HBO’s original series The Last of Us, based on video game franchise under the same name season one episode one entitled “When You’re Lost in the Darkness” kicks off with a warm look into the modest home of Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller and Nico Parker’s Sarah Miller as they live their everyday life. Throughout the first few minutes the viewer sees how calm everything is with only small little bits of foreshadowing of an impending event with the constant flow of police officers and emergency service vehicles passing by. During this Sarah is trying to repair Joel’s broken watch due to her wanting to do something for his birthday. In her mind Sarah sees how hard her dad works and wants to do something nice to show how much she loves and appropriates him. However, with the constant flow of police officers she cannot help but feel something bad is happening as made present by her face especially after an eerie incident with her elderly neighbor.
Additionally, as Sarah later wakes up in the middle of the night due to a loud sound, she goes to investigate why the whole neighborhood is loud. As a result of this she comes across her neighbor’s dog leading her to return him to his owner. From this point the series creates one of the most intense moments in the series with the appearance of the first fungal infected monster of the series. Luckily, Joel kills the monster that once was their neighbor causing Sarah to be traumatized. In her mind, she never thought her father would be capable of killing anyone much less in front of her. Unfortunately, from here the series continues to build on the suspense by adding a semi-first-person point of view to all of the chaos as Sarah, Joel and Gabriel Luna’s Tommy Miller travel by car. During this the viewer is thrown headfirst into complete madness as the series uses a moving one-shot camera angle to discombobulate the viewer to further build the chaos and suspense.
Later into the episode, the viewer sees Joel lose Sarah in a way that creates a connection between the series and the viewer in the sense of loss of a loved one. After this the series takes a twenty-year time jump to a dystopian future. This is where the viewer sees Joel as he is working alongside others burning bodies. This demonstrates how dark the world has become after the time jump. Another example of this is how when a fellow worker opens a truck full of bodies, he spots the body of a dead little boy. Ultimately, this leads to Joel throwing the body into a fire pit with no hesitation signifying that he is a different man. In his mind, he sees that there is no point in feeling any sort of guilt or hesitation as he already feels dead inside. This is due to his daughter dying in his arms without him being able to do anything to save her.
Towards the end of the episode, Joel and his partner Anna Torv’s Tess are tasked with smuggling Bella Ramsey’s Ellie out of the city due to a deal for a battery Joel needs for a car to find Tommy as he is missing. The interesting part about this is how the viewer sees that Joel mumbles in his sleep as a result of him possibly having P.T.S.D due to the things he has been through.
At the end of the episode, the viewer finds out that Ellie is infected. However, she appears to be immune to the fungal infection as she shows no symptoms that come with being infected. Ultimately, Joel and Tess continue with their job and run into a soldier who at gun point confirms to the viewer that Joel has P.T.S.D. This is due to him remembering that a soldier killed his daughter and causes him to brutally beat the soldier to death. Unfortunately, this prompts the three of them to run off into the distant area filled with destroyed buildings and unknown dangers to escape the dead soldiers back up.
Overall, the series does a well-done job at making a frame by frame shot of the video game while taking small liberties with some aspects of the game. Such as replacing the car crash at the beginning of the game with a plane crash in the series during the outbreak. Another example is demonstrated by including a sixties style talk show host with a doctor talking about how fungi are the true threat to humanity. This was yet another great inclusion the series made that was changed from the game. Also, it is interesting how at first the people in the audience laugh at his claim, however, as he goes into detail the atmosphere changes from lighthearted fun to dread. The viewer themselves can also feel this as the fungi in real life can actually do the things the doctor says with the exception that it does not affect humans. This is by far one of the best ways to instill dread into the viewer as their minds could lead them to imagine what it would be like if it did.
Rating: 9.5/10