview all nine episodeswe can finally reveal the mystery behind this awaited production.
The marriage between Videogames and Cinema it is something that hardly manages to have a happy ending. Some small parables have had some success, others are still struggling in the search for perfect transposition. As everything flows, the focus has gradually shifted to the television branch.
The Last Of Us, so. from the initial idea of cinematographic use it becomes a series, produced by HBO which enlists not only Neil Druckmann, but also makes use of Craig Mazin, former creator of the Chernobyl miniseries. This is because the writing care needed for The Last of Us cannot relate to an average television production, since the theme and narrative fabric of the video game itself require a refined supervision in order not to end the project in the mediocrity of the “serial with zombies”. In short, don’t fall into stuff that has already been seen dozens of times.
A simple concept envelops complex characters. So it was for the video game released in 2013, the same is for the television serial which, in nine episodes, tells the entire narrative arc of the first game, going straight to the point without messing around in other strictly useless focuses for the use of the product.
Since the first and longest episode, the series immediately shows all its cards, entering into a discourse of absolute transparency: the story will be exactly the one seen and experienced in the gameadapted and fictionalized for the small screen, without filler, but going to reread or modify some aspects without, however, losing the final goal.
a brilliant and cleverly faithful to the source material series that will not disappoint
Craig Mazin’s hand can be seen in the delicate sessions where we try to make the Cordyceps a sort of third phantom protagonist. If in the video game we never have a way or possibility to understand the origin of the infection, the serial takes the liberty of narrating something more: this mushroom is not only a threat related to the infected or other creatures, but something extremely alive , capable of becoming an unwanted guest that reproduces and abuses human bodies. It rearranges the very rules of nature, making even a simple abandoned road a possible hideout for Bloaters, or even for young and fast infected people ready to feed on poor unfortunates.
From the small assumption all the ramifications develop which then lead to interesting new implications that always go to add, never to ruin the original fabric. The latter occurs in stories involving the characters of Tess, the brothers Sam and Henry or the lonely Bill.
All characters who appropriate a concept carried forward only in the recent videogame sequel, thanks to their relative parentheses that the series surgically deepens: The Last Of Us is not only the story of Ellie and Joel, but the story of survivors who seek a way forward in this post-pandemic life, fill an empty piece of their existence with new stimuli. Or, as often happens, the apocalypse generated by the Cordyceps is the green light to give vent to one’s hidden self.
Direction and interpretations go hand in hand for the creation of a non-niche product, dedicated not only to enthusiasts, but capable of speaking to everyone. Of course it is clear that fans of the video game will enjoy finding highly emotional moments, jokes now imprinted in memory or important flashbacks to understand the reasons that lead Joel to be something more than a simple anti-hero, or a fragile Ellie who once again underlines how much her greatest fear is to be alone, while the bond between the two grows more and more, day after day.
The Last Of Us TV series is a very particular project, almost unprecedented for the current panorama when compared with other productions. Strongly faithful to the parent work, in many ways almost a 1:1 copy of the original, to then go on to enhance small or large moments that enrich the whole narrative fabric, also by virtue of the events that will make up the possible second cycle of episodes, in all likelihood taken from The Last Of Us – Part II.
A faithful and well transposed evolutionary path, where there will be passages of strong insight into Ellie, in investigating what on balance is an infection unknown to many, which brings death, destruction and isolation while the whole world outside collapses. A small family unit tries to recreate itself from scratch, grow and expand in a hostile and violent situation.
The series of The Last Of Us will go exclusively on Sky and streaming only on NOW from January 16th simultaneously with HBO.
VOTE 8.5
Type: drama, science fiction
Publisher: SKY
Regia: Vari
Soundtrack: Gustavo Santaolalla
Performers: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Merle Dandridge
Duration: 9 episodes
