TV Review: The Last of Us Season 1 (2023)

The Last of Us Season 1 (2023) created by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin based on the video game

The current world is twenty year in to an apocalyptic decline. In 2003, a plague based on fungi spread over the world. People turn into horrible monsters when infected. The organic tendrils of the contagion put the post-humans in touch with each other, so harming an individual alerts the rest of the horde in an area. And the rest of the horde is very defensive. And they act like the best defense is an aggressive offense. The world is a very dangerous place. 

The remaining humans have been gathered into quarantine zones (called "QZs") where FEDRA, the government military, keeps a tight control on things. With any highly-regulated society comes a thriving black market and an underground resistance group (here called "Fireflies"). Joel (Pedro Pascal) is a fairly successful black marketeer in the Boston QZ. He and his partner Tess (Anna Torv) have a lot of side gigs going on. Then she finds out about a girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) who has been infected by the disease but not turned. The Fireflies are offering a huge bounty if Ellie can be brought out of the city. They will take her west to one of their facilities where they hope to make a cure. Joel doesn't believe a lot of the story though the girl has clearly been bitten and retained her humanity. He does believe in the money, so he's willing to do a run into unsafe suburbs. The situation does not work out as planned and Joel winds up on a cross-country trip with Ellie, hoping to deliver her and see his brother in Wyoming.

The story set-up is a bit conventional. The season is filled with a lot of side stories and back stories about other characters who are more or less involved in the lives of Joel and Ellie. There's the gay couple in episode three who cut themselves off from the rest of the world so they can be happy together without the burden of caring for anyone but themselves. Or the older and younger brothers who are on the run since the older brother is being hunted by a group of rebels (not Fireflies) who have taken over their Midwest city from Fedra. Or Joel's brother, who has managed to settle down and not live the crazy dangerous life of wandering apocalyptic America. The comparisons are interesting but they flag up some problems.

About half way through the show, I realized I didn't like Ellie's character. She's written like she's an inexperienced adult rather than an actual kid. She acts smarter than she is and doesn't really learn from her mistakes. Joel has occasional outburst of brutal violence which only get worse toward the end. They are just as messed up as everyone else from the side stories with no sign of hope or improvement, even in their meager circumstances. In the final episode, Joel gets caught in a moral quandary with no good resolution and a very minimally satisfying outcome. Things just got too bleak to be enjoyable or rewarding.

Not recommended.